well, good for her!

I happened to be on Papaya's website when I saw this... and thought, "well, good for her!" She was on America's Next Top Model Cycle 14. Her name is Jessica Serfaty, and I liked her a lot. She's a young wife and mother and I was hoping she'd go places... maybe Papaya isn't the most prestigious of clothing stores, but hey... it's better than nothing!

the tree is DONE!

I'm so glad that it's finally done! I always put the lights and ornaments on myself each year. For some reason, my brain wasn't working and I didn't put them on right... the plugs were facing the wrong way and there wasn't a way to plug the lights in. So, I undid them all and redid them... man I was dizzy from going round and round the tree! Owen put a few ornaments on... in the same spot! I rearranged his and got it all done... thank goodness the house is ready for Christmas! Even the outside thanks to Derek!

Oh, Christmas tree!

Yesterday we went on a mission to find the perfect Patsey Family Christmas tree! We decided to go to a different tree farm this year, since the one we used to go to disappointed us with the quality. So, we went to Three Wise Men tree farm... the best trees I've ever seen!!! On top of finding so many we liked, once we got the one, they put a netting around it, carried it to our car and tied it down for us! Talk about customer service! I'm excited to put it in the living room and decorate it today :]

Owen loved this little tree...

THE TREE!

he's just too cute!!!

Christmas at the Patsey's!

This year I've been in a particularly crafy mood. I went kinda craft crazy I think! It all started with a little project my friend Stepheni had me over to do, and then it was all over from there!

She had us cutting and gluing and in the end we had a super cute advent calendar! Each day, Owen will lift the appropriate cone and get a treat!

Then, after that was done... I kept looking for more! I did the Christmas countdown on the left of this photo and the glitter trees on the right!

as if that wasn't enough I turned this...

into this!

I got the print off an awesome blog, and the frame from Goodwill for $5! I just gave it a few coats of spray paint and voila!!!

I had a ton of fun doing these and I'm hoping that I will continue to keep my crafy side going... with the blogs I've come across, I'm sure there will be no shortage of great ideas!

Snow in November?!

On Sunday the 21st we started to see some snow falling. Little did we know that in the next 48 hours we'd be in the middle of "Arctic Blast 2010". My sister and brother in law had taken Owen for the night on the 21st and on the afternoon of the 22nd my mom and I decided to take the 20 minute drive to go get him. We had no snow on our roads here, but noticed that the further up the hill we got, the more snow we came across. We decided to grab Owen and jet back home. So, we hopped on the freeway back home and ended up stuck past the last exit we could take for an hour. I had to pee the whole time!!! We saw people sliding who were at a complete stop, and were just afraid we'd be stuck in this blizzard that was coming. Finally, we ended up slowly going down the hill, praying out loud the WHOLE time! Thank God, he got us home... and Owen and Derek played and played in it... me, I walked to the store to get Thanksgiving fixin's with Owen's wagon... then back inside! I do not like the snow!! I really wish I would've taken a video of Owen laughing!

Owen's Birthday Party

The day of Owen's 4th birthday, we had a party planned for him at SuperJump Party Zone in Sumner. Probably the best place to have a kids party... and I didn't have to clean up or worry about a ton of people in my place! So nice! loving his new bike!

Owen's birthday dinner

Derek's family is usually busy on the weekends with work and such, so we usually do a dinner with his parents for Owen's birthdays. He had an attitude that night and just wanted presents and cake... nothing else!

Pumpkins and Halloween

Once again, it's been a while since the last post. Forgive me, I'm getting life in order and finally feeling like my house is together lol! Anyways here's a few photos of the pumpkin carving and Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we did the Scholz Farm Pumpkin Patch. We had initially gone to a different patch, but the lot was so muddy that a car in front of us got stuck and Derek got out to help... he ended up covered in mud, so we went home for him to change and shower quickly and just went closer to home... I'm so glad we did! We love Scholz Farms!

Checking out the piggies

Walking through the corn maze

about 3 1/2 feet tall ;]

Love these boys!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are a favorite in my family... I came across the recipe on allrecipes.com... or some form of it. I can't seem to find the exact same recipe I have written down. Well, here it is for everyone to enjoy!



What you will need:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup cocoa

2 sticks of butter (softened)

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

white chocolate chips



In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar together. Beat in eggs. Stir in vanilla. (set aside)

In a separate bowl mix together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda

Stir both mixtures together and stir in white chocolate chips (I never measure the chips, I just pour... the recipe calls for 2/3 cup, but to me that's just not enough!!!)



Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes

First day of Preschool

Last winter, most of my friends with kids Owen's age were registering for preschool. I was bummed because I knew Owen would love school, but with Hawaii being so up in the air as to when we would be home, we couldn't register him anywhere. When we got home and started taking Laney to school 3 days a week, he got super upset about not being able to go too. I tried my hardest to get him into the same class as Laney, but ended up going with my old preschool Buttons and Bows. Thankfully they had an opening for him and he started October 1st!

This little boy ran in as soon as I said he could go to class!

M.I.A.

Sorry, we've been gone from the blogging world. I thought I'd be so much better at it while in Hawaii and I totally proved myself wrong! I spent a lot of my time at the beach with Owen or trying to keep him entertained. Now, that we're home I'm back to watching Laney and Boston and working here and there for Weight Watchers. We've been busy every weekend and busy getting used to being home again. This last Sunday we had nothing to do, but grocery shop... I loved it!!! I didn't shower all day and went to Winco in my jammies! I mean, it's Winco... I wasn't the worst looking person haha! So, hopefully I will make time to blog... but I'm not thinking I will do all that well... look at my track record! Anyways, I might do the Projecy 365 which is a photo every day for a year... keep looking cause I might just surprise everyone!

sorry it's been a while

So, it's been a little while since I last blogged. We have since moved from the hotel to a one bedroom condo. It was just down the road and it's a lot less $ and hopefully Derek's work is happy about it. We have done a few fun things and I took pictures... I've been too lazy to want to blog all 150-ish of them. We went to the zoo, which was a surprise to Owen... I told him we were going on a walk and at the end there was a surprise and, you guessed it, the zoo was the surprise! We also did "Art in the park" at the Discovery Center where he made a couple art projects and really enjoyed himself. We took another trip to the Discovery Center and went inside. It was one of the coolest places I've been to in a long time... just like my mom said "it's like heaven on earth for kids!" I need to blog those photos, but for now here's what we did yesterday (Derek's only day off is Saturday)

We had lunch on the beach and Owen got this huge penquin juice!

I miss him... so glad we at least get a little time with him
Owen wearing Daddy's sunglasses and walking along the beach

Derek fell in love with this truck (for obvious reasons)

He ran around the beach for an hour non-stop!

I miss home so much... I can't even begin to explain. I'm so ready to be in my house, with my king size bed, watching my fairly large tv, with my favorite channels (this condo has few channels), enjoying time with my family, friends and the boring life of Orting.... I miss it :(

Friday night fireworks

Every Friday night the Hilton puts on a fireworks show. Owen was excited to see it this time... the first time he ran and screamed and we had to high tail it back to our room. He did very well this time and just sat with Daddy and watched with his hands over his ears.

afterwards, we hung out with Derek's co-worker and his friend from Texas and Owen searched for lizards!

We also promised him an ice cream, so off to McDonald's we went!

Owen has learned to swim! He just realized that with his little water wings, he can float and thus, swim!!! I am hoping he gets better at swimming while we have so much water readily available to us here :)