3 years old!!

This is my Beck. He is three. He is hilarious, sweet and thoughtful, complimentary and encouraging. He’s also three and knows how to push my buttons… but those cheeks! I could nuzzle my face in those cheeks all day. I can’t imagine not spending all of my days with him.

In honor of his big day I interviewed him a la this. I’m not sure Beck understands what ‘favorite’ means. It took us about a half an hour to squeeze 20 answers out of him. Some needed a little coaxing but the funniest ones are all him. I can’t help but add a little of my own commentary – typical, I know.

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? boat toy at church

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries because they are so juicy and yummy.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Backyardigans

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Burritos

6. What is your favorite outfit? Cars shirt (Which he doesn’t own…but he saw Cars the movie for the first time this weekend and then saw a Cars shirt at Target so…)

7. What is your favorite game? Uno Attack

8. What is your favorite snack? Chocolate Raspberry Trail Mix (minus everything but the chocolate and raspberries…)

9. What is your favorite animal? The cow because it is the funniest animal ever! It moos and makes me laugh!! (haha )

10. What is your favorite song? Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

11. What is your favorite book? The Very Hungry Catepillar (We don’t even own this one…)

12. Who is your best friend? Landon (This is news to me. Landon, up for a play date?)

13. What is your favorite cereal? The sugar cereal at Grandma’s – the sugariest cereal ever!! (Lucky Charms. This is hilarious because his Grandmary would NEVER buy Lucky Charms but Aunt Ashley had bought them and Beck will never forget it. Grandmary is getting all the credit.

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Look for helicopters

15. What is your favorite drink? Just water.

16. What is your favorite holiday? Valentine’s Day (Ahhhh…what a romantic!)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Uniqua (Backyardigan character Beanie Baby. Has. to. have. her.)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? bacon

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? breadsticks

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? write a book

8+ months in one post…maybe two

So much has happened in the last 8 months. I’m sad I haven’t been diligent about recording it all. Instead of trying to go back in detail and miss out on recording all that’s happening in the present, I’m just going to just cram it all in one or two posts with lots of pictures and limited explanation. Sound good? So I had Margot and then…

I turned 30! It was very low key with lots of presents and not much going out. Just having had Margot, Stephen knew how to make it special. (I was too ambitious with my 30 before 30. Turns out growing and birthing a baby was more consuming than a thought. Who knew? I’ll just have to keep picking away.)

We bought a house back in Seattle!

Beck turned two! We had a little party to celebrate him and take funny pictures of our Chicago friends we would miss so much.

Our sweet family visited and helped celebrate Margot’s baby blessing… (pictures courtesy of my sister-in-law)

 

and Stephen’s MBA graduation from Kellogg. I was really proud of him. It was a demanding but sweet two years. Stephen worked tirelessly to balance our growing family with recruiting, school and social opportunities. He did it all with such grace. (Thanks again to Liz for the pictures.)

Not Margot’s best look but we’re all there!

After graduation we said goodbye to good friends…

and made the bittersweet move from this place we loved…

To this place, we also really love.

                                       via

That takes us to about July. August, September and October will have to wait until I can snag the pictures from Stephen. Then…all caught just in time for the holidays.

She’s Here!

A Chicago Anniversary Celebration

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary Stephen and I left Beck with a brave friend and took the L into the city for dinner, a show and a night of uninterrupted sleep with no wake up call. It. was. bliss. Everything exceeded my expectations. I think we were trying to make up for our lame Thai-takeout-at-home 2nd anniversary. Mission accomplished.

Are you ready for some truly awful pictures of an otherwise perfect night out with my love?

The ride…

The show…

             

A walk…

The hotel…

The view…

                           

In a nutshell…

30 Before 30: Bedding for Baby Nephew, Jude

      

An Urban Circus bumper for my sister’s first peanut, due any day. I wish I could be there…

I used this fabric, these bumper inserts and the enclosed directions. I didn’t have the patience to assemble all of those ties, so I just used premade bias tape, finishing the edges to hopefully make it more durable. I can’t wait to see it their crib when it’s set up. :)

It’s official…

photo credit

The offer is signed, sealed, delivered! Stephen has accepted a position with Adobe as a product manager for Photoshop. And….WE’RE MOVING BACK TO SEATTLE!!!! First of all, I really couldn’t have dreamed up a better job for Stephen. Photography is a great love of his and now his hobby will be closely intertwined with his job. He LOVES the Photoshop products and loved all the people he worked with this summer for his internship so…in a nutshell, all signs point to a happy Stephen. PLUS…we get to go back to Seattle which is really a dream for both of us. I’m so proud of Stephen’s unrelenting efforts to find the best opportunity for his career and our family. For at least the past year and a half he has been constantly networking and researching potential opportunities. Despite his great internship and subsequent offer, he put everything into recruiting this fall to make sure he was leaving no stone unturned. I’m so glad this was the outcome and so grateful to Adobe for letting us move home. :)

3 years ago today…

                       

…it was confirmed to me that our Heavenly Father blesses us way beyond the capabilities of our small imaginations. Maybe not right when and how we want but always much better than we thought. I remember, especially during our engagement, being overcome with gratitude on a daily basis that I was going to have the privilege of being Stephen’s wife. I knew I had scored in a big way. Never had I imagined someone so kind, so generous, so optimistic and so happy to be living this wonderful life. He was good, righteous and sincere and made no apologies for that. I knew he would do nothing but love and care for me with loyalty, humility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor perfectly matched to mine. I knew he would be a patient father slow to temper and quick to be involved – to show love and to work as a team. I knew a life with him would be fun, happy and full of righteous pursuits. My expectations have been far exceeded. I truly am humbled to get to call him my husband.

Happy Anniversary, Stephen!