Time Means More

Because making memories means more than getting a present you'll soon forget about, I decided this Christmas to give my sister's kids the gift of time with their aunt! This year, I had the 4 oldest (the baby needed his mom's milk as sustenance and couldn't come) stay the night. I let them get whatever they wanted at Jack-in-the-Box for dinner. We then ate it on my living room floor, picnic style! They loved it. We all were smiling and laughing at our picnic dinner on the floor. Everyone busted out their pillows/blankets while we watched a movie (with treats! that was part of the gift). We had so much fun laughing and eating popcorn and candy canes! I know the kids won't forget the time they spent here, but they would have forgotten what I bought for them at the store.

One of the other parts of the present was that they got waffles for breakfast the next morning and could put whatever on it they wanted! For the 2 youngest, this was the COOLEST THING EVER! We all had a great time (minus the 1st and 3rd giggling and messing around until 11PM even though I kept saying they had to go to sleep... kids)! They each got one more individual present from me that involves doing something hands-on that they enjoy doing (e.g. the 4th child gets to go on a hike/walk with me and gets to choose the location... she was SO STOKED that she could choose wherever she wanted to walk. She suggested the grocery store. Haha.) Love those kids!

They were so excited to light the candles in the woodworking I got in Germany last summer. Except the one on the left was SCARED because she recently had her hair caught on fire from a candle. Hence the reason, the little one on the right was more curious to get in close. :)

Unexpected Guests

Evan's sister, Jennifer, lives up in Northern Washington (2.5 hour drive away), which means we don't get to see her or her 4 darling girls all that often! Thankfully, Evan's mom talked them into coming down to visit the Thursday after Christmas. It was so fun to see them and how big they've grown. Sadly, we realized that it had been since our wedding since we last saw each other.

Phoebe drawing a monster

We had a great day eating, chatting, drawing/coloring (Jennifer & her girls are all wonderful artists!), playing angry birds (hey... it made the little ones happy!), taking pictures, and (me) learning sign language. One of Jennifer's daughters is deaf. She has a special place in my heart. Every time I see her, I just want to speak to her as much as I can... which, unfortunately, isn't much! She taught me quite a few new signs this time and I managed to learn the alphabet after the 3rd try. We had a great time. :)

 Grandparents and 7 of their grandchildren...

Darby and I

 The girls were so helpful feeding baby Leena!

 Angry birds!

Christmas 2011

Unfortunately, I have NO pictures from Christmas day this year (above is our 2011 Christmas card), partially because we forgot our camera. Partially, we because the last time I felt as sick was when I caught a freak bacteria in the Czech Republic in 2009. I was vomiting and had diarrhea for 3 weeks with that one and lost 20 lbs. right before my wedding. Talk about an unhealthy way to lose weight!

Thankfully, on Christmas, I did not have a virus, but I did eat sugar and drink milk, both of which I think affected my Christmas festivities. We still had fun doing what we always do visiting my family, Evan's family, and my brother-in-law's parents' house amid me throwing up and napping for a few hours. In fact, the thought of how I felt kind of makes me want to vomit.

So, Christmas wasn't that great, but I still enjoyed being with family and thinking of our Savior and the sacrifice his mother made to bring Him into the world so that He could perform the atonement for me. Boy, am I glad for repentance and the comfort of knowing that SOMEONE, only one, truly knows what I have been through, am going through, and will go through. So comforting!

Christmas & New Year's Teaser

(From Oma's Christmas tree... I was enamored with this ornament!)

We had an AMAZING Christmas among family and friends. We, like many others, are truly blessed to be able to celebrate Christ's birth at this time of year. Because I'm heading out the door for more family fun, trying to go through and update the ol' blog, AND pen my annual New Year's post, I won't write much yet. I'll post more pictures and funny stories soon! Sorry, I fell off the proverbial blog wagon somewhere around the middle of November. I promise there is a good explanation for it coming in due time! But, for now... here are some pictures before/after Oma's house on Christmas Eve:

Evan got a little too crazy with the garlic... truth be told, he didn't realize that he was shaking it from the LARGE opening instead of the other side until after he'd given it 3-4 hearty shakes. Those were some delicious, garlicky potatoes!

Singing Christmas carols with the books I made.

 Baby Benjamin... I witnessed his birth last summer!

Handmade Christmas

Last year, I had the "brilliant" idea to hand-make all of our Christmas presents. They turned out really well. I made I-Spy pillowcases and pillows for the kids and traveling shoes bags for the adults. Each family with children also got an I-Spy jar. There were probably more hand-made gifts, but those are the ones I can remember!

This year, I was too tired and BUSY to sew as much as I did last year. I had great plans for a year of what I was going to make everyone, but it just didn't work out because I had either no time or no inclination to put my plans to action.

Instead, I improvised! Every year on Christmas Eve, we get together with my mom's side of the family in true German Christmas fashion. (In Germany, they open presents on Christmas Eve.) After eating a hearty feast, we all sing our hearts out enjoying Christmas carols in English and German. The problem we have most years is that we all forget the words and no one has a book of carols!

Well, this year, I decided to make a book of German and English Christmas carols for every family. I included with it a German Christmas CD of German Christmas carols. Everyone LOVED the present. I was so glad that my idea turned out to be a success! We were all able to use the book to sing together on Christmas Eve. Awesome.

The only Christmas present I sewed this year was a table runner for my mother-in-law. On Black Friday, I had a friend over and we both crafted while watching a movie. I got the idea from pinterest. Mine turned out just as beautiful. I now wish I would have taken a picture of the final product. I think I did, but it's probably still on the camera. Here is a picture of the process and a picture from pinterest:

For the girls, I made homemade sugar scrub that smelled delicious! One kind was vanilla and one was citrus.  I hope everyone enjoyed it!

That was it for my hand-made Christmas. I did give my sister's kids some gift certificates for play dates which they loved!

Christmas Eve Festivities

Every year, we get together with my mom's side of the family to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, as is typical in Germany. I love my Oma (pictured below on the right) and going to her house for Christmas Eve. We all have been going there for a minimum of 20 years to celebrate the life and birth of our Savior.

We had a fantastic feast that was gone before any pictures could be taken. We sang carols as we typically do before the little kids can beg us enough to open the presents under the tree! We had a great time. On my mom's side of the family, only 4 cousins and my aunt were missing from the action. Here's to hoping we can all be together soon!

My cousin, Bre, and her husband Josh. They are both hilarious and awesome. I love how happy my cousin, Bre, always is. She is always smiling and just jovial. Love her.

Me playing Santa by divvying up the gifts for the kids (especially for the little ones who couldn't read)

This was a before Christmas Eve dinner mistake. Evan accidentally poured to much garlic into the potatoes before realizing he poured from the wrong side of the cap. The potatoes ended up delicious after we were able to scrape some of the garlic out of there. Not pictured: My crazy delicious lime jello with cream and pears. YUM!

Me kissing on my nephew, Benjamin, whom I saw born in August. So adorable!

Except when seconds after this picture was taken, he did THIS down my shirt. (Sorry for the graphic picture... but I just felt like you couldn't get the effect unless you saw it for real.) Can you see the HUGE pool of spit up down there? Evan had to help me de-spit up after this. I almost gagged because of the smell. You should have seen how soaked-through my garment top was! I couldn't wear it the rest of the night because of how bad it smelled and how soaked through it was! Thank goodness I love this little boy so I was willing to deal with it!

The newlyweds: My brother, David, and his new wife, Elspeth.

Oma uses outdoor colored lights on her tree. Can we say fire hazard?! Somehow, though, the tree always looks beautiful with her vintage baubles. This is something I got her in 2009. It's a wood cut-out of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, bombed during WWII and then rebuilt in the 90's. So cool.

Singing using our new caroling books! Apparently, I knew the songs without having to look at the words. :)

Dedicated to Skiing

Evan is DEDICATED when it comes to skiing! I don't know if I've mentioned this within the last year or so, but Evan sold a bunch of stuff on Craig's List to get a pair of sweet skis. You see, Evan is a mountaineer who enjoys the outdoors more than anyone else I've ever known! Well, in 2010, he was hiking up to Camp Muir (one of the base camps for climbing Mt. Rainier... a BEAUTIFUL mountain in our "back yard"). As he ascended in freezing, snowy conditions, he had skiers past him. And then, they passed him AGAIN on their way skiing down from Camp Muir.

What he realized is that these skiers had a great idea going... put skins on your skis so you can use them as snowshoes to hike up (instead of carrying your skis or snowboard) to Camp Muir. THEN... simply remove the skins and voila! You can downhill ski from Camp Muir saving hours in hiking time... and making it a lot more fun!

Like I said, Evan sold an RCA helicopter and some other stuff on Craig's List to save up money to buy his skis and skins. I was surprised he bought skis and gave up on snowboarding, but the mountaineering aspect of skiing does make a lot more sense for Evan. Either way, he was able to ski all winter last year and even up until June.

This year, he has hit the slopes several times in the area... every time FOR FREE! He doesn't pay for a lift ticket. He simply slaps his skins on his skis and skies up to the top and then skis down. Usually he only skis up and down one time because he goes so high that it takes him over an hour just to ski down (depending on how high he goes).

I saw these pictures on our camera that he must have taken just for fun when he went out skiing on December 21st. Seeing these pictures reminded me to write about his skiing.

Ugly Sweaters & Dinner with Friends

You may recall that last year at the Tuttle's First Annual Ugly Sweater Party, Evan won the ugly sweater contest with this bad boy:

We proudly hung the ugly sweater ornament he won on our tree.

Maybe it was the anxiety of trying to outdo our amazing sweaters from last year, maybe it was that we were lazy, maybe it was a combination of the two. This year, for the Tuttle's Second Annual Ugly Sweater Party, we dress normally, as in no ugly sweaters. We didn't even try. Well, okay... I did search for the ugly sweater I wrote last year (it looks like it was knitted from a brillo pad mixed with cat hair), and I also searched for Evan's amazing sweater vest creation. I couldn't find either. Evan assured me that he threw his in the garbage. First of all, this shocks me because the guy RARELY gets rid of things he doesn't need. Second of all, I was saddened because I wanted to wear it this year. C'est la vie.

Needless to say, we didn't win, but we had fun anyway! I ate all the salsa and chips there was to be had and enjoyed sampling all of the cookies for the cookie contest. Awesome!

As if we didn't have enough fun last Friday at the sweater party, we went over to the Tuttle's again last night to get together for dinner with friends from out of town (Elliot & Rachel). There were 2 small baby girls there born only days a part. You can guess what the women talked about for the first hour! Dinner was delicious, but turned south when we all decided to have Evan take our blood pressure (as if he isn't getting enough of that at his work as a CNA)! Here is picture proof that that happened. I don't know why we were all so curious to get our blood pressure checked after we just ate dinner, but we were. Garrin (host) is an EMT and had a couple blood pressure cuffs laying around to use. Talk about random! We all had a good time, though. Gotta love good friends you've known since high school!

Proof Evan took our blood pressure... do you see the beard he is sporting? It's called laziness, winter, and ice climbing season. The guy hates shaving anyway and uses ANY excuse to not shave!

Birthday Week & Turning 30

My family and friends all made the week of my 30th birthday special! It all started on the Sunday before my birthday. The Stout family held its Second Annual Christmas Progressive Dinner so we could see everyone's birthday decorations. It ended in cake and chocolate mousse at Evan's sister's house to celebrate both of our December birthdays (4 days apart)! We had a wonderful celebration and definitely felt the love.

Then came the pressure... my birthday was only 3 days away. For weeks, nay months, I had been stewing about WHAT I should do for my 30th birthday. I wanted it to be special. I considered parachuting, paragliding,  pretty much anything death-defying. And then I thought, why? What am I trying to prove? I realized 30 is just an age and another birthday. Sure, I've now left my 20's and am now in another decade of life. But, you know what? 30 doesn't even feel different. I still feel young. I still want to have fun. AND... I still am enjoying my life no matter what number is attached to me!

After recognizing all of this, I decided that for my 30th birthday, Evan and I would just relax and enjoy each other's company. Usually we go to my Oma's house and have a big dinner with my sister. Because of her kids' sports schedules, it was changed to Sunday. So, Wednesday, Evan and I went on a walk hand-in-hand to the park. He showed me some tips and tricks I've been BEGGING him to show me pretty much since we got the camera last April. :)

Trying to get an action shot in the dark... My face is hilarious as I run by! :)

Once we were done with our photo shoot, we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for an enjoyable dinner. Evan brought a sweet card with him that actually made me cry. Usually, he's not much of a card person, but what he wrote expressed in few words how I am the best part of his life. I love that man.

When we got back from dinner, Evan gave me my present: ELF! I had been begging for this movie for weeks and told him that if I owned it, I would watch it everyday. (Well, I watched it 2 days in a row when I got it. Does that count?) Anyway, we're not big into getting each other presents, but it was really sweet that he got me "Elf." We watched and laughed. I fell asleep on his lap. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday with my favorite person in the entire world.

Thursday EARLY morning- 6 am breakfast with some girls from my ward. So fun! We all were tired, but enjoyed getting together before work and kids. :) The whole restaurant sang happy birthday to me and the server brought me ice cream! (Can you see how dark it is outside in the picture?! YIKES!)

Sunday- More partying! My Oma and my sister's family gathered for dinner and dessert for my birthday! I sure love my family and am so grateful for such wonderful people who have continue to stick by me after 30 years of life! :)

Past Birthday Posts:
*24 Year Birthday
*25 Year Birthday
*27 Year Birthday
*28 Year Birthday
*29 Year Birthday

Scouting a Climb

As mentioned in this post, Evan hiked/skied in to scout out a climb near Mt. Rainier on his day off. Apparently, he also brought our fancy camera with him because he took some STUNNING pictures of a fox on his adventure. I love our camera and the amazing quality of pictures it takes. Evan sold his mountain bike to get our camera and a nice lens in April of last year. Funny thing about that was... he told me it was he bought the camera for MY birthday. Hm... HIS birthday is in April and he bought the camera in April. Guess who has used the camera WAY more than I have?! :) I don't mind, though. Evan is a better photographer as demonstrated by the photos below.

Photo of the ice climbing area

The fox! Look at those red eyes... My maiden name "Russell" means clever fox. I am a clever fox! :)

I love this one of the fox yawning!

The real reason the fox was hanging around...