Christmas fever

Mark is home today, he has been gone most of the week. We spent the day putting up the tree, baking and spending some time together as a family. We had sooo much fun today. A million thanks to Mark for carrying up all of the Christmas stuff that I did not get to yesterday.

The tree looks awesome, as do the rest of the holiday decorations. I am really in the Christmas mood now! Here are a few other things we did yesterday and today.

*Put together a gingerbread train and house
*bake almond roca-it's delicious
*bake gingerbread people and decorate them
*watch football

Tommorow is back to normal...Hayley has Sounders camp tommorow night and then the rest of the week we will finish up some baking and getting ready to head to Plain to have a fun filled weekend at the cabin. Our girls are excited to spend a few days with their "cousins" Katelyn and Ethan.

Notting Hill - When You Say Nothing At All

This movie is on the Oxygen station right now, I forgot how much I loved this movie!

Turkey day

I am just about to make sweet potato casserole to take to my brothers. He has never had a Thanksgiving dinner at his house, so we are pretty excited to go there.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day spent with friends and family. Eat up!!!

the silver fox

Last night we were discussing Anderson Cooper and I was wrong when I said he was a Rockefeller. He is in fact the son of Gloria Vanderbilt! This does not make me like him any less, and like Kathy Griffin, I may have a little crush ha ha!

Tickle my funny bone

So last night was the much anticipated Kathy Griffin comedy show at The Paramount Theater in Seattle . I can honestly say I have never laughed so much in two hours. She rocked!
Originally my better half was supposed to go, but because of his work schedule he could not make it. I called up Erin (one of my oldest friends-not by age mind you!) and asked her if she could go and the deal was sealed. We planned to meet my sister-in-law Dannie and Kelley at Dragonfish for dinner and drinks, but because of a reservation/hostess goof up, we headed over to Nordstroms Cafe for a cheap, quick bite to eat. Then we met up with D & K at the theater and headed in for the show. Another friend from Lynnwood was also there with her sister and they were in the row in front of us, just a couple of seats down. They loved the show too! After the show we went back to Dragonfish (the hostess gave Dannie and Kelley free dessert). Erin tried a chocolate cake and I had passionfruit cheesecake. Both were very tasty. I also had a vodka infused Lime Rickey, which could easily get anyone tanked! Because I was driving I only had one. Believe me though, I would go back to happy hour there and drink $2 drinks anytime!

We had a great time, and I enjoyed spending some time with Erin-just the two of us because it has probably been since High School that we have gone out alone, without kids or husbands!

The night owls

Mark almost always is in bed way before me (unless he is working the night shift) but tonite we are going to bed super late! It is 1:40 and we just got done playing with our Wii. And "wii" are pathetic, because it has been like two hours of playing or something!
I hope tommorow goes by fast, I have a couple of big projects at the school tommorow. Then on Thursday I am going to see Kathy Griffin at the Paramount in Seattle with a couple of friends and my sister-in-law. By the way, Happy Birthday Dannie! Forever 29 right?
I am planning on starting a new book tommorow that Mark bought me on Sunday. It is the new Wally Lamb, called "the hour I first believed". I am sure it will be good, and I am very happy that this book is out because it has been forever since the last one. I ordered the third book in the Twilight series, it should be here in the next couple of days and then I will read that and the fourth to finish out that series. I wish I would have read the series a year ago when I first looked at it! That way I would have it all read before the movie comes out. I really enjoyed New Moon. If you have not read this series...do it!

Wii love it so far!

Every Christmas it seems like we have a ton of people to buy for, so this year Mark and I have decided to get a jump start on some of the shopping. I am not going to do the Black Friday thing this year. Really I don't feel like standing in the cold or rain to fight with overtired people.
Yesterday we went out and did a little shopping at the mall. We found a great book for my dad, and we made a big family purchase.
Last year we wanted to buy the Wii system, but because of it's popularity we could not ever find it in stock. We decided to wait until this year to get it as a gift for all of us. Mark has a friend who works at a game store, so he was able to get us a discount on some games and now we are the proud owner of a Wii system along with Aerosmith special edition Guitar Hero, and some other games too! We cracked it out today to see how we like it, and we bowled a little. The kids don't know we bought it, and as a special surprise we are going to take it to the cabin in Plain when we go in December. Along with dancing to Erin and Alan's DDR, we can rock it out Guitar Hero style. Can't wait!

Fashionistas

This morning went against my nature as a night owl. We were up at 6 and by 7:30 the girls were dressed, hair curled and ready to go for the Fall Nordstroms Childrens fashion show. My mother-in-law took pictures, so I will have to post them later. The girls had a blast! I was really proud of them, especially Hayley who is normally really shy. I can't wait to share the pictures!!!
We have lots to get done this weekend, but for now I am going to be a couch potato for a little while and drink my yummy salted caramel hot chocolate, courtesy of Starbucks.

Excitement over this discovery

Today my sister-in-law gave me the most wonderful childrens pattern. It is called "Claire" from Portabellopixie. You can view the blog here and delight in all of the wonderful ideas! I can't wait to get sewing some of the projects. The awesome thing about this pattern set? It goes from size 6-12 months up to 8, in ONE package. A super deal! I am in such a crafty mood this week. I am thinking about projects to complete, and I am hosting a scrapbooking day on November 22nd, so I am really hopeful that I can get the finishing touches on our wedding book done! I am soooo close.
Happy Friday!

We're back online!

I want to apologize now to any of my Facebook friends who may have recieved an email from me/facebook carrying the koobworm (?) virus. Two days ago I got an email looking like it was coming from my friend Lindy via Facebook, but it was a stinkin' virus. We could not get on the internet and after countless hours with Norton tech support and playing a waiting game with Comcast, we are back online! By the way...if you ever have to deal with Norton just do like my husband did...hang up on them. They are idiots and tried to charge us $100 dollars (they said we would not be able to re-install our software without them taking care of the virus first) for something we took care of ourselves. And the fact that you talk to someone in the Philippines is maddening. Why are we not employing our U.S. citizens? Don't EVEN get me started on that one! I am now frozen out of my Facebook account until they get their password reset link working too. Which sucks, because I have another grade school chum who is wating for me to confirm them, and my friend Keith who I used to work with just added me! Ok, whoever said Facebook was not addicting is crazy!
With that here are a few things we do while we have no internet:
1. Clean. Ugh!
2. Think about how much fun it will be to go to Kathy Griffin next week with Dannie and Kelley and my husband! Afterwards I am going to come back to Lynnwood to hit the midnight showing of Twilight with a great group of girls.
3. Take an unplanned nap in Marks recliner
4. Work on Christmas gifts. I have finished some embroidered dish towels for a friend who shall remain nameless.
5. Think about and make a list of things to bring/do at the cabin. I have a couple of art projects planned and I am looking for my recipe for hot buttered rum. If anyone out there had a good one, feel free to pass it along! The cabin is only a few weeks away, so it better start snowing. We want to get in some massive sledding. I also looked up another local activity in Plain that I would like to surprise the kids with. I haven't talked about it to Mark yet, so he will probably read it here first (ha ha).

Well, gotta go Celebrity Rehab is on.. it's my new addiction.

no singing the blues

First night at Sounders camp was a success! A ton of kids turned out and the Starfire Sports Complex is really a great place to play soccer. Hayley played really well against some kids that were much bigger than her, and had a lot more experience. We'll be back next week for the second session for sure! She loves her new blue Sounders FC jersey!!!

get your head in the game

I am taking the day off from work today because today is Hayley's first day at the Sounders soccer camp. We are all pretty excited around here!

She played a great game yesterday (it was the last game of the season) and has her team party next weekend. Both her and Molly want to play again in the spring, which will be great!

So other than that, we had a busy few days. We went to High School Musical on Ice with the Girl Scout troop. I have to admit, it started a bit rough for me and I don't usually like musicals. But after awhile it became less "cheesy" and our favorite part was when the actors/skaters had the basketball scene. The basketballs fell from above and then they did the whole routine to the "get your head in the game" song. The girls all had a blast.

Saturday we got our first Christmas gift completed. I won't be posting any pictures because the recipient will know it is for them.

Today I am going to work on a project or two. I am planning on listing items this weekend in my etsy shop. I have had it set up for over a year, and I have done nothing with it! It is about time don't you think?

Jar of thankfulness

I have been thinking alot about how our family of 4 does not talk a lot about what we are thankful for, or really appreciate about ourselves or the people we know. I am going to decorate a jar for the month of November and each day we will write down on a slip of paper something we are thankful for and then deposit it into the jar. I think it would be fun to read them aloud to each other on Thanksgiving. I am hoping this will help the girls to get along better, instead of the constant bickering that seems to occur these days. I will let you know how it turns out!

Wahoo!

All I can say while watching NBC right now is WAHOO!
And how exciting that my children can be a part of this history that has been made tonite...something positive. I don't usually get political, but I did get goosebumps watching Barack Obama speak tonite.
Enough said.

The nun and the school girl

Yesterday we were just waaaaay too tired to blog about the Halloween bash I co-hosted at the Kerley's on Saturday night. We had a rockin' good time. There was good food, good music, and AWESOME costumes. Some of my favorites were Strawberry Shortcake and Huckleberry Pie, the Husky cheerleader who broke out in cheer AND did the splits, 70's basketball player, and my husband-a.k.a. Sister Peters.

A big shout out to the Matson's who brought the yummy ham and cheese ball, Maria who has adopted T's recipe for bean dip and all of the other food. We ate and drank ourselves silly. We also made some new friends who are so much fun to party with. Maybe next year we can get them to wear a costume! Becky, Theresa and I are already coming up with ideas for next years bash. It is going to be even better. Note to self: avoid setting off smoke detectors and getting a phone call from the fire department.