The Past Few Weeks...

My cousin Corrin made all the cousin kiddos these adorable pjs for Christmas and gave them to us at Thanksgiving.  Even the dolls had matching pjs!

Katelyn, Baylah, Asher, Luke, Jacob, Zoe, Logan

Steve and I headed up to San Francisco for his long anticipated marathon.  It was also his birthday weekend, so we were excited to get away for a few days and celebrate.  The kids were also excited to spend time with Papa and Nana.  

It was raining most of the time and at one point we thought the marathon might get cancelled.  But it didn't and all those poor runners sloshed through 26 miles of mud and water puddles!  I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay the whole time as there was hardly any shelter at the spectating points, but I was lucky to find a super nice group of people who had claimed one of the few tents that were up and pretty much sat there the whole time with them!  I got to cheer him on at 4 miles, 12 miles, 20 miles, then the finish.

This is at 8am that morning, waiting for the race to start.  The only places to escape the rain were the outhouses and a few school busses that drove people in.

Here he is at 20 miles!  Still smiling, what a trooper!

FINISHED!!  I'm so proud of him...he was very dedicated to training and preparing for the race, and despite the not-so-perfect weather conditions, he did an amazing job!

Both of us have thrown away the shoes we wore that day.  They were thrashed!

Paul and Brooke were there for the finish!  We also got to hang out in SanFran for the rest of the weekend with them.  Such a blast!

We sure did miss our sweet little ones, though.  When we got back we took them out to pick a Christmas tree.  They were pretty excited.

After Luke went to sleep, Katelyn had so much fun sorting through all the ornaments and hanging them on the tree.  Then after she went to bed, I had to move them all up to the top so Luke couldn't reach them when he woke up.  

We've also been having fun with all the recent rain.  They love getting all waterproofed and playing around in it.  Luke doesn't even mind that he's running around in a trash bag.  

And Luke's new favorite task (other than feeding Tucker) is "brushing his teeth".  He will stand there for 15 minutes straight just wetting his toothbrush and sucking the water off.  

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe my little girl is 3 already!  The time is going by way too fast.  She is sweet, spunky, and quite the crack-up these days!  I love her so much and despite some testy 3-year-old attitude moments, just wish the time would stop right here and she would not get a single day older!

To celebrate her birthday we had a Halloween/Costume party.  She had a blast!

She was going to be Jessie from Toy Story and decided the night before her party that she did not like the costume (she said the collar was itchy and the boots were tight)...that's what I get for attempting to actually make her costume this year!  She has been very into Cinderella lately so luckily we had a Cinderella dress she uses for dress-up.

The cute pumpkin cake!

Yummy treats!

The Preece fam came down for the weekend, we had so much fun with them!

Grammie got Katelyn a "castle" for her birthday.  She loves it, especially the telescope look-out on the top.  The first night we got it, it was dark by the time we finished assembling it and she had so much fun looking at the moon! (Luke loves it too...score!)

Having fun with the sand table.  Luke was still Woody since he has not yet developed that 3-year-old opinionated-ness yet! I better enjoy it while it lasts :)

Enjoying pizza

Luke looooves pizza!

Cousin Matthew giving wagon rides!

We decorated pumpkins with stickers, pom-poms, and other fun stuff.  I forgot to get a picture of everyone's finished product but they were super funny!

The kiddos in their costumes (and Luke still hangin on to that pizza)!

College Girls Weekend!!

This past weekend was a CalPoly girls getaway to Avila Beach!  I am so blessed to have these lifelong friends.  We had a fun weekend catching up, laughing, and remembering old times together.  

My trip started off great with a beautiful drive and great music!

Tri-tip sandwiches at Firestones!!!

Bali's...a trip to SLO just isn't complete without it.

We watched a beautiful sunset from the pier.

Cheers to girls night out!!

I love these girls!!!

A few Fall crafts...

I've been having fun making some Fall wreaths...

Now if the weather would stop with this high nineties business, we could get on with Fall!  Can't wait!

Kitchen Makeover

Last month we had our kitchen cabinets painted and lacquered.  Here are the before shots:

And after:

We are IN LOVE with our new kitchen! It is so bright and cheery.  I like how the mustard yellow looks with the white, will probably tie in some turquoise also!  Still need something for that window, maybe a cafe curtain or roman shade.  It's my favorite room in the house now!

My Soon-To-Be Sis!

Last weekend we traveled down to San Juan Capistrano for a shower honoring my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Brooke.  We are just thrilled that she is going to be part of our family!!  She is so sweet and fun!

This was my first time going to a "cooking shower" and it was such a neat experience.  Brooke's very talented cousin demonstrated how to make the meal that was later served to us, teaching us all kinds of cooking tips along the way.

The adorable bride!

Learning the proper way to cut an onion...a must

We are all being very good culinary students

The finished product: polenta cake topped with tequila lime chicken and vegetable salad served in a halved avocado!  soooo delish!

Brooke's wonderful friends and family

Irish coffee bar, how cute is that?

Earlier that day we were fitted for our bridesmaid dresses, such a fun group!

Katherine, me, Brooke, Michelle, Jacqueline, Kaylee, and Michelle (hope I got all those names right!)

Kate and Luke after having some lunch at Marie Calendar's

This was actually just before Luke managed to crawl into the adjoining room in our hotel and shut the door behind him.  Since there is no knob on the other side, we could not open it.  The main door was latched from the inside to keep Kate from opening it.  The hotel staff was unable to open the door so we had to call the fire department.  At least five guys showed up and within about 15 minutes had the door open.  But that is a really long time for a mom to listen to her baby boy bawling on the other side of a door she can't open.  Yeah.  It was pretty terrible.  Watch out for those adjoining doors!!