Christmas #3

At Paul's sister's house for family Christmas and Len's birthday celebration.


Paul and Maddie had a great time playing with the box that her present came in...we just getting both of them boxes next year!


Happy birthday Leonard!

Christmas #2

Christmas morning together


Santa brought me gorgeous sapphire earings - a HUGE surprise!


And a mini-crockpot from my parents in California!!!


Paul got outfitted for a new season of snowboarding...


...and new tools!


We had a fabulous Christmas morning together relaxing, making breakfast, taking the dog to the park, and enjoying the wonder of Christmas.

Christmas #1

The Ratliff Family Christmas
A gift exchange at dinner in Bellevue. It was so wonderful to spend time with family, especially my aunt and uncle from out of town.

All our Christmas celebrations...

If you know me well, you know I have a lot of family and a lot of Christmas celebrations...I don't think I will have time to post them all right now, so stay tuned for more.

I cooked a whole chicken!

This intimidated me...a whole chicken.


But I conquered it! I forgot to take a picture after it was done roasting...we gobbled it up too quickly. Now my next challenge is a turkey...maybe next year.

The story of the tree

Trecking through the forest to find the perfect tree. We knew this one was obviously too big...


...so when we found this tree, it looked so much smaller than all the rest. It's under 12 feet, right?


Wrong. After we cut it down, it looked a bit large, so we trimmed it down a few feet.


We also had to cut off a few feet once we got it home and then again after we brought it inside and it hit the ceiling...oops! Not to mention the branches were so long that they shot out over the couch and were crunched against the wall. So, we got to literally trim the tree! Here is the finished product...

Leavenworth

We had such a great time in Leavenworth watching the tree lighting. What a magical town! Paul and I love taking pictures with all the characters and there were definitely a bunch of them.




And of course, the tree lighting was magical, romantic, and memorable.

Brothers gotta hug!

We are taking care of a few dogs this week and one of them is Savage's brother, Danger. They are having such a great time!

So Thankful

We had Thanksgiving with some of our friends on Friday and had so much fun! We feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends in our life.

awww cute!


All the girls with our hands on Erin's baby bump!


The men


Yummy food, great friends, fun games, and memory making!

Dog-on-a-rope

Savage LOVES to tug at flyball practice!

Mrs. Master

Paul took me out for a wonderful sushi dinner to celebrate the completion of my Masters program.


Half way through dinner, a little blue box appeared on the table! I love my husband, and my new earings!

"Pumpkin Carving" Night

For our second annual Pumpkin Carving Night, no one actually carved a pumpkin. But we did have a lot of fun!

Paul and I dressed up as rednecks...Paul makes a much better one than me, hmmmmm.


A German bar maid, two rednecks, a pirate wench, a Marine, and a witch = a good time!

Precious

The innocent happiness of a two year old. Our niece Maddie, being pushed on the swing by Paul this afternoon.

Gifts from the heart

This morning, two of my students were absolutely giddy when they came to class. They had something behind their back and couldn't wait to show me. "Mrs. Edler, we made this for you...it's a Christmas tree!" The delight on their faces was indescribable. Even though I have tough days with my students, it's times like this that make me love my job.

Salmon Days

Having grown up in Issaquah, Salmon Days is a must-do for me in the fall. We walked through the street vendors, watched the salmon, and met up with some family for lunch. What a beautiful day!




And Savage enjoyed watching all of the salmon...

He's Home!!

After two weeks in London, my wonderful husband is finally home!

Happy Birthday Uncle Paul!

Our darling niece Maddie wishing Paul a happy birthday.

My Birthday Man

Paul's birthday was this past weekend and he had a day packed with fun activities and yummy food.

First, we rode the motorcycle out to the Maltby Cafe and enjoyed breakfast.

Then we worked off our breakfast with a kayak trip around Lake Union.

And we finished off the day with a fantastic dinner experience at The Melting Pot!

What is Flyball?

Flyball is a sport that we play with our dogs. We went to a tournament this weekend and did AWESOME! Here's a video of one of our races - our dog Savage is running second. The first dog is Rave, the third dog is Rocket and the last dog is Sav's brother Danger.

Silly puppy

We're thinking that Savage is trying to tell us to buy him a blanket - I swear he did this all by himself. He's using the curtain to cover himself up on his dog bed! What a silly dog!

Vegas baby!

We had a wonderful time in Las Vegas! We saw shows, had great food, went shopping, and even got tattoos! It was such a fun vacation and definitely one to remember.

In front of the "Eiffel Tower", of course the first thing that I wanted to see.



I doubled my money! Ok I only put in $4, but still I was very excited!



At the most expensive dinner we have EVER had - it was amazing!



Ready to see a comedy show!



Our "faces of pain" during the tattoos





Waiting in line for our romantic gondola ride in the Venetian Hotel

Wedding Reception

Since we got married in Hawaii, we planned an "at home" wedding reception to celebrate with our family and friends. Lucky for us, my grandma has the perfect yard for a party! We had a great time and feel so blessed to have wonderful people in our life.

Some of the tables and Grams' beautiful flowers



A view of part of the yard



Cutting the cake


<3 US


Good friends


More friends


Paul and Brian trying to hula


Me and Paul and amazing Grams