{Good Stuff}

Today was a wonderful day. I had my adorable nanny girls this morning and early afternoon. Sophie (3) was feeling a little under the weather but she was a trooper all morning as we shopped for recital costumes, went to Toddler Time at the Community Center and then both got very excited about a yard sale on the way home. Paige (5 mo.) just wanted to sleep, poor baby. I brought the girls over to our house and Sophie curled up on the couch with MY blanket and MY pillow (it was a big deal) and watched "Up" because her tummy hurt. Paige fell asleep in my arms and I loved it! 

{*sigh* sleeping in your arms babies, not very many things better than that -in my opinion-}

Isn't she ADORABLE?!

When I got home and checked my email I had a nice surprise in my inbox...some 'sneak peak' wedding photos. There were 6 and only 1 of them we didn't like {Matt had creepy eyes lol}. Here are the others...I'm in love with them. I am now so incredibly anxious to see the rest...4-6 more weeks. The anticipation is killing me. We've been married for 4 weeks already. I feel like September went both fast and slow. Fast in that I can't believe how far along in my new dance quarter I am and slow in that our wedding feels like so long ago already. Sunriver too :( Being newlyweds is still a blast. Ok, I'm blabbing as usual. Here are the photos...

This time we had away all to ourselves {with our photographer} was so needed. I'm so happy we had this time together to get these shots by the beautiful willow tree. 

I love this.

These next two photos are the whole reason I wanted to get married at the Pickering Barn. Seeing other wedding photos here at this barn wall completely won me over. I love how simple it is, yet so perfect. *sigh* 

I hope you liked them :) More to come...get ready....you know I'll be all over blogging them.

A few more exciting things happened this week. Well, exciting for us at least. 

We ordered from Amazon Fresh for the first time. Now that our apartment has a front door accessible from the outside, we are able to use this service. It was so nice because we got to see how much we were spending and stayed $12 under budget. I got all my recipes out in front of me for the week and just plugged it all in. I imagine this service being helpful in the future as well when we have kids and an even more crazy life. We ordered it at 7:30pm and when we woke up at 6am the next morning it was already at our door. Love. They even gave us Tulips which now look beautiful on our kitchen table :) I wonder if that was just a first time thing?? We'll see on Tuesday... I was super excited about it so of course, took some pictures. Everything stayed super cold from their insulated bags...perfect.

I apologize for this super long blog post, but I just have a lot to write about and Matt is playing Grand Theft Auto while unwinding from work {I'm loving listening to this language...not!} 

This week I tried three new recipes and would make all of them again..delicious. My favorite of the three were the Pumpkin Spice Pancakes that I made tonight for our "Breakfast for Dinner" night. Pumpkin Pancakes are my favorite and every year when they come out at iHop we go right away for me to get some. The first time I had them was on our trip to Vero Beach, FL. Well...no more iHop for me! They were better!! That's right...better! I'm so proud. I am starting to really feel like I'm a good cook. It feels good. Here are the recipes I made. Matt loved #1 and #2, not so much the Pumpkin Pancakes {he hates pumpkin}. I am loving Pinterest for finding new meals. I also am making a few from our new wedding cookbooks this week. {mmmm.....!!}

#1-  Italian Pasta Toss

#2- Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

#3- Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

{sadly, no photo from this site...my computers being lame}

Ok, I'm done. Salmon Days tomorrow!

Our Wedding Guestbook

I am so excited, I finally hung our guestbook boards from our wedding in our room. I love reading the advice and love notes from everyone. I'm sad that a lot of people didn't fill one out so we're missing a lot of family in our "guestbook", but that's what pictures are for right? Here is the finished product and some close ups of a bunch...

A cute little note from my dance girls.

I love that we'll always have these little notes and I like having them in our room to see every morning. Our photographer is sending us a sneak peak soon...I can't wait! Today has been a fabulous day so far. This morning I don't think my 2-3 year olds could have been any cuter and then the weather has been beautiful today. Such good clean fall air! I just choreographed an adorable routine to "A Bushel and a Peck" for my 4-6 year olds (brought back good high school musical memories). I made Matt watch me do it lol. He wasn't amused. Oh well, he was good at pretending to be. Now to choreograph my boys hip hop routine...quite the jump from what I just did. Have a happy fall day everyone!!

Pig Luck 2011

Matt and I had a great day with Mel and Clint over in his neck of the woods...literally. His Dad and Stepmom's home is so beautiful and it was neat to learn that Clint built it with his Dad (good to know, huh Mel!) They live on a crazy amount of land with a barn (which reminded me some of our wedding because of the hanging lights) and even some animals....alive and --sad little piggy-- dead. We also got to go over to Clint's house to hang out with them for a while and it was great to finally see where he lives and to know where, in less than a year now, Mel will live as well :) It was also fun to meet Cogsy Wogsy's cousin, Chloe! I think her paws may be as big as his head? It's going to be so fun when they get to play. As soon as Cogsy is over his terrible Kennel Cough we'll for sure set up their play date. 

Check out this awesome bathroom sink. Such a cool idea to install the sink on to a table like this. 

The happy couple : ) We can't wait for their wedding!

My husband is a stud. Just sayin'...

It was fun seeing the animals, I kept saying that our niece Clare would love it there!

At my Aunt Julie's farm in Minnesota, Matt and I got a picture with a donkey...so we definitely needed one with the pig.

I felt so sad for the piggy. If he only knew we were eating his friend...so so sad.

Then we got to meet Miss Chloe! She is like a big cuddly Cogsy. Instead of reading her expression through her eyes and eyebrows like Cogsy she moves her ears around...so cute! They will definitely be the best of cousins. I loved her :)

We had a wonderful day, and...I got Mel hooked on Pinterest. My new found love. The boys went to get pizza and we sat next to each other on the boys iPads in silence just mesmerized by our Pinterests lol.  Good day.

-Chelsea 

Go Bears!

Matt and I are so thankful for the UW-Cal football game tickets that were given to us by our friend's parents. I had a blast at my first football game. Yes, there were a few parts that were not enjoyable for me (I'll get there later), but overall I had fun. I understood what was going on (no joke). It was a beautiful day and my husband was having a blast. We were sitting in a sea of purple (in amazing seats) and stuck out like a sore thumb. Some fans were friendly, some...not so much. Thankfully, the man sitting next to me was a good sport (he had a terrible mouth during the game though...that was one of my not so fun parts.) That and almost getting elbowed in the face by him after every play. Matt and I agreed that a woman and her husband behind us were the loudest people we have ever come across and that it is not fun sitting next to immature high school boys who say things like "what now b****" in your face. (My glare shut that down pretty quick lol and Matt was proud for keeping his cool with them.) 

Walking out into the living room this morning sporting my Cal t-shirt (courtesy of my sister-in-law), I don't think I've ever seen my husband look so proud lol. His wife in a Cal shirt, what could be better?

I felt super uncomfortable walking into the game. I just wasn't used to all the poor sportsmanship. It was like everyone there turned into a jungle animal. All rules of civilization and social skills were thrown out the window and everyone turned into wild, screaming monkeys or something. The man behind us made a very strange monkey sounding noise during the whole game and the jungle thing was all I could think of to describe being there lol. (I loved being at the game, and hope to go again. It just took a lot of getting used to and remembering that take away my Cal shirt and these people would be super nice to me).

I kept singing,

"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong." -Sesame Street

It bothered me (see above photo) until Matt told me to chill out lol and he just thought it was funny. He wore his blue and gold proudly! He threw out a "Go Bears" whenever he got the chance and I just tried to give a friendly smile as in saying (please don't stab me) whenever I had the chance.

Lots of terrible sportsmanship, you know, regular stupid sports guy comments --"Go back to California", (In which I replied I've never even been, I'm wearing this for my husband!" I kept remembering back to being in soccer when I was little and you would high five at the end of the game...do they do that here in the Pacific Northwest? I don't think so! I kept asking Matt if I could just go and buy a UW shirt. People did NOT stop staring, it was awkward. But, in honor of my husband and our family, I stuck it out. I did it. : ) I stood in the sea of purple and did my best to ignore everyone. Once we got to our seats I started to really have fun! I liked the band and got really really excited when I actually understood something that happened and cheered in the correct way! I've never been to a college football game and it was everything I wanted it to be. Loud, crazy fans, good energy, passionate people (to put it nicely), and a good band with awesome formations, Oh yeah...and a good football game! (We lost, but it was good). What's most important...it was for Matt and he loved it! Every second. That was the best part for me.

This photo has not been zoomed in or edited. This was our view and our day. Perfect. Thank you, Bill and Libby!!

Chaperones!!

Happy first day of Fall. (My favorite). Matt and I had a super fun night. We really want to be involved in our community. We know we will be here for, well...a long time. Our future children will most likely grow up here. My family was always and still is very involved in our community and I hope for us to do the same for our family. So far, we're doing well. Last weekend I volunteered for a bike race with my friend, Katie. Tonight, Matt and I chaperoned our first middle school dance! It was a blast. The Community Center was a jungle; brought back some funny memories. Matt and I got such a kick out of these kids. A few boys from my Hip Hop classes were there and very excited to show me how they've been practicing. "Hey,  Miss Chelsea!! Watch this!!" (lots of that). Very cute. We decided that this is something we will try to do for all of their dances. Our kids are going to love us! ; ) I loved seeing Matt there with me knowing he is my husband and that he actually was enjoying himself. He's everything I've ever wanted in a husband and more. He's going to rock at being a dad (one day a long time from now.)

Look how awesome we look in our volunteer shirts! 

Me, Katie & "Baby M"

Pretty soooonn.

(sorry for the wierd lighting, strobe lights will do that to a picture)

Earlier in the day I baked cookies trying a new cookie recipe for Oatmeal M&M Cookies. Katie's parents gave us tickets to the UW-Cal game tomorrow and I wanted to thank them :) We are so excited for tomorrow. Katie snuck a cookie and loved them, Yay!! 

Mmmmmmmm.........

Smarty Pants Wednesdays

Matt and I have been so blessed with good friends here in Washington. Last week and again tonight, we went to Trivia Night at Zeek's Pizza with our friends Chris & Katie. We had so much fun and are excited that it is our new Wednesday night ritual. We left tonight laughing our butts off after Matt and Chris ran down the Issaquah Highlands hill "Radar Running." Probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. (Running down the HUGE hill as fast as they could to see what the speed limit radar picked them up at.) I love my husband...I love our friends. I wish I had a picture to post, maybe we can take one next Wednesday.

P.S. I stink at Trivia. I just like having a night out with our friends.

Family Day with the L's - Marie's Birthday -

Life is now back to normal. In a great way. We are falling back into our routine but just with an extra oomph! Less stress and more love. Today we celebrated Mom L's birthday and got to see everyone, it was wonderful. Clare was hilarious and was pretty entertaining during lunch. I loved getting to play with her so much today. While we were waiting (a very long time) for our lunch, I took Clare outside because she was getting antsy. We sang rainy day songs while we stuck our tongues out catching rain drops and she was just so funny! She loved people hopping when we were all done eating; too cute. 

My silly husband.

The Birthday Girl (Nana) with Clarebear getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday"

While people hopping, Clare got some fun time with Mary Beth. I love this picture :)

When we got back to the house we played games and of course had cake and ice cream (yum). Then Megan stopped over with the babies! 

I love that Matt likes to be with them. He asked to hold Caitlin and she was sooo happy. I even got her giggling; I loved it. 

(Look at Matt's face, such a good Uncle Matty.)

And then of course, I took her back before giving Nana some baby time ; ) I love, love, love being an auntie! It's official now too. Caitlin seems happy with that too!

Keeping Busy.

It's fall and you know what that means...

It's football season, baby! Which means I have basically lost my husband (after I just got him) and my Saturdays for the next few months will look a lot like today. Here's how it played out...

I taught 3 dance classes this morning while Matt hung out with his dad doing electronic stuff and of course...watching football. When we got home, the tv came on and Matt got comfortable. 

I am quite productive during football days.

I made this game using wooden pogs and Disney scrapbook paper, for the little girl I nanny for. Her birthday is on Monday and she loves playing games. We played Memory the other day and it gave me this idea...that and I saw something similar on Pinterest. It turned out pretty cute and I posted it to my Etsy as well. I want to make a set for my niece, Clare, for Christmas as well.  

I'm excited with how it turned out. I also did a little baking tonight...actually a lot of baking. I made Salted Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes. The actual cupcakes were infused with buttered popcorn and I then made homemade caramel and buttercream. I wasn't a fan of them (I don't like popcorn), but I made them with Matt in mind. He said he like them...he may have been lying. We'll see if they stay on the table or not to find out.

We've been married for 15 days now. Life is good.

-Chelsea