A Sister, A Friend :)

The first 3 weeks of January were amazing! My sister, Hillary, came to visit us for most of her January term. She flew home to MN, right before Christmas, from studying abroad in Kenya and then flew over here first thing in January! I was SO excited!! We hadn't been able to see her in so long, since she was in Africa when we were in MN for Thanksgiving. I hate living so far away from my family, but it makes it SO special when any of them get to come visit us!! I love sharing my home and my life with them :)

Hilly and I had many fun adventures while she was here! She spent the first week she was here helping me get things around the house ready for Kahlan's arrival. What a blessing! I was starting to freak out a little... I needed to nest, but couldn't do the lifting and stuff necessary to do half the projects I had in mind! So, she helped me clear out our second bedroom... only baby related items remain now. That entailed emptying the dresser of all of my craft stuff, the closet of all it's seasonal storage (ie: Christmas decorations, camping gear, ect..) and bringing all of the baby stuff we already have over from Mark and Elaine's house. So, we put all the craft stuff into decorative boxes we found at Michael's and into a new bookshelf in our bedroom. We also moved the desk into our room and reorganized it a little so everything would fit! Here is a picture of our new set up in the bedroom:


We also made a trip to Value Village to get rid of a bunch of things that were not needed and just taking up space. I love that feeling of purging the old clutter and having a neat clean space! We also filled up the dresser and closet with all the fun hand-me-downs Kahlan has received as well as the things we got for Parker that she will be able to use. That was fun for me :)So, thank you, Hillary for all your hard work!!!

After that week of getting things done, we spent 2 weeks just exploring, playing games, watching shows, going to the tea house with Heather and her Aunt, going to Pike Place, shopping, playing with and loving on the pets, shopping, driving Matt to and from work, playing in the short-lived snow, taking pictures, painting nails, doing dishes, making dinners, hanging out with the Flint's, going to coffee and just having fun being together. We played a game of Bohnanza almost everyday... sometimes more, which I loved! We also spent a whole Saturday on Whidbey Island with Matt and Annie :) I must say the best part was just getting to spend time with my sister. What an awesome woman she is. She is always positive and encouraging and makes me laugh and I am just so grateful to have her in my life :)

I'll post some pictures of our adventures below, but if you want to see ALL of them, just follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=284850&id=512029938&l=4e800f69ec