A Savior centered Easter

My mom gave us this amazingly beautiful book for Easter. In this book, you read about each day of our Saviors life leading up to His ultimate sacrifice. I am so excited to have this book. This will be such a great book to have for Karlee to teach her why we celebrate Easter. Thanks Mom and Dad. (side note: Monica you are super talented. Thanks for putting this together.

Thankful Thursday #11 - Good Neighbors

We have amazing neighbors. We are truly thankful for the association that we have been able to make with them. We live in wonderful subdivision where there are lots of young families. There are lots of little kids (our ward has 6 nurseries). Karlee has had so much fun playing with all the little kids that live at the end of our street with us. Recently they put a gate up at the end of our street, so its basically like living in a colt-a-sack, its wonderful! All the kids play outside and love it. (this however doesn't exactly teach the kids the danger of busy roads.) Rob and I have had a lot of fun our neighbors, with Sunday night games, and beautiful afternoon chats out in the warm sun. We have been blessed with amazing neighbors and for this we are thankful!

Geocache - A modern-day scavenger hunt.

Weekend before last my parents came to town to meet up my dad's cousin and his wife (Wayne & Sandy). They invited us to come along on Saturday to do a little Geocaching. Now I have gone on a couple caches with my dad, so I thought it was a perfect way to spend some time with them. Karlee and I went with them, poor Rob who has been working like crazy missed out on all the fun. Now when I have gone out with my dad, we usually will go try to find 1-5 caches. On this Saturday we went and searched 16 geocaches and successfully found 13 (I believe) - now just between you and me, I probably hit my limit at 6, but these guys were all having so much fun so I went along. Wayne and Sandy are retired and they probably geocache everyday they are on their month long road trips. They have been gone since January and think they said they have found something like 130+ Geocaches on their trip thus far, and have plans to do more each day on their way back home to Wyoming.

Wayne and my dad logging one of the first few geocashes.

Sandy, Wayne, and my dad with the tough geocache.

We went to a couple clever caches, one of which we probably searched for 20 minutes, until we figured it out and found it. Karlee was loving the weather and getting outside. She discovered the beautiful red dirt, and started to bathe in it.

Karlee enjoying the beautiful red Dixie dirt.

Here I am trying to brush off all that 'beautiful' red dirt. (I know I am totally OCD)

Karlee had a good time, infact I think she may have set a personal record for the number of times she was buckled into her car seat (only really fighting me 1-2 times) Karlee was a good sport geocaching.

Karlee with her juice, just chillen.

I thought it would be fun to add to this post the official rules/guidelines to Geocaching. (thank you to the www)

Geocaching (GEE-oh-cash-ing) is a great outdoors recreational activity that's similar to a scavenger hunt. There is a hidden object, and you're given clues and GPS (global positioning) coordinates to help you find it. It's incredibly fun, and becoming more and more popular every day. It's a great way to explore an area, even places you're convinced you know very well. People leaving geocaches almost always leave them in intriguing places that they'd like to share with inquisitive, curious people like other geocachers.

What you'll need:

• a GPS receiver
• a pen or pencil (So you can leave a note in the cache to the cache owner)
• a small trinket (take a trinket out, and put a new one in.)

That's it! It really is a fun tradition to have. I know that when all of the grandkids spend anytime with my dad they are sure to go on a geocache, which is often times one of the highlights of their time together.

Spring brings New Birth

Oh how I love Spring time. For the past couple days I have been noticing all the new buds on the trees, and I have been loving all that it makes me think about. Rebirth, Forgiveness, Our Saviour, Easter, and yes Spring Cleaning (hahaha - I know). I absolutely love this time of year.

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Today when I was cleaning up a bit, I opened the blinds in Karlee's room. I noticed a plant that I have had out in our backyard, and it made me take a double look. This plant has a little bit of background before I tell you what I saw: My parents sent us home, from one of our visits last fall, with one of their beautiful plants. The plan was for me to take care of it over the winter, seeing how our winters are not nearly as hard on plants as theirs are. So we brought it home, and I babied this beautiful plant - mind you I don't have a green thumb. I didn't want it to die while in my care, but as life goes, I inadvertently forgot about it, and before I really could do anything the plant looked as though it was dead. I just felt horrible, that my parents entrusted this plant in my care, and now it was dead. When I told my parents they didn't seem to devastated, but still I felt horrible. I continued to water and baby this plant, to no miraculous change. Okay so back to today... as I looked out of the window I saw green buds breaking through this "dead" plant. I was so excited that I had to have Rob come and check it out. He patted me on my back and said: "Well, I guess you didn't kill it after all, Good Job!"

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Here are a couple pictures of this plant. . . LOOK MOM!

Isn't this beautiful!

There are days that I feel like this plant, don't you?

Thankful Thursday #10 - Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time

Honestly I love to Spring forward, when daylight savings comes around. I am sure it is because I am a morning person, and that it just gives me more sunlight to enjoy. I was caught off guard with the time change 2 weeks earlier, but I am not complaining at all. I have so many projects that I have to do and complete so I am excited that now I have longer days (too bad I always seem to fall asleep so darn early - thats a whole other topic of my many issues.)

Thankful Thursday #9 - Hope!

I am thankful for Hope!

I got a book a couple months ago from my mom, came home and read it. Well I realized that I hadn't returned the book yet, so I read it again. It is just that good of a book. What is the book called you ask? When your PRAYERS Seem Unanswered, by S. Michael Wilcox. It is a small, yet powerful book. I enjoyed it the second time just as much as the first. This book is about just as the title is given. We all go throughout our lives here on this earth and have all asked Why have my prayers not been answered. I know I have asked this question a time or two. I would highly recommend this book. I have a few moments in the book that touched me and so I post them so that I can remember them. Hope you enjoy them as well.

. . . When you feel somewhat desperate, when it seems like your prayers aren't answered and the winds still blow, take comfort in the knowledge that he is on the hillside watching. Remember, you might not know that he's watching as you struggle in the boat, but he is on the hillside watching, and he will come. But he generally comes in the fourth watch - after we have done all we can do. . . .

I really liked this thought. How many times do we pray and never really feel that we have recieved an answer, but later on in life, sometimes years later we will experience something that is the answer that we have been looking for so long:

Maybe we are in the forth watch, but the Lord is saying to us: I'll answer your prayer. I'm aware of your needs. It is recorded in heaven, and I'm going to answer it. But right now in your life there's no place for me to put the answer. Life will create a holding place, and as soon as you are able to recieve it, I will give it to you.

I am thankful for moments in our lives that bring us to our knees and to remind us that we are not alone.

I must be breaking down . . .

On Sunday we had an amazing dinner of Spaghetti and garlic bread. Not so amazing because according to Rob its not spaghetti unless there is meat in the sauce, which I am sure many, if not all, of you would probably agree. Oh well, I just said deal with it! Good thing Rob likes food in all its forms, hahaha. (I love him for that!)

This isn't why I am breaking down, it would be for the fact that Karlee wanted sauce with her noodles (can't blame her, right?) I just can't deal with the mess that comes with the sauce, so sadly most of the time Karlee just gets the noodles. I know I know... I am so mean. Well not on Sunday - Karlee got sauce with her noodles. She was one happy girl. Karlee did however go straight from the table to the tub.

Karlee enjoying her sauce with noodles. Could there be anything messier?

Just look at that face!

Karlee loves to use utensils when she eats, I guess this means with her garlic bread as well.

Thankful Thursday #8 - Rain

For the past couple of days we have been blessed with rain, lots and lots of rain. I just love how everything outside smells just so fresh! I love the rain!

Yummy Soft Pretzels

On Sunday we made some yummy soft pretzels. I believe I got the recipe from a friend in Kentucky and we did this for a YW weeknight activity, so they are super easy and pretty fast to make as well. We love to eat them with mustard or when they are just out of the oven and just after the butter is brushed on sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over the tops of them. Really Yummy!

Here is the recipe if you would like to give it a try.

1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp yeast
1¼ cup warm water
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking soda
½ cup water
Pretzel salt or kosher salt
2 Tbsp. butter

Combine yeast and warm water in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, let stand 5 minutes. In another bowl combine brown sugar and the yeast, slowly add enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth (about 3 minutes). Cover and let rest 20 minutes. Cut the dough into 12 pieces; roll each piece into a 15 inch rope. Shape into a pretzel or as desired. Combine in a small bowl water and baking soda; dip each pretzel into mixture, shaking off excess water. Place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Bake @ 475º for 6 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter and serve immediately. This will make 12 pretzels.