Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

What a miracle and blessing it was to be able to celebrate Grace's 1st birthday today! This little lady of ours is quite a gem and she melts our hearts and puts a smile on our faces every single day. She has a larger than life personality with a smile so bright she lights up a room! We love you, our darling Gracie! Happy 1st Birthday!

lovin' life!

Grace's b-day is Sunday. We had a little get together with her friends today.... I'll post more pics later, but I just had to share this one. Ruby gave the outfit to Grace!!!!!! LOVE it!

I think I'm moving to California!!!

Well, we had an absolutely AMAZING time in Palm Springs! The weather was to die for and we just really enjoyed the time as a family! We even ended up seeing my cousin (who lives in Alaska now:( ) and her family and new baby!! We didn't know they were going to be there until right before we left!!! I highly recommend Palm Springs in early/mid April for a family trip. It's very quiet there... we were the only ones in our condo area so we had the pool and grounds to ourself! There's a great zoo there, fun restaurants and shops, and the coast and Disneyland are only 1 1/2- 2 hours away! It was perfect.(and as Jake put it-- his favorite part of the entire trip was swimming everyday with his daddy and getting slurpies!! Sometimes it's just the little things that end up meaning the most!) I do have to say that one of our highlights was spending the day with the wonderful Hausam family(we traveled to Ethiopia with them, so it was so great to see them and meet their entire family)!! They came out for the day and we pool partied and BBQ'd together. Let me just say.... those 5 kids of theirs (and I'll add Laurie and Michael in too!!) are just the nicest, funniest, and polite... well, the jury's still out on Michael for that one.... but, in a nutshell-- they ROCK!! We also stayed the night at their house the night before Disneyland as they only live about 20 minutes from the park-- so very hospitable-- thanks guys!!! And yes, Disneyland was great. We just took Jacob and Grace stayed back in Palm Springs with my parents. We were at the park for 12 hours and had a blast!! Jake loved it all!! So, we're already ready to go back!! Grace loved swimming and just playing in the sun; Jake became a fish and shedded the swim vest by the end of the first day; and I have to say that it was NO fun coming home to 6 inches of snow!!!!! It's April, for pete's sake. So.... we want to pack up and move to Cali.... the land of sunshine!! :)

And, OK, I'm probably going to overdue it on the pics for this post... but it will take me too long to remember how to do a slide show!!

We're Leavin' on a Jet Plane!!

Yeah.... we're finally heading out to SUNNY California tomorrow!!! We're beyond excited to leave the cold, rainy Pacific Northwest for 9 days in the sun! I'm hoping to come home to news of more referrals and travel dates!