Families are forever!

January 10, 2009 was a very special day. After more than 6 months of having Kail and Kalvin in our lives, these two cute little boys were sealed to their parents for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. What a special occasion to have all my family together in the temple as my Grandpa performed the sealing. I'm so happy I was able to be there. Congratulations Greg, Chris, Liz, Kail, and Kalvin! You guys make a beautiful family!

Love it!

I LOVE this cookbook! All the recipes in here are simple, easy, fast, and only take a few ingredients. Plus it is really healthy...if you follow the recipe perfectly. Confession: I don't! Whenever it says to use fat free this or that I use the fat full stuff...it tastes better that way. I guess I am defeating the whole purpose of the book and Bill Phillips would be disappointed in me...but hey I could be eating a lot worse. I also love that the serving sizes are for 2-3 people which is perfect for our little family. Whenever I make a lasagna or casserole it seems like we are eating it for a week just to finish it off. Anyways, just had to tell everyone how much I love this book. I would recommend it to anyone. Sorry Debby...I promise to give it back soon. Thanks for letting me borrow it. :)

Garden d'Lights

Every year around Christmas, hundreds of volunteers transform Bellevue Botanical Gardens into a festival of lights. They take thousands of commerical Christmas lights and tightly bundle them to create flowers, vines, shrubs, and little critters. I have been wanting to go all season and thankfully because of the snow they extended the show through the first couple weeks of January so we could. Pictures can't capture how cool the displays are but here are a few attempts.

Some of my favorite creations were the palm trees, sunflowers, fountain, frog, monkey, squirrel, parrot, grapevines, tomato plants, and of course Willie the slug. In the clubhouse there was an 'aquarium' full of fish, plants, bubbles, crabs, and seahorses. It was amazing and I absolutely loved it. We are definitely making this a Plaster family tradition as long as we are in Seattle.

Two thumbs up!

On New Years day Brandon and I went to see Marley and Me and I have been thinking about it ever since. It was such a good movie! I had tears streaming down my cheeks at parts and then laughing my head off at other parts. It stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. As a newly married couple the Grogans decided to adopt a cute yellow Labrador. Soon the puppy grows to be a 100 pound ball of energy that turns their house into a disaster zone. What I really loved about this movie is how it portrays lifes ups and downs. It's not just a show about an unruly dog but a show about marriage and balancing family life and your career...something I think we can all relate to. Brandon was the one to suggesst going to this movie...I think he is trying to convince me to get a dog. And it was a very good attempt.

Round 2...

...was a little more impressive than Round 1. On Wednesday everyone was so worried about the snow but it never came. Then we woke up to this Thursday morning. The freeway I take to work had completely been shut down because of an accident. Brandon was so nice to drive me to the hospital on the side roads. And that excerpt from the metro article was completely accurate. We saw BMWs and other fancy cars abandoned on the road. And the most annoying part was when people hit each other they didn't take their cars to the side of the road they just left them there, got out to stand in the middle of the road, and stared at them. The funniest part of the drive into work was that we saw probably the only two snow plows Bellevue owns just sitting in a parking lot doing nothing.

Today the sun is out and it is beautiful. It will be a white Christmas after all!

Snow!

It 'snowed' this weekend...if you can call it snow. The winter weather has been the topic of conversation all week and people are freaking out. Here is a picture fom our balcony of the 'snow.'. Sorry...I have to laugh. Go to Utah if you want to see real snow and winter weather.

The weather man says that 'Round 2 of this Arctic Blast' is coming in tonight and will stay through Thursday. This is a excerpt from an article on the King County Metro website telling how drivers can get ready for the upcoming storm. "And of course, the county is again reminding motorists to be prepared for winter driving. That means: having plenty of gas in the car; driving with all season tires, chains and warm clothing; and please don’t abandon your vehicle in the middle of travel lanes." I guess the have had problems with this in the past. It amazes me that people here do not know how to drive in the snow and would just give up and leave their car in the middle of the road only to create more of a headache for other drivers. Too funny! I'll let you know how we survive this winter storm.

Happy Anniversary

6 months down...forever to go!