there's alot of this going on

Poor baby...four teeth at once is no fun. Don't worry she's not self-medicating.

i am the biggest dork in the land

Up until this past weekend the longest amount of time I spent away from Miss K was to go to a football game up in Seattle. However, this weekend I was gone twelve hours on both Saturday and Sunday and I have to say...It was awesome. Although I missed my munchkin terribly I had an amazing time at The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators Annual Conference. The weekend was filled with good food, great feedback, and amazing speakers. The conference also afforded me the opportunity to geek-out when meeting Holly Black (for those not hip to YA or children's lit, she wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles). Here's me looking like a tool...

I don't know why I always squint like that!! Anyway, she gave a wonderful keynote address along with Dan Santat and E. Lockhart.

I also had the opportunity to get some great feedback regarding Swept, come away with a lot of new ideas for other projects and most importantly I was able to meet, in person, several of the agents I plan to submit to early this summer.

Whew!! I was exhausted by the time it was all over but so incredibly excited.

i'm off to start revisions:)

portlandia and the fam

So as previously mentioned birthday week was capped off by a little trip down to Portland where we arrived bearing gifts...

The Mr. and I are notorious for showing up with junk food, a habit that my family both loves and hates equally. This dozen contained doughnuts (obviously) covered in everything from crushed up Butterfingers, purple Koolaid and my personal favorite Captain Crunch. They're just lucky that I didn't bring a box full of maple bars with bacon (a specialty at Voodoo Doughnut).

We had such a good time visiting the family and I was super excited to see my nieces who are getting so big, FAST! We got a chance to go to dinner with the whole posse and Miss K got loved on the whole time.

We generally don't get to go and visit as much as we'd like considering they're only a couple hours a way but it's always a blast when we do. The funny thing is we typically don't do very much when we do head down, more often than not we all end up in my parents room piled onto their California king-sized bed talking about the weird t.v. shows my dad watches and stealing gummy bears. Maybe that's why I enjoy myself so much, there's never an agenda. We sit and talk about everything from what our hopes and plans are to how M. Night Shyamalan butchered The Last Airbender and whether or not that is forgivable. My sister's and I migrate in and out of the room, now chasing after babies of our own and Mr. Awesome leans against the dresser and throws his two-cents in too. The dogs even congregate in the room. It's one of my favorite things about going to visit.

On Friday my sister, her boyfriend, Mr. Awesome and I all headed out to the movies sans babies and when we returned both our little girls were passed out, having worn themselves out, in between their NaNa and Grandpa on that bed that I love so much:) I think that's just awesome.

birthday extravaganza pt.2

Tuesday (otherwise known as the day of reckoning) Miss K was the first to give me birthday kisses and also sleep in until 8 which is incredibly rare, Yay for birthday sleep!!! and yay for birthday breakfast with my two favorite peeps..

a late breakfast was just a short walk away at Shakabrah where I went for a classic combo that hit the spot:)

Later that night we headed to Ravenous to meet with our friends Jamille and Steve for a little dinner. One neat thing about this place (besides the GroupOn from my brother and sister-in-law) is that the walls are lined with corks signed by customers.

The Mr. and I split a delicious pizza and Jamille and Steve got me an awesome bottle of wine and a book of zombie love songs respectively:) The zombie thing is another post for another time but suffice to say that I have a very irrational fear.

Also while down in that part of town I took this funky picture of Mr. Awesome that I love...

all in all my birthday was absolutely lovely and I'm looking forward to a crazy 30th year. Stay tuned for my 30@30 reveal.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

birthday extravaganza pt.1

So Mr. Awesome informed me that since I'll be celebrating a milestone birthday on Tuesday I get a whole birthday week!! Who knew:) The birthday festivities kicked off Saturday with a trip to The Crab Pot...thanks Ma!!

We ate sooo much and Miss K had a blast throwing potatoes on the floor.

after a huge lunch of crab, shrimp, sausage, potatoes and a strawberry rhubarb dessert...I actually went to the gym!! What can I say, I had to make room for dinner which was at one of our favorite restaurants called The Red House

we were joined by some of the usual suspects (thanks rob, shoni, crystal and evan for being awesome) which made our evening even more enjoyable...we talked about some of our highlights from being tweny-somethings.

Sunday gave way to even more birthday related feasts when we headed over to my in-laws for TteokGuk soup. The soup is traditionally made for New Years but I'm so in love with it that my mother-in-law brought it to the hospital the day after I had Miss K and then also made it for my birthday this year...here's a picture and recipe from Aeri's Kitchen...

I would have taken a picture of my own but by the time I remembered the only thing left to see was the bottom of the bowl.

As if all of that wasn't enough we finished the night with a steak dinner at my best friends house!! It's apparent that everyone knows that food is my favorite gift and what better way to celebrate than to have great food, amazing family and awesome friends to share it with...and it's not over...there are more meals planned throughout the week culminating with a trip down to Portland on Thursday.

It's kind of crazy that I'm leaving my twenties but if i have to go this is definitely the way to do it.

she get it from her momma

When I was pregnant with Miss K I made a point to fall asleep just about everywhere and in some inappropriate situations (sorry to those of you whose talking lulled me to sleep). Since I was pregnant during the summer one of my favorite places to fall asleep was in the channel of sunlight that slipped in through the sliding glass door at both my house and my in-laws, as well under the picture window at my mom's. I would curl up, pregnant belly and all, right there on the floor and just pass out.

The truth is I've always loved to bask, cat like, in this warm indirect summer light and distinctly remember doing it as a child as well. Today I watched Miss K slowly do her little monkey crawl to that narrow slice of sun (what a tease, considering there's snow in the forecast next week) that found its way to our door. You'll have to ignore the dirtier than sin sliding door, I assure you it's from the dog and on the outside. But Miss K just looked so content in that moment basking in her little ray of light that I had to capture it (dirty window and all). After the pictures I sat down beside her and we made faces at each other until the sun dipped behind a cloud and the reality of having things to do crept back in.

I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for all the people, all the sliding doors and all the rays of sunlight that have blessed my life. I am also thankful for this precious moment with Miss K and for knowing that while she may look just like her daddy, this is one thing she gets from her momma.

Hoping some sunshine has made it's way into your day:)

spring has sprung

It was a another beautiful day here in the Northwest. So what's a girl to do? Throw on some layers and head to the woods that's what. This afternoon Miss K, Miss Maya and I headed over to Point Defiance to get some fresh air and to snap some pictures of course.

there was definitely some dirt that got eaten as well...I didn't really try to stop her, first time for everything right? Mr. Awesome will be proud.