church history museum + art

Every three years the church holds a church art competition, 

and here are some of last year's entries that caught our attention: 

Greater Love Hath No Man: 

This caught our eye right away because we had never seen this depiction of this last moment of Joseph Smith's life. Looking at it again, I don't like it as much, but it still very intense, isn't it? 

The descriptions are below the art. 

Lord of Hosts: 

I loved this one, the rich hues, the detail in sculpture. It felt very much like something I'd seen before; 

perhaps that's because of the similarity it has to a lot of other famous church art, 

or perhaps it's because it's just striking.

While Mary Sleeps - Morning: 

This... this one made me tear up. I wanted to cry looking at the tenderness in Joseph's expression and how he holds the baby Jesus. I think it struck a cord because one of the sweetest things Mark does for me is get up with the kids on his days off and lets me sleep in a bit, even when he didn't have the easiest night himself. Good fathers just make my heart hurt with happiness. If all the world's children had fathers like this. 

Quilts - The Young Women Values: 

These two quilts sparkled!!! I can't even express to you through 

these pictures how sparkly they were. The camera only picked up a little sparkle.

Great Are the Words of Isaiah: 

still lots and lots of sparkle!

Mont had picked a carrot... 

To prepare for dinner with the missionaries: 

To have enough energy to build houses with the Nephites and Lamanites:

A lot of the art was really weird, some was really abstract, and some were really beautiful. If you have a chance to go, I think you should! Mont did not want to leave the toys.. 

there is fun to be had by everyone. 

graduation day

My sister has officially graduated from college!! She finished her degree in December in 

Parks and Recreation (I think!) for Hospitality Management. Works out great since she's 

working in such a nice hotel!

 Along with Mark, the kids, and I, there was Mom and Dad, Aunt Darlene, 

Uncle Stan and Grandma. It was great seeing everyone together! 

Worked out perfectly for my Dad's mom, brother, and sister to meet little Miss Emmy. 

Tessa's little fan, Mont, was all dressed up in his Ute's jersey and even shouted for her when she got her diploma:

I'm so proud of my sister! She is one hard worker!! Now she's off to conquer the hotel world. 

granola

Every now and then Mont will get a healthy hankering, which I'm always too happy to oblige since they're so few and far between. This morning I was trying to guess what he was saying... it kept sounding like "gorilla." When I finally got it, he said, "mmhmm!"

So, after a fb request from Julie, here is the recipe we used this morning for 

Mont's Gorilla Granola: 

2 1/2 c oats

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c chopped nuts *I omit

1/3 c butter

1/3 c honey

1/4 c wheat bran *didn't have

1 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 325º

On greased cookie sheet, put mixed ingredients on, and shift occasionally, baking for 20 - 25 minutes.

Mark enjoys his with milk, but I love it most straight out of the oven 

when it's still soft and chewy... mmm. 

practice

I haven't yet decided if I'm done with this painting.. yesterday I nearly painted over it to start over because I did something weird with the layering look.. it was driving my crazy but I tried something and I think it saved it. 

This is now at the point of: if I paint more I might ruin it or I might finish it.. I'm always afraid of this point. Last night I had to pack all the paints and brushes away again for dinner guests... and now I hit that point. Do I unpack it and try to finish a bit more? Or leave it. I have to decide.

It's been a year since I've painted anything (a picture, I mean), and I've been itching to do something.. itching like crazy! There's a friend of mine (It's your old neighbor, Sarah!) that lives down the street who has just begun a painting business and she's doing quite well with it. Not that I'll ever do the same thing, it's motivated me just the same. Last year while passing through Utah on our drive out here I got to talking with a good friend of mine (one of Mark's mom's bests) and offered to try to paint her a fruit / veggie of her choice. 

"Tomato! .. Or watermelon! .. No, no, tomato. Oh, you choose." 

When I started to ask what she likes about either, she said that she absolutely loves the red in the tomato, the juicy, ripe red color that is only found in a straight-from-the-garden-tomato. 

It's taken a while for me to work up to this point of finally getting the paints out; digging through the containers in the garage, setting up temporary spaces is a pain. I'm just glad I finally did! I have to start the practice paintings so that when we go to a wedding this next week I can do one for a family reunion auction.. painting is SO enjoyable for me. I really do love it.

Well, I hope she likes it! Mark has a camera now that I think will be able to take great reproduction shots of my originals that I give away. I have given away quite a few that I wish I had better pictures of.. This is the beginning of an effort to keep better track of my art! 

(if I add more to this painting I'll update the pic)

red juice!

Sorry Dad.. guess I'll have to get you more cranberry juice. He found it. Yuck!

house hunting | haunting

Ever so often we have a warm and free Saturday morning where we go house hunting with some friends of ours. They have three boys that we use as weight to test the floors. I'm kidding. But it is nice being with another family for all of these explorations of ours. Below is a house that is the largest we've been in so far. Our second time driving up to this house (returning to extract some windows a few pictures down), there was a huge owl perched in the top attic window. There was no sign of it once we were on foot. Spooky.

Below is the entrance (the easy entrance) on the right side of the house (from the point of view of the pic above). Walking up to this area smelled strongly of skunk, but fortunately, nothing in sight. It probably was under the floor boards though.. 

This is the kitchen with all the very cool appliances still here. This house must have belonged to someone very wealthy; signs of the wealth - the curved ceiling moldings, tin ceiling plates, wallpaper layers (they must have changed it, or rather, added upon it at least 6 times), many rooms, large house. 

After the kitchen this must be the family room. Here you can see layer upon layer of the wallpaper. I have a close-up picture of it, but it sort of made me sick last time I looked at it, so I'll spare you. But there are about 6 or 7 different (completely different) styles. Florals, geometric, regal, etc. Many different moods must have been experienced in this house. 

So many pink rooms!! Either this house was full of girls, or of a family who's mother loved pink! We even found an old crib:

I'm not sure what this very small room was, but there was a window into the hallway near the top of the wall, and a tall window to outside; maybe it was a room for time outs. Or a restroom. (?)

The wallpaper had peeled off, or disintegrated so much that in many places, this is all that was left of it.. everything about this house is like a ghost:

Windows!!!!! My friend and I were so thrilled to find windows in tact.. let me tell you! Our dear husbands just rolled their eyes and helped us load 'em up. We figured they're just here left exposed to the elements and animals and rot, so we are saving them and doing the old owners a favor by sparing them more broken glass in the future. They are absolutely beautiful all cleaned up.

This room just gives me the creeps. This is upstairs in the back left (from the pov of the very first pic). The couch is so so old, and probably really smelly (I imagine). The ceiling is ghostly, and when I went back to the closet to peek in, I stood up and freaked out since the fluttery material was brushing my face. There were torn pages from a book everywhere on this floor that I thought to favor; they were all about engineering and had pictures of boats like the Titanic. It was all very interesting, but all very dirty. Pink, pink, pink.

The stairway was scary. On the way up, you could slide your foot into the stairs and climb just fine.. but on the way down, I could barely place the ball of my foot down (there were maybe 3 inches of stair), while holding Mont's hand (I couldn't hold him, no way - we would have both fallen), while not hitting my head on the ceiling, while holding on to the decaying wall. It was not my favorite moment. My friend went first, then Mont, then Me. Mont was a brave boy and loved exploring, but I made him hold my hand for sure! I would have taken a picture of those STEEP, VERY STEEP AND NARROW stairs but my thoughts were nowhere near taking a picture at that time (okay, I did think about it, but rational took over). If I had been the queen of this house I would have put in a slide, for sure. 

made ya

... smile!

number 1!

I am still in a state of disbelief when I look at Emmy here and realize that she is now a 1 year old. It's shocking that it has come so fast. A part of me thought that she would remain a baby for ever, I suppose.. 

This past year has quite possibly been the most stressful, busiest, and most fun year that we've had in our 6 years as the Mark and Jayci Reeder family. I still haven't even uploaded the pictures I snapped on our drive cross country where we watched Old Faithful's eruption with a wild, uncaged Buffalo 4 feet in front of the kids' stroller at sunset (yes, it was taking all my strength not to scream and run), or where we held our growing boy up so his head was next in line at Mt. Rushmore. We have really done so much in this little girl's short lifetime so far; I'm proud of us for making it through happily. To just sit back and enjoy the last 5 months of North Dakota life has really been a breeze (a chilly one, but a breeze nevertheless)...

Her day began beautifully. We woke up before the sun, like we always do, and we set our music to get our energy flowing. I was having a neighbor over (who I conveniently visit teach!) for lunch with her youngest, and new that morning would be the best time to knock out the cake baking. I had my assistants nearby helping me make extra messes:

Emmy even got to enjoy the batter with Mont this time... after all.. what good is a birthday without some new tasty treats? I'm still in love and over the moon that she has my mother's eyes (don't know how, but somehow she's got 'em!)

After an entirely too-messy session trying to make the butter cream frosting, I whipped up these bad girls with a ziplock bag. You can't even see the cupcake under that mountain of frosting! That's good, right? Oops.

What's that Sprinkles? Sure! You can hire me.. if you insist.

Thought I'd do both cupcakes and a cake... so I divided the batter into 6 lg cupcakes and 1 round cake. Checkered lines was about all my talent allowed for. So sorry, Emmy. At least the colors were cute..

I was stumped on what to get for our little sweetheart.. the only thing I could think of that would be safe enough and special enough was a little doll. My sister used to have Madame Alexanders and I remember my mother saying how nice of a doll they were; that they would stand the test of time or something to that extent. Well lucky for Emmy, I didn't just find a Madame Alexander, I found one that was soft! She is in a little snow suit that is blanket soft, and just like a pillow. We don't think Emmy has even held a baby doll before, so it was precious to watch the sweet introduction. She was thrilled and smiley, touching the doll's face and hair and hands, poking her eyes and so forth. She is such a nurturer, this Emmy of ours. Just see for yourself.. ; )

Someday I'll find and upload the pictures of all her travels Eastward, but for now I just have to say, we are so happy this little girl is ours. Her laughs are sometimes hard to get out of her, but her smiles are always at the ready for us. She is a goof with her brother and they are always putting on shows for one another, usually with Mont ending up in the fit of giggles. They are quite the pair, our two. I love them to pieces.

Happy birthday little Emmy dear!

taste of summer

The last few days have been warm... 74º warm... what a change. It has been a winter's dream come true.

We've flown kites,
flown remote control planes,
played on swings,
jumped on a trampoline,
chased imaginary butterflies,
blew bubbles,
played with neighborhood kids,
went for walks,
chased Buckwheat chasing squirrels,
grilled burgers,
played in water,
got a pet goldfish,
crawled in grass,
thrown rocks,
wrestled with goldendoodles,
ate cookies (lots of cookies),
got some sun,

and this morning,
woke up to dense fog from the evaporating water
of the endless fields around us.

Tomorrow we hope for some thunderstorms.

most scrumptious

I know it wasn't that long ago when I posted a recipe for my favorite butter cookies... but here is a sugar cookie recipe that I am now over the moon about. Due to the excessive amount of butter in these cookies, I think the two recipes should nicely exchange names.

Even though I've been trying to eat lighter and less and better and all that, I gave in to Mont's sweet pleas for us to make cookies. I didn't offer chocolate chip cookies, because I knew I would eat them all in two days. So I offered others.. 'Snickerdoodles?' 'Yep!' ... 'Or... Sugar Cookies?' 'Yep! Dos wans'

It was settled.

Searching on the web for a recipe I had seen not too long ago, I decided to give it a try, and thankfully I had grabbed another box of butter squares at the store the day previous.. I needed 5 sticks for this recipe! Don't worry... it makes a lot of cookies, so it spreads out. Or at least this is what I've told myself over and over again.

Without further ado.. here is the recipe for Cutler's Famous Sugar Cookies | Butter Cream Frosting:
Sugar Cookies: 
1 1/2 c butter (3 sticks)
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
5 c cake flour*

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended well. Add dry ingredients and mix. To make dough easier to work with, chill before rolling! Roll to about 1/4 inch thick and form (cut) cookies and bake at 350º for 10 minutes. Cookies are done when top is slightly cracked and no longer looks wet. Edges may brown.

*I didn't have cake flour (that's what I get for baking on a whim), so mine didn't get as fluffy or as crackled as they should... but goodness they were still so soft and tasty! I didn't even mind that they weren't bigger. The taste and texture was still very cake-like and delicious.

Butter Cream Frosting: 
1 c butter (another 2 sticks!)
4-5 c powdered sugar*
milk
1 t vanilla

Beat soft butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Add a splash of milk and vanilla then blend well. Tint frosting with food color as desired. Decorate with sprinkles immediately after frosting.

*4-5 c really blends down into a small looking amount, but it did go far enough to have extra for me. Next time I'll be more liberal with my frosting and lay it on thicker!

.... go on and make 'em! Just have some people in mind to give them to afterwards... We kept all of them and now I have 7 lbs to go again instead of 5, dang it! But it was so worth it!

eating lighter

I've been trying to eat better lately, really truly. I have about 10 5 lbs left to lose to return to my normal weight, and I don't think DQ Blizzards every week helped me out with that. Since I don't exercise regularly, I knew it was calories that I was going to have cut to see any results. I don't gain much weight by eating normal, I just don't lose any; and I want to lose, so I'm cutting out the junk! (until I made cookies two days ago at Mont's request...)

With 5 lbs gone after a week, I'm wondering why I hadn't done this sooner. Here's what I've been doing (or trying to do before the cookies were made) is this: 

Breakfast:

- eat half of a serving of mini wheats + milk (my reg. 2%) + a piece of 12 grain toast. 

- glass of cold water + vitamin (I need to be better at taking vitamins on a regular basis)

Ab routine: 

I have to face it, this is what needs the work after babies. My arms do heavy lifting all day and my legs get lots of walking. Abs and obliques are where I want to focus more attention. So I do a short 25 minute workout, and the next morning I think I see myself narrowing a bit. 

- cold water (if I expect myself to drink lots of water, it better be cold!)

Lunch: 

- plate of baby spinach + almond slices + craisins + creamy poppyseed dressing. easy, and very tasty. 

- cold water

Alternative Later Lunch: 

- there have been a few days where I push my lunch back to 2 o'clock or so, and eat a bigger lunch of penne pasta + shredded cheese + salt + pepper. Not the lowest in fat, and definitely high in carbs, but if I eat like this, it's the last thing I eat all day. I'm not hungry either. It gives me plenty of energy and I feel really great the next morning. 

-If I want to eat a different 'big lunch' I choose a turkey sandwich with 12 grain bread + feta crumbles + red onion slices + spinach + mustard + tomato slice + salt and pepper. It's a very, very tasty sandwich but doesn't last as long as the pasta. I usually have to have a snack later in the day with that. 

- cold water

Dinner: 

- Cook or steam a vegetable, season with salt + pepper + parmesan, share with Mark, taking more than half! : ) This way I fill up more on veggies, and I feel more satisfied after dinner.

- Whatever we eat for dinner I think of the amount I would normally take and devour in seconds. Think real hard and be honest with myself... it would take up my entire dinner plate. 

- I take a smaller plate, then put 1/2 of my normal portion and take longer to eat it. 

- Eat this smaller dinner at 5:30 or 6:30 at the latest! 

- cold water

- Don't eat anything else all night. If I feel a craving, like Mont's Cheetos still sitting in a cup, I'll take one and put the rest away for the next day. Just one, and I get the taste and curb the craving. 

- cold water

Here was yesterday's lunch.. I chopped off the bottoms of the asparagus, then seasoned with olive oil + garlic powder + salt + pepper + parmesan shreds. 

Then baked at 350º for 12 minutes. It was pretty tasty! I'd never cooked asparagus for myself before, but I'm glad I finally did!

* hardly tips, I know.. more common sense eating. : ) 

bobby pins

This weekend I stepped out of my "down, up, or half-up" comfort zone and tried an up-do I had seen online recently. I am not a girl known for talent with hair, so today when two girls asked how I did it, I was beyond flattered. So, to remember this day always.. I give you... the front view:

And my pride-grin with the back. It's the end of the day, so I hope you grant me the loose strands. : )

 Non-secret Secret: 3 'granny braids' as I've always called them, twisted up into buns plus lots of magical bobby pins.

fresh out

Thorough planning is my mother's forte, while my near misses are what sets me apart. Mark teases me about this often, but when putting together a grocery list, I typically forget one vital ingredient to a meal for people. It's sort of a running joke that I hope trips and falls really soon.

Missing ingredient for enchiladas today was the most necessary of them all: the tortillas.

I quickly texted two neighbors, one right after the other, and when first said she had just used all of hers, and the second neighbor was busy throwing a birthday party for her 5 year old (happy birthday, Coral!), my problem-solving kicked in and thought... I'll just make them!

(because Heaven forbid I ask our guests to bring over the missing ingredient .. which I've done before, but let's not get into that)

Things I learned when doing this were:
First: I really, really like working my hands through flour.. have you ever done it? It feels like how I'd imagine a cloud to feel, so cool and unbelievably smooth and soft. TRY it. I felt like a moron telling Mark how nice it was over and over again! Really, truly, I almost never wanted to stop.

Second thing: the dough balls really just need to be torn from the dough and placed down. At first I was rolling them into individual balls, realizing quickly that they were drying out before I could finish all of them.

Third: cover said dough pieces with plastic wrap so they don't dry too quickly.

Fourth: don't use a tortilla roller, just use an American rolling pin. Mark's Turkish friends gave him one while he was deployed once and my hands felt like I had been clapping too long after just 15 minutes of rolling. (i'm sure you know that burning/itchy feeling after a good long clap at a sports game or play, right?)

Fifth: they were delicious. The first was too thick, the second was cooked too long, but after those two it was smooth sailing.

Sixth: There is something so primitively beautiful about a stack of homemade tortillas. The inner pioneer / frontier woman inside me was so proud. Ya ya.. just work your hands through flour and see if you can avoid the same feelings.

Here's the recipe I used. I substituted the lard (gross.) for shortening (still gross, but it's what I had.) and they turned out wonderful.

in a sea-shell

You know that phrase "in a nutshell" that is used when something long is wrapped up all tidy-like into a shorter version?

Well let's take all of Mont's beach and ocean experiences and put them all nice and tidy, into one little seashell.

It all began when I showed him that if he held the shell up to his ear, he could hear the ocean. Though we keep the shells in his and Emmy's bathroom, somehow this particular shell finds its way into my bag, or our family room, or other similarly unexpected places.

The magic that this seashell holds for Mont is undeniable. He sees it and thinks that he can instantly be transported to the place where there are ocean waves, where there is sand, and sea weed, and fishies, and crabs, and birds, and sharks, and friends, and most importantly Grandma and Tiger (Grandpa) and Pirate Cave.

He holds it out to us and asks us to "Open it?" "Get 'em?" "Get Grandma? Tiger's in der!"

When he realizes I can't open it, he hopefully realizes his one last chance is what might get him his Grandma and Tiger.. He tells me that he's going to "Get 'em?" and then puts his little fingers into the shell and says, "I got 'em!"

The smile on his face tells me that he is on that ocean with his Grandma and Tiger, so I don't say anything.. I just smile and wait for his imagination to come back to me.

our snowy day

 Yesterday I got a text message from a friend that said, "church is cancelled tomorrow. please refrain from doing a happy dance." The only reason why a snow storm cancels church is because our ward boundaries include people 150+ miles away. That's one long drive in windy snowy storms. I bet the pioneers would have gone 10 times their distance if they had heated seats and windows that closed... makes us look wussy!

 So Emmy just did a little happy dance. 

When the snow did fall, when we thought it was done, Mark started to gear up to go shovel. So I grabbed the camera off its nail in the wall, and started to take some pictures (my mom recently asked for some non-saucey-non-iphone pictures - iPhones kill my motivation, they're just too easy!). I am still getting the hang of shooting manual again, but this camera we have now is all back to the basics, which makes it lots of fun, but I have to be fast with the dials to make them clear (like the one above.. not so clear, but it shows off her eyes! and goodness do I love her eyes. They must be a present from my mother, her namesake. Even though I'm adopted. My mom and dad are the only ones with blue eyes in our families!)

So on to the fun:

I am a mean mom and Emmy hasn't been outside a whole lot this winter. Maybe it's because I'm from the desert, maybe it's because it's just plain cold, but I don't know how to dress kids warm enough, and I don't want her to get sick. Mont is wearing two hats and two sweatshirts. Emmy doesn't have actual coats. Emmy has a carseat, and I think she'd just be miserable in there sitting on the driveway watching Mont run around like a free little pony. So instead, she's inside the window saying, "whyyyy!!"

So she found the next best thing.. the blind pulls. Woopie!

Here's my absolute favorite neck in the whole wide world. Oh, I just love to kiss and squeeze her!! 

Mont kept finding the deepest snow to just collapse in, 

thus leading to snow up the sleeves and down the pants, 

so Mark would run him in to warm up. 

but just one look outside, he turned right back around determined to go right back out:

So the process started again for a second time. 

"oh, Mont."

cheap. cold. entertainment. Happy snow day!