Snowstorm 2012

**Note: shortly after I wrote the below post, our power went out so I wasn't able to upload the photos or post the blog.  Finally after almost 3 days the power came back on.  It was a brutal few days.  Thank goodness for the care and generosity of my parents who took us in.  I have never had a greater appreciation for electricity.  Happy to be back to normal!

View from the front of our house

It's hard to tell here, but the trees were encased in ice

Our backyard with probably about 6-8 inches of snow

 I have officially been stuck inside the house going on 4 days now.  The Seattle snow started this past Sunday and has been continuing off and on all week.  The major storm hit Wednesday morning and today we're dealing with an ice storm.  Seattle University, my work has been closed for 2 days now.  At first it was really fun and exciting.  I felt like a kid again hoping that school would be closed for the day.  Now the stir craziness is definitely starting to sink in. 

I think I've done every possible project here at home that I can think of.  And it's a bummer that our son isn't born yet because it would be so fun to go out and play with him in this!  I'm sure it would look a little weird to see a 32-year-old woman sledding down the hill by herself!

My brave husband has managed to make it in to work every day this week.  He's an amazing driver.  Plus George, our 4-Runner is incredible when it comes to driving in this stuff.  I feel bad that James hasn't gotten to enjoy a "snow day," but Boeing makes people take vacation days if they stay home.  He's so dedicated! 

Good thing I now have a good novel to read today.  I could really use some other ideas though of how to pass the day.  Help me out readers.....any suggestions??  Please put any ideas into the comments section.

Those of you in Seattle, stay safe and warm!!

Baby on the Brain

I can tell that winter has definitely set in.  Not as many events or things going on to blog about compared to the holidays.  Here we are in the January doldrums.  But today it's snowing and looks beautiful outside my window!  It feels great to be cozy and relaxed at home all day.

Although life social activities feel a bit calmer, the busy-ness of preparing for baby has definitely ramped up.  It feels as if the past 2 weeks or so all I've been focusing on or thinking about is preparing for this baby.  It's been really fun, but it's hard sometimes not to get overwhelmed and to feel unsure of if I'll really be able to do this.  Will I be able to handle this parent thing?  Friends have been very helpful with advice, but I always have to remind myself that our baby will have his own personality and we'll have our own style so we'll be figuring out our own techniques along the way. 

We've slowly started on the nursery.  Mostly right now it just has the gear we've acquired so far.  But we've been proud of the great deals we've gotten!  We found a brand new BOB stroller at Babies R Us for only $300!  It was already put together and everything.  We also found a great crib at Costco for about $400 including all the conversion parts to turn it into a toddler bed and eventually a full size bed down the road.  The dresser and nightstand have been ordered from Babies R Us and just yesterday we ordered our glider rocker chair.  So things are starting to come together.  But man--lots of decisions lately!  My wonderful husband is so great and already put the crib together in about 20 minutes (see below).  So far we're very happy with it!

This past weekend we worked on the registry.  Who knew that such a little person could need so much stuff!!  We looked like crazy people walking around Babies R Us trying out infant car seats, putting them in strollers to see how they fit and trying to navigate the multiple aisles.  We just stood in the bottle aisle with stares of bewilderment as we tried to figure out where to even begin.  And as we walked through the store I noticed lots of parents with newborns.  They looked like zombies who could barely put one foot in front of the other.  It was a good wake up call of where we'll be in about 4 months.  :)

All in all the process has been fun, but a bit daunting.  I guess it all comes with the territory.  I'm sure our friends who have kids are chuckling thinking "oh just wait...this is only the beginning!"  I think this week I'll take a break and try to get back to "normal" life for a little bit. 

Good job James!

Christmas Memories

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone!  It always sneaks up on us and is over before we know it.  This was a really fun year though and we had some great memories that I don't want to forget:

*Annual Black Friday adventure to downtown to Seattle with my parents to begin Christmas shopping and visiting the Sheraton gingerbread houses
*Annual trip to Molbaks to buy our poinsettias and sample Kringle Ring danish
*Buying our Christmas tree from the Keith and Scott Tree Farm in North Bend, decorating the tree and the house
*Watching James perform playing the trumpet in the Snoqualmie Wind Ensemble concert at the Snoqualmie tree lighting
*Seattle University choir Christmas concert with my family and then celebrating my dad's birthday at one of our favorite restaurants, La Rustica in West Seattle
*Ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby and the Gender Reveal party with our families--what a wonderful Christmas present!
*Annual Warner Christmas dinner at Seastar in Bellevue
*Hosting a Christmas party with friends at our house--played Pictionary with Christmas carol titles, White Elephant exchange where strangely all the presents were items for baby :), and laughing til our cheeks hurt!
*Christmas Eve Eve service at Eastlake Sammamish
*Spending Christmas Eve with the Warners--yummy beef tenderloin dinner, Christmas Eve service at Sammamish Presbyterian, and opening presents
*Christmas morning just the two of us--next year it will be the 3 of us!
*Spending Christmas day with the Spauldings opening presents and eating a yummy turkey dinner
*Enjoying our week off together--both our employers close the week between Christmas and New Years--love vacation!!

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!

Annual photo at Molbaks

James' performance.  He did great!

The Warners

Christmas Eve

After opening our Christmas poppers

Barb and Jay Spaulding--what a cute couple!

Christmas at the Spauldings

Buche de Noel (Yule Log) cake that Jay made! Isn't it so pretty?

The whole Spaulding clan

Trip to Oregon

With the holidays we've been really busy and I haven't had much time to blog.  But we did some fun things in December that I want to make sure to document. 

Earlier in December I got to travel down to Portland, OR to attend a conference for work.  James took the train down to come meet me.  We got to stay at The Nines hotel in downtown Portland which was so nice!  Great little boutique hotel.  After the conference ended we took an afternoon to wander around the Pearl District in Portland and took advantage of some "no sales tax" purchasing. 

After Portland, we drove about 2 hours south to Eugene, OR to visit our wonderful friends, Annie, Ryan and their baby daughter Lucy.  Yes, we must admit James had a very difficult time being in "Oregon Duck" country.  He really had to bare down to survive being in enemy territory.  Luckily Annie and Ryan were wonderful hosts so we quickly focused on just having fun with them. 

Their daughter Lucy was born last April and we hadn't had a chance to meet her yet.  What a cutie!  Such a bundle of joy and she's a really good baby.  We had so much fun just hanging out at home and playing with Lucy.  It was great training and preparation for us of what's to come next year.  Annie gave me some good tips and advice about baby products and mothering techniques too.  From eating Annie's wonderful cooking, to a great walk around the neighborhood, to watching movies and relaxing, it was a really nice weekend. 

Annie and I became close friends while living in Missouri and luckily she met her husband Ryan who is an Oregon native so they ended up moving to the Pacific Northwest.  We're blessed to be able to see them at least 1 time a year.  We love you Annie and Ryan--thanks for a great weekend!!

Morning play time with Lucy

What a happy girl!

Sorry--no pics of Annie and Ryan.  We apparently were too smitten with Lucy!

Blue Frosting

This past Friday we had our 18 week ultrasound (can't believe we're already to 18 weeks)!  This was the big one...time to find out the gender of our baby!  We didn't just want to find out from the ultrasound technician though.  We thought it would be fun to do something unique and really involve our families.  James' mom gave us the idea to do a Gender Reveal Party.  Here's how it works:

We told the ultrasound technician, Theresa (who is so wonderful--very calming and friendly) about our little plan.  So on Friday we got to see our baby on the screen and then she would just have us turn away when she was looking in particular "areas."  It was incredible to see how much the baby has grown in just the last 5 weeks.  And baby was very active.  We might have a wild one on our hands!!  Theresa then wrote down the gender and sealed it in an envelope along with photos of the private parts.  She also wrote down the gender on another piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope labeled "Bakery."

Off James and I went to Hoffman's Bakery in Kirkland.  We ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and told the bakery saleswoman to color the frosting between the cake layers either pink or blue depending on what was inside the envelope.  She couldn't believe that she would know before we would!

On Sunday we all gathered together at my parents' house for the Gender Reveal Party.  You can see a picture of the invitation below.  We had everyone wear their "team" colors depending on what they thought the baby would be.  The whole time being pregnant I've had an instinct that it's a boy so James and I both wore blue.  So did my dad, James' sister, brother-in-law, and Ryan's girlfriend Tracey.  The pink team was my mom, brother, and James' parents.  After everyone arrived we were quick to cut the cake as we couldn't stand the anticipation any longer!  And the outcome was....(drumroll please)....the frosting was BLUE!!  We are going to have a son!  My instinct was correct all along.  We are thrilled and it was so special to share the moment with our families.  Then we had dinner together and basked in the excitement.  It's so nice to be able to say "he" and "our son!"

We highly recommend the Gender Reveal Party idea--very fun!!

The Invitation	The result is hidden inside!
Blue Team	Pink Team (Johnathin couldn't make up his mind)
So excited!!	It's blue frosting--it's a boy!!
Team Blue wins	Can't wait to meet our little guy in May

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!