52 Week Challenge: Question 10

52 Week Challenge: Question 10

What were some of the family and holiday traditions that you remember? Ways of celebrating?

Kristin:

I grew up with a lot of traditions. As I have mentioned many times on this blog, my mom is very festive. We celebrated all of the holidays and my mom would decorate for each of them. Just like we all do now. Here are some of the main ones:

New Years: My parents usually threw a big New Years Eve party at our house with their friends. We would get to hang out in their bedroom and watch movies and eat good food. The next morning we would get to eat all the leftovers from their big bash. I used to invite friends over to help us eat all the gourmet food. New Years Day was always the day that we would take down our Christmas tree and all of our Christmas decorations. My mom always would make a big pot of her famous steak soup on New Years Day.

Valentine's Day: When we would get up in the morning on Valentine's Day and would come down for breakfast, my mom would always have cute little gift bags for us with candy and a little surprise. When we lived in the dell everyone there would ding-dong-ditch Valentines and treats at your door. It was always super fun to take all your valentines around and then run home to wait for everyone dropping off your valentines and trying to *catch* them before they could run off.

St. Patrick's Day: My mom would always dye some of our food green. She famously did this once with our milk and some how turned it sour and caused all of us to hate milk from then on. As we got older she would do corned beef and cabbage, beer bread, and some kind of green dessert.

Easter: We weren't a religious family so Easter was all about bunnies, eggs, and chocolate. My mom would always have our house decorated for Easter and would do an elaborate tablescape and Easter lunch. We always got beautiful Easter baskets filled with candy and little gifts. We always dyed eggs and had an Easter egg hunt. Our Easter meal was usually ham, potato salad, baked beans and other sides and a special dessert.

I remember being so excited when I got that Strawberry Shortcake purse in my Easter basket. We are standing in front of our least practical family car. Kelley had to ride on the hump in the back seat and that hump got hot!

Mother's Day: We would always go out for a fancy brunch. Usually at a fancy hotel or ski resort. My siblings and I especially loved the crepe station and the dessert table.

Birthdays: My mom would always cook our favorite dinner and fix whatever we wanted as our *cake*. Sometimes that was pie or dirt and worms pudding. My birthday dinner was always finger steaks with buttermilk ranch dressing, mashed potatoes, and a salad also with ranch dressing. I always wanted my grandma's green punch as my drink (back then my mom and grandma would make it into a slush... I am too lazy to do that now) and I had a brownie mocha torte every year. Sometimes we had birthday parties or slumber parties and sometimes we had family parties and just went to do something fun. My birthday is in June so I had quite a few birthday parties at a park which was fun or even better at the lake!!

Stacey, Kirk, and me with my very favorite brownie mocha torte. I picked it every year!!

Fourth of July: This was always a big holiday in our family. My mom would decorate for this too. We always wore red white and blue coordinating outfits, attended the parade, had a big BBQ, and went to the fireworks. We always took popcorn, buttered cheerios, cherries, and grape crush to enjoy while we watched the fireworks.

Fourth of July Texas Style!! Me, Mom, and Kelley

Halloween: My mom always decorated our house festively. My parents usually had a big costume party with their friends at our house the weekend before Halloween. We were all farmed out to spend the night with friends for that event. Picking out what we wanted to be for Halloween was always a highlight. We would plan our costumes out months in advance and Mom would sew for all of us. She would always make dinner in a pumpkin for Halloween night usually it was a beef stroganoff type dish that she would bake in a huge pumpkin, I loved it! We always went trick-or-treating. My mom wasn't big on us eating much candy so we could usually eat whatever we wanted Halloween night (after she inspected it of course or took it to the hospital to get it x-rayed...yes, she really did that) and then we had to hand it back over to her. She would dole out a piece a night until we forgot about it or Christmas arrived. Once we hit high school she gave up. I don't think Kirk and Jordi had their candy rationed like we did. Maybe that was why I never had a cavity until I was around 37. :)

Kristin as Princess Leia, Stacey as the Easter Bunny, and Kelley as a clown.

(Me as a '50s girl, Kelley as cheetah, and Stacey as Peter Pan all in costumes made by my mom)

Thanksgiving: My mom always got up very early to start making the feast. We always got up to watch the Macey's Day Parade and the Westminster Dog Show. (My kids still do that.) When we were younger we used to eat in the afternoon. Once we were all in college we started eating after dark and we all prefer Thanksgiving dinner by candlelight. My mom always makes an elaborate menu (now we all help) with all of the traditional dishes that we MUST have and sets a beautiful tablescape. It is always fancy and lovely. Thanksgiving dinner is the one menu that we don't mess with; we stick with what we love and eat it year after year. You forget to bring my great-grandma's homemade southern noodles to eat on top of your mashed potatoes with gravy and you are in big trouble. Someone forgets the brussel sprouts...cancel Thanksgiving!! This was the one holiday that we would sometimes travel to the lake to spend it with family.

Christmas: This has always been our biggest and most festive holiday. My family would buy the most enormous fresh cut tree and my mom would always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. My mom goes ALL OUT at Christmas. The whole house is always decorated...even the bathrooms are festive. The whole month was always spent doing fun things, baking, taking treats to our neighbors, and going to Christmas parties and programs. We never lived by much family so we usually did our own thing at Christmas. We used to always go out for a fancy lunch on Christmas Eve. When we lived in Utah we would always drive to SLC to go eat at The Heather. We loved it. On Christmas Eve we usually liked to eat all kinds of fancy appetizers and holiday treats. We always put out lumber jack socks as our stockings for Santa to fill. This is a tradition that dates back to when my Grandpa was a boy and his family was in the lumber industry. My kids use lumber jack socks too!! My mom always made us Christmas pajamas and we got to open them on Christmas Eve along with our yearly ornament. (My kids do that too.) Christmas morning we always opened up our gifts and had a big deluxe breakfast. Our Christmas dinner varied each year...sometimes it was ham, sometimes seafood, sometimes turkey, once we even had a Christmas goose (it was disgusting.) We always shake things up with the menu for Christmas dinner but Thanksgiving is the one meal that we are sticklers about!! Although we pretty traditionally eat seafood, escargot, mom's pate, and brie along with other things.

Decorating Christmas Cookies. My mom is famous for her amazing soft sour cream cut out Christmas cookies with homemade buttercream frosting. The grandkids are her biggest fans and we look pretty excited in this picture too!!

Vacations: We usually went to the lake, some times other places, but mainly the lake. That was the place that we always wanted to get to as fast as we could once school got out for the summer. My parents used to drive us up to Rexburg, Idaho to my Aunt Marji's house and drop us off and we would meet my Grandma and Grandpa Ellersick there and they would take us back to the lake where we would stay for a month during the summer. It was the best! Our parents would drive up at the end of the month, spend a week, and bring us home. Our cousin Tania who lived in Spokane would come out and stay with us too. On rainy days we would come in to Spokane and go to the Garland Theater and Riverfront Park. We thought it was so awesome. It is so funny that I live here now and those are regular activities for my kids.

Riding ponies at Riverfront Park in Spokane while visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Ellersick.

Labor Day, Memorial Day, Spring Break: For these holidays we used to always go somewhere fun. Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, Moab, Arches, Zion, Lake Powell, or Flaming Gorge. Sometimes to Southern Idaho to visit aunts and uncles. We always got to do super fun things on these trips like go river rafting, horseback riding, hiking, and once we went for a helicopter ride. So fun!! Spring break was always spent skiing.

As far as other traditions go...the tooth fairy always came. If we got shots at the doctor's office we always got ice cream afterward. (We do that with our kids too). We always took pictures by our front door on the first day of school. We always got ice cream on the last day of school. My mom for years dressed me and my sisters in a particular color that became our signature color. She would buy three of most things and give each of us the item in our color: I am red, Stacey is green, and Kelley is blue. Somehow Kirk and Jordin escaped this color branding. I am trying to remember what our other traditions were. I know that there were many more but that is all I can think of right now.

Here we are in our signature colors!!

Tyler:

New Years: My family always had particular foods that we would eat on New Years Eve. We would drink sherbet frappe punch and eat special meat filled crescent rolls that my mom would make. We used to always have a movie marathon.

Valentine's Day: We didn't do that much. My mom would always have us make homemade valentines to take to school, never store bought, and we would have our school parties and that was about it.

St. Patrick's Day: The only thing that we would do was wear green that day.

Easter: We always had Easter baskets in the morning and then would attend church. That afternoon we would gather with extended family on my mom's side. We would usually go to my Grandma and Grandpa Kofford's house and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins would come over for a big Easter egg hunt and dinner.

Tyler, Lori, and what is clearly the world's creepiest Easter Bunny.

Fourth of July: We would always attend the Provo Freedom Festival. We would go to the parade and then to the fireworks that night. Some years I was involved in the Stadium of Fire program at BYU with the scouts.

Halloween: I always enjoyed the school Halloween parties. We always dressed up, sometimes our costumes were store bought and sometimes they were homemade. We always went trick-or-treating. Sometimes there were church parties with cake walks and fishponds which were always fun.

Lori, Tyler and Brett

Thanksgiving: We usually gathered with all our Kofford extended family at my Grandma and Grandpa Kofford's house (my mom's parents). My Grandma was famous for her Parker House Rolls. We all loved them. I still make them on Thanksgiving for my family.

Christmas: We always had family parties and gift exchanges with both sides of the family, both the Johnsons and the Koffords, in the month of December. We always had two Christmas trees growing up. A big white flocked tree that was our "fancy" tree that was upstairs in the living room. My mom decorated that tree in all blue. Blue lights and blue ornaments. Downstairs in our family room we always had an artificial green tree that had multi-colored lights and a mix of ornaments. On Christmas Eve we would always bring my Grandma Johnson traditional Norwegian food that she loved. My dad would make lefse and rosettes. We always brought her her favorite lutefisk which is a white gelatinous fish dried in lye and Near Beer. Lutefisk is absolutely disgusting. I don't know how she could eat it; that was probably what the beer was for, to chase it down. After she joined the church it was Near Beer of course. Then it was back to our house to open our Christmas pajamas and one gift of our choosing from under the tree. My mom always made her traditional lemon bread and gumdrop bread. Kris makes my mom's lemon bread for our family now and some years I make gumdrop bread but I am the only one who really likes it. Gumdrop bread is like fruit cake but instead of candied fruit my mom would add gum drops. On Christmas day we would usually visit family or family would come to our house.

Tyler's Mom, Lori, Tyler's Dad, and Tyler in their Christmas Jammies.

Tyler, Lori, and Brett

Birthdays: Our main birthday tradition was using special birthday candles. Our parents bought these birthday candles when we were born and each year we would burn the candle down to the next year. My dad was always having to go and dig them out of storage but we loved them. Sometimes we had friend birthday parties and sometimes we had family parties. My mom always made me my favorite meal for my birthday which was lasagna and ice cream cake. My mom would make what she called her "special ice cream cake"for us. She would crush strawberry and chocolate wafer cookies and put them in the bottom of a big bowl. Then she would layer a few different flavors of softened ice cream into the bowl and refreeze. Then she would thaw it for a bit and remove the ice cream dome from the bowl and that was our ice cream cake.

Tyler, Brett, and Lori and Tyler's infamous birthday candle.

Friday nights: Friday nights were always family pizza and movie nights. We loved it. We would call our order in to Little Caesars Pizza in Orem, go to Sounds Easy video store and get our movies, on our way back home we would swing by the gas-and-go with our refillable mugs and load up on pop and then head home for a night of movies and pizza. It was the best. We always looked forward to Friday nights when we were kids.

Sunday dinners: Sunday dinners were a big tradition growing up. My mom usually made some kind of roast that would cook while we were at church so that when we came home the house smelled delicious. She most often made baked chicken, roasted potatoes, and homemade rolls. One of our favorite traditions was that, sometimes on a busy Sunday, if we had a bunch of extras meetings or something we would get to go to our food storage and each of us would get to pick out our own bottle of canned fruit. Growing up in Orem with all the orchards we always had a lot of bottled fruit to choose from. Getting your very own jar was a real treat. My favorites were always the pear sauce or peaches. Then we would get to eat our favorite fruit with peanut butter toast. We loved this.

Vacations: We used to go to the Oregon Coast quite a lot when we were kids. That was where my dad was from and we always enjoyed the beach, exploring tide pools, going crabbing and clamming. We also used to go to Kanab, Utah quite a bit when we were younger because my grandparents owned a hotel there before they moved to American Fork, Utah. We used love to spend the night there and go swimming. We went to Disneyland a lot especially when we lived in California. Big family reunions in the summer were also regular traditions and we would travel to wherever they were being held. Our family loved to camp and we would take our tent trailer and head out into the mountains as often as we could for as long as we could. My Dad loved the National Parks especially Yellowstone so that was often a regular trip.

Lori and Tyler at Disneyland

52 Week Challenge: Question 9

52 Week Challenge: Question 9

What are the names of your brothers and sisters? Describe them.

Kristin:

The McClellan Kids: Jordin, Kristin, Kirk, Kelley, and Stacey

I am the oldest in my family. My sister, Stacey, is two and a half years younger than me.

River, John, Stacey, Dane

Stacey is married to John and they have two kids Dane and River. They live in a small farming community in WA about an hour and fifteen minutes away from me. Stacey works in a wheat quality lab for a wheat scientist at a nearby university. John runs his own business. He has a dog kennel and dog training business. Their family loves animals!! John is also a falconer and is teaching his children to follow in his footsteps.

Their family loves to hunt, fish, fly their birds, and camp. They have dogs, horses, birds, and reptiles at their house. Stacey is also one of my partners in our business Sisters Creed. Stacey loves cooking, reading, traveling, spending time with family, antiquing, wine tasting, and watching Dane play basketball.

Elle and Kelley

Kelley is the next in line. She is 5 years younger than me. Kelley has one daughter, Elle. We have lived in the same town for over ten years now which has been fun. Last year she bought a home that is three minutes from my house. My kids are in and out of her house and Elle is in and out of ours. It's been fun to have Kelley nearby and for my kids to be able to have a close relationship with her...she often runs carpool, picks my kids up from activities, supplies them with pizza, gets in their business, and keeps a watchful eye on them when we are out of town. My kids joke that Elle is an honorary Johnson. One day Kameron came home from school and made Elle a snack and was hollering for her to come and eat it and she wasn't even at our house that day. :) Kelley works in health care and does hospital billing for several states. She has been dating, Chris, a local restaurateur for several years. Kelley likes to hang out with Elle, cook, read, travel, paddle board, go wine and beer tasting, and rearrange furniture and decor. She was once a part of Sisters Creed but being a single mom and working full time made it difficult. She continues to be one of our biggest supporters and most loyal customers.

Meki and Kirk

My brother Kirkland is the only boy in our family. We were so happy when he was born. We wanted a brother really badly. He has been a pretty darn great one too. Kirk is ten years younger than I am. He lives in Utah. He is engaged to Meki. They have been together for several years. Kirk has a son Kaiden from a previous marriage and he has a son Kirin with Meki. Meki has two other children as well. She has a son Tarren who is Reilly's age and a daughter Kaiya who is Ailey's age. Kirk works in construction. Kirk is hilarious and always keeps us laughing. He loves to fish, camp, hike, ski, snowboard, boat, waterski, and wake board. He is a great cook and an adventurous eater. He loves to travel. He is the happiest in the mountains or on the water and... I am sure he would say hanging out with his sisters!! ;)

Jordin and Ramon

Jordin is the baby of the family. She is 13 years younger than me. She lives in Kansas City and is married to Ramon. They are the most hilarious couple!! Ramon is perfect for her. They have two kids: Jaylah and RJ.  They both work in the health care field. Jordin recently completed nursing school and is an RN. Jordi and Ramon are super social. They have a huge group of friends who are like family to them and who are in and out of their house all the time. They like the finer things in life (actually we all do!) and work hard to achieve them. Ramon is the snappiest dresser around. I was in awe when I saw his closet for the first time. They love to entertain, travel, socialize, and they love to bowl. They are both on bowling leagues and travel to tournaments. Their door is always open to their friends and family. Jordin is an amazing cook as well.

I am blessed with wonderful siblings. They are all (spouses included) really good loving people. They are all interesting people who do interesting things. They are all devoted parents and wonderfully involved aunts and uncles. Family is important to all of us and we work hard to make sure that we all get together as much as possible. We love many of the same things in life...good books, travel, boating, time at the lake, the outdoors, time with family, and good food.

TYLER:

I have two siblings. One older sister and one younger brother. We live in three different states and don't get to see each other as much as we would like but when we do get together we enjoy it. We especially enjoy reminiscing about our childhood and laughing at all the devious things we did. Whenever we got in trouble we always stuck together and Lori would figure out a way to get us out of it. We were always a united front no matter who was the culprit. We've had some great times together throughout the years. We are also able to talk about our dad together. The three of us share memories and stories about him that no one else would understand the way that we do. We keep his memory alive.

Tyler, Lori, and me

My sister, Lorinda, is the oldest. Lori is two years older than I am. She lives in San Diego, CA. She works in the banking industry. She loves her job managing a Chase Bank branch and she is excellent at it. She really loves living on the West Coast and loves the California climate. She is a great tour guide. Kris and I had a lot of fun visiting her last June. She knows all the great places to go and good places to eat. She is very blunt, has a bawdy sense of humor, and loves to shock our mother. We all enjoy that! Lori is outgoing and fun. She is hard-working, ambitious, and loyal. I am proud of her and her accomplishments.

Marissa, Liv, Brett

Brett is my younger brother. He is three years younger than I am. Brett is married to Marissa and they have one daughter, Liv. They live in Utah. Marissa works for IHC in their HR department and Brett is a firefighter and EMT. He loves his job. It has been fun watching him find his career path and excel at it. I am proud of him. Brett is also loud and gregarious. I am the quiet one of the family. He has an extremely dry sense of humor like our Uncle Lew. Brett always has a funny or horrifying story to tell. He is a great dad and a good husband. His daughter, Liv, looks just like him.

52 Week Challenge: Question 8

52 Week Challenge: Question 8

How did your parents meet? How did they get engaged? What are some details of their wedding day?

For this question I once again I went to my father for his view. I was a little nervous to ask him about this subject but he came through. I really appreciate his willingness after all these years to let me ask him personal questions and that he takes the time to thoughtfully answer. It has been really interesting learning so much about him in the short amount of time that Tyler and I have been working on this project.

KRISTIN:

This is what he said:

Hi Honey, As you know your mom and I met at a dance on BYU campus while we were both students. I was very taken with this beautiful, tall, young lady and finally got up the courage to ask her to dance. We danced, talked, and I asked her for her phone number. She was very nice and after a few days I called her and asked her for a date. After a few weeks or short months we started dating exclusively. It was fun. We went to movies, BYU ball games, concerts, to church together, and to many family gatherings.

After a few more short months had passed it seemed right that we should be together so I bought THE RING. I bought her a ring at Bullock and Losee  on University Avenue in Provo. I'm sure that BYU made Bullock and Losee multi-millionaires because that was THE place for diamond ring shopping for engaged BYU couples and believe me there were many engaged couples at BYU. I don't remember the exact words I spoke or what I said when I proposed. But I must have done it right because she said YES. Our engagement was longer than most because your mom and I decided to postpone our marriage until she finished her nursing degree and graduated. That was a very good decision. I was very proud of her.

We were married in the SLC temple and it was a beautiful ceremony. When I looked at her at the alter I couldn't believe how lucky I was. All four of our parents were there along with many family members and friends. Because of the long distance between Provo and Bonners Ferry, and because we wanted as many of our family members and friends to share in our happiness, we had two receptions. One at the Lake View chapel in Provo and one at the Bonners Ferry chapel. It was like magic for me to experience all of that. Our first night as husband and wife was spent at the Royal Inn Hotel in Provo. That was another BYU honeymoon tradition. No details but I will never forget that night. After our wedding night we had breakfast with my mom and dad and started our honeymoon road trip to Bonners Ferry. We had a beautiful reception in Bonners Ferry and then started our real honeymoon at your great-grandfather's lodge at the lake. We stayed in a special little cabin called Pine Knot. It was a tradition that family members that were newlyweds would stay in that quaint cabin and it was a blast. Besides enjoying the cabin, we hiked, tried to paddle a canoe, swam, and really enjoyed being together.

Honey, I hope that this has helped you with your church assignment. It brought back a lot of fond memories for me. Love, Dad

***Side note...After my Grandpa and Grandma Miley passed away their three daughters split up their property. My grandma got Lilac Lodge, her sister Marilyn got the house and the store, and her youngest sister Mickey got Pine Knot and the Ark (a cabin that looked kind of like an ark). My grandma got the best deal!! I remember being so happy that she got Lilac Lodge. The best of the best. But I missed going to Pine Knot. My Uncle John briefly lived there when I was little. Our newlywed tradition out at the lake now is that newlyweds get the only bedroom out on the sleeping porch that has a door. We call it "The Honeymooner". Since I was the first grandchild to get married it was quite the event. The first night that Tyler and I spent out there we were barraged with catcalls and pranks. It was pretty funny and the tradition still stands.***

**Edited to add: My mom chimed in on this subject too. She added that the night that they got engaged my dad took her to dinner at the Rodeway Inn in Provo. When the waiter brought out her dessert it had a ring in it. My mom said that it was pretty romantic. What is interesting to note about the old Rodeway Inn in Provo is that...

When I was in college at BYU I worked at this very hotel only it was called the Howard Johnson in my day and the restaurant there was Joe Vera's. I worked there for over two years...while I was dating Tyler, through our engagement, wedding, and up until a week before I had Reilly. My mom came into this place numerous times and never once mentioned that this was where she got engaged to my dad. Seriously?!**

TYLER:

My father's good friend, Helge, from Norway met my mother while all three were attending BYU. Helge wanted her to meet his friend, my father, who was getting his masters degree in public administration. They meet and immediately began dating throughout the fall. Then one night he took her to Temple Square to see the lights. He had made reservations at the roof top restaurant of what was then the Hotel Utah and is now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. He had reserved a table that overlooked the temple grounds. Dad asked Mom to marry him as the Christmas lights turned on and she accepted. They were married that following spring in the Salt Lake Temple by Harold B. Lee. They had the reception in Provo. My mom made all the arrangements herself as her parents were living in Kanab, Utah at the time running a motel there. Her Aunt Beulah, my Grandpa Kofford's sister, made her wedding dress. After the wedding they lived in Provo while Dad finished up his masters degree.

February: Things I am Loving

February: Things I am Loving


1.) Dell Kids FB Page


At the start of February one of my good friends from Springdell started a private FB page for all of our friends from the dell. It is awesome!! Most of the kids I grew up with are all on it. Memories are being shared, fun times discussed, dell traditions talked about, and lots of fun interactions. It is the BEST!! I love the way that it has reconnected all of us. It is pure joy!!

2.) Pandora 80s New Wave

The entire trip to Portland Tyler and I rocked out to the Pandora 80s New Wave station. It is THE.BEST. I have to say that 80's music still holds up. Every song that came on I was like, "I LOVE this song!! It is currently my workout music as well. I love it!!

3.) Milkis Korean Soda

I hate milk so who knew that I would love to drink a *milky* (not really) Korean soda. I have been loving this stuff for about 2 years now but it is a little hard to find. I rediscovered it in February at one of our more obscure Asian markets here in Spokane. I wish the one that I always shop at had it but they don't. Anyway whenever we are in this part of town I love to stock up. It sounds weird but it is so good!! My favorite flavor is the vanilla. It tastes kind of like a 7-up and vanilla ice cream float when the ice cream has melted except it isn't thick or creamy. It's so good!! Tyler likes the Strawberry flavor and I like that one too. It is my second favorite. Try it! You will like it.

4.) Magnifying Mirror (s)

I feel like I need to write a blog post about "Horrifying things that happen once you hit forty..." or "Things no one told me would happen once I hit 40..." or "Things I didn't believe would happen to ME after I hit 40 and obnoxiously DID..." These are all tales of horror. If you are over 35 (don't even wait for 40 for this one)...and you don't own a magnifying mirror you need to buy one this very minute! You have no idea what you are going out into the world looking like. BE WARNED...it's terrifying. So much hair that the regular bathroom mirror misses. Sometimes the car mirror points things out but NOTHING like the sad truthfulness of the magnifying mirror. Hair, pores, wrinkles, zits, black heads...you name it and you've got it. (Yes, YOU!!) You think you look good...but you don't. Get a magnifying mirror ASAP. It's a flat-out hideous sight. You'll see. I now even have an additional portable one that I throw in my make-up bag for on-the-go. You're welcome.

5.) Reilly broke up with Justin

This really should be number one and with huge block letters and a million exclamation points. Just know that that is the joy I feel. Maybe throw in a ticker tape parade and a marching band and fireworks. Justin is an okay kid who comes from a completely psycho family and it is time for him to move on. The final break up (fingers crossed) occurred about two weeks ago and it was a week of high drama. Mainly from his freaky family who felt the need to get involved...so much so that then Tyler had to get involved... and actually had tell Justin's ridiculous dad to stop calling Reilly at work multiple times a day and harassing her amongst all kinds of other unbelievable things. At one point in the conversation Tyler actually uttered these words to Justin's dad, "Are you threatening me!?" FOR REALS. (And yes he was threatening Tyler and our daughter and our family) Aren't you jealous that you don't have a teenager daughter in a crazy dysfunctional relationship with a boy from a psychotic white trash family? Good times. Good-bye Justin...good riddance...God bless.

52 Week Challenge: Question 7

52 Week Challenge: Question 7

Question 7: What are some genetic traits that run in your family line?

Sometimes I am going to tweak the questions. Genetic traits? What exactly is being asked here? Freckles? Curly hair? Color Blindness? I am going to describe both physical and personality traits that I have observed.

KRISTIN:

Here are some physical traits that I have inherited from my parents. I am tall. I am 5'9". Both of my parents are tall. My Dad is 6'5" (I have always heard that he was 6'6" but he described himself as 6'5" so I guess he would know.) My Mom is (was) 5'9" although she is definitely shrinking. I haven't seen my dad in years so he probably is too. I have dark brown hair. Both of my parents have (had) dark brown hair. (My hair is also naturally wavy...neither of my parents have wavy hair.) I have dark brown eyes. My father has dark brown eyes. (My mom has green.) I have prominent dimples. Don't know where they came from. I am right handed. Both parents are right handed. My blood type is fairly rare AB+ (Crazy side note...Tyler has the exact same rare blood type.)

My eyes are very almond shaped. This has caused people all my life to ask me if I am part Asian. (Not that I know of.) My mother's side of the family's physical characteristics are very strong. Most of my siblings resemble her side of the family...as do most of my children. Stacey also has very almond shaped dark brown eyes but Kelley, Kirk, and Jordin do not. Some of my cousins on my Mom's side also have this look. My Mom's mother, my Grandma Ellersick has the same eyes, as did her father, my Great-Grandpa Miley. According to my Grandma, people used to often ask him if he was part Asian (he wasn't). This has led to some great speculation as to where this look comes from. Everyone thinks that there has to be an Asian ancestor somewhere down the line...but none of us have ever found one...and not for lack of trying. My Grandma was hugely into genealogy and never found the person. I am dying to do one of those DNA tests to find out what exactly my genetic make up is. I'll keep you posted. I definitely want to take the test in the next few months.

My Grandma Ellersick

My Great-Grandpa Miley. (My grandma's dad.) 

He is the one responsible for bringing 5 generations of our family to the lake. He bought a bunch of property there and some cabins and opened this store and resort called Echo Beach on the lake.

As far as personality goes... I wouldn't say that my personality resembles either of my parents. My dad has a funny sarcastic sense of humor...and so do I...but I've always thought that my sense of humor is more like my step-dad's (the dad who raised me) and like my brother Kirk's. So it's the old question of nature vs nurture. My mom is a very Type A Person in certain areas with perfectionist tendencies and I am that way also. She is more laid back than I am... I am Type A with perfectionist tendencies in ALL AREAS. I am not laid back... I am a worrier (she is not), I struggle with anxiety (she does not). Although I do think I am getting better with age in both of those categories. I am high maintenance (she is not). But we are both very creative people. I would also say that I am intellectual and philosophical. My mom is intellectual but not particularly philosophical. I am passionate and have a quick temper. I don't know that I would say that about my mom and most of these traits I have no idea about concerning my father.

One thing that I really enjoy is looking for family traits in my children. Reilly on the outside looks more like me but she has all her dad's crazy quirks. She loves to complain that she got all of Tyler's bad traits...weird ribs, freaky toes, bone structure. She got her dark brown hair and dark brown eyes from me but they are not almond shaped. She is tall. She is 5'8". Reilly's hair is naturally straight whereas mine is wavy and Tyler's is curly. She also got her sense of humor from me (if I do say so myself). She got her love of relaxation from her dad. I am not a relaxer... I am usually always on the go. The most boring thing in the world for me is to lounge around my house all day on a Saturday and watch movies and veg. She and Tyler LOVE doing this. She also got her quick temper from me but her ability to go from slightly mad to what she calls "rage mode" she got from Tyler. Tyler has a very slow burning temper. He rarely gets super mad but when he does...lookout... he is SERIOUSLY PISSED!! But it takes awhile. He isn't a big yeller like I am and he can tolerate a lot more shenanigans than I can.

Kameron is truly a pretty good mix of both of us. He looks more like Tyler but still has a strong family resemblance to my side of the family. His facial bone structure looks like my mom's side of the family. Kameron has sandy blonde hair. (Don't know where that comes from.) He also has gorgeous green eyes outlined in gold. Seriously. They are really cool. They are more almond shaped than any of our other kids but not as much as mine. He has naturally curly hair which he got from Tyler. He does not enjoy it and always wants it cut super short. His build is just like my brother Kirk's and most of my male cousins and uncles on my mom's side. Kameron is medium height...although he has grown a ton this past year...so who knows. He has a deep voice that is like Tyler's brother Brett's voice. Kameron is very Type A with perfectionist traits. He is a do-gooder. He always wants to do his best and the right thing in every situation. He gets that from me along with being intense and a bit of a stress case. (Also from me.) Kameron's temper is also a slow burn. He rarely yells...but does a lot of stomping and slamming. He has a funny sense of humor but takes himself too seriously sometimes. I am trying to break him of that habit! Kameron is very intellectual and pragmatic. He is great at math and science (ALL TYLER!!)  and wants to be an engineer (Tyler's field). He is very athletic like Tyler. But there is something about him that always reminds me of my Grandpa McKinnon. I think they have similar personalities and when we see Kameron watching a ballgame or riding a horse or doing various other things it is crazy how similar they are. Tyler sees it too. We always talk about it and say, "Yep, that's Jack right there!"

My Grandma and Grandpa McKinnon

Ailey has super straight light brown hair. She has brown eyes. Not as dark as mine or Reilly's and not at all almond shaped. Ailey is super dainty and petite. She is always either the shortest girl in her class or the second shortest. This has to be a genetic throwback since both Tyler and I are tall and our parents are tall. My Grandma Ellerick is short and Tyler's Grandma Kofford (his mom's mother) was even shorter. I doubt she was even 5 feet tall. Ailey is a super nurturer. (Both my mother and I are nurturing but we are nothing like Ailey and Tyler's mom is not at all nurturing.) Ailey is the epitome of femininity. Tyler and I always joke that when we are old we want to live with Ailey. She will take great care of us, we will live in a spotless and beautifully decorated home, and she will feed us amazing food. Ailey has freckles sprinkled across her nose just like I do. (None of our other kids have freckles.) My siblings, Mom, and Tyler say that Ailey is "A little Kristin" and that she is the one who looks and acts the most like me. One thing that I absolutely adore about Ailey is that she has my Grandma McKinnon's smile. HER EXACT SMILE!! It is the coolest thing. I love seeing Ailey's face break into a grin and see my Grandma's smile that I love and miss so much. Ailey can be shy but she is also feisty and doesn't get pushed around. I think she gets that from both me and Tyler.

Bryn looks more like Tyler. She and Kameron look the most alike of all our children. Bryn also has naturally curly hair, but not as curly as Kameron's. Her hair is dark blonde. She also has green eyes. (Both my mom and Tyler's mom have green eyes.) Bryn is tall. She is one of the tallest girls in her class. She is athletic like Reilly, Kameron, and Tyler. Her personality is super sweet and loving. She is a peacemaker (like Tyler).  She has the most sun shiney disposition. She is always positive and happy. She is rarely angry and upset. She is super smart and works hard and always does her best. I think that she is also a good blend of both Tyler and I.


TYLER:

Some of the traits in my family that have been passed down through the generations are my father's very distinctive blue eyes. The Johnson eyes. Both my sister Lori and I have them, along with my Uncle Rick, and several of his children.  I got my red hair from my maternal grandmother, my Grandma Kofford. None of my children or siblings have red hair. I look just like my Kofford cousins (the kids of my mom's brother Lew). My cousins Kim, John, and Nate and I all look like siblings.  I don't look at all like my own brother and sister. It was also often said that I bear a strong resemblance to my maternal grandfather, my Grandpa Kofford, in his youth.

Tyler's Grandpa and Grandma Kofford

My kids have all inherited traits from my side of the family. My son Kameron and I carry many of the same traits in personality and physical attributes. My daughter Reilly has definitely received my foot traits and, as she would say, my weird ribs. She isn't too happy about that! Reilly resembles my mother at times. My daughter Bryn has many of her traits attributed to my family both paternal and maternal. She looks a lot like Kameron. My daughter Ailey has definitely received many of her traits from her mother. She is a mini version of Kristin.

My father had an engineering mind that has carried on in Kameron and myself, but I have also seen it in my girls as well. All of my children excel in the sciences. Both of my parents are very musically minded which I now see in all of my kids and their love of music. My parents were always involved in various choirs and enjoyed singing and playing instruments. My mother plays the piano.



***I will add that all of our children have inherited Tyler's technological genius. They are so technologically savvy...including Bryn. It is crazy. Tyler got that from his father. All of our children are absolute music fanatics just like their dad. They are always up on the latest music. Our kids can talk music and various bands and groups with Tyler for hours. (I cannot.) Also, every.single.one. of our kids got Tyler's long eyelashes. Lucky ducks! As far as Tyler's red hair goes...he is a rather rare genetic mix. Most red-haired people don't have blue eyes and he doesn't have many freckles either. His complexion is ruddy rather than pale and he is very Nordic looking. His Norwegian heritage is very evident. Tyler's eyes are the bluest blue. They are so pretty and distinctive. I always thought that we would have a red-haired child but obviously we have no red hair genes in my family. Maybe we will get some red-haired and blue-eyed grandkids!!***

February

February

This month always brings back some color and excitement. Tyler's birthday, Valentine's Day, hearts and flowers, reds and pinks. I always look forward to February. Here's what we have been up to this month:

Tyler turned 45!! How cute is he? I swear he just gets better and better with age. I love seeing the crinkles around his eyes and the gray in his hair. 45 looks good on him!!

He had two birthday celebrations... one on his actual birthday and one on Superbowl Sunday. On his actual birthday we went out for dinner, picked out his birthday gifts, and ate his favorite sour cream lemon pie. Everything that he wants for his birthday is techy and he does not trust me to pick it out and surprise him with it. So I have given up and he either orders what he wants online or goes and picks it out himself. This year the main thing that he wanted was his Virtual Reality Goggles.

Trying them out at Best Buy.

These VR goggles have been a lot of fun. You can do all kinds of adventure type experiences with them...cliff jumping, hiking, roller coasters, sky diving... and it feels like you are right there. It is really crazy to be able to look above you, around, behind, and below. The absolute trippiest thing is that through google earth you can put yourself right into the neighborhood that you grew up in and virtually walk around it. We did it with my old neighborhood in The Woodlands, TX. You can walk towards your house and look behind you and see what was really behind you and what is to the side of you etc. The kids had fun "walking around" in our old neighborhoods. I mentioned it in the last post but Tyler filmed at the ocean and at Multnomah Falls and let the kids "experience it". It has been very fun and very READY PLAYER ONE.

Then we had Tyler's usual Superbowl birthday party with all his requested foods and snacks. I think my kids love this tradition as much as he does. We had presents and more pie. Reilly sent Tyler the most hilarious birthday card and 20 bucks. She wrote in his card, "Go buy yourself something pretty!" Ha ha!!

This year there wasn't any stress during the Superbowl unlike the last two years when the Seahawks were playing. Most of us didn't really care either way. Kameron, on the other hand, did.

Tyler took the two little girls to the Daddy/Daughter(s) Dance that the high school has every year and every year these girls absolutely cannot wait to go. :)

Ailey and Bryn had the time of their lives!! They came back telling me how Daddy was dancing with them the whole night unlike the other dads whose daughters were dancing with their friends while the dads sat on the sidelines looking at their phones. Ailey said, "He was doing good dancing too!! He was lifting us and dipping us and twirling us around!!" Apparently Tyler let them do the old Dirty Dancing run and jump lift... which they each did multiple times. I was dying!! I asked Bryn if any of the other girls were doing things like that and she delightedly told me, "NO!! Just us!! It was awesome!!" Ha ha!! He then took them out to Taco Bell for a late night dinner AND let them eat inside. UNHEARD OF! They came home swooning about what a great husband I have and how lucky I am and asking, "Does Dad lift you in the air when you guys dance?" (That would be no.) The man could barely raise his arms the next day!! So funny.

Here is the official picture taken by an actual photographer at the dance... I don't know what he was smokin.

First what's up with that composition? Why are their faces so pale? Why is Bryn up on a crazy stool? Regardless, both girls fought over who got to display this picture in their room. Ailey won. Bryn gets to have the one from last year.

While all that magic was happening...Kameron and I were having a fantastic Mother/Son night. I REALLY look forward to having opportunities to have Kameron all to myself and to be able to hang out with him. I was worried that he wouldn't want to this year. His social life has really amped up recently. Therefore I was THRILLED when the girls were talking about going to the dance and he turned to me with a grin and said, "What are we going to do Mom?" Hooray!! I gladly let him pick whatever he wanted to do. He picked dinner and a movie. I was further overjoyed when he said to Tyler and the girls, "Don't come home early!!" Ha ha!

AND...this is quite MOMENTOUS... he said that we could take a selfie. BUT ONLY ONE and it had to be outside and not in the restaurant. Done!! We had a great time ourselves!! I sure love that boy of mine. He is such a great kid!!

Kameron also participated in this jazz band concert at a really cool church here in Spokane. It was gorgeous inside.

On President's Day we met my mom for sushi and tried out a new place. It was delicious.

This happened! Brynnie lost one of her front teeth. I love the toothless wonder stage!!

We also had quite a bit of this this month...

Fifteen is precious!! 

Boys are so different from girls as they navigate adolescence but some things remain the same. (Kam did give me permission to post this but only on the blog.) Bad attitudes are bad attitudes regardless of gender.

But here are some girls with good attitudes:

This was one of my favorite activities that we did this month in YW. We went and volunteered at Teen Closet. This is the most fantastic place!! It is set up like a cute clothing boutique but it is for teens in the foster care system, group homes, and homeless teens who are getting off the streets so that they can come, *shop*, and get cute stylish clothing for free. The clothes, shoes, and accessories were so cute that our girls were oohhing and aahhing over everything. I love that their mission statement is: Helping boost the self-esteem of teenagers in foster care and others in-need by providing fashionable clothing and accessories of their choice. Their motto: At Teen Closet it is their clothes, their style, their life, their choice. It is the most incredible place. It was a privilege to volunteer our time there and has really inspired me to do more in our community. They accept high quality, stylish clothing. Forget Goodwill...this place will be getting my teenagers out grown clothing. They are always especially in need of cute clothes for teenage boys. This is exactly where Kameron's clothes will be going. If you are local please support this wonderful organization. My friend, Stacy, is on the board there and she is also in our stake. She has been an inspiring speaker at various events for the YW and it was so wonderful to serve along side her.

We also had student led conferences for Kameron (huge waste of time) but he is doing great. We had the middle school open house for Ailey. It was hilarious how many teachers we know pretty well by now. It was fun to see old favorites of Reilly and Kameron and to have their teachers remember them and us and ask how the kids are doing. The best part of the entire night was that as this was our THIRD TIME sitting through it...we could leave early. Laters!

Last weekend we had a Young Women Retreat on Lake Pend Oreille. My friend, Sarah, who serves with me in YW has a lake house and we loaded up all the girls and had a fun weekend. I'm not going to lie I was somewhat dreading it. I had just gotten back from Portland the weekend before and my kids had a million activities going on, Kameron was in Moscow, Idaho at the University of Idaho with his Jazz Band that weekend. (He's off again somewhere else this weekend. Band is busy and expensive!)  Ailey had a play date and a party and Bryn had stuff going on too. Anyway... I was somewhat dreading the weekend but it turned out to be really fun!! The girls were spectacular and the other YW leaders are all good friends of mine so we had a great time as well!! Nice!!

So pretty!!

The girls passed off experiences in each of the personal progress values. We did all kinds of things...we learned to meditate, to make indian naan, to make several different crafts, hiked, took the polar bear plunge, relaxed in the hot tub, read our scriptures, shared our testimonies, cried, and laughed our heads off, ate great food, and enjoyed one another.

Love those girls!

I was in charge of choice and accountability. I taught a lesson, had them journal, and then we did a cute craft. Ailey helped me by making the prototypes.

They were cute dry erase boards made with washi tape craft that Ailey and I found on Pinterest. Ailey doesn't turn 12 until June and she was sad to miss out on the retreat. This was the text that she sent to all the girls.

The finished products

Then we closed out the month preparing for Ailey's 6th grade promotion. All the pictures were due yesterday...baby pictures, Kindergarten pictures and pictures of the kids at school activities taken over the years. Man, it went by fast!!

Cute Baby Ailey!! Remember Kiddie Kandids?

One night Tyler came home from work with these for me. So thoughtful and much appreciated!!

Add to all of that Valentine's Day and our trip to Portland, fun lunches with friends eating lots of crepes, good health (no more weird bp issues), Reilly breaking up with Justin, and the fact that my spring flowers are emerging heralding the news that spring is on its way, and that pretty much sums up a fun month!!

I leave you with this horrifying sight that emerged this month out of nowhere:

Yes! A mustache!! Kameron thought I was full of crap when I kept commenting on it. Finally he required proof. Good thing he got shaving cream and a razor for Valentine's day!!  Ha Ha!!