what we look like now

Man oh man! Looking over my pitiful number of photos from the last month, I'm realizing one of the biggest benefits of actually blogging is that it keeps me snapping pics! It's kinda like with Facebook statuses. During the times in my life where I've actually put up FB statuses, it makes me keenly aware in my everyday life of what would be a good status. "Ooh I gotta go post on

Facebook that I just saw 2 squirrels collide!" Definitely kinda retarded, BUT the cool thing is that it keeps me NOTICING!!!

Likewise, when I am blogging regularly(ish), thinking "oh, I could blog about this" makes me get out the camera, and stop to APPRECIATE what has been done around the house, or what our family's gotten the opportunity to do. It's so easy to get caught up in "cool, this is done, now what's next" and not stop to appreciate and rest in work or reflect on the blessings God

's brought. After God created the world, He stopped and took a Sabbath. So here's to real and metaphorical Sabbaths!

NOW, on to a bit of catch-up.

Here is Brody the Boy. It's so fun to see what a total BOY he is now. He burps and farts--and then LAUGHS at himself. We are 100% POSITIVE he does it on purpose sometimes!!! His idea of fun with toys is seeing how hard he can throw them--at the gym kidcare, I always know Brody's at the toy bucket when I see legos and MyLittlePonys flying through the air. He is completely OBSESSED with balls. They are his all-time favorite toy, and whenever we walk by anything that remotely looks like a ball, he starts yelling, "BALL! BALL! BALL!"

Interestingly, despite what the above photo seems to indicate, he is terrified of messes. Anytime he spills a couple drops of milk on the floor, he points to the puddle and makes distraught noises. Or if there is a wrinkle in a rug, he obsessively tries to fix it. He also loves to clean things up. I like this trait!!

Another fun thing is his (limited) repertoire of animal noises. Basically it seems to be domestic furry animal say "woofwoof!" and wild furry animals say "RAAAWR!" He's also working on "hooohooo" and "meow."

My friend Kathryn took some pics of us for Christmas cards (just ordered them last night!), so here are a couple updated family pics! I didn't put in the one we are using, so that way it can be a little bit of a surprise or something. :P

I was also going to include our wonderful Thanksgiving in Eugene, Oregon, but I think I will save that for another time--Ellis needs to take the computer to work!

Hello Seattle

Dad E. took Ellis, Brody, Matt, and me on an awesome trip to see U2 in Seattle!! To get to see one of the biggest bands EVER in a HUGE Qwest Field concert was INCREDIBLE!

On the way over we had a few extra minutes, so we detoured to see the Fremont Troll, which none of us had ever seen before.

It was Brody's second time in Seattle, and he loved walking around with Dad!


The big U2 fans of the group. Neither of them was up for much talking during the show, as they considered themselves to be going through "spiritual experiences."

There they are!

Thanks, Dad, for an awesome opportunity! We love you!

Nathan and Julie

Congrats to my sister, Julie and her fiance Nathan! They just got engaged almost exactly a month ago, and the big day is May 20. We Littlejohn girls like our engagements quick, I guess! Anyway, they were nice enough to be guinea pigs for me and let me take some pics of them.






The next several pics were taken at a little walk-up espresso airstream called Retro Espresso. We thought it was kinda fun, but hopefully it doesn't look too trailer trashy!




What's romance without a little coffee?

The White Part of Christmas

The coolest thing happened in the South this Christmas:


It was so nice that even though we weren't able to go out to the Northwest this year, we still got a taste of the pretty part of winter weather! Although honestly we're getting plenty in Virginia this year too!

The day after Christmas church was cancelled, so we headed down to our friends the Pruetts' for food and singing and pretty snow.

Brody's First Christmas

We thought Brody's first Christmas was going to be quiet, just Ellis, me, and 2 sets of Brody's great grandparents, but God had other plans and Brody ended up getting to see the whole Littlejohn side of the family plus Anderson greatgrandparents!

He even got to see Uncle Brad!! Sadly Rachel and Soren weren't able to make it, but we were excited to get to see Brad! Brad, Matt, Ellis, Brody, and I stayed with Grandmama at her house, and I had a BLAST getting to hang out with my brothers!! Matt made us watch Shutter Island, which I was terrified to see, but he assured me that it wasn't scary. I spent the whole movie doubting him and waiting to be scared, but he was right! I don't know why the previews make it look like a horror movie, but I LOVED it! No boy will ever agree with me about this, but I liked it better than Inception!


Abbou, Ami, and Tammi came down and Tammi gave Brody an awesome Monster-themed gift, which he loved, but not as much as the wrapping paper, of course. :)


And Emily introduced him to one of our favorite childhood toys, the back-flipping doggy! This dog (and it's previous editions) has been a part of my Christmas since before I can remember!

Ellis, Brody, and I headed up to Asheville to see Ellis' Anderson grandparents in Black Mountain. We LOVE the cute town of Black Mountain, and every time we go there, I always tell Ellis I want to move there!Here Brody and I are at a fantastic Black Mountain restaurant called My Father's Pizza! YUM!

While Ellis and Brody were hanging out with his grandparents, I slipped away to join Mom and Julie at Chelsea's Tea Room, where we've been going at Christmastime for at least 10 years--we always get the same waittress, and I think we must've spilled something big a few years ago, because she didn't seem to like us. She warmed up to us a lot, though, when I told her their almond scones were the most amazing scones I've ever had and that I look forward to them every year and have the cookbook, but have never been able to duplicate them. (No joke--they are the best things EVER.

Christmas Eve we were able to move up to the mountain house my parents rent out. It had been occupied for most of the visit, but it was great to get the whole family together in one spot for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Julie found various fake tree limbs (not from the same tree set) in the basement, stuffed the limbs in a basket, and voila, adorable Christmas tree. Here's Emily decorating it.


Meanwhile, Ellis and Brody did some dancing.


And Matthew smiled in a pic!! I can make one prediction for sure about 2011--this picture will be in the 2011 edition of Mom's Shutterfly photobook. :)

Christmas morning.

Brody dressed up at Grandmama's house. Again, no shoes--toes are cuter anyway. :)

Partway through the afternoon Brody's Christmas turned white, so here he is in his snowsuit! Snow pics to come soon!

Grown Up Thanksgiving

This is Ellis' and my first Thanksgiving as "grown ups." As in the first time I've had to actually help in the planning and organization of the holiday. I've made part of the meal at home with my family, but now I see that it's not the cooking that is the work--it's the planning of the cooking. And the shopping. And actually, mostly the thing that feels grown up is the paying for the shopping. It's totally different to make macaroni pie when your mom buys all the cheese than when you buy all the cheese. ;)

We did an early Thanksgiving in DC with my aunt Tammi this last weekend (which was AWESOME and I will put up pics), and now we are going to do Thanksgiving Day with some friends from law school tomorrow. We are really missing our families out West, but it's kind of exciting to be doing Thanksgiving as adults for the first time!

Another thing that's different this year is instead of the typical sweet potato casserole, I'm gonna be making my aunt's amazing Squash Souffle recipe!

{image via Taste of Home}

Tammi made it on Sunday and it was delicious, and I thought it would be a fun twist on the usual menu. Maybe everyone else knows all about squash souffle on Thanksgiving already, but to me it was new and exciting! (Also, it circumvents any marshmallow v. brown sugar and pecan debates- which is good because Ellis loves marshmallows--all the time with everything, and I don't like marshmallows with anything at any time.)

So here is her recipe!

Tammi's Thanksgiving Squash Souffle

1 package frozen squash (12 oz, I think)
1 stick butter

Cook, in a saucepan over medium heat for approx. 20 minutes
(make sure the butter coats the pan so the squash doesn't burn and stick)

add 1/2 cup sugar, stir with whisk
add 1/2 cup flour, stir with whisk
add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, stir with whisk
add 2 cups milk, stir with whisk

dash of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Let sit for several hours. Reheat at 350 for 20 mins.

Maybe I should've waited till I actually made it to post the recipe, but even if mine turns out awful, my aunt's is amazing, so it's still a great recipe! Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

11/28--Edited to Add: Super easy, and turned out yummy! Give it a try! :)

More Scotland Adventures

This is such an incredible trip, I thought I'd savor it as long as possible by being super slow in posting about it! That's the same excuse I use for sending late birthday cards and late wedding gifts, and may I say late thank-you notes. Cause it's so exciting to get an unexpected gift in June when your birthday is in March and you are no longer getting birthday attention!

Pretty much the absolute highlight of the trip was our trek up through the Highlands to the Isle of Skye. Also pretty much the highlight of our LIVES. It was just one amazing view after another, not to mention that nothing makes the heart grow fonder like 3 days being shut in the car with 2 babies. Just kidding--the babies were great the whole time in the car. We discovered the magic trick to keeping Brody happy was keeping the window open. So it may have been freezing, but the white noise put him right to sleep. And the trick to Soren was digestive biscuits. Lots and lots of yummy digestive biscuits.

Day one of our trip within a trip, we hit Sterling, where we were warmly welcomed by William Wallace. (and omg, I seriously was not even trying to alliterate there)

Here is the gorgeous castle!

There were beautiful flowers all over the place

And fun cannons for Soren to clamber on

And AMAZING views!

Already Old Together

One of the craziest things about marriage is seeing how you rub off on each other. It's not always in the ways you expect or hope--like we were both hoping that Ellis's punctuality would rub off on me. But instead my lateness has dragged us both down so that, much to Ellis' chagrin, people that know us now mistaken identify the Littlejohn lateness as an Eifert trait.

But it works both ways, because Ellis always tells people that he was born an old man--he loves staying home every night and going to bed at 10. Whereas I've always been the girl that was going places with people every day and every night and if I was in bed by 10, my parents knew I was sick. But now, just like my old man husband, my favorite way to spend an evening is hanging out on the couch with these guys.



What more exciting weekend plans could you ask for than spending it relaxing with your two favorite people? Maybe that makes me an old fogey at heart like my hubby. But in that case, maybe Ellis had it right all along and being old is F.U.N!



Annndd...my son never wears pants. We never wore shoes as kids (what kids do?), but I think Brody is taking it to the next level. Some days he doesn't even wear a shirt. Just a diaper. But what's cuter than a baby's chubby tummy in a diaper? Especially a cute cloth diaper--they're totally outfits on their own! ;)