yosemite with the lubbens...

luke and i made it down to (modesto) california this past weekend to visit with cyndi, greg, jacob and emily! we had a great time and made it to yosemite for the day! i had forgotten how incredibly beautiful it is and was thankful to be there with my love and great friends. oh, and some pretty stinkin' cute kids. enjoy some shots from our trip...

happy easter..

just wanted to wish a very happy easter to everyone! and despite my critique of every picture taken of me, i decided to post these just to show my new hair...

happy birthday sweet hubby..

we celebrated hubby's birthday last weekend with good friends, good food and good fun! of course you're never too old to open presents. ;) this year was all about things soccer-related. oh wait, that's every year. and every holiday for that matter! luke has been carrying around a barcelona poster his mom got for him years ago and i snuck it out of the house and had it professionally framed. so excited with how it turned out AND that i managed to surprise my husband, the detective.

home renovations..

well, we finally got around to our first home projects...it's officially ours. that's what the paint says anyway. ha! we decided to say goodbye to the dark purple master bedroom walls and hello to a nicer "cool blue" color. things that make painting a not-so-easy task: popcorn ceilings, two-tone colors that look exactly the same and result in a third trip to home depot for a different shade of blue, 18 holes in the closet that needed patching and dry-time before priming, having to shift furniture so you can squeeze into the corner to paint baseboards, smacking your head on newly primed closet and having to wash primer out of your hair for days. other than that, it was fun and we love the new look! thanks to my dad (& mom & hubby) we now have two (of three) closets remodeled and much more functional! just need to add some sort of cover on them.

i even managed to squeeze some of luke's clothes into the closet! hehe..

sunshine=fun..

no offense to everyone on the east coast, but seattle has had some of the most beautiful, spring-time weather these last few weeks...saturday was no exception and we made it out for a little (and by little, i mean, quite steep) 4 mile hike on squak mountain..not too far from where we live. it was absolutely gorgeous...

new house...with furniture..

well, our house is starting to look more and more like home. :) we've added furniture, both old and new, organized, re-organized and re-organized again, argued over what we can't stand of each other's and what pieces of our own we can't part with...(okay, not really argued, mearly discussed... hehe) and ta-da, a home! we have a few more boxes to unpack, a furniture piece or two left to find, a few smaller remodeling projects, a couple paint projects (more specifically, our purple room), some stuff to get rid of...and then we sit on the couch and relax. enjoy a little photo tour of our home...

new house...

finally!! here are some photos i snapped right before we moved all our crap into our new house!!

huge backyard-so excited about this!!

hall bathroom..


master bathroom (w/ jacuzzi tub!)

master bedroom looking toward hall closet & bathroom

master bedroom (yep, it's purple)..

bedroom (sarge's lair for now...)

bedroom (payton's room for now...)

dining room/extension from kitchen (we're going to use as office space)..

family room

beautiful kitchen (w/ lots of light!)

the day we picked up the keys!

our first home!