2011 in review

my favorite photo of 2011

i love the end of the year -- it's fun to reflect on what we've done, and plan ahead for a new year. 2011 could have been a lot scarier if i didn't have my faith and my family to rely on, and i'm grateful for that. as a family we did a lot of growing and learning, and i think it was good preparation for future curveballs down the road. after starting out 2011 with a completely blank slate ahead of us, i'd say we ended up in a pretty good spot.

a look back at 2011:

• i defied all odds as an "indoor girl" [read: non-athletic] and ran my first half marathon!
• b graduated from MBA school and, after many interviews, sleepless nights & faith-building experiences accepted a job with microsoft.
• so we moved to seattle! the transition was a little rough but we love exploring our new city. 
• jack turned 1! [and i turned 27, but no one cares about that.]
• our little buddy mastered finger foods, learned about snow, stood up in his crib, got his first haircut, maintained his role as cutest baby ever, started walking!, learned how to throw poop, became obsessed with rocks, got a forward-facing carseat, and met santa and hated it 
• we had visitors! my mom came in july, b's parents in august and my parents for thanksgiving.
• said goodbye to summer with a blissful day in west seattle and the sleepless in seattle houseboat! 
• working for the man can stick it -- in my first full year as a freelancer, i had arguably my best professional year yet with meaningful projects (and awesome placements), landing my first independent client, jumping into the seattle social media world, becoming a producer for the mormon women project and attending my first blog conference.
• i traveled with my little sidekick to rancho, san diego, las vegas, provo, idaho falls, yellowstone --  and solo to las vegas (my first time leaving jack for 24 hours)
• b traveled to los angeles, new jersey, los angeles, seattle, pullman
• as a family, we traveled to rexburg, san diego, seattle, vancouver, leavenworth, salt lake city

[see also: recaps from 2008 | 2009 | 2010]

can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us! let's just hope it doesn't involve the apocalypse ;) 

christmas 2011: the gifts

we definitely had a handmade trend going on this year for christmas gifts. probably my favorite present this year came from my mom -- a raincoat, made from scratch (and amy butler fabric) for my first seattle winter! read more about how she made it here.

my favorite present to GIVE went to b. i was inspired by my friend paige when she turned her blog into a book for christmas last year. genius! i've been blogging regularly here since 2007, so i thought it would be fun to make a book of my own. 

i used blurb -- they have software that's super easy to download and use. blurb just sucked up my blog, and i ended up with 800+ pages from ONLY the posts from 2007 and 2008! oy. it took me probably 5-6 hours to go through and edit all the photos and text, but i got it down to 200 pages. it was sooo hard not to say anything to b as i went through and read all my old posts -- there were so many happy, funny and special memories from those years. i felt super nostalgic while working on this project. 

i finally got everything the way i wanted it and made my order -- the book arrived less than a week later! i was THRILLED with how it turned out. i feel like a real author, something i've actually dreamed of becoming since i was a little girl. little did i know i'd publish my memoir before i wrote a novel :) blurb is the best. can't wait to create the 2009-2010 book in the next few months. 

i also made jack a stocking this year. my mom helped me with it over thanksgiving break and i was pretty happy with it. [b told me i was forbidden to cross-stitch it, like my own stocking from my mom, because that is too 80s...so applique was our middle ground.] i still see flaws every time i look at it, but i hope jack loves it & uses it his whole life the way i've loved mine. 

for jack, we stuck to our three gifts rule. we got him a tool kit, some tiny toms, and brown bear brown bear. he is pretty much obsessed with all three. he also got a handmade rocking horse, made by b's grandpa -- it is a work of art and jack rides it at least 20x a day.

oh, and we also got THIS bad boy. i feel like such an idiot whenever i try to use it -- it's soooo complicated. sometimes technology is hard. 

we were so blessed this year. sometimes i think presents are silly because all i really need to be happy is b, jack, and a good batch of cookies -- but it's pretty fun to get a new roll of washi tape in my stocking too.

 hooray for the 2011 wells family christmas! 

a utah christmas

we're back from a quick 5-day utah christmas trip! i think i'm still recovering because whenever i think about taking jack on an airplane [which, unfortunately, is happening again in less than 3 weeks] i start to feel nauseous. flying with a 12-month-and-under kid is WAY easier than flying with a 12-24-month kid and that is all i have to say about that.

but anyway! our christmas was awesome. i'll have more photos later -- our family gift this year was a new camera, but i don't really know how to use it and/or remove photos yet -- so stay tuned. in the meantime, here's how jack looked the majority of christmas morning:

jack is the most patient, grateful little gift-opener ever. he'd say "ooOOOHHhhh!" or "whooooa!" at each new present we pulled out for him, then would sit quietly waiting for us to open it before inspecting the new item closely. he's so cute and christmas is more fun every year with him around. 

other highlights of the trip included:
-- freezing my A off at zoo lights. i never want to do that again. the zoo is NOT fun when it's 21 degrees -- it literally took me 18 hours to warm up.
-- planning my day around food. my first full day in utah involved blue lemon for brunch, sweet tooth fairy for lunch and cafe rio for dinner and it was DIVINE. also that new city creek center in downtown SLC is fabulous.
-- talking to my brother [currently living in mexico for 2 years] for an hour on skype and planning all the movies we're going to watch when he comes home in april.
-- game night w/ all of b's family...those people know how to party.
-- church ON christmas day. i thought it might be a little weird to take a break from our christmas morning festivities to hit up church, but it was actually awesome -- such a nice way to focus on what the day is all about.
-- finally seeing my proactiv commercial! ha. it came on during a band of brothers marathon on spike.

more to come, especially about how we almost had to sell a kidney just to get our christmas presents home. stay tuned.

santa is a communist

on friday, jack and i joined a group of local bloggers on a fun little seattle outing which included a visit to macy's santaland. i didn't have high hopes for a great santa meeting due to j's reaction at the reindeer zoo, and those hopes were exactly correct. as soon as we got close to santa, jack started shaking and whining and grabbing my arm in a tiny toddler death-grip. i couldn't bring myself to be one of those moms who throws their screaming child onto santa's lap and hops away, so i obliged and sat in the photo. even then we ended up with a hilarious shot.

notice his little hands clutching me for dear life. oh jack. i don't know where you get this from. [actually yes i do. i still tear up and feel nauseous when i have to get close to someone in a character costume -- mickey mouse, chuck e cheese, cosmo the BYU cougar, you name it. hopefully i can defeat this phobia before jack's first disneyland trip.]

jack and violette

looks like our awesome neighbor luck is holding strong. right after we moved in, i noticed a little girl around jack's age walking in our complex once in a while with her mom. we started talking one day and i invited them over to play, and the rest is history. the little girl [violette] is jack's BEST friend. i mean, not that one year olds can play favorites, but just by sheer proximity i'm pretty sure she is his fave. violette & her mom, monica, moved to WA the same time we did and live right in our building, three floors down. we see them usually every day -- either a scheduled play date, a babysitting swap, or just out getting the mail. every time we go outside, jack walks over to the door that leads to their staircase and throws a fit if i won't let him go downstairs. having a playmate who lives one minute away is super convenient, especially when the dads are working late or traveling -- and when you happen to live in a place where you need lots of indoor activities.

i'm so, so lucky to have made a great friend right here in my neighborhood, and these kiddos are way too cute together. watching them run and play and scream and giggle together is the most adorable thing on the planet....these pictures speak for themselves. 

not blonde.

there's a hashtag on twitter [if you don't know what a hashtag is, go here because i don't want to say it again. i have to explain this to b and my mom on a regular basis] called #firstworldproblems and it makes me laugh. basically people share all these totally inane "problems" that only spoiled brats in first-world countries would have. and now i am one of those people. this is a story about my current first-world problem.

a few weeks ago i needed to get my hair done baaaaad. i hadn't found a new hair stylist yet in washington and i was desperate! i started asking around and got a bunch of expensive recommendations, so when another friend said her hair stylist made house calls and charged less, i was excited. i made an appointment even though i'd never gotten my hair done at home before. eh, might as well save a buck.

things started going wrong when she rinsed out my foils and got peroxide in my mouth. gross, but nothing a few spits & rinses couldn't handle. then she put toner on my hair and it started to burn. i've been dyeing my hair for 12 years and i know that is not normal. we rinsed real quick and i was good to go. then, at the end of our 3-hour session, she straightened my hair [she DID straighten my hair well, i'll give her that] and i looked in the mirror and...my hair was my natural color.

i wanted to keep my same blonde color [is it blond or blonde? we're going with blonde], JUST fix the roots. that is all. not complicated, right? so when this chick highlighted my hair her own version of "blonde" and spent 3 precious hours on it [and a good chunk of change] i was NOT happy. ugh. see for yourself -- before [left] and after [right].

bah. i thought about having her fix it but she was booked solid for another 2 weeks, plus it would take another couple hours out of my life. so instead i'm just living with it, and going to see my CA hair stylist when we visit in april. at least my roots won't show before then since they will be the SAME color as my hair! wah wah.

there you have it, my silly story. i realize in the grand scheme of things this is NOT a big deal. i'm lucky to even HAVE hair. but it annoys me nonetheless.

german town

all right, here it is -- my post about leavenworth. i still feel queasy when i think about it so i'll make it quick.

leavenworth is a tiny german town up in the mountains, about 2 hours from seattle. we love anything german, and had heard that they do a big tree-lighting thing for christmas each year, so going seemed like a slam dunk. we drove up saturday [after jack got the most atrocious haircut of his life -- that should have been a sign that the day was already doomed]. jack napped in the car, we saw sunshine, b and i discussed zombie invasion and the benefits of living an agrarian existence. life was good.

then we got up into the clouds again and it was downhill from there. the town was small and cute and definitely german-esque, but it was CROWDED. and COLD. jack wanted nothing more than to run free, but that was impossible because the outside was freezing and crowded and the indoor shops were full of breakable knick knacks and crowded. he had a complete meltdown while we were waiting for the tree lighting. everyone around me was shooting hateful glares our way and jack kept trying to punch me in the face and b was using up all our camera battery and i was OVER IT. i took my screaming child and bolted for an enticing german restaurant.

we grabbed a table in the back and met up with the davises and ate tasty food. this is what i ate. [still can't talk about it.] and by "ate" i mean "attempted to shovel giant bites in my mouth while chasing a stir-crazy toddler all around the restaurant." the big highlight of dinner was barely saving jack from being trampled by our cranky waitress, carrying a tray of overflowing beer steins. it was crazy and i do not wish to ever go through something like that again.

sometimes: toddler + public = total nightmare. but the lights were pretty.

and then we drove home (in thick fog, with a very awake kid, fearing a deer collision at any moment) (please note -- b was a very safe driver and the deer thing was completely my own imagination) and fell into bed exhausted. and as if the day could get ANY better i woke up 4 hours later with food poisoning. the end.