Happy New Year!

In with the new! Out with the old!

A whole lot of people I've talked to lately have had negative things to say about 2011. But I have to say, it was a fantastic year for us.

Carl found a job he likes.

I lost a job I loathed.

We got a house.

We had a baby.

We met our dearest friends.

We saw Carl's family twice.

We went to Disneyland.

I learned to like my calling.

We got a free piano.

I got two new sets of scriptures and Carl got a toaster (at last!!).

My brother got off his mission.

This has been a blessed year for us. I can only hope this year is as good as the last.

Christmas Eve

We're leaving for Maryland in the morning, but right now we're enjoying Christmas Eve. Carl's family has bunches of Christmas Eve traditions: for one thing, they always have chili on Christmas Eve. I think it was Carl's great (or great-great?) grandfather who worked on a railroad, and Christmas Eve was the day he had to spend with family. So all the kids would come and visit him all day and they would just have a giant pot of chili on the stove people could eat whenever.

They also open all the presents on Christmas Eve. (Christmas morning is just for Santa.)

They also have a big family talent show. This year I was going to do something with Gary Hoey's rendition of Twas the Night Before Christmas, but Carl said that would be "too embarrassing." (Gary Hoey raps the poem and apparently I am too white to rap.) So instead I will be doing Down in Yon Forrest again, with Carl's sister's guitar.

In my family... let's see. On my mom's side, there's the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, as like a preview for Christmas morning. We usually read the Christmas story.

Carl and I haven't yet figured out which traditions we'll keep. I think until we had Nathaniel we were both pretty chill about everything--too chill for traditions. But now that we have him, we'll probably have to figure out what kinds of things we want to make staples of his childhood.

I really like this one thing I found on Pinterest, a strategy for gift-giving. For birthdays and Christmas, kids get:

1 thing of want
1 thing of need
1 thing to wear
1 thing to read

I like that.

Anyway. We're also talking to Carl's brother Sam tonight. This is exciting because he's still on his mission in El Salvador and I think he gets to Skype (yay!). Nathaniel will be a full year old before Carl's brother gets home, but maybe Sam can see Nathaniel tonight.

Happy Christmas Eve! Do any of you have any good Christmas Eve traditions?

Thanksgiving pictures

We had a great Thanksgiving! We spent it up in Pennsylvania at Nana's house. Nathaniel was pretty good for the ride up. Normally it's a 75 minute drive, but on Thanksgiving it was 120 minutes. There were two gigantic accidents on the way that really slowed things down. We hoped that the people involved were okay, though.

Nathaniel loved sitting with Grampy:


And he had fun sitting with his dad:



Family and friends watching Charlie Brown:




Thanksgiving tummy time (don't you love Nathaniel's turkey bum?):




With Nana and Grampy:

happy birthday, dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!

My dad is pretty much my favorite guy. Besides, you know, for Carl and Nathaniel. Here are some things I love about my dad:

1. He is a hard worker. He does a ton of stuff. He works countless hours at his actual job, then spends his other time taking care of my handicapped older brother, as well as a bunch of single mothers and widows etc. in our ward at church. He is a serious hero for all the work and service he puts in to make this world a better place.

2. He loves nature. My favorite memories from growing up involve him and this beautiful Earth God gave us. He would take us camping in the forest and on the beach. He took us canoeing and kayaking and rowboating. He taught us how to catch crawdads in the creeks near our house, and helped us catch salamanders and insects galore. No matter where we go outside, it's guaranteed he'll see tons of wildlife out there. I feel like he knows what most of it is that he sees, and he tells us about them all. Spending time with him in nature is enlightening and amazing.

3. He is up on current events. He always knows what's going on. I really respect and admire his opinions on things. He thinks through what he believes and he acts on it. I think this part of him has really influenced me.

4. He is a loyal guy. Even when things have been really hard, he's always been there for all of us in my family.

5. He is a sacrificing person. I learn a lot about sacrifice watching him take care of those around him even when it hurts him personally--like when it hurts his back to lift my brother, but he still does it day in and day out, because someone's got to do it. My dad sacrifices so much for those he loves, and even for those he probably doesn't love. I admire this so much about him. I hope I can always give as much to others as my dad does.

6. I feel like my dad has a very open heart. Over the years I've kind of collected a wide variety of friends, and I feel like he and my mom have really welcomed them more or less into the family. I remember once one of my friends left our area, and kind of ran off and got into some trouble, and my dad offered to pay her way back here where her support system was. Can't remember if she took him up on it or not, but I was really touched that he would offer that. At the time I don't think she and I were really talking, and I was in college so I missed all the drama.

7. He is super handy. I'm pretty sure he can fix anything. He fixes all sorts of stuff. Refrigerators. Lights. Walls. Bathrooms. Electronics. He finished our basement almost single-handedly, as I remember. He is just fantastic with tools.

8. He is a great cook. I guess that in his youth he worked as a cook at a Mexican restaurant or something like that, and it shows. I can't remember eating something he made that I didn't like. He just always makes great food.

9. He is a spiritual rock. He knows his scriptures really well--and if you'll recall, as Mormons, we have like 10x as much scripture as anyone else around. If you know your scriptures well in our culture, it's really saying something. But he is up on those guys. He doesn't talk about his testimony a lot but he lives it every day.

10. He is a great dad, and now he's a great grandpa. I love my memories of playing "Monster" with him on the playground; he would run around and pretend to try and catch us. He could always move faster than we could but he would pretend he couldn't. Now I love watching him with Nathaniel. It makes me so happy to see them together. I hope he will help me teach Nathaniel to love nature as well as he taught me to.

My dad is amazing. If you don't know him, you're really missing out. He's the best.

More pictures: Baby D at 3 weeks

Baby D with Grannie Annie and his daddy:



I love this picture of him, all floppy and cute:



Here he is, looking at the world:



Ignore his demon eyes. This is Baby D's turtle face:



Daddy cuddles:



More Daddy cuddles:

pictures from a while ago

Got some pictures just now from Carl's parents!

Here is Baby D at three weeks with his Grandma Ann:



Baby D with his daddy!


Our new house with a rental car in front of it:




Carl's brother Niel, Carl's dad, Carl, me and baby! See, slowly but surely my hair is growing back:


Yeah, I'm pretty sure Baby D is the cutest thing ever.

Baby pictures

I promised I would post some pictures of that darling Baby Doozit that we are all so excited for. Here we go!

Here are Baby Doozit's perfect feet:



Baby D's arm and fist, up by his head:



Baby's legs, plus the umbilical cord in between them! Not a gender-showing picture:



And here he is, full profile:




We are so happy. I know that one of the greatest blessings we have is the chance to be with our families forever and I am so grateful that Baby D is now a part of my family.

Can't wait to meet this little dude. I can tell by the way he kicks my guts that he is already destined for ultimate ninjahood. It's going to be awesome.