Christmas toy

may you enjoy the holidays in your own special way

with decorations.

jake's way or rachel's way?

"it looks like a duranged easter bunny"

jake's sweet parents came to visit last weekend. remember when they came and we did this? this time we were nice and didn't make them do anything too crazy. but we did give them an early christmas present and took them to see "the christmas story - the musical" on broadway. it was so good and did not disappoint.


waiting for the show to start downtown

wednesday the whole cooney fam went to see the lights at the botanical gardens in bellevue. they were pretty cool. all these christmas adventures are getting me excited for the 25th!



i'll leave you with this picture i captured of the baby michael. love.

ready for christmas

doesn't get any better than this.

kitchen sneak peak

remember how i was feeling optimistic in this post? well we haven't finished everything quite yet, but have definitely made some progress. i posted a picture in that post of this.
yes. its a DIY painted countertop kit. jake and i would love to put granite or other expensive counter top in, but it just aint gonna happen for awhile. instead we have been searching for other ways to update our countertops cheaply. the cheapest way we found was to buy the pre-manufactured laminate countertops or glue on some formica. but then we came across this kit. its a little bit more money, but not by much. about $50 -$100 more. we decided to go for it. here's our step by step of how we painted our countertops. hilarious. painted countertops. who'd a thunk it.



what comes in the kit.


old rounded oak molding along the countertop edge. we removed the rounded edge and put on a new squarish molding piece.

pictures of our new countertop edge.

taped and covered cabinets and sink.

sanded and prepped the countertop.

rolled on tar-like paint.

spread on texture shavings. let dry for 12 hours.

scrape off extra shavings after it has dried for 12 hours.

sand again.

vacuum up dust and any left over shavings.

roll on gloss and then wait for it to dry. i'll let you know how it turns out. more pictures coming soon.

best weekend ever

why? beacuse of this guy.




thanks for coming all the way to visit us, vawdreys. it was a great weekend.

picked up these bad boys today

cheap anthro pillows

4 anthro napkins on sale for $3.00 + 2 ikea pillow inserts for $6.00 = 2 cute pillows for a total of $24.00. i'm so domestic.

she's kinda special to us.

we celebrated my grandma's birthday last sunday. yes she is no longer alive, but that's what she meant to us. and we're cool like that. we all shared a story about her and this was mine.

one time when i was 15 and had my drivers permit, grandma let me driver her car. it was a sweet car too. she was parked in my aunt and uncle driveway. the driveway was sloped towards the garage. i jumped in the drivers seat and put the car in reverse. i stepped on the gas and we went crashing into the garage. i guess i was in drive not reverse. the car was halfway in the garage and halfway out. i might add that my aunt and uncles house had just been sold and in the process of closing. oops. i looked at my grandma horrified and she looked at me and in all seriousness said "hurry rachel. if we switch places no one will know it was you ". that's the kind of grandma she was. and i love her, and miss her daily.

weekend in uath for a wedding and baby blessing

jake's sister got married. beautiful wedding, beautiful dress, and beautiful bride.


laura was kind enough to let me hold the baby in the picture. i didn't even ask too, i promise. thanks for including us eric and laura.

drove 12 hours for this.....

well hello locker.

a bunch of us (sister, her husband, dad and jake and i) jumped in the car after work on friday and drove 12 hours to utah. why? huskies. uw played byu. we lost. it was a long drive home.


the fam who made it down for the game. 10 husky fans and 4 byu fans in the group.




on sunday we listened to my dad sing at a presbyterian church in salt lake city. the church was built in like 1871 or something. it was beautiful.




wow door.

wizard of oz

cooney camp was a hit this year. probably one of our best. we pulled it off yet again. the kids were amazing and the costumes.......well, they speak for themselves. we had two cast this year. here are pics of the emerald cast.


waiting for the show to start.


here i am trying to keep the little munchkins in line before the show.






the beautiful set we stayed up way to late painting.


the black birds

the lion


the scarecrow and tin man


and those munchkins

i'll get some video of the gold cast on here. mason and rowan were in the gold cast. mason was the scarecrow and rowan was a munckin/lollipop boy. and mason stole the show...again.

links to see pictures of our second and third year shows. peter pan. and once upon a forest's twisted tales

annual bff weekend.

it was the bff's turn to come visit me this year. she came at just the right time this year. just when i needed her the most. i have the best bff in the whole entire world.

on one of our outings we took the water taxi from downtown seattle, across the sound to alki beach. guess what the name of the water taxi was?





car show going on over on alki beach. we lucked out.


cool shots the bff took.




activities included:
shopping
shopping
shopping
anthro twice (seattle and bellevue stores)
kasala
dinner at the country club
dinner at ivers with the seagulls
driving the wrong way on a one-way street in downtown seattle. (dont you worry. i made it down a whole block without getting hit. the cars just went around us. no biggy.)
dear john
ratrace (i remembered this being a lot funnier then it actually was. sorry jake and brooke)
saw the little molly and baby michael
and then brooke and i sat down and planned my entire living room/kitchen layout and design. we must have spent a few hours on it. i am so excited with what we came up with.

p.s head over to very fine house and check out her awesome design blog. the bff has a good eye for design and amazing taste.

canada, ay.

spent a week on lake shuswap in canada. houseboat, wake boarding, water skiing, tubing, hot tubbing, rope swing, eating, games, and having a great time.








check out my left knee, did that the first day of the trip. torn mcl. spent the rest of the trip

doing this.........

sitting in the boat, taking pictures of myself.