Catching Up

I have not blogged in a while, so I am going to do some catching up with this one! This is going to be long...!!

Since it is winter time we are L-O-V-I-N-G this snowy weather. About a month ago Ken & I went up to Sugar Bowl for a weekend of skiing with friends. It was fun (besides the ride up which took us 7.5 hours, really bad traffic!)...

Ken's truck had a hard time starting up in the cold weather...

We had to use bins to put our luggage in since it was so rainy & snowy...

We even ventured out into the snow to grab a picture...

I got to hang out with Ken's sister Ashley while the boys dug sledding tunnels...

My Nana had two heart attacks, so my Aunts came out to help care for her. It was nice to see them & my Nana is doing well in her recovery.From left to right: My Aunt Ali (From Kansas), My Aunt Susan (Nevada City) & My beautiful Mom...

We have been able to spend some nights out with our friends playing pool, shuffle board, and ping pong...

Ken and I

For Valentine's day, Ken and I went out the Thursday before to celebrate (since we would be out of town..see below). We went to a really fancy dinner at Bridges in Danville. We had such a great time!

Before Bridges...

For President's day weekend we went up to Tahoe. We skied four days at Heavenly. I have never skied at Heavenly before and it is a beautiful resort. The views are amazing.

We got to stay in a cute condo...

That was super close to the lift...

It was GREAT weather for skiing...true Spring skiing!

We had to stop for this picture!

I am back to working three days a week & I am in school two days a week. I am hoping this is my last semester of pre-requisites for nursing school. Fingers crossed!

Happy 2010 everyone, hope you year is filled with happiness & joy! :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday was my Dad's Birthday...The big 5-3! hehe...Anyways this was a special birthday because the girls we were supposed to be in Kansas visiting my Mom's family for a week or so. But due to bad weather we stayed in California. So we were so excited to get to spend my Dad's birthday with him! We got him a police scanner, I have an application on my phone called 'Emergency Radio' and he always takes my phone to listen to all of the police activity in the area (sooo funny!). So his very own REAL police scanner was the perfect gift for him. He uses it all the time!

On his birthday, I dragged him to Best Buy with me, because I wanted to buy a flat screen for my room (a reward for FINALLY cleaning it). Turns out I didn't leave with a TV, my Dad decided to get himself a huge 58" plasma for my parents bedroom! Looks like I will have to venture back to Best Buy and try again soon...


We made pizza's and lounged around all day, it was super fun.

Happy Birthday!

My Mom is off of work for the entire week, so my parents have been having the best time spending time together. In fact, they started the show '24'. They have all seasons on DVD and keep trying to talk me into watching it with them...we will see! (see above for '24' watching evidence..i.e. COUCH! ^^^^^)

Together 25 years & happy as could be, I love them!

My Family

Happy Birthday Dad!

SNOW in Danville?

Well, it wasn't really that much snow...but it was snow!

I woke up this morning to SNOW outside of my house. This is a happy day, except for the mess my Dad has to clean up. Check it out below.

The view down my street, snow on the roofs!

Our front yard, LOOK at the tree branch that fell to the right

I hope it snows more so we can sled on Mt. Diablo. (wishful thinking)

It is officially winter!

Fall - OVERLOAD!

I went over to Ken's house this afternoon to watch some DVDs. When I walked into his living room and looked out the window, I saw leaves EVERYWHERE in his backyard. I started laughing so hard, because it looks like they have never cleaned their backyard...EVER. But the truth is, it looked spotless last week. I guess the rain and changed of weather caused this. Check out the pictures below...haha...

Can you believe THIS?? (that is a pool underneath all of those leaves!)...(don't worry the pool has a cover over it!)

Guess we won't be using the fire-pit anytime soon...haha

WOW! (that big tree to the left is the main culprit!)

It is going to take a LONG time to clean up all of those leaves!

Fall Decorations

My Mom loves to decorate for special occasions & holidays. Since it is Fall, she has made our house beautiful, with Fall themed decorations. Here are some of them..

Our front porch area (cute little hay & pumpkins!)

On our kitchen breakfast bar

In our kitchen, the window above the kitchen sink

EVEN on top of our family room TV, little pumpkins lined on top!

(I think this is my favorite: on our living-room table in front of the couch) How pretty!

On our dining room table, pine cones & candles

And our dining room table, what a cute table runner!

Oh...these decorations bring me such joy! I love walking through my house during Fall, it is so festive. Thank Mom for making a beautiful house to live in!

You all are going to LOVE my Christmas decoration blog!

A Halloween Project

About a month ago I had the idea that I would make a Halloween costume for my dog, Jake. I knew right from the beginning what it was going to be...a tennis ball! Jake is a Border Collie mix and is a very high energy dog, he always wants to play especially with his tennis ball. Where you find Jake, you will find a tennis ball. Here is my journey:

Ok..so it's going to be a tennis ball...I need: 1) sewing machine, 2) fabric, 3) stuffing, 4) lots of dedication and time!!

I call Ken's Mom and she luckily had a sewing machine I could use...CHECK!

After work one day I stop by our local fabric store Joann's and got bright green felt, white felt, black fabric and velcro. While I was there I grabbed 2 bags of cotton stuffing...CHECK!

Then the project began...

I got a plain green tee-shirt from Richards and cut it to fit Jake, I used the velcro to open and close the shirt over his ribs. Once the shirt, AKA base of the costume, was made I started on the ball. I measured (with the help of my awesome dad) and cut the green felt.

On the living room floor working away

After measuring, I started to cut what I thought the shape would be...

After I cut my shapes, I decided to hem all the cuts to make it look professional...(wink wink*)

This is where you would find me after work or school, sewing away!

Once I had the green pieces of the ball made, I started to apply the white stripes.

pinning the white stripes into place

Then I had to attach the two green pieces together, this would make the shape of the ball.

I think Jake knew I was making him a very large tennis ball, and he was so excited! He would stare at me, while I was sewing and chew on his tennis ball. It was so cute!


Lou and Jake had the most fun playing in the stuffing for the tennis ball. They would wrestle and lay in it all day.

I think Lou likes it the most...

Can anyone see Lou?? hehe

I put everything together and the tennis ball was complete. It was a very long and tedious process. But in the end (thanks to my amazing mom) the tennis ball turned out wonderful!

We got to show off Jake's costume at the dog park the day I finished it. Everyone in my family went, it was so fun!

Jake could barely fit into the car with the big tennis ball on his back!

Jake walked around and got a lot of comments on how cute his costume was. It made me feel good to hear people say how cute he was in his costume!

Lou and Jake about to go into the dog park. Lou was a alligator...hehe

DA DA DA LAAA!!! The finished product!!! Jake in his wonderful tennis ball costume!

It was fun to make, but A LOT OF WORK! I think I will think twice before I start a project like this again.

Happy Halloween!!

Camping

This weekend Ken, Natalie, Shawn and their friend Nate and I are going camping! We are going to Big Sur, It is going to be a weekend filled with games, campfires, laughs, hikes and great food!



Blog to come when we get back!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!