Buried

My kids are still hoping for a snow day to be called for tomorrow. I doubt it, but we do have a LOT of snow.
It's close to a foot. It came down really fast.
Nathan never changes out of his suit on Sundays, but today he put on his jeans to go shovel. His white shirt stayed on.
Lots of shoveling today--he completely cleared the driveway 3 times so we could get in and out.

Through a window

Our friend brought his 4 wheeler to church to clear the sidewalks at the building. The evening meetings were all cancelled.

(After shoveling 30,000 lbs of snow, then he came in and baked 6 loaves of bread. 3 banana, 3 whole wheat. I made hot chocolate, dinner, and wrote 3 blog posts. Not bad for a day at home).

Ft. Collins Church News

Did you hear we're going to be a mission now?

Church News
(Scroll down to the North America Central Area). The mission will include as far west as Boulder and stretch north into Wyoming--Laramie and Cheyenne. Whoever is in those boundaries on May 28th will become part of the new mission, and the others will be Colorado Denver North.

Also this week the plans passed the planning commission's final meeting, 6 to 0.
Unanimous. More permitting will continue and the groundbreaking date has not been set. It's an exciting time to be a member of the church here.

Valentine week 2013

This year I decided to plan something Valentine-y each day for a week. I really enjoyed planning it--small tokens to express that I love them.

Sunday--We drank the same punch my mom made for our wedding reception. Delish!
Monday--We made & decorated heart shaped sugar cookies. 7 of them.
Tuesday--Heart napkins for dinner, all the red plates out.
Weds--I painted love in the bottom of our oatmeal bowls. Love this tradition from last year.
I still haven't unpacked our watercolors yet . . . . so I used the back end of a plastic spoon to "paint."
Thurs--Conversation hearts at breakfast, Papa Murhpy's heart shaped pizza for dinner.
I could easily abandon the candy hearts, but my girls pleaded, "Mom, it's tradition!"
Friday--Spending the night at my mom's. They thought it was the best because they got to drink soda.
Saturday--We opened the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Not Valentine-y at all, but I wrapped it in red paper. Because Nathan took President's day off, we watched it as our FHE activity on Monday afternoon.

It's easy to make all the traditions food related--perhaps next year I will have more ideas that aren't food.

Someone wanted to paint her own bowl. My food coloring gels have dried out--see the lumps?

Noting fancy, but lots of fun.

I took about 15 pictures of him eating this cookie. Most are blurry, so check out the video below.

I am that mom that doesn't like treats as Valentines in Elementary school . . . . . so we tried to do something fun and cute without sugar. It was the first year I felt ahead of the game and we had them done early. Loved not stressing about it after Feb 10th.

Diana gave out stickers with a typed not that read, "I am stuck on you!"

Caitlin's note, attached to mini bottles of bubbles read, "Valentine, you blow me away."

And Bryn copied a "Mad Lib Valentine" found on designmom.com :
"You've got mad skillz."
"I can't lib without you."
"I'm mad about you."
She tore out pages from mad libs, wrapped them up with cute paper and attached the notes.

Andrew was highly disappointed to not have a class party this year. He survived. When I was shopping for Valentine's I thought about how strange it will be when he wants to give a Valentine to a special someone. Bracing myself.

"Klondike-ing"

They left Friday and got back Saturday.

The slept on snow and tromped around on snowshoes. They had a blast and came home smelling like campfire.

Heaven?

Orienteering, fire-building, snowshoe race, (Andrew tied for first), stew and hot dogs, oatmeal, and hot chocolate, painfully long time working out how to perform a stretcher carry, and good old guy bonding time.

Fourth 100th

Day of school

Before school

After

 

 

There's a lot to love about kindergarten.
Mostly, the kindergartner.
100 days smarter.

Assembly line Won Tons

We've been reading a book Bryn had me check out at the library a few weeks ago.

Dumpling Days

It also inspired tonight's dinner: Wonton Soup
(from an Everyday Food Tara gave me years ago. Can't tell you how many recipes I've been storing and saving for "someday." Must try new things.)

It's the story of a first generation American of Taiwanese descent and her first voyage to Taiwan. Since my family has a little Taiwan connection, it's very interesting. Hearing her talk about dumplings made me want to make this recipe I've been keeping around for years. It was nice to have Bryn's company while I made them . . . they took longer that I thought.

She laid out the wrappers and scooped most of the filling, even though this is my hand

Ready to go but protected with a damp paper towel so they don't dry out too much

My Chief Photographer was home teaching so this blurry pic will have to do

My rating of this recipe: Delicious.

Nathan came home at 7 so he ate dinner after us. He said, "Do these taste better because of the book we are reading?"
I don't know if it's that, or just breaking your fast after a long day, but if you haven't made wontons, this is a good place to start--they show lots of pictures demonstrating the steps.
3/5 of my kids liked the whole soup, one only wanted the broth, and one didn't care for it at all. Pretty good--we don't try to please all the palates at once.

I remember watching my mom make egg rolls when I was little and learning how to wrap them myself when I got older. I love deep fat fried wrapped up meat and cabbage. Boiled in soup is also tasty.

(I've decided to check out some Newberry winning authors--I think that's what my friend in Chicago read. I don't read adult fiction for the most part, but I love a well written story so I thought it would be a good place to begin).

Have a great week.

For dessert tonight (UPDATED)

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Haven't made these yet, but tried them (twice) in the past 6 months. Deliciosa! Baking them myself tonight.
(I cut the butter and sugar--a la Tara Hunt but not by half).

UPDATED: SOMEONE TOOK SOME OF THESE TO WORK TODAY. THEY DISAPPEARED QUICKLY, AND THE CO-WORKERS WROTE A THANK YOU NOTE TO BE BROUGHT HOME TO ME. I'M JUST SAYING, YOU SHOULD TRY THEM.