Lyza's Birthday (take two)

Lyza Jo started her birthday the night before by getting out of bed and coming in to see us decorating for her big day! It's all about the balloons baby. For her birthday breakfast we went to Macey's and got donuts and chocolate milk. Yes, I am the best mom ever. Then we came home and opened some presents and played hard all day. That night GnG Halverson came over for dinner and a party. We had jello cake with strawberries on top. Lyza had tons of fun and had a hard time going to bed knowing her new fun toys were just in the other room.

Lyza Jo is 2 today!

Thanksgiving Break

Missi is getting married Dec. 20 and came with her beau for Thanksgiving. We went dress shopping that friday and she found her perfect dress. It was tons of fun having her try on and model all the different styles for us.
We partied at Nate's house and finally got to meet their little Callie. She is super cute and super small and smiles at everyone.
Happy Birthday Ally. We meant to post this yesterday but Brian had the computer all day so we had to wait till tonight!
The rest of the time we mostly spent playing the new expansion for Lord of the Rings online. Brian had lots of work to do, but we found time to play!

Daddy and Lyza

Here are just a few fun pics from the last little while. A big THANK YOU to Lauren and Justin for Brian's new soft pants, he loves them and wears them whenever he can! Elya is very in to coloring and doing little crafts. Her favorite is painting or anything to do with glue!!

Convert

I spent most of the primary season hoping that Hillary would overcome the odds and become the Democratic nominee. I feel that Hillary has a great deal of political competence, I like her health care plan better than Obama’s (still do), and I just felt that overall she would be able to get more done.

I also like most of what I know about Bill’s presidency and she probably benefitted from some transference there. Add that to my tepid approval of Obama, my belief that women are more discriminated against these days than African-Americans and that puts me firmly in the Hillary camp.

When Hillary finally conceded I was fairly disappointed. I still viewed Obama as the more appropriate choice between the two final candidates, but I was still only tacitly on board. I kept hearing Obama’s supporters raving about Obama’s ability to inspire, and that just wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted a hard-nosed fighter that could get the work done.

That all changed Tuesday night. I still hold Hillary in high regard and think she would have make a great president. Finally, two speeches changed my mind. What is interesting to me is that it took both to do the trick. I was finally inspired, by both John McCain and Barack Obama.

Their conciliatory messages that emphasized the importance of banding together to overcome the herculean challenges that we now face made me want to be less partisan, roll up my sleeves, and work with my fellow Americans. Maybe Americans can be one and rebuild the great city on the hill. Yes we can, or at least I HOPE we can.

We will see in the years to come if we have lived too long in fear of each other’s motives, or if we can purge the poison that has been poured in our ears for decades. Robert Kennedy spoke the following words:


“When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

“We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force.”

If you are like I was, and still see these as lovely but empty, then please consider that they are only empty if we let them be. If we look at each other and see a bigot or a lack of faith, then these words are indeed empty, but it is our fault.

Bad Hair Day

Christmas Craft

This is our first year for Christmas Craft time during G.C.!! We decided that we are going to make an advent calendar. Brian said the Halverson clan had a Christmas tree and each day you would put up a different tree decoration. Does anyone still have this so I can see what it looked like? I also went online and found a few cute ones I thought I might be able to recreate.

This one is too fun and looks easy enough, right?

Elyza loves animals and I thought this would be her favorite one to play with, and it would be fun to make all the animals. It looks like everything is padded and I am not sure how to do that on so little pieces. Any ideas? Oh, and I love the palm trees!

I thought this would be so fun to do for Elyza. It is a bit busy so I would try to tone it down a bit, but I think Elyza would love all the sequin sparklies on it. If anyone else has any ideas on calendars or stockings, I would love to see them!

Precious

This was at the Oregon Coast this summer. I love this picture.

Yummy yummy to my tummy

I found this really great recipe for waffles and wanted to share. I also added our favorite recipe for salmon for you fish lovers out there.

Sunday Morning Waffles

2 cups lukewarm milk, 1 package active dry yeast (.25 ounce), 4 egg yolks, 2.5 cups flour, .5 tsp salt, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 stick melted butter, 4 egg whites.

Pour the milk in to a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the top. Stir well to dissolve, making certain that no lumps remain. Beat egg yolks and add to cooled yeast mixture. Combine the flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg; add to mixture. Add the vanilla. Stir in the melted butter. Beat the egg whites until stiff (about 4-5 min); fold into batter. Let the mixture stand in a warm area for 1 hour or until double in size, then pour 1.5 cups into your waffle iron and enjoy!

Grilled Salmon

Make sure you have a fillet with no bones, and with the skin taken off. You will have to double the mixture if you have a big fillet. Mix together one third cup soy sauce, one third cup canola oil, one third cup brown sugar, and one fourth cup water. Mix well. Pour over salmon and marinade in fridge for at least a half hour. Grease your grill with oil and put the salmon directly on the grill. We have a gas grill and it takes about 5-7 minutes on both sides, but we like it a little black, so just cook it to your liking! Seriously the best salmon I have ever had. We have also tried this marinade on chicken and shrimp, but it is best on salmon.

Back to Work

Today is Bri's first day back at school. He left at 8 a.m. and, with all of his meetings and classes today, will not return until close to 7 where he will then have to go to the church for scouts until 8:30. We have been so spoiled these last few weeks with neither of us working and just being home doing whatever we want. I start tutoring 3 days a week as well so we are officially back to the grind of regular people living.
An update since we have not posted for a bit:

• Brian did an internship with the City of Troutdale this summer and had a great experience. He has decided being a city manager is exactly what he wants to do for a career. We had so much fun in Oregon with friends and family but were excited to come back to our own place and to get the next 8 months started so we can finally be outta here! Brian graduates in April, and then, who knows?

• This year Brian was elected President of the MPAA, Master of Public Administration Association, and is also a T.A. for his old economics professor. In a couple of weeks he gets to go to Virginia for an International City Managers Association conference where he will hopefully meet some city managers that will help land him a job in April.
  

• We also celebrated Brian's 30th birthday on the 29th. We stayed in and had curry and pumpkin pie and played LOTRO*. It was a pretty chill day. Elyza has a Strawberry Shortcake video that is about a birthday party so all day long she was saying "a happy birthday to you!" Darling.

• Elyza is 20 1/2 months now going on 5. She is such a sponge. She picks up the littlest things and runs with them. She can now identify all of her letters, say her abc's (which she does all the time), identify and spell her name, count to 10(except for 4 which doesn't exist to her), speak in sentences, potty on the toilet, half way dress herself, prepare meals even Eric would be proud of**, and is taller than all the 2 year olds in the nursery.

* Lord of the rings online. It is a game Brian and I play that we are a bit obsessed with and is so much fun!
** We recently got Elyza some fake food and dishes. She loves to take our order, run back to her room to fill it, then bring it back and watch expectantly as we pretend to gobble it up.

Big Girl Undies

So we went and got some big girl undies last night (elmo, care bears, and tinkerbell). My friend had said this would be better because then she would know when she had an accident and could tell the difference. She has had her undies on all day and no accidents (knock on wood). Also, I just wanted to share a few pics of the past few weeks or so that we haven't had time to put up till now.

Lyza's new undies.

New planter Tom made for us. Beautiful!

Ally sporting her new hat at the imagination station.

Chicken fight in the park.

Lyza excited to be going to nursery.

Potty Training

I think Elyza has been ready for potty training for some time, but with our crazy summer, I figured we would wait till we were back in our own home to start. She already tells us when she is wet or poopy, so that is down. We got her Cinderella pull ups and she is so excited. Our friend gave us the idea of putting her on the potty every half hour until she gets it. Does anyone else with experience have any good suggestions for us?

Morning Joy

Last night Melissa Holmes asked me if I wanted to go with her to get the new Stephanie Meyer vampire book this Thursday night at midnight; I just might. :)
This morning I drove Brian to work, and on my way back I was thinking how much I love this new trend of midnight parties for new books. For those of you who have never experienced this, it is quite a high. We have done it twice now for the last two Harry Potter books. Being there, anticipation felt throughout the building, people dressed up as their favorite characters, others discussing previous books and theorizing what will happen in the next one; it is truly one of the more fun things I have had the pleasure of taking part of. Mostly, I am filled with joy at people's love of reading. I hated reading until after high school, which is when I started in on the Harry Potter books, and I have never been without a book to read since. I don't really care what people read, I just love that they love to read. And I love that this new generation of young children seem to be more involved in reading than the latter. Already Elyza comes to us with her favorite books to read at night, and then says "Lyza read" as she pretends to read them to us as well. I am so grateful for all the writers out there, for their great minds and imaginations that let us drift off into another place for a time and feel and see and experience things we may not have had the privilege of experiencing if not for their words.

Lefty

I have often heard that people who are left handed are more creative and artistic. I hope this is the case for Elyza, as I have not a creative bone in my body. Lyza loves to color: on books, walls, TV's, clothes, her face. . . My Mom got this cute little desk for her and it is so fun to come around the couch and see her sitting there completely focused on creating her latest "Elmo" work of art. We will be selling these during our Christmas gathering if anyone is interested:)

Blue Lake Water Park

We went to Blue Lake Park this last week and found out that they have a great little water park area just for little kids. Fun was had by all as the chased eachother through the sprinklers, ate some fishy crackers, and finally crashed on the towels. We are having a blast being home with so many friends to play with. Elyza is always asking for Ella and Aiden; she will miss them dearly when we go back to Utah.

Aiden (Annie's), Lyza, and Ella (Angie and Aaron's)

Lyza, Samantha, and Adam (Josh and Lenee's)

How Cute is This!

We have an amazing nursery here in Troutdale. This sunday, for singing time, they put these headbands on the children and gave them each a flower to wave while singing "In my pretty garden." It was too cute. Elyza loves nursery, and although she doesn't necessarily interact a lot with the other children, she does play well. And, she was great in there even with me gone, which was a great relief!

My Favorite Fathers

While sitting at church listening to the YM/YW give talks about fathers, I drifted into thinking about the fathers in my life. I began thinking about what makes a good father and realized how lucky the my daughter, nieces, and nephews are. I thought I would let you know what came to mind as I thought about those fathers.

• Justin- Does Gracie's hair and it actually looks good-doesn't treat Grace like a child but takes the time to answer her questions and make sure she understands-is a great example to Grace in the way that he treats her and Kitti with love and respect-let's Grace put barrettes in his hair and take pictures to document it.
• Bim- Is so excited to see Little when he gets home-wakes up with Little and takes care of everything in the mornings so Krista can sleep in a bit-does whatever is needed to make Little smile and giggle and be happy.
• Eric- Will go out and play catch with PJ whenever he asks-cooks amazing food and let's PJ rate it-takes PJ to pro games-stays up late into the night to get stuff done which makes it so he can spend more time with PJ and Lo during the day-treats PJ like an equal and not like a little kid.
• Tom- Will do anything for his children-involved in his children's lives and is concerned for their happiness and well-being-is a fun-loving Grandpa who loves to be woken up by his little girls and will even sit through Disney movies to be with them-reads books to his granddaughters and plays fun music for them to dance to-talks "ball" with PJ-though I never really saw them together, I have developed the opinion that he was a great example to his sons in how they should treat their wives by how he treated Ceri, as Kitti and I are spoiled rotten by his boys.
• Josh-will do anything for Heather-does story time and baths before bed for the boys-takes his sons fishing and does other fun outdoor things for them-reads scriptures and says prayers with the boys.
• My Father-loves to talk to each of us and listen to even the most boring details of our lives- loves his grandchildren- plays with Lyza even when she is being a grump-wrestles with Logan and Colton-is ready with an answer whenever we had questions-extremely patient-let's his girls drink from his cup, even if we empty it-shares all that he has with us-tells great stories-can alleviate any sadness with just a hug-let's his children get a dog even though he really doesn't want one, but he knows it would make them happy.
  
• Brian-loves Elyza more than any Dad could ever love a daughter-dresses her and even makes sure that she matches-teaches Elyza new words and letters and sounds-is so patient with Elyza and is so good at talking to her to help her understand what she needs to be doing-watches Toy Story for the 100th time just to make Lyza happy-you can see his eyes light up whenever she does something cute, or even something naughty-puts her to sleep at night faster than I ever have-plays and runs and wrestles with her-reads her stories and sings her songs-is already thinking about her future and ways we can help her to be a good student and love to learn-is sweet and loving and loves to give hugs and kisses-is a great example to her in the way he loves and treats her Mom-you know he is a good father by the way Elyza lights up when he comes home and by the luvs she gives him when she is in a cuddly mood.
  

These are just to mention a few, though I could write much about many more. I hope all you Fathers had a fantastic and relaxing Father's Day.

Who is this cute girl?

Elyza Jo Halverson

Favorite Foods: Cheese, toast, bananas, pasta, mashed potatoes, apples

Favorite Treat: Gummy Lifesavers

Favorite Music: "No" They Might Be Giants

Favorite Movie: Toy Story 1 or 2

Favorite Activity: Playing with stickers

Favorite New Words: Stop it, rainy, scratchy, wait, hippo, stars

Likes: Buttons, little kids, toys, walking, rain, playing in the water, feeding her baby, faking snoring, playing chase, spinning, going up and down stairs, brushing her teeth, milk, papa, flying kites, jumping on the trampoline, nursery, singing.

Dislikes: Going to bed, holding hands, being in a stroller or car seat for more than 15 minutes, being teased, bibs, when mommy isn't paying sole attention to her.

Elyza has never been a good sleeper. She has reached that fun stage where she will do anything to get out of going to bed. After reading many books and singing a few songs, we turn out the light, look at the stars, and then get into a comfy sleep position. About 30 seconds later she is up on her elbows saying, "milk, milk, milk mommy, milk," so I oblige and get her some milk. After the milk is done and we are back into comfy position, she sits up again and says, "daddy, daddy." So we bring Daddy in to lay down as well. We all get comfy again and she sits up and says, "toast, toast." And that is where I draw the line. It is too funny not to giggle at. She does this at every nap and bed time now, and the requests are becoming more and more outrageous, which makes it all the more fun, and frustrating:).

Fun with Aiden

Aiden, Andrea's little boy, came to play a couple of times this week and Elyza was beside herself with joy at having a friend to play with.

They were totally cute together; only fought once over who got to the hold the Bouncing Tigger.
I love play dates. It is so fun to see little ones interact with one another and see their different personalities. I have been in the nursery while here in Oregon and find that, so far, this is my favorite age. Elyza learns new words every hour it seems and has so much fun trying them out. I love to see her learning, figuring out that three comes after two, that it has to be dark in her room to see the stars on the ceiling, that stickers can stick on anything but letter magnets can only go on the fridge...

The Hike

We went hiking up Lauterell Falls last night. It was beautiful and Lyza got her first ride in her new hiking backpack, which I don't think she loved, but she was a pretty good sport most of the way.

This was another falls that was about half a mile hike from the first one.

Just one of many beautiful scenes along the way.

When we got back to the bottom, Angie and Aaron Holwege and their girls, Sydney and Ella, were waiting for us since they saw our car and invited us over for some Dutch Oven peach cobbler. Mmmmmmm.

We had to stop at Crown Point on the way back to change someone's diaper, I'll let you guess who, and caught this last pic as the sun went down.

Auntie Lo Lo and Uncle Ec

We went to Seattle for Memorial Day weekend to visit the Diaz's. Here are a few pics of the fun we had.

We got donuts at Pike's Market,played in the fountains,did each other's hair,gave kisses,ate some fantastic food, made by these guys,watched a little Buzz with cousin PJ,
and ended with a beautiful walk around Bellevue.
We played monopoly and scrabble and Eric beat us all at both games! We want a rematch! It was a fantastically relaxing weekend and Brian has been pining for Eric's cooking ever since.