Tradition!!!

Much, much later I'm finally getting to our fun General Conference weekend. SO fun! Remember my major award? The cookbook that I got for entering a recipe? The one I submitted my families chinese dumpling recipe to? Well, in case you don't, we always have these yummy dumplings on General Conference weekend so I thought I should document it. Here some of them are before they were boiled. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. Strange, since I know in their uncooked state they would be completely disgusting and possibly dangerous. Anyone up for a mouthful of raw pork? Mmmmm, delish.

I really should make these every day of the week. I cannot think of another food that my whole family will eat happily and willingly. We always have at least one whiner in the bunch. Not so during this meal. They love it. Who knew that pork, ginger, and nappa cabbage could produce such happy little eaters? They clearly take after the Cantwell side of the family. I made them for the Greenway's once and they were not fans. Oh well, more for me.

So check out the kiddos. Proof that this is one meal I don't have to force feed to my children.

Nate - stuffing his face

Eli - Passionate as usual, what a nut.

Cecily - post meal, minus what she's saving on her cheeks for later.

Then, as tradition in our home dictates, I made cinnamon rolls when the kids went to bed and Adam was at Priesthood session. We eat them in Palmyra outside the sacred grove on Sunday morning. They weren't my favorite this year. Too rich for me. I hold all cinnamon rolls to a very high standard. My friend Kathleen served us cinnamon rolls many years ago and nothing I have ever produced has satisfied me since. I just keep trying.


Sometimes my kids worry me. We have done the same thing every General Conference weekend since we moved here and my kids are clueless every time. We bundle them up, put the cinnamon rolls and milk in the back of the car, and get on the thruway. We almost never go on the thruway unless we're going to Palmyra. We get the same questions every time. "Where are we going?" "Are we going to church?" (even though you can't even get to church that way AND we're wearing jeans and tennis shoes.) Poor things. Think they'll ever catch on? Me either.

So here we are in Palmyra. The first time we did this I almost lost my testimony, but not quite. You know how all the first vision pictures have tons of leaves in them? Well unless spring was in July, there warnt no leaves. Nevertheless, we had a lovely time as usual but didn't eat the cinnamon rolls there this time. We usually wander, eat, go home, watch conference. This time Eli had to go numero dos after the wander part. There were no open bathrooms, so our trip was shortened a tad. Oh well, no biggie. The sacred grove is really one of my favorite places to be no matter the time of year.

Here we are:


Doesn't Cecily look thrilled to pieces? She really did have fun. Promise. I bet she just feels it in her bones that she's not getting a cinnamon roll 'til we get home. I feel your pain, Cecily. Or, maybe she's just trying to be cool. I can't tell.

So, while these were not the most important parts of the weekend, they were fun and I'm glad we have these traditions. They give our kids something to look forward to...other than the eight hours of being reminded to be quiet. Baby steps to reverence.

You mean like "soon"? Or "a time-out"?

Eli's pre-k (he insists that I not call it pre-school) has been doing all kinds of activities that are Easter related. I'm glad they are because I have done NOTHING. I kind of do overkill on celebrating General Conference weekend (which I NEED to post some pics from...later) so Easter gets a back seat. Poor Easter. We've also been spoiled in years past because we've been in PA and my MIL makes everything she touches fun and special so I can be completely lazy and bask in the fun.

Anyway, Eli keeps telling everyone "Easter's this week! It's in the corner." It took me a couple of times to realize that what he meant was "it's AROUND the corner" but once I figured it out there was no way I was going to correct him. I'll just continue getting a laugh out of it and keep letting people think Eli's crazy for putting Easter in time out.

So, have a happy Easter...since it's in the corner.

Entertainment? We'll see.

Nate and I had an outting today to start considering rectifying the "master bedroom" situation today. It's in quotes because frankly, no master would ever live in what looks more like a yard sale than a bedroom...a subject for another time. But anyway, he was my buddy for the afternoon which sometimes includes choosing the Friday night entertainment.

You'll never guess what he chose. Yup, Space Chimps. He read the blog and he's figured out how funny we think the whole scenario was. So there we were considering several other kids movies that no one has ever heard of, and he said "Let's see if it's as funny as I said it was."

Adam's reffing tonight, so it's me, the kids, and the chimps...wish me luck. He'll probably be looking like this:

I probably won't.

Life at our place

Typical Saturday morning; Adam get's the paper and sits down for some fake-o-snake-o, no name lucky charms. But his ice cold milk seems to be a little too ice cold.

He processes.

And comments to wife "hey the milks frozen again."

Wife replies "Yea, and the ice cream is soupy." Husband ponders reply and does what needs to be done...

He eats breakfast.

I don't think we'll ever be accused of rushing out and replacing something that's not absolutely vital. Good thing we hate warm milk and love soft ice cream, eh?

Where there's smoke, there's fire

Happened upon this the other day:

And I know that wherever I find blankie, I'll find:

She loves her little home among the pots and pans. Sometimes she sits in there and knocks lightly on the cupboard door and I hear muffled little girl voice saying "hello?" but when I go to "answer the door" she says "nooooo." How am I to know that "hello?" means "leave me alone, I'm in my happy place?" Silly kid.