Hot Fun in the Wintertime

And all that jazz...
(otherwise known as the super-duper long post that takes forever to put together because I've waited so long since I posted.  Drat drat drat.  Anyway, enjoy!)

A Lazy Sunday Morning

 Emme's wearing her new whale jumper (which I adore) - and checking out our engagement pictures.  Love this kiddo.

Work Birthday Bash

Had a delectable array of berries for our yogurt parfaits with my department at work.

California Omelette? Yes, please!

The delicious food from Sawmill Cafe made for a fun (and lively) way to kick off my birthday with the kids and Grandma & Grandpa Marchant.

My Big, Fat 40th Birthday Bash

Surrounded by some of my favorite people on the planet, we had the most AMAZING Mexican fiesta buffet and best karaoke celebration EVER!  Turning a year older (especially when hitting a big milestone) can be kind of hard.  But man, this birthday, and most especially this party, totally rocked.  Saying I loved this party would be putting it mildly.  It was such a great night and an awesome memory that I will put in my pocket for a rainy day... it was that kind of awesome. 

My Birthday Fun Continues...

 Riding to Edmonds to spend the day with the Goodwin grandparents while we spent the day snowshoeing.   Big Bonus: the kids were totally stoked to hang with them and it allowed us to do something we used to do but haven't done in a long time - snowshoe & enjoy the beauty of the outdoors - together!

Snowshoeing to Source Lake

Beautiful drive up I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass.

Setting out at the trailhead at Alpental... who's excited?

View from the lake; Dave gazing up to a frozen waterfall climb; me getting snow in my eyes while trying to take a selfie... but loving the beauty of this winter wonderland.

The steep, slide-slipping pitch (totally thought I was going to eat it, but didn't - yay me!); catching a glimpse of some blue sky through the trees; frozen falls on the way home - gorgeous.

And it's ClaimJumper's for the Win

After a fun-filled day in the mountains, we came home, changed and headed to feast on awesome food at ClaimJumper's.  The smallest thing on the menu happens to be these baby red-velvet cupcakes, which they give out as their free birthday goodies.  My take?  Cake was kind of dry and flavorless & the frosting wasn't very sweet, but then again, I'm not a huge fan of red velvet - and I'm a cake snob.  Still, a lovely evening out alone with my Dave!

Kiddo #1 & Kiddo #2

I had promised Benj that we would make a train cake and decorate it this week.  Alas, only the cake got made (because of the insane cake below); still both kiddos were happy.  Kiddo #1 got to play with his edible train & coaches, while Kiddo #2 got to gobble up the leftovers.  Of course, CAKE = Happy People!

Death By Chocolate... no joke.

It was Super Bowl Sunday.  The Seahawks were playing the Broncos (and we WON).  But it was also still the weeklong celebration of Moi, so not surprisingly, I made a cake.  The cake consisted of three layers of deep chocolate cake (Beatty's Chocolate Cake recipe - except I accidentally used heavy cream instead of buttermilk... which turned out to be one awesome mistake, btw); three layers of "Death By Chocolate" dark chocolate mousse; topped off with whipped cream, whole strawberries and chocolate ganache drizzled on top.  No frosting was needed on this baby.  And although it was insanely rich, it was mind-blowing-ly good (yeah, I know that's not a real word)!

Haug Homestead Park

Took a jaunt to a local park in the middle of our not-so-deep winter.  Coats and hats were required, but we fed the ducks an inordinate amount of freezer-burnt bread (so yummy, I'm sure), scampered all over the playground, made stick piles and generally ran around like crazy people.  It was another lovely day at the park with my little people.

(unknown) Park near Hospital

Grandma Julie needed a ride to get some tests at the Prov-Everett cancer center, so we took advantage of yet ANOTHER sunny, cool day and discovered this little park in north Everett.  Benjamin's favorite thing was digging in the dirt and Emme was obsessed with our patriotic ball - or "BA!" as she likes to call it.  Thankfully, after only 20 minutes there, grandma called saying she was done; although it was a fun little park, it's situated right next to Port Gardner and the bone-chilling wind was blowing extra wild that day so I was happy to scoot everyone back into the comforts of our warm car to go pick her up.

~Aloha Emme~

Otherwise known as the various stages of Lei Destruction.  Our neighbor brought this over as a thank-you for turning her heat back on while they were flying back from Hawaii.  I took this picture below before "LD" officially began... it's obvious that Emme is not happy with me for delaying said-destruction.  

Let Them Eat Cake!

These are the leftover chocolate & cream-cheese frosting cupcakes from the Mexican fiesta.  And yes, I let them eat them for breakfast because I'm cool like that.

Fa-fa-fa- Freezing!

Another outdoor adventure led us to Willis-Tucker park.  The week of my birthday was crazy cold, compared to the rest of our winter.  We went on a nature walk (Emme had zonked so I was carrying her in the Ergo - which she slept in the WHOLE TIME.  Awesomeness!)  So, it was basically a Mommy-Benj date, where we walked around checking out the frozen pond, collecting ice-chunk specimens, discovering mysterious things called stumps in the scary woods and making snow angels in the sandbox.  Perhaps it was wishful-thinking, but funny enough, it actually snowed this same evening... a lot!

We Finally Got Snow!

This was last Sunday (Feb 9th). 

I love everything about all of these pictures...

but I especially adore the Daddy-Benj snow angels.  

Valentine's Day

Dave was headed out for a Scout camping trip this weekend, so I stayed up extra late to make him this silly card (with sayings like "I love you like Sheldon loves his spot."), a Valentine's Mad Lib at the breakfast table and a little love note for his vest pocket while he was out in the snowy wilderness.  

I asked Benj what he wanted for breakfast and he said pancakes, so I made these whole-wheat aebleskivers which turned out so good!  Everyone gobbled them up.  

Dave took off with the boys around 11am and we were still having breakfast, which was the perfect lazy way to spend Valentine's, in my opinion.  After doing a bunch of random stuff around the house, we headed to Willis-Tucker again for some play time before our Valentine's movie party with the cousins.  We grabbed a Hawaiian pizza on the way home, which both hungry kids quickly devoured.  Then, Lucy & Alice joined us for popcorn and Wall-E, Benj's go-to selection for any popcorn movie party!  Dave showed up in the time for the movie; sadly, a heavy rain had ruined their igloo-building plans so we got to have him back for Valentine's afterall!  Luckily, neither of the girls had seen Wall-E - and I think everyone really enjoyed it.  Fun times, fun night of memories.

Dave's Birthday Cake

Dave isn't a big fan of the hullabaloo of weeklong birthday celebrations, but I still wanted to celebrate him and his big day so that he knew how much we love him.  Plus, Benjamin was begging to help blow out the candles on a cake.  So I whipped up this beauty before church last week.  Our SIL Aubri showed up in time to snap some pictures and partake in this deconstruction of a Boston Cream Pie.  The french vanilla filling really made the cake - even I liked it!

Egg White & Veggies 'cupcakes'

A big fan of the savory breakfast, I made some of these this week.  I may tweak a few things in the future, but they were fun, easy and quite tasty - plus the small size made them easy to toss in my mouth as I was driving to work at o'dark thirty this week!

Random Shot of the Week: "You are Not Alone"

Silly Em Pictures

She has started mugging for pictures.  I think it's so stinkin' cute, but I'm biased, I suppose.

Tambarking

Had an absolute blast at Tambark Park this week.  I didn't take many pictures, as I was running around everywhere with the kiddos.  We slid, swung, spun, ran, tossed rocks in the creek, did jumping jacks and even ran lines in the astro-turfed sports field.  Storm clouds were threatening but we lucked out again with some pretty decent weather as we took in some fresh air and sunshine!

Another fun month under our belts.  But how is it possible that we are only about a week away from March 2014?  Crazy. 

My little spiritual blurb: Lastly, I listened to this conference talk while I was putting away groceries today.  Elder Ulisses Soares talked about being meek and lowly of heart.  This section of his talk really resonated with me; becoming more meek is something I want to work on in the days & weeks ahead.

Being meek does not mean weakness, but it does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control.