flashback friday- 2009 christmas garland

I have been wanting to update my blog, post about things that happened months ago that I never got around to blogging. So, this new feature is called "Friday Flashback." It might happen some times on days other than Friday, but who knows.

Natalie and I found the idea for this darling advent garland in a Martha Stewart kids magazine years ago. We bought socks at after Christmas sales and everything sat in a box in storage until this year. It was fun to make, it was obviously easy, but took a lot of time one Friday night. I made it on my bed while watching a movie. I love how it turned out. The idea of course is to put a treat and/or idea for a Christmas activity for the day and look inside the sock each morning . I think we did it for a few days. I am looking forward to this tradition for many more years to come.

up close look

a night at the skate deck

A couple of weeks ago was Andy Shaw's birthday. He loves roller skating, so we skated! Boy did we! It was really fun and great to be with the Shaws, we love them.

The birthday boy

James' first time on skates since he was a kid/youth, we look good

Andy can skate backwards so he took some pictures of us

Happy Andy's Birthday/St. Patrick's Day

The Shaw Family

2/3 of the PARTY (one day we will get the other ones out there with us!)

spring in the pacific northwest

We had a day off and went with the Wrights to Vashon Island. We rode the ferry, ate a picnic on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine! Honestly, it was such a great day. I wish we were able to have more days like this one (sunny days off, together as a family). I love sunny days in Seattle.

cupcakes take one

For our anniversary I wanted to surprise James and make the cupcakes from our wedding, using the EXACT recipe. He was doing homework in the office so he wouldn't even know I was making them, I was even going to hide them downstairs for the party the next night. I was hoping the finish product would look something like this (but the chocolate cheesecake ones with vanilla frosting and no Q flags):

But instead when I looked in the oven I saw this:

...a cupcake explosion! Augh! I let out some kind of scream and James came running to my rescue. I had to tell him about the surprise and how they were ruined.

I was really quite bummed about it.

James didn't care, he loved the surprise. He was very cute about it. The boys ate cupcakes for breakfast!

P.S. I would consider myself a good cook, but I really don't bake all that much and this was a new recipe. Now I know, I filled them too full.

(and for the record they were still delicious)

one year

It's been a year already, I can't beleive it. It's been the best year ever. I love being married, mostly I love being married to James. We had a great wedding and reception a year ago, and the days since have been just as wonderful. Here's to a million more years (plus) together.

everyday is a blessing

I think it says something about a person (and/or the marriage) when your husband thinks that the toughest day in the past year of marriage is ALSO the best day (aside from our actually wedding day, that was the best!). We made a hard decision, did some hard things and are better from it! WooHoo! We are tough, the thought that keeps coming to my mind is:

"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work."
Doctrine and Covenants 10:5

Satan might not have had anything to do with our day yesterday, but he is waiting for us to fail. To fight, to be impatient, to turn our back on the Lord or just to give up...he will not win!

We are happy to be together and happy to be growing together. We feel blessed for all of our experiences, easy and tough, they can all be good. The Church is true. The end.

i love my husband

I am getting used to this husband thing, I love having one! I love having the one I have, I made a GREAT choice. It has almost been a year now and it is so much fun. He is my best friend! When we were new dating he would call me his best friend and I couldn't say it back. I could tell him I loved him after a month, but couldn't call him my best friend for many months. I had too many wonderful friends, I didn't want to pick just one and what abandon all of the others?...we'll now I have chosen. I still have those wonderful friends, (I am so blessed in the friends department) but James is the one.

We came home from the Olympics late Valentine's Eve and his brother and sister-in-law set up a V-day surprise! He was in charge of this holiday, I got the next one -OUR ANNIVERSARY (we are going to rotate every year). He was a little nervous about it, but did AWESOME. He could do the same thing every time and it would be perfect.

I got the best massage of my life

There he is, my dream come true

So romantic, he had candles everywhere

I had a bad day last week and came home to a sweet surprise, he knows me so well...

and he takes me on dates, even when I kind of didn't want to go (it was a hard day for us and I just wanted to stay home) P.S. I loved Avatar!