Happy Birthday Lane!!!

Today is our (daniel's) uncle Lane's birthday!!!

Lane is the father of two wonderful girls. He is a great dad, and pretty dang good uncle. I have great memories of Braves games and ski trips with uncle Lane when I was growing up. He has always been caring and supportive, even when Kirsten and I wanted to do something stupid like move across the country!

I also did the vast majority of my childhood fishing in the lake behind Lane's house. He is a lover of all things outdoors, and an accomplished hunter and fisherman (you should see the walls of his house...)

So happy birthday Lane! Hope it is a great day. Drink some sweet tea for us!

Happy Birthday Samantha!!!

Today is our good friend Samantha's birthday!!!

This is Samantha's first birthday as a mom, and even though I haven't had the lucky chance to see her since she had her baby girl, I KNOW she's the best, most fabulous mommy ever and I'm so happy for her.

Samantha is gorgeous, sweet and oh so caring and loving. Plus, she's the best co-worker one could ever ask for (trust me, I know) and is great for wasting time getting coffee and venting for over an hour every weekday morning, mostly just to avoid other coworkers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM, we love and miss you guys so much!

AND a special birthday shout out to my precious abby slocumb. daniel said we can't do birthday posts for yl kids because it would be unfair and we would miss people, but i can't resist. i love you so much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Charlotte!!!

So you know how sometimes we don't have pictures of people? My (Kirsten's) aunt Charlotte is one of those people. It says nothing about you, Charlotte, promise. We just don't take pictures at Thanksgiving like we should...regardless, this is a picture from our wedding that was of several people in my family, including Charlotte (but that's why it's so obviously cropped...)

Charlotte lives in Texas (surprised?) and is absolutely wonderful. She's beautiful, a fabulous mom, a great cook, and constantly caring. And she has recently become the biggest OU fan I know of.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARLOTTE, i hope it's so so so great!

Happy Birthday Bo!!

Today is my (Kirsten) uncle Bo's birthday!

Bo is wonderful—he's a great dad, loves helping people learn about various things, lives in beautiful Steamboat Springs and wears a cowboy hat well (along with my other uncles, as you can tell...) Bo actually wore a cowboy hat at his wedding though, along with boots. And he and his wife Susan rode away on horseback, just like everyone dreams of. (I hope I remembered all that correctly...)



Bo is also one of few of the relatives on my side (additionally including ourselves, my parents and my cousins Jenny and Steve) that don't live in Texas. Seriously, everyone else.

regardless, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BO!!! hope it's wonderful!!!

aloha!

we leave for hawaii tomorrow.

what? you didn't know we were going to hawaii? don't worry, we really didn't either.

okay, not so much true, but it really snuck up on us.

its a bit of a long story, but the family daniel lived with in D.C. has generously offered us a chance to go to a Christian conference they put on each year in Honolulu. plus we get the 4 or so days before the conference just to be in hawaii. we're super excited...and it's slowly sunk in that it's actually happening. it will be my (kirsten's) first time to hawaii and daniel's second. we've got reed's camera, reed's sister cindy's snorkeling gear, and (finally...sooo last minute) peaople all lined up for nickel.

and we've been hula dancing around the house for a couple of days now in preparation...

we'll try to keep you updated while we're there, mostly just to make you insanely jealous. we're hoping for lots and lots of beautiful, warm sun, sand and water. yayyy!! and it's supposed to nearly snow here in portland...



and just as a sidenote, since my mother-in-law will probably want to see (and maybe others?), i had decided a few months ago that i really like these: vera bradley toiletries things.


but they're pretty darn expensive and i'm not obsessed with any "patterns." plus, i feel like i gave vera enough money while i was in high school, but i know what i paid was a tiny fraction compared to many...

anyway, i decided i could make my own. i thought about the dimensions for a bit and what i would do, and then when debbie and ron were here like a month or so ago, debbie had one and so i took a good hard look at hers.

and this is what i came up with...


i'm actually super happy with how this turned out. and it was one of the first things in a while that i've made without a specific pattern, which makes one think in a different way and is really fun. so here it is, my new toiletries bag. thanks for watching :)

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is our (Daniel's) cousin Chris' birthday! Honestly I'm not 100% sure how old Chris is. I think maybe 23, but maybe just 22. Everyone seems to be older than I think they are because I'm older than I remember...a sad reality.

Anyway, today is Chris' birthday! Chris is a really great guy. Excluding my uncles (including his dad) he has got to be one of the best uncles I know. He has 2 nieces and 2 nephews so if you need lessons in babysitting, changing diapers, or all other matters concerning raising children that are not your own, Chris is your man.

Chris is a world traveler (mostly South America) and is hopefully coming to Portland this summer! Everyone out there in the blog-land take note. You can travel to Portland!

Chris is really a great guy. He is caring and puts others ahead of himself. So here's to you Chris. Hope your birthday is a great one. Can't wait to see you this summer!

Happy Birthday Catie!!!

Okay, so here's the story. Catie's birthday was yesterday (February 28th) but I was on a women's retreat. I had written this up and emailed it to Daniel for him to post, but something happened (video games and college basketball...) and he forgot. He did remember to buy our Christmas plane tickets, which was necessary before March 1st so that we could use our credit card points—that's right, we already have our Christmas tickets...December 19th-29th for those of you who were wondering...) ...but still, he forgot Catie's very important day...

So we're sorry Catie!! Happy late birthday!!!!

(Now starts the post...)



Today is my (our) cousin Catie's birthday.

Catie lives in Texas (of course) but goes to school in oklahoma so I guess lives there too. Catie plays clarinet in the band for OU and (I'm pretty sure) loves it. She's by far the most televised of my family members, and camera crews at football games like to hone in on her and make her famous.



Catie is absolutely beautiful, really fun, caring, and really great with all our second cousins. (She was also a beautiful bridesmaid at our wedding.) And Daniel and I have really missed her at the past couple Thanksgivings :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATIE!!! Hope it's (was...) great!!!

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!

yes, we changed things...

if you're one of probably 2 people who read our blog in a reader, you should know we changed our banner and such. i'm not sure why, just for change sake. but we love the picture that is now our header, we took it this fall at a nearby park...so we thought we'd switch things up for a time (probably should have done it this fall, but let's face it. we're behind)...

Look! Not a Birthday Post!

The birthday posts have gotten out of control, haven't they? Well, fear not, because I feel refreshed when it comes to posting. Maybe I just had to take January off for the most part...who knows.

It's been nice weather here, cold definitely, and not sunny per se, but certainly not the constant rain that we had been expecting. So yesterday we decided to get some fresh air and go on a hike.
We went to a trail sort of close by that a friend here took me this summer, but that Daniel had never been to (I feel like our readers are always guessing as to who's writing until one or the other of us drops the other's name like I just did and then you think "ah, okay." We just like to keep you guessing...).
So anyway, this trail was completely different in the winter than it was in the summer. We walked along a creek/small river the entire time and seriously, we could not believe how clear the water was. I guess with all the snow here, as it turns to water it's incredibly clear.
And there are some really cool parts to this trail, like this waterfall down a rock, and water streaming down from the top of a cliff, in little droplets like constant rain, and all the moss...And Nickel got her head under water for what, I'm pretty sure, was the first time. We haven't ever been to a place with her where, for instance, we could push her off a dock and force her to swim. So she's been in water, but only to the point where she can't walk anymore and then she gets scared. But yesterday Daniel threw a stick into the river and she went chasing after it and first stepped on a rock and then suddenly, as she was going forward, the rock wasn't there. She went completely under and was shocked, but then I think she realized she actually can swim and we couldn't pull her away from the water...And this picture is amazing. I have no idea why Daniel is doing that with his hand. He looks like he's trying to be Gob (for any Arrested Development fans)...