Not an exciting blog...

     I was bored today so I took pictures with my computer... I realized that most of the previous pictures have shown the wood paneling.... which is awesome by the way. But really only one little corner of our house has the paneling, it just happens to be the corner our computers face. Anyway, here are a few low quality pics of our living room ready for Christmas.

Rob had to have a train go around our tree so we put Justice's train tracks around it. 

My favorite decorations are our stockings. My mom knitted them for us last year and I LOVE them!

We always have red pillows... but I can pretend they are Christmasy...

To My Mother:

I know it's not Mother's Day, but I still have to right this "love blog" for my mom. Many people say that they don't want to be like their moms, but I truly hope I can be just like mine. Everything I did today was because of my mom and years of watching her. This morning I did some cleaning wearing those cheesy yellow rubber gloves. They make me think of my mom because her hands would would get soar from doing too many dishes. I'm not sure why exactly, but I know that I have the same issue so I have to wear them just like she did. A lot of my day was spent knitting which is one of my mother's favorite hobbies. I'm not even sure how to knit exactly, my hand just do it on their own from watching hers over the years. I took a brake from my knitting to make fudge, a great holiday treat. My mom's is the best hands down, pure simple goodness. Mine didn't turn out quite as good, even though I use the same recipe, but it still makes me think of her. Finally, I just finished making pizza, homemade crust and everything. My mom makes the best pizza and was one of my favorite meals growing up. I am so thankful for the way my parents raised me. But I am even more thankful for the way my mom seemed to pass on all the little things, all the thing that she did everyday, and that I now do everyday. Mom, I love you! I can't wait to see you next week! 

The Simple Things of Life

Thanksgiving and Waking up to Snow

We had a great Thanksgiving in KCMO! We had several invitations for Thanksgiving meals and even though we couldn't say yes to all of them we felt so loved! We ended up spending the majority of the day with a family that has two little kids and a lot of French influence... its kinda a long story and I don't want to post their life story on my blog... anyway we had a traditional Thanksgiving meal with a little French twist at the end including good wine and super yummy cheeses. After we all stuffed ourselves, we went on a nice walk to gear up for pie and coffee.

Well, first the boys had a little nap... and then we had pie and coffee.

Here is Grace playing with their youngest... she liked having a baby around. After the man of the house made us all lattes we all sat down and played a sweet game named Jungle Speed... seriously my new favorite game and all you Oregonians watch out because we are getting this game and playing it with you over the holidays.

Food time: As most of you know I've given up eating meat, so this Thanksgiving I was determined to make good food. Even though I didn't make a full meal, I practiced making some old and new recipes so one day I can have a full vegetarian Thanksgiving meal. 

This is the salad I brought over for Thanksgiving. I've made it many times because its beautiful and amazing!

The day after Thanksgiving we hung out with some other friends all day. For dinner we had some leftovers from the day before and my newest creation... roasted acorn squash with wild rice stuffing! I also made sweet potato pecan bread and pumpkin pie with ginger whipped cream... ahh so good!

Here's the kids taking it easy, and yes Grace is dressed up like Batman.

That was our Thanksgiving... and the only thing that could make this holiday weekend better... SNOW! It snowed a little yesterday but didn't stick. However, when we woke up this morning the ground was covered! Here is our cute little house bathing in the first snow of the season!

It looks good in white! I'm sure we will run out and play in it later so more pictures will come!

My 25th Birthday

I had a pretty low-key birthday. It was my first one away from all my family which was a little sad, but Rob's parents were out here and were able to celebrate with me. For my big 25th birthday, I wanted one thing: time to hang out with my favorite person in the whole world... My husband! After church the two of us took off without kids (thanks to his parents) and had a great day. I realized later that we didn't take ANY pictures, so to describe my day, I stole some pictures from google...

We had an amazing lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. The funny thing is that neither of us had been there, and we were laughing because we moved to MO to eat something Californian... anyway they had some great veggie pizzas and salads! I also had a Pina-Colada because... well it was my birthday and I felt like it :)

We spent the afternoon and evening shopping at the Plaza... it is a really cool area of downtown that proves that I don't live in Kansas!

While shopping, I got sweet Uggs! They look just like this and they are super warm... because I do live in Kansas City...

After our shopping, we went to reVerse for dinner and drinks. This place was very cool and would have felt like Portland, except they were playing a football game on a big screen. I'm not sure I get the whole, watch TV while you are in a classy restaurant... but I'm new to this whole Midwestern thing. In any case, I had an amazing time relaxing with Rob!

While we were out, the kids (with the help of Grammy and Papa) made me a cake. Last night we lit the candles, and the kids sang to me... and that moment was perfect. It really is the simple things in life that are the best!

Sunday Morning

Our church has three services, one on Saturday night and two on Sunday. The kids and I have been going on Saturday nights (Rob leads worship at all three), which leaves Sunday mornings a time to relax and have fun. 

This is how we spent this Sunday morning:

I played with my new makeup... its Everyday Minerals makeup, totally natural ingredients and really affordable... seriously look it up because I love it! (I'll explain Grace's look in a minute)

Justice did a puzzle in the sunshine... in a diaper... yes he still wears diapers, he's only 2!

Grace dressed up as a "Police Officer" Yeah... I'm not sure I get it but I'll walk you through it. This Police Officer is sporting a sleeveless sweater dress with fashionable lavender snow mittens, a baby boy's fisherman's hat, and a furry scarf tied around her waist. What? You have never seen a Police Officer look like this?? huh weird, thats what they look like in KCMO...

Oh and these are all her police poses...

Well that was my morning... now I need another cup of coffee...

What a Day!

Before I even begin, let me something my mom used to tell me: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

     I am so moved by what our country did last night. Our country, young and old, looked beyond race, name, age, and chose an amazingly qualified, inspiring man to be the 44th President of the United States. I cried through his speech last night, and this morning I watched a clip of an old speech by Martin Luther King Jr., a speech we all know, and I cried and cried. This is an amazing day. I know that the next four years aren't going to be perfect, but I also know that this country will not ever be the same! It doesn't matter who you voted for, this was a huge accomplishment for our country. A country that from the beginning thought you had to be a white man to count for anything. I hope we can continue to come together as a nation and encourage our soon-to-be President. He isn't perfect and this will be a tough four years, but the weight of the county is not on his shoulders, it is on all of ours. And YES, WE CAN!

Four Blogs in One

I'm not very good at keeping this updated... so here is 4 blogs in 1!

 (1) Today was a beautiful Fall day, sunny, a little windy, and seriously 70 degrees! I took the kids to the park with some of our new friends. 

This is the little girl that after one day Grace said, "she is my best fwiend"

The park is beautiful! Seriously, there is nothing like a Missouri Autumn!

 (2) NHCC (our church) had a Halloween party the weekend before Halloween, and it was so fun. There were games, trick-or-treating, costume parades, and even a little train ride.

They liked the s'mores

We are too cool to dress up... can't you tell...

Grace was SO excited to see Snow White! She was beyond star struck. She slowly walked up to her and gave her a hug, it was so stinkin cute!

More food...

Here was the little train. The kids loved it, but being an over-protective mom I kinda freaked out when they went out of sight... and there were no seat belts... but like I said the kids had fun!

This was actually Halloween at a friends house. They had a party and we all took the kids trick-or-treating.

I was pretty excited to go also... it was my first time! Yeah, I'm such a rebel Dad!

 (3) A few weeks ago, Rob and I came home from something and put the kids to bed. I was sitting on the couch on the computer and I heard something drop down from the ceiling. I looked over by the TV and saw this:

Seriously, it was huge! At first, from a distance, I thought it was a frog! But when I got closer I realized it was some sort of grass hopper... er green... something... I don't even know! 

 (4) We have really settled in to our home. This last weekend we got a new couch for our living room, it is awesome and super comfy (our other couch is cute, but not so comfy). Also I feel pretty good about the kids rooms. The walls are still pretty bare but they look cute. 

Here is Grace's room... well some of it, her room is really big!

Wow, well if you read all of this you must really love us... or you were just bored... or both. Thanks anyway!

Ahh Politics

   I have been, unfortunately, joining in a few political conversations. I'm sorry I can't help it... I like to talk and I get really frustrated by closed mindedness! ANYWAY I just wanted to say real quickly that I am a political agnostic, "when your head is in the game, but your heart and hope are not." My new church did a great little series on politics and this is what I came away with. You can check it our here if you have a few minutes: http://www.politicallyagnostic.com/ 

That is all, November 5th cannot come soon enough...

A Great Evening!

Tonight was a great night in KCMO! We had some friends over for a yummy stir-fry and let the kids run around and play. The men folk went to a meeting which left us moms to hang out and laugh at our silly kiddos. It was really a normal night, which was GREAT! It feels so good to be making good friends and just living life with others! I'm looking forward to getting to know more people and make deeper relationships with those I've already connected with so far. 

Finally... The Road Trip

Our road trip started out in Portland, Oregon at 6:30 am and ended a few days later in Kansas City, Missouri at 2:00 pm. Total time 55 1/2 hours! Not bad with two toddlers in the car. We made our stops pretty short and our nights in hotels were short as well... actually we lost an hour each night so our nights were even shorter and I guess our total time was actually 53 1/2 hours. Anyway not that any of that really matters :) here are some pictures!

First thing first, drive-thru Starbucks!

This was a quick stop in La Grande, OR

No better way to say goodbye to Oregon than going to Safeway and looking at pumpkins...

Being silly in the car while I drive through Idaho, easily the most boring part of the trip!

We stopped for dinner in Twin Falls and found a little Idaho surprise... beauty!

Seriously... Idaho's secret

We stopped for our first night in Ogden, Utah  and after one day on the road we had a LOT of dead bugs on our car! At one point we thought it was raining but is was only the sound of bugs hitting our poor car!

The second day we headed through Wyoming which was surprisingly beautiful!

Even though it is apparently the beef state, I didn't see any cows but I did see all kinds of landscape.

I thought Nebraska was pretty cool too, I'm not used to seeing such a flat horizon. 

Our second night was spent in Nebraska, and in the morning we caught an amazing sunrise!

On our third day driving, we made it to Missouri!

I was pretty excited!

And so was Rob...

The kids were pretty tired from the travels, so once we were in our house, they took it easy!

I hope you all enjoy the pictures! We had an amazing trip, seriously even more fun than I thought it was going to be! Although, I'm not eager to drive back anytime soon, so from here on out we will be traveling to Oregon by plane!