Monday, August 5, 2013

8 is GREAT! Belen's Birthday and Baptism

Our BEAUTIFUL, FUN, SWEET, CREATIVE, FUNNY little girl turned 8!!  I cannot believe it's been eight years since this special little girl made me a mommy.  She has been nothing but a comeplete joy in my life.  She is the PERFECT child.   She has the sweetest, kindests disposition and loves to love others.  Being kind and generous comes naturally to her and she is just an amazing genuine girl with a big big heart.  I love you, my Maria Belen!

She wanted her party at the skating rink.. which I was happy to comply with since I had MY eighth birthday at a skating rink too and remember it being so special.   She had a wonderful time skating and enjoying her friends and family. 
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ImageAunt Thorey, Winnie, and Gina

ImageAunt Trena and Maggie

ImageOur CUTE bday girl!

ImageShe asked everyone for CASH to spend at American Girl.

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ImageThy and his bud, Jose

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 Belen was baptized right before New Years.   Since she is a Christmas baby, it was only fitting for her to wear a beautiful fancy Christmas dress as her baptism dress!   (Thank you, Julie, for doing her pics!)
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 So cute in the jumpsuit!
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Daddy was ready and excited! Image

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All her local Aunts and Uncles took part in the program.Image

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                                             Celebrating our Christmas baby on Christmas day!
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                                                               What a wonderful, happy day! 
                          I'm so thankful for everyone who came to support Belen and celebrate with us!

Monday, July 15, 2013

ImageFrederik Joseph Andersen joined our family January 16th, 2013.  He weighed in as our smallest baby at 6.13, but he still had delicious chubby cheecks!! It was an easy, wonderful delivery.. better than I could have hoped for!  He is the sweetest, most easy going, happy baby.  We just love him so much!!

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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Seattle and Farm

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My beautiful talented cousin, Kelty (of the Weaver House) celebrated 10 years with her handsome farmer boy, Justin (of Working Theory Farm) by having the most amazing outdoorsy affair on their farm in Orchards, WA (just north of Portland, OR).   I was determined to not miss this event since I had to miss her sister's wedding 3 years ago because I had little newborn Gina.  I was so happy that Skippy was just as excited to go as I was!  Using 5 YEARS worth of American Express points, we got 5 plane tickets to Portland and a rental car.  We decided to go up a week early and have a little family vacation.  We drove to Seattle and stayed for 4 days and did all the fun touristy stuff with the kids.  We had a blast and completely wore ourselves out everyday.  One morning, as we were leaving breakfast, I was already so so tired and thought... "how did my mom do this with 5 kids??"  When I was in 5th grade, my entire family went to Eaurope for 3 weeks and I can't imagine how my mom lasted that long caring for and toting around all 5 of us!   We made it back to Portland and got to visit the farm pre-party and help with some flower arranging and other odds and ends of the set-up.  We also spent some time in the hospital during our trip because my Aunt became gravely ill during the week with a massive horrible bacterial infection and is still currently in the ICU slowly recovering.  This kinda flipped the trip upside down but it was such a miracle that all her family was there to help her and support her in her time of need.  Anyhow, Here are some pics from Seattle and a few from the party on the farm.. .  My camera is broken and only works part of the time.. so most of my pics were taken with my horrible camera phone.  ALL of the pics posted here of the party were taken by Kelty's professional photographer friends.  If you are interested, I think she has some pics of the happenings on her blog also.   (On a side note, we now have a working camera- thanks Jilly!!)

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                                     The kids' first time on a plane!! They were SO EXCITED!!
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Gum Wall, Seattle
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                                                             Museum of Flight, Seattle
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                                                            Mariners Game Free Tshirt night!!
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                                                         Ferry ride to Bainbridge Island
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               Pics from the farm and 10 year celebration!!  It was so so so so beautiful!! 
                      Wish I had some pics from night time to show.. it looked magical! 
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Skip and my brothers at the morning after breakfast and clean-up
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My family's table spot..
 you can see the 5 of us siblings having our pic taken in the background :)

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                                                Everything was vintage-farm perfection!
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Gina and her cousin, Eva

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Han and Kel, the Weaver House girls!

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Kelty and her farmer

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Live music by 2 different bands.. so cool.

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Magical Picture!!

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                           I wish we could do this EVERY weekend.. it was such a fun night!