Wrapping up December {in January}

Hello, 2017!

I'm so happy it's a new year. For one, it's no longer election year. PRAISE GOD. For two, I'm flying to New Zealand this year! In 3 months to be exact, and I caaaaan't wait. And for three, January is one month closer to the return of summer :)

2016 was a really good year for us, and I can't properly move on until I wrap it up...

Presenting: December!

We picked a tree...

and we decorated it.

Jana and I went on our annual Christmas outfit shopping day (where we also finish up our Christmas shopping, eat out, exhange gifts with each other, and discuss all of life's issues and problems ;)

We had our first winter storm that left 4 inches of snow...

and we took some family pictures out in it! 

Kendall performed a beautiful music special with two of her friends at our Christmas church service,

Blake sang in the children's choir,

and we found out Cooper grew 4 inches since summer!

we had fun playing in the snow that lasted and lasted (and consequently started our kids' Christmas break earlier than planned.)

I got my first pair of sheepskin slippers and died of feet happiness.

And on New Year's Eve we celebrated with friends young...

and old. 

(Old as in long-time!) 

It was a fantastic night. 

Now here's to a fantastic new year!

Giving Thanks 2016

We've just enjoyed a 5 1/2 day holiday break and I'm back to record the highlights, as is my civic duty. 

First up: the traditional Thanksgiving class party with Blake. 

He made stuff. I looked at it. And wondered why I had shown up at the start of the hour-long party instead of 10 minutes before it ended when school was let out. I should know better by now. 

Next: helping Jana and her family move into their new home in the country! 

I helped Jana clean and set up her kitchen, but the most important part was actually tracking the distance and time from my house to hers so we both know exactly how long we need to give ourselves for emergency TV show viewings together. 

Later that evening: Surprise engagement party for Mitch & Annie!

Oh my goodness, even though I was given a pretty obvious clue as to why we were invited over for a "special evening with Annie and Mitch's families", I still cried and cried and CRIED with happiness for my sweet Annie! We are so happy for her and Mitchell :)

Thanksgiving Day: Gathering No. 1

We loaded up and traveled over the mountains and through the woods all of 8 miles to spend Thanksgiving with Russ's family at his sister's house. (Don't mind B-diddy in the backseat there, he's going incognito for the day.)

It was yummy and lovely and relaxing and everything holidays with family and friends should be.

Thanksgiving Day: Gathering No. 2

Around 5 pm we headed 5 miles back towards home to pop in at my cousin Stephanie's house for Wilson thanksgiving, where we showed up just in time for dessert!

We spent the rest of the evening there, and again... yummy, lovely, relaxing. Family is my favorite.

Late Thanksgiving night: Black Friday shopping!

Mum, Tricia and I were joined for the first time by Kendall and my niece, Debby, and we loved having them along! We didn't get home until 3:30 am but as always, it was totally fun and crazy to be out bargain hunting together in the middle of the night. Of course, I then spent the next three days straight napping my afternoons away. I'm all caught up now ;) 

Of Sports and Thumbs {Life Lately}

I'm comin' at ya with one working typing hand this morning evening (seriously, this is taking a sweet forever) so this may not be very long! It's been a while though and things have been a happening so I thought I'd recap...

First of all, our church hosted a womens conference called IF:Gathering a couple weekends ago, and not only was it fantastic and amazing, it led to me reconnecting with an old high school buddy who used to be one of my very best friends!

K'Lynn and I catching up between lots of hugs and laughter. Oh the beauty & blessing of girlfriends!

In the meantime, Russ and Cooper were given courtside tickets to a Blazer game and had themselves a boys night!

Somehow this included a new Blazer tee and beanie for Cooper (yay for Blazer bucks!), and Dutch Bros. 

Next, Kendall talked me into taking her and her friend Hannah to the movies, and that's how I ended up crying like a baby through Storks, appropriately, since it's actually about babies. And darn cute.

But mostly what we've been up to lately is watching sports. Cooper finished up Junior High cross country...

Kendall finished up JV volleyball...

The varsity team (that Kendall swings up on) won their district tournament and are now on to State...

And we watched our neice Miranda who's playing for the Multnomah University Lions for the 2nd year (and completely dominating!)

Sports, sports, sports. It's the story of our lives these days. 

And this is what else has been going on. Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about my grape juicing day and mentioned I cut my thumb on a soup can? It healed up real nice. And unfortunately without any feeling. Apparently I severed a nerve, and last Friday I had surgery to repair it.

You'd think a little thumb surgery wouldn't involve full hospital garments and general anesthesia... at least I thought it wouldn't. Which is why I fully planned on attending a wedding that same evening. Alas, the doctors and nurses all laughed at me and my hopes were dashed to the ground. Not that I cared after I woke up again... hellllooooo pain meds. I pretty much slept for the next 24 hours straight.

And now I'm sporting this subtle look for the next two weeks. How many times have I had to tell the soup can story, you wonder? Way WAY too many, is the answer. 

Things haven't been all bad though. Our lovely neighbors brought us the most delicious homemade meal with flowers and a card, and Russ and the kids have taken on the household chores like champs.

And my splint didn't stop me from spending the day with these ladies yesterday, putting together 84 freezer meals to split 6 ways! (Although I definitely was the least useful woman in the room.)

It took us 7 hours and it was actually really fun! Fun and tiring. I was out by 8:00 pm last night. All that supervising wore me out! 

(Kidding. Believe it or not, I was in charge of opening all the canned goods. HA.) 

Ladies Portland Food Tour

I have a new favorite activity for a girls day out, and it involves food. A lot of food. Also, a completely free (of plans) day. And I mean a WHOLE DAY. And I suppose it helps to live near a city big enough for people to rate the top places to eat in it... so if you live near a city, love food, and want to devote a whole day to eating out at new places with a bunch of girlfriends, I present to you: the Ladies Food Tour!

{myself, Becca, Claudia, Danielle, Amy, and Joni enjoying breakfast at Mother's Bistro}

My friends Danielle and Amy were the ones who came up with this awesome idea. They polled facebook for everyone's favorite/must visit places to eat in Portland and came up with our game plan: 

Mother's Bistro for breakfast

Pips Original Doughnuts for, well, doughnuts

Nicholas Restaurant for lunch

Salt & Straw for ice cream

and La Provence (in nearby Lake Oswego) for dinner and dessert

They invited a bunch of ladies to carpool and do the whole shebang, or come to any part of the day that worked for them. I believe my response was, "I'm in, baby, and I mean ALL IN." We broke up the day with a little local shopping between breakfast and lunch, and an afternoon movie break at the theaters between lunch and dinner. All in all we were out for 12 hours and basically closed out La Provence at night, where two more girlfriends had joined us for dinner and dessert. It was the best day!

{These babies come out piping hot and they are gooooood}

{Joni & Amy with a giant fresh hot pita at Nicholas}

{It was our first time trying authentic Lebanese!}

{The many weird and wacky flavors at Salt & Straw}

{I was so full I had to get a kid's cone, haha. My favorite flavor is strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper. It's amazing! And yes that's a snazzy bandaid on my cheek. Sexy, I know.}

{Our group joined by Linley and Erin for dinner at La Provence}

{Desserts galore!}

{The best part about ordering food with girlfriends is getting all different things and then trying everyone else's!}

We decided we definitely need to do this again in the fall. There are so many more must-try places to check out in Portland! And I was pleased with how much I spent overall, which was quite a bit less than I thought it might be. Several times I split meals with one of the girls, and I only ordered a drink with dinner, so that helped.

You guys have got to try a food tour day with friends! And then please invite me along ;)