culbertson family photos

2008-04-15T22:00:00.001-07:00

some random shots

so it's been awhile since i've posted any pics on this blog... i update my other blog more often. but i wanted to add a few pics of the girls from the last month or so... i'll try to go back and get a few more highlights in the next few days. :)

silly sassy sweet sistas

emma and i and a baby kangaroo at this cool kangaroo farm near us

emma at the daffodil fields in mt vernon... stunning.
(the tulips should be out very soon, too!)

the girls on easter morning. the looked like little neapolitan ice cream sandwiches.

2008-02-20T19:54:00.001-08:00

lunar eclipse

february 20, 2008

2008-01-21T00:22:00.000-08:00

random silliness

so this is just a little random silliness from the world wide web! :) i saw this on a great inspirational blog done by the wonderful emilie ahern... so enjoy the fun! :)

2007-12-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

we wish you a
merry christmas!

funny little story...
so we're getting ready to open presents and i tell the girls to sit next to each other. well, they did. they sat down in a "sister's pose" figuring that i wanted to get a picture of them. my mom and dad got a great laugh out of that! i said, no just sit next to each other so you can open your presents!!! (this was not that picture, i just thought i'd share that little story on myself.)

christmas jamies
culbertson tradition since 2000

writing some little letters to santa
totally not staged either! somehow it's so much cooler to write a letter by candlelight!

cookies for santa & celery for the reindeer...
(we didn't have enough carrots for all of them!)

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

it was nice to spend a laid back christmas eve with my parents. i thought these pictures turned out really cute. wow... my kids look like them, don't they??

merry christmas from the
culbertson family!

2007-12-22T02:47:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas
from the Culbertson Family

i laugh every time i see this "stan" ornament. :) having an obvious plethora of "noel" and "joy" ornaments, my mom decided we needed a "stan" ornament! so she made it from a scrap of paper on my counter the first year we were married. and it has been on our tree ever year since! (the noel ornament was given to me by my great grandma when i was a kid, and the joy ornament was from my grandma.)

and this baby right here is stan's pride and joy. we found it at a local farmer's market 5 or 6 years ago. it clamps to the center of the tree, and the tracks go around it. it sits about 3/4 of the way up the tree. and it is by far the coolest christmas decoration we've ever found! :)

2007-12-21T01:12:00.001-08:00

Picking out Ornaments

every year we pick out ornaments at a small local farmer's market in town called schuh farms. we usually get them when we get our tree, but this year we settled on a fake tree since stan was leaving. that and we put the tree up the day before halloween... and there are very few fresh cut trees available then! :)

so the girls picked out their ornaments... this is how the process went this year...

this is the ornament i really want!
maybe not... maybe i want this one...

no, wait! what about this one?

this one is really cute, too!!!
nope... this REALLY is the ornament i want!

2007-12-06T22:23:00.001-08:00

birthday date
with my grandma

wednesday i had a fun day with my grandma. our birthdays are a few weeks apart... a good excuse for some lunch and shopping in la conner. :)

we took a couple of pictures before hand... and the signs were my present, that and a vintage coffee tin we found at one of the stores.

2007-11-27T01:06:00.001-08:00

saying goodbye

a few pictures with stan before he left on deployment this weekend.

2007-11-21T14:29:00.001-08:00

happy thanksgiving
from the little turkeys

2007-11-09T00:21:00.000-08:00

happy halloween!

this year we had "just a regular queen" (according to torrey) and snow white as guests at our house on halloween!

torrey (not) just a regular queen!!!

emma as snow white

our crazy fam...
stan wore his old leather jacket and went as
"bad bad biker dad"
i wore stan's grandma's society ball dress and a plastic crown from target and went as
"the queen"
torrey wore a nice red queen outfit and went as (again)
"just a regular queen"
emma wore a disney costume and went as
"snow white"

the girls had some suggestions for stan on his costume... first it was BALD the builder (they thought this was pretty clever, and called him that the entire halloween week!). the other suggestion was that he go as the king, since there was no shortage of queens! in the end he chose something he had on hand that was warm!

the girls at great grandma & great pa's house

the cousins
hey, at least they're all IN the picture!!!

the girls making the rounds, stopping at the lewis' house

2007-10-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

fabulous fall

the girls and i went to the state park the other day to enjoy a little hike, the beach and to get some fall pics.

just a fun pic of some silly girls!

how lucky are we that the sign for the state park has the super cool logs on either side! and the leaves on the tops of each log were just like that when we got there... it was picture perfect!

freezing fall fun at the pumpkin patch!

gift with purchase...
little pumpkins for buying big pumpkins!

i just thought the muddy pumpkin path looked cool and fall'ish.

2007-10-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

Sunrise

I woke up to this amazing sight when this morning. This is one of my favorite things about living where we do. (I took these pictures from the deck of our house.) I don't often see the sunrises in the summer (I'm just not up THAT early!) :) But in the fall and winter, when the sun rises between 7 and 8 am... it's a much more reasonable hour!

2007-10-05T16:30:00.001-07:00

Open House
@ school

I'm not sure exactly how October snuck up on me... but it did! School has been back in for a whole month. The girls are loving their teachers... Emma loves being in kindergarten! Torrey is rocking the second grade, and I officially caved and joined the PTA. (I'm not sure why I was so reluctant... silly me!) I love this little brick ledge at the school, and I'm thinking I'd like to go back there some weekend, and get some pics there while there is no one around...

2007-10-02T19:10:00.001-07:00

Festivus
...for the rest of us...

...for the rest of us...

cider pressin', hay fort buildin', mutton bustin'
and pot luckin' good time
good ol' fashioned country fun!

the girls are always so excited for festivus
as soon as we park the car they fly out and dash in

torrey catching air

torrey climbing the hay fort

stan & emma
early bull riding lessons

fun fall decor

cameron, the girls' cousin, mutton bustin'

emma enjoying a cold can of grape soda
while watching her cousin ride

2007-09-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Creating Keepsakes Magazine
Scrapbooker of the Year Finalist
Trip to Las Vegas

I'm sure I have told most everyone I know by now, that I was thrilled to be chosen as one of Creating Keepsakes Magazine's Scrapbooker of the Year top 10 finalists. To enter the contest, I submitted 20 scrapbook layouts and an essay describing my perfect day. And since "making" top 10 we each designed a make & take, wrote an article proposal with artwork, had a phone interview with three CK editors, and a few other little things. Wow!!! On September 18th they flew all of the top 10 girls out to Las Vegas for three days at Memory Trends, as a congratulations & to announce this year's "Scrapbooker of the Year".

It was an amazing trip. They put us up in a suite at the Venetian, an truly elegant hotel. We were treated like queens!!! Stan was able to get a few days off (and believe me, he really got a good razz from the guys at work about taking time off for scrapbooking)!!! I had the opportunity of getting to know each of the top 10 girls before Vegas... so we felt like old friends when we arrived! Each one of these amazing women has so much talent, I felt blessed to be among them! On Wednesday, September 19th Creating Keepsakes crowned Elizabeth Kartchner this year's Scrapbooker of the Year!!! Yeah Liz!!!

I am so grateful to have had this opportunity of a lifetime!!! Woohoo!!!

emma & me
the morning we left for vegas

torrey & me
the morning we left for vegas

stan & me
on one of the outside decks of the venetian
(thanks liz for taking this picture of us!!!)

me with liz kartchner
creating keepsakes' new scrapbooker of the year!!!

creating keepsakes magazine
scrapbooker of the year
top ten finalists
at the memory trends trade show
las vegas, nevada

all of the "top ten" girls just before the announcement banquet

stan & me
this is the check-in lobby at the venetian

"the husbands"
liz's husband (collin), ingunn's husband (jk), my husband (stan)
stan was such a great sport! he wandered around the memory trends scrapbooking trade show for three days taking pictures, and hanging out. it sounds pretty silly, but this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. i felt so blessed to have such an amazing guy, who is so supportive there with me!!! go navy for letting him off the hook for a few days!!!

my ckmb friends
leslie, me, liz & annie

measuring up to ali edwards

c.d. muckosky, me & ali edwards

me & lisa bearnson
(founding editor of creating keepsakes magazine)

the outside of the venetian

just part of the inside of the venetian hotel!!!
this area is a mall with restaurants (stan & i ate at the restaurant across the canal in this picture... YUM!!!) the canal runs through this area of the hotel, complete with gondolas with singing gondola drivers!

2007-09-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

Davy's Visit from Japan
September 2007

Davy and his girlfriend Hiroka

Danica & Dave
(can't tell they're related...)

this is what happens when you let your kids
play with their food!!!
noel & dave's thanksgiving "muffin man competition"
we had an early thanksgiving dinner for dave since you can't find turkey in japan. hiroka and shiho had never had turkey before!

emma with hiroka and shiho (hiroka's sister)
doing a "traditional japanese pose"
i talked to hiroka for a bit while we looked through some photo albums of mine. she said that one of the things she liked was that the girls were "just doing normal things" in the pictures. she said that in japan, all of the pictures of kids they are doing the peace sign. emma fell in love with both of them... and was glued to their sides the entire visit!

dave the 4th & dave the 5th

2007-09-26T22:59:00.001-07:00

Jason & Megan's Visit
August 2007

noel & jason

torrey & uncle jason

emma & uncle jason

auntie megan & uncle jason with
emma, madison & torrey

jason & mom

grandpa, jason & dad

while jason & megan were visiting we had a night on the town we stayed at the seattle waterfront marriott, and had dinner at the tap house grill in seattle

2007-09-26T21:41:00.001-07:00

Torrey's New Grill

Torrey lost her second "front tooth" this week
and last week...

she pulled out her first tooth herself!
so the totals now are as follows:
dentist - 2 teeth (scooter accident & making room)
mom - 2 teeth (1 bottom tooth & 1 top tooth)
torrey - 1 tooth (1 bottom tooth)

2007-09-26T21:21:00.001-07:00

Back to School
September 2007

Torrey & Emma
on the first day of school

First day of school outfits

Fashion Forward Girlies

Back to school backpacks
(in their favorite colors)

Walking up to school

2007-09-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

torrey at her desk

emma at her desk

emma only went to school for half the day...
so she was quite excited to see the bus coming!

2007-08-05T00:47:00.000-07:00

stanwood/camano fair 2007

emma watching the parade

torrey on the school bus in the parade -
for "caught being good on the bus" during the school year

torrey on the carousel

emma on the carousel

seeing how emma & torrey measure up
(hint: torrey is standing on her tip-toes!)

2007-08-04T02:23:00.000-07:00

2007-08-04T02:00:00.000-07:00

click here for more info about my news!!!

2007-08-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

sweet summer fun

2007-08-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

2007-08-03T00:23:00.000-07:00

2007-08-03T00:20:00.000-07:00

2007-08-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

2007-08-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

2007-04-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter
2007

2007-04-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

On our way to church
Easter 2007

2007-04-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

sweet sisters
easter 2007

2007-04-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

The girls and I at the tulips
March 2006

2007-04-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Torrey & Emma at the Tulip Festival
March 2007

2007-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

My little girls are growing up too fast
Torrey & Emma
Easter 2007

2007-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

My little Easter princesses

2007-04-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

torrey & emma on easter 2007

2007-04-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Torrey & Emma at the State Park
Spring Break, April 2006

2007-04-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here we are at our first day going Geocaching
Took a 7 mile hike and found the cache!

2007-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

Stan & Noel April 2007

2007-04-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Torrey April 2007

2007-04-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Emma April 2007

2007-04-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

Stan & Noel at Camano Island State Park on a camping trip with the family

2006-11-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

Our year in review...

2006-11-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

Some pics from our November snowstorm

2006-11-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

here are some highlights from halloween

2006-09-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Torrey and her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Hillier. First day of school, September 2006

2006-09-09T11:27:00.001-07:00

The big first grader! Torrey, September 2006

2006-09-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to send Torrey off to school. September 2006

2006-09-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Torrey on her first day of first grade! September 2006

2006-09-09T11:25:00.001-07:00

Torrey with her first missing tooth! August 2006

2006-09-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Torrey & the gray tooth. She had an accident on her scooter and landed face first on the concrete. This is her before we went to the dentist to have the tooth pulled. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

Stan & the girls hiking to Whistle Lake. Anacortes, WA. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

The girls mostly enjoying a picnic at Mt. Erie. Anacortes, WA. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

The girls taking a photo break from playing in the sprinkler. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Stan showing the kids a jelly fish. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:18:00.001-07:00

The girls riding their bikes. Camano Island State Park. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Emma riding her bike. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Torrey riding her bike while camping. August 2006

2006-09-09T11:16:00.001-07:00

Emma. July 2006

2006-09-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Torrey. July 2006

2006-09-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

A precious little picture of Emma. July 2006

2006-09-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

I did some senior pictures for a kid at church this summer. So the day before, I made Stan pose for me so I could figure out what looked nice. Here he is trying to look as cool as he can for his "Senior Pictures"! July 2006

2006-09-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Emma, Madison, and Torrey having a little slumber party wearing the pj's they made. July 2006

2006-09-09T11:10:00.001-07:00

Torrey. July 2006

2006-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Emma looking all grown up! July 2006

2006-09-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Our van going through the original entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The top of the arch reads "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people." The sides read from left to right, "Yellowstone National Park" and "Created by act of Congress March 1, 1872"

2006-09-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Stan and the girls checking out Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone National Park. July 2006

2006-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

A Yellowstone Raven on a tree at Mammoth Hot Srpings just before sunrise. July 2006

2006-09-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

The girls and me at Old Faithful. For the third time in a row we got to Old Faithful within 5 minutes of the eruption! What timing! July 2006

2006-09-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Our family trip to Torrey Lake Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Torrey waiting to ride the horses. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Torrey riding Rusty. (The same horse Stan learned to ride on when he was her age.) July 2006

2006-09-09T09:57:00.002-07:00

Emma riding Molly. Torrey Lake Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:57:00.001-07:00

My little cowgirls after their ride. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sunset behind the Goodbye Tree. Torrey Lake Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

Torrey and Emma. Torrey Lake Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:55:00.001-07:00

Torrey shooting the .22. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Emma shooting the .22. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

The girls playing with Jubilee in the back of the Ranch jeep. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:53:00.001-07:00

Stan and the girls on a boat ride. Torrey Lake. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Torrey and Emma fishing. Torrey Lake, July 2006

2006-09-09T09:51:00.001-07:00

Sunset on Torrey Lake. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Slowly making their way into the lake... the water was pretty cold. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Stan and his girls taking a dip in the hot tub after swimming in the lake. Torrey Lake Ranch, July 2006

2006-09-09T09:49:00.001-07:00

Stan getting the girls set up in the canoe on Lake Julia at the Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

The girls at the Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Stan enjoying some night time fishing on Torrey Lake. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Torrey at the Dubois Square Dance. She's do-si-do'ing with the Miller family. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Emma was not as fond of the square dance! July 2006

2006-09-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here we are just getting ready to take off from the Ranch we got a great picture of the Culbertsons and the Millers. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Coming from Dubois, this is the sign for Grand Teton National Park. The girls are making their best Tetons. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Teton National Park... the view from Teton Lodge where we had lunch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

The girls in Yellowstone National Park on our way home from the Ranch. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

On our way home... in Yellowstone. I kept making Stan stop at the sights... he just wanted to get home... so here is the "happy" face stopping (again)! July 2006

2006-09-09T09:31:00.001-07:00

Torrey's 6th birthday. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Torrey riding the new scooter she got for her birthday. July 2006

2006-09-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Emma playing with a sparkler. 4th of July, 2006

2006-09-09T09:27:00.001-07:00

Torrey playing with a sparkler. 4th of July.

2006-09-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

4th of July. This is part of the fireworks show that Stan and a couple of friends put on for us. It lasted more than an hour...