While the cat is away...

...the mice will play.

Notice I'm in the background.

With my camera.

Nice shoes...

I stepped out of the car to check in with someone. Underfoot got my camera and took pictures. Here are a few shots I found after downloading to the computer. I saved only the best.

A goofy face.

Simple and Sweet

"We realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an answer in one simple phrase: we “wait upon the Lord.” Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and … [our] good.” ~ Robert D. Hales, October 2011

We have been learning about our purpose and what we can do. My boys have expressed it through paint and picture word reminders.

Snapshot

At the Zoo

At the Zoo

My parents came at the beginning of January. They decided to make a kitchen make over. The bench they made just was placed and so I want to reveal the makeover. Here are the after shots. I didn't take any before pictures. The amazing part is they built a bench to hold our 5-gallon food buckets of flour, sugar, chocolate. Everyone should have a chocolate bucket.

Thanks for the make over!!!

My Mom's Designer's Touch - No Before action shots

Four New Items - A Fan/Light, Blind, Plate, and Sign above door

Installing the bench

New Bench - Hiding Place for the Food Buckets

Rather Long and Large - It holds 9 5-Gallon buckets.

Creative Dating or Family Activities

We have a goal to do a date once a week this year. So far we are 3 for 3! YEAH!!!

Here are 100 date ideas. Some are free.

1. Go scuba diving
2. Play cops and robbers on horseback
3. Walk all the dogs in the neighborhood
4. Go rabbit or rat hunting
5. Go for a bike ride
6. Sand mumping or icing
7. Swing at the park
8. Ricket your own house
9. Fire escape sitting or jumping and swinging
10. Mountain climbing
11. Water balloon fight
12. Glacier sliding
13. Go tubing down a stream
14. Race toy trains
15. Roller skate or skate boarding
16. Build a dam in a stream or gutter
17. Paint a barn or house
18. Make mud pies and eat or throw
19. Take a midnight hike with flashlights
20. Go bug collecting
21. Take sunrise hike with breakfast
22. Snipe hunting
23. Tip toe through the sprinklers
24. Ride a jeep to the top of a mountain and cook dinner
25. Go duck hunting
26. Have a scavenger hunt
27. Garage or house clean
28. Rent hondas (4-wheelers)
29. Hayride and hootenanny
30. Go caving and exploring
31. Kite making and then flying
32. Climb trees
33. Create out of dirt, sand play
34. Go catch frogs and then have a frog jumping contest
35. Go to a drive-in in a truck and have a candlelight dinner in the back
36. Rent a truck (moving van) and have a party inside
37. Take a sight seeing tour of your city
38. Visit a fish hatchery
39. Go bird watching at the Aviary
40. Play pool
41. Skiing
42. Play ping pong
43. Play tennis
44. Moonlight strolls
45. Picnic
46. Play catch
47. Go for drives around or in mountains
48. Fix dinner and watch movie
49. Go antiquing
50. Go on the merry-go-round
51. Visit travel agencies
52. Walk through the fog (rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc.)
53. Have a "Lost Ten Tribes" dinner party, Judah brings meat, Levi brings salad, Ephraim brings dessert, etc.
54. Go to the hotel and watch T.V. with sedate members of society
55. Go through an old junk drawer
56. Bottle fruit
57. Watch trains or planes come in
58. Wash cars
59. Color in coloring books
60. Go pumpkin caroling
61. Go to drive-in with date and younger brother or sister
62. Play kick the can
63. Pull taffy
64. Put together model cars
65. Play people watching
66. Take little children to the zoo
67. Baby-sitting
68. Free concerts, museums, etc.
69. Entertain at hospitals
70. Study sessions
71. Home-made light shows
72. Plan tournaments--Jacks, tennis, tiddlywinks, etc
73. Throw frisbees
74. Early morning game of tennis and breakfast before work
75. teach how to make bread
76. Start a Sunday night study group
77. Go to a baseball game late (You might get in free.)
78. Go fishing
79. Frog jumping contest
80. Write letters
81. Play football in the park
82. Jump on the sand dunes
83. Hiking
84. Have a street dance
85. Roller skating
86. Watermelon bust
87. Swing in the park
88. Miniature golf
89. Play cowboys and Indians
90. Boys cook dinner for the girls
91. Christmas caroling (in August or December)
92. Cook pancakes and watch cartoons
93. Find ghost houses
94. Go tubing or icing
95. Go water skiing
96. Put butcher paper on tables and finger paint with chocolate pudding
97. Weed a garden or plant seeds/garden
98. Make cookies and then take them to the neighbors
99. Have a pig party by tying people's wrists together and serving spaghetti without forks
100. Do murals on the sidewalk with chalk

Bowling - 100 Year Old Tradition

Some where in the early 1900s, Martin Christensen introduced into the family bowling ONCE a year only New Year's Day.

My great-Grandparents continued the tradition with their children. The tradition continued to my maternal Grandparents to my Mom and now our family.

My Auntie Lyn sent a report to the Christensen family sharing:

After a few decade hiatus we are trying to pick it up again. We had a great, GREAT morning. They invented bumpers after I had mostly finished raising our children. Due to the lateness of this innovation Eric and I didn't carry on the bowling tradition with our little ones. Pay for 4 preschoolers to throw gutter balls all morning while I'm chasing them off of the lane - no thank you. Our health insurance didn't cover that much psychological post-bowling care.

Cousins then responded that the tradition is alive and well coast to coast in the United States. Since New Year's Day was Sunday we all went on Monday. I'll share a few of their responses.

"I don't think I've EVER had more fun bowling. Even if I was slaughtered by a 3 year. Next time maybe I'll try the Zoolander move after every bowl." ~ Nicol

Utah

"The Christensen tradition is still running strong in Southern Maryland. I have great memories of when we all younger and together enjoying this tradition." ~ Colleen

Southern Maryland

"The tradition is still hanging on in Northern California followed by chili and corn bread at the Christensen's home in California." ~ Todd

California

My favorite response was from my Auntie Ann, "Bumpers are all fine and good but I'm not playing unless they invent a ball that doesn't break your nails." Unfortunately I don't have a picture of them. It didn't come through on my email...

Arizona

Look at the triumph in his face! He threw the ball all by himself. Around frame 5 he insisted on carrying his OWN ball, throw his OWN ball, and cheer for HIMSELF! What a determined boy!

Simple and Sweet - Triumph!

I've been cleaning off my desk. I found on my desk a jotted list of things I hoped to do month by month in 2011. I have looked at the list when I have found it over the passed year. I am grateful for what did get accomplished and a sweet man to support me in getting them done.

A screen at the Phoenix Science Museum - It took a cool family picture.

 If it is in purple it happened or even cooler I blogged about it. If it is in black it was a no go...

• January - Pancake Breakfast (tune piano & buy Joy School curriculum - our first lesson from the bought curriculum)
• February - Nothing written down
• March - Underfoot's birthday party (cake recipes used - Applesauce Cake, Caramel Devil Food's Cake, and Sour Cream Cake) and Spring Break - Idaho (kind of happened when we surprised my parents at Easter - only 72 hours)
• April - Easter
• May - Swim Lessons
• June - Swim lesson and Locey Reunion
• July - Kirkham Reunion
• August - Joy School Curriculum
• September - Nothing written down
• October - Family Pictures and Fake Grass (A philosophy changed happened this month.)
• November - Pie Party - last picture
• December - Christmas Advent with Pictures Books - Advent Jesse Tree

Usually I'm not very realistic about the goals I write down. The list goes on sometimes for pages. This simple list happened even though I didn't blog about all of them. Yippee!

Happy New Year to your next year's dream, hopes, and adventures!!!

Grandma Fry's Jello Salad

Beth Fry is my Sweetheart's Grandma. She would make the follow dish each time her family got together. I guess they got together every Sunday for dinner. 

Per his request, I made it for him this Christmas at his request. I called his sister to get the recipe who served it at the annual family reunion 2 years ago. He took a bite and said, "This sure brings back a lot of memories."

Grandma Fry's Jello Salad
Source: Merris Hutchings
 

Ingredients
1 large box lime jello
1 small box orange jello
4 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups boiling water

1 8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise (Miracle Whip is the what the original calls for)
1 9 oz. can crushed pineapple
2 cups cool whip or whipped heavy whipping cream (the recipe calls for dream whip if you have it)

Make lime jello per directions on the box in a 9 x 13. Let it set in the frig. After green jello is set, mix and dissolve orange jello, marshmallows, and boiling water. Let cool to the consistency of eggs whites. While it is cooling, cream together cream cheese and mayonnaise until it is smooth. Add pineapple and whipped cream to cream cheese mixture and stir until smooth. Mix orange jello and cream cheese mixtures until well blended. Add to the top of the green jello. Let set. Serve.

I let it set overnight. It was firm by morning. As you can tell, I didn't blend as well as I could have.