Baby Kiara!

Welcome baby Kiara Moon Smolinski!

7lbs 5oz
August 29, 2009 at 1:30am

At home birth was a success and the whole family is doing GREAT. Kiara is absolutely perfect.... eating and sleeping like a champ! I am SO IN LOVE with her and in awe of my sister. What an amazing family!

I'm a very proud Auntie!

wow!

Please don't worry my dear faithful readers... everything is okay... he said yes! :-)

It's so hard to put into words how amazing those few weeks were between my Seattle bachelorette party, the rehearsal, the WEDDING, the brunch and the honeymoon! In summary, I have the most amazing family, friends and HUSBAND and I am so grateful for all the million blessings in my life.

Most importantly, the wedding was the most amazing day of my life - surrounded by the loves of our lives, Geoff and I vowed to be each others "True North" (the theme of our wedding). It was sincere, emotional and intense. It was magical, spiritual and uplifting. It was perfect.



Dad walking me down the aisle. At the end mom joined us and they both "presented" me to marry Geoff!

Done deal! The ceremony was perfect (even with a few audio flaws), my brother Paul was a great officiant and everyone commented on how special and meaningful our vows and ceremony were. (oh, and check out that awesome arbor!)

Walking down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Beckstrom!

Taking pictures (before the ceremony) in downtown Langley. It was SO fun, even though it was warm and took awhile... I loved every minute of it. I didn't even have to force smile! :-)

Cutting the delicious, beautiful cake!


Out of all the things I was told from fellow married friends there were two things that I did NOT find true.
1, the day did not go fast at all! I think it was because we took pictures and did our first look before the ceremony, so our wedding day started around 1pm. Also, we stayed and danced it up until the last song at midnight. Also, Geoff's parents invited everyone out after the rehearsal dinner for drinks, so we were able to connect with people Friday, which gave us more time to enjoy every minute of Saturday and party it up with them!
2, we ate dinner! Everyone told us that you don't get to eat at your own wedding... HA! We had 3 stations of food at our wedding and Geoff and I ate from each station - and it was gooooood!

More updates and pictures to follow.... but that'll hold you over for now!

(All of these pictures are from my friends but I'll make sure to post some prof pictures when we get them.)

Happy Hour Shower

Lacey and Jill put together a fun, informal shower to just get everyone together, have some drinks and wish me well before the big day. What a blessing to know such great people. Love you ladies! THANK YOU!


(We are super stoked about a new blender.... our old $12 piece sounds like it's about to explode every time we use it. I think the neighbors will be happy also as I'm sure they can hear it roar!)

To-do lists

Last Thursday was my last day teaching summer school (which was only 8 days - lovely!) and since then Geoff and I have been non stop with our wedding to-do list. We have our master to-do list, then our daily to-do list, then at the end of the day we make our next day t0-do list! ha! It's really quite comical.... I even dream in to-do lists :-)

4th of July

We had a relaxing 4th of July with our friend Nicole. We enjoyed a picnic and fireworks at Shoreline park. Good friends, good wine, good times!

Sister

I helped throw a baby shower for Michelle and Shawn last weekend - I could not be happier for the two of them as they prepare to be PARENTS! Wow, how amazing! She is lookin' super hot and is absolutely radiant with her big belly. She is due August 24 and everything is going great... hopefully things stay that way so we don't have any surprises (which would mean she couldn't travel for our wedding... I can't even imagine).
Love you sis!

Porter poo

I got to babysit Porter for a short time while Piper was working out. I was in Auntie heaven; we sang, read his book, stared at each other.... and then the little guy started to bawl.... at which point I handed him over to Sitti (grandma).

Wedding planner

A little shout out to my mom for ALL the work she has done and is currently doing for our wedding. Mom, thank you for everything, I love you! (She's available for hire after August 1.)

Arbor, completed!

Geoff worked hard last week and completed the arbor for our wedding. I took pictures, video and supervised.... my help was invaluable, obviously.

Cousins!

Porter met his cousin last weekend! Aren't I the luckiest Aunt!?

Beautiful Seattle

We went up to Seattle over Memorial Day Weekend to meet our nephew Porter, go to my friend Megan's wedding and, of course, wedding plan. It was a perfect weekend. I am completely in love with Porter and in awe of what naturals my brother and Piper are when it comes to being parents. Megan was a stunning bride and the whole evening was fabulous.... we danced our little hearts out and connected with old friends. Wedding planning was successful and the plans are moving along nicely, thanks to the VERY hard work of my mother. On Friday we took engagement pictures with our fabulous photographer and are looking forward to seeing how they turned out!

California Engagement Party

Geoff's parents hosted an awesome engagement BBQ for us last weekend! We are SO thankful for Barbara and Roger and all of the work they put into the day. The weather did NOT cooperate, although I guess it could have been worse. It definitely was not a beautiful California spring day, but the rain held off for the most part and regardless everyone had a great time. The BBQ was almost 4 hours long and Geoff and I could not believe how quickly the day went by. It made us realize how much we'll have to appreciate and take in every moment of our wedding reception in hopes that it doesn't fly by too quickly.Showin' some love to my future neice/nephew.

Geoff's sis, Mo with Amelia and her corn muffin!


Mom and dad Abo flew in for the weekend to celebrate with us! Here's dad hangin' with his son-in-laws!

We ate leftover Armadillo Willy's for DAYS. Even typing that makes me feel a little nauseous.

Lebanese Horseshoes in action.


The Bride and Groom!

Welcome Baby Porter!

Porter Elliot Abodeely was born today at 8:31 am, weighing 7 pounds, 2 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long!

It's amazing that I can love someone that I've never even met! I'll be home in 3 weeks to snuggle and love my first nephew! CONGRATS JJ AND PIPER!

Not what you are looking for, but good

I know this isn't a juicy update with pictures for you to enjoy... but I thought I'd share this with my readers! WE LOVE FREE!

FREE KFC (Click me!)

Keep celebrating!

Michelle and Shawn's wedding was absolutely incredible! Their love shined through in everything they did from the African dancing, drumming, cake cutting to first dance. I am so happy for the them... the night was successful, they planned the whole thing themselves and it was unique and special and totally perfect for THEM. It totally inspired Geoff and I to make our day special and meaningful. Michelle's dress was so beautiful and was made with the lace from my mom's wedding dress and the gold silk that Shawn brought her home from China a few years ago. The dress layed perfectly over her 5 month baby belly! (Not sure if I've even blogged about that.... they are expecting!!!!!! Yeayyyy!!!!!)
My parents rented a house on the beach where we all spent the weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect and the sun was shining on us each day!


Geoff took a dip every morning - he's crazy. He made JJ go with him!

We spent a few hours on Friday setting up at the wedding site! It was absolutely incredible... check out that view!

Not a bad location for our weekend home!

Michelle and Shawn Smolinski!

Michelle learned how to play an African drumming song and played it for Shawn.

This is what we did the next day. I love California!

Let's celebrate!

Last weekend was our first of many celebratory weekends for 2009! Geoff and I flew home to Seattle to celebrate JJ's 30th birthday and also the arrival of their new baby boy! Their friends threw them a great shower - of course, I didn't bring out my camera, but you can see Piper's growing belly here. Mama Abo saved just about everything from our childhood so the weekend was filled with lots of great family memories - how cute is that little baby Abo will wear an outfit or two that JJ wore?!
We also headed up to the island for cake tasting with our dear family friend Laurette who will be making our elaborate and delicious cake for our wedding! The other big project this weekend was phase I of building our arbor for the ceremony! Geoff was super man and did a fabulous job envisioning what we'll build and together we forged the woods (I mostly took pictures).

My dear friend Patrice and her ADORABLE daughter Payton came over to play for a few hours. We had a nice time catching up and hanging out - I hadn't seen PJ since she was a wee little one, so it was fun to meet her as a big girl! Geoff thinks she's the cutest thing around and was happy to teach her to fly a kite.

On Sunday before we came back to sunny Cali (I'm loving this spring weather!) we stopped at the Mulkiteo Roasting Company where we'll be having our wedding brunch the day after the wedding. The big test was the coffee (the food was unreal!) and from the look that I captured below it seems as though it's a big thumbs up.

This week is a short work week for us because we're off for another Abodeely celebration in Santa Cruz this weekend! Stay tuned for updates on sister Michelle and Shawn's wedding!

Great weekend!

We had a great weekend and the fact that we had today off made it even BETTER! There really is nothing better than a 3 day weekend... I wouldn't mind working longer days to just have an extra day on the weekend. I actually feel caught up on sleep and ready to go back to work tomorrow.
St. Patrick's day weekend is always a fun one and this year was no exception. Geoff and I celebrated our three year anniversary by going to our friend's annual St. Patrick's day party (where we met), going on a hike, out to a nice dinner and a lovely surprise this morning with breakfast in bed! All that (plus more!) in one weekend... it was perfect!


We hiked around Mt. Hamilton. It was FREEZING, but so gorgeous with all of the rolling green hills.

Read carefully - we couldn't resist!


Not sure what I was doing here - it's oh so country western!

At our friend's St. Patrick's Day party! (I just realized I haven't posted about Geoff's rugby injury that ended with 30 stitches - check out that scar.)


Geoff brought me breakfast in bed this morning with a sweet anniversary card. What a lucky gal I am!