Cystic Fibrosis Benefit Auction

My great friend Erin Jones and I decided this year that we were going to be very ambitious and put together a dinner and benefit auction with all proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in memory of our friend Jolene Armstrong. Well, we did not realize what a huge undertaking this was going to be, but I can tell you now that we are so very grateful to have completed it. What a wonderful time we had! And I am so excited about the amount of money that we raised, almost twice what we were anticipating!!! :)

Erin and I worked for the last few months gathering donations, planning decor, figuring out logistics, etc for our wonderful night. We decided on this auction kind of last minute, so we didn't have a ton of time to get it all done, but we worked hard and our efforts paid of. The night was a huge success! It began with a silent auction and hor'dourve bar, with many special items donated from places like the Mariners, Bliss Spa, XBOX, etc. Then we had a fabulous dinner with all food donated by Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse, they really pulled through for us in the end!! After the wonderful dinner we had a live auction with some really great items like a private flight around Seattle in a 4-seater plane (my brother Brandon is a pilot), and tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert at the Puyllup Fair. Everything ran very smoothly thanks to our wonderful volunteers! Each one of them worked all night long from serving food to mopping the floors, we could not have done it without them! Overall, we all had a fantastic experience and raised a whole bunch of money for Cystic Fibrosis research and finding a cure. Erin and I are so thankful to all of you out there who loved and supported us through this project, we are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

Alison (our wonderful contact at the foundation) checking people in at the beginning of the night.

Erin and I with some of our wonderful friends and volunteers

The beautiful decor (all Erin's idea! Isn't she a genius?)

WE LOVE YOU JOLENE!!!

Peek-a-boo!

Some of the boys' favorite activities lately have had to do with them being "sneaky". :) They both love to hide behind someone and then come out and surprise them! Or, better yet, hide themselves behind a couch or chair while you continue to ask "where is Dylan?" or "where is Lucas?"....they just think they are hilarious! They get these little sneaky mischievous faces that are adorable! They are also getting very rambunctious lately. People keep telling me that it is a "boy" thing, but I keep thinking that mine are a little over the top. They love to climb, throw, run, and just act plain crazy as much as possible. They are tiring me out already! :)

Both boys playing Peek-a-boo with Daddy

This is what I mean about rambunctious.....yikes! :) The top one is Dylan trying to fling his brother out of the chair by bouncing it up and down as fast as he can.

I thought that this was cute, and just wanted to share. The boys are also very into giving high fives lately. Even though they are very stranger conscious, they will give a high five to just about anyone. This is them sitting on the porch one day, giving each other high fives. Don't they look big?

Welcome Home Uncle Brook!

Last week we had the pleasure of having Uncle Brook (Teage's youngest brother) come stay with us for a few days. He just returned from serving a two year mission in Argentina, and we were all so excited to see him! This was also the very first opportunity that the boys had to meet their uncle as well. Usually the boys have a hard time warming up to new people, but boy did they love their uncle! I think it helped a little that Brook looks so much like Teage, and the boys just took to him instantly. We had so much fun having him here. We had a big family dinner, went blueberry picking, celebrated cousin Kai's birthday, toured Seattle a bit, ate the never ending pasta bowl at The Olive Garden, what more could you ask for? Brook was so much fun and enthusiastic about everything that we did, and just couldn't get enough food (especially dessert!) :) Thanks for coming to stay with us Uncle Brook, we are so excited you are home!

All the boys at a lookout point near Alki Beach

Our family

Cousin Kai having a ton of fun with his birthday cake (good job Beth!)

Brook squished in between two sleepy boys. :)

The Christensen "kids" with their own kids....Sunni, we can't see you! :)

A Weekend of Reunions

A few weekends ago Teage and I went to my 10 year high school reunion. Just thinking that it has been ten years really floors me, but I am so thankful to have been able to go. I have to admit I was a little nervous about it, what would everyone be like after ten years? But I am glad to say that we had a wonderful time. It was a pleasure to be able to introduce Teage to some of my good friends from high school, see some others that I wasn't expecting to see, and chat and reminisce about the good ol days from Inglemoor. I actually really enjoyed my high school years, and it was a lot of fun to be able to think back and talk about old memories with those that I was closest to at the time.

Teage and I all ready to go...

My good friend Aimee

Me with lots of my band buddies

One of my favorite people in the world...Ian

That same weekend I was also able to go over to the "other" side of the water to Olalla and visit my speech-path girls from college. Jamie, on the right, is expecting her first boy so we were able to go over and have a baby shower for her. These girls were the only thing that got me through my last two years of craziness in college. :) We all were speech-pathology majors, had just about every class together, and were pretty much inseparable for those two years of school. We don't get to see each other much anymore because of distance, so it was so nice to get together and reconnect. We had a wonderful time, even though it was only a few hours together.

Katie, Me, Heather, Megan, and Jamie