Merry Christmas!

Well, we're off to Utah tomorrow. Kyle drew us a map to help us find the way.

Hopefully the plane won't actually take the route, but it was sweet of him to do.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. We'll try to get everyone called tomorrow, but we will be on a plane for part of it, so if we don't get to talk to you...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Welcome Jacob

We have a new nephew! Jacob Nevin L* was born yesterday afternoon. Isn't he cute?

Jared and Katie, and big brother Cayden, are all happy that he's finally here and healthy!

We can't wait until we can meet him in person, but we're so glad that we can see him in pictures!

My Birthday of Surprises

I love my birthday. I know that is probably selfish of me, but I like having a day to celebrate, well, me. (I really liked it last year when we were in Disneyland and everyone kept telling me happy birthday. I told Brent I was going to wear my button again, but I chickened out.)

We had a pretty low key morning...just doing those normal Saturday things that we have to do. Then Brent told me I had to go to the door and this is what I found.

Two of my young women (isn't it weird that I still call them my young women when I haven't been in young women's for over a year?) had made me a cake and decorated my door.

Here's the cake...

If you can't tell, that's the three of us (I'm the one with the fro on the left) sitting on my couch laughing.

I started to cry...I just love those girls so much and it was so sweet of them to remember my birthday.

Then, my visiting teacher brought over my present. It was a bunch of notes from different people in my ward.

I started to cry (do you seem a theme?)...I truly and totally felt loved! What an amazing present for the visiting teachers to give.

Then the party began. Brent said there were going to be like 20 people there. That turned out to be true, but mostly kids, which is great for me. Ryan, Marcela, Reyes and baby (not yet born) Camila came down. Court, Sarah, Chloe, Kyle and Aaron came over. And John, Laura, Juju, Lucille, and Evy were there too. I was just surrounded by some of my favorite people. It was so much fun!


I also had a "Better the Anything Cake." I don't know if they are better than ANYTHING, but they are pretty yummy!

As I look back on my birthday, I just feel so loved. By my family, my friends, everyone. And that was the best birthday gift I ever could have wanted.

Thank you all!

Shopping

I am not really a fan of shopping. I HATE going to the mall. I do like Costco though...we go on a lot of Costco dates, but that's neither here nor there. I do however LOVE going after-holiday shopping. I love that stuff is half price. And I love that there are people all around (I know, I find that weird too.) and I love the feeling in the air. My mom, grandma and I have gone after Christmas shopping for as long as I can remember. I have A LOT of Christmas cards that I don't use because of those shopping trips, but I still love to do it. I'm also really good at getting through crowds. I like to blame it on going to a crowded high school, but I don't know if that's the reason. Whenever my mom needs something and there is a wall of people between her and that something, it is my job to get it.

So, when Leslie asked if we could go after-Thanksgiving shopping, I was all for it. I, however, am not a huge fan of early mornings. We realized that we weren't really shopping for any doorbuster-type things, so we left at the crack of ... 7:30 am. It was so much fun!

As you can see, we were very successful. And, yes, that is sunlight coming through the window. It was a GORGEOUS day that day!

After Christmas shopping, here I come! I don't know what I need, but I'm sure I need something! (I can just feel Brent cringing right now!)

Pancake Roll-ups

Brent and I have been married for 12 years now. (I know...that IS a long time.) Throughout our marriage, his family has spoken in fondness for what they call Pancake Roll-ups. Every time these Pancake Roll-ups were brought up, Brent's family would sing their praises while the in-laws would look at each other with confusion in their eyes.

What are Pancake Roll-ups, you ask?

They are an invention of Brent's mom that look something like this...

What you do is make a pancake, put cooked ground beef and cheese inside the pancake, roll it up and put maple syrup on top. I must admit, the idea of cheese and maple syrup never really sounded good to me.


But, in my new spirit of "hey, I can try anything once" - did I ever mention that I just had raw oysters for the first time? They taste like the ocean. It's weird. I have yet to decide whether I like oysters or not. But I digress - I decided to give Brent the thumbs up to make them while his family was here for Thanksgiving.


I had to document the exciting event. After all these years of hearing about these famed Pancake Roll-ups, I was finally getting a chance to eat one.

Marcela tried them too.

What did we think? Well, I don't know exactly what Marcela thought, but I thought they were pretty good. I don't think I'll ever say, "You know what I want for dinner...pancake roll-ups." But I definitely won't make a face if they are suggested.

Brent's family thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing...eating pancake roll-ups, watching us try them for the first time, laughing at our reluctance.

And we all survived the encounter and came out better people.

*If you need the recipe, just let me know! :)*

All I Have to Say Is...

SERIOUSLY???

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was sure nice. We got to see and talk to all of our loved ones - except Jess' family, but we still love you - and there was good food for all.

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. Brent's mom and sister, Julie, came up. It was great to see them both. We're so glad Julie is back from Kuwait safe and sound and for good! Good luck with your new job tomorrow, Jules!

Brent's brother Ryan and his family, Marcela, Reyes and New Baby (yet to be born), came down to spend the day with us too.

Brent's Uncle Gary braved the children and the craziness to join us as well. It was great!



After dinner, Court, her mom and the kids came over to enjoy some SUPER YUMMY pumpkin pie (I made that), a yummy pumpkin souffle of sorts (Marcela made that), and a yummy blueberry cream cheese pie (Court made that.) I love desserts!

Let's reminisce in pictures...(Sorry I didn't take any when Court and her family were here...I was distracted, I guess.)

Reyes was watching some Toy Story, and she let her Auntie Julie watch with her.

Reyes brought some blocks with her. I think Brent had more fun with them than she did. She really likes crashing through them. Silly girl.

I guess Ryan and Marcela stole Julie's camera and took a picture of themselves. Jeez guys, how rude!

Are you guys related or something?

As I said before, Julie just got back from a year in Kuwait. And she came bearing gifts. If I wasn't so lazy right now, I'd go and take a picture of all the things she brought back, but, alas, I am feeling lazy so I'll just describe them.

She brought me a beautiful necklace that says "Ashley" in Arabic. At least that's what Julie told me...it could say anything!

She brought us beautiful handmade pillow slipcovers. I really should have taken a picture of those. Oh well.

She also brought us Muslim prayer beads.

She brought Brent a calendar for his desk that's good until the year 2025. And she also brought him this...

Doesn't he look cute? When he took it out of the package, a crocheted hat fell out. Julie told us that if he was bald, he would put that on first, then the rest. So Reyes put it on...

And I tried to put it on, but it wouldn't go on my head. That's when Julie said that the Kuwaiti men were not, how to put this, really big and masculine.

Then Ryan put it on. We laughed. It was just bad timing on his part.

We're glad that we could fill our house up with people we love. We're also so thankful for Skype and how we can see those who are far away. We certainly live in an amazing time. (I just had to try to explain what an iPod was to some older ladies in Relief Society. They were certainly impressed. At first they thought it was a cassette tape.)

Hey, I Could Do That!

A couple of weeks ago, Court and I went to a craft fair. It was a small-town sort of place, but there were a lot of really pretty things...a lot of not so pretty things, but we just smiled nicely and walked past those.

There was a place selling the cutest presents with lights in them! I just loved them, but I wasn't going to pay a lot of money for them. So, I looked and looked and memorized what it looked like and I came home and ...

Did this. Isn't it cute?

It wasn't really that hard. Thanks, Mom, for reminding me how to tie those cute bows.

I know, now you're looking and looking and memorizing and you're going to try that at home. :)

Oooookkkkaaayyy

Earlier this week, I looked out the window one morning and our mailbox was gone. The post was still there, but the mailbox was missing. As I was treking up to the mailbox, I was thinking, "What do we do without a mailbox? How will we get mail? Do I need to call someone?" I'm a worrier and a planner, not a good combo.

So I get to where the mailbox post is and I can see the mailbox in the ivy. Great, stupid kids have hit our mailbox off the post. But, when I pick it up, it's not dented or anything. So, what happened? I have no idea.

But...the bigger problem...what do I do about it?? Brent gets home at 4:30 every day, but it's dark by then, so he can't really be working on the mailbox. (I know, dark by 4:30??? I love this time of year. It's much more fun in the summer when it's light until 11 pm.)

So, in my ingeniousness, I "fixed" our mailbox until Saturday when Brent can work on it.



Yep, those purple things are bungee cords. We now have a white trash mailbox. Woho!

Don't you love the moss growing on our mailbox? Washington is called the Evergreen State because in the winter, EVERYTHING is GREEN!

Too Funny

Court found this performance by our local high school. I was in choir in high school and probably sang this song 100 times, but this is much funnier!

A Budding Meteorologist

There are a few jobs that I just think are silly. One of them has to be tv meteorologists. What other job can you have when you can be wrong AT LEAST 50% of the time and still have a job. Maybe engineering, but... just kidding guys.

My other least favorite job is statistician. I took statistics in college and I hated it. I'm the type of person that likes a concrete answer. 1+1=2, always, no other question. But in statistics 1+1 might equal 2, but it could also equal 1 or 3. I know, I don't get it either.

Anyway, I digress.

My family is VERY into the weather. That's always a question I get whenever I talk to my mom or grandma on the phone. "So, what's the weather like up there?" There aren't a lot of choices around here... "Well, it's raining." OR "Well, it's a nice day today." (Both those answers could come on the same day.)

So, last year for Christmas, my parents got us a thermometer so we could more accurately report the weather to them. I really do LOVE this thermometer. It's always nice to know how cold it is when I go on my walk (below freezing, I do the Wii Active. I'm prone to slipping on ice. Have I ever told you the story of falling on the quad at USU while reading a newspaper? That's basically the story and I was MORTIFIED.)

Then, a friend of ours bought a rain gauge and that got us thinking. "Hey, wouldn't it be nice to know how much it rains on our little part of the world?" The gardener in me thought this was a great idea because then I could know if I needed to water or not. (A lawn needs about 1" of water a week to remain green. Since the goal here seems to be to keep it a yellow/green, I'm a little less than stringent on this.) So, we trekked all over trying to find a cool rain gauge (electronic, not those silly plastic ones that I already have and that broke last year in the HUGE snow). We finally found one and brought it home. Then, sadly it didn't rain that day, but it has since then. Sunday it rained .74 inches. Then yesterday it rained 2.76 inches. Wowie! I'm so excited about this.

But, the sad part is, now our thermometer is not working. I'm waiting for it to stop raining so I can go out and take the batteries out of the sensor to see if I can get it working again. (That's my "fix" for everything...turn it off and turn it back on. Or threaten to throw it out the window which gets Brent to fix it extra fast. I have quite the temper for electronic gagets!)

So, I've decided to track how much it rains on us this winter. This will be a little difficult while we are in Utah for Christmas, but I'll figure out something. If you would like to watch the running total of rainfall on our deck, just check the side bar. I'll update it daily-ish.

Not the Norm

I started this last week, but then I had to start my crazy week getting ready for the Super Saturday, so it's been awhile. Anyway, I'm finishing it today.

I know I should be talking about Halloween today. I can give you a quick synopsis, but since neither Brent nor I dress up for this holiday, the pictures would be somewhat normal and boring. We also were going to carve pumpkins, but my stupid sickness made that not happen this year.

We did get to hang out with Court and Brad's kids for about 24 hours, so they could go on a BIG date. I hope it was fun for them, and it was fun for us. I wasn't quite up to taking them to a school carnival - that was a little TOO mom-ish for me - but we made some cupcakes and played some wii. It was a fun night. They are the best kids and a lot of fun to be around.

And, we even got about 10 trick or treaters this year. We have NEVER had more than one or two since we've lived here, so that was kind of exciting.

But, today I think I'm going to take some time to catch up on when my parents visited us. So, here is the story in pictures...

The first thing we did was go to Hunter Farms - a pumpkin patch about an hour south of here.




These are my dad's new earrings. It has always been this way with him. Well I remember the cabbage leaf ear muffs, the carrot walrus teeth, etc, etc. I think you get the idea.

We then had a couple of days of running errands and playing wii. (My dad likes to win, so when he doesn't, he will practice and practice and practice until he beats you. This is probably why I'm not a really big game player. But, now Brent's practicing at the wii golf so he can beat dad at Christmas. Awesome!)

It had also been rainy, so that made it hard to figure out stuff to do. So, we decided one day to just throw caution to the wind and go to the zoo, rain or shine.

Unfortunately, it was A LOT more rain than shine. But the good part about being there when it's rainy was that we saw A LOT of animals REALLY close up.

Normally this room is STUFFED, but we were the only ones in it, so the walrus' came over to say hello.



Mom and the walrus having a moment to talk.

My dad swears that he was actually holding his breath the entire time, but I'm not 100% sure. It was really long. Especially since I could only get about 30 seconds!

I just think this is a cool picture of an anemone.

We also went to Gig Harbor for dinner. Doesn't that just look like fall.

We went to the Tacoma Home and Garden show. These shows are quite a bit more fun when you have a house that you can work on. I would definitely go again.

We had a great visit and it was fun to see them. Unfortunately, as soon as they left, I got really sick, so the last few weeks have been somewhat of a blur. I'm back to my normal happy self and our Super Saturday event is over and was really fun! So all is right with the world in our world. Hope it is in yours as well.

How Can I Be

I was so excited when I found out that this song was on Youtube. A missionary in our ward sings it and I just love it. I only have to listen to it about two more times and I'll have it memorized!

So, enjoy!

DC Wrap-up - The Temple

We wanted to take a day to go to the Temple, so we rented a car (the temple is NOT easy to get to using public transportation) and drove up to Kensington, MD to the Temple. (Sometimes I think it's funny that the temples are almost never in the cities that they are named for...Seattle Temple is in Bellevue, Portland is in Lake Oswego, etc, etc. I guess no one would know where the Lake Oswego Temple was...)









These next three pictures deserve an explanation. We just got a great little tripod to use with our camera, so we wanted to take a real picture in front of the temple. Unfortunately, Brent forgot to change the wait time between pictures and he had it set to take three pictures in a row, so this what we got...

Not quite there!

Almost!

There we go! Great picture! :)

We stayed in Baltimore that night so we could catch our super early flight to Denver, where the plane was delayed about 1 hour. But we did get home, eventually, safe and sound. It was a LONG day, but a good trip!

DC Wrap-Up - Almost Done!

I know that it's been FOREVER since we got home, but this is kind of my journal, so I'm going to finish up the DC posts. I only have two more days of pictures, I promise!

Our last Smithsonian Museum was the Museum of American History. I was really excited for this museum since I knew that the First Lady's dresses, the real Star Spangled Banner that was flying when Key wrote that song, and the ruby slippers were there. Unfortunately, they are remodeling it, so that was about all that was there, but it was still fun!


You know anything Disney related, I'll love!


Brent was so excited about this lunch box that he actually posed for the picture without complaining. He says it's just like the one he had when he was little.


This is Laura Bush's ball gown. It took me a little while to figure out why I liked it so much...then I realized that it was completely modest! Not to mention red and sparkly! I wore a red dress on our first date. And if we had a song, which we don't because Brent thinks they're dumb, it would be "Lady in Red."


This is the actual costume from Return of the Jedi. Here's a funny story that doesn't relate at all to anything. The other day, Court and the boys were here. Aaron is just starting to really talk. He picked up a C3PO pez dispenser and said, "R2D2." Close enough! Too cute!


This poster cracks me up! That's not what I look like when I'm canning!


President Carter's wife's gown. (I should really be better at history.)


I just saw Julie and Julia in Boise so this meant a little more to me.



Mary Todd Lincoln sure had a tiny waist!


This is the hat that Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot.


These are Apollo Anton Ohno's skates that he won the gold medal in Salt Lake with. We're going to the Vancouver Games and tried to get tickets to speed skating, but they were very hard to get. Only hockey and curling for us. It will still be fun!


This may not be cool for most people, but it was kind of cool for us. This is a display about the Manhattan Project, which is where scientists developed the atomic bomb. And Brent's grandpa worked on it. Kind of interesting to see history that you've heard the stories from the actual people who were there.


I've never really liked the Wizard of Oz, but Wicked is awesome! It said that the original shoes were gray, but since it was in color, they wanted a color that would go well with the yellow brick road.


Here's President Taft's wife's gown.


Martha Washington's gown. Amazing that they've kept it so long!

You couldn't take pictures of the "Star Spangled Banner" Flag, but just imagine a really big, really old and tattered flag. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool to see, but ... it was really big and really old.

Since the museum is remodeling, not all of the areas were open, so we got done earlier than we were planning. We decided that since it was the last full day we had in DC that we would walk down the National Mall again. Got a good picture of the Washington Monument...



It was a good day.