5 YEARS!!!

September 13th, 2003

Ben and I have been married for 5 years!!! Can you believe it? In some ways it feels like we have been married for WAY longer than that, like it just seems that I've just been with Ben forever! And in other ways, it feels like it seriously JUST happened, like I can't believe that its been 5 years already! Its been over a week now, but I had to write about our wonderful weekend last week! Anyone who knows Ben knows that he is the most frugal person on the planet. So since we've been married I've tried to plan fun surprises, or little weekend getaways for special occasions, and Ben freaks out. He worries that I have spent too much money on all that is planned, or I didn't look hard enough to find the BEST deal, and Its like he has to plan the big celebrations or big events himself, just so HE knows that the celebration will cost us the absolute least amount as possible. (I have a tendency to just to buy the first thing that comes along when planning something, he however will scour every resource possible to find the cheapest deal) Anyway, I have long given up planning surprises for Ben. He is the planner, and he also loves doing it. Which is A-OK with me. He loves planning the evenings for our anniversary or valentines day or birthdays, or whatever, and I have let him take that aspect of our relationship over. It sometimes drives me crazy, but I love that he loves to plan fun things for us, and I know that in the long run, being frugal is the best way.

Anyway, with all of that being said about his frugality, Ben way out-did himself this year. He took me to Seattle for the weekend and we saw 'Phantom of the Opera'! It was SO much fun! The weekend was perfect! (besides a few little hitches-like almost calling it quits right then and there when we got lost on the way to the Melting Pot) :) More or less, it was Perfect! We stayed at a beautiful hotel downtown, went to dinner at the Melting Pot, which I had been dying to do, and then went to Phantom at this old beautiful historic theatre right in downtown Seattle.

September 13th, 2008

This is the Theatre, it was beautiful!

(which you TOTALLY can not tell from this picture-but isn't that a nice one-way sign?) :)

Here's the inside- do you see the Phantom lurking anywhere?

(and yet another Crappy picture) :)

This was my first time ever seeing Phantom, and I loved it! Loved the story, loved the singing, loved all of it, it was a perfect! Ben and I are still singing Phantom songs, I think he has been even more than me! :) He likes to make up his own words that go with whatever he happens to be doing at the time.

This was after the play, can you tell that Ben was in a rush to get to the car and DID NOT want to take this picture??? :)

Tomatoes, B-days, Fairs and such...

So last week Ben comes walking in from the back yard with an arm full of tomatoes. I've loved having a garden and taking care of it and watering it, etc etc... But I haven't been so good at the harvesting part. (I know, the whole point of a garden, right?) So apparently our tomato plant has produced hundreds of juicy delicious red tomato's, and I hadn't even noticed. To give myself some credit, from the front of the plant all you see is a green bush. The tomatoes for some reason are all showing from the back of the plant. Anyway, I was excited, I didn't realize that one little plant could produce so many tomatoes. I seriously had grocery bags full of them! I'm not a big tomato lover, but my family and friends (whom I gave the tomatoes away to) all said they were delicious.

So the weather has been yo-yoing around here from pretty cold fall-type weather to beautiful summer weather all over again. Our pool had closed for the summer, but then the weather got so good again, they opened it up for another week. We took advantage and had a little b-day party for Tuckers friend, Carly. I can't believe that she is already 2! That means that Tucker will soon be 2 as well! And that CAN NOT be right!

I made her the cutest little bug cakes. It is a cakelet pan from William-Sonoma that I got last year that I have been dying to use. They turned out so cute, and it wasn't even that hard! I also have a train one that I will use for Tuckers b-day in November.



They could have turned out even cuter with more time and the right tools. :) It was a big hit with the kids, so I must have done something right! :)

We also went to the Spokane County fair, which is always fun! :) Tucker got to ride a llama.

He always wants to go on the rides, but then his face looks like this the whole time, so I'm sure he's NOT enjoying it. But then he wants to go again and again and again. Its really funny! This one was going up and down and pretty fast.

He liked the cars that just went around and around.

Nathan and Ben went on the big kid rides and Tucker thought it was so cool when they would 'fly' by us.

And here is a picture of all of us 'fishing'!

Tucker has been wanting to take his naps on 'Dada's bed' lately. It hasn't worked out too well and I usually have to con him into sleeping in his own bed somehow. Although this morning we went to the library and on the way home he kept on saying nigh-night and that he wanted a bottle, so when we got home I made him one and went to put him down and he wanted to go straight to his crib. He didn't even want to rock and sing with me, which we usually do for a few minutes before he goes down. He's getting to be such a big and independent boy. Wheres my little baby? We got him a twin mattress that is down in our basement right now, for his 'big-boy' bed, and I'm thinking he might be ready for it soon. We'll see!

I've been so used to using an SLR camera lately that going back to my point and shoot camera is a little strange. I took this one and forgot that the point and shoots take so long to actually snap-so I moved the camera before it even took. oops! I still thought it was cute of him.

I was loading my car to go somewhere the other day and he just hopped right in the driver seat like he knew exactly what he was doing! The little stinker just wants to be a big boy so bad!

PS... Ben and I just got back from Seattle for the weekend for our 5 year anniversary and saw 'Phantom of the Opera.' It was amazing! I will be posting about that next! :) I just had to catch up.

Americas Next Top Model Is...

So I found some more lost pictures. How I overlooked these, I do not know. We were flipping through the TV and ended on 'Americas Next Top Model.' Cookie was inspired, and luckily I had my camera ready and in-hand.

I'm still trying to figure out why everyone (myself included) loves to post funny pictures of Cookie on their blogs? Why is it so fun??? I think its because we LOVE you so much! :) I love how the eyes aren't ever opened, not even once! :) Those sure are bunzzz of steel you have there! :)

Love you Cookie! :)

End of Summer Blues...

So I was looking through my pictures and thought I'd post some of our last days of summer that I'd forgotten about. The Spokane Shock (Spokane's Arena Football Team) ended up making it to the Championships and had the Championship game here in Spokane. It was really fun! Tucker, my sister-in-law, Angie, my mom and I were even all on the news. They were interviewing the guy who sits in front of us at the games who is a crazy fanatic fan, so we were just in the background being dumb. But still, we were on the news that night! :) Angie and I both happened to wearing green, and didn't realize that the other teams colors were green and white. We were the only ones wearing green in a sea of orange and blue. oops!

I kept on trying to get Tucker to look at me for a picture, but he just wanted to watch the game! He loved it! It was a really fun game and came down to a one point difference (unfortunately, The Shock didn't win) but it was SO loud!

They were giving out these megaphones, and Tucker was loving it!

How come I love this guy so much?

We also went to the lake with our good friends, the Enloes. We love the Enloes! Their daughter, Olivia (who is 4 and about the same size as Tucker) loves Tucker and Tucker loves Olivia! She is probably one of the funniest girls I've ever met, never a dull moment with her! :) There is a restaurant on the lake out by their cabin, Shooters, so we went there for dinner and these two just ran around and around and around the table ALL night!

The next day we went out on the lake and had a great day! Thanks so much you guys!

Here they are again.

By the end of the day, we had some pretty worn out kids. All of them looked like this on the boat ride back to the cabin.

Another reason we are sad to have the summer end is because we have going to the park to enjoy Hawaiian shaved ice as often as we can! We will sure miss those delicious treats!

As much as I love the summer, I ALSO love the fall and SO look forward to bundling up and going to Greenbluff and carving pumpkins and all the beautiful fall colors and wonderful smells. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place that has four very different and distinct and beautiful seasons! Our summer has been wonderful and busy and down-right exhausting some days, and we are grateful for our family and friends with whom we get to enjoy our lives with!

So Long, Summer...

Traditionally, here in the Northwest, Labor day weekend is the official end of the summer. Sad, but true, the time has already come and gone and it is definitely turning into Fall outside. I seriously can't believe how literally, on September 1st, the weather changed and it was Fall! Luckily for us, our Summer went out with a bang this year! My best friend from Jr. High, (yes, that's right, Jr. High-14 years ago!) Cookie, came up to visit from Utah with her daughter, Olivia; mom, Tonie; and little sister, Rosie. I love them all so much! It was a blast! They turned our basement into the Moncrief Hotel and I couldn't have been happier to have them here! I still miss them! Our other best-friend from Jr. High, Jessy was also in town from New York visiting her family for a few weeks, and so of course we had a little reunion. Here are me, Cookie and Jessy.

I still love these girls! I can not tell you how fun it was being all together again! The last time we were all together was at Jessy's wedding reception in Utah, 8 years ago!

I especially loved getting to know these two little ones:

Jessy's little guy, Baby Will: ('Baby Whheeel' as Tucker says)

And Cookies gorgeous little one, Olivia:

We had a little reunion with girls that we grew up with. We went to the park and had a picnic. It was great to catch up with everyone.

Tiffany, Jessy, Rosie, Cookie, Erica and me.

Tucker was showing off the whole time Olivia was here. It was so funny, when they first got here and he saw Olivia crawling, we told him to show her how to walk so he started like Marching around her, walking with his legs really high. It was really funny, he has never done this before, but walked so he was right next to Olivia, put one arm on the coffee table, and one arm on the couch and just hung there for a few seconds, his face turning red and all-I was dying !Here he is showing Cookie and Olivia how high he can jump. Such a show off.

But who wouldn't want to show off for this cute girl!!! :) Who is also like the best baby ever! Seriously, so cute, so easy, so close to walking, so much FUN!

They kind of fought like brother and sister some of the time, but the two were fast friends! :) Tucker even held her bottle for her in the car one night! Now that's love!

And of course when all of us get together, there has to be a photo shoot.

Here are Meg, Jessy and Tonie. (Cookie and Rosies mom)

And Cookie and I.

Lots of posing and lots of being silly!

Rosie, Me, Cookie, Jessy and Meg-I love these girls, I seriously can't believe its been so long, it kind of felt like we were 13 year olds all over again! :)

We headed downtown to Riverfront Park one day to visit the garbage goat, (by far the coolest attraction in Spokane) and we lucked out and discovered that 'Pig out in the Park' was happening, so we got to partake of lots of yummy food! The garbage goat sucks up garbage in his mouth.

We ended the weekend with the best BBQ ever- thanks to Erica and Jeff! They have the cutest kids and Jeff made the best hamburgers! We even got to help Alyssa pick out her outfit for her first day of kindergarten-we were so lucky!

The weekend was perfect! It was so much fun having them here. Tucker just asked me, 'Baby Olivia go home?' after he saw her picture on the computer. I could tell he was missing her, just like I am. Ben even sent them off in style by backing into their parked car in our driveway on their last night here! It was great--we really know how to treat our guests while they're here! :) I think that he was secretly trying to keep them here longer, since he obviously enjoyed the company so much! :) Luckily Tonie is like the sweetest, most understanding person in the world, and did her best to not make Ben feel bad, even though he felt awful about it! So anyway, thanks so much for coming you guys, seriously, we need to do it again, REAL soon!