ho ho ho...

We had a fabulous holiday this year. Both Jeff and I had the week off from work and Ethan was out of daycare so we had a bunch of fun family time. We got to visit with a lot of family and friends and Ethan was so excited for Santa to visit. We had to make sure that our fireplace was not blocked so that Santa could come down the chimney and eat our cookies and milk that we left out for him. We had a great Christmas morning opening up presents as a family and playing with our toys after the craziness was over. Then we headed up to Bellingham for dinner to visit with Grandpa and family. Thanks again for the wonderful dinner and hosting us all dad and Jackie!!! And thanks Alison and Sid for hosting us on Christmas Eve!!!

 (Hanging out with his cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Herron's)

 (Ethan's present to me. He picked it out himself because he wanted his mom to have a girl dump truck and magic wand to play with.)

(Castle from Grandma and Grandpa Allsop.)

(Our Christmas Tree)

the san francisco treat...

This past week I took a trip down to San Francisco to visit some friends and attend a conference for work. I arrived on a Saturday and stayed with my friends Jill and Greg at their very swanky apartment in the city. Thanks guys for letting me crash at your pad. We took in the Cirque du Soleil show Totem and ate at some very yummy restaurants in different parts of the city which was a delight.

They also took me on a drive into the Santa Cruz mountains to go wine tasting. We drove up and up and went to a winery at the very top and then made our way back down stopping at a few other wineries along the way. The weather was a little cool but we were able to have a picnic outside at a winery that had their very own peacocks. I ended up getting a few bottles since there was no way I could go home empty handed and I knew that Jeff would love the wine as well. 

The rest of the time I spent in the financial district attending training for work and it was in the perfect location, right across the street from my new favorite place the Ferry Building. If you are in San Francisco I highly recommend that you check this place out and make sure you visit hungry. 

*Special thanks to Jeff as well for being a single dad for a week.

a house built out of candy...

Instead of hitting the malls in the wee hours of the morning, Ethan and I constructed a house out of gingerbread and candy thanks to a kit we bought at Costco. Luckily, Ethan didn't end up eating all of the candy like last year a bunch actually made it onto the house this time. He definitely has a knack for decorating and the house turned out great.

Let the holiday festivities begin!

a bit to be thankful for...

We had a wonderful turkey day at the Kalles household. Dinner turned out great and everyone left with full bellies. We have been talking a lot about Thanksgiving and what we are thankful for in our house lately. Before dinner we went around the table to discuss what we were thankful for. Ethan decided that he was thankful for Popsicles. We had asked him this same question the day before and his answer was he was thankful to get to live in places like Disneyland and Hawaii. We are taking this as a sign that we travel a little to much.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ended the evening with full bellies.

roll tide...

Last weekend our friends Chris and Joni had a Alabama football party to watch the big game against LSU. We were tasked with bringing the dessert for our group of friends. I could not decide what to make but wanted them to be Alabama themed. Jeff suggested that I make red velvet cupcakes with white frosting. I thought that sounded like a great idea and then I also added to the theme by using red sugar sprinkles that were Ethan's choice and then printing out the Alabama logo and creating a cupcake decoration. They were a big hit at the party! I never was that big of a baker before but I love me some cupcakes and I love to decorate them even more.

The game ended up going into overtime and unfortunately they lost but we all had a blast and left with full tummies.

happy halloween...

It was a busy time at the Kalles household this Halloween. We ended up carving our pumpkins with our neighbors and Ethan was a little scared of the pumpkin innards but loved cutting the pumpkin. He was not the greatest cutter, plus our safety knife broke so I ended up doing most of the work.

Ethan's daycare also had a Halloween parade where the kids got to go and trick-or-treat around the nearby office park. Everyone was parading in their costumes and it was a site to be seen.

We also ventured out and trick-or-treated around our house and visited a nearby house that always has the best decorations for every holiday and Halloween was no exception.

And we actually grew our own pumpkin in our garden this year as well. As you can see below, we will not be winning any prizes for the biggest pumpkin.

parading through the pumpkin patch...

To continue with our Halloween traditions we headed to the pumpkin patch with our next door neighbors and Ethan's buddy Isaac. We changed things up this year and headed down to South 47 Dr. Maze Farm. We had a pretty good time eating kettle corn and searching for the perfect pumpkin. Ethan was very intrigued with the monster pumpkins this year and stayed in that section of the patch the entire time.

viva las vegas...

Jeff and I have just returned from his company trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. The last time we went to Vegas was about twelve years ago and there was plenty to see and do this time. We barely scratched the surface of the strip but we did make our way to old Las Vegas. We won some and we lost some but I happily came away ahead. I didn't lose my wages in Las Vegas.


A couple of highlights from the trip was seeing the show KA by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand Hotel. I highly recommend this show if you make it to Vegas. As Jeff said, the stage deserved its own standing ovation. We also got a chance to eat at the restaurant Le Cirque at the Bellagio. This was an absolutely fantastic meal. Then the final highlight was a trip to the Grand Canyon via route 66. For those that know me, I've always wanted to travel down route 66 and even though it was a short ride it was still fun. We took a river rafting trip through the canyon and then a helicopter ride. We were on the road for at least 6 hours and almost ran out of gas in the desert but it was well worth it.

 (Our accomidations for the week.)

 (Old Las Vegas)

 (We visited the Pawn Stars Show pawn shop.)

ghosts, goblins, and witches...

My apologies for the long delay between blog posts but we have been pretty busy in the Kalles household recently. I did manage to get my Halloween decorations up on October 1st (minus the scary ghost that makes noises which is hiding in the garage.) After going through many of costume catalogs and I mean many, Ethan settled on being a jack-o-latern. That was what he was on his first Halloween and had recently seen a picture of him as a baby in it so he immediately wanted to be one again. I will be sure to post pictures at a later date!

Let's play some football...

This past weekend was the season home opener of the Seattle Seahawks. For those that don't know, Jeff is a season ticket holder and has been for quite a few years. Last year he was able to get a seat for Ethan to go but it was a little too much for him with the super loud crowd last year so they only made it to kickoff before having to leave. This year we have three seats so I was able to go which helped things a bit. Plus, Jeff had gotten Ethan special noise reduction headphones which worked like a charm. We were actually able to stay until half way through the third quarter. I think that the fries and popcorn also helped this time as well and they WON. Go Seahawks!

We also had a United Way carnival at my work this past Friday. Ethan was one of a handful of kids that came so he got to play the carnival games at least four times and that equalled lots and lots of prizes. I think Ethan actually had a sugar overdose that day.