Christmas-y happenings

 What a lovely little break this has been thus far... and we still have 4 more days off. So grand! Andrew took the Friday before Christmas off and we visited the Portland zoo. Drew had never been and the few times that I have visited I had a child strapped to each hip. We woke up early, packed the entire car up (bc we would be headed south for Xmas right after the zoo!) and made a little pit-stop for our morning fix, Starbucks!

It was free.zing! Glad we requested our lattes extra hot ;)

We felt like Mr. & Mrs. Claus. I love wrapping & giving presents!  

The days leading up to Christmas, as well as the few days that have followed have been absolutely packed! Packed with gifts, lots of driving, lots of Christmas movies, hot cocoa/steamed eggnog w/ sprinkles (our new holiday fav!) delicious goodies, lack of sleep and lots and lots of beautiful faces that we do not get to see enough! We have celebrated the holiday four times! Andrew's mom, his dad, my parents and then the 11th annual tradition with the grandparents and the entire Short/Elliott/Belloir clan at Seven Feathers. I love love love Seven Feathers with the wholeeee fam. No sleep, nerts tournaments, poker, over eating... It just isn't Christmas without all of it. :) And might I add that this year my uncle and I took FIRST PLACE in the nerts tourney. That's right. There were a total of about ten teams, so it was totally legit, a ten team tourney, and we so dominated! 

Flash back to Christmas am... Hubby and I totally pulled of the BEST surprise. My parents thought we would be heading down later in the evening to celebrate... but little did they know, we were up and at em at 5am and hitting I-5 by 5:20. We blared Christmas tunes the entire trip, with Clover and coffee in hand, of course. We pulled into the driveway a little bit past 7am, rang the door bell 25 times and completely surprised them. My mom was literally jumping--then ran into the kitchen, started brewing coffee and put her a.ma.zing Chirstmas casserole in the oven. Oh, I love being home for the holidays. 

A few a lot of snapshots from the past few days.

The next four days are going to be just as lovely. Filled with ringing in a new year in Portland, getting to see and spend time with our wonderful business peeps and planning out 2012. This will include -- Ava (our favorite cafe, conveniently located 800 feet from our front door), pictures, cork and the the sees & jrad.
2012 is going to be even better than 2011, I can just feel it! 

Merry Christmas

Our first Christmas card! 

I love that I married a graphic designer, he is one talented stud muffin ;)

Merry Chirstmas!

24

December 8th was my 24th birthday. Ah. So crazy to think that I graduated from high school 6 years ago...

I was so excited because thankfully I didn't have to work. I wanted to sleep in, but Clover was wide awake by the time Drew left for work, so sleeping in was a no go. 

Andrew told me that he was going to try and get off of work early so that we could hang out all day! 

The perfect birthday gift in my opinion! ;)

Around 12ish, I was getting ready in our room and I heard two loud bangs against the window that completely freaked me out. I looked out of it only to see this...

He is with out a doubt the best! 

The rest of the day was filled with shopping 

Seeing this

And yummy food & coffee. 

The day after my birthday my sister and Jordan came up. Saturday morning the door bell rang, and I was told it was a birthday present from my mom being delivered... but when I opened the door it was my mom and brother!! Such a lovely surprise! Dad had to work, unfortunately :(

We shopped around downtown and enjoyed all of the twinkle lights and beautiful trees, watched Home Alone, enjoyed my moms amazing peppermint cheesecake and loved all of our time together. 

My sister brought me this sweet little cake and they all sang happy birthday.

I am so blessed to have such sweet people in my life. 

A new favorite

Andrew and I love love looove talking about future holiday traditions that we would like to have with our family one day. I think these cookies made the list for a must have at Thanksgiving! We loved them--especially the frosting... I did could eat it by the spoonfuls. 

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Frosting
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, sift together the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

To make frosting: In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cream, and brown sugar over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture just begins to boil; remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool then stir in confectioner's sugar.  Spread frosting over cooled cookies.
   Mmmmm! 

Clover may have even snuck a lil frosting ;)

Now I suppose I will get back to listening to this and getting ready for work. 

FOUR more weeks until Chirstmas vaca! 

<3

Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Family, food and friends. The simple things are amazing things. God continually blows me away with all of these blessings. The challenge for myself is not to take any of it for granted. "It" being: A wonderful husband who loves me and loves living this amazing adventure together. A family who is so so awesome. Friends, old and new, that have been inspiration to us, we are so grateful for them. Our future ahead and the excitement of not knowing what it holds and knowing that God is in complete  control of it. A place to call our own. Financial blessings, our business and our jobs. Little Clover, oh how we love her. 

I should probably stop there before I write a novel. 

I am so thankful. 

God is good all the time. All the time God is good. 

10.31

Happy Hallowalloween 

as my favorite little 3 year old would say! 

Photo credit goes to the lovely Shayla. 

Baby Callan photo shoot might have turned into a mini Clover photo shoot thanks to this girl. 

:) 

today.

 I'm loving...

This weather. Fall! I love everything about you!
The crisp leaves, my cinnamon spice candle, pumpkin seeds, lots of family time, fireplace burning, warm comfy sweats and my fav.. pumpkin spice lattes. Oh they can be bad news.
Just look at them...

The fact that I (kind of) got to sleep in this am.

 I am so not a dog-in-the-bed kind of person. But this morning, after Drew left for work, I scooped her up and plopped her right next to me on our bed. She slept and slept and slept and then out of nowhere started grinding her teeth!?! Great, so I have a husband and a puppy who both grind their chompers.

This picture I found of my little brother. I just want to squeeeeze him.
Was he not the most absolute sweetest little boy you ever did see?

That it is Friday... and the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Radford are coming to visit. We are going to have such an autumn-y weekend :) Sauvie Island corn maze, yummy food, engagement pics, downtown shopping, mmm hmm, perfect!

 

Little Clover. She is so hilarious to watch. She treats every object like it is alive... hunches down, lets out a small growl, prances (yes, our puppy prances around like a cat almost 24/7) and then paws at it just to be safe. Andrew and I can watch her for hours! 

Pinterest. Me oh my who invented this crazy addicting madness? So many cute ideas. So many! I did find this lovely recipe that I am going to make for our little autumn-y weekend w/ the Rads. It looks delsih!

And this one guy. Andrew. He is amazing. Always has everything under control, taken care of and prepared. I love him oh so stinkin' much.

That's all. My nice little random post is over. Off to get some groceries to make some yummy homemade granola and have lunch with my hubby!

Yay for Friday! 

A good one for Monday morning

Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Last night Andrew and I pulled into the garage around 1am with a little puppy full of energy. She had been in her kennel for the past 3 hours on our drive from Roseburg to Portland so we couldn't really blame her. We took her out and played with her for about a half hour trying to try and ware her out a little bit. We finally put her in her kennel for the night and, granted she wasn't whining, she was chewing on everything - all night long! We finally fell asleep only to wake up to a clock that read 7:49am. The husband starts work at 8am, so it was a bit of a hectic morning. I dropped him off at work, went grocery shopping and then returned home to Clover who had poo'ed in her kennel and had smudged it all around, EW! I bathed her, only for her to run straight back into her kennel! Yes, it has been one of those mornings! 

And then I saw this video. And it touched me. And I loved it. And it has made this Monday morning awesome. 

:) 

The new addition

Andrew and I have wanted a puppy for a very long time. Last month we had a few goals that we wanted to accomplish and we told ourselves that if we accomplished them, we would finally get a sweet little puppy! 

September came, goals were met, and the search began. 

We didn't have any clue as to what kind of puppy we wanted. 

We knew that it needed to be fairly small, not too big of a shedder and a good family dog. 

We looked around online at different sites and I found a lady who had 5 little cockapoo's.

Andrew called and the next day we went and visited the pups. 

Oh.My.Goodness. 

Sweetest things ever, if our bank account would have allowed, I think I would have picked threee! 

We decided on a little girl, she was the only one out of four crazy brothers and too cute to pass up!

We brought her home the next evening. 

Meet Clover 
our 8 week old furbaby ;)

We are kind of obsessed with her already. But in a totally good way, of course ;)

Ok, call me crazy, but I would love to be a sahm -- puppy style. 

Park, nap, snack, fetch. Repeat. 

Sounds good to muah. 

(I'm only half kidding here...) 

And him. Don't get me started, she already has him completely wrapped around her little paw ;)
... but seriously.

Heaven is for real

I bought this book for my sister's birthday.
I picked it up to read just a few pages.
I couldn't put it down.

I decided, since the house was clean and I didn't have work, that it would be just fine to keep reading.
And that is just what I did, kept reading, until a few hours later, I had finished the book.

So, yes. I read it in one day.
And then I gave it to my sister, and she finished it in a day and a half.
Now my mom is reading it. 

It.is.amazing.

Eeek!

This last weekend was completely AWESOME. 

Andrew and I headed straight down to Corvallis after work on Friday evening. We met with an amazing couple for a few hours and then headed over to my sister's apartment where her and Jordan had prepared a delicious dinner for us! We ate, watched Bridesmaids, and then passed out! 

The next morning we woke up early and were headed to the stadium. 

The filming of Extreme Makeover Weight-loss Edition was going to be  on campus and I couldn't miss out on possibly getting a shot of the amazing CHIRS POWELL! :) 

Annd...I MET HIM! 

nbd... 

 For the record he is so SO nice and he looks even better in real life! 

Talesha and Jordan had to leave before the filming because Jordan had an amazing day planned out for them... I think my sister was a little bummed she wasn't going to be able to see Chris... But I knew what was in store for her later that evening and wasn't too concerned that she would be just fine!  ;)

After the filming Drew and I headed right across the street to cheer on The BEAVS... sadly, they aren't looking too hot this year. 

We still had a blast and ran into a few friends that we haven't seen in awhile!

That evening we headed back to Talesha and Jordan's apartment and decorated for the following day. 

Little did my sister know that she would be getting engaged that night and the entire family was coming up to surprise her when they got back! 

Jordan is such a romantic. He planned out an amazing day for them. They started with some shopping in Portland, where my sister got to pick out three outfits and then they were headed off to the coast. 

He wanted to propose on the beach, but go figure, the Oregon coast was a tad too windy... So they drove back to a super nice hotel room that he surprised her with. 

He went through each year that they had been together and symbolized each one with an object... on the 7th year, he pulled out the ring and got down on one knee. Ahh! And my sister was completely caught off guard, she had absolutely no clue!

 A perfect proposal. 

We all had so much fun celebrating the lovebirds. They are planning on getting married September 8th, 2012. This will mark the 8th YEAR that they have been dating--they started dating their first day of high school! So sweet. 

We love them both oh so much and can't wait for this year. 

Weddings are my absolute fav thing and I'm so excited to help my little sister plan for the best day of her life <3 

With her taste it is going to be just lovely! 

Summer/fall 2012 is going to be filled with so many lovely weddings. People are just falling in love left and right in Oregon. Sheesh. :)

Sunriver

Over Labor day weekend we spent a few nights in Sunriver with Andrew's side of the familia. It was a great little get-a-way and a teeny tiny little break since we have been pretty busy lately! 

We layed out in the sun, ate Melinda & Mike's yummy yummy food, floated the Deschutes river, (which btw is my new fav river to float), went wine tasting, bike riding, exploring, hot tubbing and spent lots and lots of time relaxing and enjoying family. 

Mornings spent in the sun, 

reading a great book 

and sipping some coffee are my 

absolute favorite ones. 

fyi, this book, 

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

is rad. 

Wine tasting.

 Since neither of us are wine connoisseurs, 

we mainly went around and asked to sample the ones that we could pronounce...

We know we're cool. ;) 

This little trip was just what we needed to charge our batteries.

<3 

A few lately's

I have spent mornings with this little guy, aka, best baby in THE world. We play, go for walks, read books, sleep, well he sleeps & I watch TLC/read. 

~~~~~~

I surprised my amazingly awesome and hard working husband with a picnic in the park, New Seasons style. We.LOVE.New Seasons. And we are so excited because one is due to open up literally right in our back yard in a few weeks. Yum! 

~~~~~~

Drew and I made a quick trip over to the Hawthorne Street fair. We made a stop for some iced coffee and then spent the afternoon walking around to the various booths and trying to decide where to eat ;)  We He decided with Nicks's Famous Coney Island. 

Drew ordered the original Coney Island 

And I just ordered a cup of chili. Both were delicious.

We saw a few (or maybe a lot) of interesting things. One being this skunk tail.

 Afterwards we visited a lovely park and talked about our dreams & future... one of our favorite things to do! 

~~~~~~

I got to see this sweet girl and help celebrate her 23rd birthday in Corvallis. She is now living in Reno and I miss her SO much. 

~~~~~~

And lastly, I will finally have a consistent work schedule & won't be bouncing around through the agency anymore, hoooo-ray. Monday's & Wednesday's I will be watching two little boys.  Both are being potty trained, help me Lord.
And then on Tuesday's and Thursday's I will be with an adorable little 2 month old baby girl.

So Monday's & Wednesdays will look like this:

And Tuesday's & Thursday's will look like this:

Best of both worlds, I suppose. 

Annnnd, no work on Fridays! 

mt. thielsen

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am, packed the car and headed east with the family to conquer the infamous Mt. Thielsen. My dad, being the avid hunter/hiker/anything outdoorsmen type of guy he is, warned us of what was to come, but we didn't really listen. It was a 10 mile hike round trip. And we had no idea of what we were getting ourselves into...

Bright eyed and bushy tailed @ approx. 5:30 in the am.

It was a B-e-a-utiful hike! (and we took lots of pics!)

Tippy-top = 9200 feet and yes, that is where we were headed

                                                                                     

Our Perfect water advertisement... ;]

It was 4.9 miles to the top. Drew, Molly and I decided to stop at about 8600 feet... We dubbed it Common Sense Point. ;) It was insanely scary up there! Like holding-onto-rocks-in-order-not-to-fall-off-the-mountain scary! But the rest of the crew went to the TOP! And almost all of them said it was the first and last time they would be doing that... just a tad bit sketchy up there. 

See?!?! 

Hi dad! Aye yi yi... 

Those are people up there, and these pictures do not even do it justice.

Hmm, let's see, I said about 19 prayers while I watched the unexperienced mountain climbers that are my family grasp rocks for their dear life. Started feeling a little better about the situation... and then enter two insane hikers (the real deal, with hiking sticks and all) who decided to tell us that this mountain is dangerous, especially with the amount of people we had in our group. Well, thanks lady... back to praying I go...

We waited for about an hour for the rest of them to climb the last 600 feet to the top. Then back down the mountain we all went... mainly sliding down on our behinds. Going downhill was surprisingly worse than going uphill, and it took so much longer. We look like we know what we are doing in this pic, but about every 2 minutes someone was either on their behind or grabbing the person in the front or back of them and trying to catch their balance. It was hilarious, and I have no idea how I am related to my father.

Me = 23 year old, uncoordinated, fell 3 times on my bum kind of hiker...
Dad = 46 year old, conquer anything, help my daughter down the side of the mountain kind of hiker...

It took us almost 8 hours round trip and we finished off the with some pizza at Diamond Lake.

Minus the yucky blisters, scratches (on our bums & hands from falling!) and horrible sunburns it was a great time with the family! For our next "hike", we are shooting for something a little less traumatizing ;)