A Gift from a Dear Friend

Yesterday I received a package in the mail from Cyndi and inside I found amazing treasures that she had made, just for me! Well, and for the baby too. I am so impressed that she made all of this stuff! She is such a domestic goddess!!

I love that girl so much and I am so grateful for her friendship that I have been lucky enough to have since we were in middle school!!

 Some beautiful headbands and a cover for breastfeeding....

Some burb cloths....

  





and yummy Cyndi Chocolate chip cookies!

Jason has already begged me for some of these.

I should note, today I received another package from another good friend. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures because my camera died. But she sent me some cute cute clothes, some headbands, a hat, little booties and a stuffed animal! I am so blessed to have such caring, wonderful friends in my life! It makes me so happy to know that I'm not the only one getting excited about our little girl coming in January!

The Fruit of My Labors

Well September just snuck up on us and, sadly enough, it was just beginning to feel like summer...

Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty warm, sunny and nice outside but it felt like that whole summer feel just didn't come until, oh, mid-August. Ya know, bright hot sunshine, the smell of sunscreen and water, popsicles, etc...

But come it did, and with it came the fruition of my tomato plants. I think, due to the lateness of the season and the extra rain this summer, they were slow to bring fruit. Even Jason commented on them the other evening when we were sitting outside. He said he's never seen a tomato plant bear so little fruit. Hey, back off buddy! This is the first time for me and at least they bore something! So here are some pictures of, literally, the fruit of my labors:

Before:

After:

 

Before:

After:

 

Another Summer Read

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

One word for this book. Lame. The plot was predictable, the main character unbelievable and overall it took a while for me to get through. About 2/3 in the book got slightly interesting, so that's why I gave it two stars. But overall I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. My biggest beef was probably the main character, Flavia. I found her obnoxious. Besides, I don't think I've read a book with so many random references and words I didn't know since middle school. What 11 year old is using 6 syllable words or breaking down chemical compounds as afterthoughts? Maybe I was just an extremely stupid 11 year old. She made so many obscure references to old English ( I'm assuming) movies,books and plays that I had a very hard time catching any meaning in her statements half the time. Way to not get me hooked, Alan Bradley.



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Aunt Bina and Uncle Arty Came to Town!

 Need I say any more? I think the title explains a lot, because when these two show up anywhere, it's a party. And this time was no different. :) They actually had gone on a cruise up in Alaska but since their flight left through Seattle they figured "why not hang around a few days and spend some quality time with our favorite niece?" ok, they didn't really say that, but they did take a few days before boarding their flight. :)

While they were here, we visited the Famous Seattle seaquarium... 

We also did the underground tour of old seattle, which I found to be very fascinating. But then again, anything history makes me get all geeked out. ;0)

Tuesday night, in honor of our 3rd Anniversary, Bina and Arty took us out to eat at a nice restaurant called Palomino. The best part was that Bina wouldn't let cheapo Jason order anything less than a steak. And he loved it!

While they were here, we shared the good news with them about our little baby and of course they are very happy and excited for us. Bina took me shopping for some maternity jeans and I got some very cool, hip stuff! I finally own my first pair of skinny jeans, some two years after they became cool. I always take a while to get with the times...

I love these two!

Our Baby Girl

This is our little miracle. I had my 20 week appointment today and everything went very well. I am so happy and feel so extremely blessed! This little girl truly is a miracle in our lives and I just continue and hope and pray that she grows stronger and healthier every day. We can't wait to meet her!

Traveling the Great Northwest

This past week my parents-in law ( is that a word??) and brother-in-law came to visit and boy, did we have a heck of a lot of fun! They stayed for a week and we got a lot of goodness packed in. :)

Besides eating a lot of good food ( salmon!!) and getting spoiled by them, 

here are a few things that we did: 

 Had a barbeque in the park ( while watching eagles fly over us)

 

Visited Mt. Rainier National Park

 

 Took a ferry through the San Juan Islands to Victoria, B.C.

Visited the famous Butchart Gardens( after eating some yummy fish n' chips!)

 

Visited the Olympic National Park ( and saw TONS of wildlife!)

 

Traveled to the Hoh National Rainforest--the only one on the continental U.S.

And saw the Pacific Ocean! ( Second time ever in my life!)

We also went to the Ballard locks and saw a lot of salmon jumping up the ladder. So naturally we then had to go and eat salmon at Ivar's salmon house. :0) My wonderful mother-in-law, Diane, whom I lovingly  refer to as Mama Casebolt, treated us to an amazing massage and manicures on Friday, and we all had the pleasure of picking out a baby stroller at Babies R Us ( shout out to Crystal for the good advice and help) It was actually really hard! Whew! 

Dang, I miss them already! I can't wait to see them all again!

Chillin' in Utah

 I've done a lot of great things so far this summer--trek, Girls Camp, sleeping in--but the one that trumps them all so far was my trip to Utah. I had such a dang good time! Not only was it fun, but I felt like I learned a lot of valuable lessons about life and marriage. This trip helped remind me what some of the most important things in life are.I'm so glad I went. Here are a few of the things I did....

I got to catch up with old friends and roomies

Strengthened friendships

Went to Christina's wedding and reception

 

and saw Justin!!!!

Justin got permission from his Mission President to have lunch with me and Paul so we met up with him and his companion in Spanish Fork at a very yummy Chinese buffet. We even had our lunch paid for!