Congrats Jess & Sam!

Last weekend was full of fun and celebration for us, as one of my longest and very best friends Jess got married! Jess and I went to high school together, and then went to college at SPU together - and were roommates for our freshmen and sophomore years. She is one of the kindest, most generous and amazing women I know. She married a great guy, Sam, and I couldn't be happier for the two of them! Here are a couple of pictures from the wedding.

The beautiful bride and me before the ceremony!

First dance!

In other news, I also just accepted a staff writer position with Minnesota Business Magazine. I will be writing more for them each month, as well as doing some blogging and story planning. I've also moved onto the creative team at my job at Allyis, so that's an exciting transition. I'll be doing more writing and content strategy, which I'm super excited about.

And, maybe most importantly, we are going to Mexico on Sunday! So, stay tuned for some posts once we return!

For your reading pleasure.

Here's a link to my latest Minnesota Business article. Enjoy!

Strategic Growth (pg. 40)

*If it doesn't open to the right issue (February 2013), go to the tabs on the left side of the screen and click the one that says "Issues." Then you can choose the one you want.

Snowshoes for Everybody!

Snowshoes for everybody! Well, just me and Luke, but that's everybody for us! Luke got some snowshoes for his birthday, and we found some for me WAY on sale just after Christmas. So, now we can go out together. Last weekend we went to the Lake Wenatchee area and gave them a try.

We stopped at Lake Wenatchee before we went on our snowshoe adventure and took some photos. 

Couldn't ask for better scenery... 

Of course he was wearing shorts...

Can you see Luke up there? I told him to go climb up onto those big rocks for a picture. I didn't have to ask him twice :)

And that's me drinking hot cider!

We'll have to get some better action shots next time - but we had lots of fun enjoying the sunshine in the mountains, and our new snowshoes :)

Look what I found...

I always have so much fun looking at the Christmas ornaments from over the years. Both of our parents have given us a bunch of ornaments from childhood, and I love opening the box each year and thinking back on all the memories they hold.

 

Luke tends to tell me the same story about each ornament year after year... it's the sentimental side in him :) I took a picture of one of my favorites. He tells me each year that he made the ornament, cut the metal out himself. I love the picture...and it dawned on me that he pretty much makes the exact same face today as he did then. You decide...



Regardless, I think it's still pretty darn cute.

 

(And yes Luke, this is what you get when you leave the blog in the hands of your wife...)

Holiday Cheer!

So, since we spent that last two holiday seasons in our tiny Chicago apartment with not much space to decorate - we decided to fill our new Seattle apartment with lots of holiday cheer, this year. We have a nice mantle over our fire place (which is electric, by the way... sigh). Of course, Luke has outfitted the entire apartment in white Christmas lights, but here's what I came up with!

I had the red vase already, so I moved it to the mantle for a pop of color. I picked up the Christmas tree at Crate & Barrel, and the little owl from Target (I think he's so cute!). I shopped around for a bundle of sticks to use in the vase, but they were all too expensive. So, while Luke and I were out cutting down our Christmas tree last week, I picked up some sticks (literally), and Luke kindly spray painted them silver for me. I LOVE them!

 

The "H" is a permanent piece up on our mantle, but I added the gold circular votive holder, which was leftover from our wedding centerpieces, and then I picked up the holiday snowflake votive holder from Crate & Barrel to complete the look.

 

I've since moved the tree to the left side to balance it out a bit more, and now it's just perfect.

 

And here are our stockings, which we've been using each year that we've been married. It's hard to believe this is our 5th Christmas as the Hills :)

Happy holidays, everyone! Hope you're filling your home with holiday cheer too!

Thankful

This is a bit of a belated Thanksgiving post, but here it is nonetheless! We weren't able to travel back to Minnesota for the Thanksgiving holiday, so our friends John and Elise invited us to her parents' house on Whidbey Island. We took the scenic route there and stopped at Deception Pass to hike around. It's a beautiful view...

For some reason, Luke always has to show his muscles...

As you can see, it was a little more challenging for me to get down than Luke. Good thing Elise was there to document the whole situation.

Victory!

So thankful for my amazing husband, my family, friends and all the many blessings in our life.

Something to make you smile...

I wrote about Nick, Sarah and Claire's visit to Seattle a few weeks ago. However, I failed to include these two amazing pictures. Hopefully these brighten your day :)

 

 

Claire decided to model Luke's old glasses. Yes, he actually wore these. We figured she was getting a bit dizzy with how strong his prescription is... This photo makes me laugh every time I see it.

 

This is a shot from our epic game of hide-and-go-seek. Luke pretended he didn't see her and laid down on top of the pillows. However, that was a bit too scary and after that, the game was over. But, I still think this picture is pretty great.