Happy Mardi Gras

We lived in New Orleans for 4 years and pretty much became Mardi Gras crazies! We loved it and looked forward to it every year.
This year we had a fun dinner with our friends the Hunters. They brought over their Gingerwood house and so we both attempted to make a Mardi Gras houses. The icing was a little thick and it was hard to find good Purple, Green and Yellow Candy, but the beads were a fun addition.

Our menu was:

• Rita's Jambalaya
• Baked Louisiana Sweet Potatoes (you can wrap these in foil like a regular baked potato and then add butter, a little brown sugar and cinnamon.. oh yum!)
• tripled layered jello, grape, lime and lemon
• Red beans and rice
• King Cake ( i couldn't believe it they had it at the grocery store for only $4.99 and it was Great too!)
• Pralines (unfortunately these did not turn out, for some reason the sugar did not dissolve. Do you New Orleans girls use Rita's or Missy recipe?

We had a fun time. Jeff didn't make it home but we saved a little bit of food for him.

Today was our part 2 of Valentines day. We had Annie Kate's party at school and got to pass out Valentines. So I thought I would show you what we made along with some good mail and Valentines we got in the mail last week. I loved opening my mailbox everyday!
A few years ago my friend Sonja gave me the idea of having her kids write something special about each kid in the class on their Valentines. We did it last year for the first time and it was such a fun thing to do. This year we did the same thing but used Thesaurus.com to look up new words for nice, friendly and such. It again was a fun project to do together.
I got the idea for the shovel from Emily and Holly (blog peer pressure sent both your way). I ordered the shovels from I - Party and then tied on these skittle filled plastic hearts With the saying, "What I dig about you!"
Michelle sent a handmade beautiful Valentine that is SO Michelle. She loves black glitter and I loved seeing it on the card. thanks it is really fabulous.
Our Tennessee neighbors sent a group Valentine from the street along with a cute snow photo. Annie Kate was so excited to see everyone, but wished she could have been there. She keeps asking when we are going to come back and visit.
Amanda sent AK this darling April Cornell dress she found at a second hand store awhile back. Even though we had a total white out on Sunday (it is a summer dress) Annie was so excited to wear it
My brother Bevan sent Annie Kate this copy of the Hobbit. I remember my mom reading this to us when we were kids. He wrote a 2 page handwritten letter telling an awesome story of history from where he lives and then gave her a riddle that can only be answered from reading the book. Bevan this was so thoughtful and a wonderful gift.
My mom sent us a Valentines Day package with yummy treats and the girls each $5.00. We called it Mimi Money. Caroline used hers to buy a Cinderella camera at the Disney Store. She took it downtown to the museum and took pretend photos of everything. It was so cute because she would get down on one knee to take the photos and then she would scream SAY CHEESE. Thanks mom!
Amy M. sent this simple yet beautiful Thank you and Valentine...(I can't find the photo of the valentine) She has simple beautiful taste!

one of the ladies I used to visit teach ( i will be on just a writing route now due to distance in my new ward) in my local ward sent me this listing of a few homes in her neighborhood for sale, to give me the plug to be her neighbor. She is an incredible gardener and if I had not been her visiting teacher I would NEVER have gotten to know her so well or if ever. We are really nothing alike except our love for gardens and I was so giddy by her nice good mail. It felt good that we have not been too forgotten yet. All of the homes our about 4 times our price range but if we stayed here, it is where I would want to live and I would love to be her neighbor. Maybe I could afford to rent out her garden shed.
Liam and Asher sent these girls great yummy Valentine's from Krispy Kreme! This is the best idea and I am doing this next year for sure. We used them after our day downtown on Saturday. Thanks so much! I love this idea.
Anna, sent this darling card along with the cookie cutters which have been put to good use yesterday. We need all the spring wishes we can get here. Thanks to one amazing woman, I was trying to find her 100 list because it would blow you away.
Mandy sent this wonderful little package of treasures. Cool ribbon and doodads. I already used the cool chipboard in some good mail. Thank you and yea Montana!
Luke and Elle sent their cousins some awesome Superman tattoos and treats. The other two suckers got eaten before the photo was taken. Thanks guys!

Nice thank you from Carlo who is sporting her new cute Good Mail labels.

My sister in law made these cute Valentine Day cards with my two nieces, Savannah & Ryan. Kari they really turned out so cute!
Amy S. sent me this incredible pink package. With Pink Hot Chocolate, yummy ribbon and this beautiful Anna Griffin Card. Thanks and what a wonderful treat!
My friend Liz sent out her Valentine cards. I look forward to it every year. They don't send Christmas cards and so it makes it such a treat to get it in the mail. Stefanie do you recognize Brenna? My friend Liz is incredibly talented and if you have not seen her Pink Christmas gift take a second to do so, it is pure eye candy!
Pam sent me this handmade card, in fact I don't think every cards he has ever sent me is handmade. along with a bag of pink marshmallows. Thanks so much, my girls loved them and they were great with our Pink Hot Chocolate. (side note if you want to see a darling idea to use these for next Valentines check out Jamie's blog, Mindy's sister-in-law)
This was so nice of Jenny to send me a thank you note for her ribbon winnings. Of course do I even need to say how much I love the card? i think not! love it!
Hanna's Valentine was such a great idea using the scripture from 1Corinthians.
I got this very nice thank you from Jill who is the graphics wizard now.. she is so good with thank you notes.

Amanda S. sent this nice note with a handmade letter plaque of sort that I am using in my scriptures as a book mark.

My mom has the best handwriting and wrote me this sweet thank you note, i loved the photo because I can see her beautiful swirls!

Nothing Presidential

I think this is Jeff's first President's Day off in years if ever. President's Day was not a holiday in New Orleans, so he didn't have off for school. We loved being together as a family and this may surprise some even us... we did nothing Presidential. No monuments, no memorials, no museums. WOW!


Jeff spent the morning with Annie Kate building an ice fort. They even sprayed it with water to get it to really stick. "When life gives you ice make forts!".. get it lemons - lemonade.

We went to the Washingtonian Center and had lunch, visit to Barnes and Noble kids book section, which I love doing, and had fun in the snow and looking at the big frozen lake. I can't believe I didn't bring my camera, I kept thinking in my mind, "oh great shot there and there" But the reason it stayed home is because I was in denial about dropping it face down on the lens on the cement on Saturday night. photo of my UV lens smashed. I knew it had something wrong but didn't really want to deal with it. (it is now in the shop for 4-6 weeks, good thing for insurance!)

At lunch we looked over our FANDEX Presidents set. It was fun to read about different Presidents. These are great educational tools. I found mine at a garage sale for .50 cents. they have a great one on D.C., maybe I should head to Value Village and look for it.

We also made cookies with the new cookie cutters that Anna sent our family to welcome spring. I hope it works and thanks Anna for the kind gift, we will put them to more use I am sure.

and a nice surprise was getting good mail from Montana from UPS, especially since it was a mail holiday. Thanks Mandy, I will post photos soon

And for Family Home Evening that night we copied a great idea off of Stephanie's blog of a snowflake cutting fest! We loved this idea and had plenty of snow to send to some of our family.

Happy President's Day!

I love American History and I love learning about the U.S. Presidents.
So how could I not give away ribbon today!

So here is the question...

1. Who was the first president to die in office? And How long was he president... this is such an amazing story. Check back for the rest of the story.

ready... set... go!

Valentines Day Recap

It seems like Valentines day has not really come yet. We didn't have school so AK's Valentines are still here ready to pass out. I am in charge of the class party and so it just doesn't seem like we have done everything yet. We don't have school again tomorrow so we won't be back until Tuesday because of the the President's Day Holiday.

So, you may be seeing more Valentines Posts next week.

Wednesday we woke up to lots of snow. Early that morning we got 4 inches of sleet, pure ice on top of all the snow we had the day before. We could not open our front or back doors to get out. Currently our car is still trapped in our garage.
This is what it looks like out our front door. I always love seeing these bright colored row houses, but on a snowy day the color is so much more vibrant.

Here are our front steps that only have a 10" width shoveled off because it is solid ice, but makes a great slide for the kids.

My girls had a nice healthy breakfast!
Annie Kate spent most of the day in the snow sledding with friends.
While the little ones stayed inside nice and warm.
We had a nice yummy dinner. Michelle's Chicken Parmesan,
Carrot Souffle & Cran-Raspberry Jello
We had our traditional chocolate covered strawberries and a heart cake for dessert.
There was a silver heart charm for each of the girls in the
cake with ribbon tied on for them to pull before we cut it.
( a tradition I learned about in New Orleans the do in the south at weddings for the bridesmaids)

Jeff always gives the girls in the family a gift after dinner. Sally Jane a Lick-a-stick and Caroline a box of sweet tarts. He gave Annie Kate three mini perfume samples from the perfume counter at the department store.
As for me a bottle of Vera Wang Truly Pink.

The Valentines fairy came and dropped off something for the girls and Annie Kate was surprised it was able to make it in the snow and ice.

It was a great day, not really as I had planned but fun surprises all around. I got some great Valentines in the mail I will post about later.

The night before Jeff and I did Lelly's "Let's Talk" questions. I don't think the two of have laughed so hard in so long. It was GREAT! Thanks girl that was a true gift. I really should have written down our answers on the back of the cards. This will be a new Valentine Eve tradition. Girl you need to sell those next year, I will order 10!

photos of the day and Valentine decor.

Great Freezing Valentines.

We have had a great day and here is a little preview of the day.

And have you guys checked out Stacy's Valentines header. She plugged it in! So incredibly creative.
http://designboxstudio.typepad.com/designboxstudio/

Traditions

Today we woke up to homemade cinnamon rolls with yummy maple icing from again the amazing Katie Davis. Thanks so much for giving us a place of refuge this weekend.

Today the movers are at the house unloading the truck. I drove around the neighborhood for two hours to get the kids out of the house. Then I took them to church even though we looked like a wreck.

Not much a father's day for Jeff that is for sure. Annie Kate was sad that Dad couldn't wear his father's day tie. Every year we make him a special tie to wear to church . The above photo is one from a few years ago. We take one of his old ties and glue every obnoxious thing we can find with photos too. It is fun to look back at the ones we have made over the years.

I also added what we handed out to the fathers at church in 2004 when I was in YW's. A pocket protector with a sugar daddy and a pen with the following poem. (written by my friend Stacy S.

Hip, Hip hooray, Today is Father's day. For all the things you do for us, without complaining, without a fuss. As our ward we would like to say, Have a "Sugar daddy" day. Happy Fathers day 2004

Do they do anything for the dad's at your church?

Idea posted from Shauna, such a great idea!

Several year ago, we started the homemade tie tradition for our entire church congregation. The Saturday before Fathers Day, they have an Activity Day specifically to make the ties. On Fathers Day, all the men are great sports and wear them. Ties are made for every man, children or not. Some wear 3-4 ties, one from each child or wear the previous years' when their children grow up, etc. It has been a very fun tradtion and continues to grow. Some of the ties even have dates on them. Each year, there is something different to add to the decorations. Lots of laughs and fun memories. With my older children grown and gone,when they called home today, they asked about all the ties at church today and what they looked like, etc.