TWO MORE DAYS!

I can't believe we leave in two days! And what am I doing right now in preparation- Figuring out how to have a playlist on my blog and writing a new post. In my defense I will say I needed a little emotional unwind time. I just waved goodbye to Malea and her family after a wonderful five day visit with them. Five days just wasn't enough. Sniff sniff. We hiked, we shopped, we lunched, we laughed, we cooked,we cleaned up puke,we fell, and I picked cholla out of her underarm. It was great!! I'm sad it's over. I suppose spending a week in HAWAII with my amazing husband will cheer me up though. I'm finally past the- We have a higher probability of dying and orphaning our children by flying across the ocean and spending over a week without them mode. That was rough. I don't think I have ever experienced anxiety attacks like that before. Thank you to all those who witnessed my madness so gracefully. I am now onto the -WHOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!! We are going hang gliding over canyons and ocean side cliffs. We are going night diving with Manta Rays. We are spending a week together just the two of us in one of the most romantic places in the world! No worries! Almost... I really think I have duel personalities sometimes-minus the blackout periods. Keeps life interesting though. So I decided Hawaii would be the theme of my first blogger playlist. Sorry there are only two songs-had to pick the chillens up from school.

Aloha,
Mel

Recipes

Okay here they are enjoy!

Aparagus Mimosa Salad

Vinaigrette
2 tbl lemon juice
2tbl white wine vinegar
2tbl olive oil
2tsp Dijon mustard
1tsp sugar
1 garlic clove pressed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. For vinaigrette, combine lemon juice, vinegar, oil, mustard, sugar, garlic, and black pepper. refrigerate until ready to use

Salad
1 1/2 lbs asparagus spears trimmed
1/4 cup sweet roasted red peppers drained cut into thin strips
1 hard cooked egg sliced
lettuce leaves

Yummiest Jello Salad
2 cups coarsly crushed pretzels
3/4 cup margarine or butter melted
1 cup, plus 3 Tbl sugar, divided
1(8oz)pkg cream cheese, softened
2 10oz pkgs, frozen raspberries, thawed
1 6oz pkg rasberry jello
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup mini marshmellows
1 8oz carton Cool Whip

Combine crushed pretzels, margarine and 3tbl sugar. Press in 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 400 for 8 minutes. Cool. Beat cream chesse and 1 cup sugar. Fold in Cool whip. Spread over cooled pretzle crust. Refrigerate. Dissolve Jello in boiling water. Add marshmellows and sti until melted. add raspberries with thir juice. Let stand 10 minutes. Pour over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate.

Easter Traditions

Me: "Noah-open your eyes!"
Noah: "I can't the sun's in my eyes"!!!!
Me: "Just real quick, one two three open."
Noah: "It's too bright, I'm not opening my eyes."

That's better....

Well, I'm pretty big on traditions-and am always looking for something to add to make the holidays special. Christmas and Easter are the two I probably put the most effort into. Growing up we had a picnic every Easter. Some I enjoyed and some not so much-but I always liked that I could count on the Easter picnic. It was a tradition. Well now I like to have a picnic the day before Easter-though that has not worked out the last two years. I still like the idea-however this year the Saturday before Easter went a little different than those in the past and I liked it. It really worked for us. I had planned-(knowing a desert picnic wasn't going to happen)that we would go up to see the Easter pageant on Friday night-then Saturday once we realized Friday wouldn't work out. Then we cancelled all together knowing the kids would be asleep by time we got there and we wouldn't get home till after midnight-not a great start to our Easter. So.............................We did yard work, took the kids to the community Easter Egg hunt, rode bikes together,did more yard work, and had a really nice dinner together on my Nana's china. Which brings me to our families traditions that we have started and really enjoy year after year.



The Jerusalem Dinner

I have made this more elaborate in the past but this year I kept it really simple.

Fish

Dried Apricots

Lentil Soup(from a can)

Matzo bread

Ashkenazi Jewish Charoset-chopped apple, walnuts, cinnamon, honey, grape juice



We do this to get a feel for some of the foods the Savior would have eaten during the Feast of the Passover-His last supper. We usually have this dinner sometime during the week leading up to Easter. This year we had it the night before. We first heard about this activity in Janet Hales book-A Christ Centered Easter. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. It's fantastic. Another good Easter book is Max Lucados - Small Gift in Gods Hands.



The other tradition we have picked up is numbering Easter eggs 1-12 place symbols of events leading up to the resurrection of Christ with accompanying scriptures. LOVE IT! The kids really enjoy it. They get to hunt for eggs and have some substance as well. We did this activity on Easter after dinner. Though this year didn't go quite as smooth a previous years-it's a little more complicated with little hands.



We tried out the resurrection cookie activity, and well....we probably won't do that again. I've heard about this for so many years, maybe I've built it up to much. We'll see if the kids miss it next year.



This year we had family and friends over for a ham and potatoes Easter meal. It was really nice to have everyone in our home. Jared and I provided the ham, rolls and sour cream potatoes-and other provided some amazing salads and desserts. I will soon have the recipes to share. (On a side note I have walked 8 miles today so far in attempt to ward off the consequences of my gluttony last night.)



Some activities I have heard about is getting up before sunrise Easter morning and having a sunrise breakfast and discussing the Saviors' life. I think we will give this one a whirl next year.



I think we will also try and see the pageant the weekend before Easter to kick off the week. Instead of trying to cram in a trip to Phoenix right before Easter.

All in all, I felt we had a meaningful Easter and quality time together as a family. For that I am grateful.

The Botanical Gardens

We went to the botanical gardens today with the Hamiltons.

The Butterfly Exhibit

Lot's of butterflies. In fact one was so big, it looked like a bird in my peripheral vision as it swooped in and landed on my eye. I yelled and swatted it away-(which is a big no no at the gardens) My eye still hurts. This thing was huge!!!

The Worm Box

The kids loved this. They actually only found one worm but really enjoyed digging in the soil. Okay, I have to rant just a little. We were in the designated "CHILDRENS AREA". Noah found a Century Plant husk and was playing with it. A woman of the grumpy, know it all,children should be seen and not heard variety scolded Noah and said not to touch anything-it may disrupt the surroundings etc... etc... At first I was apologetic-until I realized she didn't even work there and AND we were in the childrens area. You know it's interesting all the talk on childhood obesity/laziness/lack of imagination that seems to plaguing the children of this age. The children who are not welcome to hike on the trails, ride bikes in the street, or otherwise make their presence known in any area where children are not solely designated to be. Well-I will take my children hiking, bird watching, and exploring. We will visit art museums, botanical gardens, and the theatre. Further more I will stop making my children only ride on the sidewalk in front of our house. Play in the street! I'm paying for it too! Slow down people, and if your reflexes are a little lax-maybe you should stop driving. I am sick and tired.... Okay, I'm done for now. Here are some fun pics.

Do worms bite?.....

The gardens are very inspiring. Jared and I can't even seem to master the grass patch in the back yard-but we do have garden aspirations. A yard full of edible landscape.... I want a salsa garden, an Italian herb garden and a salad garden would be nice too. I would settle for a salsa garden though. We also want citrus trees. Orange and Lemon. Hannah and Noah planted seeds from a squash, tomato, and bell pepper. We had them in cups and various potters along our front window. They sprouted and looked really promising. Then I put them outside where they froze then burnt up. I did hear later that they probably wouldn't have produced anyway. Most grocery store produce is-"sterile". Those are my words. The person who I spoke with sounded much more intelligent on the matter and is an avid gardener.

The weather is amazing right now. I just want to lay outside all day long...........................................

-Mel

Go Speed Racer! Go!

Noah is our little speed racer. He likes to run everywhere. When he's not running,(like in the crosswalk) he is skipping. He is just so darn cute-it drives me crazy. I can't contain myself from kissing his cheeks and tickling him. Luckily he loves to be tickled and he doesn't mind the kisses yet. Now he is an official bike rider. This came after a few really bad parenting moments on our behalf and a little convincing to give it another go around. Once Noah could see he could do it-he was off and the rest is history. He runs/skips home from school everyday opens the garage and is on his bike. I've decided the rule is pick ten weeds then ride. Our yard is looking great! We went on our first family bike ride on Monday. We rode down to Sanctuary Cove. Noah wants to ride so fast-part of me gets a kick out of it the other part of me is hollering behind him to -Slow Down!, Don't worry about doing tricks-focus on the road! Noah-do not cut your sister off! Get the idea... All the while stifling laughter and shooting looks of accusation towards Jared.

The Wedding

I photographed my first wedding last Saturday. I was a little anxious about it-wedding pictures are important and I could just see my self tripping and breaking the camera or cracking a lens before the wedding. Jared of course the master of soothing words gave me a comforting hug and said you'll do a great job. Don't worry. My wonderful husband also went out early that morning and bought me another 2GB card despite my assurance that there was no way I'd shoot through the one GB card I already had. THANK YOU JARED-my insightful, persistent, thoughtful, amazing husband! Halfway through the aisle walks I had to change cards.

I could bore you with the hour by hour take-but if your that interested click on the link and you can see the whole thing frame by frame. http://picasaweb.google.com/mel620/HopkinsWedding Or you can view the condesed version in my Wedding Faves album http://picasaweb.google.com/mel620/WeddingFaves.

I will say I arrived at 11:30am at the amazing home of the grooms older brother in Vail AZ, and didn't leave until almost 8:00pm. I will never again wear highheeled boots for a wedding shoot. Especially one where I'm running up and down two flights of stairs for eight hours. (But I looked cute...until the end of the day when my eyes were bloodshot and I had dried snot on my nose.) And I would love to invest in another camera body so I don't have to change lenses all the time. That being said- I almost forgot how much I love photography. Photojournalism more specifically. It is a privledge to be let into someones life, and then capture it. I felt part of the family-it's strange now to have gotten such an intimate look into someones life and then just be done. The real reward was when the mother of the groom came over to view the pictures and got really emotional and embraced me after the first few slides came up. She made me get emotional too. She shared many things with me that afternoon about why some the pictures meant so much to her, that caused me to reflect later. When I was a girl I dreamt of traveling to the most war torn beat down areas of the world documenting the horrors of humanity for all to see-somehow changing the world. I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me a family and a life so blessed and the opportunity to document the most special moments in someones life rather than the most horrid.

All in all there are a handful of shots I'm really proud of and another handful or so that drive me crazy and I can't for the life of me figure out why some frames have blurry spots-(besides depth of field and aperature setting) I am wondering if my cheap lenses have something to do with it.

I was told that there is more work coming my way-we'll see. I had alot of fun, and if I get to do it again-Great. Until then I think I'm going to take the plunge and paint my bedroom... My dear friend Malea is coming to visit with her family in a couple of weeks and Jared and I embark on our Hawaiian adventure April 4th. I've been sick this week, but am on the mend. Being sick has helped me drop a few more pounds-board shorts here I come!

All for now,

Mel

Trekking, Artists, and broken down suburbans, Oh my!

Saturday, Jared and I participated in our Stake Youth Pioneer trek as a Ma and Pa. It was a great experience. I love watching the youth in action. Their ability to take charge and lead is nothing less than awe inspiring for me. I kept thinking-this is what I want for my children, to be able to lead, be of good cheer and ready to tackle with enthusiasm any obstacle in their path. Sunday in Relief Society our lesson talked a little bit about cheerfulness. I thought, it is these amazing mothers examples of being cheerful even during trials that help form these kids into who they are and will become. That's not to say that we put on a smiling face when we are down trodden- but rather really hold onto faith and the Lords teachings so that when trials arise we don't preoccupy ourselves so much with them that we fail to notice the joy and beauty that surrounds us. Anyway I'm in danger of blabbering on a bit now... The experience for me reinstituted the kind of mother I would like to be- to raise up my children to be faithful, happy, prayerful, physically and spiritually strong individuals. I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given to learn and grow. I am especially grateful for the examples I have around me.

On another note- I have been teaching Art History to Hannah and Noah's class on Tuesday afternoons. We have studied the Pop Art and the advertisement success of Andy Warhol. The simplicity and perspective of Diego Rivero and today we are learning about shapes and pattern through the example of Gustav Klimt. I have had so much fun with this. For Pop Art I printed of pencil sketching photographs of all the kids then had them paint themselves using "unrealistic" colors. Not the best example of pop art but the kids liked it and the results were still pretty cool. For the Diego Rivera project they had to draw themselves looking into the picture at what they saw before them-(mountains). In preperation for today Jared spray painted card stock gold while I bundled color palletes of oil pastels and cut out black rectangles of various sizes. Should be fun!

The Suburban isn't starting again! Ugh Ugh Ugh-(pulling my hair our, pulling my hair out, pulling my hair out) We'll see where that takes us...

The kids and I took a bike ride afterschool yesterday to Sanctuary Cove at the base of Sombrero Peak. It was so nice, on the way back the kids stopped to pick wildflowers. Gotta love Tucson. :)