Bellevue Botanical Garden always puts on an amazing display of lights each year during the holidays. I have gone many times and it just gets better every year! We went last night for family home evening and had a blast. Afterwards we had some nice hot cocoa for dessert. I LOVE the holidays! 
While I was running errands with the kids yesterday, we stopped by a Santa booth for a quick chat. When Santa asked the girls what they wanted for Christmas they didn't know what to say. I found that interesting since about every other day Lily asks for Disney Princess things for Christmas. I then stupidly asked her why she didn't ask Santa for princess things and what followed was an instant meltdown and complete determination for me to take her back to Santa, NOW! Well, since I had already been all over town for 2.5 hours, Michael was getting hungry and cranky and the fact that I already strapped everyone in the van, I told her we'd write Santa. I had wanted to do that as an activity with the girls anyway.
I had to help Arya a bit more - holding her hand while we wrote together, but she was really excited too. She asked for books and coloring books. :)
For Thanksgiving this year my mom thought we'd have the celebration at my house since I just had Michael 2 weeks ago. Well, between my mom being jetlegged from her stay in Taiwan and my determination and interest in helping out, I ended up doing quite a bit this year for Thanksgiving. I am proud to say that I made that beautiful bird in the picture - stuffing and all! This was my first Turkey all by myself and I was pretty dang happy with it. I brined it on Wed night and it was SO worth it!! The Turkey was juicy and tasty! Our friends that we invited over made little turkey booties for me so that my Turkey could look extra schnazy in this picture.
So, I ended up making rolls, green bean casserole, corn, broccoli salad, jello salad, wassel and 3 pies - apple, strawberry custard and chocolate cream. I didn't go all out and make the pie crusts, it was just a bit much and we bought a frozen pumpkin pie so I didn't make the pumpkin. Our friends made the mashed potatoes and brought the eggnog, and my mom made the candied yams and cranberry sauce.
Most of you know that we had snow over Thanksgiving week/weekend and this was the girls' first experience playing in the snow. Lily was pretty cute when she asked me what the snow crunching sound was when they were walking on the snow. She was however quite disappointed at the powdery consistency of the snow this storm since she couldn't form a snow ball very well. Next time!
Since I wasn't sure that I was going to make it to Halloween this year, Luke and I did not dress up with the girls. I was a little sad, but the girls didn't really want to do a family theme anyway. Lily wanted to be Belle, Arya wanted to be Tinker Bell. I have to say though, I LOVED dressing them up all cute and they had a GREAT time at our ward Trunk or Treat.
So, I was really proud of Lily's hair, and jut had to take a picture.
Pumpkin Carving this year got a little crazy. I was more into quantity since the girls wanted their own pumpkins this year, and Luke was definitely into quality. So, Luke did the CTR and I did the other 3. It was a lot of fun!
So Pretty much I added the white strip in the middle and painted the top part blue.
We then added the rocking chair and instead of a dresser, I used our old book case and some storage baskets that the previous owners left in the bathroom to put all the baby clothes in.
I still plan on putting up stars and pooh bear stuff on the walls... but still haven't gotten around to that just yet....
Here's the girls' room. The room was pretty plain - just the basic khaki color and I didn't have anything up on the walls.
Here's the finish product. I did a pink/brown theme with the castle mural.
I adore Fall in all it's glory every year, especially on days like this last Sat when we had perfect Fall weather. So what to do on a gorgeous Fall Saturday? Pumpkin Patch of course! Last year Luke and I had so much fun at the pumpkin patch that this year we decided to invite my parents along. We went to a farm much closer to where we live now - Craven Farms and had lots of fun in the sun. 
Tractor Hay Ride
Picking pumpkins with the grandparents - we did decide that it was fun and worth it to pick small pumpkins at the Farm but the larger pumpkins should be bought at a store considering it's a $25 difference. But... I have to admit, it's MUCH more fun to pick out your own giant pumpkin from the fields.
They had some really cool pumpkin people displays all throughout the farm. The girls liked this one a lot.
And Christy, this one is just for you! :)
For the last month Luke has been working a lot of over-time due to the sale of his company. His boss was really nice in recognizing that factor and decided to give him 2 days off of work for him to rest, etc. Well, I couldn't pass up a 4 day weekend! I've been feeling rather antsy lately - wanting to take off and go before our little baby joins us and turns our lives upside down. 
Lily enjoying swimming by herself with a life-vest.
Arya riding on Luke's back. She did really well hanging on and had lots of fun!
Outside our Inn/Resort.
The Kris Kringle store. 
Mini-golf at our resort.
Arcade place - we scored a great deal on tokens and mini-golf combined so we got to enjoy a lot of what the resort had to offer. 
Well, after replanting my garden so late in the season, and then the pregnancy making it difficult for me to do yard work, I had all but given up on my garden this year. However, it wasn't a total lost! I was able to harvest some stuff today to my great delight! I hadn't checked on my zucchini in a few weeks with all the rain, etc. but when I went out there today I found this GIANT zucchini growing in my garden, all my carrots ready to harvest and tons of ripened apples on my apple tree. :) I still have more zucchini and apples to harvest later, but I was so excited!!! And like everyone else in Seattle this year, I have tons of green tomatoes that I'll have to figure out what to do with. BUT, this definitely makes me want to do more gardening next year. :)
Turning 30 in the Chinese culture signifies Independence. This is when parents truly feel that a child is able to stand on their own - it's a big mile marker. I have to admit, I wasn't all that excited about leaving my 20's and turning 30. But, now that it's come and gone, I'm feeling pretty good. :) We celebrated the beginning of my 30's in style and had some great fun. On my actual birthday Luke came home with this lovely bouquet of flowers from Pike Place Market. I LOVE that place and the flowers there are amazing. Since my birthday was in the middle of the week, we decided to wait till the weekend to celebrate.
Friday night our good friends Marty and Leyah surprised me by taking us all out to Buca di Beppos. For those of you who don't know, this place is a family style Italian restaurant. We had lots of fun at the restaurant and playing games after.
Luke got me a snazzy red weather-proof coat from costco Sat morning.
He then surprised me with these beauties! Diamond earings from Zales - I was speechless.
Sat night Luke and I went to Wild Ginger with my parents. Wild Ginger is my absolute favorite restaurants in Seattle. They serve the most wonderful pan-asian food. My parents have never been and I wanted to take them there... or rather let them take me there. In my sis-in-law Misty's words, I was "being spoiled by my 3 best spoilers." My parents combined gave me some money to buy a SLR camera. I'll be waiting for some good holiday sales to partake in that present- I'm SO EXCITED!!!
