Let it Snow, Oh No, So Much Snow

If you can imagine, this is how much it's snowed here this year. We need to shovel off our deck, as we've accumulated so much snow, but before we do, here's a quick photo. The deck railing has had this much snow on it several times and has blown off and then it snowed again. On the deck is the total accumulation since the season began. Maybe it's time to cease singing "Let It Snow . . ."

The cat came back, thought he was a gonner, but the cat came back . . .

Much rejoicing was made in our home today!  

As soon as I'd dropped the kids off to school this morning and stepped back into the house, the phone was ringing.  When I answered it, our son was exclaiming,  "Mom, we found Joe Joe at the door of the school!  Come get him", so I turned around and went back to the school to rescue him.   Joe Joe had been missing for 2 weeks, which was especially worrisome since his Mother, our beloved Kitka was run over a few days before Christmas and we were already sad.  He'd lost his collar, so no one could call us.  The Principal said he'd been hanging around near the stop sign where the kids cross over for a few days now.  

We've also been sad, since our pet hamster Bubba, which Santa brought our youngest, died within a few days.   Then our oldest's only remaining rabbit -- white colored Floppy, got out of his cage and hasn't been seen or found in all this white snow.  We keep putting veggies under the play house, in hopes he's burrowed in there somewhere where the dogs cannot find him. We'll see what spring brings.

Well, Joe Joe is reunited with his sister Shelly Belly and they still like each other -- for the most part.  You can tell he's been roughed up and is quite skiddish, and was suspicious of her at first, but is readjusting.  Here they are together again this afternoon.  

Oh, and the new pet hamster, Rosa has done well, except for when Shelly Belly knocked her cage over to get to her.   Rosa quickly ran up her tunnel tube and the kids all went running when they heard the loud crash.  If we keep the door closed tightly, she's fine.  When they were kittens, they used to stay in this bathroom, now it's the hamster's bathroom and is off  limits to them.  Yikes!  living with animals is work and can be stressful -- that's why I told Santa, the Easter Bunny and my husband to all stop bringing animals as gifts, but my husband assures me all of these lessons are helpful for our children.  As for me growing up,  all of our animals were outdoors as opposed to sharing my bathroom!  Well, I do have a cute picture of "Blackie" my Tom cat sitting in my sink, now that I think of it:)  

We're crazy for Krazy Cake!

My kids are crazy about snowmen and penguins this time of year. I found some great penguin and snowman silicone cupcake pans in the after Christmas sales and needed a good dense cake recipe to make them up with.  I chose Krazy Cake or Wacky Cake as some call it . I got the recipe from another Mom whose son used this recipe in our Cub Scout cake contest last year.
Krazy Cake

In a large bowl, stir the following ingredients:

2 C sugar
3 C all purpose flour
1/3 C cocoa (I like Dutch processed when I can find it)
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt

Add the following ingredients (don't stir until all wet ingredients are
in the bowl):

2 C cold water
3/4 C oil
2 Tbsp vinegar

Mix all ingredients well. You can stir by hand - an electric mixer is
not necessary. Pour batter into a well greased 9 X 13 pan and bake at
350F for 25-30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Rexburg LDS Temple Open House Begins

Saturday, December 29, 2007 was the first day of the Rexburg LDS Temple Open House.  It was a cold, overcast, snowy day, but our hearts were warm as we considered the blessings of having a temple in our midst.  

No tours are given on Sundays.  Today was a beautiful, clear day.  I like this close up of Angel Moroni sounding his trumpet.  We are excited to take family and friends to see the temple before it is dedicated February 3rd.  For more information visit http://www.lds.org/temple/main/0,11204,1912-1-588-2,00.html.  

The A-K Christmas Cookies are Here!

Each year our dear friends, whom we no longer live near, still UPS us a plate of their Christmas cookies. I just counted 15 varieties on the plate!!! They have been baking one type a night since early December. Then they freeze them and finally arrange them nicely on a plate and deliver them. Our family always anxiously awaits their arrival and love this tradition.

Don't get saucy with me!

Our kids didn't know what it meant when Dad told one of them, "Don't get saucy with me." I said that a sauce adds flavor or spice to something bland like pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. Well, I was in the middle of making Alfredo sauce for the first time. Last night we had spinach ravioli, which we boiled and served marinara sauce over. We boiled way too much, so we had ravioli for leftovers today, but wanted a different sauce.

One of ours made the observation that whatever has sauce has more calories. She is so right and is on a sauce strike, but our pickiest eater loved it!

You've probably made it hundreds of times, but since I had never made Alfredo sauce, a quick google search showed me the basic ingredients and directions over and over again listed below.

Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cup grated *Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper

I melted the butter and milk in a frying pan, then removed it from the heat and added the cheese, salt and pepper. *We didn't have enough parmesan cheese on hand, so I used shredded mozzarella and some swiss cheese.

Our vegetable was asparagus and the sauce even tasted great over it, as did the toasted bread the rest of us dunked into olive oil.

Merry Christmas Tree!

We'd never taken our kids to cut down our own Christmas tree before, so on the advice of another family, who'd done it, we decided it would be fun. Later we found a few others in our neighborhood who have had this tradition, or have now started it as well. I think we've started a Christmas tradition as you can see and read about below:

Merry Christmas Tree!

Dashing through the snow
In a Ford 150 sleigh
O'er the steep hill we go
Sliding all the way
Through the forest we sing
Making kids spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and bring
A Christmas tree home tonight
Oh!
Jingle Bells,
Christmas tree smells!
It's snowing all the way
What fun it is our 12 footer fits
In our Ford 150 sleigh, Hey!