Too Cute for Words

On the Move!

Our little baby girl has really gotten mobile in the past few weeks. Graysen has turned into a crawling machine, doing laps around the house all day. She has added the skills of pulling herself up onto just about anything she can reach and "crusing." We are so proud of our pea-pod, but at the same time it is hard to watch because she is growing up so fast!!!

Here I come!

On this day, crawling was "clothing-optional."On her feet, cruisin' and loving every minute of it! She watches her brother climb the stairs and tries so hard to follow. Usually Buddy can talk her out of it, saying, "Pea, you can't come up the stairs, you just a baby."
Only 8-1/2 months ago, this little thing was a helpless, sleepy newborn. How does time go by so fast?

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we kept alive one of our favorite traditions and picked up our Christmas Tree on the way back from Aberdeen. The folks at the tree farm told us that we were the very first customers of the year! Being in a hurry (what's new?), we picked out the first tree we saw...we didn't have to look long--it was beautiful! We had a lot of fun putting the tree up and decorating it. Will is really starting to understand "Christmas," and it makes it that much more fun for us as parents to share it with our kids and watch them enjoy it.

Buddy putting on the first ornaments.

Baby Gray eating the first ornaments!

Helping Daddy string the lights and putting the star on top.

"I'm helping too, Daddy!"

The finished product...Merry Christmas!!!

30 years... where did the time go???

I had the most amazing 30th birthday... it was a 4 day event and I loved every moment of it. I was a little hesitant to turn 30, as 30 seems so old. However, I love being 30! 30 is great, so far. I am so happy where I am in life and I couldn't ask for anything more. I feel more than blessed... I have the most wonderful friends and family, amazing husband, adorable son and daughter, beautiful home and the list goes on. I feel very lucky.

On Friday, December 4th (my actual birthday) we headed downtown Seattle for an overnight getaway with the kiddos. We went to a delicious dinner, watched snow fall at Pacific Place, visited the Fairmont Hotel, viewed Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Hotel, rode the carousel at Westlake and enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Westin with a beautiful view of the city.

Here we are at Gordon Biersch, my birthday dinner... look at Will's goofy face and look at those huge beer steins!


One happy mama!

I don't think this was a toy, but Buddy insisted on sitting in the sleigh.

Waiting for the carousel at Westlake Center with a cold and tired little Pea.

My favorite people... and, why am I holding the 34 pounder?

Riding the carousel with my little man!

Ready for bed.

Beautiful view from our hotel room at the Westin.

Birthday celebration, round 2: my amazing mommy friends threw a 30th birthday celebration for me. Molly hosted the party at her house with yummy food and drinks, delicious trophy cupcakes for dessert, wonderful friends and I received the best gift - a beautiful necklace with the letters of my kiddos' names... I've been wearing it everyday!

Molly (a wonderful hostess!) and me.

Blowing out my candle... I really don't like all the attention on me... I was a little embarrassed.

Birthday celebration, round 3: on Monday evening my incredible girlfriends (who I have known for 11 1/2 years - we were all sorority sisters together at Delta Gamma) took me to Barrio restaurant in Capitol Hill for drinks, dinner and dessert. We had the perfect evening and to top it all off... they gave me the perfect gift - a gift card to Gene Juarez... I can't wait to get pampered!

Me, Ally, Emily and Sonali.

Recent pics

Here are some recent pics of my adorable kiddos...

Will and his BFF, Dylan... being goofy in Will's room.


Brother and sister... they adore each other. Will is constantly looking after his sister... always telling her things like, "Pea, you can't eat that, you are a baby."

My sweet little pea.

Will driving the digger at daddy's work... we couldn't get him to leave!

Date with my little man

Last weekend I took my little man on a date to Build-a-Bear at Alderwood Mall. Whenever we visit the mall he always wanders into Build-a-Bear, but has never asked for anything, but he is so amazing by the store... since he such a good little man, I decided to surprise him with a date to the fun-filled bear workshop. He had a great time picking out the bear, helping stuff the bear, giving him a bath, dressing him and then making his birth certificate. I think I had just as much fun! :)

Here is Will helping stuff his bear.




The end result... Will's bear, "Speedy." He sleeps with his new buddy each night.

Seattle Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my first half marathon, which ended up being one of my most incredible experiences and accomplishments. I loved every second of the race. I ran the 13.1 miles in 02:01:48, which is a 09:17 mile pace. I finished 1,252 out of 4,266 female half marathon runners. There were 18,000 total runners that participated in the 4 races - walk/run half/full. The weather was perfect on the crisp November morning... no rain, which made for a perfect run. The Seattle half marathon race starts at Seattle Center and goes through downtown heading south, over I-90 exiting before the bridge beings, then along the shores of Lake Washington/Leschi, through the Arboretum and ending at Memorial Stadium. I was truly blessed to have my little family cheering me on and meeting me at the finish line. Thank you Billy, Will and Graysen... you three made my run well worth it! I love you all so much.


After the race Will kept telling me how proud he was of me and kept asking me, "mom, you run a half marathon?" Also, he's been proudly wearing my medal around the house the past two days:)

This year's Seattle marathon had a record for the most amount of spectators. Billy was just amazed at being a spectator... and now he is planning to do the Rock 'n Roll half marathon in June - go hubby!

Perfect ending to a race... view of the Space Needle... during the last few miles of the race, I kept looking at the Space Needle and knew I was getting closer to the finish line.

Graysen got a quick feeding after the race.

Full marathon, here I come! I'm thinking of running the Capital City/Olympia full marathon in May.

Fall Family Photos, Part 2

Here are more photos that we love from our fall family photo shoot a few weekends ago. Enjoy!

Our sweet baby girl.

Our "family feet" photo... we took a similar photo when Will was a teeny tiny babe.

Our front porch.

Will loved playing in the leaves.

"Cheese," says Will.

My sweet pea and me.

One of my favorite photos of the 4 of us.

Daddy and his little princess.

My boy. (the other day Will asked me to marry him... he is such a sweetheart!)

Look at that silly expression.

The Peters Fam.

More of Graysen and me.

Daddy and Buddy.

They love each other!

I love Will's eyes... he inherited them from daddy!

Fall Family Photos

A few Saturdays ago our friend, Erin, came to our home for our annual fall family photo shoot. This is our third shoot with Erin and she always seems to amaze us with her photography skills. We truly lucked out with the weather that weekend... it was a sunny fall day... our favorite time of year! The kiddos did great during the 2 hours of being chased around by a crazy camera lady... a big thank you to Erin!

Look at those blue eyes!

"Peace," says Gray.

My amazing family... how did I get so lucky?

Playing with daddy.

I love Will's expression here:)

Our little man is turning into quite the big boy.

Our precious princess pea.

So angelic.

Our little love bug.

Happy Halloween!

The Thursday before Halloween we celebrated Will's buddy's birthday - Austin turned 3 and had a Halloween-themed birthday... I love seeing all the kiddos dressed up together. Graysen was sleeping and missed out on the photo.


On Halloween night we had the McDaniel family over for Halloween fun. Molly and Korey's daughter, Maddie, is 2 months older than Will and they always play great together. We had a wonderful evening!

Our little pumpkin, Gray

Maddie and Will getting are ready for trick-or-treating!

Maddie is a strong little girl... I can't believe she can pull Will around the house.

The three kiddos

Trick-or-treating time... the guys had to bring their "red cups" along

Our little train conductor... Will loved his costume and wore it for three days straight!