Ingrid Michaelson

September 14, 2011 by kelly

One of our friends, Andrew, alerted us this weekend that Ingrid Michaelson would be performing live during lunch on Monday. We happily jumped at the opportunity to have a little family time during the day. Live music is a bonus and Ingrid Michaelson did not disappoint! Sadly, we did not think to take a video of the best and funniest part of the show, which was her “I hate babies” song. Hilarious.

Beatrice and Jonathan livin' it up during lunch!

It was surprisingly chilly outside, which is why Beatrice is wearing her ducky blanket as a cape. It was the only practical option.

Beatrice enjoys the music

One of my favorite parts of the show was Beatrice saying, “Play the guitar!” after the first song (which was played on keyboard). What a silly girl. Beatrice was very pleased when Ingrid Michaelson began to play the ukulele, which she thought was a “baby guitar” logical, if incorrect.

And here’s the “money shot” of the four of us after the show. The gal taking the photo had just asked if she took one, which is why I’m talking. It’s still a fun memory!

Family with Ingrid Michaelson!

And in case you’ve forgotten, “The Way I Am” was the song we danced to for our “first dance” at our wedding reception. If you haven’t heard it yet, you can do so here. She played two new songs today. They were great! Keep ‘em comin’, Ingrid Michaelson! And a big thank you to Andrew for making sure we were able to be part of the fun!

1 Comment / Posted in baby, Beatrice, family, fun

The French Bakery

September 13, 2011 by kelly

After our Farmer’s Market fun, we went with Brenda to The French Bakery in Bellevue to use a coupon and enjoy some treats! Beatrice and I had been to the Kirkland and Crossroads locations, but this was new for us. It is definitely the largest of the three bakeries, but it is also the one where I had the most difficulty parking. However, it is definitely worth the walk!

I did not get a photo of the outside, but the bakery is in the lower portion of a fairly modern building. We walked in and Beatrice was very happy to see the “treats!” in the bakery case.

On our previous visits, Beatrice has really enjoyed the guava pocket, so I ordered one for her and a strawberry croissant for me. Guess who ate the croissant? Yep! She LOVED it though and ate it layer by flaky layer. Brenda wisely noted that this is how grown-ups would like to eat croissants, but babies are able to get away with it!

Here we are with our treats!

I realize this modern high-rise building was likely not designed with toddlers in mind, but luckily for us, the area was PERFECT for a toddler!

Beatrice had a great time splashing in the water. She also maybe went home in only her diaper. She was soaked! She was also very happy and that’s what matters, right?

1 Comment / Posted in family, friends, fun

Well-Loved

September 10, 2011 by kelly

We enjoyed a little time at the Farmer’s Market this morning and Jonathan bought me a beautiful bouquet! I am one well-loved girl!

1 Comment / Posted in marriage, Uncategorized

Ready for Autumn

September 1, 2011 by kelly

Many of you know that Autumn is my favorite season. I really enjoy the crisp feeling in the air, the foggy chill in the mornings, the dew on the spider webs, the smell of wood smoke from a fireplace, Halloween candy, hot apple cider, and yes, autumn decorations. Also, I plan to make pumpkin stuffed with everything good more than once this year!

To prepare for the change in seasons, Beatrice and I went on a little shopping trip last week. At a cute children’s consignment shop, we were able to find a pair of froggy rain boots for her for the bargain price of $3.50! Since I’d mentally prepared myself to spend $25, I was really excited to find them! We were also able to find a nice winter jacket for her (not second-hand, but still reasonably priced). We’d already prepared for her clothes at a sweet Gymboree sale a few months ago, so she’s pretty well set now.

Here she is in the new duds:

She really likes her boots!

She spent the rest of the afternoon carrying her boots around the house. I finally had to put them on the highest shelf in her closet to keep her from cuddling them all day. We also need to work on her ability to walk in the boots. You can’t really tell in the photo, but she’s so excited about the frogs smiling that she keeps trying to pull her foot out of the boot!

No Comments / Posted in Beatrice

Summer fruits

August 30, 2011 by kelly

It’s warm! It’s sunny! It’s finally summer around here! Hooray! One of the great things about where we live, and our neighborhood specifically, is the availability of free blackberries during this time of year. A couple weeks ago, our friend Brenda and I picked a half-flat of blackberries in very little time. Naturally, I planned to make several items with said berries, but we ended up just eating them instead. No worries. Jonathan took Beatrice to pick some more a few days later and I made some great muffins.

Muffins and coffee. A perfect combination!

I also made delicious blackberry pie bars, but failed to get a photo. They were just that good!

Beatrice and I have also been able to enjoy stone fruits lately as our snack at the park. Her favorites are nectarines. Just like her Momma!

Yum! Fruit!

The next mission: tackle the pile of marionberries in the fridge!

No Comments / Posted in Beatrice, Cooking, recipes

Don’t Eat All the Avocado

August 16, 2011 by kelly

Something you may or may not already know about me is that I really like avocado. When I had my wisdom teeth removed the summer before sophomore year of college, I mostly ate avocado (with Johnny’s Seasoning Salt, the way God intended), while I awaited the green light for regular foods. I like avocado with pretty much anything, but mostly alone with a little salt. Tonight’s dinner was delicious; I’ll admit that the trickiest part of preparing the meal was making sure I didn’t eat the avocado before it had a chance to be introduced to the other ingredients, but it was worth it!

Here’s a photo of the end result:

Perfect summer treat

It’s a great summer meal! No need to turn on the oven and you could really prepare the ingredients in advance. You should know I used this recipe, but failed to read the directions in their entirety prior to chopping and mixing up the dressing portion. No worries if this happens to you. It was still delicious without cooking the ingredients, though I think heating them might marry them a little more. Ours was a little too limey for my taste. This is easily remedied with an extra dash or two of cumin. Oh, I’m also too lazy to shuck corn unless I’m eating it off the cob with my teeth. I used frozen corn.

Also, Beatrice is now old enough to wear the little apron I wore when I was young. I love it! She did help by holding the sieve so I could rinse the quinoa, but she decided she would make a batch of scrambled eggs for herself while I was doing the boring bit of cooking the quinoa.

Little Chef

1 Comment / Posted in Beatrice, Cooking, recipes

20 Days

August 15, 2011 by kelly

Did it ever happen to you in college or high school or heck, even in the real world, that you have a project/job/blog that you like and then it’s been a week or so and you haven’t worked on it and now it seems so large and looming that it’s impossible to get started? Yeah, that’s what this blog break has been about. That, and I just finished reading Bossypants, which was well worth my time. I’m sorry we’re terrible at blogging in the summer. There’s just much to do around here during the summer and it stays light so late that I cannot be bothered to blog, but I have probably read your blog if you have one….

Beatrice is now walking. I like to call her Toddlepants these days. She giggles when I call her that, so I’ll assume she likes it too!

We went camping two weekends in a row and hosted guests during the week between and the week after. Beatrice stopped sleeping through the night. It was very sad. We’re back on track these days and I’m happy to report that the sleep is sweet!

We are currently waging war on the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. (Too much info? Sorry.) It’s just bad and as such, I’m changing diapers every 90 minutes. Insanity. Also, this means I’m washing diapers every 36 hours. Insanity.

Most of you are friends with us on facebook, which means you’ve seen 90% of our photos already. It seems like a duplication of our efforts for me to write up a blog post about them. However, this week will be the week of blog posts my friends. Consider yourselves warned.

No Comments / Posted in family

What we’ve been up to these days

July 26, 2011 by kelly

Played with friends and found a Mickey Mouse book. Supercheers!

Explored at the park:

Picnicked together in the shade:

Making jam:

Had a delightful time at a tea party where we got to wear fun hats:

Enjoyed some fun at the beach:

Cooked up some rocks while camping:

There you have it. Fun with friends, camping, being outside, enjoying family fun. Basically anything but spending time on the computer. That’s okay.

No Comments / Posted in Beatrice, family, friends

Splash Park

July 14, 2011 by kelly

One of our local parks has a little splash park area for children and Beatrice and I went to check it out last week. I wasn’t sure how she would respond to the water splashing, and she did stay close by my side for the first few minutes or so.

Sticking close to Momma

Once she caught on, this is what I saw:

Splashy! Splashy!

So nice!

Brave girl!

The splash park was a fun way to cool down with some friends and just the right amount of time to guarantee a nearly four hour nap that afternoon!

No Comments / Posted in Beatrice, family, friends, fun

July 13-Five Years!

July 13, 2011 by kelly

Five years ago today, I had one of the most hectic, wonderful days I can remember. I got to work early, skipped lunch and left at 1:00 to be in Bellevue for an interview for a job I wished so very much to have! After the interview, I was meant to meet Jonathan at his apartment, but I was early so I just sort of wandered around town for a bit. I got to Jonathan’s place and he asks if I’d like to have dinner first or go for a walk. Mind you, I hadn’t eaten since about 5:30 and I was wearing a suit! Because I really liked Jonathan, I said, “Oh, up to you!” He decided we’d take a walk first, so I put on my walking shoes and off we went. My stomach was rumbling, but I was also out-of-my-mind nervous! Here I was, off to walk with this guy I liked SO MUCH. I didn’t care if we ate at all!

We walked along the Sammamish River Trail, talked about things and then, well my friends, it was the most magical event I’d ever experienced. We HELD HANDS. And it was mind-blowing. I was holding hands with the most amazing, wonderful guy I’ve ever known AND he had expressed his intentions perfectly clearly. I was not worried about having my heart broken, I was overwhelmed with joy that the Lord had so perfectly orchestrated everything for us.

Here is one of our first photos together (I’m definitely wearing a dress. It’s just strapless):

Because today is the five year anniversary of our hand-holding life together, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about holding hands. Jonathan not only held my hand that day as we were walking along the trail, he’s held my hand as he asked me to marry him, while I faced a scary health crisis during our dating days, as we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife, as we traveled to other countries, just sitting on the couch at home, driving in the car, as we sat with our doctor and heard the news about our sweet girl’s life being in danger, while I breathed through contractions, as he held Beatrice during her first days of life. There has been MUCH hand-holding in the last five years and not all of those times have been moments of rejoicing, but I have always been thankful to have Jonathan right by my side.

2 Comments / Posted in marriage

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