Hopefully We'll Be Huskies

After visiting Snoqulamie, we headed over to the University of Washington campus to take a self-guided tour.  UW is our #1 choice for Brett's grad school work to get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.  It was our top pick even before we visited, but now, we really hope that we'll be huskies soon!  The campus was huge and gorgeous.  I can't believe that we didn't get pictures of the beautiful gothic library.  Holy cow.  I think I would have gotten all A's if I had had that library to study in because I never would have wanted to leave it.  It was a beautiful day (which helped of course, it didn't rain at all the whole time we were in Seattle), so we had a good time seeing what the campus has to offer.

This fountain is huge.  It would be such a nice place to sit when it's nice outside and hear the water rushing.  You can see a sample of the buildings behind it.  There pretty much wasn't an ugly building on campus.  We then found the bookstore and decided to find the health building.  In order to get there we had to go through a huge line of pink trees.

Talk about pretty.  People were taking pictures like mad, tons of people were out on the lawn playing frisbee, napping, and having fun.  We talked to some people in the nursing department, and we are so excited to apply in a few years!  Here is the view of the main part of campus from those pink trees you just saw.

Isn't it beautiful?  We just loved the campus, loved the people in the nursing department, loved the fact that there is a hospital on campus, loved the library, loved everything about it.  We are so happy that we took the time to visit the campus and solidify our desire to be here for grad school!

Mariners and Waterfalls

Our trip to Seattle last weekend was a huge success.  We had a fantastic time!  It was a long drive (but beautiful through Oregon and Washington), but when we got there we went straight to Safeco Field to meet our friends for a Mariners game.  Neal and Michelle Bastian were nice enough to get us some tickets and show us around since they were in town.  The game was great.  The Mariners beat Tampa Bay 1-0.  The field was right on the water and was beautiful.  We forgot our camera, so the Bastians have all of the pictures of us at the game.  Afterwards, we went on a drive to a beautiful area of the city to see some views.

That was our view of the city from the hill.  It was beautiful.  And the houses on that hill were beautiful and probably worth millions of dollars.  Here is a statue on top of that hill too.

Since Brett always wants to be behind the camera, there are more pictures of me than of him.  Here I am with Michelle, Neal, and Neal's brother Daniel.

After that we went to Dick's and had some burgers.  Really cheap, and really yummy.  We spent the night with Neal's parents and watched the Jazz beat the Lakers.  (Too bad they couldn't do it again.)  The next morning we headed down to Snoqualmie Falls.  And it was gorgeous.

The city of Snoqualmie was gorgeous too, and we stopped there to have lunch.  Beautiful nature, beautiful houses, nice shopping.  It was just awesome!  I just realized how many times I used the word beautiful in this post.  I guess that's probably the best word to sum up Seattle!  I will probably use it again for the next couple of posts.

Bittersweet

Brett and I are heading to Seattle tonight.  And we'll be leaving Kennedy with Brett's parents from this afternoon to Sunday night.  We have never left her before, and I am really sad!  I am excited to have a weekend away, check out a new city, meet up with friends, etc, but I am so sad to leave Kennedy for so long!  If we took her with us, we would all be miserable (since we're driving and not stopping at all while we're there), so it really is for the best.  But we will miss her terribly and already look forward to seeing her on Sunday night!

1st Birthday Party

We had Kennedy's birthday party on Saturday, and it was a blast!  It was a Hawaiian theme, and the decorations and cupcakes turned out really cute.  I don't have any pictures of them.  In all the hubbub I forgot, but my dad got pictures, so he's going to send me some.  But we did get pictures of Kennedy enjoying her party.  Except for the hat.

She loved the hat at the store, but I guess it wasn't a hit the next day.  We opened presents, of course, and Kennedy got quite a haul.  She is one spoiled little girl and now has way too many toys.

She had fun with the cupcake we gave her too.  She didn't get the candle, but we took care of that and blew it out for her.  The first thing she went for was the frosting.  She just put her fingers in it and licked it off for the first little while.

After a few minutes, I broke the cupcake in half, and she liked that a little bit better.  She stuffed it in her mouth, but she didn't make that much of a mess.

We had a bunch of family and a few of her friends there, and it was so much fun!  Her cousins had a hula hoop contest, with a grass skirt for a prize.  The weather was decent, so we were able to have it at the park.  People played frisbee, soccer, and bocce ball.  Thanks to everyone who came, especially dad who came all the way from Texas, to celebrate Kennedy's first birthday!

It Goes By So Fast

April 17, 2008

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

April 17, 2009

I'm sorry for all the pictures, but I had to document the changes that have taken place over the past year.  That's right.  My baby girl turns 1 today.  One year ago, Kennedy was born at 11:28 pm.  She weighed 8.5 lbs and measured 19 inches.  She is so much bigger now!  She is a beautiful, sweet, active girl.  She has brought us so much joy and a lot of laughter over the past year.  I can't believe how fast it has gone and how different she is.  Happy birthday my love!  Mommy and daddy love you so much and look forward to spending this next year with you!

Bakerella's Cake Pops

This year for Easter I made an attempt to make Bakerella's cake pops.  She always comes up with the cutest ideas, and Easter was no exception.  She made Easter eggs, bunnies, Easter basket cupcakes, and these chicks that I tried to pattern mine after.  Mine aren't as cute as hers, but I think for a first attempt (and not having the right materials or enough of them) they turned out pretty well.

I think the next ones will turn out even better.

Bakerella has the cutest ideas for every holiday.  I know that I promised to put up pictures of the dessert that I made for Brett's birthday, but due to the fact that they had to be eaten immediately (and that they weren't that pretty) I didn't take any pictures.  I made him Baked Alaska, and it turned out decently.  So these cake pops will have to do!  Next big event is, of course, Kennedy's birthday!  I will be posting lots of pictures.

Happy Birthday Brett!

27 years ago today, Brett was born.  The 7th of 8 children, and the youngest boy.  I love to celebrate birthdays, and making Brett feel special on that day.  Unfortunately, Brett has to be gone from 7 am to 7 pm today because he has to put in a full day of work and then take a test, but hopefully he will have a good birthday anyway.  We'll play some Ticket to Ride (one of his presents), look through some C. S. Lewis (another present) and have a delicious dinner with a special dessert (I'll post pictures later)!  Brett, Kennedy and I love you so much!  You are the best husband and father we could ever ask for.  Thank you for being so thoughtful and loving, and have a wonderful birthday!

I Like to Eat, Eat, Eat Apples and Bananas

I was feeding Kennedy some banana for breakfast, and when she was done with one of the pieces this is how she looked.

If you can't see it, click on the picture and look at her nose.  I have no idea how two small pieces of banana got in each nostril.  She looked hilarious though.

I thought I would add a few more Kennedyisms that she has been doing lately.

*She fake coughs.  If you cough, she will copy you.

*She loves to shake her head "no" and does so any time she hears the word.  We've only gotten her to do "yes" once though.

*She still loves her classical music

*She sometimes sings along with us, especially at church

*She cannot keeps socks/shoes on her feet and hats don't stay on her head - sometimes I can get a bow to stay in, but that's about it

*When we change her in public restrooms, she makes high pitched squeals the whole time we're in there because she hears it echo

*She LOVES Lucy.  I'm afraid she's going to break one of her ribs because she mauls her all the time.

*She tries to offer us her bottle while she's eating.  She thinks it's funny when we say "No thank you."

*She's getting really good at giving me things when I say, "Can I have it?"  She'll even take things out of her mouth and give them to me.

A Mosaic About Ashley

Yay!  Thanks to Stephanie I was finally able to get this mosaic up.  I loved doing this!  I think I'll probably do it again randomly in the future.  It's so cute!  If you want to do it to, just answer these questions and follow the directions below.  I look forward to seeing the mosaics that other people create!

1. What is your first name?  Ashley

2. What is your favorite food?  Cheese

3. What is your favorite color?  Usually it's red, but right now it's yellow

4. Favorite drink?  Fruit juice

5. Dream vacation?  The pyramids

6. Favorite hobby?  Cooking

7. What you wanted to be when you grew up?  A performer on Broadway

8. What do you love most in life?  Everything

9. One word to describe you?  Passionate

How to do it:

1. Type each answer into Flickr search

2. Using only the first page, pick an image (I switched between most interesting and most relevant)

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs into the Mosaic Maker

4. Save the image to your desktop and put it in a post!  Have fun!

Happy Birthday to Me

I have had a great birthday this year!  I turned 24 years old and am very happy.  Since my last birthday I have had a baby and graduated from college, both of which I am very proud of.  On Saturday Brett and I went out and dropped my ring off to be re-sized.  My fingers are still 1 1/2 sizes bigger than before I got pregnant, and I'm sick of not being able to wear my pretty ring.  I get to pick it up later this week.  On Saturday night, Carol, Jamie, Chris and Brenda took me out for my birthday dinner while Brett was gone for the Priesthood session of General Conference.  We went to Happy Sumo and I had some awesome sushi.  Afterwards, I went to Williams-Sonoma and bought myself some awesome birthday presents including an ebelskiver pan.

I am excited to try and make these filled pancakes.  You can fill them with basically anything: fruit, chocolate, Nutella, peanut butter, etc.  I also bought a new cookbook that I had never seen there before.

It is an awesome cookbook with all kinds of recipes that will be so fun to make with kids and that I think we will all remember and love.  In fact, Brett made me one of the breakfast recipes for my birthday on Sunday morning.  We watched Conference and in between sessions we took a walk to the duck pond and had a picnic in the beautiful weather.  We went to my cousin's house for our monthly family fireside later in the evening and had dinner.  All in all I had a wonderful birthday!  Thanks to all that made it special and wished me a happy birthday.

Rock Climbing

I really hate how almost every time I get pictures off of the internet they turn out overly huge on my blog.  But oh well.  I thought I would just do a small post about my new hobby: rock climbing.  I know I've posted a little bit about it on here, but not too much.  I have been enjoying it so much!  Here is a picture of what I do.  No, that's not me.

Lately I have been able to finish several 5.7 walls (which isn't that hard for real climbers, but for me they are slightly difficult).  I am proud of the progress I am making!  It's very satisfying to make it to the top of a wall, especially when there was a part that took a few minutes to figure out.  When I'm done I can hardly pick up a book because my arms hurt so badly, my fingers are sore for 2 days, I am sometimes bruised (as I am today) and am desperately tired.  But it's awesome!  It's a puzzle that works out your whole body.  I haven't had a chance to climb outside yet, but maybe I will get a chance this summer.  You should check out some of the pictures the internet has.  There are beautiful and difficult climbs out there that would be so fun if I didn't feel like I was going to die!  Maybe in a few years.