Guys, my Thanksgiving holiday was truly THE best. Here's why:

The entire setup and most of the group. (Crazy Panorama)

My siblings and I arranged to cook the entire meal by ourselves. We ended up roping my stepdad in to cook the turkey, but other than that, we set everything up, prepared the food and organized the whole day. All my mom had to do was show up and eat. It worked out to be a HUGE success. My mom just hung out while her children prepared food in her kitchen and got everything together. When it was finally ready, I asked her what she thought of the day. And she said, "I should've had you guys making all the food for the past several years. This is really great."

I'm so glad we were able to make her Thanksgiving. She is unable to cook anymore and half of the time she can't even eat anything, so it made me really happy that every single one of my siblings was on board to execute my plan. When I first thought of the idea, I texted my oldest brother and his response was, "OF COURSE, I will make the turkey!!!!"

We had to change those plans because he has 5 kids, and couldn't get there with enough time to cook it, but I loved his enthusiasm. Everyone was the same way. After dinner we all just hung out, watched old home movies, and talked with my mom.

My mom and her newest granddaughter.

My sister, sisters-in-law, mom and me.

I spent the entire next day with my mom. It was nice because I never get time alone with her anymore, and I really wanted it. Also, it allowed my stepdad to get some work done and not have to worry about her for several hours. I cleaned their house and sat with her while she slept. She used all of her energy staying awake on Thanksgiving so she slept almost the entire day Friday. I can't imagine what her life is like anymore. We talked a little bit about how she feels lately, and it's been really hard on her. She can't form a sentence almost 80% of the time now because she can't find the right words to get her thoughts out. Her thoughts are a big jumbled mess. Every now and then she'll be able to say exactly what she means, and it makes her really happy. The rest of the time she's pretty frustrated. I feel so bad. It's amazing what 9 months of time can do to a person. Back in February, she was as she always was -- healthy, vibrant and full of energy.  Nine months later, she's deteriorated quite far. It breaks my heart every time I see her, but I know that she's still my same mom that has always been there.

Despite all this, her hair is finally starting to grow back. It gives me hope that good things are coming.

Saturday, my sister, and one of my sisters-in-law, came back over to my mom's house. We spent the whole day decorating her house for Christmas. We had a lot of help decorating by way of some little elves (three of my nieces), and it was a lot of fun! My mom slept through most of it, but when she woke up and could see it, she made sure to tell us it looked great! Christmas is one of my mom's favorite times of year, so I'm really grateful we were able to get her house all setup for the holiday season.

Mom's tree, freshly decorated by the granddaughters (ages 3-7).

All I want for Christmas this year is for my mom to have a great holiday, and to have vast improvements in her health. She is the most beautiful person I know, and I hope and pray that we'll find a way to get her health to improve. It was such a beautiful Thanksgiving, full of help, service, and family. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I feel rejuvenated and ready for this holiday season!

Restaurant in Portland.

Justin and I decided to celebrate our 1st anniversary vacation-style. We went back and forth between Redwood National Forest on the coast of California, or Portland. We aren't really sure what drew us both toward Portland, but it ultimately won. Maybe it's that we both randomly said it seemed cool to live in Portland several months ago. Maybe it's that to get to the coastal redwoods it was a 14 hour drive and Portland was only about 10 or 11. Either way, Portland won our vote and we booked a cute little one bedroom apartment off airbnb.com. The ride there was long but very fun, and we couldn't wait to get there. Driving into Portland is really neat. The first several hours are just flat and open land, but then you drop into the Columbia River Gorge and you're in a lush green forest. Everywhere we looked it seemed like ivy, fern, moss, flowers and other greenery were spewing out with reckless abandon. We explored the city, ate some great food, went to a massive bookstore (one of our favorite pastimes), and just had a great trip.

I LOVED IT.

Here are pictures of one of my favorite places that we went. This is Multnomah Falls, just outside Portland.  This place isn't done any justice by the photos. It was a beautiful 60-70 degrees, there was mist in the air from the falls, and every plant was a very vivid green. We also were able to take a short hike through the area nearby and enjoy the cool, crisp air the mountains provided. Justin isn't in a lot of the pictures because he is a typical guy and hates getting his picture taken.

The next post, which you'll see in a day or two, is of the Portland Japanese Garden in Forest Park in the middle of the city, my other favorite place we went. It was rainy that day, but it provided a really nice overcast, peaceful feel in the garden. I just didn't want to overwhelm you all with photos, so check back on Saturday and you should be able to see those ones too.

I've been talking a lot about Vitamin D in my recent posts... obviously I have a thing for it, or just a thing for sunshine and all the awesomeness it brings with it.

Easter Sunday was a fabulous Spring day.

Justin and I went for a bike ride, fried up some burgers for our first barbecue of the warm weather months, and I even potted some flowers that will live in my window until it's warm enough for them not to freeze outside at night. Northern Utah is still classified as desert (I think) so even though it's 65-70 degrees during the day, it doesn't mean it won't be down around 30 degrees at night. It's pretty standard that Spring weather here consists of summer weather in the morning, and snow around 3pm in the same day.

I can't even describe to you how awesome those first warm weather days are for my psyche. But... I will try anyway. It just makes me feel like everything is going my way, and all is right in the world. Don't be surprised if you see me singing "these are a few of my favorite things" in a meadow of Spring flowers. That's really what it does to me! I might need to move to a state that has more even temperatures all year round. (Just no Arizona... too dirt-filled.) Anyone have any recommendations?

Here are some photos from the day.

I have no idea what spawned a really funny dream I had the other night. Here's the story:

I was riding in a fancy train car through some country I've never been in. Everyone in the car was having a blast, but no matter how much I tried to join their groups they wouldn't let me in. I tried befriending them, but nope! I started to feel dejected and frustrated. That night in the train car, a group was watching a movie and I wanted to watch too. They said, "Ain't no skinnies be watchin' with us!" This was because all of them were large, curvaceous women. In my defense I tried to teach them how to be respectful to people of all sizes, and let them know that just because they'd been mistreated all their lives for being overweight, that rejecting me because of my appearance was just repeating the problem behavior! 

It didn't work.

They laughed me out of the room, and I decided to just go hang out by myself. I started eating a bunch of fried chicken that was sitting on the table nearby to feed my woes, and I could hear them all muttering, "Who does she think she is, like we'll feel bad for her, she may not have friends, but her thighs will never be huge! She doesn't even know us at all!" 

And then I woke up.  Probably one of the weirdest dreams I've ever had. If not the weirdest, it's at least  up there next to the frog detective that keeps chasing me, or the one involving care bears letting me float with them in a hot air balloon. All that one consists of is pure peaceful floating with some fuzzy, loving bear friends. I guess I've always had an overactive brain in my sleep. Must be why I'm always sleepy!

So, that dream got me thinking all about food all day long. That night I came home and made a huge batch of my new favorite food -- chicken and black bean burritos. I make a large batch of them and throw them in the freezer. Then whenever I'm hungry, or Justin is hungry, we just pop one in the microwave for 2 minutes! They are SO MUCH better than any store bought burrito I've ever had.



Here's my recipe:

LANA'S AMAZING BURRITOS

• Boiled and shredded boneless chicken
• Black beans
• Diced canned chiles
• Shredded cheese
• Tortillas

Just boil the chicken and shred it with beaters (it will save you tons of time!) Then open the cans of chiles and black beans, and stir them all together with the chicken in a huge bowl. Then pile a blob of the mix into a tortilla, add some cheese, and wrap it up! I wrap my burritos in foil for the freezer, but I'm trying to find a less wasteful method, so if anyone knows one, send it my way!

Y'all should try it and tell me what you think! Or come up with another recipe (this was all my own from what I know I like) and send it to me. I love food, so help a blonde out ok?

Have you guys ever had sweet potatoes? I love them, and I also love yams... (I thought they were the same thing but I was corrected recently on that idea.) My sister in law made candied yams for Thanksgiving, and I couldn't stop eating them... it was probably one of my favorite things to eat this year.  So naturally I thought a soup mix I purchased called "Sweet potato soup" would be delicious. All the other soup mixes I bought from this brand are amazing.