the food...oh the food

I have some fun Seattle pics to share with you but I thought I'd start with the food. Cause we had some good eats while we were there!

Before we left I read this post by Bakerella. And wouldn't you know it she went to a couple cupcake bakeries in Seattle recently! Well, I love me a good cupcake so I was sure to stop by both while we were there :)

First stop was Trophy Cupcakes. Oh.my.goodness. Talk about good awesome cupcakes! Check it out...

I'll take one of each please!! We picked 4 cupcakes & then split them up so we got to try them all.

Chocolate graham cracker, mint chocolate chip, red velvet & neopolitan.

I seriously wanted a set of their dishes :)

The cupcakes were soooo yummy. My fave was the graham cracker one...tasted like a super delicious s'more cupcake :) 

We called them feel-like-you're-gonna-puke-from-all-the-sugar-awesome-cupcakes. Hey, that should be their new tagline!

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We also checked out Cupcake Royale. Not as many cupcakes to choose from but still super yummy :)

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And then there's one of my all time favorite places to eat...The Cheesecake Factory. I hadn't eaten there in years. It had been too long!

I had yummy chicken teriyaki for dinner & then we had some chocolate mousse cheesecake for dessert. 

I also bought another piece of cheesecake to take back to the hotel...oreo cheesecake. It was gobbled up before a picture could be taken :)

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And here's a few other places we ate...

Hard Rock Cafe. The kids had never been to one so I thought it'd be fun. 

 Thank you Seattle, Good Night!!

The food was very good but the atmosphere wasn't the same as others I'd been to (not as much memorabelia). The kids kept cracking up at one of the waitor's that had a really big 'fro. He was definitely rockin' the look with the big hair & the air guitar! hehe

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My husband is not a seafood person but put up with my love of crab legs for just one night. And oh were they good!! Ben & I shared a big bowl of crab legs that they dumped right out on the table.

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And I was happy to see my old friend again. Oh how I've missed Panera.

My kids had people cracking up cause they kept making comments like 'man, I've missed this! They have the best bagels!!' Yes they do!

I'm catching up on a few projects...Addie's birth announcements, thank you cards, Project Life to name few. More to come :)

our new home

So our trip to WA was very exhausting...and also fun :) Can I just say right off the bat that I know we are going to love it there! And everyone we met was so nice & said 'oh, you are going to love it here!!' So much to do there. 

And the views...

I love seeing mountains in the background. I know I will never get tired of seeing them. I loved the feel of downtown which is where our hotel was. 

McDonalds...breakfast of champions :) Is it me or are McD's pancakes awesome?? I'm having a major craving for them right now...

By the way, how do you like that leopard furniture in our hotel room?? hehe I thought it was pretty cool!

Walking around downtown at night I didn't feel the least bit apprehensive like you do in some cities. It had a small town yet trendy feel with neat restaurants & stores. We went to this mall which had 5 or 6 levels (kinda freaky going up the top levels of that escalator!)

One of the nights there we ate dinner at Rock City Grill. I'm still dreaming about the cheesecake. I was having some major cheesecake cravings that week...still am ;)

And I was so thrilled to see a Williams Sonoma store again. Oh how I love that store. I mean, seriously, how cute are these measuring spoons??

They're little mixing bowls :)


Another night we ate at Steam Plant Grill. Mmmmm good food!! And the restaurant is built around an old steam plant...we got to go inside that smoke stack on the right.

Another restaurant we went to downtown overlooked Spokane Falls. Definitely want to come back here in the summer.

I imagine it will look much nicer once we're into the full swing of spring & summer.

We looked at 20+ houses in 2 days, went back & looked at a couple of our faves on day 3 & made an offer. There were a few houses we really liked but ultimately it came down to space. The house we settled on has a partial basement which is something we were really hoping to find since the house only has 3 bedrooms.

I won't bore you with a ton of pics cause quite honestly I think empty house pics are a bit boring. But I was thrilled it had a decent size yard...definitely a must with 2+ kids & 2 dogs!

There were a few houses that were just a no go simply because of the yard. And check out this view from our neighborhood just one street over from our house...

I can't wait to take walks around the neighborhood with the baby in a stroller, walking the dogs, while the older 2 are riding their bikes {sigh}


On our flight there the kids got to meet the pilot & go in the cockpit. Ben even got to test out the pilot's seat :)

The flight home we had a layover in UT. Such pretty mountains, holy cow!

 

So now we're just trying to coordinate the sale of our house, closing on the new one, the movers, doing all that needs to be done before we begin the 2400+ mile trek to WA!

back from FL

Last we spent Thanksgiving in FL with my husband's brother and his wife. My in-laws live down there, too. We had a lot of fun and my kids had even more fun spending time with their 2 cousins. We don't get to see them much since we live in different states but it was nice that they got to spend several days together. 

On our drive down were were happy to see that education is thriving in Valdosta, GA...

Anyone see what's wrong with this picture?? What's even funnier is at least a few people had to see this and think it was ok. 

Thanksgiving was full of lots of yummy food...

Friday I managed to make it out for a little bit of Black Friday sales. I did not, however, go out at midnight or 4am and battle the stores with everyone else. I think I was scarred for life after the Toys R Us fiasco last year. You couldn't PAY me to step foot in that store on Black Friday again. They had no idea what they were doing...

Anyway, I managed to snag up some gifts for the kiddos and a big 'ol George Foreman grill. It was regularly $50 but I got it for $23. I have one of the original ones from over 10 years ago. It still works great but I needed a bigger one and I love that the plates come out of the new ones for washing. Gonna heat up that bad boy tonight!

Saturday we headed down to the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. My kids loooved it. They even got to hold a baby 'gator...

And trying to get a decent picture with my kids. I usually get 10 of these...

Before getting one of these...

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, playing outside, getting pedicures (only for the girls of course) & eating some oh-so-yummy sweets.

What cracked me up the most were their dogs. They have 2 boxers, one is a puppy. Our dog Jesse was *not* thrilled with the puppy. I had to snap a couple pictures of this. It was too funny!

**Disclaimer - no puppies were harmed during these pictures**

Doesn't my dog look like she's about to maul that puppy?? HA!! She never bit her but she wasn't pleased. 

And their other dog...check out what I found the last night we were there...

hehe I love dogs :)

We got back last night and now I'm in the post-vacation exhaustion. Now it's time to get the Christmas decorations up and start getting ready for Christmas, birthdays and our Disney trip!

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Today I had my last ultrasound with my fertility doc. My next appt will be with my regular ob/gyn. It is amazing that at just under 11 weeks you can now see arms & legs.

He/she was sleeping but then I laughed about something and then little peanut started moving all over the place like a little wiggle worm!! Babies are truly God's greatest miracles.

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One final note - I'm continuing my Black Friday special in my etsy shop. Receive 15% off your entire order using the code SIMPLE10 at checkout. Receive a free key fob (may or may not be one that is currently for sale in the shop) with any order over $50.

Click here to head over to the shop!!