Merry Christmas...

From our family to yours.

Bravo!!

This year five of my friends and I bought season tickets to the 5th Avenue Theatre. Tonight was our third show of the season - Jersey Boys. It was fantastic! We all enjoyed the show - great energy, fun songs, and totally entertaining! Next theatre night... Cabaret!

Rock Star @ 8 months

OK - if this is any indication of what Jinoo and I are in for... ummm, we're pretty much in BIG trouble. Hannah attended Saturday night's Christmas party with us. Since the party started at 8pm (her bedtime) we thought we'd let her hang out for a little while, then once she got ornery, she'd go to sleep and we could put her upstairs for the rest of the evening. So, we arrived at the party at 8:30. Hannah was all smiles, laughs, and giggles... UNTIL 1 AM!! She lasted longer than the majority of the party goers!

Hannah @ 11:30 pm

Hannah @ 1:30 am

Top 10 White Elephant Gifts of 2007

As many of you know - the holidays are my favorite time of year, all time between Thanksgiving and the New Year. I love the hustle and bustle of shoppers, all the beautiful decorations, the music and all the lights; everywhere! Not to mention, my birthday (OK - so I mentioned it), goodies, an annual White Elephant Gift Exchange (WE), and goodies (oh! did I already mention that? I love to bake!). The WE party is something we look forward to each year. And I can honestly tell you we (Jinoo & I) have never come up with a WE worthy of the "that will be back next year" we have however been on the receiving end of such gifts.


Here are my favorites of this year...

• #10 A Britney Spears Poster (when she was in her prime!) - A yearly returning gift.


• #9 Red Sequence Pasties w/ Tassels - FUN!



• #8 Sweater - (see above pic of Rob) this is a gift that has surfaced before!


• #7 Playboy Bunny Neon (my guess this will show up for next years party) (Katie, Ryan's wife is so happy he got this!)


• #6 A SET (we're talking 12!!) Christmas Goblets! Matt was so excited! Just what he wanted!


• #5 A purple Washington Huskies Christmas Hat (I went home with this!) Yeah! Great gift - there were many jealous party goers!
• #4 A cactus lamp - this was VERY sought after(?? I know!)!
• #3 An autographed framed picture of Jinoo Mattila (this has made an appearance for the 3rd year in a row!) I'm so proud! Seriously one of the funnest gift ideas ever!


• #2 The mighty GOOSE! This is actually a tea pot (which surfaced as a gift five years ago). Now every year it makes its return in a new way (two years ago it showed up w/ a paper mache girlfriend goose), and it's relegated to being passed around w/ Snow Cap Ale for all to enjoy (two years ago - all it saw was Tequila)!


• And the #1 WE gift of 2007 (which won the title of best WE of 2007 - complete with trophy)...

The BOOBIE MUG!

Santa, I want a waaahhhh!

Our first Santa visit. Hannah only cried for a few seconds - she was so brave!

Another year at 29...

Here I am - another year, another 29th birthday (yes! next year's will again be my 29th birthday)! Jinoo organized (with the help of my girlfriends) a great birthday party. We had a wonderful dinner - BBQ'd wasabi teriyaki chicken, baked potatoes with all the fixin's, my favorite salad & green beans... The party was complete with PINK cupcakes, PINK balloons, and coconut covered chocolate ricecrispies... ALL MY FAVORITES! THANKS! After dinner, we were glued to the TV for the Mayweather fight. Then we had a fight of our own - 6 rounds of Scategories. It was a fun night filled with great friends and lots of laughs!

Let it snow....

Who'd a thunk it? It's December 1st and of all places, Seattle has snow. It's not your typical kinda snow where it's dry and accumulates, it's the kind that brings snowflakes the size of XL cottonballs and if you scooped it in to a cup just add some flavored syrup and you got yourself a nice slushy.

But of course, you're not here for a realtime blog alert for the weather in Seattle....Hannah made it out for her first snow and didn't have too much of a reaction other than trying to catch every passing flake. She posed for a few so enjoy and hopefully the snow will stick for some more pics.

The view from our window as it started to snow.

Hannah getting her first taste of snow.

Evidence that it does more than just rain in Seattle.

Greenlake ain't so green at the moment.

Feeling so much better...

Hannah is feeling much better today - I'd say just about back to normal. She was back to crawling around and pulling herself to stand anywhere she could get a hold of. While standing she is starting to let go of what she is holding on to and try to balance. It's so cute. She thinks she's doing pretty cool tricks!

8 months old...

On Monday, Hannah had to visit the doctor for a check up. She had to get her 3rd set of immunizations and I OK'd a flu shot - I'm regretting it now! Hannah has been feeling so yucky ever since. She is fighting a fever (yesterday AM it was 102.7) and just doesn't feel good. I feel so bad! She can't sleep which makes her even more ornery and cry over just about everything!

As for the visit - Doctor says Hannah is doing well but needs to gain a bit of weight - she's in the 90th percentile in height and 35th percentile in weight. Tall skinny girl!?! You must be thinking she got the tallness from dad and the skinniness from mom!!!

Bachelorette Weekend in Seattle

This past weekend my good friend Edlyn was in town to celebrate her upcoming wedding. The Bachelorette weekend was filled with many fun activities. (Believe it or not, this was the only picture that was wholesome enough to put on the blog!) I tried my best to be a good bridesmaid and join in all the fun, but with my little one at home my nights ended when the other girls were just starting. It was great to have Edlyn back in Seattle and I'm looking forward to her January wedding in San Antonio!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Hannah and I adventured out early this morning to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in downtown Seattle. It was a beautiful day - sunny, no rain. But COLD! Hannah was bundled great - so she stayed in good spirits and had lots of fun! We saw lots of local bands, snowmen, elf, a snow queen, and last but not least - SANTA CLAUS! Holiday music was playing everywhere and people were out in full force for the biggest shopping day of the year. It was a great way to get a jump on the holiday spirit! I love it!

Hannah's 1st Thanksgiving

This year we stayed in Seattle and had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with many of our close friends (24 of us!). We ate all the usual fixin's and I attempted homemade bread made from scratch. It turned out OK but my chocolate chip pumpkin bread was a hit! Hannah wasn't sure what to make of it all. She did however enjoy the sweet potatoes w/ marshmellows!

Thanksgiving Benefit Class

All you Seattleites out there... A Thanksgiving Day Benefit Class is schudeuled for November 22nd at 9:00 am at Bitterlake Community Center. Mark your calendars and make plans for someone else to put the turkey into the oven. This is a great way to start the day and has been a favorite for many years. This is a 100% Benefit Class to help local families in need. We ask that you bring food or personal care items for the Greenwood Food Bank and a cash donation (the class itself is free). In the past we have helped several families with heating, medical or utility bills. The money specifically is used to help families that do not get other services but are hard working families that just need a little help due to a crisis or situation. This will be about an hour & a half class and will be so much fun. I won't be teaching the whole class, there will be five of us switching it up. Be sure to arrive a little early to get a spot - last year we had over 100 Jazzercisers!

Sucked in (no pun intended)...

After several nights of up til 3am (not with Hannah, but with a book in hand)... I recently finished the series Twilight. So far there are three books and they are incredibly addicting! I actually became emotionally invested... Both my mom and step mom have read them and even my grandma gives it a yeah! I loaned the first book out to my friend Steph and she couldn't put it down until all three where read. I promise if you read the first one, you'll have to read the next one and the next one. Patiently waiting for book 4 - scheduled to come out Fall of 2008.

I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back....

In order to enjoy these pics more, you have to sing the theme song to Chili's restaurant tv commercial....and when you're done know that Hannah started one night out as a pumpkin and then her actual Halloween costume was a red hot chili pepper.

The pumpkin outfit was worn as we dropped off the goods to Pete and Sarah's Halloween party last Saturday but Halloween night was spent with Reese, Paige and Alexa Carlisle prancing around in costumes and chewing on candy bags as opposed to eating real candy, for Hannah that is. The other girls were old enough to eat candy but Hannah was content in seeing her friends dressed up funny and getting to chew on bags while wearing a costume. A memorable first time Halloween indeed!

Hannah just has to laugh at Pete seeing how his costume in his mind is half costume and half reality to him.

Hannah doesn't know what to make of Sarah's jellyfish costume.

The girls enjoying their candy stash.

"Yeah, so I'm a chili pepper....you wanna make somethin of it?!"

Strong is the force in this one. Ok, she's still a chili pepper but looks like a little Padwan.

Wait until she gets the real thing next year!

Our first Family Halloween together.

My good luck charm

The reason why this wasn't posted last week is because my Huskies lost a gut wrenching game to the Arizona Wildcats. When I say gut wrenching, I don't mean it was a competitive game that went back and forth, I mean gut wrenching like you just had the winning lottery ticket in your hand only to see it slip from your grasp and in to a fire. I had to let the feeling subside before I could be reminded of it. The good news is, is that Hannah got to enjoy her first Husky game. She was well dressed and for the most part at least the weather cooperated. She only stayed for the first quarter in which we were winning but then hit her limit and had to get out of there. Hmmm....While Hannah stays at the game Huskies are winning? Looks like she's staying for the entire game next time around!