Living the Dream

James has been telling me for about 2 years that he wants a tractor. For Christmas my dad unknowingly send us a John Deer Christmas ornament. I was happy to tell James that he had received his tractor. Unfortunately that didn't seem to satisfy him. Every time we see one he reminds me that he wants one some day. So, being the ever dutiful wife that I am (:D) I purchased him some John Deer tractor fruit snacks. He can never say I didn't get him a tractor - I gave him lots!

The past month we've been helping my parents with their backyard. By we, I really mean James has been doing all the work and I occasionally lend a hand by grabbing the necessary tools. Anyway, we had several loads of clay that was supposed to be soil dropped off a few days ago. After several hours of manually shovelling, it was determined that we needed something bigger. So, we rented a tractor and James got to spend the afternoon playing on it. I am just grateful the thing didn't tip over on any of the hills, but I think he only managed to increase his desire for a tractor. I don't anticipate that will happen any time soon, or ever. But, he enjoyed it while it lasted.

A Successful Failure

A few weeks ago I was inspired by my friend Rhonda who decorated an adorable cake for her daughter's birthday. I have never decorated anything in my life and have minimal artistic abilities, but my creative juices began to flow. I scrounged up some decorating supplies and did some online searching for instructions on how to use them. I read lots of tips and suggestions and began the process. You can see above how the cake turned out. It would be a failure as far as asthetics go, but I'm choosing to consider it a success for my first attempt because of the things I learned:

* Put lots of flour in the cake pan. I thought I had enough, but when I tried to take it out of the pan it came out in a few different pieces. Oops.

* Cream cheese frosting is my absolute favorite. However, it doesn't work for decorating. It just kind of blobs together.

* I found a recipe for frosting with shortening that works much better for decorating.

* I hate frosting with shortening!! I spent an hour trying to scrub everything clean and it's just one big greasy mess. It also tastes nasty. Double bummer.

Despite the fact that it didn't look very good, we were able to scrape off the nasty frosting and it still tasted pretty yummy. I didn't hear any complaints, but I think in the future I'll settle for simply frosting the cake. No fancy stuff for me.

Deutschland Deutschland!

This weekend we went to a Kammerchor Vocalis performance at Temple Square. It's a choir from Germany that came to Salt Lake to perform. They were awesome! We were able to visit with some good friends from Germany that we haven't seen in years and that was lots of fun. James was nervous about speaking German again, but he only slipped in Thai words a couple of times.

We had lots of fun catching up with Katha and Ricke. They are sisters and part of a family that James got to know pretty well when he was on his mission. He has visited them almost every year and we spent some time with them when we were in Germany. It has been way to long since we've been over there or seen any of them, so it was lots of fun to see them even if it was only for a short time. It definitely made us want to go back to Germany. It's crazy and kind of sad how fast the time can go.

Blessing Dress

I realize this isn't very exciting for most of you, but I'm pretty happy about it. This is a completed blessing dress.......sewn by me. Yes, it's true. As long as you don't look too close it looks pretty good. :D The only major nuisance was sewing in the sleeves. They are tiny. But, we survived and it's over. Well, almost. I now have to make a slip, but at least the dress is done! Sorry it's a dark picture.

Snowshoeing

Instead of complaining about the snow we actually went out and enjoyed it. James had a day off from work and we decided to go snowshoeing. We literally haven't done this in years, but it was lots of fun. We went up Logan Canyon to the Summit. Here is a picture of me on one of my many pit stops before going to the top.



Once we reached the 'top' there is a great view. You look out and can see Bear Lake. It's especially beautiful when the sun is shinning. This day was kind of overcast, but it's still a pretty good view.

We also found lots of snow drifts. James was really excited, because it's lots of fun to run and jump off of them. I settled for being the cameraman, but it was fun to watch him. I must confess, I'm not a very good camera man because I had a hard time snapping the picture as he was in midair, but this gives you an idea.

I'm still looking forward to spring weather with lots of sunshine, but it was fun to get out and enjoy the snow!