It wasTHE best CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!

Oh the holidays!!! How can any of us bare to go back to what was before December???? What a glorious month! Oh humph. I hate the end of December. Fortunately, January gives us the consolation gift of the new year, and New Year's Day.... but let's admit it-- the best time of the year is OVER. O-V-E-R over.

So, here is a post to toast the best December and Christmas ever! They shall be missed.

Once again my pictures are unorganized... but I will describe them nonetheless... In December Melvin has Pead( as in peas) and carroted, and all sorts of vegetablesed himself crazy. :) He hates rice cereal and oatmeal... but loves those veggies... He also stole a gorgeous handmade sock monkey from my dear friend Sarah D.H. Thank you Sarah!!! He LOVES it! and so does everyone else! That monkey gets raving reviews everywhere we go!

Mark and I have also started the tradition of making pizza on Christmas Eve. :) I was skeptical as to the outcome this year... Mark and I had never made pizza before but they turned out AWESOME!!!!! yum yum yum. best pizza EVER. We took a little picture of the three of us by our tree... and then on Christmas day we tromped around in our little woods out back trapping bears. :) Also pictured are our stockings... :) I used two because the stocking is my favorite part, and I figured Santa would understand.... :) but the stocking highlight was Mel's mitten stocking!!!! It is amazing! Santa was very impressed because he could put ANYTHING in there---it is SO huge and stretchy. :) For sure it was as big as Mel.

Then, the day after Christmas we got a crazy thunderstorm/flood. Mark could not resist. He literally tugged on my bright yellow galoshes, and went playing. :) Very cute.

This brings me to the real reason I mourn the end of December- Mark isn't around today. He is working. I am grateful he has a job--but I LOVE when he is around perpetually. I have had too much fun with him, and today, since he is working, I feel like a fish out of water. Boo.

That is all. I love you Mark!

Early Christmas fun, in UTAH! Part Roper

Fun with siblings.... Thank you Anne for Speeding Fireflies!!!!! Tis fabulous!

And with cousins (sorry, Laura, you were half cousin at this point, so that's where you go). Check out that fine belly!! OW OWWW!

And don't forget Grandma too...

Thank you all for all the fun times and all. :)

(sniff sniff...) We miss and love you all!!!

Early Christmas fun, in UTAH! Part Briskey

Enjoy these pictures of our great adventure to Utah.

These pictures are totally jumbly... but some highlights with the Briskey's who are mostly no longer Briskey's were, crafting Christmas trees, meeting for the first time EVER in the flesh babies Jack and Porter... and having the two of them pictured with Mel in matching uniforms, a Christmas Pageant... which was beautifully played by ALL, going to see Twighlight for the FIRST TIME with my sisters and mum, (!!!!! wahoo!!! I LOVED it!), swimming in the super warm Super 8 hotel pool,(Joseph stars in all THOSE photos... though the one of he and I together intrigues me. You can see all the way down into my stomach...) tie-dying undies, tees, and onsies, and most importantly, spending time with my beloved family!!!!! I didn't realize how homesick I was till we got there! Boo! But, what a great trip! We are soOOOOOO glad to have seen all of you... we love you!

Enjoy these pictures of our great adventure to Utah.

Christmas Present, for the Present... more is to come I'm sure.

Melvin has found a new toy. :)

Melvin has also taken to standing... though he can't do it for too long. :) Not strong enough... yet.

TREE-NESS.
SO, we bought our tree Friday! Thank you Lowes for an excellent tree at an excellent price. :) It is beautiful.

We waited till last night to decorate it... IT WAS PERFECT! I love my life. Listening to Christmas music and decorating with my two most favorite boys in the whole whole whole huge wide world! Mark was so charming as he danced about the tree to "The Little Drummer Boy" tinseling. I can't help but giggle even now at the thought him. I am sooooooooooo lucky, and sooooooooo in love1 He makes my life such fun.

Then, there is Mel. I can't believe what a pleasant and FUN baby he is! He amazes me. How does he know to smile and laugh? Some things are so strangely instinctual... I am constantly in awe at the wonder of life as I watch him develop... and without doubt my best moments in the day are watching Mark and Melvin together. Melvin thinks Mark is THE best. I feel like Jane in Pride and Prejudice...."Oh Lizzy, I am so happy! It is too much!.. Oh why can't everyone be as happy as I am? ... Could you believe things would end in this happy way? How shall I bare so much happiness?"

It was the perfect evening.

Christmas Past

This Saturday my dear friend Camellia called... we were missionaries together in Montreal around Christmas, and had the BEST times ever. :) I MISS THOSE DAYS!!!! Not that I don't love the days I'm living now... I just can't wrap my mind around all that has past, and where I am. How did I get here??? It is amazing to me how most of the big events little girls look forward to come practically all at once--- a whirlwind of realizing dreams... and then there you are! A woman! A wife! A mother! So many changes in NOT so many years. Not three years have past since these pictures in Montreal... it feels only a week, and an eternity all at once. :) I do take comfort though, knowing however surreal my sentiments, they are not mine alone. All,at times, marvel at the passing of time, and life. We are born, we blink, and then ... 24 years have passed... and on it goes. Such is the beauty, and mystery of life.

So... I praise God! What if this were it? I would not be content. It would be far too short, and discouraging! Like going to Paris for an hour... what would you do for that hour? What if it was only an hour- no matter your circumstances??? What if for 45 minutes of that hour you were stuck in a broken metro? Through no fault of your own, the majority of what little time had already been allotted to you would have been wasted!

So, I am grateful to God for creating a beautiful plan for our existence, which though encompasses our time here, far surpasses it.

So, for the sake of reminiscing, I post these pictures. Snapshots of one of many happy seasons which were, though many are yet to come.

Here we are! Two little girls living in a winter wonderland. Here is a contract we made... in just a few months, I gained 35 pounds... living off rice crispy treats will do this to a person. It's a good memory.

A funny little snowman......................................and our view out the balcony at the back of our apartment... I've said it before, and I'll say it again... VERDUN was MAGICAL.

Sniff sniff... One of our VERY favorite families there... la famille Levesque. Here we are with Rachel and Genevieve. Check out our slippers! Everyone wears these in Montreal. :) I miss them!!!! We spent Christmas Eve with this family... and reenacted the Nativity--complete with costumes of the donkeys and singing carols. What a perfect evening.

There were wonderful snowstorms... which actually buried the cars in the streets....

And of course, we went Christmas tree shopping. Here we are with some other missionaries. The Elders got the big tree..... ours was the Charley Brown.

we thought it would be grand to take our tree on the metro... and so it was... but we pictured us with the Elders tree... it was just so much bigger. :)







I love the face of the girl in the metro car staring at us, trying to figure out what in the world we were doing. This is the picture we sent as Christmas cards to family and friends... wishing a Merry Christmas from the metros of Montreal. :)
Here I am with our Charley Brown in the metro car.

And then home again home again jiggidy-jig. :) Though surely we didn't leave the tree in front of the kitchen sink for always... neither myself or Camellia can recall where we placed it for the holidays! BOo. Details details... not important, but I'd like to remember them anyway.

les delish-usssss...recipes...

A few of my favorite things.... to eat.

Aunt Ruth's Frozen Goodness... aka "Ruthies" aka... none of us know the actual name...

2 crushed ripe bananas
2 cups sour creme
3/4 cups sugar
8 ounce can crushed pineapple with the juice
2 tbl spoon lemon juice
1/2 cup colorful marshmallows
2 tbl spoon chopped maraschino cherries
muffin baking cups

mix all together and spoon into muffin baking cups (in muffin tins of course) and freeze.
You'll want to take them out of the freezer 5 min. or so before eating so they aren't rock hard. Remove from muffin paper cup. Aunt Ruth always served them on a single leaf of iceburg lettuce. I don't. :)

also.... I change the recipe... instead of sour creme, try fat free plain yogurt... and use more pineapple... if it's runnier it won't matter... it's all frozen. Also... I end up using like half a bag of marshmallows..And... most importantly... use like the entire small jar of the cherries... they are the best part! And... pour in the cherry juice in too... yum.


Hearty Potato Soup (the easiest soup in the world!)

6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, diced
6 celery stalks, diced*** I use mushrooms instead!!! much better!(a ton of mushrooms!)
2 quarts water
1 onion, chopped
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
6 tablespoons flour
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups milk

1. In large kettle, cook potatoes, carrots, and celery (if you choose to use it) in water until tender (20 min). Drain, reserving liquid and setting veggies aside.
2. In the same kettle saute onion (and mushrooms if you are using them) until soft.
3. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and other seasoning; gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened.
4. Gently stir in cooked veggies.
5. Add 1 cup or more of reserved cooking water until soup is desired consistency.
Yield: 8-10 servings
Again... I don't use celery... or if I do, not very much... instead I use a ton of mushrooms... and it is DEeeeelish. I also use more carrot than is called for. I love this recipe because it uses stuff I almost always have on hand.

perusing

I was just perusing my blog... and realized how big Melvin is getting, and .... sniff sniff... that is all.

More pictures

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a LOVELY time with our Bishop's family, and other friends from church. So great... and for the first time ever, I made Aunt Ruth's Frozen Goodness.... delicious. Ever keeping the tradition alive.


Looky looky, it's Melvin being a big boy! Thanksgiving day was the first day he ever sat in a shopping cart without his carrier. Look at his devilish grin. And those eyes... it's like he's plotting something.



Ka-chow. Melvin in his big boy car seat. yep. He's pretty much outgrown the carrier ( in length not weight obviously).

Here I am. Beautiful.

My boys all bundly. :) Melvin's face is pretty classic... as is Mark's.

I love life!