Char the Sheep!

Christmas is about spending time with family!  Which I did.  It was especially wonderful to see Megan, Joe, and Charlotte!  Charlotte is adorable and growing up too fast!  She's bigger and less of a baby, well less of a toddler, every time I see her.  My camera wasn't out too much, but she seemed to be the only one I took pictures of!  Char and Uncle Kurt had a good time together :)

 
















We also went to a wedding!  I went to middle school and high school with Katie.  I don't know Phil, but according to her family and close friends, they're perfect for each other!  I can tell that's true in little I've seen them together.  Congratulations Katie and Phil!

Me and the beautiful bride!  I made this card at the last minute...the 'stencil' I used was actually cut off a card given to me and Kurt at our wedding- I decided the other day to finally get rid of all those wedding cards, but set a couple aside- glad I did!

Merry Christmas to me!

One of my dreams, that I hope to obtain one day, is to have a world map the size of a wall in my house.  First things first, I need a house.  This hasn't happened yet.  But!  My wonderful husband got me this for Christmas!  (Yes, we opened presents already)

We even mounted it on the wall and everything!  Here's a picture to show you some size perspective- it's 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 feet.  Approximately.



I also got these!  My first pair of All Stars.  As I told Kurt- now I can dress casual :) 

What a great start to Christmas present receiving :)  Don't worry, I know Christmas is about more than presents, they're a definite bonus though!

Whoa!

These amazing houses are located directly across the street from where I go to church.  We stopped by to see what the flashing sign was about and it's a light show spanning 3 houses (I could only get 2 in my camera) set to music.  Just tune your radio to 88.3.  It was pretty awesome!

Well, I guess that's it!  There are 2 more videos, but they won't load.  So you're stuck with the one where Kurt's making a ruckus with the candy cane wrapper and I shush him.  Enjoy :)  Merry Christmas!

The weekend before Christmas!

This year Kurt and I are spending Christmas with my side of the family.  So, we decided to have a little get together with Kurt's family this weekend!  Kurt made crepes and we did a white elephant gift exchange.  The invite said to "buy, make, or grab something from home".  Sofia opened the first gift....and it was cookbooks!  Poor thing.  Pretty much every other gift was kid friendly except for that one.  She was rather disappointed.  Luckily there was an extra gift that she got to open in the end :)  I was surprised when Ammon (he's 9) walked in, saw the food on the counter and exclaimed, "Is that brie?!  I love brie!"  I'm pretty sure I had no idea what brie was at 9 years old and being a picky eater I probably wouldn't have tried it.  I especially loved when the Han's arrived and William walked straight up to me and raised his arms for me to hold him :)  I love that little boy and a I'm glad to know he likes me too!  We had a great time!  Our apartment has never been so full.

I also went to our ward Christmas Party this weekend.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I had the most amazing pulled pork sandwich.  A woman in our ward used to own a BBQ restaurant and is one fantastic chef.  Here's the pulled pork recipe on her blog!

Merry Christmas!

I like our tree better this year.  We were a little short on ornaments last year, but not in 2011!  Thank you Costco :)  We've had the tree up for almost 2 weeks, the Christmas shopping is about done, I've even started wrapping...you could say I'm excited!  Happy Holidays!

It's a girl!

Megan and Joe are having another girl!  This lovely lady is going to have a little sister!  And I'm going to have another niece to oooohhh and aaaahhh over marbles with.

Megan's due May 1st. I guessed the baby will be born early on April 26th. Unfortunately, I also guessed the little gal would be a boy. Whoops!

This means I'll have 2 nieces and 2 nephews (on my side of the fam). How even. I can't wait!

AT&T

Kurt and I both got new phones today!  I wasn't planning on it, but we both had an upgrade available.  They're way better/fancier than our old phones, and the best part?  We're paying less per month than before!  I'm totally ok with it.  I got a Blackberry Curve- it's cute and so small!  Kurt got an HTC Titan.  It's a super fancy Windows phone.  We figured he needs a nice one since he'll be using it quite a bit for work.  His old Blackberry was falling apart (literally).  He was overdue for a new one!

Evil Edamame

Kurt and I ate at Blue C Sushi tonight.  It's really fun- they have the conveyor belt running around the whole restaurant and the plate color determines the price of the item.  Anyways, you may be thinking to yourself, "Um...Charity doesn't like seafood. I can't see her liking sushi" and you'd be right.  I get 3 things every time we go and none contain seafood: sesame noodles, tater tots (that's just what I call them, don't know the real name), and edamame.  Edamame is a slippery little fella.  I was holding one pod while talking and I must have squeezed it because the bean popped out and zoomed a foot across the table straight at my face!  The darn thing hit me in the eye!  In the eye!  I was shocked for a second then we both laughed hysterically. 

The Lilster

Lili had a dream last week: "I dreamed that we were living in our old house and big white bear came out of the forest and broke in to our house.  He went right through the screen door!  I woke up and was so scared I had to watch Cars 2.  Have you seen Cars 2?  It's really good!  Do you want to watch it right now?....No, I don't have it.  I could get it On Demand, but I don't know how.  Do you know how?"

We didn't get Cars 2 on demand. 

There were more great Lilisms this Thanksgiving weekend!  I missed an eventful and awesome car ride which consisted of Lili being in fear of contracting small pox because she's short (mom and Adam can be cruel) and evaluating which family members would win in a wrestling match (Lili recounted this to me yesterday- Kurt would beat everyone.  The winner would get $100 and the loser would have to get in their swimsuit and roll in the snow). 

Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon Lili was in a sad mood when she came over to Mom's house.  I asked for a high 5 and was shot down. So instead I asked, "Are you accepting hugs?" "I guess".  I gave her a hug.  Kurt walked by a few moments later and also tried to give her a 5, "What? No 5?!" "Nope...(pause)...but I am accepting hugs." 

She's awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a fun, but packed weekend!  I was exhausted after it was over (sleeping in a bed that wasn't my own didn't help).  An no camera either so no pictures!

We spent Turkey Day with Kurt's family.  We had a delicious meal and a great time!  Then it was up to Mt. Vernon- Ashley and Adam were in town!  It was so awesome to see them.  We have such a great time together.  It was especially awesome to see Ashley pregnant!  The only time I saw Megan pregnant was when she told me!  She wasn't very far along at that point.  It was my first time feeling a baby kick!  Ani was fascinated too.  She was always touching Ashley's stomach, but just with her finger tips and continuously asked questions.  Lili on the other hand felt the boys move once and decided it was weird. 

We had a baby shower on Saturday that I was in charge of!  A couple months ago Mom called and told me, "You're in charge of the baby shower for Ashley".  Wait....what?  Me?  I'm never in charge of anything.  I'm the youngest child.  I'm the youngest cousin.  I'm the one who gets ordered around and really, I'm fine with that roll.  "Are you sure?  Um...ok.  Well, I delegate the food to you".  I think the whole thing went just fine.  I even hand made the invitations and some of the decorations myself.  Go me!

I'm so excited for Ashley and Adam!  I love being an aunt and can't wait to add 2 more nephews!

P.S. Everyone cross your fingers they're born on February 29th!

Decorate!

I've done a little re/decorating lately:

The clock in our bathroom broke so I found this frame, printed off some photos I took, and put it on the wall instead.

Next I added some pictures to my photo collage on our dining room wall...I still need at least 1 more though.  Or do I?  Any opinions?

And I finally did something for the poor empty wall above our bed.  I put up my collage of pictures from Paris, but it's a little bigger this time and I put a piece of fabric behind it (here's the original):

Here's a close up and an extra close up so you can see the fabric.

I realized as I went to take a picture of my bed and started panicking that it's not very nice looking that we still don't have a matching bed set.  We registered for one, but no one bought any of the set for us.  So, if anyone wants to give us matching bedding- quilt/bed cover with matching pillow cases (it's fine if you throw in coordinating sheets too) I'm totally ok with it.  Just let me know and I'll give you our address to send it too.  :)

Cider Party II

Due to football season, the Winstead clan was unable to make it to Aunt Kathy's annual Cider Party.  So, they went over to press some cider for themselves yesterday and Kurt and I tagged along. 

Lots of cider!  I'm so happy to have more!

The boys were super excited in the beginning: Lucas kept yelling "APPLE CIDER!!!" at the top of his lungs, but after two rounds they went inside and left the adults in charge. 

Triple Threat!

What an awesome birthday!  I celebrated on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! 

On Saturday Mom and Clarence took us out to eat!  Jeanette came too.  My mom decided to finally get Kurt a birthday present (his b-day was back in August) and figured she might as well get Jeanette a birthday present too!  So it was a triple birthday celebration. 

We went to Biehl family dinner on Sunday as usual, but I got to pick the meal and dessert!  They even sang to me and Sofia wished me a happy birthday every 10 minutes.  She's adorable. 

The biggest surprise was definitely on Monday night!  Kurt and I were in the middle of folding laundry when there was a knock on the door.  I answered and there was a group of people holding cake, cookies, more treats, and yelling 'Surprise!!!"  It was awesome- and surprising!  I rushed to grab the laundry and throw it out of sight though :)  I have the best husband and the best friends!  Thanks to everyone who came! 

Here are some more pictures from Saturday:


We hid something in the Quad...

Notice a difference? (I was one tree off!  That's not the difference I'm talking about)

Suzallo!  I spent so much time here.

I still think it looks like the Great Hall!

It took me a while to decipher these words.  It's especially difficult when you're not looking at them straight on.  Here's what I came up with and I'm not sure on a couple of the words:

Kurt didn't get enough frosting...

It was a fabulous birthday!  Thanks to everyone who made it so great!

25 hour birthday!

How did I celebrate my 24th year?  Well, we started the celebration on November 5th by taking a small step back in time!  My 19th birthday was one of the most memorable I ever had- I'd moved out of home and started college 6 weeks earlier.  Everything in my life was new including a new friend, Sarah Hammond. 5 years ago we took some pictures on campus before heading home for the day:

It was the beginning of a great friendship!  And thank you Kurt for being such a great husband and indulging my crazy ideas :)

P.S. Are the leaves late to change colors this year or were they early 5 years ago?  Also, my hair was so short!

Happy Anniversary G&G!

65 years of marriage!  When asked at their 50th anniversary celebration how they made it last all these years they responded, "I don't know.  We don't really have anything in common!"  Well, whatever you've done, it's worked!  Love you tons G&G!  Congratulations!

Pumpkin Patch!

We saw some animals:

Aflac, peacock, Lil' Sebastian, crazy duck who stared me down.

We pet some animals!  Pygmy goats and baby ducks!

And then we found some pumpkins!

Halloween is coming!  Hahahahaha!  (it's a song.  FYI)



FNL (But it was Saturday)

My nephews play football!

Ethan's helping Ammon before his game:

You can't really see, but the back of Ammon's jersey says "Ammo".  Awesome!


I don't know where, but Ammo's in this picture somewhere...

See that kid on the left in the gold jersey?  He was HUGE!  Is he really only 8 years old?

It's definitely a Seattle football game- watching in the rain!  Makes me hope my future children play indoor sports :)

I love watching Ethan and Ammon's games even though I don't know what's going on most of the time!  I am starting to understand more though :)

Cider time!

Hot dogs + donuts

+ adorable niece and nephew

+ apples

+ old-timey cider press

= Cider Party!

Kurt pressed some delicious cider that we've already finished off!  It's unreal how delicious this stuff is.  I love it!  Thanks Aunt Kathy for another great Cider Party!

Correction

Ashley's having twin boys!  The doctor got it wrong the first time.  Whoops!  I guess it really was too early to tell.  Just thought I'd set the record straight! 

70 cents off!

A nice surprise on my way out of Anacortes today:

 

Also, Lili informed me today that she's trying to eat less.
Me: Ok...just don't starve yourself!
Lili: I won't.  That's nonsense!  I don't do nonsense.

I won't worry about you then Lil. 

Cool!

Found here

Ikea!

Who doesn't love Ikea?  We bought 2 new floor lamps this weekend and our front room is a much brighter place.  I took the pictures while it was dark though :)

Lamp 1:  I love this one!  It's a lot nicer than what we had before.  I like it even better in our a-p-t than I did in the store.  I think that's a good sign!  Plus, it has a dimmer- fancy!

Lamp 2: The cheapest floor lamp we could find in the store!  Woo!

Here's why it's so cheap:

The cord isn't hidden very well.  Oh well!  We figured it'd be behind a chair anyways.  Yay for new stuff!