Birthday Blessings

Today I had a wonderful birthday!
Jason woke up with Claire and took care of her in the morning allowing me to take a long, relaxing shower. He also made me breakfast burritoes, which are my favorite!
Tonight he and I went out on the town! We walked around downtown Bellevue and ate at the Purple Cafe. It's always fun to get dressed up and go out to eat at a nice place. It makes me feel so grown up!

But the purpose of this post was to list some of the many many birthday gifts I received today. And everyday, from my loving Heavenly Father. As I went to bed last night, I thought about how blessed I am and how today would be a great day, even if nothing special happened. It was a great day because these were some of the gifts that blessed me today:

1.  a wonderful, loving husband
2.  a beautiful, healthy baby girl
3.  a loving family who supports me in everything I do
4.  wonderful in-laws who also love and support me
5.  a cozy little apartment that has treated us so well
6. a beautiful place to live! It's so gorgeous here!
7. a very comfy car that gets me around easily
8. MY HEALTH!! welcome back!
9. the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge it gives me of who I am and my purpose here on earth
10. wonderful, loving friends
11. ability to stay at home with my daughter
12. my husband's good job
13. wonderful visiting teaching companion and visiting teachees
14. financial stability
15. education and knowledge
16. technology that allows me to talk with and see family who live thousands of miles away
17. leisure time that I can use to make and create things
18. appliances that do the cleaning for me!
19. a soft comfy bed to take lazy afternoon naps on
20. happiness in my heart and soul!!

These are just a few of the many blessings I have in my life everyday. Today, I will call them my birthday blessings from Heavenly Father. :)

A short Hiatus

So I had grandiose plans of documenting our whole road trip ( which lasted approx. 7 weeks!) with pictures of places we went and the people we visted. Then... Blogger told me I had run out of free space. Hmp! It kinda dampened everything so I haven't bothered posting at all. I should have at least written about it but who just wants to read posts without pictures?!?
So I am taking a little hiatus from this blog--just a short one--until I can figure out what to do about getting more hosting space. For free. For some reason it just feels wrong to pay for space on the intertubes.

Road Trip Documentary

We're leaving on our Road trip tomorrow! I'm so excited! I'm taking a little break in between packing, cleaning and doing some laundry right now to post this entry. I intend on documenting our trip with as many pictures and posts as possible. This is what our tentative scheduled trip looks like right now:

 Woohoo!! Can't wait to start! I hope Claire likes hanging out in her carseat because we have about 130 hours of driving time ahead of us!

My Favorite Little Elephant

 Ok, so this is my Halloween post. Yes, I know it was almost a week ago. I'm lame. Oh well. Anyways, on Halloween I took Claire to visit Jason at Microsoft and we did a little trick or treating there. She got pretty good at picking up a candy and putting it in her little black caldron.

 

 Later on, I took her trick or treating through the neighborhood with a friend and her 7 year old daughter. I think I would have felt a little awkward if it was just me and Claire, asking for candy, but since there was another kid, I didn't! Jason and I are still enjoying the "benefits" of Halloween--eating all of Claire's candy!!

Besides wanting to get candy, I really was excited to dress her up ad expose her to the fun tradition of trick or treating. I know it doesn't mean much to her now, but it made for some great pictures!

By the way, thanks to a little lollipop that she got a hold of, she got the proper motivation to help her start walking! I guess good things do come from a little sugar. :)

 

Here's a video to prove it!

 

Wicked!

Last week I got to see the musical Wicked at the Paramount theater in downtown Seattle. I went with some great friends and we had a great time! The music was amazing, the dialogue hilarious. The combination of incredible singing, superb acting and a very colorful set made for an enthralling show. I got sucked into it! I have to admit that Galinda, or Glinda ( with the GUH being silent) was my favorite character. I laughed over and over again at her hilarious lines and acting.

Jason was a sport and agreed to watch Claire while I abandoned him on his birthday. But apparently they had a great time. When I got home I saw the remains of their large blanket fort they had made and played in. :)

Thanks, Lauren, for getting the tickets! Thanks, Brittany, for being a super navigator! And thanks, Cheryl, for putting up with my silly comments during the show. ( "I hope their breath smells ok, they are singing right into each others mouths!") You girls are the best!

Microsoft Surface!

 Today the Microsoft Surface (with Windows RT) debuted! Jason has been waiting for this day for a long long time. And I'm not talking a few weeks. He said he's been waiting for this moment to buy a really good tablet for years.
So we took Claire to the mall at 8:30 this morning to wait outside the Microsoft store. After waiting in line for 4 and a half  hours Jason finally walked out with a Surface, giddy as a school boy at Christmas!

Was it worth it? Oh yeah! There is something exciting about waiting for something new. I'm sure I could have better spent my time doing something more productive, but we had fun! They event people kept handing out free stuff like M&Ms, gum and other little fun doodads, and Claire loved pushing the stroller around. And Jason has his new toy. Happy Birthday, my love!

 

Emma and Brett's Wedding

 

On Saturday Jason and I (along with Claire) attended his co-worker, Emma's, wedding. We attended their beautiful ceremony and then got to party at the reception afterwards. They had it in the boathouse at Golden Gardens park and it couldn't have been more picturesque. Gold and orange trees on a backdrop of mountains and ocean. It was a super fun evening!

Thanks, Emma, for inviting us!



Getting ready for the evening

 Fernanda got to play with Claire!

 







Emma and Brett! They are so awesome!

Hanging with Daddy!

I love Fernanda!

Claire especially loved dancing with her Daddy.