My Very First...

Homemade gift! It was so much fun! I made the Diddy's a felt board with three stories (more are coming). Erica and I had talked about how much fun it would be to have one and her kids LOVE it! I made The Slippery Fish, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and Five Little Monkeys. I was so excited with how they turned out. I definitely will be making more.

Christmas!!!

Christmas was so much fun this year! Khylee really showed her patience, compassion, and unselfishness this year. I am so proud of the little girl that she is turning into. She is truly the best blessing in my life! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Khylee didn't want anything (except a real puppy, which was not an option) but was so excited with the gifts she did receive. She loved her bike, Fur Real Piglet, Easy Back Oven, Ponies, and everything else.

1st Ballet Recital!

After a HUGE miscommunication on my part and me driving like a crazy lady to Renton to pick Khylee up and having half the time needed to get her ready, Khylee had her very first Ballet Recital. She was SO cute! I was very nervous for her because she was performing at the PAC in Auburn. That is a BIG auditorium! She did AWESOME though! She really took charge on stage at one point! She is my daughter! LOL! They were Santa's Helpers (with wings and a halo...) and danced to a song from Rudolph called Santa's Elves. She had a lot of support come watch her perform. Thank you to Aunty Willy, JJ, Erica, Hailey, and Jason for cheering her on! It was great to have you all there.

Khylee received her first bouquet of flowers from Hailey (and Erica)! She felt so special. We put them in water when we got home and she constantly talked about them. It was very sad when we had to throw them away because they were so wilted!

End of the Quarter Celebration!!

We've tried to always go out at the end of each quarter to celebrate our accomplishments! We have a great co-hort and this was the last time we would see most of each other until March since we start student teaching in January. It was a lot of fun to hang out and talk, relaxed from the pressures of school! Thanks ladies! Good luck student teaching!

SANTA BREAKFAST!!

The Santa Breakfast has been a tradition in our family since I was a little girl and it is so fun to carry it on with my own daughter. This is Khylee's fifth Santa Breakfast. It is the exact same every year; same food, same jokes, same songs, but I think if it wasn't it would be so sad! My entire family looks forward to this special day each December to see Santa and come together as a family.

Christmas Shopping in Bellevue!

Kari and I have always talked about going Christmas shopping in Bellevue but we always get too busy around the holidays. Well, finally this year we made it up there. It was SO much fun! We ate at The Cheesecake Factory, shopped, laughed, and just had a great time with great ladies! This definitely has to be a yearly tradition!

I just have to add that this top picture is one of about eight because my camera was being dumb (or the nice lady walking down the road we asked to snap a few photos didn't know how to take pictures....LOL)!

HALLOWEEN FUN!!!


I love this time of year! It is the beginning of the Holiday Season. As always, we were busy, busy, busy, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. We were invited to a Harvest Party by some great friends who live on land. It was so much fun. The kids had a BLAST! They went on a "hayride," picked out a pumpkin and carved it, smashed a pinata, roasted hot dogs, saw goats, rabbits, chickens, dogs, cats, and birds, and had apple cider. Plus, it was another excuse to wear our costumes! It was a great evening! Thanks Connie and Shauntel!

Khylee had her annual Halloween Party with herfriends. It was a blast! The kids had a lot offun! I even had four very good looking firemenin my bedroom for part of the evening.(Thatis a whole different story! Thankfully,everything turned out just fine!)

Trunk-or-Treating is always a hit! This year our ward did it Friday night so we crashed Mill Pond and White River's joint activity Saturday night! It was a lot of fun! Of course, Khylee got WAY too much candy and I am sure I will end up throwing over half of it away like I did last year, but she doesn't know that...ssshh!

Forks!!

So, as many of you know, I am an avid Twi-hard! I have never enjoyed reading until these books came out. I am very glad that I was talked into reading them. Erica and I have talked about going to Forks for awhile now. We figured since there were people flying in from different countries, we could drive the four hours. We had made plans to go for my birthday but they fell through. We found out that Stephenie Meyer/Bella's Birthday was being celebrated and literally planned it on a couple days notice.

It was the first time I had left Khylee overnight so I was a little nervous. I arrived at Erica's house at 4:00 Saturday morning and we were on our way. We had SO much fun. It was not as hard to leave Khylee overnight, but I certainly missed her a lot! We got the whole tour: Forks High School, Bella's House, The Cullen Residence, Jacob's House, and First Beach and La Push (which was amazingly beautiful). We also heard an awesome band Saturday night and I of course bought their cd and got a picture with them! It was a lot of fun and I was so happy to meet awesome people while we were there!

Never knew I'd get so close to Edward...lol

A girl on our tour carried this cut-out around with her all day (literally!)

Forks High School's very own copy of Twilight.

Erica and I got to help judge this look alike contest. We felt SO cool! (It's all about who you know....)

This was a washed up stump on First Beach in La Push. Isn't it cool?

Fall so far...

Khylee and I have been very busy lately. Khylee has wanted to take a dance class for the last two years and I finally found a studio that I love and works with my schedule. (Both very hard to find!) She is taking a beginners ballet and tap class once a week and she LOVES it! She also LOVES the huge wall of mirrors in her studio.

She loves posing and doing silly faces for the camera. Here is one that always makes me smile...

We had our Annual Pumpkin Picnic last weekend with my family and so much fun. We tried a new pumpkin patch this year and were really happy. We have had the Annual Pumpkin Picnic since I was little. It is one of the many things I love and look forward to during Fall.

Khylee loved running around the farm and it took a little bit of convincing to get her to slow down to take a picture with my mom and I but she did!

Erica invited us over for a Halloween craft night last Saturday. We had so much fun. We had dinner, painted pumpkins, and ended the night with a good movie!

I'm really going to try...

Well, it seems as though my first blog has been deleted which left me with the debate of whether or not I wanted to start a new one. I am going to give it another try. I really enjoy reading everyone else's blogs and I really want to have one of my own. So, I am really going to try...