Continuing traditions...

So this has nothing to do with Christmas traditions, but the crazy traditions of my family. For those of you who know my family, or who are my family, you know we can be a bit silly at times. Well, last night Matthew and I had the missionaries over for dinner, and we always have Pig dinners when we get a new set of missionaries. It wasn't a new set, so we were just going to have a normal dinner, but when we found out that they were both going to be transferred, we didn't want to have them remember us as just plain ol' folk, so we threw a little twist in to make things a little more fun and exciting. When I was growing up, occasionally we would have dinners where my mom would give us random utensils to eat with, so that's what we did. Matthew ended up with an ice cream scoop, I had a pasta spoon (not sure what else to call it) and the missionaries ended up with a pie server and salad tongs. It proved for a very funny night - during dinner I was laughing so hard I could hardly breath. Probably not very good for the digestive system. :-) I also attached a picture of Matthew from a previous pig dinner. I am so glad that I have a husband who is willing to go along with (and sometimes instigate) all the silly things I love.


Isn't he such a cutie? My friend Jenny (who is English & very proper) doesn't understand the point of pig dinners. She doesn't see how eating with your face could be fun at all. :-)

O Christmas Tree

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went and bought our Christmas tree and decorated it. Although it wasn't quite the adventure of stomping through the mountains for hours on end looking for the perfect Christmas tree (which is how I grew up), it was still fun to walk around Home Depot's selection and find a good tree for our little condo. This is the lucky tree.

Matthew and I put the lights on while TJ was taking a nap, and then after he woke up we put the ornaments on. TJ loved decorating the tree, but he needed a little help at first understanding how to do it correctly. There was one particular branch that he was putting all the ornaments on, so it was almost touching the ground it was so heavy. Once we showed him how to do it though, he did great!
After we were done decorating the tree we turned all the lights off except the Christmas tree lights and we sung Christmas songs together and drank Eggnog. It was a really fun day for all of us, and got us in the Christmas spirit.
This year we had to put our Christmas village up on our Entertainment center because we didn't have room for it under the tree, and we didn't want TJ to have constant access to it. He LOVES the choo-choo train and the church, and he keeps asking us to lift him up so he can see the village. This has been a really fun holiday season so far with TJ being old enough to understand things.

We know the gender!

So yesterday while we were sitting around the Thanksgiving table, Matthew's dad said "Let's all go around the table and say what we are grateful for." Since this happens pretty much every year, Matthew and I were expecting it, and had something special to be grateful for.... a little envelope that had the gender of our baby written in it. When it got to our turn, we said "We are grateful for this" and held up the envelope. We opened it there at the table, and found out that TJ will have a little brother to pal around with. We're excited, and in a way I'm relieved that I don't have to worry about buying all new girl stuff, and I really didn't want to worry about doing a little girl's hair. After having a boy, I just wouldn't know what to do with a girl. Also, I have a ton of meetings on Sunday with my calling so usually about 3 out of the 4 Sundays Matthew just has to get TJ ready and bring him to church, and I think he was a little nervous at the thought of having to get a girl ready for church. So needless to say, we're really happy about having another boy! When I first found out TJ was a boy, I thought "I don't want a boy! I don't know what to do with boys" but now I LOVE having a boy and get so excited when we see garbage trucks, car transporters, tractors, and all the other things that little 2 year old boys love. :-)

Blog Tag

I have been Blog tagged by Chalise so here are a few interesting things about me:

1. I love to clean out dryer lint! Especially the kind my mom had when I was growing up where it's long and skinny so it rolls up really well. I will check it after each load, but if there isn't much there I leave it until it will roll up nice. Not sure what I love about it, I just do.

2. I met my husband because of his socks! We were at a Christmas dance and the song "Cotton Eye Joe" was on. I was doing the line dance going around in circles, and Matthew was in the middle of the circle dancing with his pants pulled up around his knees (what a goof - I love him!). I saw his socks, which were navy blue with Santa Clause's all over them and I thought "I've got to meet this guy!"

3. I LOVE crazy socks! I seriously own over 100 pair of fun socks - I should count sometime just to see how many I actually have. I think I own maybe 2 pair of plain white socks, everything else is decorated in some fashion. I own over 25 pair of just Christmas socks, so I have to rotate them. :-) I also own probably 10 pair of socks that I have never worn - still have the tags on them.

4. I love to travel and while I was working for the airlines I went to London twice, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Brazil, Canada, and traveled around the states a fair amount. I didn't even have a passport for the first year + that I worked for United, so most of my traveling was done in about a 1-2 year period. I think my favorite trip was the Germany, Switzerland, Austria trip - LOVED the Alps, and Switzerland was so picture perfect. I wish I would have made it to Australia, Ireland, and Hawaii. Maybe some day......

5. I am 5 months pregnant right now. I don't know the my baby's gender, but it is in an envelop that I can see right now. I made a card before my appointment and just had the ultrasound technician circle if it was a boy or a girl. I want to wait until Christmas to open it, but Matthew wanted to open it last week, so we will probably compromise and open it on Thanksgiving.

6. I would really love to sky dive! I totally wanted to go when I was single but it just never worked out, and now that I am married and a mother (and expecting) I am a little more careful and think about what would happen to my family if my parachute didn't open. But hopefully one day I can fulfill that dream.

I tag: Corrine, Myra, Tracy, Heidi, Amie
Okay, so here's the rules:
1. The player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves - try to find 6 you haven't already posted about!
2. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog for the rules.

Trick or Treat

This was the first year that TJ really got into Halloween since he wasn't even 1 yet last year. We bought him this costume, and I think it's a monkey, but a few people called him a mouse, so I'm really not sure what he was. :-) What do you think?

He really enjoyed knocking on the door and then attempting to say "Trick or treat" when the people came to the door.
Here's TJ showing off the first of his candy. We were out for about 45 minutes and he loved it.
Here's a rather ugly picture of me, but I sent it to Matthew while he was at work to make him laugh , and he really wanted me to put it on the blog, so I am. Sometimes TJ and I like to take silly pictures of ourselves making ugly faces, but he is more cute than anything.

The continuation...

So I am finally getting around to finishing up our travel log from our trip to Utah. Matthew joined TJ and I in Utah on Sept 19th, and on the 20th we went to the Church's Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake for a tour, and that was really cool to see how much good the church is prepared to do, and has done, at a moments notice. As part of the tour, there was a video talking about disasters around the world where they have sent supplies. It showed the earthquake in El Salvador, and Matthew had actually been serving his mission at the time of the earthquake and saw a few of his companions in the video helping with the clean-up. It brought back a lot of memories for him and was a very neat experience.

Friday we headed down to Parowan and the rest of the siblings joined us there Saturday, except for Kyle and his family since his son had strep throat. My parent's had planned a very cool family activity for us where we learned a lot about our ancestors. My mom had gathered information about 28 different ancestors and we were all assigned one person and and we were supposed to be very familiar with that person so we could present it to everyone else, and there were pictures to go along with pretty much everyone. Here is a picture of my mom standing by the big board where we put our pictures once we were done telling about them. It was really neat to learn more about where we came from and the type of people who have gone before us.

Matthew had never seen Cedar Breaks, which is up Brianhead (and Cedar) Canyon, about 30-45 minutes from my house, so we took a little trip up there with Michelle, Nick and their boys. TJ fell asleep in the car, which is why he isn't in this picture with us. It is such a beautiful place, and it had snowed up there so the snow on the red rock was a cool contrast. It's kind of like a mini Bryce Canyon.

Another fun experience we had while in Southern Utah was climbing the "P". For those of you who aren't familiar with Utah's tradition, each city (or probably most cities anyway) have a hill or mountain with the first letter of their city on the hill, or a big "Y" in the case of Provo. Matthew had never climbed the P hill in our 5 years of marriage, so my mom watched TJ for us so we could go on a little hike. Here is a picture of Matthew with my beloved Parowan in the background. This was one of Matthew's favorite experiences of the entire trip to Utah.

The same day that we hiked the P we went down to Kolob Canyon, which is again, about 45 minutes from my house. What can I say, Parowan is surrounded by beautiful places. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it is absolutely amazing. It had been years since I had been there and I had forgotten how beautiful it actually was. My mom had stopped at KFC and brought dinner up there for us, but she forgot to grab plates, utensils, napkins, etc. She was able to find a couple forks in the car, and we just had a community dinner where we were all dipping into the same bowl of potatoes, cold slaw, etc. :-) It was a fun and memorable experience.

Well, this entry is long enough so I think I am going to call it quits. We will post about Halloween soon.

So much to catch up on...

It's been a month and a half since I have written anything and I feel like there is so much to catch up on. On Sept 6th, Matthew and I went to the taping of the NPR news quiz "Wait, Wait... don't tell me" downtown in the Chase Auditorium and it was so much fun. Here is a picture of us with Peter Sagal and Karl Cassel, the shows hosts. If anyone is in Chicago on a Thursday evening, we definitely recommend fitting this into your schedule. And if you aren't familiar with Wait, Wait, it airs on Saturday mornings, I think right after Car talk. Here in Chicago I think it starts at 10:00 a.m. and then again at 9:00pm Saturday night. It's quite an amusing, informative show and often has us laughing out loud. Here is another picture of Matthew and I in a self portrait in front of the water fountains at the Chase Auditorium. The next day was Matthew's birthday so this was kind of our night out to celebrate.

The following week TJ and I headed out to Utah for our annual visit, and we had an absolutely wonderful time. If heaven had a taste, I think I know what it would taste like - fresh peaches and the raspberries from my parent's garden, along with all the wonderful veggies that we were able to eat straight from the garden. It was so nice to eat zucchini, marinated cucumbers, and green beans picked just an hour before eating them. And my mom can make anything taste good. It was SOO wonderful to have her great cooking again. I think one of TJ's favorite activities the whole time we were there was picking raspberries and eating them right off the bush. We did that at least once a day, if not more. At least he got his servings of fresh fruits.

Another highlight of the trip was my younger sister having her baby about 7 hours after I got home. I was able to stay with their 2 year old daughter while they went to the hospital, and then we were able to meet Kimball when he was just hours old. He is such a beautiful, or should I say handsome, baby and he is so good natured too. Here is a picture of the first time I saw him. He was born Sept 12th and I believe he weighed 7 lbs 12 (or 13) oz and was about 20 inches long. It's been almost a month so I am a little rusty on the exact details. Chalise did the labor and delivery without any drugs - something that I don't think I will ever attempt, at least not voluntarily. But she's Wonder woman, so I'm not surprised that she did. And she was seriously up bottling homemade salsa and peaches about 2 days after getting home. I hope my second delivery goes that well - I could hardly move for the first week after having TJ.

I was also able to meet my nephew Sam for the first time, who was born in March, so he was about 6 months old by the time I saw him, and he is absolutely adorable. He belongs to Michelle and Nick. TJ was born on his brother Seth's first birthday, and I guess here is as good a place as any to announce to those who don't know yet that we will be having our second child around the same time Sam turns one. Sam was born March 12 and I am due March 23, so if I go a little early we could have another set of cousins who share a birthday. And it's kind of ironic that it is Nick and Michelle's children that we are sharing birthdays with since Matthew and Nick are first cousins once removed (Nick is cousins with Matthew's dad). So the boys are first cousins through Michelle and I and second cousins through their dads, and they share the same birthday too.

Well, I still have more to update about our trip, but this is getting long and I have a few things I need to do before hitting the sack tonight. I will try and do the next update sometime in the next few days.

Thank Heaven for electricity

This week I realized just how much I love electricity! On Thursday we had a huge storm here in the Chicago area and our power went out about 3:30 that day. After about an hour of sitting in the dark and having no clue what was really going on, other than occasionally calling Matthew and having him give me updates from the news (there was a tornado warning), I finally called my friend Sandi and ended up going to hang out with her until my power went back on. Well, we ate dinner there and TJ and I ended up sleeping there that night. Matthew came home since he had to leave early for work, and he was woken up about 1:00 a.m. by bright white flames shooting about 3 feet high from a power line in our parking lot. He called the fire department and they came over, but there wasn't much they could do and just had to wait for ComEd to come and take care of it. TJ and I came home the next morning about 9:00 and still had no power, so I was showering by flashlight, which actually worked quite well, and TJ was trying to stay entertained with no lights or power of any sort. We ran some errands, enjoyed a piece of pizza together at Costco and then came home for nap time. After TJ's nap, we ran over to the grocery store to get some ice but they were also closed due to the power outage, and the gas station across the street was out of ice, so after Matthew got home from work that evening we packed up a cooler with our food from the freezer (pretty much everything from the fridge had to be tossed) and headed out to his parent's. They were in North Carolina at the time, but we were able to store our stuff in their freezer until our power came back on, which was Saturday. I was also helping throw a baby shower on Saturday and needed to bake a cake and print a few things off the computer, both of which were impossible at my house with no electricity. There are still some families in our ward who don't have power yet, and on top of that, there has been a bunch of flooding in this area as well. Quite often we long to have a basement but at times like this it's not so bad living on the third floor and having no worries of flooding. :-) We're grateful the only thing we really had to worry about was replacing food in our fridge instead carpet, furniture, etc.

Continuing the story

(if you haven't read the entry below titled "5 Years" you might want to do that before reading this)
So after dinner we drove around a little bit to see if we could find a few Amish homes in the area and then we went back to the hotel. Matthew opened my gift to him, which were tickets to go see the show "Wait, Wait, don't tell me", an NPR show that is broadcast from here in Chicago. We're going to see it in September, so we are really looking forward to that. For any of you who aren't familiar with it, they broadcast it Saturday mornings, I think starting at 10:00am here in Chicago, and it's quite hilarious. Anyway, back to our trip. After walking around the hotel a bit and enjoying a lively game of checkers, we went back to our room to enjoy the whirlpool tub. We had brought some bath gel balls and normally you just put one in per tub of water, but Matthew didn't know that and he dumped all 10 of them in! I saw before it was too late and was able to scoop 7 of them out before they had dissolved. It was pretty funny. While the tub was filling, I turned on the jets, thinking that the water was covering them enough, but there were a couple in the back I didn't see that weren't covered by water yet, so it started spraying water EVERYWHERE, another little funny adventure. After the tub was finally filled, we enjoyed a nice relaxing bath and smelled great afterward from the 3 balls worth of stuff. :-)

The next morning we slept in till almost 8:30 and then we went and grabbed breakfast and Matthew took his to go and went back to the tire place to get new tires on our car. We were planning on getting 4 new tired in the next month or so, so it just happened a little earlier than we had planned, but it was fine. After he got back we went over to Amish Acres and watched a few films about how the Amish got started and how their lives are today. It was very interesting to learn all about that since we pretty much knew next to nothing about them before that (other than their clothes, beards, and that they didn't have electricity). After the films we had a tractor-pulled wagon tour of the place and then enjoyed a nice lunch. They served Sweet Potato fries there, so we tried them out and they weren't too bad, although I think I like normal fries better. After lunch we took a walking tour of the grounds and it was probably our favorite part of the whole trip. We got to see how they live(d) and survive without all of the modern conveniences. Although I would have a hard time not having a phone or computer, and I'm sure my cooking over the fire would leave something to be desired, there was something very alluring about the simplicity of life they enjoy. After our tour, we went to the show "Plain and Fancy", which is a musical about the Amish way of life, and it was really cute. Following the show, we went to enjoy our "Threshers dinner" before hitting the road to get back home. We wish we could have had a little more time to explore the rest of the Amish stuff, but we loved the time we had there and look forward to going back someday.

5 Years!

This last Friday was our 5 year anniversary! Where has the time gone? We had a wonderful celebration and enjoyed our first night alone since having TJ 21 months ago (Thanks Mom and Dad Evans). TJ spent Thursday night out at Matt's parent's house so when we woke up Friday morning it wasn't to TJ's schedule. I was able to sleep in till about 8:30 which felt SO nice. Matthew gave me my present when I woke up which was a children's book that he had made on line entitled "Daddy loves Mommy" and inside there were a bunch of pictures of things he does because he loves me (makes me laugh, helps with my garden, protects me, fixes the house, etc). It was SOOO cute, I absolutely loved it. After we got all packed we headed downtown for the lunch buffet in the signature room of the Hancock Tower, which is on the 95th floor. It was an absolutely amazing day, and the air and water show was the next day so we got to see a bunch of jets flying around the sky practicing. Here is a picture of Matthew and I with the view of Chicago in the background, looking south along the shoreline.

After an amazing lunch, we headed to Indiana to stay at Amish Acres, and the first hour and a half was SOOO slow because of horrible traffic leaving Chicago. A few hours later we were almost to Napanee (our final destination) when Matthew started complaining about the alignment on our car. Now he had reason to complain because just a week ago our front tie rod had broken, so we had just paid a few hundred dollars to have our car fixed, and alignment was part of the "fixin". Matthew was having to hold the steering wheel at an angle just to keep the car going straight. Well about 30 seconds after he commented about it, we had a blow-out on our front left tire, so we had to pull over and change it. When I got out of the car to "help" change it, I just started laughing because we had pulled over RIGHT in front of a tire place (as you can see in the picture). Unfortunately, it had closed about an hour before that, but at least we knew where to go the next day when we needed to get new tires. :-) It was also there that we realized that we had forgotten about the one hour time change from Chicago to Indiana.














This may not seem like too big of deal, but we were getting a "package" at the place where we were staying, and it included dinner that night, but the dinner placed closed at 7:00. When our tire blew out, we thought it was 5:45, but in all actuality it was 6:45, so needless to say, we missed dinner that night. But we were able to find this darling little diner and our hostess was mennanite, so after dinner we ended up talking to her and some of the other servers for about a half hour about religious beliefs (theirs and ours) and had a great time.

Well, I know this is only the first night, but it's time for bed and I am going to go ahead and post this since I have a few other drafts from the last month and a half that I just have never finished. I will try and finish this tomorrow.

We took TJ to the zoo for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was a fun time. He wasn't that crazy about most of the animals, but he LOVED feeding the goats. He wasn't afraid of them at all, and would just walk right up to them and pet them, and he would just laugh and laugh when they would eat out of his hand. I guess a petting zoo is more his style right now. It had been a while since Matthew and I had been to a zoo as well, so it was fun for us to see all the different animals.


Another exciting thing for us this summer is our garden. We live on the 3rd floor of our condo, but we have been able to grow a garden in some grow boxes and things are growing quite nicely. We have eaten a few salads from the lettuce in our gargen and are looking forward to eating the rest of the veggies when they're ready. We are growing broccoli, beans, peppers, zucchini, spinach, lettuce (2 kinds) tomatoes, cucumbers, snow peas, onions, cilantro, and beets. It's such a joy for me to look out my window at my garden each day and see it growing.

What a game

These are real pictures from our camera from my seat at the Cubs game. On June 1, I went to the Cubs game for a work outing. Tribune Company owns the Cubs so they have a couple of boxes. The CEO of Tribune also has four seats. I sat in one of these. It is the second row, right next to the dugout. The only thing blocking my view was the on deck batter!



It was a dream come true for me...to be that close to the action. I loved the crack of the bat most.



If you remember, Carlos Zambrano (a Cubs pitcher) and Michael Barrett (a former Cubs catcher) got in a fight during the game. I was about 10 feet from the fight!



We got to interact with the players while they were warming up and even Lou Pinella (the Cubs manager) said he would let my buddy bat in the ninth if they were still down.
















This picture is from ESPN's webpage of a play at the plate during the game. You can see me in the background on the far left side screaming my head off because we got him out at the plate.

A few weeks ago Valerie's roommate Becky was visiting from Washington D.C. so we went downtown for the day and spent a lot of our time at Millenium Park. Here are a few pictures of us at "the Bean". I think it's supposed to look like a drop of mercury hitting the groung (not sure what that represents) but it just looks like a big silver bean. A very cool place to visit though if you are ever in the area. We were also able to enjoy the blossoms outside the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mama's little piggy

Occasionally at our house we have "pig dinners" where the adults eat out of small (individual) troughs and you can't use your hands. We never do this with just the three of us, but when we get a new set of missionaries in our area we will usually bring out the troughs for one of their first meals with us (all but one elder has LOVED it, including all the sister missionaries). Although we didn't have a trough for TJ, he decided to be a little piggy anyway and just eat with his face. It was pretty cute to watch....don't worry, we don't eat like this all the time. We do try to teach him good manners, at least most of the time. :-) Here is a family picture during the pig dinner. Matthew always seems to get messier than anyone else, although TJ is starting to give him a run for his money.

TJ's first haircut

On Saturday, April 21 Matthew gave TJ his first haircut. Matthew didn't realize that it was a big deal to Valerie ("it's just a haircut") so he just took TJ out on the balcony and started cutting his hair. Valerie was on the phone and just happened to wander back to the bedroom about half way through and noticed what was going on so she quickly hung up so she could at least get some pictures - she wanted to save some hair but it had pretty much all blown away. Although Valerie really misses his curls, she has to admit that TJ looks very cute with his new "do". Matthew also learned that you never leave Mom out of any "firsts". :-)

Bragging wife

Hi Everyone,
I'm sure Matthew wouldn't write about this, but as his wife I can brag about him. :-) Last week Tribune had an awards ceremony and he received the Rookie of the Year award. He got a wooden baseball bat with his name and Rookie of the Year 2006 carved in it, so I was very proud of him for that, especially since he was only with the company for half the year. He really enjoys his job and has a great boss - an invaluable benefit. We are definitely counting our blessings and know where they come from.

TJ is getting pretty good at mastering the fork. It's so fun to see him learning new things.














TJ is really learning how to explore and enjoy the park.

A self-portrait while at the park. While looking through our pictures I realized that I am always on the back side of the camera so we have almost no pictures of TJ and I together. It's not the best, but at least it's something.

Now that it's finally spring we have made it to the park a few times. TJ loves the swings and he is starting to enjoy going down the slides by himself as well.

TJ loves to wear Daddy's hat, even though it's too big for him. Sometimes it would be over his entire head (eyes and all) and he would just start walking and slam into the wall. He sure looks cute in it though. :-)








Here's TJ laughing at Dad while enjoying his spaghetti dinner. He's been such a good eater from the beginning, a blessing I am extremely grateful for.

Finally...An Update

We are really good at updating our blog...as you can see. We will try to be more diligent so that the few visitors that we have can see some relevant info.

These past three months since Christmas have gone by really fast. Some of the highlights were A work trip to Washington DC for Matthew, a new basketball hoop for TJ and a renewed addiction to American Idol for Valerie.

Matthew came home from work one day to learn that TJ had learned and was practicing putting on make up (he always wants to imitate what he sees us do). Matthew would not have any of that so he immediately went to the store and bought TJ a basketball hoop. Matthew wanted a manlier toy than makeup for TJ to play with. Now anytime we say "Slam Dunk," TJ takes the ball and puts it in the hoop. Next steps would be to get him and ankle brace, a headband and tape down a three-point line on the carpet. The only makeup Matthew wants TJ to put on is black marks under the eyes, but that is mainly for baseball season in a couple of months. If anyone is up for 2 on 2, come on over and TJ and I will take you on!

Christmas Photo's

Here we are on Christmas morning, looking just beautiful. TJ was sick on Christmas so he slept through a lot of the present opening, which is why he is missing from the picture. We didn't even get up on Christmas until about 8:30, so by the time we opened presents and got "breakfast" on it was 12:30!

Here are all the brothers-in-law who were home for Christmas singing on Christmas Eve while my mom was at the Piano, practicing to play for the Methodist Christmas Eve program. From left to right: Matthew (Val), Ammom (Chalise) and Nick (Michelle) with Seth on his shoulders.


While we were in Utah, we went to the cemetary in Spanish Fork to visit the grave of Thomas David Evans, which is who we named TJ (Thomas Joseph) after. Thomas D. had a wooden leg and he came across the plaines in one of the handcart companies. We thought this was a cool picture with 2 of his decendants visiting his grave 100 years after his death.



One of TJ's favorite activities while we were in Utah was getting in Grandma's cupboards and pulling everything out. He would get out all of the bowls and then go to a different cupboard and start on the pots and pans. It kept him entertained for quite a while, and Grandma didn't mind, so it was a daily activity.