New Duds and More Snow

The kids got a box of new clothes in the mail this week from their grandparents. Don't you just love packages? Me too.

I'm going to start calling Sophie sassy pants - wait I think I already call her sassy pants. Her little friend at school made her a picture and wrote on it "Sophie is so fancy". This is her new outfit -so cute and sassy!


People, I only have one daughter and she is still letting me style her - I intend to enjoy every minute. I am aware that the day will come all too soon when she will turn up her pert little nose at all of her little girl clothes. Sad.

Max's new coat is super awesome especially since it has been a raging blizzard here for the last few days. I think I shoveled three times today and it has piled up again. Sigh. You are beautiful snow. I just wish I did not have to shovel or deal with 500 wet mittens, coats, snow pants, scarves and hats every single day. Also, I need a good pair of snow boots that are simple to slip on. Several people have recommended Uggs. Are they Minnesota worthy? Are they worth the price? My clogs are not serving me well in the snow.


I want to curl up with Pride and Prejudice tonight, but I need to finish a project and clean up downstairs aaaaaand read the book club book for tomorrow night. Crap - gotta go!

Valentine Craft - Collage Hearts

On Friday we made these cute heart collages. You will need cardboard (mine are from Amazon.com box inserts), black paint, lots of punched out hearts in the same size, paper and glue.

First paint your entire piece of cardboard black.


Try not to get black paint on your hands. Calvin managed to get it all over the front and back of his red shirt. The shirt may been doomed.


Give each child a half sheet of paper and have them start gluing hearts all over. You want to cover the entire surface by overlapping the hearts. Use lots of glue both under and over the hearts. Some of the kids used paint brushes to spread the glue, some used their fingers.


When you are done, it should look like this. Except it won't because I made that one.


Yours will look more like this - if you happen to be 5.


Your table will look like this.


Let dry during nap time.

Print out a heart (about 5X7) and tape it to the back of your collage. Here's where you can benefit from my mistakes. Print the heart out first and have the kids collage on the back of the heart. It will save you a step.


Now just cut out the heart using kitchen sheers as it will be pretty thick.


Glue the heat on your black cardboard and you are done. Beautiful!

Such a Positive Person

Soooo, I just woke up after going to bed at 2am. I found out that someone had uploaded the entire four episodes of the new Emma onto YouTube and once I started watching, I could not stop! I am a bit groggy today and somehow all the caramel corn is gone - that is alarming.

Sophie was awarded student of the month this week for always being such a positive person. They obviously have never tried to get her out of bed in the morning. She was pleased with her spoils and that made me happy. Sophie loves school - I do not think there is a single thing she does not like about it.

Someone sent her two books by mail a few weeks ago Saved at Sea and A Basket of Flowers. Was it you? There was no card or name on the envelope. Thank you anonymous person.

Recipe: Caramel Corn

I am warning you now, this recipe is deadly. Don't come whining to me if you make this and then a day later have a flash of clarity where you realize you have just munched your way through two sticks of butter. I don't want to hear any complaining because you will have enjoyed every crunchy, sweet, melt in your mouth bite. Go on - I dare you.

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 quarts air popped popcorn (I don't have any idea how much that is - I just popped a whole bunch)

1. Preheat oven to 250. Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3. Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces. (I was eating this waaaaay before it cooled. In fact, I took a sample every time I stirred it - strictly for quality control purposes of course.)
   

This Day

It has been a beautiful few days - new snow, warmish weather . . . I am not sick of winter yet and that is a good thing. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside on the "snow mountain" in the middle of the cul-de-sac. I have been spending a lot of time shoveling and debating buying a new "hack the ice off my driveway thingy" or just waiting until it warms up and the ice melts. It's a dilemma.

The kids are gone today - spending the weekend with their Dad. I spent last night curled up on the couch with a Netflicks movie, a roaring (as much as a gas fire can roar) fire, blankets and a bowl of homemade caramel corn. More on the evil caramel corn later.

Have you seen The Very Thought of You? It's a British romantic comedy and rather cute I must say. I was pleased by the cast. Do you watch movies and immediately yell out which British period drama you have seen the actors in before? If so, we should probably be best friends.

Things you should know:

1. I have no idea who this actress is, but in the movie, her hair is cut in a chic bob. Why do you think they put her on the promotional poster with long hair?


2. Joseph Finnes is HOT . . . and adorable.


3. Also hot and the poster boy for a ruggedly chiseled face.


4. Look! It's Mr. Collins!


These three are the love interests in the movie. Fun, worth renting and pretty clean (PG-13) for occasional language - this is a British film after all.

Today I am cleaning, organizing and purging. This week coming up is a busy one. My parents are coming into town (hooray!), Sophie's baptism and Max's birthday party are on Saturday and the kids have Thursday, Friday and Monday off from school.

Off to clean some more . . .

Views From My Window Wednesday - New Snow

I was the only one out this morning at 6:30 am shoveling the driveway. It was beautiful and peaceful and rather sweaty. Lots of new white fluffy snow on the ground today. It is like a winter touch-up and we appreciate it as the snow was looking a little dingy. I had plans to take the kids out today, but we may just snuggle down with hot cocoa, crafts and movies.


The boys play snow football almost daily and it always goes like this:

3 . . . . 2 . . . . . 1 . . . . aaaaaaaand someone takes a kick to the nose. Tears, blood, yelling.

Repeat.

I have no sympathy. None.

Dear Pioneer Woman

Dear Ree,

So I have your cookbook. It is adorable - beautiful photos and colors. I love a cookbook I can read while eating lunch. Every cookbook should have bright photos - perhaps not of cow manure, but whatever.

I've tried two of your recipes. The Chocolate Sheet Cake was so good. I had never made a sheet cake, but the warm icing alone was enough to make me a happy convert. The downside? This cake is way to easy to nibble on all day long because it makes a lot of cake. I started handing it out to the daycare parents as they arrived to pick up their kids. The second time I made this recipe, it flopped. Perhaps because I did not use buttermilk? I told the kids they were brownies and ended up throwing away half the pan.


This week I made the meatloaf. I made one for us and another to give away.

I'm not sold on the meatloaf. Maybe I don't like meatloaf? Calvin and Sophie ate it the first night and Max gagged but Calvin has refused to eat it for lunch. Two out of three daycare kids turned their noses up when I served it to them for lunch today. Is it the green flecks of fresh parsley or just that is has a weird flavor?

I think I like my Mom's meatloaf. Maybe I'll ask her to make some when she is here so I can compare.

So Pioneer Woman, my review of your cookbook is up in the air. I give you high marks for a pretty book but including a recipe for birds in a nest (eggs in a hole) is a bit silly really. Sorry. I'll try a few more recipes and get back to you.

The Games We Play

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Recipe: No-Bake Cheesecake

I can't remember if I have ever shared this simple recipe before. It is one my Grandma Johnson shared with me a lifetime ago and the first recipe I ever memorized. It is the perfect dessert to share as it is made in it's own portable container.

Buy a graham cracker crust. In mixer beat one package room temp cream cheese (This is important - microwave yours a bit if you forgot to set your cream cheese out the night before otherwise you will have lumps. No one likes lumps.), one jar sweetened condensed milk, one teaspoon good vanilla (TJMaxx has my favorite vanilla again - hooray!) and 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from a lemon, not a bottle). Beat until fluffy and dump into crust. Top with cherry pie filling in the winter, fresh strawberries, raspberries or mangoes in the summer. Refrigerate overnight or most of the day - or if you are like me and need it to set up quickly, set it outside in a snowbank for an hour or two.

That's it. It is delicious and is one of those perfect breakfast substitute kind of desserts - dairy, fruit . . . right?

Sophie's Sleepover

Here's a look at Sophie's sleepover Friday night. We had pizza for dinner and fake fondue for dessert. One of the girls has a nut allergy, so this was much easier that making cake. I meted a bag of chocolate chips (check the brands, they are not all nut free) and then set out bowls of fruits, big marshmallows, donut holes, and pretzel waffles. Easy and fun to eat.


There was a lot of this late into the night. The girls watched Night at the Museum 2 and then fell asleep watching Nim's Island a little before midnight.


They were up by 7am (curse them!) and we made a craft - same one I did with the little kids except different frames.


Sophie requested puffy pancakes for breakfast with sausages. I made the pancakes in individual ramekins and then set out syrup, raspberry freezer jam and heavy whipped cream. Yum!


After breakfast they all painted their nails until their parents arrived to pick them up. Sophie had a ball and it really was not much work for me. I love that.


** For puffy pancake recipe, go here.

Butterfly Cake

This cake was picked up Sunday morning for a baby shower brunch. They do not know the sex of the baby so went with orange and green as a color scheme. The ribbon and butterflies can be purchased at Michaels.

Princess Daisy Cake with three layers of lemon curd and cream cheese vanilla bean icing.

Fire

Yesterday at church we learned that a family in our ward had lost their home to fire in the middle of the night. They had just enough time to get out of their home but lost everything. After a call to the Bishop, unable to do anything more, the family sat with him for several hours watching their home burn to the ground.

I cannot imagine.
I am glad they were not alone.

The spirit was so strong at church yesterday, and I could not be more proud to be called a member of our church. We serve. It is the cornerstone of every teaching of the gospel. This family is even as we speak, being wrapped in the loving arms of the members of our ward.

They are loved.

Having been on the receiving end of service these last few years more times than I can count, I know what a comfort it is to know that there are friends there to help hold us up when we are lost in the dark shadows of grief.

The children and I sat on my bed last night talking about this family and their loss. We talked about what is most important - each other. Everything else dims in value when we think what could have been lost that night. We talked about what we could do as a family to help.

My heart hurts for them.