Thursday, January 12, 2012

Yearly Update

Oh, hi. I bet you thought I was over this whole 'blog' thing, right? I mean it has been 8 months since my last post. I am hard to get rid of, so for now an occasional update will have to suffice.

To recap what has happened in the last 8 months, well it's been busy and honestly things are looking up compared to this time last year.

We moved (yes, again) but this time we purchased our first California home and we absolutely love it. I love every part of this place- from its 1970's ornamental white rocks in the front yard, its crazy gophers in the back and the butterfly tiles in my master bath.

The Lil is in pre-school and talks our ear off. Her hobbies include watching the same movie 72 times, only wearing princess dresses & uggs and smooshing play-do into the carpet (Seriously who the heck ever thought that creating colorful goop for kids to put their crusty little fingers in was a good idea? What kind of crazy parent buys that stuff for their kid!).

Ben is now officially halfway done with law school. Can I get a fist pump for that one?! Just a few more semesters and one huge ass test left on the path to being a certified lawyer.

Then there is me. Let's be honest, shall we? This time last year I was struggling with my foray back into the world of working professionals. Have you ever watched the movie, The Devil Wears Prada or better yet the September Edition? I started watching these movies and quickly realized I was no longer entertained because I lived that life every single day. Needless to say, craigslist and linkedin became my not-so-covert buddies as I desperately combed the employment opportunities on a regular basis. After a few months of searching I landed the dream job for an unnamed, major, retailer with HQ in San Francisco (don't really want to publicly write out the company name because they have a whole department dedicated just to monitoring blogs written by employees to make sure that we are not revealing any top secrets). My new job is challenging, the people I work with are super smart and best of all I am full-time employed without a regular work schedule. I show up at 10am and leave at 1pm. Or some days I just work the whole day in my bed in my jammies. I am incredibly blessed.

2012 is still up in the air without any major plans. But we are going to be celebrating a few milestones including our 10th Wedding Anniversary (what?! I must have gotten married at 15, right?!), living in the same house for more than a year and purchasing a whack of cute clothes for the entire fam (due to the new job). I will repeat myself again just for good measure. We are incredibly blessed.


Family shot from the Happiest Place on Earth back in October.


Monday, May 9, 2011

To Be 3

"Is my Birthday next?
"Is my Birthday today?"
"Are my friends coming now?"

We were asked these 3 questions every morning for nearly two month before Lily's 3rd Birthday.

She would whisper to willing checkers at the supermarket about her princess birthday party. She would share about her impending party plans with the child card helpers at our little church. She would inform new friends on the playground that it was her birthday ' next.' This kid knows how to party and in true Gulbrandsen fashion our not-so-little Lil had an entire weekend dedicated to her 3rd Birthday.



Cake Time at Party #1 with Cousin Forest and Auntie Tiff

 She begged for a Strawberry Cake.

 T Strong AKA Nona wore her wedding dress circa 1977 to the big party. That's what I call recycling.

 Don't mess with the Birthday Girl when she has a bat in her hand.

 Posing Cousins.

 Great-Grandparents. Grandma Cookie donned another gorgeous gown as the Queen Mother.



You would think that after months of dreaming about her Princess Birthday Party there would be significant let-down the day after the festivities cease. Not the case with our girl. She lay in her bed the night after her Princess Party and told me 'no more my birthday.' Then she grinned at me and said 'Mommy's birthday next.' Always the optimist. Always looking forward to the next big party.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

No Way!

Life is precious. Lil reminds us of that every day. We are still so grateful for what we have even when our 'precious little princess' acts like this.....

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Christmas in... January?

Yeah, I know that I am about a month too late. But everyone loves a little Christmas cheer, right?

We had the pleasure of spending some time up in Victoria with Ben's family this past Christmas. Ben and Lil braved the weather and drove the thousand miles (each way) along with the Booth cousins all the way to Canada. A little bit crazy with a 2 year old? Probably. But we will chalk it up to saving some serious cash and the ability to see new parts of the west coast. Our trip to Canada consisted of eating ( food that we did not have to cook), catching up on some Chick Lit (me), playing  XBox (Ben) and running up and down the hallways of the 'Big House' (Lil, maybe sometimes Ben too). While up north, we also gained a future brother-in-law! Ben's sister Heidi will be marrying her German prince charming this coming June. Lil is pumped to be a flower girl.

January has been... hectic. I think that we are all still feeling the growing pains of our new busier lifestyle, but we are blessed. Life is boring when you just stick to the norm, so we might as well make our brief hours count.

  Christmas time Sushi. Japanese Village is the best.


 Couple of cute Christmas Cousins.

 The Christmas 'Prom' Shot.

 Woo-hoo! The soon to be Mr. & Mrs. Weber

 Christmas Morning


Doing her hallway laps with her new ' princess running shoes.'

Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Cookies

A couple quick pictures of the cousins baking cookies with grandma.

 
Lily 2 1/2. Anders 4. Mattias 22mths.