Pasta Party

Ever since I married Troy I have heard stories told of Joanna’s pasta parties.  Troy and Angie would go on and on about how delicious her homemade pasta was and how fun it was to make.  Well, for the first time in 10 years, I got to experience the deliciousness for myself.

For J’s birthday we celebrated with a Sunday night pasta party.  Angie and I were in charge of bringing sauces, and Joanna provided the dough.  Angie made mouth-watering Alfredo sauces, one garlic, the other lemon, and I made a meat and vegetable Bolonaise. 

Rolling our own spaghetti and fettuccini was such a blast.  Aliyah really got into it and did most of the handle cranking herself.  By the time we all settled in to eat we were starving and practically drooling over our plates.  The meal was perfect, the pasta more delicious than I could have imagined fresh pasta would be, and the salad, garlic bread and strawberry lemonade the perfect accents to the meal. 

I am so grateful for the families that I have married into.  I love their unique traditions and the opportunity I have to learn new things.  Thanks Grandma Jo for a beautiful evening!

To the Races!

This Memorial weekend we had the spur-of-the-moment chance to go to the Rocky Mountain Raceway with our family.  I packed up the blankets, coats, hats and gloves and off we went.  Despite the chilly weather, we had a great time. 

It was so fun just to spend time with our family, and to watch the cars and crashes while we ate popcorn and sipped hot chocolate.  Troy couldn’t join us because he was working on the house, and we missed having him, but there will always be next time!

After the races, we were walking through the pits out to our car, when we got snagged by the crew of the winning racecar to pose in their victory picture.  The kids held the banner and Gavin was so excited to be so close to a real racecar.  We can’t wait for more fun summer evenings at the raceway!

Drill and Dresses

You may not know that Aliyah is not my first daughter.  Shocked?  Well relax, I’m not confessing past indiscretions.  From the time she was a few months old, I have loved my little sister more than is common for sisters.  She is the first baby I lever loved with that  of a mother for a child.   
Now that she is getting older, our relationship has shifted.  For the first time I am stepping into the role of a sister, rather than a protector or caregiver.  She is growing up to be such a talented young lady, and her friendship means more to me than she will ever know. 
I am so proud of her every time I see her perform for Cottonwood High Drill team, or when I see her studying her brains out for Calculus.
 
This week I came up to visit Sarah as she got ready for Prom.  What did I find?  The typical Seron scene.  My mom was getting ready to finish sewing Sarah’s dress a mere 3 hours before her date was to come pick her up. I come from a long line of procrastinators.  We got to work and sewed like nobody’s business, but alas, poor Siale was left waiting in the living room for a good half hour while we finished her dress. 
The next few years will see fewer and fewer afternoons spent chatting out on blankets in the back yard, but I’ll always be waiting for the day when life brings our paths closer together again.
 

Happy I Love You Day!

The Fun-O-Meter at our house has dipped dangerously low these last few months since buying our new house.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, since it will not take the rest of our entire lives to remodel this house, so we may have a shot at some kind of happiness again before we die. 
Ok, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but when your beloved writes you a poem like this for Valentines, you know that life could really use a pick-me-up. 

Especially, when that particular beloved spent a few hours of his precious Sunday off dealing with a water-spewing washing machine.  Technically, the only water oriented device in our basement that has yet to throw a fit and flood our space is the dishwasher.  This winter we’ve gone a total of about one month without some sort of flooding. 
Needless to say, starting off our hip-happy day of love like this was not ideal…


So today the kids and I did our best to clean up the mess and make the place look nice for when our Knight in shining armor dragged himself home from work (did I mention he caught the sickness the kids and I tried so hard to avoid giving him?).  Without a car our options for decorations were sparse, but I think we did ok. 
Valentines pillow cases doubled for chair covers, doilies became center pieces, and I even found some nice candles in our emergency preparedness kit (Hey, rescuing Valentines is definitely an emergency!).  All in all, I think things turned out alright.
 


(This picture is my favorite, because just as I was taking the picture, Gavin rushed in to strike his favorite Yoga pose.  How cute is that!  You should see his face, he is so serious!)
We ate strawberry pancakes with sausage and opened valentines from each other, our wonderful Grandma Carolyn, and my brothers in New York.  Poor Troy barely made it through the dishes before he passed out.  What could be sexier on Valentines than a dear, sweet husband who works himself nearly unconscious for the family he loves?  Happy Valentines day sweetie!

Suprise Sledding

Sunday we decided to take advantage of early church for the first time and head up to the cabin after our meetings. We packed dinner and treats, but no snow clothes (it was the Sabbath, after all...) and headed up to enjoy the sunshine. The problem with going to the cabin on a gorgeous snowy day is that I can't for the life of me understand why we don't go up there every day. It was seriously take-your-breath-away beautiful up there. Needless to say, snow clothes or no, we ended up doing some sledding. It felt so deliciously good to be outside in the sunshine on such a beautiful piece of mountain with my family. Hopefully we can do this again soon, and in water-resistant clothing next time :)

The snow is so high on the
deck, Aliyah climbed up on
the roof (with some help from
her Daddy...)

When the snow slides off the roof, it makes
this really cool ice tunnel on the deck.

Groovy boots James!

James and Sam

Now that's my kind of escalator!
Going down!



Sledding off into the sunset

My Hubby, the pack-horse

Candy and Dave Hunter joined
in the fun too.