Easter Celebration

We had another wonderful Easter celebration this year!


While Scott was working his magic in the kitchen, I was in charge of setting the table...




Some of the daffodils from the front yard made a lovely bouquet for the table.


Dan and Melinda came over and shared in our feast. It was absolutely delicious, as always! And the best part was spending time together and all the fun conversation we always have. We love them so much and are grateful to have them as our "extended family."


Scott and I had a lot of fun being creative together this year - with decorating our springtime flower cupcakes for dessert...




...and dying eggs - one of my favorite traditions from my childhood.

My family had a little custom where each of us would decorate an egg for each member of the family. We would write the person's name on it with the wax crayon and decorate it in a way we thought they would like. I made one for Scott (can you tell which one?) but I forgot to tell him about the tradition, so he didn't do one with my name on it. :(


But I picked out my favorite egg that he decorated and we decided that one could be "mine." :)


Isn't it gorgeous? My cute husband is so talented!

I think it's so perfect that Easter is in the springtime. What better time of year to remember the gift of the resurrection and the atonement, when we are surrounded by the beauty of spring flowers, newborn animals and budding leaves. Everything feels fresh and new. What beautiful blessings the Savior gives us.

Hope you had a beautiful, colorful Easter!

Handmade Love

Scott and I decided this year to start a new tradition of having a handmade theme for our Valentine's Day gifts to each other.

We were in Maryland over Valentine's week. Scott went to some of my favorite local shops there and made this beautiful gift basket for me!


It included a gorgeous dark red, long-stemmed rose, sparkling apple cider and other goodies from McCutcheon's, a box of hand-selected chocolates from Olympia Candy Kitchen (all dark chocolate and no nuts - just what I like!), and a selection of gemstone focus beads from Potomac Bead Company for my jewelry-making projects! He picked them all out himself - aren't they gorgeous? I can't wait to play with them!

I loved everything, and was so impressed with the time and effort he put into thinking about what I would like, hand-selecting everything, and arranging it all so cute in a little basket. He really knows how to make things special.

His gift from me was these little covered soaps that I made.


Those big, manly hands of his have a hard time holding on to slippery bars of soap in the shower, so I thought washcloth covers would help make the soap bars non-slip and sudsy. He says he loves them. I had fun making them for him.

I'm so grateful to be married to my sweet, wonderful Valentine!

A Very Teddy Christmas

Teddy here...

I had a great time this year and just wanted to share my favorite things about Christmas.



Teddy's Favorite Things are...

1. This T-shirt that my Grandma got me.I know, I know. I'm completely adorable.

2. Hanging with my cousins who all love me and dote on me. Here is a picture of me with Christina. She put a bow around my neck. I am so manly that I totally rock it.3. Turkey giblets and heart. It's tradition - every year Grandma cooks up the giblets and heart and shares them with me. Mom thinks it's gross, but she obviously doesn't have the advanced taste buds that we do.
4. Presents under the tree for me! This year I got homemade peanut butter doggie cookies from a special family friend. Yum. She knows what dogs like!5. Being spoiled. I usually don't get too much table food, but around the holidays everyone seems to enjoy sneaking me little bits of turkey, ham, pumpkin pie or whatever under the table as a little treat.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and got lots of treats!

A Very Merry Christmas

We had a beautiful, wonderful, fun-filled Christmas!


This year we got not only one, but two Christmas dinners.


Feast #1:

Feast #2:You know, when I took these pictures, I thought it would be fun to document all the great food we had...but now looking at them I just feel like a little piggy to see how much I ate. Ah well, it was delicious.

On the 23rd, we ate at my mom and dad's house with the Sister Missionaries. Mom wanted to make an early traditional Christmas Eve dinner so that we would have leftovers for the holiday.
And on Christmas Eve, we all migrated to Stephanie's house for a wonderful and bounteous buffet...

After eating tons of delicious food, we played a fun game in which we all got tags hung around our necks with the name of a character from a Christmas movie. After we figured out who we were by asking each other questions, we split into teams and played movie quote trivia.
Then we had the traditional grab bag gift exchange. And I got.....SOCKS!!!!
The kids all got lots of fun things...But Brianna got the best prize - a delicious-looking box of candy.
Here's Aunt Jennifer with 3 of the coolest nieces ever.And Uncle Scott with 5 cool nephews.
Christmas morning dawned with plenty of gifts under the tree.Despite planning on having a simpler Christmas and less gifts this year, we were very blessed with lots of wonderful new things. (If you look closely, you can see that I got LOTS of new socks - yay!)
I have SO many Favorite Things about Christmas, but here are just a few...

1. The fact that our families love food. It's an important part of our traditions, and one of the ways we show love.

2. My husband's thoughtfulness. As one of my gifts, Scott took me on a little date to the quaint downtown where my parents live. We went to a local bead store and he patiently shopped and looked with me and waited while I selected some awesome beads to make myself some jewelry with. It was a perfect gift because not only did I get the beading supplies, but I got to spend time with him, too.

3. Traditions. I love all those little things that we do every year that make the season special.

4. Pie crust cookies. A bonus of making your own pie crust.5. Watching cheesy Christmas movies on TV.

6. Being in Maryland. Really, it is THE most beautiful place. I love the rolling hills, the rocky outcroppings, the green (even in winter), the trees, the purple mountains...it's gorgeous and it's home and I miss it.

7. Becoming part of history. One day we got to hang out with Michael and Stephanie and their family in their basement they're finishing and watch them put up drywall. Michael is putting a time caspule in the wall and we get to have our picture put in there. We even got to write out initals on the wall - SK+JK!

8. Watching my mom and my husband cook together.

9. Talking about the gospel with my Dad while we did the dishes together.
10. Spending time with family. My most favorite part of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

We're just having such fun with our families right now that I have left off my daily blogging for December. I'll update soon with lots of Favorite Things to share, but for now, I am just enjoying the experiences!

We watched this wonderful video last night as part of our Christmas Eve. It's a beautiful depiction that celebrates not only the Savior's birth, but His life and teachings, His great sacrifice for us, and His resurrection. He lives! I am so thankful for His love for me and for this time of year to pause and reflect on the wonder of His birth.



I hope your Christmas was full of wonder, excitement, joy, warmth , love of family and friends, and the peace that comes from feeling the love of our Savior. Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had another beautiful Thanksgiving this year. Although, this was the Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't.

Melinda and I had already decided to get our families together for dinner, but we had tried to get the guys to agree to (gasp!) going out to eat this year. (My parents and Scott's mom got together and went to a restaurant this year and the idea sounded tempting...) I normally wouldn't consider something like this, but we have had such a busy few months and Scott is so occupied with studying right now (and since he does a lot of the cooking) I thought he might consent to our evil plan.

Not a chance.

So, we divvied up the work and prepared a traditional feast. SO glad I listened to my husband. It was yummy as always and we'll have leftovers for days...
(Me, Robby, Melinda, Dan...Scott is taking the picture of course, so that he doesn't have to be in it.)

One of my favorite parts of preparing for a holiday dinner is setting the table. My mom always gave me that task growing up and I always took pleasure in making the table look pretty.

One of my other favorite holiday chores is making pies with homemade crust.
I hear a lot of people say that they think making pie crust is hard or it's too much work. I've found that there are a couple of tricks that make it easy and give you a delicious, flaky crust that is waaaaaay better than anything you can buy in the store.

Here's my recipe, with tips...

Southern Pastry

2 Cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 scant Cup shortening ( I like the butter-flavored Crisco. I always put my shortening in the freezer for a few minutes as I start the recipe. You want all your ingredients to stay nice and cold.)

Blend well with pastry blender. (You don't have to worry about handling it too much at this point - just make sure the flour and shortening are well blended.)

Add 6 Tbs. of ice water. Toss lightly with a fork. (This is the part where you don't want to handle it too much. Just incorporate the water gently. If you stir it too much your crust will be tough and won't be flaky.)

Gather into a ball. Divide in half and roll out onto a well-floured surtface. (When I roll out my crust, I sprinkle just a little bit of flour on top before using my rolling pin so that it doesn't stick. I also think a wooden rolling pin works best.) Fold in quarters and transfer to a pie tin.

Makes 2 single or 1 double crust.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes for a pre-baked crust.

Give it a try and you'll NEVER use store-bought crust again.

I'm thankful for so many things - like my wonderful husband, my sweet little dog, my incredible family and friends, the Gospel, the Lord, all the blessings He gives me every day, the gorgeous house I get to live in, leftovers and pie...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Easter

What a delicious Easter dinner we had!

Menu:
Spiral Ham with Mustard Sauce and Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
Funeral Potatoes
Asparagus with Lemon
Baby Green Beans with Lemon
Deviled Eggs
Mandarin Orange Jello Salad
Cucumber Salad
Yeast Rolls
Chocolate Bunny Cake

Ben, Josephine, Tyler and Ashley came, along with our good friends - one of whom did not want to be photographed! ;D The dinner was amazing, with a wonderful combination of flavors. Everyone brought something and it was a feast! Josephine made this cute bunny cake for dessert - he was delicious!

After dinner, Scott informed the kids that "The Easter Beagle" had visited our house and asked us to give them these Easter baskets. The Easter Beagle is a tradition that a special neighbor of Scott's did for him and his sisters when they were little - he would bring them treats from the Easter Beagle since the Easter Bunny came to their parent's house. That neighbor has since passed away and Scott wanted to continue this tradition in his memory. The kids were thrilled to receive their treats, of course!I love Easter! Besides having another excuse to get together with people I love and eat awesome food, I love this time of rebirth and renewal. What a gift our Savior has given us of the Atonement - to save us from death and sin. And what a gift to know that we will see again our loved ones who have passed and that we can be with our families forever. I hope you all had a wonderful day!