the white house at the right time

INSTALLING SPRING... ███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░ 44% DONE. Install delayed....please wait. Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found. Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again. Yup, that sums it up.  Coldest April on record!!!

Cupid Cafe. Fine dining. Amazing guests. Fabulous ambiance. A family tradition. For the last several years, Randy and I have decided to spend the holiday of love with the ones with love most, our children. Several years ago, my youngest sister's boyfriend (now husband) was in town. She wanted him to meet all the family. A family dinner. Perfect. It was Valentine's weekend. My mom, the clever, imaginative person that she is created CUPID CAFE. A meal created with love for the ones and edibles you love! Cayden introduced the formal dress code when, a few years back, he showed up wearing his crooked clip on maroon tie and slacks. A surprise visit by the resident make-up artist. We made a visit to Boehm's candy for chocolates. http://www.boehms.com/ Enumclaw Chocolate Festival for chocolate dessert cups and red dutch cocoa. The kids really look forward to this special meal. Cayden was intent on not missing it even though he was flying out on Valentine's Da...

Our little city has an annual celebration at the lodge. All the lights come on, Santa visits via the fire truck, hot chocolate, cookies, little crafts, carolers, and train rides. We were minus Madalyn this year because she was committed to her play practice. We look forward to going each year. However, this year, Randy had to head back for a church meeting, so we didn't have time for the train ride. Cayleb was so bummed. I thought about being a good mommy and heading back but by the time we got home and had to pick up Madalyn it just wasn't going to work. We were probably all being punished for an unamed grown man taking 1 more cookie than he was supposed to, hmmm You better watch out, 'cause he knows if you've been bad or good.

This is a newer family tradition. Searching and hunting for the perfect family tree. We have two types of trees at our house. The real tree. The smell good tree. The family tree. The decorate any way you want tree. The personality tree. The kinda strong branch tree. The one with all the mismatched and story laden ornaments. Then we have the fake tree. The mom tree. The balanced and color coordinated. The don't touch tree. The super, sturdy, bendy branches that can move anywhere for any ornament tree. The white lights only tree. No debate at our house. We please both tree camps; real and fake. Last year we learned about the Christmas tree permit program. Through the National Forest Service, $5 lands you a permit to cut your own tree. The selection committee-

Thanksgiving company - Roos family (minus their twin girls who were off playing), White family, and Julie's parents, the stand in photographers. The meal was delicious, the ambiance wonderful, the company enjoyable, clean up committee a breeze, and conversation great. The kids had a great time playing and jelled very well. Thank you again Roos family. In the next few years, I expect to cook less and less. Why? Because my kids will doing most of it. I hope. I really hope. Already, they have perfected some pretty tasty bites. Pancakes, eggs, fudgies , shakes, and more recently egg nog . This is Makayla's signature drink so far. Madalyn helps, but Makayla is head chef on this one. Homemade Eggnog Recipe 6 fresh eggs 1 cup sugar, divided 2 cups cream (or substitute with 2 cups whole milk, also makes it a bit lower in fat) 2 cups whole milk 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1/4 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg (or just the nutmeg in the bottle) Separate egg yolks and whites. In larg...

Husky Stadium on a sunny, dry day. Some great ball is played here, not so much this year, but the only game I really follow anyway is the annual turkey bowl game, when my son plays alongside his dad. Randy, Malcolm, Cayden , Ethan Annual Turkey Bowl at Husky Stadium. Each year the Institute reserves the field for the students to have an amazing game night. One of the perks of Randy's job is that our family can come too. The girls and I like tossing the ball around a little bit, but hours on end in the cold doesn't entice us more than a night by the fire watching a chic flic and eating ice cream. Cayden looks forward to this every year. It is big for a kid to pretty much have free run of a collegiate football field for hours on end. He invited some of his football loving friends to come spend the night with him. They played football, but also had fun running up the bleachers, having kicking contests, and downing tons of hot chocolate. A little more hot chocolate to keep them...

Blue hair and blue eyes Rockin out. No one can quite clone the excitement this Clone had for Halloween this year. Cayleb - "It is the freakin ' best, a thousand and thousand days of fun!" So Halloween is only 1 day, but he had a weekend full of parties, 5 in two days, so it was almost a thousand days of fun. Girls are always cute as princess ballerinas One more of the "scary" houses. Cayleb says, "It kind of freaks me out!" Do you dare drink witches brew ? This house was way too scary for a princess. Not even dad's cajoling could get her to come inside.

I always looked forward to the holidays at school. At Halloween, I still remember making bats and ghosts, reading scary stories, and having the room mom's host a Halloween party complete with decorating sugar cookies following the annual costume parade. However, we happen to live in a politically correct school district that fears making an offense. As such, Halloween and all its trappings are so minimized it is hardly recognized at all. No parades, no parties, maybe a pumpkin sugar cookie if you have a really, really nice teacher. Nonetheless, you may dress up as a character from a book, a community contributor, or something from you current studies if your teacher says it is o.k. Madalyn had the option of being a salmon, seriously, or a character from a book. In first grade, when she could be a community contributor, I assured her from my personal first-hand experience, cheerleaders were community contributors. This year a book character, a baby, was the upstream choice ...

Annual carving of the pumpkins. October is in full swing, the leaves have changed colors, the weather is cooler, the days are shorter. But we would rather be in Hawaii. So we went Hawaiian . Plus we are hooked on the tropical sorbets at Costco and look for any "special" reason to indulge. If you haven't tried them, they are sooooo good and sooooo cute, served up in coconut shells (12 for $13). Plus, Sis. Bush has never had Hawaiian haystacks or the sorbets so we needed a Hawaiian menu. Sis. Bush, who started her mission with us, is back in our area again. We love having you with us. Sis. Birch, we are her first area. We love having both of them and love them frequently dropping in. Bush and Birch - a definite companionship. The Sisters looked so cute, we told them to take the lei's and be " Hawiian Sisters" for Halloween. Last year, Sis. Bush and Sis. Lauchner were Salt and Pepper (black and white dresses), your limited when your a missionary....