Our Christmas

As I lay here in bed listening to Ryan while he sleeps, I can say without a doubt, this was the best Christmas ever.





Hoping you and yours had a very special holiday and we wish you the best for the new year.

-C

our first family photos

This last Saturday we had a friend take our first family photos. I was starting to have a lot of regret for not having maternity or newborn photos taken of myself and Ryan. I mentioned it to Jim and he said we could still get photos done while Ryan is still itty bitty. Though he's not his newborn 7lbs, these are still so fabulous.

All photos were taken by Ciera of Pixiedust Photography. She's an incredibly talented photographer with a passion for child and family photography. You can find her work on her blog, Pixiedust Photography and her Facebook page.

The Baby Shower

I was treated to the most beautiful shower I've ever had the pleasure of attending. My mom and her friends are absolutely amazing when it comes to planning. The decor was gorgeous and the food was delicious. I'm lucky enough to have cousins who bake like professionals and they provided the most amazing cake and cupcakes.

Myself, my mom and my sister.

The shower theme was nautical. We love living on Whidbey Island, we love the ocean that surrounds us and we love our boat. We are so excited to introduce the northwest island life to our son and nothing fits us better than all things nautical.

The afghan on the left with the anchor was hand made by my cousin, Rachel. She did an amazing job. The quilt on the left was made by our close friend and neighbor, Uschi. The quilt was one of my very first gifts for the baby. I completely skipped a bedding set because of this quilt. The rocking horse is from my friend, Alison. She stained it to match his bedroom.

Poms, eyelet lanterns and stars hung above the food table. They've all come home with me to hang in his bedroom. The giant frame was held chicken wire - I took photos early so you don't get to see all the adorable photos that were attached of his ultrasounds, my weekly belly photos and a few of me as a child.

The shower was at 11:00am, so we had a brunch spread. It was delicious. Mini crustless quiches, strawberry spinach salad with the most amazing dressing I've ever tasted and fresh bakery bread.

There was a great sparkling fruit punch along with lemon water. We drank from mason jars and each little straw had the cutest little striped red and blue flags on them.

The cupcakes were made my the Cupcake Queen herself, my cousin Rachel. She knows how much I love fondant and she made marshmallow fondant star toppers for each cupcake. I'm also a frosting girl, and she totally outdid herself on the frosting for these cupcakes. I was in heaven.

My cousin, Brynn made the blue velvet ruffle cake. I'd come across a picture of one on Pinterest and had to have it. This is the absolute best velvet cake I've ever eaten in my life. The frosting was cream cheese and sadly didn't like the sun. But I don't care, it was delicious! My sister came across this adorable whale topper and my brother colored it for her. It was pretty sweet of him!

The blessing table was incredible. Each guest wrote a sweet note to our baby boy and hung it on the line. At the end of the shower they were collected in a small album for me to take home. I'll get to read each blessing and prayer to him as he grows.

Pinwheels made the center pieces on each table and were the favors for our guests to take home. My mom let me help with these, which I loved. I'm a crafty person so I was happy I got to help with something!

The little guy was spoiled rotten!

Carrie, Jennifer, Mom & Lisa

These are the ladies that made it happen. Carrie hosted in her gorgeous back yard, making for one heck of a garden party. They all helped my mom collect and implement ideas. They set up and took down the entire thing and also helped prepare the food. They're amazing and my mom is so lucky to have the best friends.

There are more pictures floating around on other cameras. When I end up with those I'll post more of the fun. A big thank you to everyone who made the shower so incredible special. I felt beyond blessed. From those who helped plan and put on, to those friends and family members that attended. It was an amazing day I'll never forget.

baby.love.

Our nephew is already a month old. We live closer than the rest of the family, but still too far away to see him as often as we'd like with our busy work schedules.

When I see new pictures his mommy posts on Facebook, I just want to snuggle him up! Kiss his little head, admire his little nose and let him squeeze my finger with those tiny little hands.

Oh, how this sweet little one just makes my heart burst! Totally love him ♥

New babies are the best :)

We are so happy to announce we are a first time Aunt & Uncle!

Welcome to the world baby Riley!  

We are so proud and love you so much already.

No pictures to share just yet. Sadly we are stuck working and wont get to see our nephew until Thursday. I absolutely can't wait!

Nothing ever goes as planned, but you have to be thankful anyway.

Thanksgiving. Where to start?

Dad and his wife weren't able to make it. I cried. It was the right choice, given weather, but we were so disappointed. No Dad meant no boat trip. And really, it would have been a silly attempt.

Why you ask? Who the heck asked for snow! That's what I want to know. I like looking at snow. I don't like having snow. This is why I continue to live in Western Washington. I don't hate rain, we get plenty of sun, it never gets too cold and I can wear flip flops almost year round. I don't like snow. I don't appreciate the temperatures that come with it and I absolutely refuse to drive in it.

So thank you snow for ruining part of my Thanksgiving. Moving on.

I was pretty excited about hosting at our place. The problem every Thanksgiving is that I'm a crazy control freak that tends to throw fits. This in turn, I'm sure, makes no one thankful for me. I'm the queen of awkward moments with my family. I got off work at 1:00am Thanksgiving day and began additional prep.

Around 4:00am I went to bed, setting my alarm for 9:00am. Excitement woke me at 8:00am and I got right to work. Made stuffing. Stuffed the bird.

Put together my centerpiece. I thought these flowers were too pretty not to incorporate.

I had help making the rolls that weren't ready in time. The rising time took way longer than the directions stated and we ended up with store bought rolls. We also tried making non dairy mashed potatoes and they turned out HORRIBLY. My dad made a second trip to the grocery store ( thank you Safeway for being open all day) and picked up mashed potatoes from the deli.

I've been dying for a set of white dishes and I picked up this set just for the occasion. They're white ceramic with an adorable beaded edge.

They turkey ended up done almost two hours before everything else. Holy crap, what a crazy day. In the end, the food was amazing in spite of the screw ups. I've learned a lot about time management this year and what can be done ahead of time next year. I'll absolutely be writing a how-to guide for myself that includes a cooking schedule. This is serious business folks!

I'll be sharing all of the recipes we used throughout the next week. They're delicious and can be made for just about any special occasion. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We ended our day by laying around on the couch in front of the fire and enjoying pie. I sure love my family. I hope every enjoyed their weekend and happy Monday!

a bouncing baby boy!

I don't think I've mentioned on here before that my husband and I will be an uncle and aunt for the very first time ever in January. Husband's older brother and his wife are expecting their first child together, a bouncing baby boy, and we couldn't be more thrilled!

This will be the first grandchild for either side of our families. I should mention that we do in fact have a nephew in the family and he's one of the coolest kids you'll ever meet. Q (we really do call him this) is my sister-in-law's son. I'm sure to him we're just us, not really an aunt and uncle, but if he wanted to call us his aunt and uncle, we'd sure take it! No matter how he looks at us, we still love him to death. I mean, he taught me how to play Guitar Hero. And then on the way home from their house, we stopped by the closest Walmart to pick it up for ourselves! That's how cool of a kid he is.

We're excited about the newest addition to the family, and I hope Q is excited to be a big brother! Today is my sister-in-law's baby shower in Portland, and this is in fact where I am at this very moment. My mom and I left yesterday for the 5 hour drive two spend two nights away in Oregon. I couldn't share my gifts for her and the baby until now, because I know she reads my blog, so I waited until today.

The first two sleepers I just absolutely adore. The owls and the stripes just kill me. I'd really just like to keep them for myself so I can stare at their miniature cuteness when I need a pick-me-up. Impractical? Probably. So I'll give them to baby S.

The second two outfits I bought in a larger size. We found out he was a boy during the summer, so I did the math on my fingers and bought these in the size he'd be during the summer of 2011. Can't wait to see little chubby legs sticking out of his jean shorts!

I think onesies are one of the best inventions in the world. I also happen to love stripes. So I picked up all the boy onesies I could find locally in a striped fashion. Love them!

And last but not least is this darling, silky little thing. This is a blanket made with love by Auntie Cassie for baby S. Yes, you heard that right. I made this! I was absolutely thrilled with how it came out. It's really beatiful yarn and so plush and soft.

I really hope my sister-in-law loves it.

I hope my mom-in-law loves it to! I told her I had made a blanket for the baby, and I know she's been waiting to see the finished product.

I'll post pictures of the shower later this week if sis-in-law is ok with me sharing :) Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

feeling like a kid again.

We celebrated my dad's birthday on Sunday with dinner, a trip to the pumpkin patch, chocolate cream pie with coffee and a batch of chocolate pumpkin muffins. It was a great day feeling like a kid again.

The older I get, the more thankful I am for my parents and siblings. Each time we get together, it reminds me of how absolutely self absorbed I can be most of the time. I'm not say I intentionally ignore my family, but we live busy lives. We have a busy work schedule, spend almost a whole 24 hours each weekend recovering, then have our own to-do list. Whether it be house work, cooking or crafts, or even dinner with friends. It seems I lose the importance of time with my family.

After my mom treated us to an amazing chicken bacon stroganoff for an early dinner, we hit the pumpkin patch for some quality parent-kid time.

We made a quick trip in the last hour open to Schuh Farms located on Memorial Highway in Mount Vernon. They've got the great barn seen behind the sunflowers and across the street. It has already picked pumpkins, a coffee stand, cider and other goodies for sale.

My mom's favorite color is yellow, so naturally she loved the sunflowers. She also loves taking pictures. Weird I haven't seen any of them yet. Hint, hint, Mother!

My husband had never been to a pumpkin patch before. I wasn't sure if he was really having fun. In all honesty, as immature and childish the two of us are together, we're really adults. The joys of marriage, right?

The good man that he is,  he picked out a pumpkin and even hauled back every last one the whole family had picked. There was still a little joy in this photo. That was until we got to the scale, he realized I had 3 large pumpkins and near 72 little ones weighing in at a healthy 84lbs. Come on! It's part of the fall spirit! We plan to carve a couple and we'll try our hand at homemade pumpkin pie straight from the source.

It was such an awesome day. I love my dad to the moon and back. I'm one of the luckiest girls alive having him to call my dad. My mom couldn't have picked a better man to care for us.

Hope everyone is enjoying what fall has to offer. Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!