Tacky Sweaters and Baked Goods!

We started what I am hoping will be a fun tradition for years to come - a Christmas party! This year it was a tacky Christmas sweater party. It was a great excuse to get together with our friends and family and have a silly time. Oh, and an even better excuse for me to bake. However, I failed to as many pictures of the fun sweaters as I should have - oops!

Some of the beautiful sweaters:And for good measure, just take a look at these baked goods:
Drooling yet?

Christmas Tree Lighting

Saturday we took off for Leavenworth again! This time we went for the Christmas Tree Lighting. We arrived at about noon to a cold Leavenworth (about 20 degrees - BRRR!), just in time for lunch. We ate at our favorite spot - Uncle Uli's. They serve excellent food and always have our favorite beer. Fantastic combination, no?

After we were filled with tasty beverage and chili nachos, we set off for the Gingerbread Factory. O.M.G. We love that place. They make the best cookies and obviously specialize in gingerbread. De-lish!

We did a bit of shopping (between trips to get cocoa!) and then joined the HUGE crowd in the middle of the street to watch the lighting ceremony. There were carols, a visit from Santa, and even a sweet man proposing to his girlfriend (she said yes!). The park lit up and so did the rest of the town and it was beautiful!

Once the lights were shining we headed off for dinner and wouldn't you know it, it started snowing!! It was an early Christmas miracle. All of the kids were very excited and instantly started sledding down the hill (it wasn't even built up yet! lol). Groups were gathered around the barrel fires and huddled into the shops. In this busy holiday season it was just what we needed to get in the spirit.

All in all, another great trip to Leavenworth!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that your Thanksgiving was filled with family, friends, good times, and good food! We had a quiet and relaxing evening with Chris and Scotty. We ate way too much food and had a great time enjoying each others company and playing cards. Chris whooped us all at Phase 10 and she'd never even played before! I say it was beginners luck and I want a rematch! :)

The Bird

The Pie

Friday morning at 4:00am rolled around and our alarm went off. We hopped out of bed and get in line outside of Target. Thankfully we ran in to Rachel and Hannah and we were able to get in line with them (*GASP* I know, we broke the rules and CUT IN LINE. We are not good at following Black Friday etiquette.). But, we got out Dyson for $200/off just like we planned! SCORE!
Friday evening we attending our annual Thanksgiving Round II at the Ostrander household. It is there that our friends get together and celebrate the holidays by stuffing ourselves silly for a second day in a row. We had a great time and ate even more great food!

The holidays are officially upon us. Is your shopping done yet?

Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween. It started out with a quick trip to Ikea where we finally found a desk for our downstairs. It's definitely a step up from the old one! Later in the day we went to dinner at a friends house. They were having a chili cook-off and Halloween costume contest. Delicious chili! We ended the night at Jessica and Umar's place. They rented out the cabana at their condo complex and decorated it really nice! Everyone had great costumes and we had a lot of fun hanging out with our pals. We had a very happy Halloween and we hope you did too!

What did we dress up as?

'The Scotts' of course!

Oktoberfest

We attended our first Oktoberfest in Leavenworth last weekend! It rained like crazy on the way over, but thankfully it only rained off and on once we got there and we were able to spend most of our time in the hall or tents. It was a lot of fun! We drank beer and sang along with the band, met really fun people and even did a bit of shopping to round things off. Plus, we timed our drive through the pass nicely to see all of the beautiful fall foliage!

If you've never been to the Gingerbread House, I highly recommend it. Their cookies are wonderful!

Oklahoma 2009

We're back from our annual visit to Oklahoma. It was a fun and relaxing weekend. Basically we caught up with family and ate, ate, ate. This weekend we visited all the restaurants we don't have at home, we went to Broken Arrow and saw the former Scott Residence and elementary school (annual tradition), and Saturday we spent out at Tenkiller Lake in a cabin and we celebrated Scotty's birthday! Click on the picture below to see some pictures!

Look at what I picked up this weekend!

4 years after getting my endorsement, I bought a bike! It is a 2005 Kawasaki Ninja 500r. Isn't it pretty?? I've only gotten to ride it a little bit so far, but it's a blast!

Night on the town.

Jeremy, Whitney, Alex and I had a blast on Friday!

We checked into the downtown Sheraton at about 5:00 on Friday. We had a nice room with a peek-a-boo view of the ferry lane. After a minor ticket fiasco (we got to the field and left the tickets at the hotel... Ooops!) we had a yummy dinner and a pitcher at Pyramid.

Following dinner we crossed the street to The Safe for Whit's first ever Mariner's game at Safeco Field! We showed her around a bit and found our seats. They were awesome! We were just up the first base line (about level with the right fielder). We'd arrived in the second inning and the M's were losing. We had quite a few chances though to 'BOOOOOO' Alex Rodriguez, and that always feels good. (Note: It doesn't feel quite as good the next day when you don't have much of a voice left...) During the top of the ninth Yankees fans were excited, they were about to win 2-1 and were getting bragadocious. Oh, but we showed them! Bottom of the ninth, one runner on and Ichiro goes deep! A long fly ball to the right field bleachers. WOOOOOHOOOO, we win! There may have been some extra screaming and jumping up and down on our part (and a little dance or two on the walk out of the park that I won't mention), just to salt the wounds of those bitter Yanks, but they asked for it. ;)

I went to an M's game, did you really think I wouldn't include a picture of Jr.??

We walked around the park for a bit, found a cool Seattle team store and played in front of Qwest Field before we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. We weren't quite ready to be done for the night so we crossed the street and went to Gameworks. I have never been to the Seattle Gameworks and we had fun! We got a good deal on tokens and played until we were ready to pass out. (thank goodness we just had to cross the street!)

Saturday morning we got to sleep in and take our time getting ready. It was nice to just laze around for awhile. We checked out around 11:30 and walked down to the market. Now, let me just say that I love our city. The architecture, the people, the activities, the sports teams, etc. But there are very very few things I love more than Pike Place Market. Just visiting the market makes me want to sell our homes and rent a cool loft on 1st Street so that I can go to the market every single day, rain or shine. Well, in the case of Saturday it was rain, but I couldn't care less. We stopped at La Panier, my favorite French cafe for a croissant and a latte (BEST EVER) and hit up all the shops. It was a blast.

Heaven on Earth.

Aren't they beautiful?

This bird knew the coolest tricks and this little boy was loving it. Whitney and I led the boys straight to the mall to do some preliminary Christmas List making at Fireworks. If you've never been to one, set down what you're doing and GO. That store has all kinds of phenomenal stuff. Cool gadgets, beautiful jewelry (made my local artists), funny books, silly office supplies, art, bags/wallets, frames, etc. The store is filling with people saying 'Oh, look at this!' I've been a fan for a number of years. I could max out each one of my credit cards here and hardly feel guilt at all. Have I made my point? I think so.

All in all it was a great time. Good company, yummy food, M's kicked some butt, got a trip to the market, did some shopping and were home to take a nap by 2:00. It was a great time!

Chainsaw Disaster 2009

I'm hoping this will motivate Jeremy to keep writing.

He started a blog a couple weeks back. A place to record the events of the day he cut his fingers on a chainsaw.

Check it out:

http://www.sawfingers.blogspot.com/

Making Strides

We are pleased to be participating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk again this year! I know that times are tough, but if you have the luxury to donate, every penny counts! Each and every one of us can probably name at least one person they know that has been impacted by breast cancer. And although fund raising is not required to participate in this walk, I feel morally obligated to present this opportunity to lend a hand to my friends and family. I hope that you all consider participating (walking or making a donation)!

Here is a link to my personal page:
The American Cancer Society:

Thanks!!

Evergreen State Fair

We had a great time at the fair last Friday! We shopped, people watched, ate YUMMY food, saw cute animals, and ate some more! Here are some photo highlights:

He's my favorite:

Sleeping baby pigs only a few weeks old:Pigmy!Aye Aye Captain!The boy will never learn.

Landon's Pictures

Sorry for the delay, but as promised here is a link (just click the photo) to a highlight of some of the newborn pictures I took of Landon last week! Ain't he just a cutie pie?

Updates!

I've been awful about keeping this updated, I apologize! We've been busy bees the past few weeks, so I will try to catch you up.

About 3 weeks ago now Jeremy cut two fingers on his left hand with a chainsaw. Thankfully he did not cut them off, just cut them up pretty good. Overall he was very lucky. He missed the bone and major ligaments. He's still got dressings on them that he has to change every day and they still look disgusting, but they are improving every day. He's had a couple of physical therapy appointments and he's been keeping up with his exercises like a good patient. Hopefully in 3-4 weeks he'll be closer to normal. He'll have a nasty couple of scars and probably very little sensation, but we'll take it!

This is what his bandage and brace looked like the next day. I will spare you the blood and guts pictures (yes, of course he took them!). On August 13th Rachel gave birth to Landon James (9lbs 15.3oz, 21 3/4" long, 15" head). The labor was long and uneventful for the most part, until the end where things got a little sticky. Thankfully both mama and baby are both doing wonderful. I've known Taylor for a lot of years and I admit it is a little weird to see him become a dad (I keep saying 'when did we become grown ups?!), but at the same time I am incredibly proud of him. Rachel gave him a glowing review for his handling of the stress of the labor and he's been hands on and all about learning to care for Landon. Both Rachel and Taylor have their hands full learning to adjust to this new addition in their life, but you can just see how happy and proud they are. We love them both and couldn't be happier for their family. I'm taking newborn shots of Landon tomorrow, so I'll share more pictures afterward, but here is one of him snuggling with his Auntie Sarah to tide you over:
The last update was that my birthday was yesterday! I turned 25 on the 25th. It was a relaxed and casual day and I had a lot of fun. I spent the morning volunteering, my boss bought me lunch and when I got back to the office my employees gave me cookies and a card and had completed decorated my cubical in streamers and balloons:
It was a funny surprise! That evening Jeremy and I went for pedicures (his first!) and to dinner with family. I was spoiled rotten. Jeremy had flowers sent to work and they are beautiful! It was a great day, I'm really enjoying 25 so far!The Evergreen State Fair starts this week and we're going camping next weekend, so there will be lots more updates to come!

Our Anniversary Weekend

We had such a great time! Neither of us can believe it has been a year since our wedding day. Boy time flies. A weekend away was the best gift we could have given ourselves.

Friday morning we left for our weekend in Port Ludlow. It is a quiet blink-and-you'll-miss-it town just a short ferry ride away from us. We stayed at the Port Ludlow Inn and loved it. The Inn is a really small hotel (37 rooms I believe) and it has great views, pretty and cozy rooms, and a nice restaurant in the lobby.

We spent the weekend relaxing, walking on the beach looking at sea creatures (we even saw an otter before we came home on Sunday - SO cute!), visiting Ft. Flagler, kayaking, eating delicious food, reading, etc. The tv didn't come on one time - it was marvelous.

If you have the opportunity to get away for a quiet weekend, we highly recommend the Inn. It was just what we needed!

Just a few pictures from the trip. Email me if you want the link to the rest. I took TONS, but then again, don't I always?!

Because it is fun to remember what we were doing a year ago today, I will leave you with my all time favorite wedding picture:

Rachel's Baby Shower

We had a great time!

It rained, and that sucked. There was even thunder and a bit of lightning involved. We were supposed to be having a picnic in my big back yard. There were freshly stained adirondack chairs and a pressure washed picnic table and back patio, picnic blankets and of course the appropriate yummy picnic fare. So, we all had to squeeze into my living room (roughly 15 or so people) for the festivities. It wasn't ideal, but it worked!

I had a great time catching up with some friends I haven't seen in some time and ooohing and awwwwing over tiny baby things! Of course Rachel was spoiled rotten, as is the purpose of baby showers after all! Now she just need a little Landon James around to be able to enjoy the loot.

Once most everyone had left we had one last surprise for Rachel. I worked with three wonderful friends that don't live locally. Two of them even arranged ahead of time to send me their presents. So, once things quieted down I brought out the laptop, so that they could 'attend' her shower via webcam. They got to watch her open their gifts and say hello. It was SO sweet of them to want to be involved. Oh, and you should have seen Rachel cry. She was SO surprised! I knew I would get tears out of her! ;)

Congrats again, Rach!

Mariners Game!

Because Scotty is awesome, he treated the whole fam to a Mariners game! Saturday we had dinner and all hit the ball park to watch the M's wipe out Texas. The weather was gorgeous and the company was even better. It was Emily and Noah's first game, so it was good that they got to see the team win! The boys were dressed in their new ball caps and Emily in her Mariners dress, and on the walk in to the park every Safeco employee handed them baseball cards. I had the best time talking baseball with Aidan and Noah and teaching them all about the only player they ever need to know - Ken Griffey Jr, of course!

My Love: (2nd to Jeremy, of course! Just don't tell him that, it goes to his head... :) )

The whole gang:

Jeremy and the boys:

Noah wearing Jeremy's hat:

Emily in her cute dress (and Jeremy's hat):

4th of July Weekend

What a great weekend! Here's a recap:

Friday:
Most of Friday was spent relaxing at home. We've been running around 24/7, so having a day to veg out was really nice! We went to my dads for dinner and got a chance to hang out with Grandma Shirley and some family friends. It was a low maintenance burgers and dogs kind of night, but those are the best! I even played a few games of cribbage against my dads friends and took all of their money! (okay, $3, but I was excited!!)

Saturday:
Another morning spent in front of the tv or reading. The new Harry Potter movie comes out next week, so we are diligently reading the most recent books in preparation! Yes, we know that we're dorks, but you love us anyway!

For lunch we headed to the home of our dear friends Jessica and Umar. We all had plans for the evening, but we decided that we still wanted to get together. So, we had a lunch BBQ instead. It was great to relax with yummy food and great friends.

Our time with Jess, Umar and gang was short, but we headed up north to meet up with Erik and Sherrie. After heading to the river to see if they won the Duck Race (up to $40k for life!! Unfortunately, they didn't win. Bummer!), we headed to a firework stand and got some great last-minute deals. It was almost 9:00pm when we got there and everything was buy-one-get-one-free! Plus some things were marked down. In the end we bought about $400+ worth of fireworks for less than $100. Jeremy and Erik got to spend a good few hours blowing things up, AND no one lost even an eyebrow. I even got to try out the fireworks setting on my cool camera. Some of them came out pretty good!

Sunday:
The morning was mostly dedicated to work in the yard. We had chairs to restain, a deck and patio to clean up and some pressure washing to do. Plus, just a bit of housework we'd been neglecting all weekend.

But, after our chores were done, Jenn, JP, Aidan, Noah, and Emily came up to play! JP and Jeremy set up the Slip 'n Slide and played with the boys, while us girls sat and laughed and watched them play. We ate bbq leftovers (Jenn's potato salad may be my new fav - sorry mom, but it has bacon in it!) and had yummy margaritas.

Look at Noah's cheesy grin, he just knows he's cute!

This of course meant that we got to spend some quality time with Emily too! We hadn't seen her in a few weeks and she is getting so big!

Overall we had a fantastic weekend. It was great to see family and friends and to get some much needed R&R. We hope you all had a fun and safe fourth! I will leave you with one last picture, one of cute Emily!

Happy Father's Day!

**edit - apparently I neglected to actually post this ON Father's Day**

We would like to wish all of you dad's out there a Happy Father's Day! Enjoy your special day. We are lucky enough to be hanging out with both of our dad's for the M's game and some burgers. Hope you all have fun plans too!

UW Softball

They did it! The Lady Dawgs clenched their first NCAA title in Oklahoma City! Jeremy and I watched the game last night. It came right down to the bottom of the 7th. What a great game!

Dawgs sweep Gators