Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you a lot. Thank you for everything you do for us. Have a wonderful day!

Before he was the Most Feared Auditor in the State of Oregon . . .

He was just a little munchkin

And then he grew up.

And served in the military (in Texas--cutting people open)
Then in Arizona on a church mission.

And then he fell in love with a beautiful girl, and became a wonderful husband.

And the best dad ever!

And a proud Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love you!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I was reading my friend Melissa's blog yesterday, and she was talking about Christmas traditions--which got me thinking. I really love the holiday season, and it has been an interesting process the last two years figuring out what traditions from my childhood to bring into our new family, and what traditions we would like to start. Randy and I were fortunate enough to go see the First Presidency Christmas Devotional two Sundays ago, and our favorite parts were when President Eyring spoke about the Christmas tradition of a Christmas play at their house, and President Uchtdorf's memories about Christmas traditions in Germany. On the way home Randy and I talked about our favorite Christmas traditions in our house, and the differences between Christmases in a big family (he is one of eight) verses a small one (only child). Last year he got to experience Christmas at my house: this year it is my turn to see the other side of the coin. Growing up, Randy's favorite tradition was the annual enactment of the Christmas story, inevitably showcasing his mom as the donkey in the stable (Darlene, you were such a good sport!). We never had adequate cast numbers to act out the story, but we always read the story out of the bible as we sat around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Christmas at my house started the day after Thanksgiving, when we would bundle up (which most often meant rain gear--I am from Western Oregon, so who are we kidding) and trek out into the "woods" (aka a Christmas tree farm) and find the perfect tree. The rest of the day would be spent decorating the tree and the house, eating leftover delights from the feast the day previous, and listening to all our favorite Christmas music. By the way, favorite Christmas song ever: Santa Baby performed by Eartha Kitt. Feed me enough Christmas cookies and cranberry punch late at night and you'll get a performance. That night if it wasn't too late by the time the house was completely decked out, we might watch "It's a Wonderful Life." Cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies were a big tradition this time of year for my family--the more ridiculous the better. My mom has a top secret cranberry punch recipe she has handed down with an oath of secrecy (seriously, I think I would be disowned if I gave it away) that we drink all season--it's our family's wassail. We always have a ton of the most delicious chex mix, and assorted Christmas treats my mom has baked to give away to friends as gifts. Christmas day begins when my dad--I mean Santa--rings the sleigh bells hanging from our front door, and then we go out to the beautifully lit tree with presents from Santa magically there. Before we open our gifts we read Christmas letters that we wrote to each other and placed in each others stockings, which always brings a nice spirit into the gift giving. Then there was present opening, and general merryment. Later that day we would have a Christmas feast, prepared by my parents who are amazing cooks (it is a miracle I'm not like 500 pounds). The Christmas season would pretty much end for us at New Years, when my dad would finally insist we take the tree down.

As Randy and I have started our own family, there is inevitable give and take with traditions. The cheesy Christmas movies are out (Randy just couldn't handle the really poor quality cinema. Plus there weren't enough explosions or car chases) but he has been good enough to keep watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and usually I can wheedle an evening of "White Christmas" out of him once a season. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving, along with the decorations still, and having been entrusted with the secret we sip on punch all season. The Christmas feasting is a little different now that I'm Vegan. I have decided that in place of the American turkey on Christmas night I will make traditional Mexican tamales, which I learned how to make from a lady on my mission--which is what hispanic families eat on special holidays like Christmas. In honor of our scandinavian heritage sometime during the season we have special rice pudding for desert, with an almond hidden in someone's portion. Be lucky enough to get the almond and you get a prize. This year I am starting a tradition of celebrating the 12 days of Christmas--British style, the 12 days following Christmas leading up to Epipheny, Jan. 6, when many Christians celebrate the arrival of the wise men to worship the baby Jesus. So my decorations will come down the 6th instead of New Years, and I'll have a special treat every day for those 12 days. I'll let you know in future blogs how this new tradition plays out.

With the arrival of our precious little Wesley, it is fun to look forward to all the years of traditions with him. It will be interesting to see the things that he likes to do at Christmas, and how he makes this season all the more exciting. Little kids at Christmas are the best--that excitement and joy are contagious, and I can't wait until Wesley has enough awareness to celebrate the season with us. This year he is our little stocking stuffer, and really he is all the Christmas present I wanted this holiday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, filled with the best traditions and memories.

So Much to be Thankful For

Family

All the help we have received--spiritually, from friends, family (especially my mom) during this long pregnancy
Good health
The pregnancy is over! No more labor
The most beautiful baby boy
Good friends
Faith, testimony, agency, the atonement
Abundance
Education
Good books, good music
The funniest chinchilla ever

So Much Love

I may be a little biased, but I firmly believe that I have the sweetest husband in the world. He knew that I was a little sad that my parents couldn't make it for my birthday, so he tried really hard to make my day extra special. To start it all off, he gave me an amazing present: this beautiful three-strand pearl necklace from the jewelry shop we work at (thank you employee discount). They scream Audrey Hepburn/Jackie-O, and Randy fell in love with them on me. The pampering didn't stop there. We were both REALLY sore from skiing, but he let me lay down for a rest while he made me a special brunch of waffles (yes Ben, with egg substitute they are still vegan) with strawberries and powdered sugar on top. They were so delicious I stuffed two of them down in quick succession. He then let me take a nap (I am just a little out of shape, so the previous days adventure kind of wore me out. Plus I think naps are a wonderful luxury) and he got everything ready for my party. Any of you who know Randy well know that cooking Mac and Cheese on his own is an accomplishment. And if you know me, you know that I grew up never cooking out of a box, and I really love home cooked food. Well my darling, wonderful husband refused to cook me a cake out of a box--instead I found him a simple chocolate cake recipe out of one of my cook books, and he spent a couple of hours making me my birthday cake. I really appreciated this thoughtful act especially since I knew what a struggle it was for him. And he really did a wonderful job. It looked a little funny because it didn't have enough time to cool properly before we frosted it, but it tasted really good--vegan and all.

It was really fun having family over to share the cake with us--it has always been a dream of mine to marry into a large family since I come from one so small (being an only child makes for small family reunions). Randy was happy Ethan was there to play a little Super Smash Brothers with him (it isn't my favorite game) and Sydney set up a darling little convenience store in our hall way for us to purchase various toys from. And I was so happy that my cousin Sarise and her husband Boyd could make it--between both our busy schedules it has been hard for us to get together. Thank you everyone for your calls, emails, facebook posts, cards and well wishes. I really had a very happy birthday.

Happy 27!!

So, I think I have officially made it to my "late" 20s. I'm okay with that: I still feel like a young 20-something, and to celebrate that joix de vivre, we decided to be adventurous yesterday. I have never been skiing, and Randy has only been once when he was about eight, so we got bundled up and hit the slopes yesterday morning. We went up to Alta, which was highly recommended to me as great for beginners. We planned on taking a lesson, but the crowds in the ski rental shop prevented us from making it on time. Nothing deterred, we purchased our lift ticket, strapped on the skis, and . . . the fun began. Randy started out all brave and just went for it. There was a slope down to where the first lift was, and he just pointed his skis in that direction and off he flew. He did pretty good until he picked up too much speed, and crashed in an effort not to kill some good folks waiting in line. Seeing Randy's fate did nothing for my courage, so I tried baby stepping my way down the slope until I ingloriously fell over, got stuck, and couldn't figure out how to get back on my feet again. Luckily this nice lady helped me and gave me a few tips, and eventually I made it down to where the lift was. We got on, went up the mountain . . . and I so gracefully slid off the lift and straight onto my bum. I was picturing the bunny hill as a gentle slope with little bunnies hopping gracefully and playing in the snow. Well . . . I'm sure it looks that way to people who have skied forever, but to me it looked pretty darn scary. We followed the signs for "easiest" and just went for it. Long story short, the first fun took us FOREVER, and I made a lot of people on the lift above me laugh. But we made it down, and we went right back up for another crack at it. The second time I actually did pretty good, and stayed up on my skiis a good 80% of the time. I was actually more fearless than Randy, and it shows this morning in the array of bruises all over my body. But it was so much fun that we are planning on going back in a few weeks when my parents visit. Mom and Dad Weatherspoon couldn't make it for my birthday at the last minute . . . the flu bug hit my mom with full vengence. It was disappointing because I was looking forward to having them here for a long weekend of fun and really good food, but I felt more sorry for my mom who sounds completely miserable. Get well Soon!!!!!! Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

Thankful for So Many Things

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, one of my favorites. This year was the first year that I was away from my parents, and so I wanted to have a turkey dinner at our place--to both keep me busy and start our own holiday traditions. I'm so glad we were able to host it, and that all our nearby family was able to join us . . . even though I don't remember a whole lot of that night! The Sunday before the big day I came down with a bad cold that quickly turned into a sinus infection. I had laryngitis off and on, and was just generally miserable. We went to the store and got me some cold medicine that alternately knocked me out at night, and had me hocked up on amphetamines during the day. Randy was so wonderful and helped me out Thanksgiving day by hefting the turkey out of the brine (we bought a serious 24 pounder), and following my directions to make a jello salad treat. He also was an angel to help me clean our house before everyone arrived. Mandy and Joe came a little early to help and hang out, and Mandy helped me do some cleaning and then kept me company while I was high on all the cold medicine. But in spite of the fact that I felt like my head was floating somewhere close to the ceiling, the turkey was delicious! I was nervous, never having cooked a turkey before, but the cooking magazine that my sisters-in-law gave me for my bridal shower gift paid off. I followed its recipe for a brine and was very happy with the resulting bird. I was thankful for a dinner that I managed not to ruin, for the family I had to share it with, for our home that was large enough and comfortable enough to host our family in, and for all the blessings God has given Randy and me this year. The blessing of being together is something we are thankful for every day.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are looking forward to Christmas. We have our little Christmas tree up and lighting our front room. We also have all of Joe and Mandy's earthly belongings! They are in the process of moving, and had a few days' gap between their old place and new, so we are helping them store everything. We were glad to be able to help them out, and to have enough room in our house to do it comfortably. We are looking forward to seeing both our families over the Christmas holiday, and to meeting our new little nephew Henry!

Birthday Bonanza!

Yesterday we celebrated Joy and Mandy's birthday. (It was Julia's birthday too but we couldn't make it to DC for a party). Being so far from home, it is fun to have lot of family still around to celebrate occasions with. Randy helped me decorate the house while I cooked chocolate peanut butter birthday cake and spinach artichoke dip. Randy was a great help and I was pleasantly surprised at his ability to tastefully hang balloons and birthday banners. I think the two favorite gifts that were given last night were from the boys. Joe gave Joy a toy gladiator--this little action figure with costume accessories that didn't fit and ridiculous looking muscles. We're pretty sure he wanted to play with it himself . . . The second greatest gift was also to Joy, this time from Randy. At the dollar store he picked up a "Latin Hits" cd with watered down covers of "hits" such as "La Bamba." It was telling that not one, but two tracks were about tequila. In any case, we had some laughs, ate rich food, and were able to spend some time together.

Haunted Critters

Randy and I were looking forward to our first Halloween as a married couple, mostly because we are in a family ward where there are cute little ones who come trick-or-treating. Instead of doing the traditional trick-or-treating though, our ward participated in a tri-ward trunk-or-treat at our ward building. This created a little more concentrated, but a lot safer version for the kids, and we still got to see all the cute costumes. Joe and Mandy joined us for the night--Joe and Randy opting for the "I'm too cool/grown up/not fun" non-costume approach (I got Randy some toy handcuffs and a gun, and he wore his state trooper hat) but Mandy and I were still all about the costumes. I was a woodland fairy, with leaves and tissue-paper wings, and Mandy was a very cute witch. And we both had furry props, who are our little kiddies for now. Max was a very funny, very cute pumpkin, and Che was my little miniature woodland fairy friend. The pets in costumes made us very popular with the little kids, and by the end of the night Max and Che had some new friends.