11 years with my best friend

It's an interesting thing--time.

Some days seem to fly by while others drag on and on.  The same seems to happen with weeks, months and years...and then somehow, you take the chance to look back at what you've experienced, what you've accomplished and produced, and you wonder how so much could have happened in such a short time..

11 years.

December 30th 1998 The Big Guy Lowe and I were married for time and all eternity in the Portland, OR Temple.  We laugh as we look back at our wedding preparations.  We had both recently returned from serving full-time missions for our church; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I was finishing school at BYU and The Big Guy Lowe was enjoying a bit of time with his family.  Within a month and a half of The Big Guy Lowe returning from Holland we were married.  Amazing.

Was our marriage a fairy tale story?  Not at all.  We had a lot to learn about eachother as we hadn't spent that much time together.  Long distance relationships are wonderful in some aspects, but are lacking in others!  We did have a lot of work ahead of us, to make our relationship the loving, respectful, fun companionship that it is today.  I'm so grateful we chose to work at it.  We have been so greaty blessed because of it.  We truly are best friends.  We choose to spend time together as often as possible.  We love eachother dearly and are still in love with eachother.  We have learned how to work together, as a team, making us stronger because of it.  Do we still have our challenges?  Of course, but together we can overcome them--together.  I love you babe.  I feel the love you have for me, for our children.  I see how hard you work so that we are well taken care of.  I am humbled by the faith you live your life by.  I thank my Heavenly Father daily for the blessing you are to me.  I love you.

To celebrate the years we have shared together we make sure to set aside special time for just the two of us.  This year our overnight in the city was wonderful!

We started by bringing flowers to each of our mothers and thanking them for all they did 11 years ago to help make it possible for us to be married.  Back then, the thought never crossed our minds about the challenges a family would have to face planning and attending a wedding so soon after Christmas.  We're grateful!

Grammy HB then came over with the gift of watching our boys so we could celebrate.  Thank you for loving our boys so much mom, and for loving us too!

The Big Guy Lowe and I then headed out!  First on our agenda was getting lunch!  We have been wanting to try a new Thai restaurant.  We had heard this place was extremely authentic--not serving many of the regular dishes that people in the states are familiar with.  Pok pok was AMAZING!!!

You just have to love the shots you take of yourself!

But the food...let me show you the food!  These are the spicy fish sauce wings.  Not what you expect at all--and so good!

The green papaya salad was spicy and delicious, and the satay were wonderful too.

After eating, we went to look at some cars.  For some reason, The Big Guy Lowe seems to think it would be fun to have new cars--but he always thinks that.  Good thing I'm the voice of reason. It doesn't mean we don't have fun looking.  You just never know when the right car will actually speak to you!

So we headed to the Audi dealership to look at an S5 (the Big Guy Lowe actually wants the rs5, but Audi won't say when they will be available in the States yet)

and for me we looked at the q7.

Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with the q7's space inside.  In order for me to change from my XC90, I'm going to have to see greater space inside without moving to a standard size SUV or minivan.  At least that's what I'm saying right now.  I will say that the s5 sounded beautiful though!

After looking at cars we headed to our hotel to check in.  We stayed at the NINES and loved it! 

It's always fun trying out new hotels, and this one was great from the Club level, location, decor, right down to the heavenly bed.

Nice.

We had dinner at Russel Street Bar-B-Que where the pulled pork sandwiches are amazing!  And followed that up with our favorite bread pudding at the Portland City Grill.

After dinner we enjoyed the rest of the evening together.  The views from our hotel were amazing.

Right on to Pioneer Square--their Christmas tree was beautiful!

And interestingly, we could see across to the hotel we stayed at 11 years earlier.

We have been greatly blessed these past 11 years.  I love you babe.

Happy anniversary.

A few snowflakes in the forcast...

We had planned on taking the outside lights down, but seeing a snow flurry or two encouraged The Big Guy Lowe and I to head out and start.  Snow doesn't come just any day in the pacific northwest, you know!

Our oldest son was pretty excited to use his new scooter in the softly falling snow flakes!

We finished getting the lights down, but that didn't stop the snow...

so we woke the other boys up from their naps, got everyone bundled up and headed out to play!  Grammy stopped by and played with us for a while!  She taught our boys the importance of catching snowflakes in their mouths!

Our littlest wasn't sure what was going on at first, but soon started to have fun!

Earlier in the year, we picked up some skis for our boys--what better time to try them out?  Aren't all children's skis basically rock skis anyway? :)

It didn't take our oldest much time at all to gain his balance--on our driveway!

Our middle son wasn't about to be left in his powder though--he wanted to try too!

Both boys did a great job!  Maybe we will take that family vacation to Bend, OR this winter after all!

Snow is so much fun--especially if you don't have to go anywhere!

That snowman is the size of our youngest little guy!

Catching snowflakes in their mouths--all by themselves!  Fast learners!!  :)

As the light started fading, and the snow kept falling, we decided to take a walk through our neighborhood.

Beautiful.

We had been outside for quite a while enjoying all of the snow when we started seeing signs that it was time to head home...

But we couldn't take a walk outside without stopping by Sue and Gary's house.  Our youngest insisted and headed over there even though he had been dropping in the snow just minutes before!  We are so grateful for our wonderful neighbors!

A quick look at our home covered in snow...

Now down the street each way...

What a wonderful day!

Christmas Day

After the LONG night of Christmas eve, Christmas morning came, and with it all the wonder and amazement that our children still blissfully hold!  Our oldest son came into our bedroom and snuggled for a short while until his brothers awoke...then it was time to head downstairs to see what Santa left!

I left a note asking Santa to take a picture with my camera before leaving...just so I could see how beautiful it was!  He kindly obliged...

Santa must have a sense of humor turning the tv on to the Yule log while having a fire burning in the fireplace!  I'm glad he knew how to turn the fireplace off before he left!

Christmas morning we always start with stockings!

While our two older boys know just what to do, our littlest guy hung back and observed for awhile!

Slowly he caught on...(I love all our stockings made lovingly by Grammy HB--Thank you always!)

Then before we can enjoy the presents under the tree, we get to have breakfast!  This year we had the added excitement of Grammie Lowe having a sleepover Christmas Eve!  She enjoyed the fun with us!!

German Pancakes for the boys...

Delicious eggs benedict and hash for the adults...ahhh, homemade food is so good!

After a wonderfully enjoyable breakfast, it was time for the tree!!  The first gifts the boys opened were new nets!!  The Salmon Creek won't know what hit it when the boys come armed with these nets!!

Our oldest son was estatic with the lego sets he received

and the pump scooter!

Our middle son loved the Battleforce five race car

and the hotwheel race tracks!

Our youngest loved his new kitties

and puzzels!

The Big Guy Lowe was pleased with the new race car game he received...

but mostly he is excited about our vacation to Maui that we gave to each other!  YAHOO!!

There were many other gifts given that were wonderful and greatly loved.  It was a good thing Santa knew Grammie Lowe was spending the night so she was able to open her presents too!

Grammy and Grandpa HB came over and shared their fun Christmas with the kids too!

Everyone was so happy with all the wonderful gifts!  Santa brings one gift per person in our home, The Big Guy Lowe and I give one main gift per child, the kids give gifts to everyone and we try to reign the grandparents into giving only three gifts!  With all that, how can we not be thrilled!

Later in the afternoon we all gather together again to enjoy another wonderful meal--more traditional this time!  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling the best this year so we didn't make it a late evening, but enjoyed the time we had.

Family, Food and Faith provide wonderful opportunities to share our love for one another.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas eve holds a fun place in my heart.  I have my little-girl memories of Christmas eve when we lived in Wisconsin--each of us were able to choose our very most favorite food to eat that night!  Nutrition went out the window for the evening as our favorite foods generally consisted of chips and jello.  I'm glad to say my tastes have developed in the persuing years and now The Big Guy Lowe gets to add his favorites too!  The second part of this feasting tradition centered on illunination for the evening--we would gather all the candles in the house and line them in the center of the kitchen table--only lighting them when it was time to eat.  I have magical memories of the candlelight glowing on our faces while we sat and ate fun foods with our family and friends...ahhh, wonderful memories!

Those memories continue to be created as the tradition lives on!  Oh how I love family traditions!  Thank you mom and dad for making our lives so full of wonderful events!

We still gather all the candles in my parent's home and line the dining room tables with them.

We still make and bring favorite fun foods for all to enjoy!

We also still have a reenactment of the Nativity, but now all the roles are taken by the grandkids.  :)

(Grammy helps everyone get their costumes ready--quite a feat when grandkid's ages range from 20 months to 18 years!)

Our favorite Wise Man.

See that cute shepherd peaking through the top of the banister, we claim him!

Then there are stories, games, singing Christmas hymns and songs and lots and lots of fun!

Finally, when it's time, we head home.  I love spending the holidays in our own home!  I love that our boys know they get to open one present that night, and that it's always pajamas!  This year their pajamas were space themed and they all matched!  I love it!  We also let them open a space book so we could learn a bit more about what's out there!

A plate of cookies were then set out--each of the boys were able to choose what cookie to leave for Santa, a mug of milk, and this year the boys chose to leave the reindeers lettuce, romain to be specific.  :)  Then our bedtime routine of prayers, scripture reading and songs.  It was a good night.

We love Christmas in our home.  We love precious truths celebrated through symbolic gestures and decorations.  We love blessings and peace that are ours because the Son of God was humbly born to Mary so many years ago.  My heart warms knowing of the love our Heavely Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ have for each of us.

Merry Christmas.