Thankful

I just love this time of year.  I think Christmas is officially my favorite holiday, but Thanksgiving comes in at a close second.  The great thing about Thanksgiving is it's more low key, good time with family, involves food, and doesn't include all the hustle and bustle that comes with Christmas. 

This year especially we feel overwhelmingly blessed and grateful.  It's hard to put it all into words.  The best word I can think of to sum it all up is abundance.  God's blessings this year are in abundance....even including the tough times and it was wonderful these past few days just reflecting on and celebrating all that He's done for us.

Thanksgiving is a flip flop holiday for us meaning we share the meal with one family, dessert with the other family and then the next year we flip flop.  This year we had Thanksgiving meal with the Spauldings.  James has a lot of extended family who live in town and even some who traveled into town so his mom and dad hosted 13 people for the big meal!  It was a big undertaking, but the food was spectacular (Kudos to you Barb and Jay!).  It was a wonderful afternoon of talking and catching up, telling stories, watching football, and helping to cook.  Our job this year was to make the mashed potatoes.  I have to admit--when I first got our assignment I was extremely nervous.  I mean come on...mashed potatoes?  That's everyone's favorite part of the meal!  No pressure!  But Barb gave me this great recipe where really you couldn't make any mistakes.  With plenty of cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and milk mixed in, there was no way the potatoes wouldn't taste yummy.  And I have to admit, they turned out pretty good!  Recipe is included below if you're interested. 

One of my favorite traditions that the Spauldings do is after the meal, they pass around a plate or box of truffles.  Everyone has to take a chocolate and then talk about what they're thankful for.  Without fail everyone shares a few tears, and it's such a meaningful moment.   

After a few hours at the Spauldings, we said our goodbyes and headed to the Warners for dessert.  The Warner celebration was small in comparison--just my mom, dad and brother.  But it was nice, quiet and relaxing.  We enjoyed mom's french silk pie and pecan pie while flipping back and forth between football and the movie Elf.  It was a perfect end to a really great day.  Thank you mom and dad!  (bummer I didn't get any pictures at the Warners).

The rest of the long weekend included me shopping downtown with my mom and dad on Black Friday (our annual tradition), watching the Huskies win the Apple Cup, and James and I were even ambitious enough to put up the Christmas lights and our Christmas decorations!  We'll get the tree next week.  Didn't take long to move right into the next holiday! 

Barb and Aunt Joyce with the HUGE turkey!	Jay with Uncle Mike and Uncle Jerry
The whole gang	Full and happy

Pilgrim Potatoes Recipe

5 pounds potatoes (9 large)
6 ounces cream cheese, softened and cut into small chunks
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon onion salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup milk
1/2 stick butter, cut into pieces

1. Peel potatoes, cube and cook in boiling, salted water until tender, 15-20 minutes. Drain.
2. Put the potatoes and the cream cheese in a large mixer bowl. Using a hand potato masher, mash until smooth.
3. Add the sour cream, onion salt, pepper, milk and butter. Using the electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy.
4. Put into 2-quart casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30 minutes. (OR may be covered and refrigerated for a couple of days or overnight, then baked at the same temperature as the turkey, 325°, for 45-50 minutes or until heated through.)

Yield: 8 servings

Parenthood

Pretty much every Wednesday or Thursday evening you'll find us in front of the TV.  But not to watch any old TV show.  No, you'll find us squirming with excitement as we hit "play" on the DVR and our absolute favorite show starts to come on....Parenthood.  If you have not seen this show that airs on NBC every  Tuesday night at 10pm (waaaaaay too late which is why we have to DVR it), then you MUST start watching it now.  We have watched the show from the beginning and now being in the 3rd season, we can honestly say we feel like we are part of the Braverman family. 

Every week without fail you will find us laughing hysterically, shedding some tears, and sighing dramatically all within the 40-minute length of the show.  We love it because it's real, raw, and has amazing acting.  And now as our own journey into parenthood has begun, truthfully I think the show also scares the crap out of us.  What are we getting ourselves into?  As the show has gone through many storylines and dramatic moments there have been numerous times when we've turned and looked at each other, eyes wide, and then a deep discussion ensues.  What will we do if our teenage daughter wants to date an older guy?  What if we have a kid with autism?  What if our kids don't like us in their teenage years?  What if our kids lie to us?  What will we do if our kid struggles in school or struggles to make friends?  What if our kids decide to drink and party in high school?  Basically we've concluded that we really just don't want to have teenagers. 

Our favorite part about the show though is that the parents never have all the answers.  They simply love their kids and try to do their best.  They mess up, they triumph, and all along the way they survive somehow--as a family.

Here is an example of what we're talking about (sorry about the ads):



And another great clip:



By the way, thank you to everyone for all your thoughtful messages and warm wishes after our last blog post.  We feel so blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and we wish you a very special holiday!

First Comes Love, then Comes Marriage, then Comes...

I'm (James here) not sure how to write this blog post without telling the whole story, because just telling part of it doesn't really give you a true insight into our life.  We don't want to just share the good stuff, we want to share reality, the good with the bad, so here goes...

Holy Crap Megs!!
Those were the word James first uttered when Megs handed him the little white plastic stick. The unmistakable blue plus sign said it all, holy crap (the awesome kind). It was 5 AM and we had just returned from two amazing weeks in Europe the day before, so our mental state wasn't totally coherent.

Megs had missed her period while we were on the trip, so we both knew there was a possibility we were pregnant.  Unable to sleep from the jet lag, James had gone downstairs to watch TV.  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to James, Megs was upstairs in the bathroom, unable to wait any longer, little white stick in hand.  After waiting 30 seconds, she came rushing downstairs and surprised James, half asleep on the couch.

Looking at that little plastic stick together, a clear blue plus sign announced that everything in our life was about to change, we just didn't know how.

Change of Plans
Things were going great, we were reading What to Expect aka "the bible", Megs wasn't feeling awful, and we were looking into all of our child care options.  At about 6 weeks Megs started to have some cramps, so we were starting to get a little concerned and made an appointment.  An ultrasound revealed that everything looked great.  It was too early to really see the baby, but there wasn't anything to be worried about.  For the next two weeks, Megs waited nervously for our 8 week appointment.  Her lack of symptoms had her worried that something wasn't right, but James was reassuring that everything was going to be fine.

The day of the appointment finally arrived!  We were so excited and had a boat load of questions waiting for the doc.  After satisfying our need to understand carrier screening and if Megs could still eat peanuts, it was time for the ultrasound.  The doctor fired up the ultrasound and could instantly tell something wasn't right.  The baby had stopped developing, a miscarriage.  Our excitement was instantly filled with a gaping emptiness.  James held Megs hand, stroked her head and told her he loved her.

Shocked with the reality of the news, the doctor let us know what our options were, but wanted us to take some time to process everything that had happened before we made any decisions.  We headed home in silence not sure what to say or what to do, other than to hold each other through the pain.

A few days later we were supposed to fly down to Sacramento for James' friend JD and Erin's wedding.  We hemmed and hawed over it for a while, but finally decided that it would be best to get away for a couple days, get out and be away from the situation and just be together.  It was some great medicine and totally what we needed.  It allowed us to talk, pray, grieve, connect, have some fun and be a little distracted too.  When we got home, we knew it was still there, but we had a little bit of happiness knowing we could try again.  Megs was able to reach out to others who had had a similar experience, so she didn't feel alone.

Let's Try This Again
A few months later Megs and James had both noticed Megs was a few weeks late again.  Neither said anything to one for fear of getting too excited, too early.  Quiet optimism turned into pure joy when Megs took another test, and this time, James was prepared.  After going through a Costco pack of pregnancy tests, we were convinced, we were pregnant!!  We hugged and cried for joy of the news and sadness from the loss.

Once Burned Twice Shy
Eight weeks couldn't get here fast enough!!  This time was different, because Megs had more symptoms, which James checked on daily.  How are you feeling Megs?  Nauseous!?!  AWESOME!  While not wanting Megs to feel sick, the symptoms were a source of comfort for us.  A sign that everything was well with the baby.  After a while though, the symptoms started to subside.

Time ticked by those first few weeks, until FINALLY, our 8 week appointment arrived!  This time, no questions, let's just get right to it!  Within minutes we were looking at our healthy baby for the first time.  We could actually see the tiny little heart beating.  The doctor turned on the speakers and we could hear the heart beating!!  The most beautiful sound in the world, 155 bpm.

So We're Pregnant!
We just had our 12 week appointment and found out that Megs was actually 13 weeks, thanks to a little growth spurt!  Megs had to go in with a full bladder so images of the baby would show up better.  Unfortunately, it was so full that it pushed the baby into a little corner of Megs stomach. Half of her bladder emptied and some giggling of Megs stomach and we were able to get some amazing images of hands, feet, head and body.  The nurse said the baby was sticking its tongue out at one point.  Great, attitude already!

Megs is doing wonderful and we're currently at about 14 1/2 weeks.  She's not showing yet, but people have been commenting about her glow.  To me, that's just how she is.

College Friend Reunion

This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to fly down to LA to see my dear college friends.  A couple weeks ago I had talked to my close friend Lindsey who now lives in Boston.  She told me she was going out to LA for a visit to see her family and our friends and encouraged me to come.  At the time, airplane tickets cost over $300 so I didn't think I'd be able to swing it.  Then I found out about all these great events that would be going on that weekend and realized that I needed to get down there.  After lots of searching online, I realized there's a smaller airport called Ontario right by my friends Ali and Bryan's house.  I had never even heard of the airport!  I miraculously found a flight for $180 round trip!  Ali and Bryan were gracious to let me stay with them.  But I decided to make it a surprise for my other friends and especially Lindsey.

I arrived late on Friday night.  On Saturday the major plan was for the Lockman family (Lindsey's family) and Ali and Bryan to host the annual Early Thanksgiving.  This is a tradition we started in college when Lindsey and I lived together.  Her parents would come down a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and  make a big turkey meal for all of us starving college kids.  It included all the fixins and we'd invite our friends over.  It was always one of our favorite memories.  The tradition has continued and I've only made it back to LA for one other Thanksgiving.  So I was excited to be able to participate in one again.  Lindsey and Sarah arrived around noon and it was really fun to surprise them!  All afternoon other friends arrived and we all had a great time hanging out and cooking.  The Lockman parents were amazing and treated us to a fabulous full-on Thanksgiving meal including turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and fruit cobbler.  I loved getting to catch up with everyone in person.  Two of my friends, Jen and Ali have also had kids in the past couple of years who I've never gotten to meet so that was special finally getting to see their kids in person.

The other reason that made me feel I really needed to do this trip was that Lindsey is pregnant and we got to throw a baby shower for her on Sunday!  It was fun to see her little baby bump and to hear all about her pregnancy so far.  A few of our friends hosted the shower and I gotta say I have the most creative friends.  The shower was at Jen's house in Malibu.  It was really fun to drive up PCH again and see Pepperdine where I went to college and see the beach.  Jen had decorated her house so cute with big tissue pom poms and everyone made great food.  We even decorated little onesies.  It was so great to share in Lindsey's special day and be with some of  my closest friends.  No matter how much time goes by or how much distance between us, it always feels like we haven't been apart.  Thank you dear friends for a great weekend and I can't wait to see you again! 

Bryan, Lawrence, Ali and Baby Flynn

Sarah and the Lockmans (Rusty, Julie, Lindsey & Karah)

Lawrence, Sarah and me

Sarah, Rach, Lindsey, Ali and Karah

Our awesome Thanksgiving meal!

Lindsey's special day!

Sarah, Jaimee, Ali and me

The girls

Lawrence and me

Tissue pom poms and homemade onesies--so creative!

Frame Gallery Project

Things have been so busy for us especially with work.  Nothing really fun to blog about.  Except a couple weeks ago we did complete a major home project we'd been working on for a few months. 

I have always wanted to do a frame gallery somewhere in our house just like you see in the Pottery Barn catalogs.  They look simple and so eye catching, but after reading about them I realized that they can be very tricky to hang.  Thankfully I have a brilliant engineer husband who's also talented with photos so I recruited his help. 

We have a large wall in our upstairs hallway and I couldn't figure out how the heck we would fill it until I came up with the frame gallery idea.  And I wanted to do all framed photos of great "artsy" shots that James has taken over the years.  So in a sense it would be a James Gallery.  In August we started going through our photos to figure out which ones would go well together and which highlighted James' talent best.  Then one Sunday afternoon we took over an aisle at Aaron Brothers and assembled on the floor what the collage of frames would look like hanging on the wall.  Our photos would have to be printed in random sizes, plus we wanted really quality printing so we used a company in Queen Anne called Panda Lab.  They were great!  Very professional and created beautiful prints for us.  Finally about two weeks ago we stayed up until 1am hanging the pictures.  James amazed me because he drew out all the measurements on a piece of cardboard and that's how we got the pictures hung just perfectly.  We're excited about the outcome!  And finally the wall doesn't feel so bare and boring.

BEFORE: Boring, bare wall

My brilliant husband hard at work

Getting it just perfect

Voila!

AFTER: James Gallery is complete

After choosing all our favorite pictures, we realized that all of them are from special moments or trips we've taken together.  Here is a synopsis of the photos moving from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Golden Gate Bridge from our trip to California in 2008
2. Sunrise reflecting on the top of our car in Bend, Oregon on the way home from a wedding
3. Cannon Beach from a long weekend trip we took in March 2010
4. Eiffel Tower from our trip to Europe this past May/June
5. The Louvre at night from our trip to Europe
6. A butterfly at the Butterfly House in Victoria, BC from a trip we took in Summer 2008
7. The golden dome of the capital building in Sacramento, CA from our trip in 2008
8. A waterfall in Yellowstone from our trip in May 2010
9. The sunset on the beach in Carmel the night we got engaged
10. Tulip festival in La Connor in 2008
11. The Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence from our trip to Europe

Now on to the next house project!  There's always something...

Octoberfest

Last weekend we were lucky to have my Aunt Carol and Uncle Dean from San Diego come visit.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding so it was such a treat to have them up here.  The first night we shared an awesome meal at one of our favorite restaurants in Wallingford called Bizarro.  If you haven't been there, we highly recommend it.  We used to go there all the time when we just lived down the street.  We were happy to see that the "bizarre-ness" of the place hadn't changed. 

On Saturday Dean and Carol got to join in on the annual Warner Fall Drive.  It has become a major tradition and we were excited to show Dean and Carol all the stops along the way.  I've been doing this with my parents since college and we quickly initiated James into the event the first year we were dating.  We laugh about it every year though because the first year James came along, he didn't have the greatest experience.  The night before he and I had gone out to celebrate my birthday.  We had been up really late and had quite a bit to drink.  Needless to say when my parents came around at 8am the next morning we weren't very stoked.  James was a trooper though.  He managed to keep his stomach under control through the windy country roads of Carnation.  But he almost lost it when we stopped for breakfast and my mom asked him if he wanted some eggs.  I won't go into the gory details.  Miraculously after a brat and some beer at Octoberfest, he was feeling fine. 

This year we were in much better shape and raring to go.  Dad rented a mini van so we could all drive together.  From our house we drove the country road of 203 through Carnation and Duvall up to Monroe and Sultan.  In Sultan there is an incredible bakery that we always stop at to eat doughnuts or breakfast.  Then it was on to Highway 2 up through Stevens Pass to enjoy the changing leaves and gorgeous Cascade views.  This year we lucked out with perfect weather.  We finally reached our destination of Leavenworth, a quaint German town which has Octoberfest every year for a couple weekends.  With the beautiful weather, this year it was packed!  But we didn't mind because it was so festive.  We walked the town and had lunch where the boys could enjoy their beer and brats. 

The next stop was one of my favorites--Smallwood farm.  It's this great place just outside of Leavenworth on the way to the Blewitt Pass exit.  In the fall they have a huge pumpkin patch and they make every kind of jarred jam, veggie, salsa, dip you can think of.  They also have huge bins of apples.  We love to get our pumpkins there every year and stock up on canned goods.  It's such a great place for kids too--we can't wait to bring ours here someday. 

We finished out the day driving through Blewitt Pass and then home via I-90.  This trip provides a great memory every year and we were grateful to have my aunt and uncle along with us this time.  We love you guys and it was so great seeing you! 

Happy fall everyone!

Dinner at Bizarro	Mom and Dad, Uncle Dean and Aunt Carol
We have a very similar picture to this the first year we were dating.  Can't believe that was 4 years ago!	Beautiful fall colors
We love living in the Northwest!	Think maybe they're brothers?
Good ole Leavenworth	Pumpkin patch at Smallwood farm
Love the annual Warner fall drive	Look at the poor scarecrow James hit!

Birthday Weekend

I had such a wonderful weekend celebrating my 32nd birthday.  32 years old!  I can hardly believe it.  Remember when you were a kid and 32 seemed so old?  Well here it is already.  My actual birthday was Monday, but we did most of the celebrating over the weekend.

Saturday started out with a very special coffee date with my dear friend Hillary who was visiting from Texas.  Hillary and I have the same birthday so it was really fun to be able to celebrate together in person this year!  She and I have been friends since 1st grade which translates into about 25 years.  It was so great getting to see her and catching up just the two of us.

The rest of the day was spent wine tasting in Woodinville with both James' and my families.  10 of us visited 4 wineries and it was so much fun.  We had never done the Woodinville wine tasting thing in all the years we've lived here.  If you live in this area and haven't done it, we highly recommend it.  We went to JM Cellars, Isenhower, Brian Carter, and Efeste.  I think everyone's favorite was Brian Carter.  It was such a fun activity though because it was low key and everyone could have good conversation.  Plus having good wine doesn't hurt.  The guys really loved the atmosphere of the Efeste winery because they had a TV so we didn't have to miss the Husky game.  Lots of laughs, stories, and fun all afternoon. 

Then the 10 of us headed to Purple Cafe in Woodinville for dinner.  We all sat around a huge table and continued our good conversations over great food.  Everyone surprised me with a cake and sang "Happy Birthday!"  It was one of the most meaningful and rich days I've ever had.  Thank you to the Warners, Spauldings and Antis' for making it so wonderful!

On Sunday night I got to share birthday time with my husband.  We went to a fantastic restaurant called La Rustica in West Seattle.  It's been there a long time and we've never tried it.  We were impressed!  Another strong recommendation if you've never been there before.  Thank you honey for making my birthday so special! 

All in all it was a great way to usher in my 32nd year.  It's gonna be a good one and I look forward to what's to come!



The Warner family

James' parents Barb and Jay

Isenhower winery

The boys bellying up to the bar at Brian Carter

James' sister Jacky and brother-in-law Johnathin with Meg's mom

Meg's brother Ryan and his girlfriend Tracey

The whole gang

Dinner at Purple Cafe

Awesome cake from Hoffman's bakery