Maybe My Thumb is Changing Colors....

My grandmother could grow the most beautiful rose bushes you've ever seen...

My mom could kill a cactus...

I have always been more like my mom.

Despite my numerous attempts, I have never, ever been able to successfully grow anything...anything!! Since it wasn't fair to the plants, I haven't even tried for a while...until now.

For my birthday, Kyle, Terry, Kade, and Ryne gave me a plant. They always have the most beautiful plants both inside and outside of their house, and none of the fake stuff either (which is what I have =). As thankful as I was, my first thought was "Poor plant, it has no idea what is ahead." However, this plant came as a bulb kit with instructions for dummies, and I thought maybe, just maybe I could redeem myself. Well, just look what happened...


This was my plant when I put the bulb kit together on December 18.


Two weeks later...


Three weeks into the process...the stems shot up and I got really excited...but they didn't do anything exciting for another week or so. And then...


I grew flowers!!


Yes, I grew these beautiful red flowers and couldn't be more excited! Look out plants, I think my thumb is changing colors!

Our Very Own White Christmas...Sort Of

I forgot to mention that we wrapped up our Christmas weekend by going to see the Broadway musical, White Christmas! Neither of us had ever seen the movie, but it came on tv and we recorded it on the DVR so we could watch it after the show. It was so much fun!




We've been fortunate to see a few shows, like Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and Catch Me If You Can, at the 5th Avenue Theater in downtown Seattle. We even got a great deal on becoming subscribers, so we have more shows to look forward to in 2010. We love, love, love Broadway and theater! Our next show is South Pacific and after that, Legally Blond, can't wait!!


Had to turn the flash off to get this one. Those ushers will come from every direction if they see a flash. I figured there can't be any harm in taking a picture of ourselves, right?

And then there was New Year's Eve...

Derek and I had a fabulous day hanging out together. We got a lot of stuff cleaned out and gave our apartment a good, detailed cleaning, too. Then we went over to hang out with some friends from our church in Olympia.


Played a game of Nertz...


Had our own fireworks show...


And just had a great time ringing in the new year!

Christmas in the Northwest

This Christmas was the first Christmas we did not get to spend with our families back home...first Christmas ever! We were so blessed to spend Thanksgiving with them, but for Christmas and New Year's it would be just the two of us, here in the northwest. We did have generous offers from several families to come over and spend Christmas with them, but we decided to just spend the day together and celebrate on our own, and it was so wonderful to have the day all to ourselves. Here's what Christmas looked like for us...


Our sweet little tree


My favorite Nativity...it's the only decoration that hasn't been taken down yet...I just love it so much!


This is my very first Nativity and I think it's pretty great, too. I love Nativities!


One of my favorite things about Christmas...getting Christmas cards in the mail!! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!


We enjoyed our Christmas lunch


We enjoyed seeing a movie on Christmas day (and it was a GREAT movie!!)

We also enjoyed making (and eating) a yummy lemon birthday cake, which I don't have a picture of because my sweet hubby accidentally smashed it =)

But most of all we enjoyed celebrating the day when our Savior was born and Salvation came to the world! One of my favorite Christmas songs has this line..
"I celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life."
And my goodness, how thankful I am for that sweet baby boy who was born and lived a perfect life and died a cruel death and rose again so that I could one day live forever with Him! Happy Birthday Jesus! Our hearts worship you not only at Christmas, but everyday in between!


Merry Christmas!!

We saved the best for last!

By day 5 we had visited all of the parks, but still had an extra day, so we decided to go back to our favorite...you guessed it...Hollywood Studios! There were a few things we didn't get to do on day 3 and we wanted to make sure we covered everything, so back we went!


Love the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! I always think of the Full House episode where D.J. thought Indiana was Steve. The real stunt show is even better in person :)


Waited in the lobby of this place while Derek rode it...yep, I am a sissy. I rode it back in 2005 and swore to never do it again. Once in a lifetime is plenty! I didn't even mind watching the 5-year-olds giggle as they came through the lobby because they thought it was so much fun.


Enjoyed this Mickey bar while I waited for Derek...


However, I am NOT afraid of roller coasters and this one is my favorite!!


Did I mention they force you to get a dessert with every meal when you're on the Disney dining plan? Force you...really...and who am I to argue?


Had a blast in Toy Story Mania!! The wait time would get up to 2 hours in no time! Luckily, we got a fast pass for this ride, and then were handed a magical red card and sent to the front of the line...forced to go...really...

We left Hollywood Studios and went back to our room to rest of up and get ready because we had a few fun things still planned for the night...


...like this! A helium balloon ride 400 feet in the air!!


Here we are at the top! Oh, and the sun was setting and it was beautiful!


Just check out that view! We had such a great time on our balloon ride!


After the balloon ride, we had dinner reservations at this place...Planet Hollywood! It was a very cool restaurant, 3 stories tall, and the the food was sooo good!!


And after dinner we had tickets for this show...Cirque Du Soleil!


It was an amazing show! Our eyes couldn't take it all in! We can't wait to get the chance to see another one!


After the show, I saw this place, and like Snow White, I couldn't resist!

The next day we boarded the plane and returned back to our home. What a vacation! So many fun times and so many memories with my very best friend in the whole world. Can't wait to go back and do it all again!