In the Lane, Snow is Glistening....

Michael and I woke up to snow this morning. I opened up the blinds during breakfast and BAM, this is what I see...

We didn't even expect it to snow! I love it. I open the back door and this is what I see.....

I look out the kitchen window, and this is what I see...

I hope everyone enjoyed all the Christmas festivities! Michael and I certainly did. We spent Christmas with good friends and just had a great time.

I think I'm going to go convince Michael to play in the snow with me now. :)

May Your Days be Merry and Bright...

So this past week has been super busy for me! Monday consisted of taking finals at PLU, visiting Meagan to say goodbye, and then hopping on an airplane headed to NC.

I have a friend from high school who works security at the airport. He was working the conveyor belt x-ray machine last time I went through security in November. This time he was helping people through the metal detectors. He took a break while I was waiting to board my airplane and we talked for a bit. Always good to catch up with old friends!

Anyways, I arrived in NC on Tuesday morning and Michael was able to go into work late so he could pick me up. I got some much-needed sleep in while Michael was at work and then we got our tree LATE that night. We got it from Lowe's (sorry Meagan, hahaha). They don't have any tree farms around here. They were kind enough to cut off the bottom of the tree and trim the bottom branches off for us, because we don't have the tools to do that!

We bought a tree topper ($12 from Pier 1, love it!), but other than that we just worked with what we had. I borrowed lights from my parents. I also had ribbon, candy canes, and cheap Ikea ornaments from last year. It is kind of a work in progress. :)


We have one ornament which we bought on our honeymoon, the day we drove to Leavenworth. We decided to get one ornament each year. So, this one is a little corny, but we love it.

I also wanted to make a tree skirt and stockings. I was way too busy with school by the time we got it started. So my mom pretty much took those projects over for me. Thanks mom! Here's the lovely tree skirt:

And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the stockings. They're just perfect.

I was also super busy this week because I made a bunch of cookies and candies for Michael to bring to the guys at work. I made sugar cookies with icing, surprise kiss cookies, turtles, oreo truffles, and homemade marshmallows. I kept half of the marshmallows for hot chocolate because they were sooooo good.

Michael's Thanksgiving Visit

I didn't find any time to blog during Michael's week-long visit to Washington for Thanksgiving. I was having too much fun hanging out with my awesome husband.

Anyways, before the snowstorm, Michael and I spent a lazy Saturday together. We started it early with breakfast at the Around the Corner Cafe, then just drove around for the rest of the morning and afternoon.

We looked at houses that were for sale -- just for fun, of course -- how adorable is this one? Then we visited Buckley's new veterans' memorial.

We had a snow storm that started on Sunday and got really bad on Monday, when we also had a wind storm. This means, ice covered roads, no school, bad traffic, abandoned cars, temperatures in the teens, power outages, and LOADS OF FUN! I love bad weather.

Jedd loved the snow. He just wanted to be outside all day. Annabelle hated it. Her dainty little feet got too cold.

The roads were basically a sheet of ice under all that snow.

Michael and I went for a walk before setting up for the dinner party at Meagan's that night. (I don't have any pictures of the dinner party, I was too busy staying warm, but it was beautiful!)

The sun was out, but it was super cold out! I think it was about 12 degrees outside for the dinner party.

On Wednesday, the roads were still ice covered, but Michael and I drove to Seattle for his surprise! I told him that he was getting a surprise when we came home and I didn't tell him until the night before what it was. For his Christmas present this year I got him a couple hours of ground school and his first time flying a helicopter! He was so surprised!

His instructor taught inside until it was time to do a pre-flight inspection of the helicopter. It was so cold at Boeing field, but I hung out with them so I could take pictures.

Then it was was time for them to take off. Michael was really excited. :)

It took a while to start it up because it was soooo cold outside. Another pilot landed while they were trying to get it to start and helped them out. Amanda (in the picture below), was only out there to make sure I wasn't out there all alone after they took off.

I ended up video taping the take off, so this is the only picture I have of them after it started up.

I video taped until they were a little dot in the sky and then GLADLY hurried back inside and warmed up until they returned.

Michael's instructor was really impressed with how he did! He was surprised that it was his first time flying. This pretty much made Michael's day. After we were done at Classic Helicopter Corp we headed to the other side of Boeing Field and visited the Museum of Flight. We ate lunch and looked at all of the neat exhibits.

All the old planes were really cool!

We could see where Michael took off from their observation deck!

It was such a cool day! We even got to see the end of a high speed chase while stopped at an intersection on the way home. A little scary, but definitely memorable.

Veterans Day Visit

Michael and I were able to see eachother last week for the first time in two and a half months! It was for only a few days, but we enjoyed every minute of it. The second day I was there was Veterans Day , so he had a four day weekend to spend with me!

He did have to go to work for an hour on Thursday, but I just got to sleep in a bit longer than he did. On the way home from work he also brought us Chick-fil-A for breakfast. :) They were giving away food to active duty service members for Veteran's day. How awesome is that? Speaking of awesome, check out the shirt I got Michael...


I also wore my new scarf that day. Which is also awesome.


On Friday we headed out to the beach on base. We had a ton of fun.

It was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

We saw lots of pelicans and sandpipers and seagulls...

I got to wear my rainboots, which I love! And we collected a bunch of shells.

I found this little orange bug on his back in the sand. So I flipped him over and gave him a piece of shell to surf on...

Then we found a really weird jelly fish. Michael poked at it for a while.

It was such a great trip! It was nice to just be there with eachother; we also got to hang out at Borders, catch up on Glee, and drive around listening to music. :)

I didn't want to fly back. Michael is going to be home for Thanksgiving though, so I'm looking forward to picking him up from the airport at the end of this week!

A Perfect Fall Day!

Today is the first day in a while that is hasn't rained. Not that I have anything against the rain. I love the rain, but it made for a perfect fall day of browsing through antique stores and making a trip to the pumpkin patch with Meagan.

My find of the day was this awesome scarf! It was only four dollars and I absolutely love it! I can't wait to wash it and start wearing it. :)


After shopping, Meagan convinced me to go to the pumpkin patch with her. It took A LOT of convincing on her part, but I'm glad we went! I wish I would have had my rain boots though; it was pretty muddy.


Meagan got a wheelbarrow, the shopping cart of the pumpkin patch. She even threw her purse in it to make searching easier. Haha.


She ended up getting a little white pumpkin too. I was loving all the cinderella pumpkins they had scattered around! I wish I would have gotten one, maybe later!


It was a successful trip!


Meagan was so kind to share her caramel corn while we loaded the pumpkins into my car. So yummy! :)


When we got them home Meagan started out with the big orange one...


And I gutted the little white one. Did you know that white pumpkins have green guts?


It is kind of gross...


While Meagan carved away, I picked the seed out of the bowl of guts. Then I used this recipe and got them into the oven. They made the house smell great!


Meagan's pumpkins were so adorable when she was done!


And the pumpkin seeds were delicious!


At the end of the night we set the pumpkins on the front steps.


And lit them up...

Beautiful!

Big News and a Dinner Party in the Making!

I know, I KNOW, it has been forever since I've posted. Not too much has been happening in the life of Kelsey, mostly just school and work and chilling in Meagan's garage (literally CHILLing -- we're still working on temperature control out there.)

Michael has big news though... he's being promoted to corporal in November!


I'm a little biased, but I think it is a really big deal! :) He is now going to be a non-commissioned officer. Along with the promotion, he gets his blood stripes (the red stripe on his dress pants, shown below) and can get a sword. Who doesn't want a sword?



I'm so proud of him getting this much-deserved promotion! I'm always proud of Michael, though. (And congrats to his good friend, Kyle, as well. They'll be picking up corporal at the same time! Very cool!)

Alright, moving on... why have I been spending so much time in Meagan's garage? Meagan and I are hosting a dinner party next month, which is going to be adorable and loads of fun! We finished up the invites yesterday and got them in the mail. Check them out!

They are 100% handmade, right down to the envelope liners!

They are all handwritten, thanks to Meagan and her beautiful penmanship.


I just love how they turned out!