How AMAZING is my wife...

This is our brand new Columbia Ridge Student Ministry WEBSITE!!!!!

I'm really excited about it! And Kirsten did everything. So check it out and ooooo and ahhhh about how I married up!

www.columbiaridge.org/students

(for some reason I can't get this to be a link - apparently Kirsten got all the know how when it comes to anything related to computers. Anyway...just copy and paste or type it in yourself)

enjoy...

ummm...

so i have to show off the cutest picture of a child that quite possibly i have ever seen. this is my second cousin (?) megan.
just look at that face.

she's on a disney cruise. and then there were these...from the family's blog. adorable.

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

really, really stinking hilarious.

"We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots."




comedian Louis CK on the Conan O'Brien show

the rents

So almost two weeks ago the Monroes came to visit. (That's where we'll start...there's more to post about before that but we had to find a place to start, right...?)


Daniel and I picked Debbie and Ron up at the airport Thursday night and we drove out to Mount Hood to a g o r g e o u s condo. Matt and Kim met up with us Friday night and we spent the long weekend snowboarding and skiing, staring at the snow and hanging out...here are some pretty amazing pictures—if they look antique-y it's because they were taken with disposable camera on the mountain. The first one is me (if you can't tell) and the second is Daniel's dad. And if you look the background, right there where the clouds are, you can't tell because it's white, but that's the peak of mount hood...


On Sunday daniel and i went back to town to go to church/youth group, and Matt, Kim, Debbie and Ron stayed at the mountain and went snowshoeing...and it looks so pretty...


So here's the mystery of the weekend...and I know I'm not going to be able to explain it well enough, but it's totally worth it anyhow. So we were playing board games Friday night and Daniel and I had brought a plastic bag full of Skipbo cards. Trust me. The entire deck was there. We play with them often. Keep them in one place. Got the bag out to pack it and would have noticed if there were cards missing. And Friday evening Daniel got all the games out of the very securely-packed backpack and and put them on the table. Definitely didn't notice anything weird about the cards. When we went to play games and decide which game to play, I held up the bag of cards and everyone looked at me and I even commented about the stack of cards and I swear. The entire deck was there. Okay, so Saturday afternoon we were sitting around and glanced over at the table to see the skipbo cards...with 3/4 of the deck missing (!!!) So 3/4 of a large deck of cards. Bag sealed. We looked everywhere. Under the couch, all in the couch cushins, all over the (by the way spacious and mostly-empty) living room, throughout our room, the backpack, the other bags...everywhere. e v e r y w h e r e. no cards. 3/4 of an entire deck of cards...just dissapeared. that would be weird, but i promise, it would be weirder if you were there. if you had looked seriously everywhere and not found any missing cards. and if you honestly played skipbo almost every night of the week...WELL, that's not all. So Sunday afternoon daniel realized that he had not taken the key to the condo off his keyring. we were already back in town and the rest of the group had not checked out yet, so he called his parents and explained the situation. The next day Debbie and Ron showed up at our apartment and, before we went to lunch, Debbie handed me the address to the condo to mail them back the key. So that I wouldn't forget, I (in this exact order, and remember...our apartment is small. Not much room for error—literally) took the address from her and put it on the coffee table, walked 10 steps to the hooks by the door where we keep our keys, got daniel's keys and removed said condo key. Walked back to the coffee table, put the key down, turned around and leaned over the couch to my desk located a foot behind our couch, got an envelope, pen and piece of paper. Sat down on the couch, wrote a short note explaining, copied the address onto the envelope, as well as our return address, folded the piece of paper and tucked teh key inside. Put the piece of paper and key into the envelope and sealed the envelope. Leaned back over the couch, got out the stamps and put one on the envelope. Debbie and Ron practically stood there and watched me (it wasn't weird or anything...we were talking). By that time it was time to go and I picked up the envelope to take it to our outgoing mail. As I walked, I held the envelope in my hand and tilted it back and forth letting the key fall from side to side. It fell side to side. I remember the weight. I remember the key inside the envelope. Inside the envelope. Last Thursday we got a call from the condo. The got the envelope. Sealed. No holes. Letter inside. and yet. no key. seriously, no key. how is this even possible?!?! things dissapear at this condo place. dissapear. (this. this is how exciting our life is...)

Ummmm so the monroes were here for like three more days but we didn't take any more pictures. We did have tons of fun and such a good time just hanging out and being together. but alas no more pictures. but hey this is a post, right :)

and we're BACK!!!

I wouldn't blame you if you gave up on us weeks ago, but if you're still there we are back in the swing of things. We have had some really crazy weeks the last few weeks. My (Daniel) parents were in town and we had a big youth group event this week that we've been working overtime on. But don't think we've forgotten about you blog world.

We will have updates from our weeks away coming...but for now, just enjoy this.

Happy Birthday Jackie!

Today is our (Kirsten's) aunt Jackie's birthday!

Jackie and her husband Judd live in a gorgeous lakehouse in Texas where they are both artists...he is a painter, photoshopper extraordinaire, while she is a quilter and general textile genius. Jackie is the one who first taught me to knit—probably 5 or 6 years ago now. And while she didn't teach me how to sew or begin my interest in sewing (that may have been because of a sewing machine my mom won when she was 16...or something like that), she has certainly taught me a lot inadvertantly and been an inspiration to me. And she makes everyone in our family gorgeous quilts :). Oh! and she may or may not know this, but one day she will give me one of the like four sergers she has lying around...

Anyway, Jackie is amazing. She has a quiet calm about her (she's probably laughing at that right now) that is inspiring and she works hard at keeping the family "together" with traditions and craft activities to decorate the outdoor christmas tree each year. Jackie's patient and kind and a wonderful grandmother. And she's got a great smile. And doesn't always have her arm in a sling—that was just at our wedding...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKIE!!!

Happy Birthday Shannon!!

Today is our dear, dear friend, Shannon's, birthday!
Shannon is wonderful—beautiful, creative, unique, caring. She's super fun to be with, and great to have a real, deep, authentic conversation with.

Plus, she loves antiques, the Office, old homes, Amy Butler fabrics, good design and unique style. What more could you want in a friend? But Shannon's true love is her golden retriever "puppy" Bailey, who is Nickel's best friend and one of mine, too.
Shannon has been there for me when I needed her most, whether in planning and organizing my wedding or talking through hard things. And I love her deeply and miss her immensely...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON!!! hope it (was) great—i assume you're asleep already :)

Happy Birthday Jaxon!!

That's right, today is also our other second cousin named Jaxon's (Jackson) birthday. Jaxon is our (Daniel's) second cousin and Stephanie's (previous post) nephew.Jaxon is absolutely adorable and will one day soon be a heart breaker. He was the ring bearer at our wedding, and I think our photographer sometimes thought it was Jaxon's wedding he was photographing.
Jaxon loves sports and is really good at all sorts of sports, including baseball, basketball and golf. And, Jaxon's a great cousin. We even have a video to prove it...p.s. Can you tell what song he's singing? Look below for the answer...



HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAXON!!! hope it's great!

The song is the Imperial March from Star Wars. He's just that cool.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!!!

Well, my logic here was that Stephanie was born first and so she gets her post first...Today is our (Daniel's) cousin, Stephanie's, birthday!Stephanie is absolutely wonderful—she's incredibly caring, sweet, and intentional. She's a fantastic mother, sister and cousin, and she loves Christmas and traditions just as much as Daniel. Stephanie's incredibly athletic—she played several sports throughout high school and college, and she's intensely competitive, almost as much as her husband.

Stephanie, Michael, Grace and Drew just finished building their new home, which is simply gorgeous, but are most likely already in Florida by now for spring training...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE, wherever you guys are! We miss you!!

oh it's bad

Daniel and I both have the flu. Honestly, I don't remember the flu being this awful. Our couch (and sometimes our bed) has been our permanent place of residence for the past two days. We've worked here, eaten here, and coughed, sniffled, and sneezed a lot here. But that's really all we've done. We've gone through two boxes of tissues and had two 14-hour nights. 14 hours of sleep. I've watched more House, CSI, Cold Case and Trust Me than I ever thought I would. Normally I would be going crazy having sat around so much, but honestly the mere thought of doing something other than sitting makes me nauseous. And the house is a disaster. When both adults in the house are this sick, the government should just give you a maid for a few days—the dog is useless. She's mostly just confused about why we're sleeping so much. Make that a maid and a dog-walker. Anyway, if you're looking for us, we'll be here...

Happy Birthday Jackson

Today is our (Kirsten's) second cousin Jackson's birthday. We actually have two second cousins named Jackson (or Jaxon) but this Jackson is Kirsten's mom's nephew's son (did you get all that?).

Jackson is great. He is hilarious and has a wonderful personality. He is a great older brother to Lucas and one of the all time great second cousin's.


We hate only getting to see Jackson once a year, but we are thrilled we get to watch him grow up on the Hames Family Blog. For extremely funny videos of both Jackson and Luke go here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!! Hope it was a great day!