Zoo and Sunshine in April

Yesterday Issy and I ventured out with our great friends, the Reynolds, Hadleys and Flowers to the Woodland Park zoo. It was 70 Degrees in the beginning of April as well. This is almost unheard of. We had to take advantage of the great weather. We went in the afternoon for about 3 hours and I would have to say that overall for being during nap time and the amount of time we were there, the kids did great. Thanks ladies for a fun Monday trip to the zoo. We always have so much fun with you guys! Here are some pictures from our highlights!

Seattle Sounds FC vs Real Salt Lake

So those who know me well know how much I love sports. More importantly, they know that I LOVE soccer or in Europe they would say, Futball.:) Fortunantly for me, I married a man who served his mission in Brazil and learned to love soccer there. When we found out that there was going to be a Major League Soccer team coming to Seattle we were really excited!
Although the soccer here in the states doesn't really compare to the level in Europe it is still fun to have a local team to support. I was also thrilled because one of my favorite European stars Freddy Ljungberg was signed for our team early on which made me even more excited! He is from Sweden and played for such teams as Aresenal and West Ham United in England before heading here to Seattle. All of us pitched in(well mostly my mom) for Christmas and got my dad Season Tickets for the year since he is a huge fan as well. This last Saturday the 28th, my dad graciously let Ty and I take his tickets and while they watched Issy we were able to go and enjoy watching them play Real Salt Lake. The game was a great one and had us on our feet all night. The Sounders won 2 to 0. They won their home opener as well so they are undefeated for the season so far and they also haven't allowed a goal. Our goalie Kasey Keller has also played over in Europe and is a great goalie. He is from this area so only saw it fitting to come end his career here. It was so nice to go the game with my hubby and have a great date night together doing something we love. We were also so happy to see the excitment everyone else had around us to have a MLS team here as well. GO SOUNDERS!:)

Time Out, Happy Birthday to Chad and Lucy, Cousin Brooke's wedding and my little Ballerina

I think I covered it all in the title of the blog. I find that when things happen in my life I want to sit down and blog about each thing. Then I get busy and I end up with one big blog!

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go to Time Out For Women here in Seattle. I ventured over to Seattle with my mom, and my great friends Amanda and Marlo. My wonderful friend Sommer was working there so she saved us some amazing seats for that first night. Thank you Sommer! Friday night of the Time Out was amazing. We were blessed with beautiful music and very inspirational talks. Sister Oaks came and spoke and the words she said really touched me. Hilary Weeks sang songs all weekend and it was such a treat to hear her sing. Also we were graced with beautiful violin music as well. Saturday was more of the same. I think my favorite talk was Emily Freeman. She talked about having Abundance in our lives. With some things that have been going on in my life right now, her talk really hit home. I bought her 21 days to feel closer to Christ book and Ty and I are reading it nightly together and studying the scriptures she has listed to become closer to Christ. We are on day 10 and I can't tell you how much of a impact this book has had on me. I am so thankful for a spiritual rejuvination that I got at Time Out For Women!:)
Amanda, Marlo, Sommer and I. This is kinda blurry. I didn't have my regular camera so we had to go with the phone camera on this one!

That Saturday the 14th after a fun day at Time Out For Women we went and celebrated in a Surprise party for Ty's best friend Chad. He turned 30 a few days earlier. Chad and Ty have been friends for half their lives now since they were 15. They have this unspoken bond and it is really cool that they are still close. Their other buddy Matt (also from growing up) and his wife Cameo came down from up north where they live. As well as a whole bunch of Chad's great friends from the past and present. Amanda his wife planned his party at the bowling alley here in Snoqualmie and he was really surprised. It was fun to bowl and go back to their house for Ice Cream. Happy Birthday, Chad!
A couple of days later we were able to go and celebrate our close friends Adam and Becky's daughter Lucy's birthday. Adam has been like a brother to me for over 15 years and him, Beck and Luc are like family to us. Little Lucy turned 2 and they had a fun little party at their house. The kids all got to decorate little bird houses! The funniest was Lucy Goosy getting upset when she saw her cake on fire. Hilarious! Happy Birthday, Goosers!:) We love you!
This last Saturday, my cousin Brooke got married in the LDS Church in Factoria. Bishop McDonald from the Newport Ward performed the wedding. My friend Erin did the flowers and they turned out beautiful! It was great to see Brooke find someone who you can tell really loves her. It was also fun to see all my cousins who I don't get to see all that often. Also to watch Issy play with her little 2nd cousins was fun as well. What a great night!My sister just started teaching two dance classes out here in North Bend at the Puget Sound Gymnastics and Dance place. She has been wanting Issy to do some dance classes and me being the tomboy have refused. I finally gave in when I found out my sissy would be the teacher. So today I took Issy for a trial class to see how she would do. My mom and sister went out and let Issy pick out her leotard yesterday and she of course went for the all out one! This morning she woke up and was so excited to put her leotard, tights and ballet slippers on and get going to her dance class. There were 3 little girls total and through the window I could see my little ballerina in the making. She was laughing and having such a good time. I guess this is a lesson to me that she needs a good balance of not only sports but dance and other things that she loves to do. She has not taken her outfit off all day! My little girl is growing up so fast!

Concerts, Snow and More.........

So we have had a couple busy weeks since being home from California. First off, we celebrated Ty's birthday with his family. They all came over to our place and we had a yummy dinner and cheesecake from Costco. That is Ty's favorite! It was nice to have the family over and for Ty to have a continous celebration of his 30th birthday!Then in the last week we have had a couple of days full of snow. Snow in March is a little bit crazy! Issy was so excited that the first day it snowed, she and I went outside for a little bit and she had fun throwing snow at me!:) It was fun to see her excitment.We came inside that day and Issy and I were playing. I grabbed the camera and caught this cute picture of her. The reason why I love it is because it is rare these days to get my daughter to look at me and smile for a photograph. This last Friday and Saturday, our buddy, Adam Lathrop came over and helped us put a whole new vanity set into our bathroom. Ty and I went to a few different stores looking at vanity sets and found the one we loved at Loews. Adam was so great to pick it up for us and instale it all. He put a lot of time into and we couldn't be happier to have no more pedistal sink and have a two sinks now with storage as well. It changes the whole dynamic to our bathroom as well. We are so happy! Thank you Adam!:) I was also tired of all the stuff in Issy's room and so we decided to get her a new bed. We got rid of the toddler bed and her dresser and bookshelf. We went to Underhills in Bellevue that is closing and found a loft bed with a desk, dresser drawers and some shelving to put her little TV and books on. It changes her room and opens it up a bit. She loves her new bed! Today I put a movie on for quiet time and I went up a half hour later and she had crawled up her ladder and fell asleep in her bed. It was so cute! My little girl is growing up!This last Saturday my sister got me some tickets to go see Jewel at the Snoqualmie Casino. I took my wonderful friend Sommer along with her friend Rebecca to see her. Jewel did not disappoint. She did a almost 3 hour acoustic set and sounded so amazing. Her voice is so pure and beautiful. We really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks sissy for the tickets and thanks Sommer and Rebecca for the great company!:)This past Monday, the 9th we got a ton more snow up here. Of course, Issy wanted to go out and play in it. We went out with our neighbors Taylor and Jen to play. Taylor had a neighbor friend over as well named Amanda to play. The girls went sledding and had so much fun! Jen and I grabbed the girls hats and decided to sled down the hill ourselves. I got a good laugh out of it and so did Jen. What a fun time!That night our wonderful friend, Laurie hosted a little birthday celebration for one of my bestest friends, Amanda. She turned 29 on the 7th of this month. We had some cake, Ice cream and some good company and laughs for the night! Thanks Laurie for hosting and Happy Birthday, Amanda! Love you! I am posting a picture Amanda is not going to like but it makes me laugh and it was just to good not to post.:)Yesterday, we finally had some glimmer of hope when it comes to adopting again. After two years of virtually no word on anything, we got a call to go in and meet with a birth mother last night. I was really nervous and anxious about it. When we got in there, the conversation started flowing and I think this birth mother and her mother really got to know about Ty and I. Whether she picks us to adopt her baby or not, Ty and I left that meeting feeling really good and blessed that hopefully we had helped her and also that this is a beginning for us in a step to welcome another child into our home. I just want to express my love and gratitude to all of our family and friends who were praying and thinking about us during this last few days. You support and love means the world to us and we are so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people! We are so blessed!!!!:)