Snow Caving

Who says that girls can't do what boys can? Last month Mitchell went with the Boy Scouts up to Mt Hood and had a blast digging some snow caves. Lindsay and Ashley wanted to try it also, so on Friday night Mitchell took them up to the White River area. The snow was very deep from some recent storms that had come through the area the week before. Below shows the first stages the the construction of their snow cave.

After some four hours of digging with the girls helping, they were done. By this time it was dark and cold so they got inside and packed it in for the night. This picture shows the entrance to the cave (can you say tight fit)!

Here is a picture of the girls inside with Mitchell taking a picture from the entrance.

Here is a picture of Ashley inside the cave. Yes, that is a wall of snow behind her.
Lindsay is all bundled in for the night.
Here is Mitchell laying down deeper inside the cave.

Here is Lindsay and Ashley laying down with the flashlight on behind them. Later, they turned off all the lights and lit a few small candles to keep in a little light and warmth.

Mitchell and the girls had a great time. On the way up they stopped and got some junk food and lived it up inside before they went to bed. Just down from them was a scout troop from Vancouver, Washington that showed up and started building their own caves. Mitchell said he could barely hear them still building their caves until after midnight.

Gotta Check These Sites Out

I have become a total blog addict the past week. I love to go from blog to blog seeing all of the fun things that people come up with. Here are a few of my absolutely favorites!

http://wontbesoonbeforelong.blogspot.com/ - This girl is amazing! Her blog is about saving money and coupon shopping. I have learned so much the past week, I am so excited about coupon shopping now! Luckily she lives here in Oregon so her deals actually pertain to me! I went shopping on Monday to Safeway and came home with some great bargains thanks to her! She also has links to a lot of other sites that I have enjoyed looking at.

http://allthingsribbon.blogspot.com/ - Cute hairstyles and tutorials! I love tutorials that I can actually see how to do something.

http://mindypitcher.blogspot.com/ - A compilation of everything! This is very cute. I love her cake decorating ideas and darling scrapbook pages.

http://cutiepiehaircreations.blogspot.com/ - Like I said, I love tutorials and she has quite a few on how to do hair! I tried some today and they actually worked. So exciting!

Let me know if you come across any fun blogs or sites.

A Week In Pictures

MOMMY & ME
Hailey and I had a great time at the Portland Children's Museum. They have so much to offer and we had a blast. We were there for three hours and realized that we did not get to half of the museum, but I was not going to tell her. :)

Our own "Hailey the Builder" in the new Bob the Builder exhibit.

Shopping in the grocery store has to be one of our favorites! They have small shopping carts, fake food, dishes, a restaurant, everything that a child needs to feel like a Grown Up.

Another favorite is the makeup mirrors. Hailey enjoyed making a mustache and beard. After a couple of minutes she changed her mind and wanted to take if off, well, it did not work so she had a beard all day and into the next. Thankfully, it was St. Patrick's Day the following day so the green on her face did not stand out.

We had a great time together, just the two of us. I can't wait to have a Mommy & Me date with Ashley and Lindsay.

PRESCHOOL
We decided that we were going to hold back Hailey a year from school due to her birthday being 6 days before the deadline. I just want to make sure she is ready and right now she is content with where she is at (and so am I, it is hard to let my baby go so I will hold on another year).

One of my sweet friends in our ward asked me if Hailey would like to go to her house on Monday's for a preschool that her daughters put on. My girls love their daughter Natalya. She has babysat a couple of times for us and I am asked quite often to go on a date so Natalya can babysit.

Natalya decided to start a preschool for one of her Young Women Personal Progress Goals. She is such a fun teacher. On Monday they learned about the letter "H" and they had a "H"am Sandwich, colored "H"ats, and colored the letter "H". I am so glad that she can be involved in this preschool. She loves it and has learned so much already.

EDIBLE FLOWER BOUQUETS
Mitchell is the Priest Advisor for our ward. He truly loves his calling. One thing that he gets to do is plan activities on Tuesday Nights for Young Men's. On Tuesday he came up with such a fun activity, I was so impressed.

They made edible flower bouquets for the Young Women in our ward. The Young Women were playing basketball and this would be their treat afterward.

At first, the boys were not excited about making these. They thought it was funny that the girls were playing basketball and they had to make a flower bouquet. After some time and coaxing they had a great time and came up with some pretty amazing creations.

My favorite part was eating the pineapple. YUMMY!

ST. PATRICK'S DAY DINNER

I never do anything fun for St. Patrick's Day so I thought it would be fun to have a green dinner. We had green mashed potatoes, green gravy, green beans and steak. At first, the girls were not willing to try the food, but after realizing that the food coloring did not change the taste of it, they thought it was pretty fun. Next year I will plan to make three meals centered on the color green.

PAJAMA DAY

At school today all of the children won "Pajama Day". They were able to wear their pajamas, bring slippers and robes to school. I wish I could wear pajamas to school. I love pajamas. Anyways, Lindsay's class was also able to bring pillows, sleeping bags and stuffed animals because they were having an all day read a thon.

Ashley's class had a party and she was so excited because they did not have to do any work at all! (School was let out at 11:10 today due to meetings). They had popcorn and they watched the movie Balto.

Today is the official start to our Spring Break. I can't wait until we can sleep in, stay up late, and have an enjoyable week being together!

Smoothies

Right after Mitchell and I got married he got a job as a general manager at a Zuka Juice in Sugarhouse, Utah. This had to be one of his favorite jobs ever. He loved his employees and they loved him.

When I was pregnant with Lindsay I was hired to work at a different Zuka a couple of days a week, but I was also able to work with Mitchell at his store a couple of times. It was fun to be able to go to work with him and have him there. I did not watch the clock to go home, because I was with him. I worked up until the day before I had Lindsay.

While I worked there we were able to get a free smoothie every day. I grew to LOVE the Peanut Butter Bash. I had one every day. We enjoy a good smoothie in our home every once in a while and I thought that you might want to know how to make your own.

So, how do you make a real smoothie? We never measure out our product so I will put guestamates here.

Peanut Butter Smoothie

You need to put a tablespoon of Creamy Peanut Butter in the freezer. I put it on a piece of wax paper, the wrapped it up.

Place the following ingredients in your blender in this order. The order matters because the blades chop it better.

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon Frozen Peanut Butter

3 scoops Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

1 Banana

Squirt or two of Hershey's Chocolate (the kind you put over ice cream sundaes)

VOILA! You made a fantabulous smoothie, or shake whatever you want to call it.

For a Berrie Smoothie we use pretty much any berry that is in season. Frozen is always the best! So here goes.

Add about a cup of liquid (grape juice, apple juice, pineapple juice, passion juice, I have even opened a juice box and poured it in for my liquid because I did not have any other juice in the house)

About a handful of whatever FROZEN fruit you would like, mix it for more flavor (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, mango, peaches, blackberries)

3 scoops of Sherbet Ice Cream (pineapple is my favorite, but you can always use lime, orange, whatever your store has.)

1 banana (Mitchell says the banana makes the smoothies frothy because they are not frozen so if you don't want it "frothy" freeze your banana. I, prefer mine frothy I guess because I do not freeze it.)

Enjoy!!!

Don't forget about my recipe blog. I would love to post any recipies that you might have. You can never have too many recipies! :)

I Must Have A Lot of Time On My Hands

Yes, I know, we are all sick of my bows, but hey, this is my blog and you don't have to read it. :) I made some more bows last night and realized that since I have a thousand bows, I now need somewhere to keep them safe. So I made this.

It hangs up in my bathroom, in a very convenient place. I threw it together with stuff from around my home that I already had. I used some left over material, ribbon, an old plastic sign for the base of it and some cotton balls for a little bit of padding. I know, genius! I love it. It is now completely full and if I continue to make bows, I will need to make another one.Since I ran out of hair clips and do not want to go to the store for more right this second, I took some old bows apart and made new ones out of them.

This used to be just the corkscrew bow, but I added a little bit of flare to it. I love it and so do my girls.

This one has to be one of my favorite. I wish that I put another layer of black in the center of ribbon, like the top bow, but oh well, it is still cute.

So I will spare you all and try not to make any more bow posts. I guess when I get excited about something, I want to share it will everyone.

Activity Days Talent Show

My girls have been so blessed to have two wonderful Activity Day teachers. Sister Bruce and Sister Gower have been amazing and have taught them so much. They have learned how to sew, lead music, play fun games with their Articles of Faith, made thank you cards, make a family tree, decorate cookies for our Bishop and the list goes on and on. They have also taught by example. My girls love Activity Days and look forward to it every week and their teachers have a lot to do with that. I am so thankful for wonderful women who teach my girls.

Last week at Activity Days the girls had a talent show. Ashley has changed her mind a couple of times as to what talent she would share but finally played a song on the piano. Lindsay and Ashley have had the opportunity to take piano lessons this past school year with their teacher Sister Becky Baker. She does a great job and the girls have so much fun. I remember when I was in piano I did not like to practice my songs, but they enjoy it and do really well.

Here is Ashley playing one of her favorite songs.

Lindsay decided to sing and after hearing, "The Candle on the Water" from Pete's Dragon she decided that would be her song. When she got to the front of our little audience she got stage fright and sat back down after singing a couple of lines, but after a little pep talk she did it. For some reason it will not download so instead of taking another week to post this, I will just try and figure it out and post the video later. She also played a song on the piano that she memorized.
It was a fun night and I am so proud of my sweet girls. I can not wait to see what they do with their beautiful talents that they have been blessed with.