=anniversary get away=

On Friday, Michael and I headed out to Ocean Shores for our three year anniversary. Three years! Hard to believe that it's already been that long. Time has gone by so quickly, it's crazy. We spent Saturday night at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino. When we got there, we headed down to gamble a bit and get a few drinks in the Lounge. After gambling our $40 away in penny slots, we headed to get our drinks. This is the beginning of my bad luck. I ordered a comso. Anyone who has had a cosmo knows that they are a nice cranberry color and tastes delicious. A bitter sweet taste. Well, not this one. It was a soft pink and tasted like watered down vodka. It was HORRIBLE! After 20 minutes of Michael and I trying to figure out what I could say to the bartender when I took it back to not sound like a B****, it was too late to do so. Michael, who had a nasty cold at the time, a sinus and ear infection to be exact, drank it. He couldn't taste anything, so he figured...what the heck. Lol...I was not willing to spend another $7 on a drink with the possibility of having it taste nasty again! So we left and headed up to our room. Next was dinner at their resturaunt. They had a FABULOUS buffet, however, me and buffets don't go well together. I can't eat more than one plate. Not worth the money. So I ordered a chicken linguini dish while Michael at the fabulous buffet with king crab legs, red potatoes, fruit, veggies, wild rice, roast, etc. It looked amazing! My dish got there, and it was swimming in the sauce. Way too much sauce. I asked for less sauce and it came back with less...but was still covered. It was so rice I could hardly eat it. Waste of $19...ugh. I then ordered the Chocolate Lovers Tower...can't go wrong with chocolate right? WRONG! It was supposed to be a musse...and it definitley wasn't. It was hard...and not so good. Yet again, another waste of $7. Later in our room, we decided to get some more dessert. Michael ordered the ice cream sundae and I ordered the New York cheese cake. It was amazing! Finally! Something that was good! It didn't last long though.....in the morning, we ordered room service and I ordered a bagel with cream cheese. My bagel was totally burnt! What the heck! urg....so not my weekend for food! Michael, however, had the best luck. Everything he ordered was great!

Aside from the food, it was a great time. We didn't do much, which was the point. We drove on the beach, watch a movie, slept in a little bit, snuggled, laughed, it was great. I know now why it's important for married couples to get away every so often. Out of the normal everyday life routine that we are in. Michael and I have been though a lot. More than most have in the short amount of time we've been together. Through the struggles and good times, Michael and I have grown closer than we've ever been. Granted, every marriage takes work and I know there are a lot more struggles and growth spurts to go through, but I look forward to them. So, here's to us baby...three years down....a lifetime to go! I LOVE YOU!

Our Wedding day, January 29, 2006:

Our Three year anniversary:

=big girl and bowling=

We converted Hailey's crib into a daybed this weekend. She LOVES it! She calls it her "pretty bed". She does amazingly well too. No falling out and no getting up. She goes right to sleep and sleeps through the entire night. However, she hasn't quite figured out that she can get up when she wakes up in the morning. She still cries for us to come get her. ha ha. She's so cute!

Loving her new bed!

Pretending to sleep
theres a smile! lol She's so cute!

That same night, we went out. We went bowling first, then to get a few drinks. Our friend Curtis Bucshor is home from Iraq on R and R, so we needed to celebrate. It was a lot of fun and now, all I want to do is go bowling! Lol.

My oh so classy bowling socks!

Chocolate cake shot....okay, so I sipped on it...what?

Curtis, Me and MichaelUs

It was a good night.

=advice please=

I had a good friend come home for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Years. While she was home, I tended to stay up a wee bit later than normal....by a couple of hours. Add that to the stress and craziness of the holidays and you'll get one tired Stephanie. I've been absolutely exhausted lately and can't seem to catch up. Of course I don't try to go to bed earlier lately...so it really is my own fault. I can't not have my hour and a half to two hours to myself after I put Hailey down for bed. I just can't. It's a necessity. So, I'm exhausted. And looky here...it's 11:00pm and I'm still up. You think I'd learn. Oh well. I'll just be in "bitch mode" for another week! :o)

I've been having a rough time with Hailey lately. She's DEFINITELY in the terrible twos. She hits, screams, throws tantrums and pushes whatever buttons she knows exist....but only to me. It's driving me absolutely nuts. She doesn't listen to me at all and tells me no all the time. Or some times, she just doesn't respond.....all night. I'll talk, ask her questions and she just stares at me with this glare, as if she's saying "why the hell are you talking to me". I'm the only one she does this too. I can't handle it. I'm, to be quite honest, having a REALLY hard time with it lately. Like today, I had a hair cut at 1:00 and I left at 12:15 just because I had to get out of the house and away from her. She was so frustrating. Another senario: I was blow-drying my hair today and she was playing in the closet with my shoes. No big deal, whatever. However, she took all of my shoes out and started sitting on my cheap, flimsy shoe rack. It was bending horribly and I didn't want her to break it. So, I said, "Hailey can you get off of mommy's shoe rack please? It might break." She said no of course, so I threatened going to get daddy (she actually listens to him). She then proceeds to get up, walk over to me, I'm sitting on the toilet (closed of course) blow-drying, and hits me. Just like that. What the heck!? This kind of stuff happens all the time. So annoying and extremely hard not to get angry with her. Oh! Sometimes, I tell her no for something and she asks for time out....ASKS! She knows what she's doing....Ugh....does anyone have any ideas of how I can handle things differently, in hopes that she'll get a little bit better? I know she's going through a stage, but does it have to be THIS bad? Please...any advice would be helpful.

Alright. I'm off. Night all!

=merry christmas/happy new year=

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. We've been having some issues with our internet. Actually, with our neighbor's internet. Ha ha! We steal, but they are aware. :o) Their modem has been having some issues, so the internet has been off and on. We're looking into getting our own internet...soon. Ha ha!

So, lets start with our exciting Christmas Eve. Michael had to work..surprise surprise. That left me to get things ready for santa. Santa left Hailey a play kitchen for Christmas. I opened the box knowing there would be some assembly required...however, I didn't expect this...

Everything was in pieces....and not only that, they were attached like model airplane parts are. I had to pry every single thing apart from those sheets of plastic. Every door, knob, utensil required like three separate things to be screwed together. I was so annoyed...you think santa's elves would have been a little more prepared! Well, one and a half A Christmas Story's and 3 1/2 hours later....I created this....

Turned out to be pretty cool huh?

Well, Michael didn't end up getting home until 9:30 Christmas morning. He slept most of Christmas day. Which is understandable but it sucked. Never the less...it was a decent Christmas. I got the best present ever! A beautiful necklace. I need to take a picture of it. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas's (yes...we had three) lol.

Now moves onto New Years Eve. Michael once again had to work. I went to the Olive Garden for my sisters b-day dinner and then headed to a friend's house for the rest of 2008. Michael barely made it in time...11:30pm. I'm so glad he did. We had fun. It was a small group, but laughed a lot and was childless for the night. We went to bed around 5 and woke up around noon. Actually Michael got up at 11:30am and straightened up a bit and let me sleep. I came out around 12:30 and he had just finished breakfast. He almost made me go back to bed just so he could bring it to me in bed like he had planned...how sweet! We had a great time.

Happy New Year!!!

=snow=

We've had the most snow we've had in years this past week, it's crazy. Unfortunately, I've had to work during all of it. Now that it's the weekend, the roads are a good 2 inch sheet of ice and the snow is turning cruchy and not fun to play in at all. Hailey and I have not had the chance to play and I'm really bummed about it. My work never closes for anything. They usually send us home early, but not this time. No, we practically have a blizzard and we are stuck driving on the sheets of ice, putting our lives in danger just to help people get their money. :o) I'm a bit bitter...can you tell? Lol. Well, last night, I bundled Hailey up and we went out anyways. Off to the side of our apartment building. Lol. What an adventure! **note the sarcasm** It was fun though. She really enjoyed it. I'm really hoping to have more snow this weekend so Hailey, Michael and I have a chance to actually enjoy it. As of now, we are supposed to get another 4-6 inches of new snow this weekend...along with a nice windy, snow, ice storm with power outages and the works! Yay! I'll be stocking up tomorrow, pulling out all my candles, possibly buying new ones, getting my lighter ready and a few more pieces of wood for the fire place. Maybe even pick up some marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate for some smores. Is it lame to make smores in your home fire place? Lol...hmm..

Anyways, here are some pictures from last night. What a cutie!

Our beautiful Christmas tree...

=pictures, as promised=

It's been a while since my last post. Not much has happened. We did the wedding and I had my work Christmas party that I planned. Both went great. We had a great time. So, here are the pictures I promise...plus a few more.

Wedding!

The Table Setting.

Tables...and knots we tied, all 250 of them.

The Alter.

Jennie....loungin'.

Me....

Work Christmas party at Swing Wine Bar in Oly.

www.swingwinebar.com

um...yeah...

Some of us.

Our Christmas Tree Adventure!

Matt and Jennie being....themselves. Matt is pretending to cut Jennie down...

Me and my beautiful momma!

The three of us.

Yay! We found our tree!

Peek-a-boo!!

Hailey and her steamed vanilla milk from starbucks.

That was fun!

=snowflakes=

While working a tedious and long report at work today, I found this fun website where you can cut your own paper snowflake online. Thought I would share! Have fun!

http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/