cheers to a new year...

2013 was a busy year for us but it's always fun to look back and see what happened.

- Ethan started kindergarten at a new school and is loving it.
- We made a trip to Mexico to visit my parents new house.
- I got to go spend some time in New York and New Jersey.
- Jeff and I had a great trip to Whidbey Island and Hawaii.
- Ethan learned to swim and ride a bike. Yeah!
- We had a new fence/side yard upgrade put in.
- Road trip to Sun Valley with a stop at Silverwood theme park.
- Lots and lots of painting classes with friends.

Let's hope that 2014 is even full of more great adventures! Happy New Year everyone!

feathers & sparkles...

We got invited to a friends great gatsby party so with extra time off for winter break I hit the craft store and got busy in my craft room. You see, I had already researched and purchased a dress (thanks modcloth), but was lacking some fun hair accessories.

I ended up having so much fun making them that I ended up with several. It will be a hard choice when the time comes.

merry christmas to all...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas this Christmas Eve. I know I will be spending it with my favorite people in the entire world - my family (and thinking about my family who are in other states). I hope that everyone takes a second tomorrow to soak in the joy and happiness of the holiday. I know I will be. :-)

snow day...

Ok, I lied. Yesterday could not be my final post of the year because we got SNOW. Ethan was out in it first thing this morning of course before he had to go to school two hours later when it started to melt. Boo!

sing a little cheer...

The holiday's are quickly approaching and actually this year I couldn't be more excited. I mean I usually am a Christmas person (not as much as my husband) but this year I am over the moon to be able to spend time with my family and friends and enjoy some much needed time off.

I'm ready to watch those Christmas movies nestled by the fire, drink hot chocolate (and maybe some wine as well), and just enjoy the moments of the holidays with family.

^^Ethan's holiday school performance.^^

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Near Year! Catch back up with you in 2014!!!

taking a ride on the santa train...

 

As I said in my earlier posts, this month (well at least this last weekend) is full of holiday traditions and seeing Santa is one of those. Each year we have drove up to Snoqualmie and taken the train to see Santa Claus. We get to board at the train station in North Bend and make our way for about a twenty minute train ride to the train depot in the town of Snoqualmie where Santa is.

a little piece of candy goes a long way...

I want to warn you, this month is going to be full of family traditions (at least the next few posts). A tradition that Ethan and I do together every year is the gingerbread house. We always go for the pre made ones from Costco since I am no Martha Stewart but it is something we love doing together. And by now, you should know that my son LOVES candy.

This year he was really into decorating with the frosting and actually did a great job making sure it stayed on the house. He also was really good about decorating the house as well but I think he must have snuck away several pieces of candy when I wasn't looking.

I'm glad Ethan is following in his mom's footsteps with the love of creating things. Even if I have to bribe him with candy to do it. ;)

merry, merry, merry

The turkey has been eaten, the stuffing's put away, and now it's time for CHRISTMAS!!! Normally my husband is the one to get super excited for this holiday but having a young child really gets you into the Christmas spirit pretty early.

Since Jeff and I have been married we have started to create our own family traditions. The day after Thanksgiving we travel to the Red Wood Barn tree farm located in Woodinville to find our perfect tree. Normally we choose a pre cut one but this year we decided to cut our own. Hey, it's cheaper and more fun and you actually have to work for it which makes it even more special.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We are not even past thanksgiving yet but it's already starting to feel like Christmas in our house. Ethan has been hunting through all of the toy catalogs and has picked out his favorites. He even wrote out his list... (and yes that says fart blaster)

Also let me just say that Target has the best holiday decorations around. Love it all!

a little loosey goosey...

The time has finally come. Ethan had his first loose tooth and his first visit from the tooth fairy. He was very excited to tell us that his tooth was ready to come out and it took a little convincing on Jeff's part to pull it out. But it was really ready to come out.

He put it in a little pouch under his pillow and this morning when he woke up, there were two dollar coins. What a lucky kid. :)

Life is like a chocolate chip cookie...

Ethan and I had a mom and son day today while Jeff attended the Seahawks game and they won. Yeah!!! 

We made chocolate chip cookies with red and green chocolate chips. We went to Elevated Sportz and jumped on the trampoline A LOT. Man that is a workout, and we did the dreaded homework. 

finished glass...

Here is my finished product from my glass blowing class last week. It turned out pretty good if I do say so. Maybe a glass blowing career is in my future!

blow me some glass...

Recently I headed on down to Seattle to meet up with some ladies at the Rainier Glass Blowing Studio. I had tried my hand at glass blowing before and ended up making a Christmas ornament but let me tell you, this place let's you choose from a ton of cool things to make.

friday photo...

I know I am bias but I think I have the cutest kid ever. While playing Halloween bingo at school Ethan decided to eat the candy corn markers. Definitely my kid. :)

let's all go to the lobby...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I know that our family did and Ethan got a TON of candy. I am sure he is thinking about how to put a lock on it to keep his parents away from it as I write this.

To continue the Halloween tradition we also did another group costume this year. Well, it turned into one when Ethan wanted to be red licorice which then turned into Red Vines since I had to make the costume from scratch.

I bring you 'let's all go to the lobby'...

a perfect pairing of wine and a camera...

During the summer a living social deal caught my eye and I made a leap and acted on it. It was a camera class that also included a wine tasting. What could be better than that??? So I signed up and finally had some free time so I headed down to Woodinville, camera in hand with no clue what I was in store for. It was a class lead by Cork and Click and it was a blast.

a dogs day...

When we woke up this morning it was raining and Bindi immediately became depressed since she knew that we would not be out for our normal weekend morning walk. Usually if she doesn't get her walk she mopes on her bed for the majority of the day and does these HUGE sighs telling you that you suck for being a wuss and not taking her out in it.

pumpkin patching it...

This past weekend was our annual pumpkin patch family outing. We have been going since Ethan was born and this year we were able to join some friends of ours for a meet up at Craven Farm in Snohomish. Let me tell you that this farm is a great place to take kids. They had a really cool 3-D display that you could walk through telling a fairy tale about how pumpkins were brought to the farm which Ethan went through twice. They also had pumpkin slingshots, hayrides, a petting zoo, and food. Even though it was a foggy day we ended up having a great time searching for our pumpkins.

More pictures below...

aloha and mahalo!

Jeff and I just returned from a week on the lovely island of Maui. We did a whole lot of nothing this trip and it is exactly what we needed. Our decisions consisted of going to the beach or going to the pool and we were fine by that. I was even able to finish a couple of books which rarely happens when on vacation. 

pumpkin is in the air...

Everywhere I look there are new pumpkin items around every corner. This morning the weather made it perfect to try out a new pumpkin recipe and what goes better with breakfast? Donuts, well pumpkin donuts to be exact!

date night...

It had been quite a while since Jeff and I had a date night and we had the perfect opportunity when Ethan went and stayed at his cousins. We didn't have a plan and decided to wing it.

We ended up doing a little shopping followed by grabbing a drink and dinner then heading to the movies.

hobby lobby. yes please...

I convinced my family to take me to Hobby Lobby today. It has been a store that I really wanted to check out for a long time and I think I may need rehab after going there.

It was everything I thought it would be and more.

Fotos de mi familia...

apples for the teacher...

Today was the first day of kindergarten for Ethan and an all new adventure at his new school Evergreen Academy in Ms. Keller's class.

sailing takes me away...

For the long weekend Jeff unfortunately had to work at PAX and Ethan and I headed out to the San Juan Islands with my parents. We started off our trip on Lopez Island and then headed over to Roche Harbor and Westcot Bay. We had a great time exploring and soaking up the last days of summer.

get your motor running....

Training wheels have officially been removed and we now have a speed demon on our hands. Well not really since Ethan has not quite figured out how to stop and start yet but he was able to ride around the track by himself which is AWESOME.

And I have to say that learning on a track was so much easier than learning on the concrete. Plus, everyone that is running and walking around the track cheers you on as well.

Thursday thoughts...

"That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old." -Walt Disney

It rained buckets the last few days and I found this little guy out near our front door.

farewell summer...

Well, I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet. I know that there are some sunny warm days still ahead but school starts next week (eek). We have been savoring the last few weekends to do as much as we can to soak this summer up.

cheapest cat toy ever...

What do you do with a cardboard box from Costco? Absolutely nothing if you live at my house. Just leave it out in the open and within a few minutes I guarantee that your cats will be all over it. As you can see from the picture I captured that there was an issue with both not fitting into it but luckily they compromised and shared.

Did you know it was black cat appreciation day on Saturday? I did not either until we went to a local farmers market that had the humane society adoption truck there that was full of black kittens. Luckily we already have two black cats otherwise I think that I would have tried to take them all home.

capturing summer moments...

After our hectic weekend last week today has been a pretty mellow sort of day. Even though the weather wasn't perfect we enjoyed what summer has to offer - farmers markets and blackberries.

what to do with a bunch of roma tomatoes...

Typically I am the type of person that is drawn to convenience and always bought the canned marinara sauce that is on sale that week which my son typically hates. This past weekend I swung by our local veggie and fruit stand to check out what they had to offer and picked up a bunch of fruits and veggies, including a bunch of Roma tomatoes. I am trying to eat a little better (aren't we all) and finally figured out that yes, I do feel better when I don't eat a bunch of junk food. ;)

I took out the ingredients I thought I would need since I didn't really have a recipe available and most included sugar which I am trying to avoid so I kind of winged this one and it is actually one of the best marinara sauces that I think I have had if I do say so myself and this again, was totally by mistake.

Here's what I did...

let's go on a hike up in the mountains...

I meant to post this quite a while ago but unfortunately during our road trip my camera broke and I lost a bunch of pictures from this adventure. Thankfully I had downloaded a few of the photos before this happened. :(

Ethan, my dad, and I were able to head up to Mt. Baker near Bellingham, WA to go and explore since the snow was pretty melted by this point. We picked the perfect day to head up and take in some sunshine, play in the snow which I could not keep Ethan out of, and explore the great beauty of nature.

We are going to sign Ethan up for the ski bus this year so we should be back to pay Mt. Baker a visit in the winter.

fly by weekends...

This past weekend was mostly a blur with Jeff's reunion, Ethan's party, and a concert but we had a lot of fun. It was definitely a weekend that I felt I needed more time to rejuvinate so I'll leave you with a couple of photos to sum it up.

let's jump and sing happy birthday...

Ethan's birthday party was a success but boy am I exhausted.  I was a little worried at the beginning of the party because evite was down so I was worried people may not remember what time it was at.

Ethan had a blast, loved being the center of attention and hanging with friends. And Elevated Sportz cleaned up after we were done. My kind of party! ;-)

cool for back to school...

Back to school is just around the corner for Ethan. He is starting kindergarten at a brand new school this year so it is a very exciting time at our household. We have our new school picnic coming up and he is attending a camp in the next few weeks where he gets to hopefully meet some of his new classmates. Then after labor day he begins his new adventure and is off on his educational journey or something like that. :)

the good old goodie bag...

I am in the midst of getting ready for Ethan's first 'school' party this weekend. Typically his parties have consisted of hanging out with our family in the backyard and having a cookout. It is usually a pretty big ordeal for me since I am a little of a freak about decorating for the occasion and always serve a TON of food. This year will be a little different.

You see, Ethan told us earlier in the year that he wanted to have a kid party. Yes, we have had kids at our party in the past but he wanted to have it at an actual location outside of our house with a bunch of kids from his school. He even had chosen a specific venue for the special occasion, that being Elevated Sportz which is a large trampoline party place close to our home. I was a little hesitant about it but it has worked out pretty well recently considering we have been on vacation for the last week and a half and my husbands (eek) twentieth reunion is this weekend. I have had absolutely no time to get ready for this party besides ordering a cake and picking up goodie bag supplies. Thankfully for us, they take care of the rest so all we have to do is show up and let the kids go crazy and someone else gets to clean up the mess.

Speaking of goodie bags, Target is my new best friend. I actually have a closet full of old goodie bag items that I either have not used or on a few occasions forgot to hand out. Ethan refers to this as my closet full of fun and it indeed is. Let me just put it this way, we never run out of bubbles. My stash was a little low so I made a run to Target and picked up an assortment of fun stuff without blowing up my wallet.

Let's hope that this party goes off without a hitch and we all survive!

cleaning house...

I've had a love/hate relationship with my old blog layout for the past several months and I finally came to the conclusion that we needed a break from each other. So I scoured the web and found a new format that works much better and personally I think looks absolutely fantastic.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite pictures I captured from our most recent road trip to Sun Valley. It really makes me want to build a cabin in the forest and have this as my view everyday.

I hope all of you enjoy the new layout and please keep coming back for a visit!

happy birthday ethan...

This past Sunday Ethan turned the big 6. He is just growing up so fast and I wish he could be little forever.
We made it a point to come home in time for Ethan's birthday. We like to make his day special and all about him. Here is a list of what we did.

-ihop for breakfast
-game works (where he won a couple of banana stuffed animals which were actually moons.
-trip to fireworks to pick up an ugly doll.
-lunch at red robin on the waterfront with a sundae and song.
-trip to toys r us to pick out a toy. He got a huge teenage mutant turtle play set.
-dinner at burger master
-cake and presents.

Ethan absolutely loved his day.

road tripin' cont...

We are still on vacation (and so not looking forward to going home.) We are definitely in vacation mode. Bed times have been thrown out the window and we've been sleeping in late. Our days have been filled with swimming, bowling, ice skating, and exploring. We even went to dinner last night at a place that you get to by a horse and wagon (and had the most amazing wine.)

We have loved this summer and all of the adventures we have had in store. I just wish it could go on a little longer.  ;-)

road tripin'

We are in the midst of our family vacation but it's been a little while since my last post.  We started out our road trip by visiting coeur d'laine and making a stop at the Silverwood theme park. It was a lot of fun (besides the part where I broke my phone on the roller coaster.)

Then we headed off to Sun Valley and went on a little off road adventure trying to get there where we had to avo I d cows and cliffs.

We are still enjoying our much needed break so I am sure there will be a follow up post.  Stay tuned. ..

outstanding in the field skagit dinner...

Last week Jeff and I were lucky enough to attend our first outstanding in the field dinner at the Skagit River Ranch with our good friends Jeff and Courtney.  It was quite a long drive from Seattle but was worth the effort and the dinner was absolutely amazing.

The dinner included a cocktail hour with yummy appetizers followed by a tour of the farm. The views from this farm were breath taking and lucky for us, the weather was absolutely beautiful.

I can't wait to see where they will be heading next year.

what are you up to this summer?

Ethan's out of school, swim lessons are going on, which means summer is finally here. Yippee!!!

^^Of course our son was the one who volunteered to feed the llama with his mouth on a camp field trip.;)^^