The Day After Thanksgiving Tradition

With only a few exceptions - our wedding in '07 and our South American cruise last year in '09 we've gone on the hunt for the perfect tree the day after Thanksgiving.

This year we visited an new (to us) tree farm in Maple Valley. It was a cute setup with lots of great trees to choose from, well groomed fields to walk in, SUPER friendly little helpers (a brother and sister team under ten), hot coffee and cookies in the gift shop AND Santa!

I'm so glad we snapped a few photos on Santa's lap before we went on the great tree hunt of '10. I'm not sure we would have gotten the same smiles from our little buckaroo if we would have waited.

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Jack's Birthday Extravaganza

What a wonderful birthday weekend spent in L.A. with Bill and Doug. Thank you again you guys for the fantastic time!

We managed to pack a whole lot of fun activities and firsts in the short four days we were down there...
Baby's first visit to Disney Land
The John Paul Getty Villa and a trip across town to the Museum
Brunch with Jenny and Eddie in Santa Monica
Great dinners at familiar L.A. restaurants

To get a detailed overview of the trip and the fun we had take a peek here at our pictures from the trip HERE.

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Let the Games Begin!

We officially have a crawler on our hands! Hudson graduated from the worm to the full blown hand and knee action. (He never did army crawl or roll much, he had is own inch worm method.)

It's been so fun to see that Jack is the first one to witness his big first milestones. Once we both declared it was the real deal we moved him into the hallway and this is what we saw...

video

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1000 Sales

I'm in awe. Almost speechless. Somebody pinch me. Have I really? Did I really?

Little Retreats hit 1000 sales this morning. That means I've packaged and shipped at least 700 packages around the World. From local peeps in Maple Valley and the surrounding area to folks across the global as far away as Norway, Israel, Iceland, Austria, and the latest, Brazil. Unreal.

I'm so glad I was on the shop site when it tipped to the even 1K. Shortly after I grabbed this screen shot it the sales continued and the number kept on growin'. Crazy.

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Seven Months and Ten Days

The days continue to get away from me and the little boy continues to amaze us both with his new discoveries and advances.

I missed his seven month recap so thought I should dive in now before eight months sneak up on us.

So far Mr. Man....

We watched your two top teeth start to emerge but I was SHOCKED a few days ago to discover that you had two more top chompers coming in up top. Four top and two bottoms and we're only seven months in.

You've mastered sitting up on your own unassisted. And as of......

**And that's as far as I got before I hit the save button. And now it's the 5th of December and November seems like forever ago and I am afraid I can't remember that far back to fill in the blanks. Oh sweet boy, please forgive your your crazy momma.... :)

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Feeling so LUCKY and Blessed.

I pinch myself each and every weekday I spend at home with our little man. I still feel like I'm living in a dream (maybe that's partly due to the calendar insanely flying by, or the long work days, or all the fun we are having, are possibly because I'm going a little nutso...I'm leaning towards nuttso). Still, I can't believe I'm not driving into the office but walking across the hall to start my work day.

The last five months have been unreal. Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined my Etsy store, Little Retreats would have taken off the way it has, allowing me to work from home. Along with that, never in a million years would I have ever dreamed I would be working so hard. Balancing a full time job plus and caring for the little guy during the day has been a challenge. A tough challenge that I'm still trying to master, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. A crazy dream has come true, I'm 'crafting' for a living.

And then today, when the December issue of LUCKY magazine hit the newstands this morning and the orders started immediately coming in as a result I was over the moon pinching myself even harder.

It just keeps getting better and better. Check me out mom! I'm on page 126. :)

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The Birthday Fun Continues!

Last week was filled with all sorts of fun birthday excitement.

A super fun, super exciting, super hoppy surprise visit to Gallagher's U-Brew in Edmonds on Friday afternoon. More details on that fun ditty tomorrow (or next week). And a week long trip down to AZ to check out mom's new pad.

Sweet Jack surprised me with not one, but two amazing birthday gifts! For as long as I can remember I've wanted a vintage typewriter. It seems like an easy enough thing to buy on your own, but for some reason I kept that request in the gift column. On the way to my brew surprise Jack presented me with the details of my expected doorstep delivery packages. One vintage Royal typewriter from the '40s and one Remington 5 from the '30s! I am absolutely in love with both.

Today's delivery, the Remington. Photo courtesy of the iPhone, watch me go! :)

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