the rest of the pictures-hopefully

here's the rest from the trip to CO


brother is doing who knows what...

i've never hugged myself quite so tightly before-ouch

foolishly, i challenged my 'army strong' brother to an arm wrestle

desperately trying to throw my weight around...

it didn't work, so i resorted to more drastic measures

my left hand didn't prove to be much better

priceless expression on mom's face




mom's orchids




soaking it up while he actually has time to read

chatting to relatives




le chef

out shopping

my mountain

family bowling day




one word-adorable

another small glimpse of Pikes Peak-and beautiful blue skies

enjoying a bit of sun while others finished up shopping

i absolutely love this lady

reunion!
joanna and callie

me and sarah


anytime we go to denver, we have to stop in at Anthony's NY style pizza-yum!

White Christmas

blogger has been stubborn about pictures the last few days-and then i got distracted having all kinds of fun with friends and family...but i'm back! and here's what i got..

for the first time since 1987, we actually have what is classified as a 'white Christmas'-meaning that it actually snows on Christmas. it is so beautiful! there is nothing i would trade for this experience right now :0)
here are some pictures we took at church on Christmas Eve





it's being ridiculous again-so i'll try to do upload a few more tomorrow! sorry.

Christmas so far...

things in CO have been fabulous so far-it is so refreshing to just see blue skies, to be so close to mountains, and to feel the comfort of home.


brother and i doing some last minute shopping-i LOVE that sun is streaming in the window-so unusual where i come from...


i'll put up more tomorrow-it's late and i need to fall asleep before santa gets here ;0)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

my brother's a SOLDIER

my brother is a geniune, bonified soldier. he knows how to shoot guns, clear a room, do lots of pushups/situps, crawl with his face in the sand :), and take down people in hand-to-hand combat-yikes.
we all flew down to GA for his Turning Blue ceremony last wed. and Graduation on thurs. [turning blue is when you get the blue cord signifying that you're an infantryman]
i couldn't be more proud.
as many of you know, he was not allowed to communicate with us much while he was there-that was extremely difficult for me-so you can imagine how exciting it would be to finally see him. he had warned us in letters, before we came, that we wouldn't recognize him. he lost 15lbs while he was there. but i thought, "of course i'll recognize him-he's my brother." ha! apparently before the first ceremony began and before we had seen him, he walked by me, i looked at him, and then looked away not even having any clue that he was my brother!! i laugh everytime i think about it :)
waiting to see him for the first time-isn't she beautiful?
brother's platoon-he was a squad leader


mom pinning on his blue cord


can't get enough of the BCGs-something something glasses?-the army uses every opportunity to embarass during bootcamp-we decided to use every opportunity to embrace them and laugh :0)
HA


i totally fit in, right?!
like i said, we can't get enough of 'em...

the graduation ceremony started off rather wildly-tanks drove in, smoke screens are billowing (in fabulous colors, i might add :)), and soldiers are firing blanks all the while 'bad to the bone' is playing in the background-sister and i couldn't get over it-AWESOME

Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry
brother is in the front with the glasses-i think his hat looks the best
with one of his drill sargeant-he looks grumpy
tragically, my shoes got cut off in this picture-they were hot too!
PROUD FAMILY:0)
getting important phone numbers
step 1 complete in a long journey
again, my shoes got cut off-WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? (besides that i love this picture ;0))

Gingerbread Delight

warm yellow light spilling out of the house-and the snow has drifted up the door and they are 'snowed in'
candy cane trees :)

my little plot of land

girls night out

some gals from work and i decided to have a night of shopping in UVillage last friday-here's a picture of sara, kristin and i -not pictured but along for the outing are: michele, jen, and mairead.

ICE SKATING!!!

tonight i went ice skating at Seattle Center-a ridiculously festive thing to do around Christmas time-a few twirls like the good ole days but the ice was pretty badly chopped up (the rink wasn't really big enough for a zamboni). there were little kids using the 'walkers' to help them-soooo cute. and rambunctious teenage boys racing each other around the rink-i feared for my life-they were out of control!
me and jess
hailey and kristen
drew

inside seattle center, there was an entire little village set up-adorable!

A Festive Evening

tonight was absolutely perfect!
besides the fact that the state of WA is drowning, literally, under record setting amounts of rain-once i got home, it was actually really relaxing to have the sound of the rain on the windows/roof.
tonight was 'make our house Christmasy' night, set aside by Laura and me. she worked all day and ended up getting off a bit late, so i had the majority of the wonderfully quiet evening to myself.
i got caught upon laundry, cleaning, and card writing-oh yeah, and that thing for the IRS..not important right?! :0/
eventually, i dimmed the lights, lit all the candles and had Christmas jazz playing in the background. sipping vanilla chai and catching alternating aromas of REAL Christmas tree and yummy candles, i actually let myself slow down. (its really hard for me and i don't do it enough.) it was WONDERFUL!
after laura got home, we decorated our tree and just enjoyed the excitment of Christmas approaching. we're due for some more snow later this week-let's hope they're right!

here is our tree!! isn't it soooo cute! 4' tall-Frazier-which means a lot to people who love trees-but to me it simply meant that it's pretty-it has silver on the bottom side of the needles-so really if you think about it-you're getting two trees for the price of one-it's all about your perspective :)


adding sugar water, like mom always taught me...




i got these beautiful candleholders for my birthday from a friend-perfectly festive with a red candle inside, huh?



:0)

HA

that's my friend, les--don't ask...

and one of my friends, shane, moved to california not too long ago and was up for a visit when i stumbled onto him in starbucks :)


this is Betsey-we worked together at MBI and now she's in grad school in Texas-she came up to visit for thanksgiving

TGFMS

Thank God For My Subaru

for the first, and most likely last, time this winter-it SNOWED in seattle!
(this is my "i'm so excited it's snowing" face)
it was absolutely perfect! huge flakes were just pouring out of the sky and it kinda felt like colorado. this morning i woke up to sun streaming in my window, and i was talking to my dad on the phone in the early afternoon-and it just started dumping! i went for an hour long walk-simply refreshing.
do you see the HUGE flakes??
beautiful seattle
more big flakes
my neighborhood park
a bit of fall trying to hold on

on the way home it was a little chilly

then i made tomato soup and grilled cheese, had some hot coffee and then drove to a sports bar to meet up with some coworkers for the OU-Mizzou game-i was really glad i owned a subaru with AWD :)
i got real friendly with a whole bunch of OU fans i didn't know because I GOT KICKED OUT OF THE MIZZOU section that my friends were sitting in-ha! i had a blast and was really glad OU won.