Thirty, flirty, and thriving!

Today was the big day. The big 3-0. Yikes! No longer a young girl in my twenties... I guess I'm a woman now. Ha!

Seriously, turning 30 doesn't bother me too much. It's just a number and I don't feel thirty. My twenties were a rocky road and I wouldn't want to go back. And you couldn't pay me to go back to being a teenager!

I am totally happy with where I am right now. I have a wonderful husband, beautiful children, a super fun family, and amazing friends. I am in a good place right now and feel comfortable in my own skin. We're getting ready to start a new adventure in our lives and, although it's not the best timing, we are excited! I mean, when is there really a good time to move, right?!

Sooo, here's to being thirty! And anyways, 30 is the new 20, right?!

Memory Tag

This is my first time doing a tag, but I thought it would be fun.

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I'm excited to read what you guys have to say!!!

Happy Birthday Tom!

Yestreday was my youngest brother Tommy's 19th birthday. It's weird that I remember everything about Tom's life, that I was old enough to remember it all! So whenever Alexis feels bad about Addie being born on her birthday, I always remind her that my brother was born 2 days before my 11th birthday, so I know how she feels.:)

We had a busy day all day because my middle brother Jeff flew in this morning. We picked him up and planned an impromptu visit to Tom's job to take him birthday treats. He works for a drink distributor as their Rockstar representative and has a real cubicle and everything, so grown up! Here are some pictures of us delivering his birthday treats and kinda making fools of ourselves:)



As you can see Addison was thrilled with the festivities!



For dinner Tom decided on Claim Jumper, yum! We had a really good time celebrating and eating! Here's a picture of me with 3 of my 5 siblings - Amy, Jeff, and Tom.


The food was delicious and we way overate! How can you not overeat at that place?!

Tom had a bike themed birthday so Matt and I got him some hot biker shorts. Stylin'!

And yes, that is a blue bow in his hair. He took the bow from his gift and put it on his head. Cute, huh?! Anyways, hope you had a good birthday Tom!

Stupid Wii Fit!

We've been so busy visiting that I haven't had a chance to blog much, but here are a few highlights from the past few days. On Friday night we all went over to Allie's apartment to play with her new Wii Fit. For those of you who have never played this particular game, it asks you all sorts of questions about your body and then weighs you. Then it proceeds to give you your Wii Fit age.

So I'm about to turn 30 and figured my Fit age would probably be a little higher than that because I just had a baby. My excuse is that I couldn't exercise for 6 weeks after Addie was born and then we were traveling and I can't possibly exercise while I'm on vacation, so to make a long story short, I'm packing a few extra pounds. I will spare myself from exposing my weight, but I will tell you it told me I was overweight (and my Me grew a spare tire) and I'll expose my Fit age. I was 47!!! What?! So hooray for me, I'll be 30 Thursday and I have the body of a 47 year old. Dumb game.

We did have fun playing though. Especially after we got over laughing at how chunky and old we all are. Here are some fun shots of us hula-hooping. We didn't think to get out the camera till Lexi's turn, so we missed a couple people.

Here's Lex shaking her hips.


My little brother Tom shaking his money-maker. I thought this picture was cool and see-through.


And here's the chunky 47 year old. That takes some concentration! Notice the spit-up on my shoulder. :)

Then on Saturday my sister Amy, Alexis, Addison, and I went to get our nails done. When we got to Seattle and I saw Lex for the first time in 2 weeks I noticed that her nails had grown ridiculously long and have been nagging her to cut them. She finally talked me into letting her keep the nails till we got our manicures, and they came out so pretty! Here are Lexi's real nails. They look so good, they look fake!




Addison got her first big toy from Papa and she loved it! Lex helped him pick it out and they did a great job! It has a black and white cat that hangs down and Addie just stared at it for the longest time!



So cute!

Today I got to go hang out with two of my best Seattle friends, Lauri and Michelle. We get together and laugh at the most ridiculous things! We wanted a picture together but couldn't get a good one for the longest time. So here is the best of the best, about the 10th picture we took!


I love those girls! We are still having a wonderful time here, but we're thinking it's about time to get back home. Only one week left in Seattle!

Fashion show and hangin' out

With 3 trips to Seattle under my belt I have learned a few things about how to manage my time. I discovered that its best to see people I want to see early on in the trip, that way I make sure to get everybody in.

So yesterday I was able to get some alone time - without Addie even! - to go see my friend Sara and her beautiful baby in the hospital. I had so much fun visiting with her that I stayed for nearly 3 hours, even though I had told Matt I would only stay 1! :) I told him to call me if he needed me so I figured she was okay. I guess she wasn't. As I was leaving Matt called and said she'd been crying off and on for about 2 hours. She refuses any kind of bottle, so Matt was kind of up a creek. :) Oopsie! I guess it's nice to be needed.

We hung out at Amy's last night and had a nice time. Uncle Tom volunteered to change Addie's diaper, and you know how she likes to poo in a clean diaper so he got to do it twice. Here's the proof -



Nice look Tom! And I appreciate any break from diapers!



Addie was being just adorable so here's a random pic. She's laying across my lap here.

Today I had made plans with my mentor from my very first teaching job, Glorene. We met for lunch with our families. Her granddaughter just loved Addison so I got some cute pictures of them.



I have been so blessed with both of my teaching jobs that I was able to work with such wonderful people! Glorene made my very first year of teaching easy! We did everything together and I learned so much from her! She helped me become a better teacher by her amazing example. We love Glorene!



The weather here has been freezing! I sooo did not pack for cold weather! Addison has gotten so many cute summer outfits that we did another fashion show tonight so she could have a chance to wear them. She enjoyed this one a little better than her last one. This first picture is what she's been wearing in this cold weather.



Here is another Auntie Amy outfit. She is very pretty in yellow! And it fits a little better. :)



One more from Auntie. Addie got hooked up!



Here's a sporty little number from Amy's friend Kristi (sorry about the spelling last time). So cute!



Here's another golfer-girl outfit from Kristi. Not sure if this ensemble goes together but we tried it out. What do you guys think? It's very cute either way and a perfect fit!



This one is from Grandma Glorene. Very cute and her favorite color - pink!



We have been so blessed by the generosity of our family and friends! Addie has gotten so many cute things given to her. We have bought her two outfits - one for her to come home from the hospital and her blessing gown. Other than that they have all been gifts. And we have yet to buy diapers. We are blessed and we are thankful!

Girls night out

Last night Alexis and I had the opportunity to go see our favorite baseball team in action. I am referring to the Mariners of course! :) My sisters friend, Kristy got us awesome tickets! 24 rows behind home plate - we were both a little bit scared of getting hit by a ball!

Of course Addison tagged along with us. She was awake until the game started, ate for 5 minutes, slept till about the 4th inning, ate for another 5 minutes and slept till the game ended (and then cried the whole way home!). She was really well behaved, but my arm was really tired from holding her for 3 hours! That's okay, maybe I burned off some of those delicious garlic fries we ate!

Speaking of garlic fries, I don't know if we were more excited about the game or the food! The hot dogs and garlic fries are my favorite! And then we had to get some other little munchies... yum!

Anyways, the Mariners lost 4-0. :( It seems like they lose most games I go see. They played the Red Sox and there were tons of fans! That didn't bother me, what did bother me though was that they were way louder than the Mariners fans! Way louder! I don't know why Mariner fans don't get more into the game. Disappointing.

So here are some pictures from our fun girls night. Thanks again Kristy! And thanks Matt for not putting up a stink about not coming with us.


Here we are at our seats before the game started. We had such good seats and were so excited!


Our favorite stadium - Safeco! It's such a nice stadium and we couldn't have picked a prettier night for the game!


This is how I held Addie. I wrapped her blankets over her ears and held my hand over it when people cheered. I forgot how loud baseball games can be! Especially those darn Red Sox fans!


Boo! 4-0. We still had fun!



After the game. You can't tell from the picture, but my arm is about to fall off! Addison is a chunk!

PS - The weird Harry Potter comments are from Alexis. That girl's got too much time on her hands! I was impressed with her vocabulary and spelling though!

What happens when Auntie Amy goes shopping...

I guess the camera really does add 10 pounds! Amy thought Addie looked a whole lot bigger than she really is, so she bought her outfits sized at 6 months. Last night we did a fashion show with Addie, which she loved as you can see! I swear she does more than just cry!



Here is the little cherry blossom, isn't she cute?!



And here's what happens when Auntie Amy gets ahold of the camera!

Family fun at Alki Beach

We finally made it to Seattle yesterday afternoon. We've had such a fun time visiting with family and showing off Addie! Today was such a beautiful day that after a walk with Matt's dad and brother Joe, we headed out to Alki beach. We stayed and played all afternoon and sooo enjoyed the water! Here are a few pictures of our fun Saturday.




We look forward to the rest of our visit!

Two years of birthday presents :)

With my 30th birthday fast approaching, (sob) Matt already bought me my birthday gift! Last year we all got bikes for our birthdays but for some strange reason, we never quite got around to picking mine up from Lubbock 2 hours away. :( And now we're moving and don't need any more stuff around, plus the new baby which makes riding bikes as a family a little more difficult until she gets a little bit older.

Sooo, Matt bought me a beautiful purse! It's gi-normous and I love it! All of the moms out there will understand, it's nice just to be able to throw some diapers in there and not have to lug around 2 bags! And it's high quality so it will last forever, or at least till it goes out of fashion. :) And best of all... my bargain shopping husband got it on clearance! Yea for good deals!

Here is a picture for everyone to enjoy.

How Addie feels about driving

We've been on the road off and on since last Friday. Addison has mixed emotions about driving all day. Here are some pictures to show her feelings on the matter.

Here's what she thought of driving in Arizona.


Here is how she liked driving in southern California.


In Oregon she thought that she might like it...


Nah!


It wasn't all bad, she did discover her tongue and likes to suck on her elephant car seat covers.

Here is the face she makes when we try to sing to her.


And then, blessed sleep! Isn't she an angel?!

Can you guess which state we went through?

The Petroglyphs

In the spirit of doing things around Clovis that we always wanted to but never got around to, Matt and I went to see some ancient petroglyph's yesterday. We got there kinda late so the main site was closed, but they gave us directions to a trail that was surrounded by a neighborhood.

Anyways, the petroglyph's were cool. Matt was amazed, he's got a fascination with them. He carried Addie in the sling and he was climbing rocks and exploring. I was terrified the whole time that we were going to be accosted and murdered. Hey, Albuquerque can be rough!

Here we are at the main site before we realized it was closed. :(

This is how Addie enjoyed the Petroglyph's. Doesn't she look comfy?!

There's Albuquerque behind us. We had to take this quick so I could continue scanning for murderers around us. I really was nervous!

Matt defacing the ancient artifiacts. Doesn't everyone know you're not supposed to touch them?!

Here is a pic of what the petroglyph's actually look like in case you were wondering. :)

Vacation time!

We've had such a crazy summer so Matt and I figured, why not make it a little bit crazier! On Wednesday we decided to drive, yes drive with our 5 week old baby, to Seattle. Road trip!!!

We figured that if we drove we could stop in Sacramento and check things out before committing to a job there, and then Matt got an interview in Oregon, so we'll just make another stop. And then we can show off Addison to all the Seattle family.

So we decided to road trip on Wednesday, then I had committed to being in Lubbock for youth conference all day Thursday, which meant I had only Friday to pack and get the house ready to leave for a month - thanks Tom for staying at our house! Anyways, that made for a crazy day of laundry, packing, planning etc.

Here is a picture of Addie before we got started. She had just woken up, gotten dressed, fed, and played with. She was so happy!

Then there was the laundry...

She was sooo good. Just happily playing on the floor.

Then there was the packing. This is all Addie's stuff! Man she needs a lot!

All that playing tired her out and she slept for a long time.

Then more packing.

She was still being really well behaved!

Then some cleaning. She was still being pretty good.

Hey, every baby has their limit!