Best of 2008

January.

Went to Ocean Shores.

Kevin & Mandi came home to visit.

Attended our racing banquet with Travis & Rachel.

Went to Jay's basketball games.

February.

Celebrated Steven's birthday.

Celebrated Valentine's Day.

Watched the Daytona 500.

Went to Phoenix/Tucson with Susi, Cindy and Chelsea.

March.

Attended a field trip with Campbell's class.

Had a girls weekend in Bellevue with Shae, Becca, Rachel, Amy and Blair.

Helped Lynsie get ready for baby Zach.

Helped host Shae's baby shower.

The first tour race got snowed out.

April.

Jenn came to visit from NC.

I went to the Rascal Flatts/Taylor Swift concert with Christy.

Went to the Apple Cup, Trav finished 3rd.

We had record breaking snow on April 18th.

Found out Justin & Becca were having a girl.

Visited the Tulip fields in Mt. Vernon.

Celebrated Cooper's 2nd Birthday.

May.

Hosted a baby shower for Lynsie.

Cadence Rae Harding was born on May 7th.

Took Campbell to a race in Yakima on Memorial Weekend.

My Sister Ashley & I drove to Phoenix and stopped in LA for a few days.

June.

Went to the road course race, Travis finished 3rd.

Had Campbell's 5th birthday party.

Went to Campbell's last day of school picnic.

Went to Vernon, BC. for a race with the Harding's.

Zachary Daniel Riehl was born on June 18th.

Went to Sonoma and had all access passes for the Cup race.

July.

Went to LA with Shelby for Jeff's race and also a girls weekend.

Went to Roseburg, OR. for Jeff's race, he finished 5th.

Took a road trip with Ashley to Montana for our birthday weekend and the Montana 200.

Received 2 Kitchen aid mixers for my birthday!

Shelby asked me to be a bridesmaid in their wedding.

Jeff won the West race at Evergreen.

August.

Went to the Idaho 200 with the Saul's.

Watched Rowdy win race after race.

Spent time in Ellensburg, Landon broke his leg :(

Found out that I was going to be an Auntie.

Took the kids to the Evergreen State Fair.

September.

Spent Labor day in Ellensburg at the Rodeo and in Yakima at the races.

Campbell started Kindergarten.

Skylee Ray Seth was born on September 8th.

Made Shelby's wedding invitations.

Celebrated Shelby's birthday.

Took the kids to the Seattle Aquarium and Pike's Place.

October.

Watched the Presidential debates.

Took my brother to the Fall Classic. Trav finished 3rd, Jay 4th.

Made invitations.

My Sister had her first Ultrasound.

Helped host Shelby's Bridal shower.

Took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch.

Celebrated Dailey's 2nd Birthday.

Hosted Becky's baby shower.

Went to Vegas for Halloween and for a race.

November.

I voted.

Celebrated Cadence's 6 month birthday.

Had Shelby's Bachelorette party.

Miss Grace turned 1.

Went to Portland to visit Lynsie and Zach.

Read the book, The Last Lecture.

Found out my Sister was having a girl!

Watched Jeff & Shelby tie the knot.

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving and went shopping on Black Friday.

December.

Went to Oakland with the McKean's and stayed with the Pettit's.

Did Christmas activities.

Bought a new car.

Had a wonderful Christmas.

Went to the Tulalip Casino to celebrate Justin's Birthday.

Merry Christmas...to me!

Christmas came early for me this year when my friends Justin & Becca got a new car. This meant that their Yukon was for sale and I snagged it right up :) I was wanting a new car earlier this year but hadn't thought about it for awhile. Don't get me wrong, I have loved my Jetta for the past 5 1/2 years, but it was just time to move on. I was so excited to go pick it up and when there was a break in the weather, my Dad took me over to get it.

After I got the car, Becca and the girls and I went to lunch. They are getting so big, so fast and they are both such sweet and adorable little girls. Dailey is such a little ham and just loves to pose for the camera and then she wants to see the picture right away :)



I got my new car right in time for all this nasty weather we have had. I would have been stuck at home for the past week if I had to depend on my Jetta :) Thankfully the weather is starting to clear up today but the roads have been terrible with the compound snow and ice.

Christmas.

Here is some of my Christmas in pictures. We have had snow around for the past few weeks and it just keeps on falling. The kids enjoy it, but I think even they are tired of it :)

I got up Christmas morning to watch Campbell and Cooper open their gifts from Santa and everyone. Campbell got an Ipod loaded with her favorite music and pretty much every barbie they sell :) Cooper got a new bike but all he wanted to play with were his new dump trucks. It was fun to watch the excitement on their faces. There is nothing like being a kid on Christmas morning.

After they were done opening presents, my brother and I went to my parents to do our family Christmas. My Dad cooked breakfast for all of us and then we exchanged gifts. I had gotten my brother a Nintendo DS, so once he got that, we didn't hear from him anymore :) Unfortunately, our family Christmas dinner got cancelled due to the snow. My Grandparents and Uncle & Aunt got stuck at their houses in North Bend and so did my Aunt and Uncle in Arlington. So our family met up with my Grandpa at a family friend's Chinese restaurant in Woodinville. I couldn't believe how packed it was. We had a fun dinner and then I headed back home. Campbell stayed the night with me and we got up early this morning to go shopping. We went up to the outlet mall in Tulalip and got Campbell a new wardrobe :) She is so fun to buy clothes for and with all the good deals, it's hard not to. She got to the point where she was saying "I have enough clothes already!" Oh well, I like to go overboard and so does her Grandma :)

Overall I have had a wonderful Christmas season. I had a great time at Jeff & Shelby's Christmas party last week, celebrating the season and also with my own family this week. I hope all of you have done the same!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
I have had a wonderful time with my family and friends and will continue to do so. I thought I would share my Christmas card for the year :)

Snowed in!

I love the snow, I really do. But it comes to a point when it is just too much! We had a few inches from when it snowed on the weekend and it was all frozen to the ground. Yesterday afternoon around 4:00 it started snowing and didn't stop until around 9 last night. We had several inches and I thought that's all we would get. Boy was I surprised when I looked outside this morning to see this:

Yea that's my Jetta underneath there! I couldn't believe it. It snowed like crazy all morning and when it finally stopped, we measured nearly 15 inches! Really incredible. We always get a ton of snow thanks to that "convergence zone". I love the snow, and it's pretty to look at, but it's a bummer to not be able to drive. It's not supposed to snow again until Sunday, but our next problem is the freezing temperatures that will turn everything to ice! They are talking 50-70 mph winds also for Saturday into Sunday, so I think I will try to get my shopping done early on Saturday and make sure to get home and stay warm! I really can't complain though, I love the snow and I'm hoping for a white Christmas :)

{This was from Tuesday, before the big snow}

Favorite Holiday Recipes.

Of course one of the funnest parts of the Holiday season is the baking. I love to cook anyway and it's always fun to have a few marathon days during the winter to make a bunch of treats for my family and friends. Here are some of my favorite recipes, not in order.

1. Peanut Butter Cornflakes
2. Paula Deen's Sugar Cookies
3. Hershey Kiss Thumbprints
4. Butterscotch Haystacks
5. Raspberry Jam Thumbprints

6. Reindeer Chow

Christmas Movies.

Another thing I love about this time of the year, is watching Christmas movies. Here are some of my favorites:

{1. Miracle on 34th Street}

{2. Home Alone & Home Alone 2}

{3.The Santa Clause & Santa Clause 2}

{4. The Polar Express}

Favorite Christmas Songs.

{courtesy Martha Stewart}

Since Christmas is my favorite holiday and favorite time of the year, I decided that this week would be all about my favorite things that have to do with Christmas.

Today's list will be my favorite Christmas songs:

1. White Christmas, Rascal Flatts
2. Baby it's cold outside, Dean Martin
3. O holy night, Martina McBride
4. Believe, Josh Groban
5. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Frank Sinatra

It is hard to pick and I truly do love just about every Christmas song I hear, so ask me again and my list might change, but right now these are at the top of my play list :)

O' Christmas Tree!

Not the best picture as it was taken from my phone, but you get the idea :) I am so happy that my tree is up and decorated and I can look at it whenever I want. Christmas feels alive in our house now :)

Weekend.

Friday afternoon, Lizzie and I picked Campbell up from school and I surprised them by taking them to see the movie Bolt. I took Cooper also and he loved it. The movie was in 3 D so we all had to wear the glasses and it felt so real. Technology is amazing. Cooper wanted no part of the glasses but he was so good and sat on my lap the entire time. After the movie I took the kids to dinner at Red Robin, per Cami's request and then we headed home to put the tree up.

Saturday morning I cooked breakfast and then got everyone ready to go. We stopped at Costco to get the girls the Hannah Montana Holiday doll. She sings "rockin around the Christmas tree" and I think I heard it about 546,678 times! From there we went to my brothers first basketball game of the season. I took Cami & Coop to the games last year and they loved them. After the game we went to my parents so the kids could go on the trampoline and then we headed to The Country Village for Santa's arrival and the tree lighting.

It was so cold but the kids were excited to be there. Santa came gliding in over the pond in his sleigh and everyone was excited to see him. Cooper just kept saying "ho ho" :) We waited in line for a long time for the kids to get candy from Santa and then we had to wait in line again to get our picture with him. The kids played at the little park there for awhile and then we had to leave because it was dark and freezing! We got home and the girls and I made cookies and watched Home Alone and Cooper was passed out!




I had such a great time with all the kids!

Christmas Craft.

I love making crafts, and I needed to replace the pumpkin on my desk so I decided (with the help of Lizzie) to make these little Santa candy dishes. They are just paper mache` cylinders that we painted red and added some buttons to. Lizzie's was smaller, so the Santa belt fit around hers :) They turned out so cute and all the guys will be excited to grab some treats when they stop by the office!

Surprise delivery.

I arrived home the other day, to see this sitting on my porch. A lovely Crate & Barrel box. I thought to myself, hmm, I didn't order anything from there. I opened it up and first found a sweet card and realized the package was from Scott & Kristin.

This is what they sent me:

Through my friend Jenn, I arranged for them to get garage passes when they went to the races in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Kristin saw that I wanted the cake pedestal on my blog, so she had it sent to me. Thank you so much!
I love it and was so excited when I opened it.

Four Christmases.

I was so excited for this movie to come out! My crush, Vince Vaughn, was the starring actor & Reese Witherspoon starring actress and they are my favorites, so what could go wrong?

Well, it was funny at times, yes. But overall, I was disappointed. They didn't seem to have that great of a connection on screen. It wasn't very believable to me that they were a couple. There were parts that were funny, but then they went overboard. I guess it served the purpose, gave me a few laughs and kept me entertained for a while, but I won't be rushing to Target when the DVD comes out.

Black Friday.

The day after Thanksgiving is a day I look forward to all year long. I don't start any of my Christmas shopping until that day because it just feels like that day kicks off the Christmas season.

Every year our family has Thanksgiving at our cabin in Wenatchee so that's where we shop. We are about 30 minutes east of Wenatchee though, so that means getting up even earlier. On Thanksgiving, after all of my dishes were cooked, I sat down and looked through all the ads and made a list of all the stores I wanted to go to, along with the time they open in order. Lacey was over at our house and she saw that JCPenney was giving away a free Disney snow globe and she talked about it all night so I was going to make sure we got our snow globes! They opened at 4:00 am so I was up at 3:00 trying to wake everyone up..that was fun :) Lacey took her own car and I had my brother and his friend and then my cousins friend. 3 boys with me, that thought they were all excited to go, until we got to the stores! They mostly slept in the truck all morning and were bored out of their minds. Funny thing is, they all begged to come with me and I explained to them that I'm not just going to run them home if they get bored, and that I shop for several hours :) One of the kids Brandon said something like, I don't know why I thought I would like this? haha.

My Aunt Cheryl and my sister Chelsea and cousins all came around 5:00 and then my sister Ashley and her boyfriend Wess came around 6:00. We had fun going from store to store and getting all the good deals. My brother some how talked me into getting him a Nintendo DS so once he got that, he wanted to go home. I am a sucker for sure, but I made it very clear that he won't be getting it until Christmas morning!

By the time it was all said and done, Lacey, Chelsea and I were the only ones left and we didn't get home until 5:00pm. That's right, 12 hours of shopping! I was so tired by the time we got home. I said hello to my Grandma & Grandpa Chouinard that had came over and then I went straight to bed and slept for 14 hours! I don't think I have ever slept that long in my life, but it sure felt nice. Another black Friday in the books and even a snow globe to remember it by :)

Friends.

Last Wednesday night I drove over the mountains to Yakima to see some dear friends. Sam & Heather were in town from North Carolina and although I already saw them at the wedding, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see them again. I also got to see Karen & Rick, whom I never get to see since we live 3 hours apart. I talk to Karen nearly every day in some form, but it was so fun to hang out with her and I think we need to do it more often!

I love the holidays for many reasons and seeing friends is definitely one of them. Sam and Heather are great people and I admire them so much for leaving everything they have ever known to move across the country to North Carolina and chase their dreams. Sam is a successful member of the #2 Kevin Harvick Inc. truck team and it is so neat to see him on TV living his dream. He is about the most humble person you could ever meet and doesn't take his job for granted. Heather is a wonderful mom to their kids Blake and Emily and is always coming up with creative things to do with them and trips to take them on. Heather definitely takes advantage of the surrounding areas that they live in and it is so fun to read about their adventures on their blog.

I can't wait to see them again, and hopefully this time I will take a trip out their way :)

Little turkey.

This is how Campbell looked when I picked her up from school on Wednesday. She was so cute and excited for Thanksgiving and more importantly, having 4 days of no school!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I look forward to this day every year. I love watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade while the kitchen is busy with cooking and everyone is searching through the ads looking at what they will buy the next morning. The excitement that we will get up around 3 am to go shopping tomorrow morning. The afternoon football games
(which includes the Hawks this year) and the Christmas music in the house. I just love it all.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Wedding.

Jeff & Shelby's wedding was last Saturday and oh what fun we had. It was held at The Tracy Castle in Buckley. A neat little side note is that country singer Blaine Larsen who is from Buckley, was married there about 3 years ago.

Us girls spent a lot of time hanging out in the bridal suite, listening to music, getting our hair and makeup done and just laughing. It was a fun way to spend the day. The guys met up for breakfast and then also came to the Castle for pictures.

Shelby looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress. She has spent the past few months getting it altered just right and she loved it. She was just glowing :) When they saw each other for the first time, it was pretty emotional. He requested that Shelby meet him at the bottom of the stairs so that he could watch her come down them. So sweet.

The ceremony was performed by Pastor Bob, a chaplain for the racing community which was very fitting. Bob has married several from the racing community and he always does a wonderful job. Thanks to his wife Kathy, I have pictures from the whole day without having to take them myself :)

I think everyone enjoyed themselves at the reception, especially the bride and groom. While dancing with Jeff I asked him if he was having fun..he took a breath and with tears in his eyes, said "this is the best day of my life." So, so sweet. It was a pretty emotional day! Here are some pictures from their big day.

Jeff & Shelby Barkshire
11.22.08

Well.

My Sister Ashley had her ultrasound yesterday, and after many measurements and lots of waiting, we found out we will be having a little princess :) She already weighs about 11 ounces and the Dr. said she has long bones. Ashley is about 19 weeks along at this point. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. April can't come soon enough for this proud Auntie :)

Giveaway Winners.

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment on my 200th post! I chose the winners by going to this site.

Becca
Kristin
Karen
Danyelle

Your little somethings will be in the mail soon :)

200.

Wow. That's a lot of posts! I love the blogging world. Every day, I look forward to posting and reading other's too. So in honor of that, I am having my first giveaway today! Post a comment on this post and I will randomly select 4 people to send some of my favorite things.

Happy giveaway :)

Crate&Barrel.

I want this:

And these are pretty cute too:

And check back tomorrow morning for a special 200th post :)

The Last Lecture.

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” — Randy Pausch

I first learned of Randy Pausch when he appeared on Oprah several months ago. His story quickly inspired me and I was hooked. He was a father of 3 young children who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. Randy was also a professor at Carnegie Mellon and was asked to give a speech as if it were his last. Since he had just found out that he didn't have much longer to live, he focused the book around chasing your dreams. He included many short stories from his life to give everyone, most importantly his children, an idea of what kind of person he was. After reading the book, it's pretty clear what an extraordinary person Randy was. Unfortunately he passed away in July, but his legacy will live on forever.

The video of his lecture has spread all across the country inspiring all who see it. His book was the kind of book that I read in 3 days because I could not put it down. Rachel was reading it with me on the plane to Vegas, and now I have passed the book on to her. I would highly recommend reading this book. It will open your eyes to how simple life can really be when you don't worry about the little things.

The Zac Brown Band.

These are the guys that make up The Zac Brown Band. When we went to their concert in Vegas a few weeks ago, they announced their new CD would be out on November 18th, so Rachel and I have been counting down the days and it's finally here! Most popular for their song "Chicken Fried", this band is gaining popularity quickly.

I love concerts as it is. Something about live music is very inspiring to me. Hearing these guys perform songs that I had never heard before, really got my attention and made me appreciate their talents even more. They just work well together and their songs have great meaning. I actually downloaded the CD last night since I pre ordered it and I have been listening to it all morning :) Go take a listen for yourself!