Happy Valentine’s Day

I only had one child taking Valentines to school this year so I went a little crazy.  I found some really cute printable cards and made some candy to go along with it. 

We tried to make owl eyes, but they look more like mini cupcakes to me.  Anyway, they tasted yummy.  I got Snyder's peanut butter pretzel sandwiches and toped them with a Hershey Hug then popped them into the oven for a minute or two then put an M&M on top. 

Kyle and Lana brought these for their teachers.

I found the idea here.  They were supposed to be homemade bath bomb.  Of course I didn’t start on it until the day before so I thought I could use store bought bath bombs.  Well after searching several stores I realized I wasn’t going to find them and switched it to foot soak.  Doesn’t go along with the whole bomb thing as well but I’ll get over it, I think. 

Since I was a kid I can remember pizza places doing the heart shaped pizza thing, but since I moved here this is the first year I’ve seen it advertised in Vegas.  A few years ago I called up a small pizza place (Seattle Dan’s Pizza)  and asked them if they could make a heart pizza for me and they agreed,  Here it is:

  They did such a cute job, I love the arrow through it, and I’ve never seen one as cute since.  I think I’ll have to call them up again this year for the kids valentine’s surprise.   This year the grown ups are going to The Melting Pot for our Valentine date.   As I was putting this blog together Ronnie has been emailing me and this is one thing he sent me:

Love is like a cheese fondue - as long as you stir it, it stays fresh. If you don't stir it, it gets hard and crusty. LOL. Just off the top of my head. I’m a genius.

I know what you are saying…what a romantic…and what a humble guy.  What can I say,  I’m one lucky girl. 

Happy Valentine’s Day

LV vs MO

Well life has been a bit crazy this past month.  The whole family made a trip out to Missouri to visit some family for a week.  We left on Saturday and came home on Saturday.  Then when we returned home the kids had a three day week.  Normally this would be great, but when you have a week’s worth of makeup work to do in three days it’s not so great.  Now I know my kids didn’t have to finish all their makeup work in three days but I kind of had the feeling that I was going to be going back to Missouri before too long and I wanted to make sure everything got handed in. 

My feeling was right.  Thursday morning Ronnie’s Grandmother passed and we started looking at plane tickets.  We booked some tickets for 12:30pm that day.  The kids were going to stay with my parents.  So we needed to tell them why we were leaving before school that morning.  I hated doing that because Kyle is so tenderhearted and I just knew that it would effect his whole school day.  To my surprise he was ok, he said that he felt a lot better about Grandma’s situation since he talked to Sister Turner ( his friend down the street that is in her 90th year).  How grateful I am to her!  So we drop our kids off at school and head home to pack. 

We leave for the airport at 10:30.  We had an hour delay on the plane because of some light that wouldn’t turn off on the plane.  Haven’t these people ever dealt with a check engine light before?  You unplug the battery wait 15 minutes then plug it back in and your good to go.  It took them almost an hour before they turned everything off on the plane waited a few minutes then turned it back on and we were good to go.  I really didn’t mind too much, I was just glad we weren’t traveling with kids.  We had a 3 hour 15 minute flight then we had to get a rental car.  Then we had a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive to Ronnie’s parent’s house.  It was 9pm when we arrived in his hometown.  Long day of traveling. 

While we were in Missouri I noticed some differences in lifestyle. 

First off, what people consider “nice” cars are way different.  For example, in Vegas a think a nice car is one that has all the bells and whistles and is fairly new.  In Missouri a nice car is one that reeks of gasoline, vibrates the floorboard so much your feet start to tickle, and supposedly goes really fast. 

This is one of Ronnie’s old cars that his cousin now drives.  And if you wondering yes, I had to go for a ride in it.  What is it with guys and cars???

The next thing that is different in these two regions is cracks.  I never knew this until I came back from Missouri.  The faint of heart please skip this part.  Sorry I have to share my experience with someone.  Ok, so we have all seen plumber’s crack before, right?  Well in Ronnie’s family there is this one habitual perpetrator of this crime to society.  I got to hear a story of what happened at the last family reunion, let me share.  I will change names in order to protect the safety of all parties involved.  Alisa was appalled by the plumber’s crack that appeared before her eyes and devised a plan to maybe make the perpetrator more aware of his heinous crime.  She told all the kids around that she had a fun new game.  She told them to try to flip a quarter in uncle Mock’s crack.  Sadly she had no takers, imagine that.  Now how this is different in Vegas?  Well a few days after we returned home I was in line at Sam’s Club and I saw what I’m calling a front crack!  Unbelievable!  Inconceivable!  This woman inline ahead of me had on the lowest low rise jeans I had ever seen and I had to do a double take to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.  Then I just wanted to run away, far far away.  Oh the horror, I will never be the same.  There will be no pictures for this section!

The last difference that I’ll be pointing out in this post are biscuits.  I think what most people think of when they hear biscuit is a light and airy biscuit.  They are golden brown on top and light in the middle.  The bottoms are light brown and not too greasy.  They are easily split open with a fork and just sturdy enough to hold butter and jelly.  Unless they are from Europe. Something that looks like this:

 

  I don’t know if this is a family thing or Southeast Missouri thing but in Ronnie’s family biscuits resemble more of Indian Fry Bread to me.  The bottoms of the biscuit are fried.  Don’t get me wrong they taste good, but the first time I was served them I was looking for some honey or powder sugar to put on them. 

Even though we went back to Missouri for a funeral we did have a great time catching up with family.  Family make us whole, the good, the bad, the less desirable, they all have their place in a family. 

Gus What We Did

While we all look forward to Groundhog Day on February 2nd and the forecast for an early spring from the two greatest weatherhogs on the planet - Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario and Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the truth behind this 200 year-old tradition is oftentimes forgotten.

Long before the advent of Groundhog Day on February 2nd,  the Romans observed a similar event thousands of years ago on the exact same day. Rather than use the North American groundhog, the Romans used the hedgehog.

“If during hibernation, he (the hedgehog) looks out of his den on 2nd February and sees his shadow it means there is a clear moon and six more weeks of winter so he returns to his burrow.”

The only difference between this ancient event and the present day version (aside from the hedgehog, of course) is the fact that the Romans would look to see if the hedgehog saw its shadow under a clear moon at night.

Here in North America, where we have no indigenous species of hedgehog, we replaced the hedgehog with the native groundhog.  To this day “Punxsutawney Phil” and “Wiarton Willie” battle it out to see who is the better weather forecaster, but little do they or their handlers know that the original prognosticator of spring was a hedgehog.

See: www.hedgehogcentral.com

Today (because we are big nerds) we celebrated a bit of the old tradition.   We made a hedgehog cake in honor of Groundhog Day. 

  

We named him Gus short for Augustus in honor of his Roman heritage.  I don’t know, but I think we have all grown too found of him to slice him up and eat him.  I wonder if Duff from Ace of Cakes ever has this dilemma?

Family

Family means something different to everyone.  Growing up I had always heard the saying blood is thicker than water.  It was usually said when my brother wanted to hang out with his friends and not have to take his little sister along and I think I also used it to snag the front seat over one of his friends on occasion.  Growing up I had a lot of family members around.  Both sides of the family were just an hour away.  My brother and I were spoiled royally.  One grandparent's house always was stocked full of ice cream, not just any ice cream but the best, Blue Bell.  At the other grandparent's we knew that our grandpa would take us to Putt Putt where we would spend a few hours playing video games and once in a while play a game of mini golf while our mom and grandmother were off shopping.  We also had plenty of aunts and uncles to entertain us with trips to the movies, go kart rides, public pools, not to mention they would come out to visit us on the farm and we could always have lots of fun.  We also had two cousins we could play with at all the boring adult functions.  Come to think of it, I guess we didn't have a big family, but what family we did have were very active in our lives. 

Life took us to Las Vegas and soon brought our family 3 little girls (through adoption).  My family unit that I had known for 17 years grew and the phrase blood is thicker than water had no meaning any longer.  This was an adjustment for everyone involved.  It changed my belief of what a family was.  I was able to look at close family friends and consider them family.  My idea of family was not restricted.  Maybe that happens to us all as we grow up. 

 

When I married Ronnie my family grew even larger.  I hadn't even met Ronnie's parents until they flew out to Las Vegas for our wedding, but I knew if they raised Ronnie then they must be good people.   It was almost a year later before we were able to go to Missouri to see the rest of Ronnie's family.  It was at this time that I first got to meet his grandparents.  When I met them I never thought that they would have much influence on my life or my kids lives since they lived so far away, but I was wrong.  Every time we went to visit his grandparents we always walked into a bustling kitchen.  His grandma always fixed us a big lunch which almost always included fried fish that his grandpa had caught, potatoes, biscuits, hush puppies, some vegetables, and striped delight cake.  By the time she was finished cooking dirty dishes were piled a mile high.  She obviously showed us her love by cooking and we tried to  show our appreciation by doing the dishes.  His grandpa would visit and play with Kyle and Lana while all the cooking was going on.  He also really enjoyed fishing. He shared some of his secrets with Kyle and taught him how to hold a fishing rod.  Then he took Kyle out on his boat and watched as Kyle reeled in his first fish.

The short amount of time we have been able to spend with Ronnie's grandparents have taught our kids and ourselves to take some time to relax and enjoy every phase of this life here on earth.  Sometimes our kids get into a really obnoxious phase and his grandparents would share with us the little obnoxious things their kids did and how short those phases actually lasted.  His grandparents find joy in taking care of each other.  I can only imagine how much their love for one another has grown through the years. 

This past week Ronnie felt it was important that we take a trip to visit his family in Missouri because both his grandparent's health was failing.  We would go to visit his grandmother in the hospital then go to see his grandfather at his house.  Every time we would walk in the door his grandfather would  smile and greet us, but I knew his mind was elsewhere with concern for his wife.  My heart ached as I would hear him ask about his wife and receive bad news.  I felt like I was keeping a selfish secret inside about what I knew about life after death and that families can be forever and that marriages can last for time and all eternity and not just till death do you part.  But still I sat there quiet probably because I was afraid.  Afraid of him not believing me, or not wanting to hear what I knew, or making him more sad talking about death, or not being able to understand me or comprehend what I was saying.  I think that the thought crossed my mind that I was too late to talk to him.  But I know it's never too late even if I never talk to him.  I can still do the work needed for Ronnie's grandparents so that they can make their choice even after this life.  I am grateful for my family and I am grateful for the Gospel that can make us an eternal family. 

On a lighter note...I sometimes jokingly think...will my kids really want to be stuck with each other for eternity?  As much as they fight and argue with each other the thought has crossed my mind more than once, but I've never taken it seriously.  Today as I was writing this I stopped in the middle to go pick Lana up from school and this is what her teacher sent her home with today:

Skeletons in the Closet

As the kids went back to school on Monday I was kind of sad.  They have finally got to a point where they can play together and also do things individually without pestering one another.  It was actually nice to wake up and not have to run them to school.  We actually had days when we didn't even leave the house.  Winter break was a welcomed change of pace, but now it's back to the norm.

On Monday after I dropped the kids off at school I didn't quite know what to do with myself, so I clean and organized my pantry.  Everyone thinks I'm an organized person, but I'm not.  I'm very particular about how I like things done so I usually put them off until I know I have enough time to do it and do it right.  I seem to never find the time, so things are left undone.  Quite silly I know, but it's me, what am I going to do? 

I started my little endeavor with camera in hand.  Here is what I was up against.

               

This is not a pantry of an organized person.  Where to start?  Well I emptied everything out and checked for expiration dates.  On somethings I couldn't find the date but a few had expired Box Tops, so you know it had to be old.  Those Box Top deals are good for like 4 or 5 years, if the Box Top is expired the food it beyond expired.  I also came across blood worms, how many people can say they had blood worms in their pantry?  I can, only because we used to have fish that ate them.  I had to move the fish food into our pantry because my darling Lana emptied the whole container into the fish tank on more than one occasion.  I also came across, not 1, not 2, but 3 jars of nutmeg.  I actually had to take a picture of that find.

It's kind of weird because I don't even know what I would put nutmeg in so why on earth do I have three containers of it.  I carry on and empty the pantry and clean the shelves. Then I realize I have flooring as a shelf liner.  I'm not so hip on that so I grab my purse and head to the store to find some new shelf liner. 

Before I left I made sure I measured.  I have a really deep pantry, 23 inches deep to be exact.  What does one do with shelves that deep?  How does it make any sense to have shelves that deep.  You can never see what's in the back.  Should I fill up the back with some old home videos we never watch but have to hold on to.  These are the thoughts running through my head as I walk around the store looking for shelf liner.  I finally find the liners and pinch and feel every one and decide I like the flooring option I have better.  While I'm in the aisle I take a gander at the kitchen organizational stuff and leave with 3 shelves and one really long bin.  I was really excited about the bin because it was actually a media storage bin, but I had another use for it.  I love when I can find another use for something.  It's like I'm saying, yes I know you told me to use this bin for my CDs but I'm going to use it for my baking supplies, so neener neener neener.  I'm still a rebellious child at heart.  It's sad, but that's about as rebellious as I get now a days.

Here is my "baking" bin filled with my special cookie cutters, food coloring, cupcake wrappers and what not.  In the end I don't know if my pantry looks any more organized but at least I feel like it is.  And I would love to meet the person that thought a 23 inch long pantry was a good idea.  With that said here is my "organized really long shelfed pantry" minus the blood worms and 2 of the 3 containers of nutmeg.

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone but, toys are still strung all through out the house, the tree is still up, the wreath is still on the door, and there are still Christmas goodies on the kitchen counter.  I guess since the sense of Christmas is still lingering it's ok to catch up on our Christmas going ons. 

The Christmas Card

I had a lot of fun with this year's Christmas card. 

First I hunted down red Converse, which was painful until I learned we have several Converse stores in Vegas, who knew? 

Then came the photo shoot.  This was really fun!  Ronnie selected the music and I snapped shots as the kids let loose and had a ball. 

A little work on Photoshop and then the assembling began.

Front of Card

Inside of Card

Gingerbread Houses

Fun was had by all this year as we assembled our houses. I think we are still finding candy that rolled off the table and found it's way to every corner of the house. Mom made a cute little cozy cottage with a red and green roof.  Cody decorated his love shack, complete with a candy cane heart archway.  Lacey, Sadie, and Lana get the award for most candy used and they added a very cool chimney to their house.  Kyle worked all by himself on his ginger train, he did a great job, there is even cargo in the train car.  Lana carried on the tradition of the Rudolph nose and introduced her cousin Mason to the fun.

 

 

 

Christmas Day

Here's just a few photos of Christmas:

    From Cute..........................................................To just Wrong!

The cousins at Christmas

. . . HE HIMSELF, . . . !

The Grinch carved the roast beast!

Snow Day

Yesterday it started to snow in Las Vegas around noon.  It kept snowing until way after the sun went down. Here's a video documenting the snow, hey it's a novelty here, just bear with me. 

                                 

A Snowy Day from Shawna Lutes on Vimeo.

 

And here are some pictures of what the kids did with all this snow. 

They got all bundled up.

The neighbor girls recruited them to build a snowman.

I guess Kyle was there for the heavy lifting.

Lana was pretty good at rolling the snow balls around.

The girls were hard at work and I wondered where Kyle ran off to.

Ah ha...look no further I found him on top of the camper making snowballs to throw.

He wasn't the only one throwing snowballs!  Lana's friend from down the street came over to join the fun.

The neighbor girls finished the snowman.  Didn't they do a great job?

All this snow means only one thing to the school aged kids...will we have a snow day tomorrow??  Yes indeed they did.  Here is what we did with our snow day.

We journeyed to the mall with letters to Santa in hand.

Lana wasn't feeling her best so no smiles today.

We found the Santa Mailbox at Macy's

Dropped our letters in.

Then had some lunch.

Lana's first Hot Dog on a Stick.  She's now hooked.

Oh the wonders a snowy day brings.