A Very Happy Un-Birthday...

We celebrated Emma's 1/2 birthday this year. Her real birthday falls too close to Christmas and it is always a crazy time of year. So I thought we would have one in the summer instead. The original idea was to do something outdoorsy that would be difficult to do in December...but Emma had other ideas. She wanted to do crafts, most of the activities were done indoors...oh well.

She decided on a polka dot theme...I suggested a few ideas and she really like the polka dot idea. These are the invitations, (two color choices).

We tried to keep the food, decor and activities in harmony with the polka dot theme.

Our first activity was to decorate bags with circle shaped sponges and paint. Here is how Emma's Bag turned out.

After that we made "Button Baubles" for the Girls hair. You can see the buttons all over the table. I sewed on the base button and let the girls pick which ones they wanted and build their own. Emma is modeling the ones she made. I think they turned out pretty well.

After that we made some glass pebble magnets

We also played "Don't eat Pete", had Polka dot snacks, and then painted all their nails with nail polish that changes color in the sun. We had cake and ice cream, opened presents and then let them jump on the trampoline and admire their nails while they changed colors.

I love that a few of the girls wore their polka dot dresses. Emma's dress has polka dots too they are just very tiny. She loved it and had great time!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Emma!

Sushi

One of our friends here was willing to teach us how to make sushi, so we decided to make the most of it and had a few families from our ward over.

The sushi was VERY good, but in order to make it taste really good you have to have all sorts of specialized ingredients...the most important lesson I learned was just to get sushi at a restaurant or have Danette make it.

Here are some of the preparations that took place before we actually began to roll the sushi:

Cutting very thin pieces of tuna, salmon, avocado and cucumber. You have to fan the rice to get it to the perfect level of stickiness and while fanning pour in a heated mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and Hawaiian Salt; this also adds to the stickiness. There were other things that needed to be prepared as well as illustrated by the pictures, (not to mention the stuff that Danette prepared at home):

Here is the step by step process of actually rolling the sushi.

Now it was Eric's turn to try it out....

Not quite up to par with Danette, but still pretty good.

It was fun and Danette was so nice to teach a houseful of people to make sushi!

Livin' the good life...for 11 years!

I can hardly believe that it has been 11 years since I married my best friend. Life couldn't be any better and I have felt like that for the past 11 years. Eric is appreciative, complimentary, affectionate, loyal, and a million other things that make him the perfect man for me. I love you like crazy.

Par for the course with Eric...he planned us a little romantic get-a-way. It was sooo perfect. We left on Thursday after Eric got done with work and made it to the temple for the 8:00pm session. Then we headed a little further north to our Bed and Breakfast. It was a very nice place and the owners did a fantastic job. We ate a yummy breakfast and then headed out to see the tulips.

It was just sooo much fun and so fantastic to be with Eric for the weekend!

On our way home we stopped by Pikes Place Market to pick some fresh tuna for a little a sushi rolling shin-dig we were having on Sunday...

Then it was home again. We had a 3:00 showing of "Walking with the Dinosaurs" to go to with the older kids.

What a weekend with the love of my life!

Ski Season 2009

Eric was able to get quite a bit of skiing in this season. There were some Friday ski trips with Tyler, taking Gabe out of school for a day, and a couple more Saturday trips with the kids. I even decided to try it out (I haven't been skiing since before we were married).

Eric-- rippin' it up.

Gabe and Eric skipping out on school and work. Way to set your priorities!

I thought I was going to be a good sport but I enjoyed it so much that we went up again 2 weeks later and I purchased my own season pass! Crazy.

1st day ever for some, 1st day in a looong time for others

Jan. 17th, 2009

Eric was really excited this year to start up skiing again after a long hiatus. He bought himself some gear and hit the slopes with some friends. I think he had been skiing once in our almost 11 years of marriage. He loved it and went a ton this season.

Eric decided that ski school would be the best way to get the kids good at skiing.

They loved it...especially the hot chocolate the ski school provided.

Eric really wants the kids to love skiing so for the first trip out he was shooting for a non miserable experience...he just wants them to WANT to try it again.

Using that criteria the ski trip was a smashing success.

Climbing Mt Hood

Eric hiked Mt Hood on Friday night/Saturday morning with Evan, Ryan (friends from high school) and Evan's uncle Steve.

They started at midnight so the snow is harder and there are less people. Here they are after putting on crampons.

Sunrise.


This is halfway up the "hogsback", you can see steam on the right from the fumaroles and the parking lot on the far left of Timberline ski resort where they started.


Posing at the top looking northward. Mt St. Helens is to the left of Eric, Rainier nearest his axe and Mt Adams to the right.


Going back down. There was a couple feet of new powder so it was slow going, especially up. Overall a fantastic climb with perfect weather.

Meg's walking

On Easter Sunday Meg decided it was time to try out her legs. She has been pulling her self up for a long time and she has even been letting go and just standing there for a while but would only walk when she was supported by something. But no longer...

I know this clip doesn't show too much. Those were some of her very first steps! Way to show off for Grandma and Grandpa. She has taken about 5 or 6 steps together, so when I say "Meg's Walking" that doesn't mean all over, it means in short little bursts with lots of encouragement. She still prefers crawling, but it is an exciting milestone.