spontaneous!

Last week we had a conversation about our schedule. We calendar weekly and more if needed. We have meeting/activities we can't miss (like girls camp meeting the first Thursday of every month, James' volleyball games every Tuesday night and not to mention our weekly activities with the boys) and things that are a little bit more flexible (like the Temple, we know we want to go the the Temple two times a month, but when we do is flexible and date nights are the same way, they are weekly but we can move them around). At least I feel our calendar is fairly flexible, James on the other hand sometimes feels too structured (Laurie Farmer, mother of 10, is there such a thing?)...Anyway, we had a good LONG talk about this the other day. We are trying to be more lax with our schedule and more spontaneous when we can be.

I had to work late last night and James came with me to take the boys home around 7pm. When I was off we headed out for a night on the town, James suggested a movie but nothing was playing that I wanted to see (I was ruining his fun spontaneity). Before long we were driving into Seattle, away from our home. I decided to not worry, we were low on gas and I still had a Seminary lesson to prepare, but I was chill and let James be in charge of having no plans. Yes, I know I am weird. We ended up at Safeco Field and there was a Mariner's game going on. James suggested we go, he says that I didn't want to, but we went anyway. We bought $10 tickets outside the field and even got given amazing tickets by the lady taking tickets. We had great seats, the M's won, the weather was great and had ZERO traffic (and found a free parking spot close to the game!). It was such a wonderful, spontaneous FHE. I love my husband and I appreciate his great attitude and his help in calming me down :)

cupcakes take two

Ta Da! The wedding cupcakes, at our anniversary party (still need to figure out how to do the frosting):

See how much better the cupcakes look after the 2nd try (Leah's cupcake, she doesn't like frosting)

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.