Now and then..

Every once in awhile, I stumble across something that stops me in my tracks. Something that hits a place so deep in my soul and completely moves me. It may be a lyric in a song or a quote, maybe a scene in a movie or a chapter in a book. It usually happens when I am least expecting it and it happened today while I was snooping around through some blogs. I am a deep thinker and I love reading the words of other passionate thinkers. The blogging world has become an obsession of mine for that reason. It is part of my daily life now, and I am always looking for new blogs that inspire me. I love to see peoples creativeness or just read about their day to day lives. That may seem weird to some seeing as I don't know all of the people that I like to check in with each day, but I love it.

Today I found a blog from a link on another blog and I decided to check it out. It is the blog of Sheye Rosemeyer, a woman from Australia who is not only a wonderful mother, but maybe the best photographer I've ever seen. She has an eye for capturing a moment that not many have. She is the mother to 4 beautiful children, although tragically, last year she lost her 3 year old daughter Ava, in a terribly heartbreaking accident. I started reading the post from today and it was apparent there was something I was missing, so I went back to 2006 and started reading forward. I started this at work, but quickly figured out it was something I would have to read at home as tears were streaming down my face. From what I had read, I could tell something terrible had happened and it's all I could think about all day. I couldn't wait to get home tonight to read through it all.

All I can do is keep sharing what I have learnt..to remind every person out there who does have all their children to just be so, so thankful, to let go of the small stuff and to trust me when I say you have absolutely everything you need.- Sheye

I've spent hours reading through every single post. I've cried, laughed, smiled and cried some more. To see and read about the love that this family has for this little girl who is about the most darling thing you've ever seen, it just breaks my heart and leaves a lump in my throat. It's amazing to me that people I have never met that live half way across the world from me, have had such an impact on me, but I feel that I am forever changed by this. I've always said that I love a dose of reality to keep me in check. I love things that make me think, make me appreciate life and how good it really is. This is one of those things.

I hope I never have to know the pain that this family feels and the daily heartache they endure and I wish they didnt have to know it either, it is simply not fair. I admire their strength and courage and I love how they remember Ava daily and include her still because although she may not be here now, she was here then.

I've always had a special love in my heart for kids as long as I can remember. I am a strong believer that the single most important thing you do in life, is raise your children. I dream about the days where I will have some angels of my own. But until then, I am forever grateful for all the little ones in my life. They have all impacted me and my life more than they will ever know or could ever imagine.

I strongly encourage you to check out her blog, you will forever be changed.

Ava's memorial site.

Shae's Baby Shower

Shae's shower was on Saturday afternoon and it couldn't have went any better! Amy, Stephanie and I have been planning it for the past few months so it was great to see it all come together.

We had a great turn out and Shae got so many nice things. This was just her 1st of 3 showers, and by the time she is done she is going to have enough stuff for a couple babies :)



Each of us had our things to do and mine included the necklaces for the "can't say baby game", some decorations, balloons, mini pies, taco salad and favors.
Shae doesn't like cake and her favorite dessert is Raspberry pie, so that was definitely a must. Friday night I was busy making these little creations and I was so happy with how they turned out. I made 18 Raspberry and 18 Apple pies and I did the weaved crust technique on all of them. They turned out so cute and they were good too. To make them even cuter, I packaged them in little boxes designed by Dandee. They were loved by everyone and most people thought they had been catered :) The stickers on top of the boxes says "A little cutie pie is on the way".





For the favors I made these:


Little diapers with a box of sugar babies inside and a tag showing off the baby's name and expected due date.


I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I was too busy just enjoying everything. Becca and Rachel came over and they brought Dailey so I was excited to see her. She is just too cute!



And here is the mother to be..




And now we await the arrival of Baby Cadence. She is due May 2nd and she is going to be one loved little girl :)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

For each petal on the shamrock
This brings a wish your way -
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day.

Pink & Brown

I just love this color combination together. It is so happy and cute, and Im so glad these are the colors of Shae's shower.

I can't believe it's already on Saturday. I think it's going to turn out great! I know she is going to get tons of stuff for Baby Cadence and I cant wait to see everything all decorated and set up. There will definitely be pictures to follow.

Rain, Rain, go away...

Doesnt this look nice and relaxing? With all the rain today I thought I would post something that cheered me up a bit.
I cant wait until those warm spring days :)

Today was a good day for me. After work I went and got the last of my supplies for the stuff I need to do for Shae's baby shower this weekend. Tomorrow after work, I should be able to wrap every thing up and be ready to go. I can't believe it's almost here!

While I was out, I also got some super cute pillows that are blue with brown polka dots, the perfect finish to my bedding.

Well, off to bed I go..

What a weekend!

I started out my weekend on Friday night, meeting Shelby at The Ram in Puyallup to have some dinner and watch the truck race and I'm so glad we did. We got to watch Rowdy kick some serious butt..again :) It is so good to see him doing so good. His raw talent, personality and passion for racing, is what makes me a race fan.

We had a good dinner and then went to Coldstone afterwards and then I headed home.

Saturday morning I got up early and drove down to Portland to Brandon & Lynsie's. Lynsie's parents had came down from Olympia and the girls were going to paint the nursery while the guys built the garage outside.

I've only painted once and it was when I was 13 and I didnt do a very good job. I decided to paint my room while my parents were away for the weekend. My grandma took me to get the paint and I did such a terrible job, I just wanted it done and it looked like crap!

Lynsie's mom is a great painter. She is always watching HGTV so she sees a lot of neat ideas. She saw an idea to paint the walls to make them look like denim jeans. First we had to apply a softer blue paint and then we had to put a dark blue gloss over that and then use a brush and a special roller to get the denim effect.

We started out with a khaki color on the top half of the wall and the light blue on the bottom half. Lynsie did the top of the wall, her mom did the edging and I did the in between. We had a great time, listened to music and laughed.






Saturday night we all went to dinner at a Chinese place up in Sandy and then we rented the movie "Heartbreak kid" with Ben Stiller, it was a really funny movie.

Sunday morning Brandon and Lynsie went and got us all lattes and then Brandon made us waffles. Lynsie's mom read just about every boy name in the baby book but Brandon wasn't having it. Hopefully they can pick out a name for the little guy soon :)

After breakfast, we started with the dark blue gloss over the light blue and then Sue ran the brush down the wall and back and then up and down, then I rolled the special roller over that so it made the distressed look. The pictures just dont do it any justice. It turned out so cool and it really wasnt hard at all. We had that done in just a couple of hours, plenty of time for me to watch Rowdy win the Cup race too :)





Here is the finished product:




It's not quite done, as Lynsie is still going to get some white trim to go in between the khaki and denim, which will make it look even better. And with a black crib in there, it's going to be so cute! I can't wait to see the finished product.

With Kyle doing so well this weekend and getting to do baby stuff, I couldnt have asked for a better weekend!

oh baby!

For the past few weeks, I have been looking at nothing but baby stuff. I am helping throw a shower for my friend Shae next weekend and I just love looking at other people's ideas for shower's and gifts. A baby is so exciting and I am so lucky to have a few friends around me that are pregnant.

This weekend I will be heading down to Portland to help my friend Lynsie and her mom paint her baby nursery. Im so excited, I love helping out in projects like this.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Try this..

I love going to The Cheesecake Factory, and I always get the same thing. Chicken cacciatore, with asparagus and baby red mashed potatoes. I decided to look online for the recipe and I found one that seemed to be pretty acurate so I tried it last night. I paired it with chicken that I marinated in raspberry vinigrette dressing and also some asparagus and I couldnt be happier with how it turned out. If your looking for a great mashed potatoes recipe, look no further.

"Cheesecake Factory mashed potatoes"

Ingredients

4 cups red potatoes
2 tablespoons horseradish
1/2 cup butter , softened
1 teaspoon salt , and to taste
1 cup gouda cheese , shredded

- Cut away blemishes in potato skins, and cube.
- Boil potatoes until very soft and drain off water.
- Add butter and salt, and whip with a rotary beater until butter melts.
- Whip in remaining ingredients.

And there ya have it!

Girls Weekend Out!

I have been so excited for this weekend! Shae came down from Canada, Becca, Rachel and Blair came over from Ellensburg and then Amy and I just came from Snohomish. Amy, Becca, Shae and I met in Factoria at Red Robin for lunch, and then we headed to Target to add some things to Shae's baby registry. She is so cute pregnant! Only 9 more weeks left! After Target we went to Old Navy, where Becca got Dailey a new wardrobe :) She got so many cute clothes there. Dailey is always in style!!

We headed to our hotel in Bellevue, The Westin, and it was so nice! I've never stayed at one before, but they don't call the beds heavenly for nothing! They were so comfortable. We put our stuff in our room and then headed over to Bell Square for some good shopping! We shopped for 3 hours and then Rachel and Blair arrived. We shopped for a few more hours and then had dinner at PF Changs, Becca's favorite. It felt so nice to just sit down. We pretty much shopped until we dropped! I got lots of new clothes for Brandon and Lynsie's little one, some new shoes, new stamps (LOVE the stamp store there!) and some other little things. We had so much fun just wandering through all the stores there.





After dinner, it was like 11:00 and Rachel, Blair and I went to a martini bar called The Parlor. It was a 40 minute wait to get in, but it was fun once we got in there. The bar has a solid ice chunk all the way around it so you can set your drink on it to stay chilled. It was fun and we had a really good time.



We got up this morning, showered and then headed home. It was so fun to hang out, just laugh and talk and of course shop :) I cant wait until we can do it again!

Diggin up bones!

Campbell's pre school had a field trip on Thursday to a place called "Dig it" at the Everett Mall, and I got to take her. She has been learning about dinosaurs in pre- school and she was so excited to go dig up bones. She was just sure that she was going to come home with a dinosaur :) We were asking her where she was going to get food for it and she replied "well the grocery store". :)
It was fun for the kids, they got to dig in 3 different sites and they had so much fun. Each child got to keep 1 item or 5 "pre historic" rocks..Campbell picked the rocks so she could have more things :)



After the dig, Campbell and I went to lunch at our favorite place, The Olive Garden. She was so excited when we pulled in there..After lunch, Campbell came to work with me. She always asks me if she can come to work with me so I finally said yes :) After work, I took her to the Alderwood mall to let her play on the toys. She just loves playing there and gets so excited when I tell her were going to the mall with the toys :)

My brother Michael had a presentation at school so we headed over there at 7:00. Each kid in the class had to pick a person from history, then research them, make a poster board about them and then dress the part and play the role of the person. My brother had picked Doug Flutie who was an NFL player. He looked so cute with his football helmet on, and he had such a good speech. He is a really good speaker. There were so many cute kids there, one little girl was Shirley Temple, one boy was Elvis, there were also Helen Keller, George Washington and Albert Einstein just to name a few. It was fun to see Michael in his school environment with his school friends. He is just getting so old :(

Victory at last..

Wednesday night was Jay's last basketball game and they ended the season in style with a huge victory. It was good to see them all working together, making good passes and good shots. For a team that doesn't practice together, they do very well. There is a player on the team, Jason, that is just an unreal player. He's not very tall, but he can jump like a frog and his speed is incredible. I've really enjoyed going to the games every week and I'm a little sad that my Wednesday tradition is over..at least for a few months :)