up and running

we have been off the radar recently.

computer broken for nearly 3 weeks.

thanks for the update apple. that's why our computer broke. it was so broken in fact, that after driving 3 hours to the apple store, we had to leave it overnight so the higher ups could have a look at it. again, thanks for the update. 

Anyway, every year our stake hosts a marriage conference. they usually have great speakers, host a dinner, it's a big production. We always feel like we should support it.

This year they had a football/stake president/tv host and his wife come and speak. his name is Vai  Sikahema. i don't follow football much- but he and his wife did a pretty good job.

after attending classes and listening to his talk. we had a delicious dinner and got some pretty great entertainment.

here's our stake president and via sikahema doing the hokka. i actually have no idea how to spell that- pretty sure i just slaughtered it.

it was quite an enjoyable evening.

last week was pretty sweet. 

our friends watched our kids, so we were able to attend the temple with K for the first time. 

he got to do baptisms. 

it was such a memorable experience being with him and the rest of the youth. most impressed that they are living a high standard and were able to attend. it's hard in todays world with all the pressures constantly bombarding our youth. overwhelmed at their goodness and righteousness.

entertaining

how the kids have been staying entertained this winter. and in turn, how i have been kept entertained by them this long, cold, harsh, never-ending winter.

bouncing!!!

 playing!

 building!

 cooking!!

 eating only healthy snacks ;)

i think the groundhog was wrong. 

i think he was suppose to say 16 more weeks of winter. 

tinkerbell and fasnacht

I always knew this little girl could pull of a pretty spectacular tinker bell. 

on a completely unrelated note- 

living in pa has been an interesting transition. from their version of 'chicken pot pie' which is known to the rest of the world as chicken noodle soup. ( i speak from personal experience. i ordered chicken pot pie at a restaurant here and was brought a bowl of chicken noodle soup. i told her i ordered chicken pot pie, not chicken noodle soup. she looked at me-as if i was the crazy one- and said that is chicken pot pie. ) i left thoroughly baffled but since then have figured out that traditional pa dutch do their chicken pot pie like chicken noodle soup... still can't embrace that tradition yet. BUT one tradition i can fully wrap my arms, and even better my mouth around, are these- fasnacht.

a friend of mine called me on tuesday and said to check mennonite and amish stores for these little delicious morsels. they are only made on the tuesday before lent. mmmm, sign me up.

i got myself a little box and thought 'ill only eat half of one one- 

how good can they be?' i ate one. and a half. 

the tradition goes back to getting rid of things in your pantry- sugar, shortening, to prepare for lent.

good news is that they are delicious. bad news is they only do them once a year.