The Next Flying Tomato

Joey is snowboarding each Friday after school for six weeks, and has loved it so far, in spite of the lousy snow conditions. When we bought his snowboard, the salesman commented that he could be the next Flying Tomato. Yep. Wish I'd been able to take a few action shots, but obviously not enough to drive up to Brighton.

V Day

This year I helped with the Valentine's party in Joey's class—I made scones, which were a big hit.

Here are the kids with their Valentine boxes. Poor Robbie, no parties, notes or candy in Junior High.

Luckily he loves our family tradition of books for Valentine's Day.

And crepes for dinner. New this year is a low carb recipe that I found on Pinterest—they're surprisingly good!

A Happy Birthday

Sadly, I am now at the age when I have to do the math to remember how old I am. Fortunately, I was born on a decade year, so this isn't too difficult.

My 42nd birthday was a good one. Rob took the day off and took me to breakfast and lunch at Hagermann's, with a trip to Ikea in between. Huge sacrifice for him, I wish I'd taken a photo of his virgin trip there. We picked up a cute sewing table/desk and chair for Ellie, and Rob finished painting her room so we could get her moved in before she came home from school. I love finishing a project. Also, I got a Kindle, and I'm loving it! I thought I'd hold out for an iPad, but I think this is actually a better sized tablet for me, since it fits in my purse.

I am also now old enough to be amazed by the progression in technology during my lifetime. Wonder what they'll invent in the next 42 years? I hope to find out. :)

Twelve Photos on 2.12.12

This month I decided to go with the obvious theme for my twelve photos on the 12th. I tortured my family for individual shots, and even let Ellie take one of me.

The photo of Joey practicing was in a teasing attempt to make him smile, even though he was, as usual, not happy to be playing the piano. I ended up generalizing what I love as "music" but I also love the fact that Rob is willing to enforce practicing most days, and that my kids are developing a useful talent. Also, I listened to a fabulous talk this week that uses piano lessons as an analogy for grace. It's a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox, and if you haven't already, you should really listen to it or read it right now.

I had a friend take a photo of our gospel doctrine class. This probably belongs in the love-hate category. I love the gospel, and am learning so much as I prepare to teach from the Book of Mormon. What I HATE is being in the spotlight for even one minute.

Our dinners are pretty simple on the Sundays I teach. This week we had bagels with cream cheese and sauteed onions and peppers. Easy, but seriously delicious.

I've found a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love. (Thank you Pinterest). One of the secrets is that the dough is prepared in advance and frozen, so the bottoms gets nice and crispy, but the inside is moist and chewy. The bonus is that you can make one pan at a time and have fresh-baked cookies more than once. Here's the link.

I love our Valentine tradition of giving books. And I love that I had everything purchased and wrapped in advance this year!

Finally, I love Downton Abbey. It's become a total soap opera in season two, but one with great cinematography, acting and costumes. :) We got rid of our DVR a while ago, so I've been watching religiously on Sunday evenings. It's been about 15 years since I last cared about a TV show enough to watch it when it aired (back then it was Seinfeld on Thursday nights). Fun.

Inspiration for the layout here. No, I'm not that creative.