Busy Busy Busy

We've had a pretty packed weekend that went from Friday through Monday around the Doyle house. The good part was that almost all of it was fun stuff!

Friday night we had a family pizza date with my mom and sister-in-law and then my mom and I set out for the movie theatre to see Hunger Games. We had a good time and it was so nice for me to get some girl time away from poopy diapers and cooking dinner.



I thought the movie was entertaining, not sure if I would describe it as great, but I'm glad I saw it.

Saturday morning we got up early and Hunter and I joined Jesse for a Ducks Unlimited meeting over breakfast. Pretty much it consisted of eating breakfast with a toddler on my lap the entire time because Hunter was overwhelmed by all the men at breakfast he didn't know. Later in the day I took Hunter to my parents house so that he could have a slumber party with them. Lucy got to be the co-pilot for the first time and loved it!



Once we got to Snoqualmie, Hunter got a haircut from his favorite person, Jerry, at the Main Shop. He looked like a new boy. :) And then we hung out at my parents for a bit before I headed back home to get ready for the Ducks Unlimited banquet/auction with Jesse.

The banquet was actually a pretty good time. We had several friends come and join. Dinner was good and Jesse even won a framed art print of some ducks. Lovely... it's already up in our living room :/ What can ya do?! I figure sometimes you just gotta go with it.

The next morning we slept in and then headed out to pick up Hunter, had lunch at Chipotle, and then went to Seattle for a few hours. Jesse's cousin out in Minnesota is doing a school project with a "flat Stanley" where they send a paper doll around to family and friends around the country/world and get pictures of the doll at cool places. So, it was our turn to take some pictures of Flat Stanley in Seattle.

We parked at the Space Needle and ended up taking Hunter AND Lucy on the monorail to Westlake Center and then walked down to Pike Place Market. It was a good time!














From there we headed up to my nephew's 7th birthday dinner with the whole family. It was a great time, I love getting to see Hunter with all his cousins!




And yesterday, I sat down and did another week of meal planning, grocery shopping, and then had some of our bestest friends over for dinner. :)

This weeks menu: chicken tortilla soup with corn bread, cobb salad, greek salad in pitas, and shrimp stir fry.

Bloggers for Babies 2012

I'm excited to say that I am taking part in the Bloggers for Babies Walk to help raise money for the March of Dimes. Last year this group raised $2400 to help babies! The walk is going to take place in North Tacoma on May 12th at 9am!

Want to help, too?! You can do that in several different ways. You can walk with us, help raise money for this team, you can donate to our team, or if you aren't from the Seattle-Tacoma area, you can go to this website and find a walk near you and join there! If you want to help out by donating click on the "donate" button here:



Or click on the "walk with me" if you are local and want to join this great cause. It's a great way to help out babies in need and get to know some new friends and have a great time AND getting some exercise in, while we walk over three miles together.

Oh yeah, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A BLOGGER! Not to walk with us or to donate. So, please some join us! We appreciate any donation you can make, even if it's $5, every bit helps.

Head over to Mandy's post for some more information and even see some pictures from the event last year.

A Trip to the Hands on Museum

On Friday our good friends Rachel and Cole joined us to for a trip to the Hands On Museum in Tacoma. Cole is just three days older than Hunter, I LOVE having a friend with a son pretty much the same age as mine! The boys get along great and love each other.

The museum was crazy crowded, which was the only downside of the trip. But they had great areas for the kids to play in. They loved the water area, especially.










After we left the museum, we went to lunch at The Rock where I gorged myself on the best pizza ever. I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures there because the boys were SO cute! They sat across from the moms in the booth and were so good. They ate chatted away, did a little wrestling, and did a good job of eating their lunches!

A few hours after we got home I asked Hunter if he wanted a new baby in September and his response was "No, I want Cole!" And then proceeded to talk about Cole's cool garbage truck toy for the rest of the evening. I might try to find one for his Easter basket!

Girl's Night

On Saturday, I went to my first PNW Blogger's get together. I have to admit, I was a little anxious to meet up with a bunch of ladies whom all but two of them, I had never met in real life. A handful of them, I felt like I already knew them from following their blogs, so that was a bit helpful.

But anyways, we met up for dinner at Z'tejas in Bellevue Square where we talked loudly and talked about inappropiate things. And then like a group of high school girls, we swarmed through the mall for some frozen yogurt. Unfortunately, while all the other ladies were getting dessert, I was in the bathroom sick, dang this first trimester! But I regrouped and joined up with them for some picture taking and some wandering around the mall.

It was so nice to meet such a great group of women who were so easy to relate to!! I hope we can do it again soon.



Amanda, Jill, Chelsey, Fiona, Chelsea, Melissa, Mandy, Amy, Ashley, Mandy, Emily, me, and Kiara.

A Review of 2011: July-December

So, once I started on this post I noticed it became a lot longer than I had expected. Which is why I split it up into two parts. So, here is part two of the Doyle's year in review!

July

Hunter and I took a trip to Ketchikan, Alaska to visit some friends.



I also hit up the Nordstrom Anniversary sale and participated in the Warrior Dash!



August

And then... I left Hunter with my parents and took off to Turkey to visit Jesse while he was deployed!







September

Jesse returned home from his deployment on our fourth wedding anniversary.



We took a trip down to Portland for a weekend. We ate, shopped, and went to the zoo and an amusement park. Great weekend!!



And then we got Air Force orders to move to New Jersey in June 2012! Oh yeah and I got a new car!

October

We took a little family outing on Jesse's boat.



We celebrated Hunter's 2nd birthday!



We made a trip to the pumpkin patch.



And then Hunter and I boarded a plane (or three!) followed Jesse to New Zealand for 17 days! In October, we visited Willowbank Wildlife Refuge, Hanmer Springs, and wine tasting in the Waimara Valley.







November

We were in New Zealand for the first week of November. During that time we took a road trip to Queenstown and Lake Tekapo.










We also had my two nephews and niece spend five days with us over Thanksgiving week. We had SO much fun with them!

December

Hunter decided he wanted to start potty training!



Our dog, Henry, became a father to NINE puppies!



Hunter loved Santa.




And we made some HUGE decisions for our family! Jesse signed reenlistment papers for six more years in the Air Force and I put in my notice at work. I will be a stay at home mom starting January 5th!!!


Wow, I felt blessed in life before writing this. But... now I feel blessed beyond belief after seeing how many wonderful events and oppurtunites the Lord has given our family over the last year. Glory be to God. :)

A Review of 2011: January-June

I've seen a couple other blogs that did a recap of the year and I love the idea! It's a great way for me to look back and see all the things that have happened in our lives in just one year.

January

We took a trip to our timeshare at Ocean Shores.





February

We took a trip to Minnesota for Jesse's great grandma Nellie's funeral. Althought the circumstances were not the best, it was great to hang out with Jesse's family. It included a trip to the Mall of America, a waterpark, and my first time ice fishing.









March

Hmmm, looks like it was a rather uneventful month. My sister in law had her bridal shower, here is a picture of my sisters and the sister to be!



April

April was a busy month for the Doyle Family. We were preparing for Jesse to leave on his 4 month deployment at the end of the month. So we tried to pack in lots and lots of fun family time. This included building Hunter a "Daddy bear" with Jesse's voice recorded in it, a trip to the tulip festival, Easter, and worked on Hunter's playroom!











And at the end of April, I watched my little brother get married to his beautiful bride.



May

In May I went kind of into an antisocial funk. I stayed at home a lot of the time I wasn't at work. So, nothing too exciting to report, so I'll just share a cute picture of my kid, k?



June

Jesse's mom came to visit for a weekend all the way from Washington D.C. The weather was amazing while she was here! I also got baptized in June! :)