This Little Girl of Mine

This little girl of mine.... I'm gonna let her shine..... Let her shine, Let her shine, Let her shine.

Can you hear me singing?

Tori is an amazing young women with so much fire and energy it's difficult to keep up with her.  She now loves Volleyball and she's pretty dang good.  At 5' 1", she is scrappy and digs right in and never lets the ball get past her. 

She's amazing at everything she does and we thoroughly enjoy spending time with her during her volleyball tournaments.... well.... except when the tournament is from 8am to 6pm with an hour or two between her games. 

I'm learning that life goes by much too fast and my little girl is growing up much too fast also.  So, even though her tournaments can be a long, grueling day, I'm enjoying every second I can soaking up time with this little girl of mine.

My Funny Valentine

 “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”
— A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Along for the Ride

As a parent of two teenagers and an adult child, I've come to the realization that I'm not so much parenting as just along for the ride.

All three of my wonderful children came to our family with very unique, very strong-willed, personalities.  Todd and I have fooled ourselves for awhile thinking we could get them to behave and think exactly how we want them to think.... hoping they would be perfectly, perfect little images of us.  Well, at least all the good qualities of us... cause we don't have any bad qualities... only good.

Ok, back to the point.  The point is.  We've done our best but in the end, they are who they are and who they've always been; we're just along for the ride.  We've tried to provide some bumper pads in the game of life for them, some railings to help them avoid going over the edge, but otherwise they are headed off to their destination.

And their destinations and lives are going to be amazing..... cause they are amazing people.  Todd and I have been blessed to be part of their lives.

Sweet Spencer always does his best to tolerate us, and never wants to hurt our feelings, but has a mind of his own.  Always has and always will.  Love him tons and tons.

Darling Evan is our quiet, a little bit shy, son who hides his brilliant mind behind his quiet confidence.  He's always seemed to know exactly what needs to be done and just does it.  Not because we've told him to but because it's the right thing to do.  Love him a million times over.

Beautiful Tori came into our lives as a force of nature.  She moves forward with a purpose and direction and doesn't let anyone stop her.  She seems to tolerates us because we provide food and shelter and, well, maybe she loves us a little too.  She's been this way since birth and she's fabulous.  Love this young woman.

We are blessed!!

The Love of the Sport

Our family enjoys the winter months here because of our love of skiing and snowboarding.  Each one of us enjoy this sport and we look forward to each snowfall; sadly, this year has been a little skimpy on the white stuff so far.  We've all looked forward to forecasts predicting snow falls and have been disappointed when it's just a light dusting of snow. 

So after telling you about our enjoyment of this sport, you might be surprised that we've suffered from some injuries over this last year.  Injuries that would make many people think twice before heading to the slopes.  Why do we still persist in putting ourselves in harms way when there's risk of injury?

At the end of the season last year, poor Tori broke her arm, which caused her to miss out on Volleyball tryouts for the year.  Recovering from this injury was not fun and wearing the cast was not pleasant.  Yet, this year she's all ready to hit the slopes to try out her new snowboard.

At the beginning of this season, Todd took a terrible fall and dislocated his shoulder causing a severe injury in his shoulder and to his bicep tendon.  All resulting in surgery and some temporary nerve damage, which keeps him from work until he fully heals.  Yet, he's disappointed that he's missing out on the ski season.

The thrill of the sport is hard to give up and how can we resist such beauty in nature?  Let's just hope and pray we can all be a little more careful, a little more coordinated, and much more safe in the years to come because I don't think the family can ever give up this sport.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a wonderful life I lead.  I'm so very blessed to have my husband and children and so thrilled to have them all home for the holidays.  We don't get to see Spencer and Ashley very often now that they've moved and I was just overjoyed when they came to spend four days with us for Christmas. 

It's tough for a Mom to adjust to having her children leave the nest, at least for this Mom it's been tough.  I cried for days when Spencer moved out.  Having him home with us along with the addition of Ashley, his wife, was an absolute joy.

As you can see from this picture, I've got some pretty good looking kids (just ignore the silly face Spencer's making.... he's just a good looking kid).  Oh, by the way, can you see that Evan is now taller than Spencer?  Evan has grown like crazy this last year.

Sadly we're missing Todd from the picture.  Poor Todd.  Just two days before Christmas Todd had surgery on his shoulder to repair some damage done after a skiing accident dislocated his shoulder.  The accident had happened early December and it took some time to determine if he would need surgery.  Once it was discovered he needed surgery we decided to move forward as quickly as possible so he could recover more quickly and avoid taking a lot of time off from work, which resulted in surgery just two days before Christmas.  No fun.  He's been such a trooper and was involved with all our family fun but generally spent his time laying on the couch or resting, which resulted in missing him in our family picture.

Say your prayers for a quick recover for Todd.  He really struggles with not being in tip-top-shape and keeping busy.  Recovery from this injury will be a long, slow process and that's tough.  Say a little prayer for him.

On Christmas Eve we had my parents over for a Christmas Eve family dinner.  We love having them over and, of course, had to capture the moment since we don't get to have Spencer with us very often.

Here's my Pops with his two oldest grandchildren, my wonderful sons, Spencer and Evan.

Here's Mom and Dad with my three crazy, wonderful, beautiful children.

My favorite picture of all.  My sweet oldest child who said he missed me and missed my cooking.  Isn't that just the nicest thing a son can say to his Mother?

Christmas Treats

Every year we have a Christmas tradition of making yummy treats for our neighbors and friends.  This is a tradition that I learned from my Mom.  How she did the cooking each year with eight kids, I just don't know, but she did and it was fun for all of us.  We all enjoyed running plates of yummy treats around the neighborhood and, most of all, enjoyed eating the goodies.

The goodies my Mom would make each year without fail are her famous peanut brittle, home-made fudge, and rice krispie squares.  Have you ever made peanut brittle?  It's tough.  I don't know how she manages to get it just right every year.  I've got her recipe but I seem to burn it each year.

So, as I mentioned, I've continued the tradition making goodies.  I don't always make the same treat each year because I like to try new recipes but typically I make something chocolatey (it's not a treat if there's no chocolate involved, right?).

This year I'm making Merry Mint Fudge, something I've made in the past and is my absolute favorite kind of fudge because it's got mint cookies in it.  I just love chocolate and mint together.  Here's a link to the recipe I posted last year.... Merry Mint Fudge Link.

I'm also making chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks, which is a super, easy treat that anyone can do and most everyone loves the combination of salty and sweet.  The pretzels can be dipped in milk chocolate or white chocolate.

Lastly, I'm making Peanut Blossoms.  All three recipes are easy, yummy, and involve chocolate so I'm happy.  Hopefully the neighbors are happy also.  Either way, it's been a great tradition to continue.

Peanut Blossoms
1 cup shortening (I actually substitute butter for the shortening and think the cookies taste much better with the butter.)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar for decoration
2 (9 ounce) bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. 
3. Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

Christmas Lights

Just after Thanksgiving we headed up to Salt Lake City to spend some time with Spencer and Ashley. I miss that boy so much and was so happy to spend a day with him.  The original plan was to have the whole family together but unfortunately both Todd and Evan had to work that day so it was just me and Tori with Spencer and Ashley.  No matter, it was a wonderful time.

The day after Thanksgiving is the traditional lighting ceremony of the Christmas lights in Temple Square, Salt Lake City.  Have you ever seen the Christmas lights in Temple Square?  If not, I highly recommend making it a family tradition.  It's a beautiful sight and puts you right in the Christmas spirit.

Spencer and Ashley, such a cute couple.

Some of the sights at Temple Square. 

Can see why it's a great suggestion for a family tradition?  If you go, be sure to bundle up, it can be cold.