Signs of Spring

Is there anything more sunny and cheerful than yellow

daffodils when it's still cold out? 

Ok, now look at these budding plants and see if you

can remember where they are in the yard.

These look like hanging teardrops.

Even though it's mostly bare branches, the leaf buds are

beginning to burst out.

Even this lilac bud is excited for Spring.

And look what else showed up in the lawn as I was

walking around?  Pretty cute little mushroom.

GO TEAM USA!

We love the Oympics! Thursday we zipped across the border and spent the whole day meandering around the Olympic zones in Vancouver. It was a gorgeous day, the temperature was in the upper 50's with blue skies. We parked right downtown. On our way to Robson Square we stopped by the fountain outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. Great place to take pictures. At Robson Square they had an ice rink and a zip line. We watched an entertainer juggling on a unicycle, he was pretty funny. Keith worked on finding tickets to an event while the boys and I traveled on down the way. We explored all 7 floors of the Sears Department store by escalator looking for the Olympic merchandise which was of course on the ground level. The boys both found T shirts that we picked up later that night. Back outside, the street had been blocked off to traffic, and another street performer was setting up to do his unicycle/juggling/comedy act. Our favorite part was a slow motion "run" and fall to the music of Chariots of Fire. Really funny.
Beard Papa's is a cream puff shop we came upon. We ordered eclairs and they were actually even better than they looked. We liked them so well that we went back later in the evening just to get another round. Unfortunately, they had just run out of the chocolate. But the regular cream puffs were yummy too.
We decided to make our way to the Thunderbird Arena on UBC campus. We jumped on a bus and rode for 30 minutes or so. There were lots of ticket sellers touting their wares as we walked to the arena to see the USA Women's Hockey Team play Finland. We picked up some tickets at a decent price. Great seats too. The game was fun to watch, our team was SO GOOD! We won 6-0.
After the long ride back into town we made a stop on the waterfront to see the Olympic Torch, and then back to Robson Square. There were so many people out milling about, watching the events projected onto big screens and celebrating Canda's Women's Hockey team win that night. Lots of Canadians were showing their pride by wearing red. It was everywhere you looked, mostly hockey jerseys. It was a fun atmosphere!
We all enjoyed it and would like to go back to Vancouver soon to check out more cool stuff. And next time, we'll take a good map to find our way home.
That should shorten the trip by an hour or more!

Gourmet Cupcakes for Valentines Day

I love the way these cupcakes are frosted.  I bought them from

Gigi yeates.  Her mom is the wedding cake wonder woman

in our ward.  I think I may have a large frosting tip to try this

out for myself sometime.  It just looks like fun!

A Day at the Temple

Keith, Devin and I spent the morning at the temple.

Devin got to do baptisms while Keith and I did a session.

It was the 2nd time in two weeks for me to be there, and

between that, and studying Genesis in Sunday School, it

was more enjoyable than usual.  I also love that both of

my daughters go to the temple regularly and enjoy it. 

Devin has been looking forward to spending more time

there, too.  Today, more than a strong spiritual feeling,

I felt very peaceful.  Just like I didn't have a care in the

world that really mattered.  That's pretty rare and quite

wonderful.

New Blog in the Family

As a mother of grown children, I get a number of requests for recipes. I like to think of these requests as proof of my success as a mom. After all, no one asks for your recipes if they don't like your cooking.
For a few years I've been collecting our favorite recipes into a computer file with the idea of making a family cookbook. And then I though, why wait? Why not publish these to a blog right now? This way I can easily add recipes with out having to reprint or add pages. So, I introduce the new family online cookbook, though still in it's infancy, The Joyful Cook! Because cooking, or at least eating, yummy food, makes one happy.
The link is posted to the right. If you have any requests for recipes you'd like to see added, let me know. I'll be most happy to oblige. Happy Cooking!

What I've been up to...

up to my ears in Dill Dip!  And let me tell you,

after making 400 packets of this stuff, the kitchen

has a distinct dill odor as well.  It's not an unpleasant

smell, in smaller portions.  Just a little overwhelming

in the amounts we were throwing around! 

Anyway, Keith got this idea for advertising

to realtors from a friend, so we whipped up

the packets and voila!  Delicious dip mix hand

delivered to all the realtors in 3 counties!

So far the resoponse has been favorable!