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Introducing...

5.04.2015

The future Mrs. Wilson!
It finally happened! A week ago Saturday, my brother proposed to his girlfriend of 2.5 years, Christine, and our family did a giant happy dance. GIANT. We love Christine!

The day after he popped the question we got together to celebrate Jamin's birthday at my parent's house. Christine surprised him with a new BBQ grill hidden in my parent's shop, and she surprised us all by showing up with a ring on her finger!

I am so, so happy :) My little brother is only a year and a half younger than me, and as someone who's been married almost 16 years now, I was afraid Jay was past praying for! I mean, we stopped pestering him about it like a decade ago ;)

(Kidding. Kind of.) 

(I mean, who really stops pestering their baby brother about anything?)

It just took the right girl though. We think Christine is the perfect fit for him, and the perfect fit for our family. And as an added bonus, I get a new sister! 

{And I just had to share these because THEY ARE THE CUTEST. Off to a Kentucky Derby party!} 

Congrats, Jay & Christine, I love you both!


Friday Thanks

5.01.2015

Today I'm thankful for... 

- a beautiful sunny day and an awesome weekend forecast.
- banana bread bagels. Yes, they're a thing! 
- only 23 more school days till summer break! 
- a new BBQ joint in town to try this weekend (just give me alllll the pulled pork.)
- my new ride. That was given to us. GIVEN. With only 73k miles. SEVENTY THREE!

Today I'm thankful for a God whose love overwhelms me.


PROM - and a day in Portland

4.27.2015

Saturday night was a new adventure for me... I attended Oregon City High School's prom in downtown Portland to help the photographers (friends of a friend) run their check-in table. 

It kind of happened like this (while in the middle of a conversation with my friend, Amy):

Amy: I'm working next Saturday night.
Me: doing what?
Amy: helping my friends who are the photographers for a prom.
Me: PROM?!! That sounds awesome!
Amy: yeah it's pretty fun to see what everyone's wearing and watch the prom and all that happens.
Me: PLEASE SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW.

I didn't even care if I got paid or not, the idea of people watching in that kind of environment and checking out the latest in prom fashion just sounded too fun! And it was!! And what was even more fun... heading into Portland with Amy several hours early to check out a few famous food places and try them out for the first time!

We parked on Kearny in NW Portland and I immediately fell in love with all the houses. 

GORGEOUS.

I'll take this one please. 

Or this one. 

Destination 1: Salt & Straw! Portland's most famous ice-cream parlor. Being a Saturday afternoon, the waiting line came out the door and wrapped around the corner. We waited 50 minutes - totally worth it! (I'm sure during the week it's not nearly so busy though.) I tried salted caramel, coconut with Petunia's salted caramel bars, and strawberry with balsamic vinegar and black pepper. My fave was the coconut.

This is my SUPER FUN friend Amy. We had a blast together and discovered that we are food-lover soul mates. Which means I need to be careful how often we hang out together because we'd both be happy to just skip from one restaurant to another all day long, people watching in between! Fun of course, but very dangerous!

Destination 2: Blue Star donuts! (Some say that they're better than Voodoo Donuts. As a person that hasn't had both, I'm sadly unable to weigh in.) We picked a couple each and saved them to eat at the end of the evening. 

{passionfruit with cocoa nibs & coconut coffee cheesecake. Both delish.}

After that we picked up some Pizzacato pizza and headed to Portland's World Trade Center.

{testing out the photobooth... just to make sure it was as fun as it looked, you know.}

I didn't taken any pictures at the prom because we were hecka-busy. And I loved every single second of it. If only I could have taken pictures of all my favorite outfits and couples! It was a pretty big prom, I think they sold 800 tickets, and probably a third of them paid to come through the picture line. I saw everything from capes and loo masks, to head-to-toe camo, to a Little Mermaid lookalike. FOR REALS. Oh... fun times!

I can't wait to help again next prom season :)

Friday Photo Dump

4.24.2015

If you don't follow me on (or use) instagram, here's a bit of what we've been up to the past few weeks! 

- when Russ realized the new Annie movie (family movie night!) was a musical... with LOTS of songs.
- movie date with Kendall and a friend to see the new Cinderella. We loved it!
- coffee date with Jana and our sweet Annie who left for a semester of college in Germany the next day. (We miss you, Annie!)
- Target with boys. Am I right? 

Around the house. Enjoying spring, the breeze through the french doors off our bedroom, my Georgette Heyer collection, and warm summer-like days in the backyard. 

Kendall picking new glasses. And the winner was...

Window #3, Bob! (bottom left)

- massage bed face (worth it)
- Pioneer Woman's Creamy Lemon Bars. To die for. 
- I don't mess around. The cereal of my childhood (in New Zealand) is not easy to find!
- when your nephew is over for the day and makes a ninja mask out of his chewing gum with unfortunate results. 

- and the prettiest baby shower (and mama) you ever did see! It was so sweet and lovely, just like my friend, Violet.

Have an extra awesome weekend!

Monday Confessional

4.20.2015

I've fallen (into our new zero gravity lounge chairs) and I can't get up.

No, really. Russ sent me off to buy a pair of lounge chairs Saturday morning so that I could "keep him company" while he worked on trimming trees that afternoon. 

(Russ's idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon: working outside on our property, with his wife relaxing nearby to keep him company.
Jodi's idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon: reading in the sunshine and possibly taking a nap too.
WIN-WIN.)

Anyway, I'm sure Russ meant zero gravity loungers when he said "lounge chair thingys", so that's what I was kind enough to purchase. And that's where I stayed the rest of the weekend!

Saturday afternoon's view. Very enjoyable.

Sunday evening's view. Miley approves.

These two approve as well. 

Happy Monday! You'll know where to find me!