2009

I've never cared much about celebrating New Year's, but I do like to take a chance to reflect on the past year and set some goals for the new one. Here is my 2009 at a glance:

• New (to us) car
• Making new friends
  
• Spencer turned one
• Two trips to the ER and LOTS of other doctor's visits
• Going to St. Johns for Lindsey's graduation
• Rasmussen reunion in Oregon
• Spencer breaking his leg
  
• Going to st. Johns again for Kate & Zac's wedding
• Running my first half marathon in 3.5 years
• Alan starting the NW Running League
• Lots of trips to the beach
• The frustration of making offers on short-sale homes then waiting and waiting and waiting
  
• Getting a front-row seat to watch Spencer learn and grow

Here's to being SO grateful that we're all currently well and healthy, that we have a nice apartment to live in, and that we have testimonies of the Restored Gospel. And, here's to the start of a bright, new year with endless possibilities and adventures!

Our Christmas

This was our first year spending Christmas as just our little family. While it was a little lonely and we really missed our extended families, it actually turned out quite nice. As we were thinking about our different Christmas traditions and which ones we wanted to incorporate into our own family, I realized that most of my favorite traditions have to do with food. It's just not Christmas without my Mom's sweet rolls.




After seeing me wear an apron for about three days straight, Spencer decided he wanted to try it out. What a cute little baker!




We visited the Santa Land Memorial Room at Macy's in downtown Portland on Christmas Eve. For you non-Oregonians, Meier and Frank used to create a Santa Land at their downtown store every December. It was this huge room on the top floor filled with displays of trains, moving elves and reindeer and a monorail train mounted to the ceiling for little kids to ride. When Macy's bought out Meier and Frank in 2005, they discontinued Santa Land but decided to do a "memorial room" this year. It was pretty lame compared to the real one, but Spencer still loved it.

This is Spencer in one of the monorail cars now sitting on the floor.



His favorite part was the train display. He got really excited every time the train came through the tunnel.



We spent the rest of our Christmas Eve at our friend's parent's house. They made a delicious middle-eastern type meal in honor of the wise-men and then we played Catch Phrase (my all-time favorite college game!) They were so kind and generous to share their Christmas Eve with us.

Christmas morning was great because we got to sleep in until 7:30! Santa brought Spencer this windy train track and a couple of little trains. We didn't have that many presents to open, but it took FOREVER to open them all because Spencer couldn't put down his new toys. He was in heaven!



Santa brought Alan a running hat and some deodorant. Hmmm.




Spencer's very favorite gifts were the matchbox trucks from Aunt Dani and Uncle Scott. He carries them everywhere he goes and plays with them for hours. Thanks guys! Spencer got so many nice gifts from aunts and grandparents. I couldn't take pictures of them all, but thank you so much to everyone.




After we finally got through all of the presents, Alan and I tried out our new running gear (thanks Mom and Dad!) on a short run. Amazingly, it was sunny all day yesterday. Spencer fell asleep for 10 minutes in the stroller and then wouldn't take his nap later. Grrr. Good thing he had so many presents to keep him happy all day.




I spent most of the rest of the day making our Christmas dinner. I've decided that a dinner like this is just too much work for three people more than once a year. It was a traditional turkey dinner.




Grandma and Grandpa LeFevre gave Spencer some new bath toys and he had a great time with them in the tub last night. A hoop with balls and whistling hippos - what more could a little boy want?!




I guess the real reason this Christmas was nice was because it was so simple. We didn't have the stress of traveling or the excitement of seeing family members we miss so much. That made it easier for me to focus on the Savior this year. What a truly miraculous and loving gift His birth was! The sweet feelings of the Spirit are so much better than any present under the tree. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

It's Begining to Look a lot Like...

...someone is ready for some new toys. The old ones just aren't as interesting as cooking utensils anymore. Good thing there's already a large pile of presents for Spencer under our tree!

Our Tree

In spite of the fact that there are Christmas Tree farms where you can cut your own tree around almost every corner here, we chose the easy option and bought our tree from a high school band fund-raiser (Alan's uncle is the band director). They had beautiful trees for only $25 and we found a great one. Here is my buff husband hauling the tree to our car.




Spencer had a great time racing around the tennis courts where the tree sale was held. The poor kid doesn't get to run around outside much anymore because of the cold.



It took us several days to get the tree up and decorated. And, Spencer re-decorates it every day. You can't really tell from the picture, but most of the ornaments are on the top half of the tree. Just the soft, unbreakable ones are on the bottom. Here is my little cuttie waving to Grandma and Grandpa LeFevre.

Notice that the tree is kind of in the middle of our living room. We originally had it in the corner by the fire place, but when our power went out for 5 hours on coldest morning on record for the DECADE, we had to move the tree so we could build a fire. It was 9 degrees here and I realize that's nothing compared to where some of you are, but our apartment is VERY drafty and it felt really cold to us. Thank heavens for a nice neighbor who gave us some logs to burn at 6:30 am! It has stayed that cold all week and I have to admit, that I'd prefer the rain and warmer temps to this. Sad.

Bed Head

He finally has enough hair for it to get messy!

Thanksgiving

We got to spend Thanksgiving weekend at Alan's parent's beach house in Lincoln City. It's just far away enough to feel like we were on vacation without having to travel far. We had some fabulous weather and some not-so-fabulous weather. Alan watched lots of football and basketball, Spencer played with matchbox cars and climbed up and down the stairs, and I read. (Check out Princess Academy by Shannon Hale if you haven't yet. I loved it!) Alan and I got to go on a couple of runs together. We did a 10k in the pouring rain on Thanksgiving morning. Even though we got soaked, that was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend. My sister-in-law, Alicia, was also nice enough to go see New Moon with me. Maybe I'm shallow, but I quite liked it. Sure there were cheesy parts, but it's still really good story.



We had a close scrape with disaster when I nearly burned down the clubhouse by leaving my marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes in the oven a little too long. After the marshmallows were burned to ash and the flames were out, I was able to scrape off the sticky, black mess, put new marshmallows on, and broil them again. I thought the sweet potatoes still tasted great, but I'm sort of the laughing stalk of the family now. :)

Spencer was coming down with an ear infection on Thanksgiving day and was too grouchy to eat dinner with the rest of us (with the exception of Great Grandma's famous strawberry jello!). This is what he did instead. Thankfully, Spencer's doctor was willing to call in a prescription for us, so we didn't have to go home early. Infant's Motrin has been our best friend since Spencer turned 1 and started getting ear infections.




Alan continued continued his reign as family ping-pong champion.




Football and snacks. What a life! I'm glad Alan has someone else to watch sports with now, so I don't feel quite as bad when I don't.




Olives have got to be one of the best kid toys ever.




Reading stories with Grandma and snuggling with the teddy bears on this cute built-in bed.



Alan will probably mock me for this, but it was a really lovely Thanksgiving. Thanks Darwin and Debbie!