Wild Ride

Ten days ago it snowed here in the greater Sacramento area. Our house didn't see any snowflakes, but we decided we should offer the snow a warm (Get it?) welcome and drove 30 minutes to the snow for a little sledding, snowball throwing, and snow angel making.

We don't own a sled, so we took a Rubbermaid container for E to slide in. When we got to the snowy hills, another kid offered to let E and T use his sled and they happily accepted. Observe:

Twas a wild ride. I love the shocked expression on E's face. I know how he feels. That morning, T went into work and was laid off. Appropriate, huh? Sacramento knew there was a cold front coming, but didn't expect the snow they got: We knew T's company had been struggling, but didn't expect such a sudden lay-off.

It's been a weird experience thus far. I grew up pretty poor and when T and I were dating we talked about our greatest fears. I told him I only had one really big fear: him losing his job. I really need to learn to stop saying things like that. I think Heavenly Father listens especially closely when I say I won't/don't want to do anything.

When T told E what had happened, E had the perfect response. It went a little like this:

T: Do you remember Daddy's Boss-Man? (E has always affectionately called him that.)

E: Yeah!

T: Well, I don't work for that Boss-Man anymore and now I need to work really hard to find another Boss-Man.

E: Wait... Daddy!!!! Mommy can be your Boss-Man. Yeah!!!

That kid's a genius. Anyway, T now spends 8 hours a day finding a job. We're looking everywhere and anywhere, but right now everything is uncertain and somewhat frightening. At the end of every year, T and I have always projected where we'll be in life at Christmastime the coming year. I realized this year has been the most unexpected ever: twins, the UT house that took forever to sell, the financially declining situation at T's work, T laid off.

That said, we're blessed in abundance with the things money can't buy: beautiful, healthy children, a wonderful marriage, a happy home, the restored gospel. We appreciate your care and concern for our family and would love your faith and prayers in our behalf. And if you happen to be in line at the grocery store and the person behind you says that they really need to hire a chemical engineer, send them our way. :o)

My Brother's Got Skills

Last night my big brother called me because he had the most incredible experience at a concert. He and his family went to a charity concert with Jon Schmidt, an incredibly talented pianist. Towards the end of the program Jon asked for a member of the audience that knew the blues scale in C, had never met him, and would come play some improv with him.

My niece volunteered her dad and before he really knew what was happening, my brother was on stage. Lucky me, his nephew was there and caught the whole thing on camera.

Is he amazing or what? Seriously. I can't quit watching this and thinking about how cool and talented my big brother is. Even if I were remotely near the level of piano skill that he is, I'd crack under that kind of pressure. However, I do like to think I had a part in the success of that evening. After all, I did help him pick out those shoes.

Happy Thanksgiving

M, E & A

Thanksgiving may just be my favorite holiday. It’s not overly commercialized, it’s all about the food, it’s also all about family, and the message is beautiful: take time to be thankful for all you have. I had great intentions of doing a blog post each day for the four days preceeding Thanksgiving and focusing one day each on T, E, A & M. (Awesome accronym, huh?) Alas, the girls have been cutting bottom teeth this week. as well as joining E in the battle against a nasty cold/cough. Much tissue has been used and by bedtime I’ve been more than ready to call it a day. Instead. I’m doing a really long post today all about our Thanksgiving and what made it so special to me.

On Tuesday, E and I made our Thanksgiving centerpiece. I try to have E do an art project every day and when we cleared our breakfast dishes I saw our leftover Halloween pumpkins and thought about how I needed to do something with them. Almost instantly I had the idea to make one of them into a turkey. I haven’t had spontaneous craft ingeniouty like that for years. E gathered all our supplies and when A & M napped we set to work

I think it turned out so cute. And did I mention that I freehanded the turkey head. That’s a big deal for me. I make lousy stick figures and lopsided hearts so the fact that his head looks half normal is amazing.

This is beautiful Miss A after her bath this morning and it’s also the closest thing I’ve seen to her full blown smile all week. Poor little thing. Teething has been rougher on her than it has for M, but I think her teeth could cut through any day now.

And little Miss M, what can I say? You are your camera wielding Mommy’s dream come true. This little peanut smiles on demand all day long. She’s such a delight. And did I mention that I got these adorable little onesies at Kohl’s for around $4 a piece. Love it.

Daddy & E spent a lot of time wrestling and giggling and teasing each other today. Lucky me, I caught one of E’s speciality puppy kisses and it’s resultant joy.

I made pate brisee and snitched quite a bit for myself. Please ignore the desperate funk my hair was in today. Yikes.

Then I baked up a batch of my sister’s fabulous WW rolls. I’m not kidding when I say that these things are heaven . They came out of the oven while E was napping so T and I snitched two a piece before dinner.

I love that look on his face: epicurean indulgence. And look how handsome he is! I love it when my man wears sweaters. And, weird fact, but have you ever noticed that T has the most atractive man hands! I kid not. He laughs it off, but I seriously think we should pursue options as a male hand model.

Me and my gorgeous girlies. I just realized that I did the same thing with them that I would do with E. We’re dressed to match. I seriously never intend to , but if I’m having a "green day" I unconsciously dress us all the same. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to change before leaving the house because of that unfornate coincidence.

FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! I did a little prep work every day this week so that today we only had baking to do. It makes Thanksgiving so laid back and enjoyable while also still having a delactable meal. This year we had: WW dinner rolls, spring greens, my sister’s amazing stuffing (it has sourdough bread, bacon, leeks, red bell peppers, and celery), galic and rosemary roast turkey breast, my mom’s fresh cranberry sauce, citrus sweet potatoes with meringue, upside down cranberry ginger cake and deconstructed pumpkin pie. As I type this I’m sitting on my bed with my top button undone and I don’t regret that at all. Not at all.

M & A had barley and green beans. Yumm!

This is a tradition we started this year that I first heard about over at this hilarious blog. We loved it! About one week into the month we cut out the tree and the leaves and each morning we would write something we were grateful for on a leaf and afix it to our thankful tree with sticky tack. It helped us stay in the attitude of thanksgiving all month long and helped us be constantly aware of all our blessings. It taught me a lot about our family and gave me insights into E and the thing he values: “peanut butter,” doors”, his “sisters”, and “wrestling dad” to name a few. We’ve decided to hang onto each years’ leaves and then look back at the previous years with every new Thanksgiving.

My life is indeed richly blessed and I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too.

A Thousand Words

Ode to Sunday

A & T

K, A, & M

E and the best chicken we've had... EVER.

K & M

(Photo by E)

Lexie