Waiting

Here's to waiting in faith for the good things to come. Sometimes it seems as if we spend our lives waiting. It can be so frustrating, and at times feels so hopeless. In times such as these we must keep an eternal perspective and trust that everything that happens and every trial we face is for our betterment. We must "be still" and know that He is God.

I'll try to remember that.

Happy Easter!!!

We've had such a fantastic Easter this year! I loved that General Conference was on the same weekend, what better way to Celebrate the Resurrection than by listening to the inspired words of our modern-day prophet and apostles? I always love conference weekend, it's always just what I need to lift my spirits. I am just so grateful for this church.
Earlier this week I did a little basket make-over using this tutorial. I wish I had taken a "before" photo, because I think the transformation was awesome. You'll just have to take my word for it. In any case, this is what I ended up with:

That was before the Easter Bunny came. Afterward it looked more like this:

Allen and I both went to the store the night before Easter and we both bought candy to put in the basket and surprise the other. We were definitely surprised to find double the candy! It worked out though because we went to different stores and between the two of us we were able to get all our favorites. Allen really went the extra mile though. He got up early Sunday morning to hide these around the house.

The best surprise came when I opened them to reveal little love notes in each one. What a sweet husband!


For breakfast I made these little lovies:

They're called Easter rolls because while they're baking the marshmallow in the middle melts. When you bite into them they are empty just like the tomb was on Easter morning. A little cheesy I know, but I kinda liked it and Allen is the marshmallow king so I figured he would like them. If you would like to try them, I found the recipe here


Later we had a lovely Easter dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, and asparagus with homemade hollandaise sauce. Yummy!

Allen being such a man and carving the ham.

For dessert I made this little piece of heaven:

It's called Pavlova and is to-die-for. Apparently it is a dish from New Zealand and is named after the ballerina Anna Pavlova because it is so light and graceful. It has a meringue base, filled with hand-whipped cream, and topped with berries (raspberries in this case). I had never even heard of it before but let me tell you, I WILL be making this again. I'd like to experiment with different fruit or berries on top. Maybe even use a chocolate mousse instead of cream . . . ooh, I should definitely try that. Anyway, if you would like to try this exquisite dessert, this is the recipe I used. I highly recommend it.
Oh, and P.S.- Yes, Allen did write that last entry but I decided to leave it because hey, who am I to argue with a statement so true? And humble to boot!

My Husband is AWESOME

Yes he is.

Then Comes the Big Night, Giving the Tree the Trim!

As you can tell by the smile on Allen's face, yesterday was a very fun day!

We were very excited and had lots of fun.

Earlier in the week I had prepared by making these . . .

and these . . .

and this!

I got to use my fondue pot with cheese for the first time!

It was all for this naked guy!

Growing up, my family always made a fun little family night of trimming the tree. We had fondue and yummy Christmas goodies and listened to Christmas music. I was so happy that this year, I got to share that tradition with my husband. It was so much fun to get our first tree together, and I LOVE the smell! My home feels so wonderful and Christmas-y with the scent of a real tree. I just love Christmas!

Allen putting the star on top.


The finished product!

This was a little craft I put together this year. I really like the way it turned out.

Halloween

For as long as I can remember I've looked forward to doing a couple costume for Halloween. I know it's cheesy but it's something I've always wanted to do. So I was so glad that Allen was so willing to be such a good sport and dress up with me! We went as Mario and Princess Peach from the old Nintendo game. I made both of our costumes and I must say, I'm pretty proud of how they came out. Allen's was super easy of course, I just bought overalls, a red sweatshirt, gloves and a hat. I cut the little circle and the "M" out of white felt and hot glued it on. My dress was a little more involved. I didn't get my sewing machine until a week before Halloween so I didn't have much time to make it either! I just got really busy and sewed my butt off!

Hey Hillbilly!

Our ward had a Hillbilly Hoedown a few weeks ago. Everyone was asked to dress as hillbillies and we thought there was a prize for the best outfit. Turns out there was no prize, which is a shame because we would have won for sure!
They also had a twinkie eating contest that I entered. I have a history of winning eating contests believe it or not. I've won watermelon and pie eating contests, and since this was a test of speed, not quantity, I thought I'd give it a shot. I did inhale it pretty fast and Allen said I was the first to clear my plate. I had a hard time swallowing it though and it was probably because I don't really like twinkies. Allen taped the whole thing though with our new camcorder, and you can see that I'm having a hard time. There were a couple of times that I almost lost it!

Raspberry Picking!

Early fall is raspberry season in northern New Mexico. That makes it one of my favorite times of the year! My parents have a little cabin there that Allen and I were able to spend a weekend at.

This is all Allen really wanted to do, but since there is no internet I was able to steal him away from the computer.

One night we wanted to cook out, but we couldn't. My parents had taken their grill back home and we couldn't get a good fire going because it kept raining. So we wrapped our steaks and corn on the cob in foil and stuck it in the oven. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

Ever since my parents bought the property a couple years ago we've heard that there are lots of bears in the area. But I've never seen one and I don't think anyone else has either. Until this trip when we got lucky! We were driving to Angelfire for some food and were less than a mile from the cabin when we saw this guy! He was in the middle of the road but by the time I got out my camera he was halfway up the hill and all I got was his backside.

And of course the best part of the trip, raspberry picking!