Winter, all rolled up.

As suspected, once school started, I didn't quite keep the blog up to date. So, here's a little photo re-cap of the last few months all rolled into one post!

Halloween Costume party with the Kowlaski's - Keyo as a Rabbi, me as Flo, the Progressive Insurance gal.

Juliet climbs to the top of the rope at gymnastics in October. As of last week they're going to move her up soon... to a class of 10-14 year olds!

Also, she set the rope climbing record at school, and they put her name on the wall in the gym. Go baby!

Girls night at our house: Mom, Auntie Kim, Brieann, Juliet, and Natalie.

Also a surprise announcement....

Brieann is having a girl - due in April!

I immediately start shopping (after I stop crying)

Juliet & Keyo master Root Beer making with the Soda Stream!

A few days before Thanksgiving it snowed! Juliet and her friends Denali, Izzy & Fiona fill their days with sledding, snow man making, and hot chocolate drinking!

We were patiently waiting for Keyo to make it home from work, driving in the snow. It took him EIGHT HOURS to travel less than 20 miles!

Walking to the grocery store the next day... Keyo wasn't ready to get back in the car. :)

We hosted Thanksgiving and Keyo tackled the turkey carving

From the left: Keyo's grandparents, Penny and Ron, Juliet, Colin (with Movember thing) myself, and Keyo. His mom Caryl was also with us (taking the picture)

Crazy man does squats with 60 pound Juliet on his shoulders.

Juliet and her lucky pucks at the hockey game.

Bre, Matt & Keyo taking a break from Trivial Pursuit... they were only stalling their loss to me. :)

Crazy sock day at school

And favorite sports team day... think she'll be a Husky some day?

Juliet made single serve hot cocoas for her classmates.

Christmas morning, our favorite baby with the perfect tree - we went to 5 tree stands looking for this tree!

Santa came! Juliet was worried because we were a little late in mailing her letter... mommy sent it Express Mail to the North Pole.

The boys were happy that Juliet finally saved enough to buy herself a Nintendo DS...

And lastly, Juliet with her first popsicle creation. Keyo's parents gave her a popsicle maker that freezes pops in 7 minutes! These were Pomegranate/Blueberry/Lime!

Tis the Season!

This year has been full of new beginnings for us. We are all now sleeping under one roof in our beautiful new home and I have made the transition from employee to full time student. Our little family couldn't be more blessed with health and happiness. There is definitely a lot to celebrate!

We took the plunge and hosted our very first family Christmas party, while it was pretty cozy with almost 30 people, I'm so happy everyone was able to come! There was plenty of food, many laughs, and the traditional gift exchange. A successful celebration!

Dawn, Conni & Crystal

Paul & Keyo

Brie & Natalie

Mom, Keyo & Bryan

Mom & Auntie Kim

Merry Christmas everyone, we can't wait to do it again next year!

Smarty Pants

Last Monday, before the first snow of the season (yay!) we had a parent/teacher conference with Juliet's 2nd grade teacher, Miss Meyers.

No surprise to us, Juliet received rave reviews!

She even scored at a 3rd grade level in math.

We're so proud of you, Juliet!

Keep working hard, honey, the many rewards are worth it!

Quality Kitchen Time

As I write this it's 12:38am, Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we're hosting the holiday at our house for the first time. Last night Juliet and I turned 48 ounces of cranberries into a whole bunch of yummy cranberry sauce. It was fun, I love being in the kitchen with her.

First she measured 12 ounces of berries

Then measured one cup of orange juice and poured it into a pot

A cup of sugar next...

Stir to dissolve...

And finally the cranberries

When they get hot, the cranberries start to POP!

Rinse and Repeat four times.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it's yummy. Juliet's an excellent chef!

The prettiest Vampire I know

Again, I'm a bit behind on the blogging ~ but Halloween was only a couple weeks ago, not TOO bad! :)

We'll start with the pumpkin carving, which I was not so much involved in.

But I took pictures and made dinner!

Keyo and Juliet carved 3 pumpkins this year ~ and did a great job. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The following Sunday was Halloween. My parents drove up to go Trick-or-Treating with us and the weather that night was PERFECT.  No rain and it was actually pretty warm.

It's our first Halloween in the new neighborhood, and we all enjoyed the evening.

Happy Halloween!

New Tradition

For a while now Keyo and I have talked about buying some of our groceries at the local farmers markets. We finally made true on that and shopped the Ballard Market on Sunday morning.

What fun!

Flowers. Produce. Meat. Honey. Soaps. Eggs. Coffee. Even ice cream... in October! In Seattle!

We've decided from here on out we'll do our best to visit that market every week, we feel good about supporting the local farmers and eating food that hasn't traveled 1500 miles to get to our table. (That stat is true!)

Here's a picture of what we bought...

White Nectarines for Juliet's lunch this week, honey sticks, mini cherry pie, two heads of lettuce, carrots, kale (so yummy!) two heads of broccoli, and a bouquet of flowers for the kitchen table!

All of the produce is organic, love it!

And lastly, a shot of Juliet with her organic hot apple cider and flowers. We've decided we'll let the selection at the market dictate what we eat that week. I'm already looking forward to going back this weekend!

Fa la la la Fall!

You know, when you get those email surveys from friends asking all sorts of random questions?

Like, what is your favorite color, food, yadda, yadda, yadda?

I'm terrible at answering those questions because I like different foods at different times. And my favorite color depends on the application... favorite color to wear? Or to paint a wall? Or color of my dream car?

Well, it's the same with seasons. I like all 4 for different reasons. With Fall brings beautiful colors: reds, oranges, yellows. Kids bundled up in costumes, family dinners that include sweet potatoes, fire building, football watching, cozy evenings in the house. I love it all.

And... I'm itching to start playing Christmas music.

This year, we have our very own backyard. And while it doesn't include any trees, the neighbors giant tree is gracious enough to dump a bunch of it's beautiful leaves in our new backyard. Keyo and Juliet were lucky that I came across these matching rakes, perfect!

Don't they look thrilled?

Unfortunately, within minutes of finishing ridding the yard of leaves... the tree sent down a bunch more. It may be a never ending battle, but we'll (and by we I really mean they) fight it, we love having a yard!

P.E., lockers, and the sweetest daughter ever

This will be a short post, I need to jot down a few sweet and funny things Juliet said to me this week.

The morning of my first day of school:

Me: "Juliet, will you grab my running shoes for me please?"

Juliet: "Mommy, is today your P.E. day too?!"

And when I was dropping her at school that same morning, she kissed me and said:

Juliet: "Have the best first day of school ever!"

Finally, a couple of days ago she asked if my school gives me a locker with a lock on it. I forgot that when you're 7, things like binders, homework, and lockers are something to look forward to!

She never fails to make me smile!

Carrot anyone?

Life is finally settling down a bit. Juliet and I have moved to Wallingford, so the 3 of us are finally under one roof. The last of the furniture is being delivered tomorrow.

 Now all we have to do is deal with the packed to the seams garage.

It taunts me.

It makes me twitch.

I may start having nightmares about the lack of organization.

I know, I'm a freak.

Juliet started the 2nd grade at Marvista, and she's loving it. In her words it's "AWESOME!".

Makes my heart happy.

And in a lovely turn of events, I'm now a full time student too! It's funny being back at the college I attended 10 years ago, and my classmates are definitely about that much younger than me, but I am thrilled to be there.

Before you know it, I'll be an RN. Me! Can you believe that?!

Finally, to usher out The Summer That Never Was and welcome The Fall That Will Surely Bring Rain, Juliet & Nani harvested their crop of carrots!

In the spring they planted purple, yellow, white, and good ol' orange carrots.

Who knew my parents have perfect soil for carrot farming?

We ended up with a few (ahem... TONS) carrots!

Thank you, Nani, for growing these with Juliet. They were pretty good!

First day of 2nd grade

Is today.

She's there, shooed me right out of the classroom.

So darn independent.

I love her.

Hope you're having a fantastic first day of school, honey!