Halloween 2010.

For the past several years, I have been gone on Halloween, but not this year. I was so excited to be home for it and to be able to see all the kids in their costumes. Growing up in my family, Halloween was always a big deal. We always had Chili on Halloween, our whole family came over and usually lots of our friends and it was something we looked forward to every year.

This year I had Dailey's birthday party on Saturday which was a costume party so I already had my costume and decided to wear it all day on Halloween too. I went to pick up Ava with it on and She didn't know what to think :) The kids were so excited. Cooper was a Cop and couldn't wait to put his costume on and play outside in it pretending to get bad guys! Campbell decided to be a Sea Gal Cheerleader since she already had the costume from cheering this summer. She looked so cute in it ofcourse, even though she was too shy to do any cheers or cute poses for us.

I passed out the candy to all the trick or treaters and I loved seeing their reactions when I opened the door. I think I caught all of them off guard because I didn't hear many "trick or treat's" it was more like "I love your costume!" or "wow, your a rainbow" was my favorite from a sweet little boy. I think I enjoyed it more than the kids did and I was bummed when we got our last spurt of kids. I can't wait until next year!!

The best costume for the night, by far, was our 5 year old neighbor boy Kyan, as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. So creative and authentic! Loved it.

Weekly Menu, 4.

Monday:

Meatloaf

Baby Reds

Green Beans

Tuesday:

Beef with Snow Peas

Brown rice

Wednesday:

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Green Salad

Breadsticks

Thursday:

Ritz Chicken

Cheesy Rice

Broccoli

Friday:

Home made Pizza

Salad

A Birthday Surprise.

Today is my sweet friend Stevie's 22nd birthday! Stevie and I have a lot of things in common. We both love to shop, love racing, love to cook, scrapbook, laugh, take pictures, go to concerts..you name it. When we first heard that Lady Antebellum was coming to Seattle, we both said that we were definitely going to see them. I think the concert snuck up on us because on Sunday we didn't have tickets and didn't have plans to get them. Until my brain started to think...hmmm, it is her birthday on Tuesday and how cool would that be to surprise her with tickets? I texted her to make sure she was available Monday night and when she said that she was, I told her I would pick her up at 4:30 and all I would tell her was that we were going downtown Seattle...I got online and was still able to find some AWESOME tickets.

I picked her up last night and couldn't wait until 7:30 to tell her so I gave her a card that told her we were going to Lady A. She was sooooo excited, to say the least :) We went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory first and then headed over to the Wamu Theatre.

We had such a great time! We were so close to the stage and sang pretty much every song. I would definitely see them again, especially in a venue like the Wamu Theatre. That is my idea of the perfect concert setting. Very intimate feeling. And there is just something about going to a concert that is magical to me. I can hear the same songs on the radio and like them, but when I am seeing and hearing them performed with my own eyes, I love the songs that much more.

We ♥ Lady A.

Weekly Menu, 3.

Monday:

Birthday Surprise for Stevie (more on that tomorrow)

Tuesday:

Taco's

Mexican rice

Wednesday:

Pork Chops

Broccoli

Crescent rolls

Thursday:

Pizza

Salad

Friday:

Ellensburg bound!

Fall Days.

Sunshine on your shoulders. Sweet smiling faces. Beautiful mountains. Crisp air. Yep, these are the fall days that I love so much.

Weekly Menu, 2.

Monday:

Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday:

Filet Mignon

Baby red mash

Garden Salad

Wednesday:

Pioneer Woman Lemon Chicken

Basil Pasta

Broccoli

Thursday:

Country Style Ribs

Au gratin potatoes

Garlic Bread

Friday:

Hamburgers

Pasta Salad

On a whim.

Something I do everyday, is visit my favorite blogs. On occasion, I stumble across a new one to obsess over. That happened Saturday. And from that new blog, came another new blog, with this post. I think this woman is amazing. Or maybe she's insane? But probably, a good mix of both. I mean you would have to be a little crazy to take on that project..or just inspired maybe? Either way, I love the end result. I loved it so much that I had to find something to paint. I had just the perfect thing. My scrapbook cabinet. I got it from Ikea last year and I really do love it. It holds all of my scrapbook and craft supplies...(that I barely ever use, but shhh), it's cute and I love the color of it. So why not make it cuter, and love it even more? Well, I did just that on Sunday.

I love the end result. No, I really really LOVE it. It makes me so happy to look at. I can't believe that I did something that looks so cute. I read a few tutorials on doing this kind of project. One lady said, "your going to be up close painting it and your going to think, man this looks terrible. But just step back and you will love it". I have to agree with that. Of course it's not going to be perfect because your basically free hand painting a stencil. Not to bad for a project I had never planned on doing.

Weekly Menu, 1.

For the past several weeks, I have been doing a weekly meal plan. I find that it is so convenient to plan ahead, shop once a week and not have to think about the dreaded question, "what's for dinner?". I am gone many weekends, but generally home during the week days and have loved having my 'plan'. So here is this weeks menu:

Monday:

Pot Roast with carrots & baby reds

Garlic bread

Tuesday:

Ritz baked Chicken

Asparagus

Garden Salad

Wednesday:

Teresa's Farfalle Con Piselli

French Bread

Thursday:

Taco Salad

Friday:

Birthday dinner.

Charming.

While visiting Bakerella's blog today, I stumbled across a post about this:

Quite possibly, one of the cutest things I've ever seen. A charm, that is a mini oven, cooking a cupcake! I want this. No. I NEED this.

First Days.

2nd grade, and Pre K. Both kids were so excited to start school this year. That is a relief to me because I always worry that they will be afraid or nervous. All smiles with these two though :)

The Boys of Fall.

I just had to post this video for Kenny Chesney's new song, Boys of Fall, for anyone that has not seen it yet. I love Sean Payton's speech at the beginning of this. He captured my attention by the way he spoke about football & the way it relates to life. I have told everyone I know about this video :) I even ordered a copy of Sean Payton's new book, Home Team, and can't wait to get it! I love people that can motivate and inspire with their words and he is one of them. It's no wonder the Saints are Superbowl Champions.

Labor Day.

One of my favorite weekends of the year. This year definitely did not disappoint! I traveled over to Ellensburg Friday morning and spent the day at the Animal Sale with Becca, Rachel and the rest of the family. It is so fun to me to see how much the animals go for. Becca and Rachel's brother Logan sold his lamb and made quite a profit, and Travis and Rachel's niece Kylee sold her pig and did well too. They put so much work into raising their animals, and it is great to see them do well with them. Friday night was spent at the Ellensburg Highschool Football game that Travis and Rachel's nephew Kody plays for. They didn't win, but we still had fun! Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the Rodeo Parade. Dailey & Skylee loved it and all the candy they got :) The parade isn't too exciting for the adults, but the kids sure do love it and I love watching it through their eyes.

Saturday afternoon Justin & Becca had a BBQ at their new home and we all enjoyed the kids..well Rachel did as they both could not get enough of "Auntie". We went to the extreme bulls Saturday night which was quite the experience :) We headed behind the chutes to hang out afterwards but it was freezing with the hurricane winds, so we didn't last long there.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day just hanging out and napping before heading down to the races in Yakima. Travis was helping Pete Harding and Pete got a win which was great for STE! All in all it was such a great weekend. I just love being over in Ellensburg, Labor Day weekend or not!

Wanna race?

Cooper practically lives on his big wheel. Every single day he is out racing it around the cul-de-sac. His friend Harry has a matching one and they are often found racing them together..wrecking each other, and then getting into a fight :) I saw this shirt at Gymboree and just had to get it for Cooper.

Making me smile.

A few weeks ago, Campbell and I were shopping around and we went into 'Fireworks', one of my favorite stores. There is always so many fun and unique things in there. In the kids area they have a bunch of sock monkeys and Campbell found a purple one that had magnets in the hands so you could hook the monkey to things and she really wanted it. Of course I got it for her and didn't think much about it. The next day, I noticed that she had hooked the monkey around her seat belt and I thought, how cute of her!

After the Seahawks game last Saturday night that Campbell and her cousin Cassie performed at, the kids all rode home with me. Campbell sat in the way back with her cousins Cassie and Clayton and I wasn't paying attention to anything, besides making sure she got her booster seat back there. The next day I go to clean out the car and this is what I see:

In all the chaos of trying to get everyone loaded in the car, Campbell made sure to grab her monkey and attach it to her seat belt in the way back. I couldn't help but smile when I saw that. She is such a special little girl and lately I have just been feeling like she is growing up way too fast. It's little things like this that remind me that she is still a sweet little girl :)

Campbell, Jr Sea Gal.

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This past weekend, Campbell got to perform during half time of the Seahawks pre-season game vs. the Green Bay Packers and the whole experience was probably the highlight of her summer :) For 3 days she got to go to "training camp" where the Seagals taught the dances that they would perform. They got practice outfits along with the real outfits that they wore during the performance, along with shoes, pom pom's and a sweat outfit for afterwards. Campbell loved to tell us that she got to perform in front of 50,000 people. I wish I could say that I seen her, but once the girls rushed the field, it was impossible to find her, however they did show her on the big screen and I did see her there. We heard about this for weeks, and the week after her training camp, all she wanted to do was show everyone her cheers.

She says she is going to do this every year until she is 15 :) It was quite the experience for her and I loved being there to support her! I brought my brother Michael along to his first Seahawks game and some of our friends were there including the Bennett's. It was a fun night that Campbell will never forget!