Inspired

Here are a few pictures of my newly created garland inspired by Nesting Place. I love, love, LOVE this blog. Nester's mantra of "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" has inspired me to try new things around my house, including sewing new pillows for the basement, which is now is now in the process of becoming more beautiful (while certainly not perfect!). It has given me new creative energy to work through the house one room at a time to finish all of the decorating that I started when we moved in but never finished. Thanks Nester!

I bought a new pre-lit garland at Costco, a wimpy one at Michaels to add some oomph, and a few pieces of greenery to add some character.

Here is a not so perfect picture of my new garland in the living room

The sprigs of eucalyptus combined with the red berries are my favorite

looks like my candles aren't perfectly straight. oh well!

I love the middle with all of the red

I had to throw in a few stars for fun

On another note, I've decided that this rusty star is my favorite ornament this year. It was a little rusty when I bought it, but the rust grew while we were in the Philippines. I think the rust makes it all the more beautiful, adds more character. Kind of makes me think of my life. A little more rust, a little more character, a little more beauty.

A Good Laugh

I just saw this on my brother's blog and thought that it was funny enough to post over here. I will refrain from saying more on this subject.....

Because there was nothing better to do

This is what it looks like today. It is 3:17 in the afternoon, it has looked like this all day and they say it is supposed to rain for the next week. It now gets dark at 4:30 thanks to the time change.

Yuck.

Welcome bad weather.

Goodbye sun.

So I managed to get in a shower, although not until after lunch (I was cleaning the house, I had an excuse!). Mirielle came into the bathroom while I was putting on my makeup and asked if I could put some on her. Usually this isn't allowed (don't want her thinking that she needs to be getting into my makeup bag), but with a day like today I figured what the heck, what else would we do to pass the time.


I dolled her up big time and even curled her hair. She was so excited she was literally laughing to herself the whole time. This was the result. The more pictures I took the more dramatic it became. She is such a drama queen!

note change of dress

addition of the crown

On a side note, I have discovered I can sew after sewing Kellan a shark costume with no pattern, so I have moved on to making pillows for our new daybed in the basement. So far I've only gotten 2 done, which for me is a pretty big accomplishment.

Trip to AZ

The kids and I were able to take a trip down to AZ at the end of September for my cousin's wedding. It was a fast and furious 11 day trip and we were all exhaused when we got home, but had so much fun while we were there.

We did lots of great shopping, had a birthday party for Kellan, I got a fun new haircut, did an 8 hour day trip to see my Grandparents, saw a few friends, ate at all of the places I miss, did some more shopping (I love the big city!), swam over at my aunts house a few times, saw my beautiful cousin get married, and got far too little sleep. It was a BLAST!


Here are a few pictures from the wedding (in reverse order from which they happened -darn blogger!).

September MOPS park date

Our MOPS group went for a play date to the arboretum in September. One of the girls asked me to bring my camera and take some pictures of the kids that were there. I ended up taking over 500 pictures but got some really cute shots. Here is one of my favorites. (I especially love those leaves up in the right hand corner!) And I love this shot of this mom just walking with her kids, not knowing that I was talking pictures of them. Those are the best!
It ended up being a LOT of work going through all of those pictures, but it sure is fun to sort through the ones that actually turned out. MOPS has been such a blessing to me since we've been here. I've gotten to know so many really great moms and have made some really great friends in the last year.

Blurry

I have several empty frames sitting around our house, more than a few in our master bedroom. I thought I would try and take a few pictures of Jas and I to put in those frames by using the timer on my camera. After several attempts of jumping over the dog, running through the grass and avoiding Mirielle, who was crying becuase I wouldn't let her in the picture, I finally gave up. I think that this was the best shot that I got. Too bad I don't know anyone who is obsessive about taking pictures as me who lives close by. Then we could practice on each other. Until then, I'm thinking that maybe I need a remote for my camera.....

Trippin it to Seattle

For my 30th birthday, I decided I wanted to take a weekend trip to Seattle. I had been telling Jason this for months. I had originally envisioned a romantic getaway weekend, but as the summer flew by, it seemed that a girls trip would be much easier as I wouldn't have to make any arrangements for the house, the food or the kids for the whole weekend and could just leave my dear sweet husband in charge. Too bad the grandparents don't live closer. I think he was a little disappointed that I was leaving him behind, but was still excited for me to go.

So, my friend Stacey and I left our hubbies at home with the kids for the weekend and had a fun weekend in Seattle. We did a little bit of sight seeing, did some shopping (yea for big malls and DSW shoes!) ate some great meals and had a great time.

Meanwhile poor dear hubby ended up with 2 kids with strep throat over the weekend. I felt kinda bad knowing that I was kicking up my heels having fun while he was at home playing nurse.

We went to Pikes Place Market on a Saturday (which I think was during the hottest weekend of the summer throughout the whole of WA.) The place was packed and it was hot. It kinda gave me flashbacks of the Philippines - hot and crowded places.

We went on an underground tour of Seattle which was fascinating. Brought out the history buff in me. Almost had a panic attack down there too. Too stale and hot!

Love the old architecture of the city

And I love my new shoes!

Overheard

Kellan has come up with a few lines that have made me laugh lately.

Kellan is holding his special blanket that has a lion head that is attached whom we lovingly refer to as Lion.

Mirielle: Kellan, what name do you want to call Lion?
Kellan: Tiger


Kellan at the table sorting his cheetos into small, med and large sizes.
Kellan: The small ones are the baby ones, these are the mommy ones and the big one is the dad one at the hangar.

Labor Day

Here are some randomly posted pictures of our trip to Montana over Labor Day. The first day we enjoyed sun and the picts are from our favorite part of our trip to the river. Unfortunately, Jason missed the best part because he came down with a cold on top of strep throat on the car ride and had to take a rest while we all went out to play. The second day we enjoyed rain and the third we woke up to snow. Welcome to living way up north!

Mr. Droopy Pants

I LOVE this face.

Mirielle and her rock that we thought looked like a maple bar

The kids even got to feed some deer from the cabin porch. Too bad the picts turned out blury, but I didn't think Mrs. Deer would be too fond of my flash.
Back again on Sunday morning for one last snack