what a gorgeous blanket

yeah right. if you value your life at all, you will not refer to this masterpiece as a 'blanket'. it is a quilt! and a mighty fine one too. a couple weeks ago, my mom made a quilt to go up for bidding at a friend's auction. i was SO obsessed with it that i was very sad to see it go.......

so what does my mom do? surprises me with my very own quilt. this is pretty much a duplicate of the auction quilt, which is prefect because i loved that one so much. my mom is so amazing. she is so generous with her time and talents! danka, momo.

"kah, kah"

that's tagg, saying "bike". he is obsessed. 

he really does love riding a bike around, but it is hard for him to smile for the camera. he could be laughing his head off but the second he sees a camera he either a) gets serious or b) looks away altogether. such a contrary little boy.

i was playing around with different effects from the sun. and tucker is always eager to be my subject.

why so serious?

craig took this one. sometimes, when i find a cool location or want to try a new trick i have craig get behind the camera. he has a hard time taking posing seriously (usually making scary-wide open eyes) and therefore ruins the shot. so i just tell him where to shoot and i get to be the model. 

baby pinecones. 

the weather has been amazing lately. so its been fun playing outside and getting some much needed vitamin d. this is tagg's little chubby hand after a hard afternoon of playing in the front yard.

taylor swifty, youre so nifty

thats what i wanted grace to put on her poster for the taylor swift concert.... but i guess "you rock" was cooler. guess i really am an out-of-touch un-hip mom. boo.

last thursday, for grace's eighth birthday wish, megan, my mom, anna, grace and i packed ourselves into the car and drove over to good old spokane for the taylor swift concert. i was surprised by how many of her songs i liked/was familiar with. she was one great entertainer too.

and the highlight of the nite (for grace) was when taylor swift walked thru the crowd and randomly picked grace to give one of her bracelets to. grace was so thrilled she was speechless and said she almost fainted. it was too cute.

and the highlight of the nite (for me) was when the opening act came back out onto the stage at the end of the concert. we had missed them earlier because a) who cares about seeing the piddly opening acts, right? and b) we had to hit up the spokane outback before the show. little did i know: we should NOT have missed them. lets just say, the band boasts one of the most attractive male specimens i have ever laid eyes on. period.

girls trip to sandpoint

the second our last guest left the cupcake classic, my mom, my three aunts, my grandma and i hopped in the car to head for sandpoint. this time we were celebrating brooke's fiftieth birfday. brooke is one pretty lady, inside and out.

shanna and me. even though our SIX hour car trip went very late into the nite, we had a fabulous time laughing and eating gas station junk food.


the long ride was well worth it! this is the view from the house. so gorgeous.

as my mom has always said: "everyone vacations differently". this was my mom vacationing.

shanna was having a grand old time cozied up on the couch, watching the rain. she lives in san diego so she isnt as sick of the weather up here as we are!


but once it cleared up we got a triple rainbow! the third one is there, trust. my favorite part was the rainbow's refelction on the water.

megan was in her happy place, making us these wonderful au gratin potatoes. they went quickly.

we were talking (not here, just in general. no idea what we were talking about here) about how different this trip was from our trip to vegas a couple months ago. sandpoint was definetely more relaxed and a whole different kind of fun. i swear, we got out of our pajamas at some point......

oh yeah, to go to our classy mcCLASS dinner at pizza hut. dont judge, it was tasty.


the sandpoint house has this amazing old bell out on the lawn. my grandma was the only one strong enough to ring it! she is so cute.

cleaning house, before we headed out. so that we would be invited back again someday. :)


randomly, right before we left, a landscaper came by the house so we made her take a couple shots of us. this is the three generations.


mom with her four daughters.


i freaking love girls trips. i cannot believe that the girls let me in on the party! i have one amazing husband to let me go on all these getaways and five fantastic best friends.

cupcake classic 2009

it all started with one little cupcake.

and the obsession grew and grew until we had to throw the party to end all parties.

the invites. megan, my mom and i were having a grand old time putting these puppies together until megan CUT my finger open with a pair of fiskars. my mom wanted to take a picture of me rolling on the kitchen floor crying but i wouldnt allow that.

slight change in time from the save the date cards. turns out, we were heading out that nite for a girls weekend in idaho (more on that later...). so we needed to get the ball rolling a bit earlier.

the surprise inside each invitation.

of course, we had to make a party out of delivering the invitations.

premise of cupcake classic: megan, my mom & our friend nan, and i love cupcakes. however, we are very particular when it comes to where we go to get them. there are three main cupcake shops in seattle and each of us fancy a different shop. we are all VERY passionate about our cupcakes. hence the cupcake classic. we wanted to get our friends in on the action and see which cupcake reigned supreme.

tagg, helping set up the ballot table.

last minute touch-ups with the decorations.

the finished product.

we (and by "we" i mean craig and tucker) moved all the furniture out of the living room. it was pretty difficult (or so i heard :) ) but well worth it.

one of my favorite parts of the party were these cupcake floral arrangements. i had to save up a bunch of tagg's peaches cups because they were the "vases" the flowers went into. and they were the perfect fit for the oversized cupcake holders.

each guest recieved their own little bag that was filled with gourmet sugars/jimmies to decorate their cupcakes with at home.

the first of the three contenders in the cupcake classic: TROPHY cupake. these were my pick. i love everything about them and will defend them to my dying day!

my mom and nan's pick: NEW YORK cupcake.

and last, but not least (ok, yeah kinda least because spoiler alert: these didnt win one darn category), megan's favorite: cupcake ROYALE. we still love you, megan.

the ballots and the cupcake trivia questions. my grandma did an amazing job at coming up with hilarious questions all about cupcakes! my favorite question: how many loops are on a hostess cupcake? seven.

we were excited to find out who had the best cupcakes. taking food seriously + super competitive = we werent kidding around.

megan gave me this fabulous glass glitter cake stand for my birthday. it looked so purty with the cupcake.

the cupcake obsessors: megan, me, nan, and my mom.

before the competition, our guests got to chow down on: tomato bisque and/or black bean soup, my grandma's famous rolls, and a yum-o salad. it was so delicious... i am still thinking about it.

my aunts, shanna and brooke. the nite was ten times better because they had flown in from san diego to be there.

i told you that we werent kidding. my claws were out. this was me, explaining the rules to the contest.

before anyone could taste a cupcake, they had to judge which ones were decorated the best. emily better have chosen trophy!

diving in.

megan, making out with a cupcake. even though we were VERY biased, the contenders got to judge too.

shelly and jodi casting their ballots.

my grandma, tallied up the votes......

... and the best overall cupcake was my mom and nan's NEW YORK cupcake. megan and i were pretty bummed. guess you cant argue taste. :)

the silver lining was that trophy won "best appearance"!

megan was a very gracious loser.

all is fair in love and cupcakes.

just a few of the door prizes our guests won throughout the nite. nan is so crafty!

my aunts, shanna and brooke, fighting over the piping bag/cupcake necklace. brooke won it for being the guest who traveled the furthest to attend the cupcake classic.

after the competition, we had a cupcake decorating demonstration. the ladies ate it up (figuratively and literally).

after the "lesson" everyone headed to the kitchen to decorate their own cupcakes. and to top it off? they got to pick out a mini crystal cake stand to put their cupcakes on and take home as gifts.

megan, emily, me and hanna. i seriously have the sweetest/funnest :) friends around. i was so glad they were able to share the nite with me.

and as if things couldnt have been better: jessica was in town! i was incredibly happy that she was able to be at the party in person instead of just having to see pictures.

my baby. seriously. i spent sooooo much time on this thing that i had a hard time taking it down. guess we will have to throw another cupcake classic so the banner doesnt go to waste.

every time i think about the party i get a cheesy smile on my face. everything was so fabulous. i couldnt have done it without the help of my my mom, megan, nan, my aunts and my wonderful grandma. i love throwing parties and this one was my favorite so far.