New pics of family and friends

The past few weeks (before the packing and living out of boxes started) we took some time to visit two of our most favorite families - The Weldons and The Huffmans. Here are a few pics from those visits


Emma at Red Robin

Baby Kassidy - Dre and Robby's most beautiful girl

Me, Emma, Dre and Kassidy. Not the best pic but the best one we got

Emma and Shaun (or Dude as she calls him)

It's been awhile...

My very good friend Lindsay reminded me this past weekend that I have not updated this blog in over a month so here I am.

Things are moving fast for us - literally. We have decided to move and after house hunting for only one weekend we found the perfect place. We are downsizing considerably - half the space we have now. It is exactly what we want. We have such a large place for just the three of us now that it is just too much to keep up with (and clean). We are moving at the end of the month and it cannot come fast enough. Now we just have to get rid of half our stuff.

The past few weekends have been busy. We went North to visit Shaun and Lindsay for Shaun's birthday. They took us to a fabulous local drive in that had the best chocolate shakes. Super Yummy! It was awesome to see them and see how Baby Enoch is growing! He is doing great.

This past weekend we headed South to Portland to visit our BFFs - Dre, Robbie and Baby Kassidy. For the past three years Dre and I have always met in Portland for the Scrapbook Convention. Last year the guys came with us and went to the car show next door. They took Emma that year. This year the guys took both girls and left Dre and I to shop. It was the best time and makes me miss her even more. I know they are facing some challenges in their household right now and I think they really needed the time away. We had a great visit and I could not kiss that little chunky monkey Kassidy enough. She is seriously the second cutest baby in the world.

Other than that we have been shopping for things for the new place and purging our old place. Can't wait to post pics of the new house!!!

Emma is doing great. She broke her collerbone a few weekends ago - while on the potty :( She has been wearing a harness to keep it straight and at her Dr. appt last week she got a glowing report. She is healing nicely. That kid is a trooper!

I will be back to post pics soon!!!

Happy New Year - a little late

Happy 2009!!!!

We were both happy and sad that we missed the Big Chill that hit the Northwest while we were in Texas. We were so happy that we got to see snow when we did get back. It snowed on Emma's 3rd birthday and she loved it. It was an awesome birthday present.

Texas was great. It was warm and toast just like we remembered. This is my favorite picture from the holidays in Texas

Only in Texas!!!!

Things are well. We had a great holiday with both families. Emma had a great birthday party with our family. This was the first birthday and Christmas we spent with our families since Emma was born. We are so blessed. Emma and her cousin Faith had the best time. They both got laptops for Christmas so we soon had a new event called "Dueling Laptops"

I was also blessed to catch up face to face with my long lost elementary friend Bethany. Her and her husband were just dolls. We had such a great lunch and I was happy for them both to meet James and Emma. I hope we get to see each other again soon. Maybe I can convince them to visit Seattle!!!!

A picture of my little rock star

We are preparing for an exciting 2009. I am holding out for the right job prospect but having a great time with Emma home a few days a week. I love being a housewife. Maybe I have found my calling. Last but not least Emma singing her Christmas songs!!!!!

The crashing economy finally hit us...

Wednesday, I along with a few others in my branch were laid off. They are consolidating the branch I worked it with another one in South Seattle. :-(

Up until now James and I have not felt the effects of the falling economy. We have been deligently saving just in case and "just in case" happened this week. We are holding strong. We are all still gearing up for out Texas vacation and when we return I will start job hunting full force.

I am really sad for the friends I will not see daily but hope to still see them. Good thing they don't work very far :-)

Time flies when you are - getting ready to visit Texas for two and a half weeks!

Ever since Halloween the time has been flying for us. We spent Thanksgiving together, just the three of us. We decided to go to dinner this year and we had dinner at Claim Jumper. It was awesome and the best thing is there was no clean up! We had some friends over that night for desserts. We are very thankful this year for many things. Mosty my Dad's health. He got another clean report from his doctor for this round of Chemo he has been going through. Amazing! We are so thankful to be blessed with our daughter. She is a joy and makes us smile every minute we are with her. It is true when other parents say they can't remember life before children. I don't want to - I prefer it with her in my life.

Sadly, shortly after Thanksgiving my family was hit with some devestating news. My Aunt Kay, my Mom's oldest sister died suddenly the Saturday after Thanksgiving of a heart attack. We are all still very much in shock but we have all kept each other held up as much as we can. She will be dearly missed.

We are headed home is just one short week. Texas watch out because Hurricane Emma is on the way. We are flying into San Antonio and after a quick stop to visit my parents we are off to Marble Falls for a week with the Tupper family. We will drive back to San Antonio on Christmas Eve and spend the remainder of the time with my side. We will also celebrate Emma's 3rd birthday in San Antonio on 1/2/08, two days before her real birthday. This is the first Christmas we have spent in Texas since Emma was born. The last Christmas we spent in Texas was the year I was pregnant - we all know how that trip turned out (Emma was born 5 weeks early and just a week after we returned from Texas). I don't think anything like that will happen this time. She is really looking forward to it. She talked every day about going on an airplane to see her Nana, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa. We count down the days until we leave and she cannot wait to change the number with Jim every day. This is her first time flying in her own seat so as always it will be an adventure.

We also had our family pictures done for the holidays...here they are!!!!!

Under the Sea!!!

Sorry it had taken awhile to get these Halloween pictures up - we have been sick. Emma brought home a nasty virus that she shared with both of us. I had the flu for a week and Jim is still getting over the last of his.

Anyway - this year Emma decided to be The Little Mermaid. This was the second costume pick. The first one we picked up was a pirate She loved it in the store, brought it home and hated it. She was really interested in the boots but when she found out they were just covers that went over her regular shoes she wanted nothing to do with them. On to costume #2. Little Mermaid was a hit and she is still wearing it around the house.

Since it was a typical Seattle day - cold and rainy, we decided to take Emma to Alderwood Mall for trick or treating. Beforehis she didn't get the "trick or treating" thing buy she was happy to ride around in the little cart they have. She quickly learned that if she smiled, held up her pink Disney Princess bucket and said Trick or Treat she would get candy. She was a natural.

The mall was crazy. It was cool to see all the different costumes and little kids running around. We got there at 6pm and half the stores we out of candy. Apparently they start this at 1pm- who trick or treats 1pm? To our suprise she didn't get much candy and that was just fine with us. Her favorite was a green sucker which she fell in love with (green is her favorite color).

When we were done collecting candy we took Emma to Ruby's for dinner. They have a few electric trains that go around the ceiling that she loves. We all had a great time!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

Saturday, October 18 we all loaded up and drove to Bellingham to visit the Weldons. We were excited to see their new place and visit the same pumpkin patch we visited last year. The drive up was beautiful. The lunch spot they introduced us to was awesome - some of the best pizza and the pumpkins were beautiful. Emma had a great time walking in the patch and checking out the animals. She also got to ride the little train they had made out of 55 gallon barrels. At the end of the day we choose one great pumpkin and headed home. We were all very exhausted. We were so excited to see Shaun and Lindsey and sad to say goodbye. Hopefully we will get to see them for Thanksgiving.