Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Chels, Kitten, and I have had a pretty good NYE so far--we made nachos for dinner, sipped some champagne and sparkling apple cider, and watched Titanic (ha ha, still makes me cry)! I have two days off in a row at home with my wifey, yay! For those of you who don't know, Chels has been having an episode of back pain that has lasted almost a month, so she's been home from work trying to recover. Slowly but surely! Thanks for all of your support, our dear family & friends. Chelsea has been dealing with back pain and herniated discs since she was 15, had back surgery a few years ago on one disc, and occasionally has flair-ups. Currently she has a disc protruding that is pressing against her sciatic nerve a causing pain down her legs, making it difficult for her to sit, bend, stand for long periods of time, etc. Not good... But! We're hanging in there :) We renewed our gym membership and are hoping to get stronger and more fit--cheers to a healthier 2011! Hope everyone is having a fabulous NYE and a has a happy 2011 New Year!

Christmas Day

Christmas is here! Finally! :) Chels and I had been waiting to look in our stockings for days (apparently Santa comes early to our house...) YAY!


A new cupcake carrier for her lunch


Some new lotions and potions for me



A cute new jacket and sweet new watch from my sweet wifey :)


Chelsea's new boots, neck warmer, scarf, hat, gloves & Wii motion from my family

My new gloves, neck warmer, and a new purse, thanks Mama & Sissies!

After we opened the rest of our presents we headed over to Steph & Dan's to spend Christmas day with them and Barry & Cindy :) We had a lovely brunch and spent the day relaxing and catching up.

The newlyweds and chefs extraordinaire!

Barry & Cindy

Me & Chels

Yay! New Sonicare toothbrush for Chels (and one for me, too)! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Steph & Dan with a wedding photo canvas from Barry & Cindy

Chels & I with our wedding photo canvas

Family Christmas picture

We had a great holiday! Love to all of our family and friends we didn't get to spend it with, we miss you! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! It's been a while since we've updated, we've been busy! We got our tree and decorated for the holidays, as you can see below...


Chels is very strategic about where the lights and each ornament are placed


Kitten also has her own ornament!

She loves the tree!

This awesome calendar is now ours, given to us by Chelsea's parents. We love this calendar especially because Candace and her sisters had the EXACT same one growing up!!! We used to fight over who would get to move the mouse each day, and I usually moved it when it wasn't my turn (sorry, Ashley)! :) Now Chels and I get to fight over who gets to move the mouse, yay!

It seems that all Kitten wants for Christmas is this box

Barry, Sean, Claire, Sandy

We went to Steph & Dan's on Thursday night for Cindy's birthday dinner. It was very fun! Steph is learning to cook and everything was delicious, great job, Boo! :)

Miranda & Matt, always so cute

Aunt Cathy, Cindy, and Steph, toasting Cindy's birthday!

Chels and I with our new wool socks for our weekly walks with Aunt Cathy and Steph


A puzzle picture of Chels from when she was tiny, super cute! This was made by Auntie Laura when Chelsea was little, and Cindy gave it to me for Christmas this year. Very sweet! I need to practice my puzzle putting together skills...Steph, we can practice together! Neither of us get the concept of not "making" the puzzle piece fit, oops :)

The Newlyweds' first Christmas

We had Barry & Cindy and Steph & Dan over tonight for a Christmas Eve family dinner :) Chels and Kitten relaxing after the festivities...

All smiles while playing her new Wii games!

Thanksgiving and Other Opportunities to Eat and Drink Too Much...

In case you missed the news last week, Seattle got hit with quite a snowstorm! It started Monday afternoon and the snow shut down the city through Thursday... Here are some pictures from outside our apartment on Thursday--this is after it's started to melt, so there was plenty more. Now Minnesotans, before you laugh at the piddly amount of snow you see, remember there are big hills in Seattle and no snow plows! :)


Kitten's not sure what to make of the snow


Picture out the front door


View from out the back door

We went over to Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy's for Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures of us preparing our dishes: we made a baked potato casserole and a sweet potato dish with brown sugar & walnuts on top, yum! Thanks for the recipe, Ash!

Chels in the onion goggles :)
Lucky girl, I was crying!

Cousin Miranda & Matt

Yum! Though the picture does not do the food justice...

Here we all are at Aunt Cathy's

Cousin Claire & Sean

Friday night Chels and I had some friends over for a little cocktail party. Five of us girls (and Todd) used to work at Crate together and we still get together to hang out when we can! It was me, Chels, Todd, Marit, Courtney, Karen & PJ, and Erin & Ashod, fun times! I made pomegranate martinis that turned out pretty tasty :)

Marit & I setting up the snacks

Pomegranate martini, pretty and delicious!

Cheese and crackers is always a crowd-pleaser!

Sean and Claire came over today to play "Settlers of Catan" with us and help us eat the leftover cheese and crackers (we really had to twist their arms to help out, ha ha)...

Here's a picture of Kitten "helping" with the clean laundry :)

PS: Happy birthday to my Mom yesterday! My sisters thought it would be funny to actually put a candle per year on the cake and said she's up to three boxes this year--sounds like a fire-hazard! :) Mom said you could feel the heat radiating off of the cake, and that the candles were melting the icing, ha ha... Love you, Mom!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

That's right, folks, I've been listening to Christmas music already! This is new for me--typically I DO NOT listen to Christmas music at home because I hear it at work during the holidays (starts next Friday!), but this year I actually wanted to listen to it and I've already started. Chels and I downloaded some albums from Itunes and I've been thinking about getting the classics we used to listen to with Mom: Alabama, John Denver, the Carpenters, etc. Not sure if I'm ready yet for Anne Murray Christmas, sorry Mom :) I still cannot stand the little drummer boy, don't think I'll ever like that one!

What have we been up to lately? Well, we went up to Uncle Sandy and Aunt Cathy's cottage on Camano Island a few weekends ago, which was lovely. It's only an hour north of Seattle but it feels like a whole lot farther because it's so peaceful. It's nice to get away from the city sometimes... Earlier this week Chels and I celebrated 4 years together :) It feels longer in some ways and then surprising it's already been four years in other ways. We seem so young in our college pictures together. Funny!

Otherwise, we've been working a lot and trying to spend some time with each other and our friends. Busy time of year! There's a rumor Seattle is supposed to get snow this weekend, and I'm secretly hoping we get some. I LOVE the first snow of the season! One of the things I miss most about Minnesota, besides my family and friends (of course!). It's just so fresh and quiet and beautiful to see the first snowflakes falling, hopefully I'll get to see some this weekend (sorry Chels, I know you hate driving in the snow...) Then again, I'm one of the only managers who can still get to work when it snows because I walk to work, so maybe I shouldn't wish for snow. Oh well! :) I'm excited for Thanksgiving this week, yum! I'm planning to make 2 dishes--one is a sweet potato dish, and the other will be some sort of delicious potato and miscellaneous other item main dish that Chels will eat (that's Aunt Cathy's stipulation!). I wanted to make sweet potatoes the way we make them back home, with melted marshmallows on top, but everyone balked at that idea. So plan B is boring but still delicious brown sugar on top. I'll let you know how it goes... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lastly, I wanted to say goodbye to my sweet older cousin David. He passed away last week. We love you, David, and miss you. You won't be forgotten...goodbye.

Good Times!

A week ago Saturday we went to a hockey game for the local Seattle Thunderbirds team and it was awesome! It's the first hockey game Chelsea has ever been to and she had a blast. For 2 years in high school I was one of the girl's hockey team managers--I was convinced to quit basketball and join by some of my friends on the team. Glad I did, what a fun sport! Bonnie was also captain of the cheerleading squad for the varsity boy's hockey team, so we spent a lot of time at the arena. I tried to help Chels learn the ropes of the game, but even for those who don't know the rules, it's still awesome to watch. The fights are especially entertaining! :)


We actually had pretty good seats! It's good to see all of the ice--too close to the boards and you lose sight of the puck...


That face says she's excited!


Face off!

Definitely makes you want to go ice-skating (and watch D2 again)

Refs breaking up a fight--boo!

It was great to be at a game again--can't believe it's been 8 years since I've been, yikes! Maybe this winter I can teach Chels how to skate at Seattle Center :)

With Halloween just around the corner, we thought we'd get some pumpkins. Chels picked out a pumpkin that looks like each of us, including one for Kitten.

Here she is hard at work

She loves digging out the pumpkin guts!

She was the master carver, meanwhile I decided to bake the seeds with some seasoned salt, yum!

Here's Kitten's pumpkin

Spooky Kitten

Not sure about it... Maybe she doesn't see the resemblance!