2014 - The Year Of . . .

This year started off busy. 'Twas not for lack of a theme, however!

After a fun New Year's Eve with The Joyner's full of games I'd never heard of and delicious snacks (and an attempt at watching Groundhog Day, which I barely stayed awake for)

 We made it to MIDNIGHT!

No official pictures were taken of the ringing in of the New Year seeing as I was too tired.

On the 5 minute drive home, Jon could hardly wait to hear what the theme for 2014 was!

I happily announced that this year was to be

The Year of SATURDAYS

The rules are as follows:

Every Saturday of the year, we must do SOMETHING.

It doesn't have to be new. It doesn't have to be different. It doesn't have to be BIG. It just has to be something that involves us going on a date, or spending time together as a little family, but it has to be pre-planned, and it can't be something that we would have done already... like laundry.

Basically we always find ourselves in ruts - realizing that we haven't been on a date in months, or haven't really done anything noteworthy the whole week. Movies pass us by in the theaters that we always intended on seeing, and FHE just isn't a solid habit yet (although the quilt we have been working on for ages will hopefully motivate us to get some good use out of it!)

This year's theme is a reminder to help us TAKE TIME for each other and really make every week count. It's also an extension from last year (The Year of Exploration) so that we can continue to try new things and complete projects :)

Saturday 1 of this month, we went out to lunch at Claim Jumper with Summer and Riley. They are expecting their first baby (a girl!) just shortly after our baby Olivander, so we were really excited to see them before they headed back to Utah from Christmas break. We forgot to take a picture with them since we were on a rush out to this ADORABLE maternity photo session with Tadd and Kelly who are expecting their first baby (a surprise!) just 2 weeks ahead of us.

 

Proof of our lunch date with Summer and Riley will be forever documented in our new blog header for the year (pictured above!) in the center square. The "R" is from the Claim Jumper sign. Summer and Riley were the first to hear about our new theme and helped us jump start this blog header idea :)

Saturday 2 of this month, we went out to a new place for breakfast. I had actually been there before, but Jon had not. It's not "new" per se, but it was new for us. Country Gables Cafe had been voted best breakfast in Roseville, and my first time there I loved it! Unfortunately the second time there was not as great... and Jon was disappointed. Once again we forgot to take pictures - but I did get a snap of my leftovers ;)  Biscuits and Gravy with Country Potatoes. mmmm

Saturday 3 of this month was QUILT DAY! Some of you may have seen me post a little bit about it on Instagram.  

We were able to get the final pieces of fabric at Beverly's and made sure EVERYTHING was cut and sorted. Our ambitious log cabin pattern is a 17 piece block creating a 36 block quilt. We even finally started sewing it together this week! Right now the blocks look like this:

I can't wait to see it all come together!

The 4th Saturday of this month has a plan - which will be blogged about separately :)

One of the reasons I am really excited for this year's theme is because we will get to put our DATE PASSPORT to good use!

 You may remember when I gave it to Jon for Christmas.

(near the end of this very long post about 2013)

We have since completed about 4 dates in the book!
 Sometimes with friends, sometimes on our own. So far totally awesome.

 It's been a good way for us to keep track of things we want to do, movies we want to see, and we can write a little bit about it afterwards! I'm especially glad that at the end of the year it will be a book of memories where we can look back and see all of the cool things we got to do. It's sort of like an interactive journal! It might also be fun 10 years from now to remember what was in theaters and see how our tastes might have changed.

Already we are thinking of new things to do each week, all the time! Going to the zoo, taking a day trip to San Francisco, exploring the redwoods of Humboldt, taking Kate to the beach for the first time - these are all things that we'll be attempting as we Saturday our way through 2014 :)

2014 is starting off to be pretty good!

We hope that you'll enjoy following the adventures of The Alston Family.

Wrapping up 2013

December brought a LOT of adventures for our family.

Remember that cute advent calendar I made back in September?? We didn't use it at all this year.

I also didn't realize that I hadn't posted any baby bump pictures since week 21! So let's start with that.

Here I am at 27 weeks - almost 3rd trimester! - sporting a delightful polka dot dress from the lovely Judith Kester :)

Baby II kicks all the time. So far everything has been going really well.

And here I am at week 28:

 
I had my glucose test Friday and my numbers were AWESOME! I'm so thankful I don't have to go in for the 3 hour glucose test this time. Baby Olivander's heart rate is in the 130 range, and measuring right on track. My NP guesses that we're having a boy. She said that's not an official medical guess! But of all the old wives tales she's ever heard, she said the only one that seems a little more true than others is the slower heart rate for boys. We'll see in March if she and Jon are right :)

On December 7th we were able to participate in the Roseville Library Winter Gala, photographing their silent auction fundraiser. Jon looks so handsome when he's working :)

It was a swanky event with delicious food and awesome music from the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra!

We cleaned up pretty well!

This was right after our Stake Christmas Choir Concert which I played flute for. I didn't get any recording of the song, but at least you can see a picture of the choir warming up. They sounded beautiful!

 Katherine, of course, continues to make us laugh every day.

On December 10th, Jon took pictures of Kate as she had sat in her toy basket and fell right backwards and couldn't figure out how to get herself out!

Yep.

Kate also LOVES dogs. She can only say a handful of words, and one of them is "dog-gee". She had so much fun coming with us to a photo session for our friends Victoria and Colby and their 3 dog children; Bane, Midnight, and Pepsi.

 

Kate just giggled the whole time!

Oh, and photo bombed... crazy girl.

Kate continues to grow into toddlerhood and still LOVES bathtime! 

 
She enjoys feeding herself and would rather hold all her own sandwiches and utensils. She is a very slow, deliberate eater and doesn't like to be rushed, but she always eats it all and (most of the time) loves food! Breakfast and lunch are easiest for her. She is not a fan of dinnertime.

When we went to Portland, Kate enjoyed reading to herself in the car. She was about 80% good during the whole drive.

Kate even had her own full size bed in the hotel. We made a blanket and pillow barrier around her so that she wouldn't roll out...

Yes, she's really in there sleeping.

 
Gram & Kate together in Portland:

I have really enjoyed that Kate finally has enough hair for me to play with. She is very patient about having her hair done as long as she has something to play with or a book to read while I comb, twist, and clip bows and ribbons in. This was Kate's hair today. I was so excited about how it turned out!

Her face is a little red because she was screaming at me trying to take her picture.

So I just followed her around and took pictures while she walked about holding my lunchbox.

Jon said the corn rows reminded him of a little black child... but I'm ok with that :)

December also brought a lot of crafting for us. We made some awesome coaster sets! (Custom orders soon to be sold on our etsy store.)

Finn and Spock are The Goffenson's cat children. Lily's coaster was not pictured here. Ali has her own law firm and Tim studied for a Master's in Jazz - specifically emphasizing percussion - at Sac State :)

And we made these burned wood letters for a few friends with the years they were married. I love how the natural color and grain of the wood stands out! I might just have to make one for our future mantle.

We also made these fun jars for my sister's family:

along with some chocolate spoons dipped in fun meltable toppings!

We sent Christmas cards out to friends and family out of state. I only sent out 18 total this year - so don't be sad if you weren't a recipient :) I have found that by limiting myself, I have less stress and I don't get overwhelmed.

 
And, just a random picture of our Christmas tree this year:

Aside from making crafts this December, we also were SPOILED with a lot of goodies:

Kate enjoyed the cracker bars from our home teachers

On Christmas Eve we had a MexItalian feast with the Joyners and all of the kids acted out the nativity. Kate was such an awesome baby sheep! She even yelled "doggy!" when Margo was barking during the prayer... leave it to our children.

On Christmas day we opened our stockings and shared presents with the Alston family. Kate got some sparkly nail polish, blue flower hair clippies:

 
a See's marshmallow tree, Bordeaux bar and chocolate foil balls. Margo got a new squeaky bone toy (which she loves!)

and Jon got a pomegranate, Bordeaux bar, and new argyle church socks.

Kate was given a few new books including "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

which she was quite content to sit and read in the middle of the floor while the rest of us opened presents. She sure does LOVE books more than anything else!

She also got "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

Some new jammies!

and a few fun toddler toys like a Noah's Ark playset, a Leapfrog toy phone, and a pull-along turtle. I just loved helping Kate open her gifts!

Jon and I each got new pajamas, and I got some awesome gloves with leather fingertips for using with my touchscreen phone. Beth got me some new black flats (which are adorable!) because I literally wore holes through the bottoms of my old ones at work.

I gave Jon a couple creative gifts for Christmas. One was a box of all his favorite things:

Henry Weindard's, gouda cheese, Twix, Kit-Kats, bacon, Nutella, Cool Ranch Doritos, Snicker's ice cream, blueberry Eggo waffles, Mint Chocoate Milano cookies, and sourdough bread... yummmmm

 And a cheesy poem to go with it:

I also gave him a DATE PASSPORT (created by me/inspired by Pinterest) for all our date ideas, like a page for each restaurant we want to try but have never been to and all the movies we want to see, as well as fun outdoorsy dates and other ideas for free things we can do at home. On each page there is a space for us to STAMP our passport once that date is completed, and we can write in our reviews and any other info in case we want to try it again someday. One of the main reasons for putting this together was to contribute to our new theme for the year of 2014! Which was not revealed to Jon until January 1st - so this was just a sneak peek :)

By far my most FAVORITE gift this year was a Viking Huskylock serger from Jon!

 
I'm not going to post the video of myself opening the serger because I cried. Jon was so thoughtful and I was completely surprised! He felt that it was a good investment for our etsy store, and I couldn't agree more. I absolutely LOVE it and can't wait to do more projects :)

I forgot to take our camera to my parent's house, but I did get this picture on my phone of us all opening gifts together:

Kate was given a lot of awesome goodies there too! Stocking candy, a potty training stool, sesame street racing cars, and a gold and pearl bracelet (which she was determined to wear on her wrist right away). It was so cute that even though the bracelet was a little too big, she just held her arm up so that the bracelet wouldn't fall off and she would shake it around! She is girly for sure. She also got these awesome new boots with pom poms on them:

We have a diaper supply started for baby Olivander, and lots of awesome baked treats from family and church friends.

Dinner this year was prime rib at Jon's parent's house with baked potatoes, jello salad and glazed carrots. The table looked great and everything tasted delicious!

Overall I feel like we had a really successful (and busy!) end to the year. I'm very grateful to all our friends and family who love and support us, and I'm glad that we could be here in California to spend time with so many amazing people.

Can't wait to meet baby Olivander and see all the awesome things we will do in 2014!