Happy Birthday Justin and Kim!!!

My older brother and sister have birthdays in February. Actually, they are two years and 3 days apart. So growing up they always had their parties together. (And they will never let my mother forget how dreadful it was to have to share their bday with each other) Today was no different. I invited Kim, Justin and their families over for dinner tonight to celebrate.



My brother and his little boy William.

Seriously? The 7 month old is almost as big as the 7yr old. They are such hams!!!

I made lasagna for the very first time by myself... which is a lot of work by the way... I never realized how long it took. I think it turned out alright. And we had Kim's favorite cake for desert. (Chocolate) Afterwards the kids played some games and watched a movie while the adults played Scene It. It was so much fun to be able to have them over to my place and be able to make dinner for them. I am so blessed to have siblings that get along and that like to hang out with one another.

Always a bridesmaid, never a.....

My good friend Rachel got married on January 3rd 2009. The lovely ladies in the green dresses are my roommates. It was a beautiful wedding, and it went perfectly! Rachel was a stunning bride, and her prince charming looked dashing in his tux. If I had to choose my favorite part of the whole day, it would have to be getting ready for the wedding. Rachel was filled with anticipation and giddiness, and we had so much fun "dressing up". They were married at the Belle Chapel in Snohomish County. The church is used solely for weddings. It was such a privilege to be standing next to Rachel as her Maid of Honor during the ceremony... she is my first close friend to be married. It's odd to think of her having a husband, but then again, I couldn't imagine her life without Zach. It was fun being able to catch up with old friends at the reception and to see the two families united through this marriage. I also caught the boquet, and in the process knocked down the competition. =0)

What a wonderful Christmas!

This year was truly one of the best Christmas's that I can remember. Everyone in my family was more cheerful, loving, understanding and compassionate with one another! And the best part of all, God was given all the glory!



Here are the girls cutting a rug and dancing with joy in front of the tree. What is funny is that Brian Sr. and Brian Jr are the ones who started the dancing. It was SO cute to see father and son playing together so happily! (They got away before I could take a picture of them!)

Here is Grandma with all the kiddos. Lu-Lu (4), William (5 months), Brian Jr (2), Hannah (7)

All the grandchildren had their picture taken with Grandma. This one was my favorite.

My sister Kim is nearly 6 months prego. Here is her Christmas belly shot. We are hoping to find out if it is a girl or a boy. Her next doctors appointment is in a couple of weeks.

Brian was having fun pushing Cousin Will around in his "car". I don't know that William was enjoying it as much as Brian was.

This is Brian showing off his new outfit from Santa. It was hilarious. He opened the gift and immediately started taking his clothes off and putting this outfit on. He was a little grumpy when I stopped him from all of his fun to get a picture of him in his new Christmas gift.

Bye bye! I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas, and that you were all able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, and thank God for his precious gift of Jesus Christ.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is a little different this year, it is the first time I was able to decorate my own home. There was definitely a new excitement in the air when we went to pick up our very first Christmas tree as roommates. We set aside a whole day for decorating our home for the holiday season.
There were some challenges though, because three very strong opinionated women, whom grew up in three different homes, all had their own vision of what Christmas should look like in our house.


Anna brought home this "Asian Santa" as we call him. Ashlee and I often stuff him in the corner because he freaks us out.

Ashlee and Anna (mostly Ashlee) had loads of decorations to contribute to our living room. We had so much fun hanging ornaments, putting up lights and listening to our favorite Christmas carols while drinking hot chocolate.

Anna and I had fun setting up this village on our coffee table... It took me back to my childhood when I would go over to my Nana's house and marvel at her little village that lived under her tree. I would spend hours playing with the train and with all the little people that she had set up for us grandchildren. What fond memories that came back to me!

Anna insisted that Santa be in our Christmas picture. I quickly threw him to the other side of this room after this was taken...

And of course this was the result of my actions. =0) I love these girls, and I couldn't ask for better roommates to spend my first Christmas with away from home.

Adventures in Portland!

Yesterday Dominique, Julie and I decided to go on a random trip to Portland for the day. I am so thankful for spontaneous friends! We had a blast!




We first visited the famous "Powell's Bookstore" I believe it is the largest bookstore in America.

I love that Portland is SO diverse! The people are so interesting and so are their possessions! This car said "Trophy Wife" on the bumper.

We were walking down by the waterfront and we saw signs for the Luis Palau Festival! We had no idea that it was going on that weekend! For those of you who don't know, Luis Palau is a world wide evangelist and he puts together these huge Christian festivals with all sorts of events...

We waited in line for an hour to get into the "mosh pit".

Toby Mac (DC Talk) finished off the night with an awesome concert!



I love waking up in the morning and not knowing what lies ahead for the day! Who knew that I would end up seeing a Free Toby Mac concert in Portland by the end of the day?

Cruise life upon the Golden Princess!

Recently I was blessed by Johanna's family by going on a cruise with them to Alaska. We ported at Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria Canada. There were 12 of us in all. We went to celebrate her grandparents 50th anniversary. They are such a wonderful family and I had a blast with the clan. We spent our days touring towns, playing card games while we were at sea, taking dance lessons, playing marco polo in the pool, eating endless amounts of foods, seeing shows every night by the entertainment on board and having cheese and wine in the skylight lounge. It was VERY relaxing. I loved every minute of it!


I brought shorts on this trip... although I never wore them... even though it didnt rain, it was still kind of breezy. But it was comfortable enough to walk around with a light jacket.

This is Johanna and her sister in law Katie. Katie is the best! We clicked really well over the cruise... I loved hanging out with Johanna's fam!
This is Johanna's dad, Dan. We are pretty much rock stars.
Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska.

God blessed us with a gorgeous day up at Tracy's Arm... they said that it is only sunny 10 days out of the year up there! We saw two glaciers up there. It was breathtaking!
Ya See that? Kelly Block. Love it. This was in the wonderful town of Skagway! I LOVED Skagway! It was full of old Victorian buildings and the people were SO friendly!

Seattle was beautiful the day that we left!

Matisyahu!

My friend Ashlee won concert tickets off of the radio station "The Mountain" a couple weeks ago. The head liner of the show was this guy by the name of "Matisyahu". He is a jewish reggae rapper. Weird? I know. So Ashlee invited me to the show and we had dinner at applebees before the concert.

The guy who opened for Matisyahu was someone who called himself "216". Yeah I dont know what thats about... but he was this white guy with a big long beard and very intense creepy eyes. He was some hip hop rapper from the area and he did a few songs... well half way through his show another guy comes out onto the stage... who I recognized... I was just about to tell Ashlee that I thought it was Blake Lewis from American Idol, when "216" announced him. He was beat boxing with this guy for a couple of songs... it was crazy! I was going into this show not expecting to know anyone or any of the songs... and there before me was this guy from the seattle area who was on american idol.

While we were watching the first act, we spotted a bunch of teenage boys wearing those yamika hats.... they were dancing around and getting into it... I felt like I was at a bar mitzvah.

Matisyahu came onto the stage around 9pm. He put on a great show! Ashlee and I loved the music and we enjoyed dancing in the crowd with all of the hippie, reggae, grunge people. Over all it was a very interesting night. I'm glad to have a friend that is up for trying new things!