Sister & Brother night out!

Yesterday afternoon, my little brother Michael (10) called me and wanted to come over. Since it was a school night and I live about 25 miles away, I thought I would just go pick him up and take him to dinner and hang out with him for a bit and then he could come over tonight since he wouldn't have to be home early to get up for school the next day.

We started out by going to:

I wanted to try the Smore's cupcake that was featured on Martha Stewart but we found out they are only available on Sunday's and Mondays. I got a lemon strawberry cupcake and Michael got the triple chocolate. I also had a hot chocolate which I had heard was amazing and it definitely did not disappoint. They use a special kind of chocolate that is rich but so tasteful and each cup is topped off with a homemade marshmallow. I'm telling you if you ever get the chance to visit Trophy Cupcakes, you must try the hot chocolate, it is phenomenal!

Trophy Cupcakes 1815 N. 45th Street, Suite 209 Seattle, WA. 98103 206.632.7020 M-F 8:00-8:00 Saturday 8:30-8:00 Sunday 8:30-5:00

After we left there, we headed down to the University District to have dinner at Pallino, a yummy little pasta place. There used to be one in Woodinville that I went to often but now it's not there anymore so I thought we would go there. First we stopped at The Confectionery Store, a cute little candy shop. They had pretty much everything you could think of and it was displayed adorably. I got some light blue taffy and some dark brown taffy to use as part of my favors for the baby shower I'm hosting next weekend. Michael got an almond chocolate bar and I think he was finished before we even got to the car, he loved it.

The Confectionery Store, University Village. 206.523.1443 -- M-S 9:30-9:00 S 11:00-6:00

Pallino University Village. 206.522.8617 -- S-Th 11:00-9:00 F/S 11:00-10:00

After dinner, we went to Bell Square where I wanted to go to The Container Store to get some little favor boxes for the shower. We also went in the mall for awhile and shopped around. Michael was pretty worn out by the time we got home but we sure had fun together. I can't believe my little brother is already 10 years old (almost 11), where does the time go?

"I hope everybody likes pink!"

That was Jenny's quote last night as we were placing all of our finished cookies onto the sheets. It seems that no matter how many drops of red dye that you add to the frosting, it never turns all the way red. So my brother Michael, and Campbell were happy to settle for pink :)
Campbell and I spent out Saturday afternoon going to Michael and and my sister Chelsea's basketball games. They both lost, although Chelsea's team only lost by 1 point. That was a pretty intense game. Campbell loves watching them play, she sits still the whole time and just watches and she tells me when she gets older, shes going to play too. I dont doubt that she will :)
After the games, Campbell got her hair cut by my other sister Ashley who just graduated from Gene Juarez Academy. She cut her bangs and added some layers to her hair and it looks so good!
Every year in Brier (by Bothell where my parents live) there are 2 neighborhoods that go all out and decorate their houses for Christmas. They are on the news every year and they seem to just get better and better. We drove through both neighborhoods last night and Michael and Campbell loved it. Santa was even there to give them candy canes so that was pretty neat!
We went to Costco and then to the grocery store, and then finally home to make our cookies and gingerbread houses. That didnt go over quite as planned but we decided to let them sit overnight to dry.
I baked a lot of sugar cookies and also made some snickerdoodles and some thumb print cookies with the jelly in the middle. It got hectic fo a bit but it was still fun and the kids had a lot of fun decorating them. I think I've about had my fill of Christmas cookies :)
Here are some photos of the kids decorating cookies, my big mess, and the final product :)

The Pumpkin Patch!

Monday we did our yearly trip to Craven Farms to pick out our pumpkins. Campbell, Michael, Ashley, Chelsea and myself went and had lots of fun.
Michael and Campbell both got pumpkins, pretty big ones at that. Michael had fun trying to load them in the wagon :)

We took lots of pictures, laughed a lot and looked at the animals. We had a fun day :)

First day of School.

Yesterday was Campbell's 1st official day of Kindergarten. She got to go for an hour on Wednesday to meet her teacher and see her classroom, but yesterday she got to stay all day. She will be going full time and she has been so excited. The main things she talks about is that she gets to have recess 3 times a day, and she gets to bring her lunch to school :)

Her wardrobe is also pretty important. I took her school shopping last week and we got her a bunch of new clothes that she just loves.

She really likes her teacher which I was glad to hear because that makes all the difference. She was pretty worn out when I got home yesterday. Usually she's out riding her bike or playing on the swing set or running around, but yesterday she was sitting on the couch watching one of her shows. Kindergarten is hard work you know!

I can't believe she is already in Kindergarten. It's so hard to believe she is already 5 years old and the time will really fly now that she is in school. Poor Cooper was so sad that he couldn't go with sissy. He just cried and said "me go too"
Soon enough he will be going too.



My brother Michael started school on Tuesday and he is in the 5th grade this year. I can't believe he is already 11 either. I took him to school on Tuesday and I asked him if he was nervous and he said, "no, I already know everyone here". Well okay then :) I'm glad he wasn't nervous because I was sure nervous for him. I remember those first days of school, meeting your new teacher, making new friends. Thankfully Michael is so easy going and has a lot of friends at his school. He likes his teacher and called after school to tell me that his little crush Rikki is in his class this year..it's starting already :)

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 :(

Happy Birthday Michael!

12 years ago today, my brother was born at 8:25 am. I was 12 at the time, and was determined to be in the delivery room when he was born. My Mom & Dad left in the middle of the night and when I woke up, my Grandma was at the house to watch us girls. I begged her to drive me to the hospital and we arrived just in time. I walked in the room at 8:20 and he was born minutes later. Later that day I walked the halls with him and showed him off to anyone that would look at him :)
Since I was 12 when he was born, I remember thinking that when he was 12 I would almost be 24 and I can't believe that day is here.

{Michael, Taylor, Hunter..best friends}

Sweet Valentines.

Valentine's Day is such a fun Holiday for kids. I remember being in school and being so excited for our Valentine's parties where we would make things for our friends and hand them out. My brother is in the 5th grade and still likes to do all the Valentine's things so I figured I better take advantage of it while it lasts. He came over last week and we made his Valentine box for all his friends to put things in. He had a vision of making it like a monster so I got some supplies and we went to work. It was fun to make and it turned out great. Michael is very creative and I love seeing that.

He filled out all his Valentines and I made rice krispie treats for him to take to his class. I was surprised that homemade treats were even allowed since some schools are skeptical about that, but I prefer to make homemade things.

Merry Christmas!

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~Burton Hillis


I cant believe Christmas has came and gone already! The past month has just flown by to me and yet another year has nearly passed. My Christmas started last night at my uncle Mark's house where we do Christmas every year with my mom's side of the family. We had a nice ham dinner and opened a lot of presents! My brother Michael got a flying helicopter and thought it was funny to try to land it on us!
I spent the night at my parents like I do every Christmas eve and we woke up this morning and opened all of our gifts. My brother really wanted this little scooter that has a motor on it. His best friend Hunter got one and he just had to have one too. Well all the presents had been opened but no scooter and he was totally content trying to figure out his general lee car. Lo and behold we dragged him to the back yard, and there was his scooter! He couldn't believe it, his mouth dropped open and he just stood there staring at it and then gave my dad a big hug! It was so cute :) It was nice to see that he wasn't being a brat when he thought he wasn't getting the scooter but then when he did get it, he was so excited!
After that my dad made "Joe's special" and then Ashley and I headed to my house so I could give Campbell my presents. She had gotten tons of presents from Santa and her parents and grandparents and then mine of top of that! The theme this year was her babies so I got her the crib, highchair, stroller, pack & play, and car seat for her baby alive. I also got her a couple pairs of jeans and some new shirts, a Dora tent, a stuffed animal dog that came with a travel carrier and clothes and a book and some candy! She was very excited and loved everything she got. I got Cooper a Thomas the train tunnel that he can crawl through, some clothes, and little people town center and a book and movie as well.



The kids are my favorite to buy for, they just love everything!
After opening presents at the house, we headed over to Uncle Dave and Aunt Cheryl's. Every year we go to North Bend to my grandparents house to celebrate Christmas with my dad's side of the family, but this year Dave and Cheryl bought a new house so they wanted to have everyone over. Their home is beautiful! It was snowing all the way there so we did get a white Christmas here! There was tons of food, tons of people and lots of laughs. We took some family pictures, opened presents and just chatted with each other. It was really good to see everyone.
Well it's been a long few weeks and Ive enjoyed it all (for the most part) and now it's time to relax. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Spring Break.

Miss Campbell was on Spring Break last week which meant sleep overs and late nights :) I remember loving that as a kid. Shae's nieces were visiting for the week since they were off too, so they invited us up to spend the night. Campbell was so excited to go to Canada. I think that she thought it was going to look different or somehow be different, but nope, still the same sky and the same grass :)




We picked up Pizza at Costco and headed up. The girls were excited to see each other. They had pizza and then made necklaces that Campbell and I got from Michael's. They did each other's hair and then made t-shirts with puffy paint. We colored Easter eggs and then played musical chairs, hide and seek, and house. By 1 am they were all so worn out and ready for bed. Campbell slept until 11 on Friday morning and even she was surprised :) The girls had so much fun, hopefully we can do it again soon!

Trace Adkins

I've always been a country music fan ever since I remember listening to music and I'm pretty sure it's because I always went everywhere with my Grandma when I was little and she only listened to country. When I started riding the bus to school, I was introduced to new music and I liked it too. I've always been a music lover and I can go from listening to Buckcherry and then go to Michael Buble and then some Rascal Flatts, I love it all. I especially love songs that have good meaning to them, and songs that I can relate to. Country music is pretty well known for having songs about heartbreak, alcohol, etc. but a lot of them have a really good message in them. Trace Adkins has a new song out called "Your gonna miss this" and this song hit me hard. I haven't cried that hard over a song in a long time. Every single word in the song is true and if you haven't heard it, I strongly recommend taking a listen. I love songs like these that really make me think about life and taking things for granted.

Daytona 500

Last weekend was the first weekend of racing and I couldn't have been more excited! The truck race was Friday night and what a good race it was. Lots of competition, and of course Rowdy was in it so that makes it even better. He wasn't able to get it done though, and finished 2nd. The Busch race was pretty good on Saturday but once again, Kyle was 2nd on the last lap and just couldn't get it done.

Sunday I went down and picked Jay up and then we went to a bar in Tacoma where his parents were throwing a Daytona 500 party. They had raffles and there were several fantasy racing boards. The drivers I had from that were Michael Waltrip and Regan Smith, so I wasnt too optimistic to win any money. We had fun watching the race and heckling others about their drivers. Our fun ended when Dale Jr. took out the field, including Kyle who had dominated and led 88 laps so far. It was a huge dissapointment, not just because of Kyle, but also the other 10 cars that were involved.

I'm looking forward to Fontana, a track that Kyle has always done well at and got his first Cup victory at. And who knows, I may even be at the race in Vegas in 2 weeks!

It's LOVE week..

Valentine's day is such a fun holiday, although I don't really have a Valentine, I love making little treats for the ones I love. On Saturday night, Campbell and I made some heart cookies..She was so excited because I got her and I matching Valentine's apron's at Target. They are so cute, I will have to add a picture later since I dont have them right now. She kept saying, "Becky, I want to cook" repeatedly..so finally I kept saying "Hey Campbell, do you still want to cook.."
She thought it was funny, and it was pretty funny. She must have asked me 100 times :)

Sunday I watched Cup Qualifying for the Daytona 500. Only the top 2 spots were locked in, so the Dual 125's on Thursday will be the next big thing to watch.
I can't believe that Michael Waltrip qualified 2nd! Go Waltrip World!
It must have been our visit there that give him good luck :)



After that, Melinda decided that we should make cupcakes, so we did. She ended up making them and I just observed. She decorated them so cute, again, I will have to add pics tonight. She made mini cupcakes and then big ones that she made with 2 different cake batters, 1 chocolate and 1 butter yellow, so then she mixed them together, they were so good!

My week looks pretty relaxing. Tonight I'm going to finish getting my Valentine's gifts together, then tomorrow night Im going to make some more cookies :)

Remember to wear something pink or red this week ♥

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!

Cupcake Pops!

Seriously, I really wonder how some people are so creative?

I see things like this and think, that is SO cute! Why didn't I think of that?

So, just another idea for me to steal...or borrow, I should say :)

Bakerella aka Angie Dudley, is my latest inspiration in baking. I came across her blog after hearing about her debut on Martha Stewart. I went on Martha's site to get the recipe for the Cupcake Pops and read through some of the comments to discover that Angie had a blog, of course I had to check it out immediately.

How cute are these??





I am so a fan of Bakerella. Especially since she was just one that enjoyed baking and started a blog, never thinking it would turn into what it already has and even more, what it could become. Pretty inspiring to me!

I am planning to make these for Lynsie's baby shower in a few weeks, but first I must try them out to make sure I can get them as cute as Bakerella's...so that will be my project for tomorrow evening. Tonight I went to Michael's and got all the supplies and I hope mine turn out atleast half as cute as hers ;)

4th of July.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to one of my favorite places, Irwindale,CA. We flew out Friday evening and arrived in Burbank where Travis and Budah picked us up and took us to In n Out.

Saturday morning, Rachel, myself and Travis's Mom Gale got ready for our big shopping day. We were going to the Fashion District in down town LA, but when getting off the exit, we realized the Staples center was right there so we made a little detour to check out the Michael Jackson scene. I must admit that I never really considered myself a fan of MJ. I knew who he was my whole life of course, but never really got into his music, or him. However, I just can't get over the fact that he passed so unexpectedly. We parked in a parking garage where no one else was and went up to the Staples Center where there was a huge billboard with MJ's picture. We stood in line with only a few people in front of us to sign the board and get our picture taken. Gale couldn't believe we were there :) Funny enough, I have seen the same board on TV many times now and it was reported that people waited hours in line to sign that..guess we were pretty lucky to not have many others there.

After that experience, we headed to the Fashion District which is always fun in an overwhelming way. So many things to see and buy. We were there exactly 2 hours and all got plenty of things to try to get home. We cruised around LA and then headed up to Universal City to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We sat on the patio and it was a beautiful afternoon. Clear blue skies, music and people everywhere. At lunch Rachel was talking about how lucky we were to be able to go to all the fun places we go and do the things we do. I thought about that the rest of the day and couldn't agree more.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to change and head out to the Speedway. We arrived just in time for qualifying where Travis qualified 14th. There was a huge crowd for the race which I was very surprised by. Rachel, Eric and I headed up to the main grand stands to watch the race and sat with Travis's cousins and their 3 girls. Although Travis's car was great in practice, it didn't appear to be the same in the race and he ended up finishing 12th.

We had such a great trip full of laughs and it was exactly what I needed. I can't wait for the next trip to Irwindale!

Thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants". ~Kevin James

Ahh King of Queens, love that show!
Well our Thanksgiving was spent over in Wenatchee at the Cabin. It has been that way for the past 5 years or so. Sometimes it snows over there during Thanksgiving and everyone always enjoys that, although this year it didnt snow. It was cold enough though and it tried to snow the day after Thanksgiving but just a few flakes fell. My sister Ashley and I drove over on Thanksgiving morning and the rest of the family was already there. My dad and Uncle Dave cooked the meal this year, they are pretty funny together so thats always some entertainment. All the girls spent the day searching the ads for all the hot deals for our annual tradition of Black Friday shopping. We all make lists with what were going to get at each place and the list goes in order of what time each store starts. I started at Shopko because they had the best deals on the toys which is my favorite thing to buy.
We had our Thanksgiving dinner at about 7:00, we laughed and my Dad and Uncle dave shared memories from when they were little. After dinner we looked at the ads some more and eventually had some pumpkin pie. I finally found my way to bed around 11!
Friday morning we all woke up at 3:30 to get ready to go shopping!! I was so tired at first but once I reminded myself I was going shopping, I woke right up. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a shopper! My brother Michael and sister Ashley drove with me to town and I made them listen to Christmas music from my Ipod, they werent too impressed at 4 am :)
We went to Shopko, Target, Starbucks, Old Navy, Famous Footwear, Macys, Hallmark, a scrapbook store, Bath&bodyworks, Costco, Red Robin, and our last stop was Walmart. That was at about 4:00 pm! We were there for awhile and then my sister and brother were both ready to fall asleep so we headed back to the cabin. After over 12 hours of shopping, my car was stuffed full and we were all super tired.

Scrappin'

Scrap booking is something that I enjoy. I think it's because I LOVE taking pictures and I love documenting special memories and things that are important to me. I also love buying all the fun products like paper, stickers, ribbon, buttons, any thing that I can use to showcase my photos. I used to scrapbook frequently, at least a few times a week but over the past year I have definitely slacked. Now I have tons of pictures and I feel a bit overwhelmed. I figured the only way it was going to get done is if I started somewhere, so that's what I did last night. While watching the presidential debates, I spread all my stuff out and got to work. I got 2 pages done and then I finished another that I started a few weeks ago.

Campbell's 1st day of Kindergarten.

My brother Michael on his first day of 5th grade!

Jennifer will be happy to see this one as it has almost been a year since our trip, and well, no scrapbook has been made until now :)

Hopefully I can get back on track with this hobby that I truly do love. I certainly know I have a lot of catching up to do!