President's Day Weekend

We had a WONDERFUL President's Day Weekend. We went down to Provo UT to see my brother's newborn baby. My sister, Grandparents & aunt Jill live in the same town. My other sister also came down. And my mom flew up from Arizona. It also just so happened that my aunt from American Samoa was there and my aunt from California. It was an impromptu mini-family reunion.

Of course I took no pictures, but luckily my aunt Christine came through for me and sent me oodles of her pictures. Thanks Auntie!

While we were all in town -- Kenny & Brittani decided to Bless their baby.

We did it at their house on Sunday.

Here is a close up of Baby Shiloh.

Ahhhhhh, isn't he cute?

I love this picture of my mom & 2 of her sisters.

This is my Aunt Emily, my mom & Aunt Christine --

But otherwise known as: Auntie Em, Grannie and Auntie Bean

Our first picture of all 11 Grandkids together.

Amazing that they are almost all looking at the camera.

The Williams Clan. We were all together -- except my dad.

He had to stay in Tucson to work. We missed ya, Pops!

My grandpa "Grandpa Jensen" (a.k.a. Motorhome Grandpa)

with 2 of his Great-Grandkids Tessia and Sadie

My Grandma Jensen with 3 of her Great-Grandkids --

Sadie, Maddie and Camille

My grandma is almost entirely blind but she loved getting her hands on those kids!

Auntie Christine and I having a good laugh

We spent a lovely evening EATING...

...and VISITING with family.

Two of my favorite things in the world!

Thanks everyone for a wonderful weekend. Miss you all already!

Random Post

I haven't blogged in awhile. But I've had a few things floating around that weren't quite "blog worthy" but together they may add up to something. Or not.

I have a book mark with a picture of the Mona Lisa on it. Sadie came up and asked me, "Is that Heavenly Father's wife?" I guess she has seen that picture before and it does look similar to religious paintings of Jesus from that era. I just thought that was a funny conjecture.

This morning as I was sweating away riding my exercise bike (the only form of exercise I do when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground!) I noticed that Sadie was doing quite the work-out herself. While watching Dora she was running back and forth across the room whenever Dora ran. She was doing energectic dance moves whenever a song was on (which is often). She was almost constantly in motion. Now if we could all watch TV that way it wouldn't be such a bad way to spend time!

Well....I'm drawing a blank. I know I had more funny anecdotes but I've got nothing now.

Heart Tattoo

A well "seasoned" stone is a wonderful thing. It produces a perfect crust on pizzas. Biscuits just slide off it and cookies come out amazing every time. But it takes years to get the stone into this perfect state. True it doesn't look pretty but it is a "girl's best friend" in the kitchen.

For Christmas this year I got a round pizza stone. It has been a nightmare! No matter how much I grease or oil this pan everything sticks to it. Help! How do I hurry up the "seasoning" process? The pan came with no helpful hints or instructions. Do I just have to wait for another 5 years? Well here are the results of my latest attempt.

I made heart shaped sugar cookies on it. Of course, they stuck. I was mad. So I scraped most of the crumbs off. Poured a couple tablespoons of oils on the stone and spread it around. Then I stuck it in the oven for while at a pretty high temp. I'm not sure what I expected....but not this.

This is my new Heart Tattooed stone. This is it after it has been scrubbed and scraped clean (with no soap, of course -- I know that much about stones at least). I guess it is now "seasoned" in a few places. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I do LOVE hearts -- as many of you who have known me for long know. Case in point -- I am tempted to leave up my Valentine's themed blog background for the rest of the year. It just makes me happy. So maybe the heart tattooed stone is a Valentine's Day miracle just for me :) I guess I'll just try to enjoy it and let it cheer me instead of depress me. But seriously, if you have any hints on how to speed up the "seasoning" process....I'd love to hear them.



Happy Birthday!

Today is my sweetheart Eric's birthday. I think this is where I am supposed to start gushing and tell you all how much I love him and how he is so amazing and the best husband and father ever! (And share all the things that make him so perfect and make you all feel jealous that your husband isn't as wonderful as mine). While I could do that -- he is wonderful and amazing -- I just feel awkward doing so in a semi-public forum. Those kinds of posts always make me really uncomfortable for some reason -- maybe just because I'm not good at expressing my feelings -- I think its hereditary (thanks Dad!). Am I the only one that feels this way about those gushy posts?

Anyway..... Eric has had a great weekend-long celebration. He got an RC car kit yesterday and he and the kids worked for hours and hours on it yesterday. I'm not sure who enjoys it the most?

My Boys -- all smiles

Happy Birthday Eric! We are lucky to have you in our family... and all that other mushy stuff.

Snowfest 2011

Each year in Rexburg they have a Snowfest in January. I have to admit that last year (our first winter in Rexburg) when they announced the date of the Snowfest....I thought to myself, "What if there isn't snow that day? How can they know there will be any snow on the ground on the actual day of the fest?" Ha!ha!ha! What a silly ignoramus I was. If they chose ANY date December through mid-March they are guaranteed to have snow on the ground. And not just a few inches....but a few feet of snow. How much we have learned in the past 18 months.

But back to the real story. This past Saturday was "Snowfest" -- a sort of winter carnival. They have a sledding hill, some games to win prizes, a bowling alley made out of snow, horse drawn carriage rides, a hot chocolate tent, a place where you can spray colored water into the snow (a.k.a. Snow Graffiti) and a Polar Bear Swim. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The best part is, everything is free! The kids had a great time and it was a decent day -- in the 20's so not too freezing.

Renae & her best friend Mairin -- they are inseparable

Eric & Sadie getting ready for some fun

Sadie making snow angels. The snow was a little too crispy for that though

Mason & Colby coming sledding down the big hill

This is the Snow Grafitti activity. They spray colored water in the snow.

But really, don't you think they could avoid using YELLOW water?

You know what they say about Yellow Snow. Ewwwww.

Just so you could see the crazy kids jumping in the pool of icy water.

There were probably 50 insane people that did it!

The horse drawn carriage. This was Sadie's favorite part.

No actually this was. She LOVED being dragged around on the sled.

Poor Eric. He was the sled dog all day. What a good sport.