Around mid-December we took little miss Sofia to downtown Seattle with us to meet Mr. Claus at one of my favorite stores, Nordstrom. I had heard about how the Santa Claus there has his own little "cabin" and they give the children cookies, cider, etc and parents stand for hours in line because this Santa is just that awesome. Since we don't have any babies of our own, Ricky and I thought it would be awesome to take Sofia. (If you don't know, Sofia and her mom Alma are not "actually" related, but they are an "adopted" part of the Garcia family, and we all love Auntie Alma and our sister Sofia very much!) 


We got downtown about 1 PM and thought we'd get Santa out of the way before the line became too long. Upon arriving, we noticed the was no line, and simply could not believe our luck! Turns out the implemented a paging system this year to avoid people having to stand in line outside. That's great and all but I really wish I would have been told when I called them earlier in the week! At this point the "page" line was 2.5 hours long. They told us to have our cell available, and when it was time for use to come back Santa would give us a call.

What's to do when you have 2.5 hours to kill with a 4 year old in tow?

New year.

I have much to blog about, things we did over the holiday season, and our plans for the new year. I am excited to see what 2012 has in store for us, as 2011 did have it's share of heartbreak and tribulations. I am positive as long as I have my husband and family(ies), we can get through anything!

Crochet bouquet

I am loving pinterest right now. I am learning so many little tricks and DIY ideas and I am enjoying every second of it! My latest conquest has been little crochet roses.

It was super easy! I just chained 20-30 stitches (depending on how big the flower would be) and then double crocheted all the way across and then squished it all together. Slapped the rose onto some green pipe cleaners and voila! To add a little more whimsy I grabbed a blue knitted block I'd done a while back and added it to the inside of the vase for the water!

I gave these to ricky's sisters for their birthday. Unlike real flowers these never have to be watered and will never die!

Pause

Sometimes I have to pause and remember to appreciate the beauty in my life. All the little things that weigh me down during the day are just that...... Little things.

My dog.....

As you can see, Bruce's favorite place to lay is in a pile of (previously) folded clean laundry...... Good thing he is squeaky clean otherwise he'd be in big trouble right now!!

Take Flight!

A couple days ago my company took us all to an undisclosed location for a re-branding presentation/celebration. Turns out the location was the Museum of Flight. I've never been but always wanted to and I got to go for free while I was being paid to "work" !! The only down side is we had guided tours around the main building and unfortunately our elderly tour guide wanted to share an hour of personal stories and why certain planes were her favorites. So I think I'll want to go back and actually explore.... But I got some really cool photos with my trusty iPhone!

Halloween!

This year, Ricky and I went to a Halloween party as Lucy & Ricky Ricardo! For limited resources I think we did really good! We also dressed Bruce Wayne up as a hot dog ..... Which he did NOT appreciate!!