Hipster(ish)

on Carissa:
Gap floral blouse ($6.99 thrift find!)
Ann Taylor black camisole ($7.99 sale)
fortune cookie necklace (etsy.com $32)
Paige denim jeands ($18 thrift find!)
Tory Burch ballet flats (too expensive but well worth it!)


on Carter:
Mini Boden shirt ($9 orinally $24 25% off w/ free shipping and another coupon)
Gap jeans (on sale for $7.99)
Twinkle Toes Skecher shoes ($24.99 on sale)
silver hand bag (birthday gift)


Okay, Okay so I guess we can be slightly stylish, it turns out that although I love Bleu bird's(http://bleubirdvintage.typepad.com/) style I am a bit more conservative!  I am however impressed with myself lately with all my thrifty spending, thank you Mercer Island thrift shop, they have awesome stuff!
(and yes, I do mix navy w/ black quite often)

Thanksgiving

I must have been too busy eating because I only took a few pictures, but we did have a great day (maybe one of the best).  It snowed earlier in the day so we were worried that our little beemer would not make it out to Woodinville but low and behold the regular Seattle rain came and the snow quickly disappeared, and we made it just fine!

SIL Melonee, MIL Dena, me, Chloe and Carter!

my father in law getting the Turkey ready

my cute niece Piper

Chloe and Carter (these 2 are only 5 weeks apart in age)

Theo and Cooper (these 2 are 6 mos. apart in age)

uncle Tyler dressed as Spiderman too, Theo was apprehensive!

Theo feeding Cooper an olive

it takes a village

We took the kids to Country Village in Bothell today (my first time).  Jeremy vaguely remembers going there as a kid, so we thought our kids would like it and they did.  It's such a cute little shopping place and miraculously we left with having spent only $3.50, $2.50 on a Pokemon book for Carter which she already read and $1.00 on bird food!

feeding the ducks

okay...fine, I guess I am it?!

I got tagged by Domrese family blog and although these things kinda drive me crazy I really like Amber the Domrese crew, so I will oblige!

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals, or are they members of your family?

we have a funny little chihuahua named Bryn who is a PET and for the record I wanted to name Carter, Bryn and change the dogs name, obviously that did not happen!

doesn't Bryn Person sounds great, it's still on my list!

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?

We would move back to NYC .

 

3. What is the one thing most hated by you?

procrastination!

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?

buy a beautiful apartment in NYC, put the kids in amazing private schools, pay of Jeremy's grad school, have a 3rd baby, buy a Honda Pilot and of course share the wealth!

5. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?

cupcakes or a nap

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
if you love then you will be loved : )

 

7. What is your bedtime routine?

watch a few shows or read, wash my face & brush my teeth then bedtime around 10:30pm

8. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner?

a friend from college brought him to a party my roomates and I had. 

9. If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?
Claude Monet without a doubt!

 

10. What kinds of books do you buy?

books for Carter (AG girl, Pokemon, etc.) architecture or anything that looks like a cool coffee table book

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
I will be 42! I hope that we own a home and live in a city that we love.

12. What's your fear?

I am always afraid of getting my teeth knocked out, weird huh?


13. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit outer space?
No way!

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married, but poor?

dorky question-next please

15. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?

make coffee

16. If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner what would it be?

mood swings (eliminate them!)

17. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be?

Angelina Jolie...well maybe not the name but I would take her figure and 6 kids!

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
I can forgive. I try to forget but it's really hard.

 

19. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be?

Pagliacci's house salad, it is ridiculously good!

B.O.R.E.D.

I am so desperately bored, I am not sure if I am complaining or actually amused that I have not a thing to do right now.  Jeremy had to work today (boo) but he does have all next week off to play...um I mean prepare for his finals and write a few papers and enjoy some family time. So, today it is just me and the kids, which is standard but for some reason maybe because it is the day after Thanksgiving or the fact that I have no laundry and my house is clean, I am BORED!  I got back on FB last Monday because, yep I was bored at work and here I am bored again, this can only mean one thing?  I need a baby!

Happy Thanksgiving!

pictures from our last Thanksgiving in NY, we were so lucky to be friends with some doctor's who had a VIP reserved spot in the heart of Times Square, it was amazing!

yes,  we were that close!

it was cold...brrrrr

Carter's favorite

my favorite

Jeremy's favorite

giddy

While the kids were watching How to Train Your Dragon they asked me to make brownies and I am never one to say no to chocolate, especially brownies!  As I was stirring the batter I remembered that I had a huge Costco size bag of baby spinach in the fridge, can you guess what I did?  Yup, I steamed some spinach, then pureed it, then threw it in the brownie batter.  Carter asked if she could have more than one brownie and I gladly said "yes"!

Thank You!

This little gem of a movie has been a life saver the last few days while being somewhat snowed in, the kids LOVE it and Jeremy and I kinda like it to!

hipster (or lack there of)

Today, while at work on the slowest work day ever...I had ample time to surf the net and saw this http://bleubirdvintage.typepad.com/blog/ blog with pictures of a delightful family.  I have to admit that once upon a time before kids, and  in New York City, when I had a life and time, I dressed pretty snazzy and took some chances. Over the years I have noticed that I have become...gulp, REALLY conservative.  I practically live in jeans (Seven for All Mankind or Paige and I only mention it so that I still feel somewhat cool for wearing designer jeans) and t-shirts.  I am even bored with looking at myself in the mirror.  I have some how lost my zest to dress funky, fun, young, cute, or adventurous.  I need to get my groove back or at least some sort of groove back and get fun, get crazy, or at lest get some new clothes!  My inspiration is below (minus the beard for Jer):

hipster picture #1

hipster picture #2

(even their kids have hipster names Julian, Milla and Gemma, love it!)
pictures from bleubird vintage-

work

so while my family is enjoying a snow day, I made the trek by bus to work, boo hoo.  I do only work until 2pm but I am getting nervous that my co-worker won't want to brave the roads to relieve me and I will not work a 12 hour day.  I want to go home and snuggle with the fam!

pretty isn't it?

snow!

Today, I am thankful for the beautiful snow!  I went to the gym at 5:30am (yes, I am crazy but I love it) and as I was doing my usual Monday boot camp huge snow flakes began to fall outside.  By the time the class was over an hour later our cars were covered.  I am now sitting in a quiet and dark house, watching the sun rise and snow flakes fall and marveling at how awesome God is and how very blessed I am!

and just for fun!

ahhhhh...

that is the sound of me exhaling as I just hid my kids Christmas presents because,  I. am. done!!!!!!! Well, done with my kids.  I did go a bit over my planned budget but they are getting some pretty awesome presents! (you know what that means...PLAYMOBIL!)

Shutterfly

I am absolutely in love with the beautiful cards at shutterfly.com, have you seen them?  I have always tried to get Christmas cards out since we have family and friends scattered all over the United States and even some out of the country.  I feel like it's my way to share a little glimpse into our lives and let everyone see how much my cute kids have grown.  I am also particularly fond of Christmas, how can you not love all that December has to offer?  One of my favorite things about Christmas along with sending Christmas cards is receiving them.  I love getting the mail and I love displaying the cards on a ribbon strung across two walls. Check out the cards at Shutterfly, and get ordering those cards so I can rip them open with Christmas cheer!
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

day 18

Today, I am thankful for a quiet house (kids are at school) and my lovely cup of coffee (yes, I started drinking it again).

I am also thankful for homemade bread and a special eager three year old who likes to knead!
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

Thankfulness

My fellow blogger friend Kelly has a tradition of mentioning what she is thankful for during the month of November, I like her idea so I am going to do it too.  I am, however more than a few days behind, so here is a list in no particular order of things I am thankful for.
1. membership passes to the Seattle Aquarium
2. my hardworking husband who not only works full time but also goes to grad school full time and still manages to stay somewhat sane
3. mini Boden and regular Boden catalogs and gorgeous clothes, because they make me happy and fit nicely too! (bodenusa.com)
4. fall leaves
5. chocolate peanut butter ice cream
6. Carter
7. Theo
8. my dearest friends, you know who you are!
9. my great job at Bump maternity
10. for my awesome church eastlakecc.com
11. my mom who babysits my kids so much so that we can work and have an occasional date nights
12. for the color green (chartreuse, in particular)
13. my in law's who are hosting Thanksgiving
14. my kids wonderful schools where they are getting an amazing education
15. chai lattes
16. my newly recovered chairs, THANK YOU Juliana!

That brings me up to speed for today November 17th. I am incredibly thankful for my washer and dryer and dishwasher!  After 10.5 years in NYC without a washer and dryer nor a dishwasher, life has never been easier now that I have one.  Can you imagine dragging clothes to a laundromat across the street and down the block with the dirty clothes of a family of 4? : ) so very thankful!

car show!

When we were expecting Theo we decided not to find out what we were having.  No one, seemed all that surprised that we had a boy except for Jeremy and I, honestly we thought we were having another girl.  We were so ecstatic when he came out and also relieved as we had no girl name picked out!  Theo(dore) means "gift from God" and our Theo has certainly lived up to that meaning.  We are so very thankful that we have this crazy, energetic, adorable (or Theodorable, as we like to call him) son.  As Theo gets older, Jeremy has really enjoyed doing fun things with his buddy.  Last Saturday, Jeremy and his brother took Theo to the car show at Qwest field.  Theo LOVED it!



hotness!



We love beemers!

I love fall!

my great helpers!

happy kids in leaves!

eeekkkks!

I am hosting a Pampered Chef party...and I am nervous!  It's not even until December 5th but I get all crazy silly nervous when hosting stuff, all my juniorhigh and highschool insecurites start coming out but in the end I will probably have a blast and really any excuse to have friends over for wine and cake is good, right? If you are interested in coming let me know or even interested in ordering something, you can from here:

 www.pamperedchef.biz/debhilbert

(go to shop online, add my name and you are set)

 

My favorite thing ever from Pampered Chef, I use it ALL the time.

Jeremy appreciate's this about 2 times a year when we
 need to carve a turkey or something else!

I concur!

"To be sure, we all have our complaints. And while there is no other city where I could imagine living, there are many places that, for different purposes, I would rather be. But this too is a very New York sentiment. Chance made me an American, but I chose to be a New Yorker. I probably always was."
Tony Judt (1948-2010)




http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/opinion/08judt.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Carter climbs more!

Dad shows Carter some climbing tips

starting out

high

higher

highest!

(next time I think she'll make it to the top)

Christmas...

is 49 days away, are you ready?

rewarded

This morning I was feeling a bit frantic, I had to drop Theo off at school and then run to Carter's Veteran's appreciation assembly and I was doing this all by foot.  Luckily, we live just around the corner from Theo's preschool and fairly close to Carter's school.  She does take the bus to and from school, because it's not that close and today, just happens to be a day that I am car less.  As I was walking to Carter's school, trudging through huge piles of leaves, leaning as far over on the shoulder of a busy non-sidewalk street, I started to complain in my head and whine to God about the injustices of my life, why we don't have a 2nd car (which we made by choice) etc.  By the time I got to Carter's school I was in a pretty bad mood, with wind blown hair and a runny nose from the cold crisp air and pretty much over all annoyed.  I was really wishing that I had skipped the whole thing as I really doubted that it matter much to Carter if I was there or not.  However, as I sat through that assembly I was deeply moved that even in this very liberal state and at a public school, the children sang songs that not only had God in them but were also very moving. God Bless America, the pledge of Allegiance,  What a Wonderful World, etc. and then I noticed that my Carter kept turning around and waving to me and her little friends turned to wave too.  I started to feel very grateful despite the fact that our lives are far from the life we had in New York, I had much to be thankful for.  After the assembly Carter ran over to me an gave me a big hug and asked if I liked the songs and a bunch of her classmates gave me a hug too. After I said goodbye, I heard Carter say to one of her classmates "I love my mom" and then my heart swelled and I realized I would walk 5 or more miles on the side of a busy street with no sidewalk's, so that my daughter (and son) know that I am present in their lives, that they matter to me, that I choose them.  I am so very blessed and although I often feel discouraged about our life here in Washington I also know that God cares so deeply for our little family.  I need to remember to look at what might seem like such little words (I love my mom) and reap that reward.

more Halloween pics!

carving pumpkins

Jeremy hard at work



heading to our church for a kid celebration




I love Jeremy's pirate pumpkin!



Spiderman was losing steam before we even got started for the night!