Our Fantastically 2 Year Old Pup

Hi, my name is Margo Roth Spiegelman Alston, and today was my 2nd birthday!

As you may have noticed, I tend to move around a lot, but my parents did their best to get some fun pictures of me on my fantastic day!

First, I got to spend Friday night at the Weber's house. They are pretty awesome, even though I almost puked on them and messed on their carpet. Good thing I'm cute...

Saturday morning I was back with mom and dad! They sang Happy Birthday to me and then dad and I played :)

While mom went out with a friend for another birthday celebration lunch, dad gave me my birthday bath so that I would smell fantastic when she got home!

We went over to see my bff, Shasta:

Mom! Can I play with her?? Can I?? Can I??

We played "hide and go seek" ... I'm really good at it.

Shasta didn't even see me coming...

haha! I win! 

Shasta and I played fetch with dad (she is such a good runner!)



Dad, looking handsome. 

Water break!

Shasta: "Mind if we share a bucket?" 

Margo: "Be my guest!"



Nom nom nom nom nom.

This water basically tastes like magic. 

Shasta! Try and find me! (hee hee hee)

Life outside sure is good. 

In the afternoon, mom and I took a nap on the couch.

And by that I mean that I took a nap on her face.

Then for dinner mom and dad made meatball subs!

I supervised in the kitchen.

Dad looked like he needed all the help he could get.

Mom, please. No more freakin pictures...

While we watched UP (one of my favorites - so many heroic dog moments!) I chowed down on a tasty meatball! 

Happy 2nd birthday to me! 

(Stay tuned next week for my guest post on harness safety and good walking habits.)

-Margo A.



Re-creating our First Date

As many of you know, and some of you did not, Jon and I started dating in January of 2004.

Back then, we were not the exciting bunch that you know and love today. We were 16 and 18 and not very full of creative and spontaneous ideas.

Enter: January 25th.

Jon and I had been emailing and talking for a couple weeks and decided it was time for a real date so that we could get to know each other in person. We tried to set up a group activity and everyone we knew was busy :( We agreed to go out to a movie together, and the only thing playing that wasn't super lame or rated R was Cheaper By the Dozen. Jon came to pick me up and we had some time before the movie so we decided to get some food. Taco Bell was (and is) my favorite fast food place. So terrible and SO awesome. Well, that is where we went.

One 7 layer burrito, 2 taco supremes and 8 years later, here we are!

Usually on our dating anniversary we will watch Cheaper by the Dozen (the only time we ever do) and eat at Taco Bell (or some variation of this theme) but THIS year Jon came up with something new...

Yes, our first date was going out to a movie and eating crappy food, so from now on that is what we will do every January 25th - BUT it will always be a NEW movie and DIFFERENT crappy food!

First, he surprised me by taking me out to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie :) SOOOO much better than Cheaper by the Dozen! Here we are waiting for the movie to start:

  Just like teenagers...

We were ALMOST the only people in the whole theater. When the previews started this other couple came in and sat about 5 rows in front of us. We were the only 4 people there for the entire movie. So it was still ok :)

After the movie we went to In-n-Out!

I look like crap because I had a major cold, but the burger still tasted delicious at 11pm!

nom.nom.nom.

The best part of our date re-creation was me asking Jon all sorts of random questions. Just like on our first date when I asked him the color of his toothbrush. I like to get to know people in odd ways. I can't wait to see how our future first date re-creations turn out!

Now, just a highlight of our favorite pictures from this week:

Happy 8 Years!



If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

Yesterday we took the spontaneous drive to San Francisco (an hour and a half away) to meet my cousin, Megan, who had spontaneously driven with her friend Lindsay from Utah for the weekend!

We really were there... see the Golden Gate bridge in the distance? It was a bit hazy.

Sea lions on the wharf: 

It was a gorgeous day and hardly chilly at all! California in January can be pretty great like that.

Megan and Lindsay on the wharf:

For the limited knowledge that I have of San Francisco, it was kind of fun being the one who knew more about it than the others and could recommend places to go and things to do!



After walking around pier 39 and thoroughly checking out the ocean, we decided on dinner at Boudin's. I had been looking forward to this clam chowder sourdough bread bowl ALLLLLL day! It was pretty magical.

Across the way there were a ton of natives watching the SF football game at the sport's bar. Luckily the niners won!

Me and Megs:

After dinner at the Pier we headed to Ghirardelli square - one of my all time favorite places pre-lactose intolerance.

Our picture for the day! (taken by Lindsay)

 Last time we were here I had a heavenly dark chocolate hot fudge sundae :) Unfortunately Ghirardelli square's ice cream parlor doesn't offer anything non-dairy, so I enjoyed watching everyone else enjoy their sundaes! Jon was so sweet and gave me the chocolate dipped strawberry from the top of his dessert.

We left on the promises of a "world's-best-hot-chocolate" (named by Jon) from Cocoabella's in the Union Square mall to hold me over. BUT after driving for about an hour to find parking, we made it to the mall, only to be the people in line DIRECTLY BEHIND the last person getting a hot chocolate before Cocoabella's shut their machine down for the night. And it was only, like 7:30. WHAT?? I told Jon it just means we will have to go back again soon :) And luckily we will be headed to Redwood City at the end of the month for a Nerdfighting adventure, so more on that to come...

Here is a picture from the middle of the central, round escalators in the Union Square mall. We are on the second level here of the 5 story mall.

It would have been way fun to spend a whole day in Union Square. Between the Tiffany's, Swarovski's, Saks Fifth, Kate Spade, Vera Bradley and Betsey Johnson - we definitely had our hands full. Jon ALMOST convinced me to get a Vera Bradley purse. In his defense it was 50% off, but I just couldn't do it. I have such a phobia of spending money! I felt like the REAL fun of the trip was just getting to come at all! A beautiful afternoon and evening in San Francisco with my best cuz and delicious food - that's really what it's all about.

Oh, and even without the hot chocolate, I still found myself a delightful 60% dark bar with cherries and blueberries and almonds in it. Happiness :)

Hope everyone else is having a great mid-January weekend!

Next stop: School.



Catching the Week

What a CRAZY first week of the year! And I mean literally crazy.

Although I don't want to bore you with the small details, I thought I would give you a brief synopsis:

Jon and I were both sick this week. At various times we traded off being home from work. Many times during the week we napped. We didn't even go grocery shopping this week, so meals were getting interesting near the end. I definitely ate cream of wheat with nutella for breakfast one day.

This week was also busy and full of new things! We have already discovered that we need a back up plan in the case that we FORGET to take our picture for the day. haha. That has happened twice now. Our solution has been decided as such:

On said day that the picture taking is forgotten, Steph will draw up a stick figure version of us with the highlight activity of the day. Be warned that because we weren't feeling well this week, our activities were not very exciting. I think my second picture definitely turned out better than my first... although I have a long way to go on my paint program skills. Oh, if only I had a tablet...

Ate Panda Express and rented Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Ate pasta at home and watched Alice in Wonderland

 This last picture is us after church today. Jon got me a new grey dress pea coat for Christmas! but it was late in the mail so today was the first day I could wear it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It's so perfect :D and I also decided that I'm tired of trying to grow out my bangs, so I cut them this morning. I feel SO much better already. I hated not having them! I look like me again :)

Other happenings from this week: Jon got me the new Coldplay album Mylo Xyloto. OH MAN. I can't believe I went the last four months without it. I had only heard some of the songs from the album and I was trying to hold out until Christmas to get it. Let me just tell you that I have listened to it about 6 times in the last 2 days.

Also, we have a break-the-fast tonight with our ward's "childless couples" group. I'm so excited because Jon and I are in charge of root beer floats, and so of course they will be made with Henry Weinhard's. mmmmmmmmmmm. (and Almond Milk ice cream for me!) When we were running around last night trying to pick up the dessert ingredients, we rocked out in the car to Elton John's greatest hits. Best $5 invested at Dimple Records ever.

Hope you're all having a great start to 2012!

A New Year's Day Announcement

Dearest friends and family,

Seeing as how today is January 1, 2012 - Jon and I have an announcement to make which will officially effect (Affect? Effect? I think I mean the one with the A...) the rest of the year.

Our theme of the year 2012 has been titled:

THE YEAR OF PICTURES

I know. Be very excited.

This means that every single day of 2012, we will be taking a family photo. It might be with our nice camera, it might be with our cell phones, it might be with OTHER people's cell phones - but whichever way it happens, and where ever we happen to be, there will be a picture taken to represent the day. Whether good or bad or happy or sad or rainy or sunny or messy or clean, it will be us.

All pictures will then be put by Steph into a scrapbook album which she will be working on throughout the year (ha. ha.) no, but seriously, this is a goal! I will work on it throughout the year and when 2012 comes to a close in 365 days, we will have a full year of printed pictures to remember :) We are very good at taking pictures, not so much at printing them regularly.

Now, this does not mean that I will be blogging each picture from 2012. Every month I might pick a couple of favorites to post. But for our first day, we have this:

Now, every picture has a story, and I think that's what my favorite part of this imagined project is so far. This picture was taken just minutes after I announced to Jon what our theme for the year would be (his turn was last year) and we were deciding on how it would all work. We were driving down to Loomis after church and as we were talking, Margo (of her OWN accord) decided to climb up and IN to my purse which was sitting between us on the arm rest. Jon looked over and said "Well, your attempts to keep her from being a spoiled purse dog have officially failed." I started laughing so hard! It was my first good laugh of 2012. Perfectly Margo. Deciding on her own to sit in my purse. Jon then said "Well, here we go, this HAS to be our first picture of the year." And so it was. Jon is there waving because he is driving, and I just could not stop laughing. Margo, like always, is licking her nose. What a cheese ball family!

***

Now, backing up a little. Last night for New Year's Eve we spent time with some of the other childless couples in our ward drinking martinelli's and playing games until midnight. Jon and I brought this awesomeness called crositi (?) which Jon made - he is such a good cook! It is basically sliced up roma tomatoes with thyme, olive oil and salt (roasted at 300 degrees for 40-45 minutes) and then put on top of bread slices which we toasted on the stove top after rubbing with olive oil and garlic. DELISH.

We hope you have enjoyed this look into our new year. Thank you for reading our blog and visiting us! I noticed this morning that we officially have 4,000 page views of all time. So awesome.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Christmas Celebrations!

The Alston Christmas was nothing short of eventful this year! Christmas eve started off as always with a combined Alston/Joyner MexItalian feast. The food was SO amazing. I feel like I say this every year, but there really is nothing better than ceasar salad and ravioli with spanish rice, beans and tamales. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the food because we were too busy eating :) Jon also made a homemade butterscotch bread pudding for dessert. So delish!

 Beth and I played a flute duet of "What Child Is This?" to start off the Christmas program after we ate. Hopefully the video will load, in which case you can watch it here:

The children all dressed up and acted out the Nativity story as narrated by Allen Norton. It was so cute! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of that part.

Haley serenaded everyone with her recorder skills:

 And then the partying started!

Jake, Morgan and Jon Joyner sang a rad version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" 

And Jon also led everyone in a rowdy group sing-a-long of Adam Sandler's Hannukah song

There ended up being about 40 of us there with parents, children and grandchildren all together.

After the music died down, Beth read The Night Before Christmas to all the kids. And who do you think showed up at the end??? SANTA! (Sadly, I didn't get pictures of this either. Santa was very camera shy this year.)

It was probably one of the best Christmas Eve's I can ever remember :) Good food, good friends, lots of laughs. The testimonies of the Savior and the spirit felt was so awesome, and it was just so great to look around and feel like everyone there was our family!

Christmas morning I woke up around 7. Jon had already been up and was ready to get a fire going. We opened stockings and made homemade apple cinnamon coffee cake before church :)

Margo couldn't wait to dig into her doggie cookies from Santa!

Jon LOVES his pomegranates!

Mint chocolate foil bells! I always loved getting these as a kid. You can tell that I just woke up, look at all the hair in my face! haha, I didn't even notice :) 

Margo got to open her present first. She has gotten pretty good at tearing up paper! 

It's a... It's a... 

Striped sock monkey! She loves this thing :) 

Daddy and Margo with her new toy!

(She really was not excited for this picture, she just wanted to play! haha)

Jon got a fantastic new striped orange and teal tie from me as well as an Epic Mealtime BACON STRIPS shirt from Margo. Ah, bacon.

Jon got me a fantastic new scarf! It's so cozy :) Handmade by a lady who sells her handknits through a small art gallery in Sacramento. Well done, Jon!

Christmas church services were AMAZING this year! I wish I'd gotten a picture of us in our church clothes, but I was too cold after church and changed right back into my pajamas! The primary children sang two songs as well as the ward choir singing and the congregation. It was a very music filled day - my favorite! We are blessed with so much musical talent in our ward. Brother Scott Seamons sang a solo arrangement of "O Holy Night" and it was absolutely stunning. I was so touched. That was probably my favorite part of the day! He and his wife gave brief talks also. It was so nice to have simple sacrament meeting services centered on our Savior. It really made Christmas a nice balance for me. Too often we forget on Christmas day to talk about what Christmas really is about. Having church made Christmas morning really humble.

We headed to my parent's house for breakfast with Margo after church.

Jon was very excited about getting new tires for the Explorer: 

Me with my new scarf:

My dad with Margo:

(literally 30 seconds before she threw up all over his leg.) 

My mom with her new Corningware baking dish! 

Michelle all dolled up for church: 

She made her own poinsetta hair clippies with supplies from my Beverly's :) So crafty.

Jon and I were thoroughly spoiled this year and I felt so blessed! My mom even got me this bracelet making loom :) I love that it's all pink and purple. It makes me feel like I'm 6 years old... basically how I feel all the time anyways. I made a lime green and purple friendship bracelet for my bestie, Breanna! Later in the day we got to visit with her and Ben. She got me a fantastic vinyl tile that says "I loved you too much to just be your friend, so God let me be your Sister" awww :)

Mom, me and Michelle by the Christmas tree:

In the afternoon we went to Jon's parent's house and opened presents with them and had dinner. The food was delicious! One of my favorite gifts was from Jon's mom. She had put together a family history book for all of us on Ancestry.com which has pictures, information and census records for the past 5 generations. Totally cool! My sister-in-law Jackee also got us a beautiful set of picture frames that have the temple and The Family Proclamation in them. I can't wait to hang them up!

Unfortunately we didn't get ANY pictures at Jon's parent's house. Jon's dad took so many I just figured I would bum some off of him, but he's a little slow with uploading them to Facebook. ha! ;) Ah well, it seems like I always miss some pictures during the holidays. At least the memories are there.

Also, I tried to be more crafty this Christmas with presents. I made a cookie jar for my in-law's dog Shasta (which I forgot to take pictures of...) and I also made these earrings for my grandma! They are angels (she loves angels!) At least I remembered to get a picture of these :)

I am so grateful for the wonderful Christmas we had this year and the time we were able to spend with family and friends. It was definitely one of the most touching Christmases I've had in a long time. As Beth would say, it was "tender". Thank you to everyone for making it awesome!

Oh, and I have been really behind on sending out Christmas cards this year, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, don't worry. It's probably just in the mail :)

Stay tuned for New Year's and our upcoming theme of 2012!

December

I really couldn't come up with anything more interesting for the title of this post.

A lot has happened so far this December! Work is really picking up as Christmas is getting closer, and both Jon and I have finished our classes for this year. Granted, I was only taking one institute class, so Jon had it much harder than I did! Next semester will probably be the best ever. I am taking another institute class, as well as psychology, and Jon is taking one class - his last EVER!! He will be graduating with his master's degree, and unless he decides to start a PhD program in 2013, he will be done for good! Next stop: real life after college.

We have also been decorating and getting ready for Christmas. As always, it is coming up way too fast. We finally put the star on our tree today, and we had our ward Christmas party last night! I was also able to go to the bridal shower for one of my past YW yesterday (wow!) and Christmas cards are slowly but surely being put together. Check out our good looking family!!

And finally, but especially most important this month, was the passing of my dear friend Aly's 4 month old son on Monday, December 5, 2011. Aly and I were co-workers at my last job for 4 years, and when her first son Gabriel was born in July, we were all so elated for her! Gabriel lived a total of 19 weeks, being perfectly healthy as far as we knew. After a tragic accident that kept him on life support all last weekend, he peacefully passed away Monday afternoon, to the heartbreak of all friends and family.

Aly and her husband Patrick have asked that in memory of Gabriel, anyone interested can donate to INova Health System, which supports local community hospitals and child care in Virginia (where they live). I know that during Christmas, many of you may already have charities and places that you like to support. If not, this may be the perfect time to start! Either way, I felt like it was important to let you know that it is available. And also for Aly and Patrick to know that Gabriel will never be forgotten, even though his time on this Earth may have been brief. I am so thankful for our Heavenly Father's eternal plan of happiness and the blessing that we all have to know that Families can be together forever. I know that I am eternally grateful for mine.

Merry Christmas to all far and near who read our blog. We are so glad to have you in our lives!

Sincerely, Steph & Jon

INova Health System FoundationChild Life
c/o Jamie Gentille
3300 Gallows Road
Falls Church, VA 22042

http://www.inova.org/get-involved/foundation/donate-now/index.jsp