And It Just Keeps Coming...

At least we don't have icicles ;)

I had to dig out our mailbox so our mailman would deliver to us

Yikes! Don't stand under there!

Notice the lights shining through the bottom
of the snow on the right of the path...

Too Much Snow!!

I have never seen so much snow in my life! We are (hopefully) towards the end of snow storm #2 in one weekend. #1 hit early Friday morning until early afternoon, dumping almost a foot of snow on us! All the schools were closed of course, but I still had to work - we had to take turns shoveling every hour or two to keep our sidewalks clear! When I got out of work, I was plowed into my spot with drifts as well. There was pretty much a 2 foot (high and wide) wall of snow entirely surrounding my car.... so I had to dig it out before I could leave. Then I got stuck turning onto the side streets by my house (because the plows were so backed up that they didn't get to our street yet)... and walked home to get my shovel and dig some more. I got back out onto the main street and tried to turn onto a different side street, but someone else was stuck there, so I hopped out to help him dig out his car before I could get through! What a night!! It also took Matt 20 min to get the 2 blocks to the main street because he kept getting stuck.

Saturday night storm #2 hit with temps in the teens and high winds of 20-40 mph. There was so much snow blowing all over the place when we got up that we decided it safer not to fare the roads to get to church. Matt still had to work though, so I bundled up more than I ever have before to face the -10 degree wind chill and snow blow the driveway. That was enough cold air for me for the day, I decided I wasn't leaving the house again! I think it's pretty darn safe to say that we'll be having one heck of a white Christmas! Considering we have around 18 inches of snow where there aren't drifts, and 2-3 feet in some of the drifts.

Here are a few pics of the snow and drifts:

Front yard: notice Matt's snow wall :)

Our yard has merged onto our path and front steps!

Big drift next to the garage

My poor buried dead car!

Pretty bush covered in snow out the window

There's a mountain on our deck!

Where did our chair legs go?

The sight out the breezeway window

I love the smell of Christmas trees

Oops, I haven't written on here in a long time! I guess I've been busy for once :). What have I been up to you ask? Last last weekend Matt's sister, Amy, was here visiting Calvin and stayed over Friday and Saturday nights. We went to see the movie Twilight, since I recently read all 4 of those books. It was alright... it's always fun to see characters from books come to life... but I also never like the movies as much as the books because they are so different than the pictures that I make in my head. We had a good time though. That weekend we got a lot of snow, it was so pretty to watch it slowing falling down. I also did a little bit of Christmas baking with a friend and learned some new recipes.

I have been doing tons of crocheting lately. I have been experimenting with different hat patterns and I'm happy to say, they are turning out pretty well!

Our tree has been up, lit, and decorated for a while now, but I never get sick of just sitting in the dark living room, gazing at my beautious glowing tree. Now that and our other decorations are up, and I just put a few presents under the tree - so I am feeling very Christmasy lately.

This week is going to be a very busy one for me. Tonight I have a work Christmas dinner and Tuesday night is our Christmas program. It's also very busy at work with all of our Christmas projects going on. At least it's the last full week before Christmas!

Matt has finals this week, and a few papers to write, but then he's done for the semester! He found out that next semester he will be student teaching at Grandville Middle School.

Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is coming, and snow is falling.

Life has been a little bit busy lately. Grace was here last Monday through Wednesday... which was wonderful, but not nearly long enough since I had to work each of those days still.

Wednesday night after Matt got off of work we headed to his parents in Indiana. Our Thanksgiving day was wonderful, delicious, fun, and relaxing... just as it should be :). The whole weekend was great. Friday I went shopping around town with Matt's mom, then that night his sister Amy came along with us to the outlet mall. We got found some great deals :-D.

We got a tree this weekend, hurray! I LOVE real trees! My house smells AMAZING :). So, it's up in the living room, but I still need to put lights on and decorate it. I did get the rest of my Christmas decorations up though (not that there are very many :-P).

On Sunday and Monday we got like 4-5 inches of snow. I have to say that I was much more ready for it this time. It was big fluffy wet pretty snow :). And I was at home, so I could sit and watch it out the window. It is definitely putting me even further into the Christmas mood. Not that I need any help with that. Did i mention how much I love the Christmas season? The lights, the decorations, the baking, the hot cocoa and tea and lates, the cuddling up with a blanket or book or my husband, the giving, the time with family... so many many things to be thankful for.

So... I got an early Christmas present! I got a new camera! I couldn't handle waiting until Christmas for it when I bought it this weekend already because it was on sale. Yay!! I took a few snow pictures with it even :).

Ugh... Snow....

While I was in Illinois last weekend, Grand Rapids had it's first snow sticking (but no more than an inch). This past week it rained almost everyday... and now it's been snowing this weekend! Still, it's really no more than a dusting that melts and comes back later... but I am so not ready for the snow and cold. It's just so unbearably long. Ugh, I am not cut out for living in Michigan long term. That's really all I have for now. Nothing much going on around here lately.

I'm super exhausted right now, so I'm not really planning on going into as much details as normal. I just got home after a 12-hour day at work. Every year my daycare puts on a Thanksgiving Feast for the families, and that was tonight. So that means a lot of work for us! Not to mention that it was a cold rainy day stuck inside with the kids bouncing off the walls, ugh.

Anyways, just wanted to quick fill you in on my fantabulous weekend :). It was SO GOOD to visit Grace, you have no idea. We have been missing each other so very much. I've been doing pretty well with not being lonely lately, but that doesn't mean that I don't miss my friends and family that I don't get to see a ton! And I was in so much need of just a fun, hanging out, girls kind of weekend away from my house and the laundry and cleaning and leaves and other things to be done (it's only the two of us and I feel like this already?!). We went to her sister and brohter-in-law's house to play Scene It on xbox 360. That was very different and I think lots more fun (even though I was aweful at it) than the dvd game. You each get your own controller/buzzer and everyone gets to compete to answer. Anyways... on Sunday we met Scott at an outlet mall for some lunch and shopping! I was very excited to see him as well :). Then we hungout with some of Grace's other friends and played Rockband... my first time. It was fun, but I wasn't super impressed, I'm good with just Guitar Hero. I left Monday after we went out for a delicious breakfast. It wasn't nearly enough time with her, but it will have to do.

Fun news for this coming weekend though: my friend Tyler and his wife Gwen are coming to town and probably staying with us :). Hurray for friends and visitors!

Illinois!

I've been trying to make it work for over a month to go visit my friend Grace in Illinois and take advantage of the long weekends that I usually have. It didn't work with our schedules, then I didn't have a car for a couple weeks, then I couldn't get anyone to fill in for me at church... but this weekend I am going! I am leaving in a couple hours, getting ready for a long drive (4.5 ish hours), and SUPER excited to spend some quality time with my friend that I miss so much :). More to come later...

Love and Politics...

Let's start with love: I love my church. It is going to be very hard to leave and find a new one someday. Matt's family was here on last Sunday, so we didn't go to the service so that we could spend more time with them. Today I listened to the sermon that we missed and realized how much I really did miss being there, after just one week. It was on Acts 8, and about Philip preaching in Samaria and many other places after he got kicked out of Jerusalem along with all the other Christ followers because their lives were at stake. Pastor Jeff talked about how we all end up on detours in life (an example would be my life right now: working at a daycare while I want to be teaching, but this is where God has me.... hence why this sermon hit home so much). Well, Philip was on a detour, he wasn't where he wanted to be... he ended up in Samaria and on a random middle of no where road. But in the end he helped an Ethiopian eunuch to understand the scriptures and become a Christ follower as well! He said how we don't expect to see God working in detours, but He is! And we should be looking and praying for those opportunities.... opportunities that are often put there for us to help others. Another reason that I love my church... we just studied/discussed this chapter in our small group last week (because our small group booklets go along with the series) and I didn't get that part out of it at all, but other totally different things. Sweet.

Onto politics... Like everyone else, I am so sick of seeing, hearing, and breathing the presidential election for the past I don't even know how long. So, in my naivety, I thought that this morning would start a new much more pleasant era with it all being over. I was listening to the local Christian radio station (91.3) on my way to work as usual. And I really do like this station, I like the music, I mostly like the DJs, and it is really helpful to put me in a good and Godly mood for a trying day at work when I listen to it. But not today, oh no. The first thing I hear when I turn it on is the DJ talking about how a lot of people were disappointed and that we really need to be praying for our country (both true and valid statements - but not what I wanted to hear right then). But it went to a good song, so I kept listening.

And then this ridiculous woman called in. In saying what I am going to say I realize that I am in turn judging her, however, I can't stand super judgemental Christians like this who cannot even consider another's point of view, let alone respect it. What is so hard about respecting an opinion different from your own? She says she wants to make a comment about the election. She says that she is very disappointed in the Christians in our country, particularly those who voted for Obama (who would say this on public radio?). She says that they are trying to make Obama their God and are counting on him to save us rather than Jesus Christ (maybe I'll get back to that as a good analogy for non-Christians and some Christians in voting for a president in general later). She compared it to the Israelites begging God to give them an earthly king even though God told them that they didn't need one. She says that we should not make the economy or any such earthly things the biggest issues, but instead the right to life. She went so far as to say that those so-called Christians are not trusting in God to provide for them as they should be during hard times like these - that they are putting their faith in Obama to get them out of the hard times instead. Now, that may be true for some people... but I want to ask her this: Why can't a Christian trust in God to provide for them (knowing that that is needs, not wants), yet want something more for our country in general, for all of those who may or may not be trusting in Him to do the same for them... to see beyond yourself and what you want for you, but to look at what you want for everyone, what you want for your country, how to do what Jesus calls us to do-how to take care of the orphans and widows? Whoever each Christian out there chose to vote for I would hope they were being open minded enough to consider such things, and in turn, to realize that Christians on the other side are doing the same and are still doing their best to help the Kingdom.

Back to looking at any presidential candidate or president as a savior of sorts... I think many non-Christians do do this because they are looking to be saved... in the wrong places. Dustin shared a post in Google Reader from Mark Driscoll's (the pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle) blog that describes this well.

4th Photo

My friend Marcia Bosma tagged me to find the 4th photo in the 4th folder of "My Pictures" on my computer and post it on here and tell the story behind it. Well, if anyone has ever seen what an organized freak I am, they would know that I have first, folders seperated by year, then by month, then by activity. So I am going to keep going the the 4th until I get a single picture, and this is what I came up with... The 4th "year" folder is my senior year at Calvin, and the 4th month folder is Janurary, and the 4th picture is this:

This is from my trip to Ecuador during interim 2008. This is a really old (1600s?) cathedral in the capital city of Quito that we visited. Instead of like stone goblins and stuff on top like you see on medieval cathedrals, it had turtles and other sea creatures, which I thought was cool and fitting for Ecuador. This was by far the best trip of my life. We spent several days exploring Quito, then 2 weeks almost traveling deep into the Amazon rainforest, and then a long weekend on the coast and visiting an island called, Isla de la Plata, which is nicknamed, "Poorman's Galapagos."

Now I am supposed to tag 4 other people: Jordan, Carissa, Kate, and Christina.

Halloween and stuff

I guess Mondays when I have the day off have become my time of the week to post on here. It was a very long and exhausting week... maybe even more so than I thought it would be. Oh well, it went by quickly. Parent teacher conferences went well, even with a few parents who are more touchy about things. And carpooling with our one car worked out pretty well this week too.

Friday after work I stopped by to see my babysitting kids in their costumes: Ariel from the Little Mermaid, a Power Ranger, and some Star Wars character - they were cute. I also got to see pics of Evangeline the pumpkin and Lucca the penguin :). That night Matt and I went to my friend Rachel's Halloween party after he got off work. He was the Cat in the Hat and I was a cowgirl. There were like 5 couples there including us and we played some games. It was good to get out and do something with a group of people for once. Then Saturday night Matt and I made caramel apples, yum! Here are a few pics:

Sunday Matt's fam came up for the day, and his grandparents came over for lunch. It was nice to have Matt not working and home for a whole day, and then to spend it with family as well. I miss that, both of those, a lot. That night we also went to Panera with his fam and cousins who go to Calvin. Now I really can't wait for the holidays!

This and That

Last week we had small group at our house... and let me just say that I got far too much pleasure and enjoyment out of it! I rarely get to have people over and show off my house with it's decor and pictures and splashes of color everywhere that I love and adore - so I get a little bit excited when I do... and even more so when I get lots of compliments :). After everyone left, Matt and I were like... wow EVERYONE sure commented a lot on how much they liked our house, fireplace, photographs on the wall (mostly ones I've taken... a couple by Jordan), colors, kitchen floor, and more. The other houses we've been at so far were just as nice or nicer than ours.... do we just not remember as many compliments at those ones? Or were they all expecting the least from us since we're just the poor newlyweds? :-P I don't know... and it's kinda funny because I am not usually one to get so high off of compliments, especially not if they're about myself - but apparently I do if they're about my home :). I also recently put some pics of Evangeline and Lucca in frames around the house, so now I can show them off too :).

On a different note, I have parent-teacher-conferences this week, boo. That means that I will be at work until around 8:30 both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Then small group Thursday night, stopping by my babysitting kids' to see their costumes after work Friday and then a Halloween party later when Matt gets off work, a day to relax Saturday, and Matt's fam on Sunday. I have a jam-packed week! It's nice to have a life once in a while.

At church we're going through a sermon series called The Story of the First Church, based on the book of Acts. It must be good from the start because it's from Acts, right?! Well it really is very good, but Pastor Jeff also referred to an old sermon last week, out of James, that he preached last spring. It was about choosing joy because when bad things happen, you have to choose something-some response, so you might as well choose joy. I've been thinking about that and how and where to apply that in my life. Joy isn't just about being happy, but more like, having a peaceful attitude about things, a better outlook. So my goal is to apply this to my lack of time spent with my husband. With his school and work (mostly because of work) and my work... we really get very little time together during the week or on the weekend. And now that we're in a small group, we have even less, because that was one of our free nights (but we decided it was a necessary sacrifice). So my goal is to appreciate the time that I do have with him so that that counts even more, and to do more things to encourage and uplift him because he is the one having to be gone so much. I want to appreciate all the time that I have to myself to do the things I've never had time for previously in my life: reading, scrap booking, emailing and calling and encouraging people more, cooking, baking, watching gilmore girls ;). That is my goal and my prayer... a very hard one... but I going to try and ask God to help me along the way.

An Ode to my Honda

Here is a little story for you. My Honda started smoking just a little on my way home from work the other week. I pulled over and assessed the situation and everything looked OK enough to drive the rest of the way home, and it didn't smoke any more the whole way. We took it in and found out that there are MANY oil leaks (some of which are behind the timing belt and super expensive to fix), all 4 fuel injectors are also leaking gasoline, and a few other small odds and ends. Fantastic. All in all, it costs more to fix it than that old car is worth. And since they say it is now unsafe to drive... that leaves us with one car for the moment.

Now, I have this tendency at times to worry or overreact and get overwhelmed by situations like this. I want to control them myself and have it within my power to fix them. I have a very hard time giving up control to God (or others that He is working through) to take the burden off my shoulders. I am happy to say, however, that I tried very hard to let God have control, and with His help and reminders, I haven't really freaked out at all. I won't say that I haven't been impatient or frustrated at all this past week with all the carpooling and such, but only minimally.

We had decided that we would look for a newer used car, but we would still be in a crunch to find one soon... because carpooling and Matt riding his bike some days from Calvin to work isn't going to cut it for too much longer with the weather getting colder and wetter. But then Matt's parents offered to let us borrow their second older mini-van because they don't need it anymore. What a blessing! Now we have time to really keep our eyes out and find a good deal. Especially since it is so hard to find time during the day when neither of us are working to go looking.

Alrighty... back to my dear old '89 Honda Accord and a few highlights during it's life with me...

• My parents bought it in the fall of my senior year of high school (2002... exaclty 6 years), and I have had it ever since then, minus my freshman year of college.
• On it's first trip out of town, Natasha and I drove it to visit Trinity Western College in BC, Canada. On our way home, which was the night before Thanksgiving, it started overheating and all the water we poured into the radiator emptied right back out.... it was shot. My wonderful uncle Doug picked us up from Mt.Vernon, the closest real city, until my Dad could come rescue us... and the car was recued a few days later.
• I packed way too many people and gear into that little car (which has an amazing amount of leg room and trunk space for a compact) too many times my senior year thorugh basketball, softball, and other activities (most involving blaring music with at least the sunroof open... no matter the temp).
  
• That winter, it was broken into in our church parking lot during youth group. All of my cds and my stereo were stolen. This is when I began burning cds like mad because I had to replace so many and insurance didn't cover very many.
• While I was at Calvin my freshman year, I think Dustin mostly used it.
• August 2004 my dad drove across the country with me for the first time to bring it to Grand Rapids.
  
• My car had it's first midwest winter... where I REALLY learned how to drive in the snow. how to dig my car out, how to do doughnuts, how much work it is to scrape the snow and ice off... everything important.
• In May 2005 my dad flew out to drive back to Seattle again with me... this time leaving Matt behind in the dust... so sad. But Dad and I did go through the Badlands and Yellowstone National Park on our way this time!
  
• I also took it on the ferry and drove through the Olympic National Forest to go backpacking.
• August 2005... another drive across the country.... returning to see Matt after a long summer appart :).
• Soon after I got there, Matt, Scott, Grace, and I drove to Sandusky, Ohio to go to the Cedar Point amusement park! However, soon after returning... my car began smoking and ended up needing a new engine! For about a month I had to get rides, borrow Matt's car, ride Grace's bike, and take the bus. So we got a newish used engine put in.
  
• My Honda was a trooper through the next two winters and another drive back and forth across the country (the way back to GR being with Matt this time!).
• Oh, and a month of Matt visiting and us going all over Seattle, Mt. Rainier National Forest and elsewhere.
• Summer 2007... I graduate and Mom and Dad sign the car over to me as a graduation gift.
  
• September 2007... oil leak problems costing lots of money.
• March-ish 2008... Matt's car is broken and we almost freak out because the Honda starts steaming.... but we get it checked out and it's only a hose and a quick cheap fix.
• May 2008.... minor oil leak, expensive to fix.... we put up with it.
• July 2008, we seal the sunroof closed because it leaks and pours water on the passenger seat after it rains hard (which it has the tendency to do here!)
  
• That bring us to now, October 2008.... little lasting Honda's life is finally over :(

More Fall Photos

Pumpkin Carving Fun

I Love Fall!

So, this week didn't turn out quite how I expected it to. I ended up not having a super long weekend last weekend, because someone was sick Monday and I had to come in to work anyways. But then I got this past Friday off instead, so now this weekend is the long one, lol. Anyways, that kinda threw me into the work week unexpectedly and really tired me out! We went on a field trip to a farm/pumpkin patch on Wednesday, so that was fun. It went pretty well (although, we did have almost as many parents as children :-P). I really can't remember much at all from my week at the moment.

Oh, last week Sunday, Matt and I went on a nice fall (despite the 80 degree temps!) walk through the nature preserve at Calvin. But then I got 5-10 mosquito bites, one of which swelled up to the point that it looked like I had a huge tumor on my arm or something (not very comfortable either). I loaded up on antihistamines and benadryl cream, and that did the trick... within a couple days.

This one is actually at a park on a river near our church.

This one too.

Now to Calvin

I like the variety of colors in this tree.

I've noticed a lot of these colorful vines on
tree trunks lately, they look really cool :)

I filled up 5 yard waste bags with leaves (and that was after stomping them down to fit) on Friday. Boo, and there are still just as many on the tree waiting to fall off yet. Plus 2 piles that I didn't fit in the bags. Fall's beauty is in full swing though! Here are a few pics from last week. And I'm hoping to take my camera to the trail by our house sometime soon as well, I ran along it Friday and it was even more amazing. I am going to miss midwest falltime, that is for sure.

My long weekend hasn't been very exciting: laundry, cleaning, raking leaves, errands (for some reason the mall was already as crazy as it is at Christmas time! Yuck!), work stuff, and babysitting. I bought a few cute fall decorations :). It was killing me not to have any, and they were 50% off at Hobby Lobby, I LOVE that store!

Matt and I are going to carve pumpkins tonight... I'll post some pics later :). Did I mention how much I like fall?

Here are 2 videos that I took of Evangeline on my phone when I was there last month. This is her best trick these days (unless there's something new that I haven't been informed of yet). If you put your finger up and down on her mouth, she automatically starts "talking" so she can hear the funny noises she makes! I love her!!



To be fair, here is an adorable new picture of Lucca... I think this may be my favorite so far... so precious! And I see more of Dustin in her when her eyes are opened big like that.

Long weekend

This past week has been pretty uneventful. Our theme in preschool this week was Fire Safety - so that was rather amusing... teaching kids to Stop, Drop, and Roll, among other things. Oh, we did get a visit from the fire department! That was um, interesting.... let's just say, there was a chain reaction of kids bursting into tears when the fireman was puting his gear on, and then put his oxygen mask and tank on. It's kinda cool to teach such young kids these concepts and to see several of them actually learning and remembering them. But really, in the end... it's mostly pointless. Because what is a 3 year old going to do if 1.they are on fire, 2.their house is on fire, or 3.there is a lot of smoke? Cry. Plain and simple, cry, scream, and then either freeze or run around looking for mom or dad. Oh well, I guess it's still worth it if it made an impression on the few older kids.

I have an unexpectedly long weekend. My usual day off is now Mondays, but this week it got switched to Friday (yay). But then that means next week is back to normal with Monday off.... thus the freakishly long weekend. I know, I know, I shouldn't complain. But it's so much harder to have the energy and patience to get through the week at work when it's 4 long days in a row, and nothing to break that up. And then to have a 4-day weekend, and be thrown back into another long work week - brutal. I was going to try to visit Grace in Illinois with all this time on my hands, but I have a bridal shower to go to on Saturday and I would have to find a replacement at church on Sunday, so that ended up not working (hopefully I can go in a couple of weeks though). So instead, I have a ginormous list of things I've been wanting to get done around the house to chip away at, some planning for work, and some good old relaxing and reading to catch up on :). (But I still have lots of open time for phone dates if anyone is interested)

We had small group again last night. I love it! It was at another couple's house last night with their adorable 12 month old, Cohen (yes, that's right, like Seth from the OC, ha ha). We are studying acts and the story of the first church. We were talking about how Peter and John were so bold after Jesus' death to talk about Him and perform miracles in His name. And how in everything, they made sure that everyone knew it was in the name of Jesus, and that they didn't receive one ounce of credit. So we got to talking about our reasons for doing things, and even in things that we do for God, because we feel Him pulling at us to do so... what is our true motivation? And what if part of our motivation is selfish, or more about us than glorifying God and serving in His name? Does that mean we shouldn't do them? I don't think so. Yes, I think you should work on changing your motivations and doing things for God and letting people know that it is God doing the work, not you. But I still think that God will use you if you have the wrong motivations.

BABIES!

I FINALLY got to go visit my fam and meet baby Lucca! Although I already am dying to return and missing them greatly. It was a fantastic weekend. I got into Seattle at 10:30 Friday morning. Within a couple hours, Allyson came over with Evangeline :). She is so big! She babbels on and on, smiles all the times, laughs sometimes, tries to put everything in her mouth (and i mean everything... her mouth is constantly open wide and her hands are contantly reaching for something to put in it!), rolls over and over and over, and is just so darn cute. She is actually 5 months old today.

Around 5 I got to go over and meet Lucca and hangout with Jenae for a little bit. Lucca is so small, but so beautiful and precious. She has the sweetest little face. Oh, and she little to cuddle and snuggle and lay on your chest - that's the best. She's already smiling a lot and is very allert and curious when she is actually awake :-P. I crocheted her a little hat called a "teeny beany" hee hee, and it looked adorable on her. That night Tash came over and we just talked and got caught up a bit (she's moving into an appartment, yay Tash!).

Saturday was a very full day. In the late morning, I went with Jordan, Allyson, Evangeline, and Carissa to the EMP (Experience Music Project) in Seattle, which is attached to the Science Fiction Museum... which I had no idea was there. The EMP was cool, but we were glad that we had free passes and didn't pay the $25 or whatever it is for admission. The best part is the instruments and stuff you can play, but it was so busy that we didn't end up doing very much of that. We also wondered around the SFM and saw replicas and props and what-not from ET, Star Wars, Star Trek, and loads of other movies and books.

When we got back, Dustin and Jenae brought Lucca over and let me babysit while they went out for a couple of hours... yay! I loved my auntie babysitting time, and getting Lucca all to myself :). I also took plenty of pictures while I was at it, of course. She is so much fun! She makes all kinds of noises, no matter if she's awake or sleeping, and is hilarious to watch wake up (which may take several minutes). That night the whole fam came over to Mom and Dad's (except for Matt who wasn't there...) and celebrated Dustin's birthday. So... more babies! Plus a few games and dessert :).

Sunday we all went out on Mom and Dad's new boat on Lake Union. And we had perfect weather... actually all weekend it was blue skies, sunny, and low 70s. So of course, Seattle looked amazing on the water. Sunday night I got to visit my friend Teresa, who is pregnant and due in less than a month! I can't wait to meet her baby girl sometime this winter :).

A few pics from the weekend:

Cute Cousins

Evangeline kept trying to get Lucca

I love you Lucca!

Such a sweet little face

There's that open mouth...

This may be one of the only with her mouth closed :-P

On the boat!

Allyson and I on the boat

Giant life vest

I just had to show this one off :-D

for more pics... go here for general weekend photos
go here for more lucca
go here for more evangeline