Santa's Ark

Eliot got a Fisher Price Noah's Ark for Christmas, and now that he's excited about saying animal names and sounds, it's one of his favorite toys to play with. He loves to pick up the animals and declare "Yi-yah!" (lion) or make a trumpet sound through his lips for the elephant. So I was running through each of the animals with Eliot today and asking him, "What's this?" or "What does the _____ say?". I realized we've mixed up some concepts, though, when I picked up Noah and Eliot said, "Ho, ho, ho!" Almost . . . but not quite. Add to the story that I had literally just read about Noah in the scriptures this morning, and the irony of it all has me thinking I'm never going to think of Noah and his ark in the same light again.

These Remarkable (Even if a Little Crazy) Women . . .

. . . are my support system. These incredible ladies -- Laura, Ruth, Martha, Rachael, and Deb -- are the women I've been blessed to serve with in the Relief Society presidency for over a year.

Each of these women is a light in my life. They are examples of strength, optimism, charity, good humor, purity, and kindness. They have given me the blessing of sisterhood and nurturing while I've been away from home and family. On a weekly basis I get to meet with them to discuss ways to help the remarkable women of our ward, to provide moral support to each other, to laugh (often so hard I cry), and we even enjoy being a little wacky from time to time, as you might have seen in our rock 'n roll dinner pictures. But I love the wackiness -- in fact, our collective insanity keeps me sane. It is amazing how the Lord's hand put us all together, especially considering how different we all are, and yet we work so well together. I love each of these women dearly and will be forever grateful for their influence at such an important time of my life.

The occasion that prompted these pictures was getting to celebrate Deb's birthday this morning with a very yummy breakfast. It was a treat to get to be all together with Deb, who was recently released from the presidency in December. Being with her again made me realize how much I've missed seeing her on a regular basis. I need a greater dose of her tenderness and hilarious sense of humor than I've gotten since she was released. And for those of you who were beneficiaries of the "Oregonberry" jam I made, Deb's the one who taught me all I know about making jam, so you can thank her.

Meeting Mighty Max

It's not every day you get to meet a superhero. But today, I came face to face with one -- little Mighty Max, who is just one month old and will have open-heart surgery tomorrow morning. How many newborns do you know who are that tough? Max is definitely a strong little guy -- you can see it in his eyes. And his spirit is so powerful. It was a choice experience to go and get to see him in person and to feel the power of his strong little spirit. And his parents, our good friends Spencer and Mary, are equally amazing. They were upbeat and positive, cheerful and peaceful. Amazing examples of strength in the face of some pretty big obstacles. We wish Max the very best on his first surgery tomorrow. Our prayers are with Mighty Max and his family.

Don't these sound delectable?!

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Crepes D. Rattray (on About.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 to 3 teaspoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar combined with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation:

Crepes: In a blender, blend 2 eggs with milk. Add the flour, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 2 tablespoons sugar, salt, and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour into a container, cover, and refrigerate let stand for 1 hour or refrigerate for up to 12 hours.

To cook, heat a lightly buttered 7" or 8" crepe pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter in the hot pan and swirl the pan so the batter coats the bottom of the pan. Cook until the edges begin to brown. Carefully lift with a thin spatula and flip over. Cook for a few seconds, just until lightly browned. Place on a plate and repeat with remaining batter. If you will be storing the crepes for a short time, separate the crepes with small squares of waxed paper.

Heat oven to 350°. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish or spray with cooking spray.

In a bowl, gently combine the ricotta with the beaten egg, powdered sugar, lemon zest and juice. Fold in blueberries. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture on a crepe; roll up gently, burrito style, tucking ends in to keep the filling from leaking. Arrange the filled crepes in the prepared baking dish; brush with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake for 20 minutes.

The Wild Side of Relief Society

Our Rockin' Relief Society presidency, L to R: Ruth (president), Laura (2nd counselor), Rachael (secretary), Martha (3rd counselor), Me (1st counselor)

Yes, this is our Relief Society presidency. As you can tell, things run just a little differently in Oregon than they do in Utah. I'm not quite sure how the idea came to be -- it was generated while I was away for the holidays -- but someone or a few someones in the presidency cooked up the idea to dress up as rock stars as part our presidency/spouse dinner. Laura provided the wigs, and Laura and Martha brought their props from Guitar Hero, and this was the result. For a much more thorough (and much more embarrassing) post, see Laura's blog. It will give you a better understanding of why I came home sore from laughing so hard.

Eliotisms

So after writing and deleting not one, but two posts that I thought were too negative, I've decided I need to turn my thoughts to the good things in my life right now. Yes, I am going through a period of great sadness about legitimately difficult things, things that are heavy and heartbreaking and not going away any time soon. But, I've got to surmount those sorrows and realize that there are things -- little daily joys -- that make me smile and laugh and feel happiness.

My great source of happiness is my Eliot. He is, and has been since he was born, a little charmer. He has the funniest, most interesting little personality. He's very sensitive and yet quite independent, and lately, silly. Yesterday, out of the blue, he would do his little running in place dance, and I would crack up every time. Then, when he noticed he was entertaining me, he kicked it up a notch and started spinning in circles.

But what's really gotten me is his growing vocabulary, especially the words and concepts he hasn't gotten quite right yet. For some reason, he can't say "boo!" yet, so in place of it he says "bee!" I couldn't stop laughing the other day when he ducked down in his little jungle gym, then popped up and shouted "BEE!" super enthusiastically. That same day he made me die laughing again, this time in the grocery store, when I put a bag of frozen chicken in our cart and Eliot starts saying, "bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk." I'm sure people must have thought we were totally bizarre, but it was a classic Eliot moment.

It's so amazing what Eliot's really able to understand. Last night we were getting ready to sit down for dinner, and I asked Grant if he had already gotten Eliot's sippy cup out. Grant said he had given it to Eliot, but we couldn't find it anywhere. So Grant asked Eliot, almost hypothetically and not expecting a response, "Eliot, where'd you put your sippy?" Instantly, Eliot marches over to his toy train, opens up the compartment under the seat, and produces his sippy cup. All we could do was look at each other in awe and start laughing. Then we clapped for a very proud little Eliot.

I'm so grateful for my little buddy and all of the progress he's making. I'm so happy that he's a part of our life at a time when we need him and his funny little personality most. The last couple years have been so stressful, but somehow Eliot's seemed to ease the difficulties we've been through with his quirky little ways. I just love that little boy.

What a "Little" Storm Can Do

If you weren't aware, the Northwest was slammed by severe weather in December. Fortunately/unfortunately, we missed all of the excitement because we were in Utah by the time the ice storms and freezing rain struck. We were grateful to find all "well" with the home we're staying in when we got back. Luckily we had no frozen or broken pipes, and the power outage the lasted over a day in our area only took its toll on my freezer full of meat and precious frozen berries. All things considered, we were very lucky to get out of the storms with only that damage. That is, except for the giant evergreen that toppled from the empty lot next door into our backyard, the remains of which you can see in the pictures above. What we would have given to have witnessed and heard that tree fall. We don't remember that tree specifically (there are so many it's hard to remember them perfectly), but from what we can remember, it was probably a good 40-50 feet tall and quite close to the house. We're grateful it fell the way it did; otherwise it would have landed right on the master bedroom. So if you're like me, you're wondering how a huge tree like that comes down as a result of ice and freezing rain. Apparently, most trees around here are accustomed just to rain and much milder temperatures, so when ice freezes on them for any extended period of time, even large, "sturdy" trees like the one we lost are crippled by the weight of the ice, and they snap and break and even fall down. Add in some decent wind and several days of extreme temperatures, and this is what you get. Incredible, huh.

A BIG day ... for all of us!

Today was a big day for our family. Eliot went to nursery at church for the first time. And I KNOW that it was harder on Grant and me than on Eliot. The whole morning I was nervously anticipating the big moment when we would take him and drop him off. Grant and I even walked through our "game plan" of who was going to stay with him, or should we just leave him, etc. And then it was no biggie. Grant stayed for the first little bit with Eliot, who was only slightly clingy at first, but even as I spied through the glass windows in the doors after leaving my boys, Eliot was barely aware Grant was in the room and was happily playing with the new treasure trove of toys he had just landed upon. I'm sure if he could talk, he would chew us out for holding out on him for so long. I can hear it now, "You mean to tell me that this room has been here all this time, and you've been trying to keep me entertained with the contents of your dumb diaper bag?!"

When Grant left Eliot, Grant said it was a piece of cake. For Eliot anyway. Grant reports feeling a decent amount of sadness after leaving our little year-and-a-half year-old (and WHO let him get that old, by the way?!) on "the other side of the door." It must have been hard on Grant, because other men from his priesthood group came up to Eliot after church and told him that his daddy had missed him today.

The funniest moment of it all, for me at least, was when I spied in on Eliot again on my way from Sunday School to Relief Society. It was snack time, and as I looked up and down the table for Eliot, he was nowhere to be found. Then I saw a couple of the nursery workers giggling a little bit and walking to the other side of the room -- where Eliot was literally climbing inside one of the play kitchens. As a middle child of six girls, I totally get Eliot's thinking on this one -- smart little bugger had it all figured out: "While they're all over their eating, I can play with whatever toys I want!" Smart kid. Though I'm sure it didn't take too much convincing to get Eliot to go get a snack. When the leaders asked me about any food allergies, I told them that yes, he is allergic to peanuts, but that their biggest concern would probably keeping Eliot from stealing other kids' food. He's kind of a big eater, what can I say.

So round one of nursery -- we'll call it a success. Phew. Maybe it will get easier on the parents as time goes on? As for Eliot, I have a feeling he's going to be one of those kids that bolts for the door as soon as sacrament meeting's over.

What I'm Lovin' . . .

Among the things I'm loving these days, these are some of my favorites:

• The song "Everything" by Michael Buble. It's on my playlist. I'm confident you'll love it, too.

• These cute little graham crackers -- Keebler "Bug Bites," which I originally bought for Eliot, are not only darling but yummy. They're cinnamon flavored and probably much sweeter than Eliot or I should be eating on a regular basis, but I admit to sneaking a few when I give Eliot a snack.

• Yep, The Sound of Music. This little obsession has surprised me a bit, even though I've always been a musicals lover. A few months ago, it was on TV, and I stayed up late to watch the whole thing (with commercials) even though Grant gave up on it less than half-way through. And then I watched it again the next night when it was on TV again! And yes, I made Grant watch it with me over Christmas break when it was on TV yet again. No surprise, then, that when Grant asked what I want for my birthday, I told him I'd like my very own copy of The Sound of Music so I can watch it whenever I want . . . at least I'll be sparing him the commercials, right?!

• These little guys, the Crystal Light "On-the-Go" packets are my saving grace right now on my little post-holidays "sugar fast." When I'm craving a little something sweet, I just have a little glass of Crystal Light and I'm good to go. I know, silly. But it works!

Our Exciting Celeb Sighting

For those of you who know that our flights to Utah were much more eventful than we had hoped for, I'm happy to report that the only eventful part of our trip back was our sighting of Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz while we were in the Salt Lake airport!! (And P.S., that's one exclamation point for spotting Boozer and another for having no travel troubles.)

Our first sighting occurred when we were going through the painfully long process of going through security, which entails taking all of our shoes off (yes, Eliot's too) and putting them in bins along with our jackets/coats, carry-on items; breaking down Eliot's stroller and sending it through scanner, taking Grant's laptop out of its bag and putting it in its very own bin; taking out all of the liquids/creams from Eliot's diaper bag -- Desitin, sippy cup, infant Tylenol, etc. -- and putting them in a quart-sized ziplock (don't push them on this issue, we've learned), etc., etc., etc. So like 10 bins later, Grant takes Eliot through the metal detector and I stay back to push our bins through. I look up and Grant's waving and pointing and mouthing something, and I look to where he's pointing and quickly spot Carlos and his adorable family. Turned out that his flight was in our same terminal, so we kept running into him again and again.

Unlike our other cohorts in the airport who called out silly/embarassing things to Carlos, we decided not to bug him, especially since he was with his family, but I admit that a pretty big part of me wishes I'd had my cell phone with the camera charged so I could have sneaked one harmless picture, and it would have been cool to have an autograph (what I would've had him sign, I'm not sure -- my boarding pass?!). If Eliot had been a little older, I think I would have used him as my excuse.

Choppin' it up

I've been long overdue for a new 'do, and thanks to my sister Lauren, I'm sporting a sassy, fresh cut with choppy bangs and fun layers. It's so nice to have a good hair stylist who I can completely trust and say, "Just do what you think it needs." So it's healthy and has a fresh new coat of color to keep it from getting dull, and instantly I just feel better. Isn't it great what a simple haircut can do for you?!

Lunch with the Girls!

L to R: Amy, Amber, Lori, me, Missy

It's a rare occasion when all of my high school girlfriends are in town at the same time, but it actually happened this holiday season! Missy and Amber, who've both been living out on the east coast, are both in the process of moving back west, so of course we had to take advantage of having all the girls together! We went to lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and had such a nice time catching up and just being together again! Not featured in the picture are our two special guests for the lunch date -- Spencer, Missy's adorable 10-month old, and Olivia, Amy's brand new sweet little girl! So good to be back together!