How Does Your Garden Grow?

So part of our tax return went to our garden! Gardening in February? You may think we're crazy. Crazy like a FOX!

Bekah was fully excited to get our seeds started for our big lovely garden this summer. She planted Watermelons and Pumpkins. I planted the peppers! :)

Ben... wore his bathrobe! Oh, and he planted some pretty bulbs to get them started inside... it's too cold to really dig in our soil right now, so we're cheating.

Bekah sporting her dirty hands. "Wow, dirty!" She was not happy about how dirty they were...

My favorite image: New Life. I can't wait for Spring!!

The Cakeball Anomoly

In order to answer the questions about my sanity cakeballs, please follow the link:

http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-balls/

Check out her whole site. She is a woman after my own heart. Mmmmm Cake. Who needs an occasion?

All you need is love... and a cast iron skillet.

Happy Valentines Day! We've had a very fun week, and I have been incredibly spoiled! I think that Ben loves me or something... This has been by far, my very favorite Valentines ever.

Bekah had a party at her school. They made valentines and gave them out. The candy is still hidden away... its almost as bad as Halloween!

Ben kicked the week off by surprising my early in the week with flowers and chocolates. The, yesterday he brought me MORE flowers, as did my BFF Honey. All told I got 4 bouquets of flowers! They are so pretty... see?

That's a mix of my early week bouquet and the roses Honey brought me.

These are called Alstroemeria, they are my very favorite flower. These are the same color as the ones I had in my wedding bouquet, and on our wedding cake. Ben remembers every year and gets them for me. There were white roses with these. I have so many flowers! I don't know what to do with them... I'm so spoiled.

For Valentines I got Ben a new drill (he's super excited) and he got me:

That's right, a cast iron skillet! I have been wanting one for... ever. He got me a big 12" one with a glass lid. I luff it so much. I can't believe he remembered... what a thoughtful man he is.

I spent most of yesterday making cake balls and cake pops. I FINALLY found some red velvet cake mix. I looked everywhere for that stuff! Wal-Mart had some so I bought 4 boxes. The cake balls are way better with red velvet, and they look so pretty too. I used semi-sweet chocolate this time which was extra num, and not as sweet...

The only problem with the Red Velvet cake mix is that it has so much food coloring in it. It stained my hands something fierce.

I couldn't figure out how to let the cake pops set so that they stayed round... I gave up and set them on the paper (like candy apples) but the cool thing is, once wrapped, they looked like chocolate roses. So, I have invented the cake ball rose. :) Want a dozen of these?

Today, Ben's working so I went and played at Wal-Mart for a bit. Bekah needed some totes for all her crap. Her room was starting to get completely out of hand. We cleaned it up together, and it looks fantastic. I love her room all clean, and I think she likes it much better too. She went and played in there for an hour after we cleaned it up.

I also needed a new shower curtain for my bathroom. I got these cool looking vinyl dandelion wall decals on clearance at ShopKo a couple weeks ago, and they didn't match the ducky curtain. I got this pretty thing on clearance for $7.50. Gotta love the Wally. Also got a matching liner.

Now I need a new rug, and soon new towels. But still, for under $20 you gotta love an almost new looking bathroom!

Too fun. It'd be nice to paint in there, and maybe this summer we'll talk to our landlord about it. I'd like to paint it kind of a taupe color in the shower curtain, but not too dark. Luckily that room gets lots of light.

Well that's all my pictures for today. Happy V-Day all! Loves!

4 years!

I can't believe it's already been 4 years... but in the same breath I think, how short a time that is! It seems some days like we're newlyweds, and some days like we've been married for a century. (In a good way!)

For our anniversary I got Ben something he's been wanting for a while:

A tattoo! No, it's not as big as it looks in that pic (its kinda stretched out) but it still took about two hours. It is Hebrew sanskrit and it says "Rivka" Which is Rebekah in Hebrew. Cool eh? It's not done yet, still some designs to go around it, but that'll be in little segments.

Me? This is what I got....

Too cool eh?

We also went to eat at Melting Pot (YUM!) on sunday, and on our actual anniversary I made fajitas and we had champagne! :D

Happy Anniversary to us!

Cooking with Toni - Cranberry Cream Cheese Pastry Puffs

Hello all!

This holiday season I became obsessed with appetizers. Like tiny little canvases, appetizers provide outlet for one's most crazy cooking ideas. Because they're small, flavors can be intense. Also, they are much less heartbreaking to throw away if you completely mess them up!

Anyway, I will be sharing a bunch of these fun recipes I made up, but today I want to share with you, one of my favorites (just invented today) The Cranberry Cream Cheese Pastry Puff (with pictures!)

Ok, here is what you need:
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup fresh cranberries (you can do this with frozen, but it doesn't taste as good)
1/4 cup of cream cheese
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed.

Directions:

Take your honey and put it in a saucepan on medium low. When it begins to simmer gently, add the cranberries. Let this mixture cook at medium low until the cranberries begin to cook down. They should all be open and soft.

Now, while this is cooking, take your thawed puff pastry sheet and roll it out a little, to make it a bit bigger, and cut into twelve rectangles. Now take the cream cheese and add a gob (um, like a rounded teaspoon) on one side of the rectangle.

Now top these with the cranberry mixture

Fold these badboys over, don't seal just fold them really tight... if they come unfolded during baking, you can put them back while still hot.

Now bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes (make sure they're golden brown and firm to the touch. If they unfolded you can reform them right out of the oven.

There you go... cream cheese pastry puffs!

Dungeons and Dragons Funerals. They will catch on!

Hey ya'll sorry for the haitus. With all the madness round my house, I just gotta git er done. Can you tell my sister is up from Texas?

Anyway the good coming out of all this horrid sadness is getting to see my sister for the first time in almost 8 months. She's too skinny. Must fatten her up while she's here....

So Gary's funeral was today. It was very hard, but not for the reasons I'd expected. It was really hard seeing Bobbie cry. I think that was the hardest for me. Made me just wanna hold her. It was also really, really hard to see Gary in the coffin. It didn't look like him. He was distorted and waxy looking. And because he was such a smart-ass in real life, part of me kept wondering when he was going to sit up and yell "Gotcha!" Because he so would have done that.

The funeral was pretty terrible. I honestly don't think his family knew him very well. It was very LDS (which he wouldn't have liked, but it comforted his mom, so that was ok) but also, they really snubbed Bobbie. Which she didn't care about much, but he would have been so angry and hurt. Just because his family didn't like her, didn't mean she deserved to be completely cut out of the program, the slideshow etc. It was hurtful to us. We were his family for 7 years... and not a mention beyond a 6 word sentence in the obituary.

It was long and boring... and I kept imagining Gary sitting next to my poking me in the side trying to get me to laugh at the worst moments. Which then, in turn, would make me laugh. I had a complete giggle fit imagining the kind of funeral HE would have liked. A dungeons and dragon's funeral... they'll catch on... just you watch.

All of the speakers kept dancing around the fact that Gary killed himself, which was really lame. Finally the bishop made the final remarks and came right out and said it. It was fantastic. He talked about how it's wrong to take any life, even your own, but that it's not our place to judge him, that's God's place. The he also talked about how family members often feel like blaming themselves, saying "If I'd only..." and said that's not what we should do. God gave us agency for a reason... and Gary made a choice.

The hardest part was watching his sweet daughter cry. Poor lamb. I grew up without a daddy... it will never go away. That hole never goes away... it heals a little and you learn to live around it, but it changes you forever.

Ok this post is enough of a downer, but this being my journal, I really did need to get it all out. I'm glad Bobbie is here until the weekend, and my mom comes home from the Hospital tomorrow (knee surgery) so we'll all be one happy family.

Hope ya'll are doing better than us! :)

Sad, Heartbreaking News

 If you read my facebook updates, you may already know this, but for others who don't I figured I would post it on the blog as well.

On Tuesday night, we found out that Bobbie's husband, Gary, killed himself while on duty in Oregon. Gary was serving in the Navy, and two naval officers arrived at my mom's house (the last address they had for my sister) and said they'd found his body.

Bobbie and Gary were separated when this happened, but they had been amicable, and he wanted Bobbie to stay on his insurance etc. He was a good, kind and sweet man, and a part of our family, no matter what.

Gary was my brother, and my friend. I will never forget his kindness, his sense of humor, and his willingness to go the extra mile for someone he barely knew. He will be greatly missed very dearly by myself and my family.

Gary had a daughter from a previous marriage, who is 8 years old. Please pray for her, and for Gary's mother in this sad and dark time for them especially. To lose a father I understand, and mourn for Alyssa. To lose a child so young, I cannot imagine.

I'll be spending most of the week with my sister, who is flying home for the funeral. I'm glad to see her, but heartbroken over the circumstances.  Cards for Bobbie would be very much appreciated, she is taking this very hard, as to be expected. Any cards or well wishes for Bobbie can be sent to:
Bobbie Wood c/o Tracy Mutter
3665 S. Centennial Rd.
Magna, UT 84044

Gary's funeral is scheduled for January 7th. It will be held in Bountiful at 11am, the viewing will be from 9:30 to 10:30. It will be at 3599 S.Orchard Drive.


Thank you all for the kind words and acts of service we have already received. Thank you for your kindness and your prayers. God Bless.