Disneyland Vacation

Jeff and I took the kids to Disneyland last week. We had a great time! I love Disneyland! Our friend Vicky, who Jeff met when he was on his mission made the long 7 hour drive down from northern California to come with us. This is the first time we have all been together to Disneyland as a family since Molly was a tiny baby. I usually come with the kids alone or Jeff will come with one of the kids alone. So this trip was long overdue!

I am going to start right off with World of Color. It was an amazing show. California Adventure was lit up so neat at night.

They had a water show similar to the one at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas only it was much longer, and it had all different colors of lights.

They played music from some Disney movies and they actually showed movie clips of the Disney films in the water. They also had flames of fire shooting up.

World of Color: Two big thumbs up!

Molly was at prime age to be at Disneyland! A four year old is simply the best! We went shopping at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique just inside the castle. She picked out a Snow White costume ( I also bought her a Cinderella costume without her knowing. I couldn't help myself! It is in hiding until her birthday. May better get here quick!) She was so cute! Everyone called her Snow White or Princess all day long. I'm not sure who loved it more ~ me or her!

Jeff had never seen the 3D show It's Tough to be a Bug in Bugs Land before. My kids and I always like it.

Jens WOULD NOT get in the tea cup and take his picture with the other kids. He took one look at the Mad Hatter and flat out refused. Hummm, wonder why?

Alice in Wonderland is one of Molly's favorite shows. She was so happy to meet Alice.

We met just about every character there is. And the best part is that we hardly ever had a wait. This is probably the most perfect time to go to Disney. We would walk right on Splash Mountain, Pirates, Indiana Jones, you name it! It was awesome. I can't tell you how many times we would finish a ride like Pirates or Splash Mountain and when we came to the place where you get off, there wouldn't be anyone in line so the workers would just send us again!

Jeff had business in California so the kids, Vicky and I entertained ourselves with plenty of swimming.

I took the kids to Rainforest Cafe one of the days for lunch while Jeff was in meetings. They hadn't been here since they were really little. Only Jens and Sidney even remembered it.

They loved the fish tanks.

And all the atmosphere is really cool.

Vicky and I took the kids down to Huntington Beach one of the days. The waves were big and there were lots of surfers out.

The water was ice cold but they didn't even seem to notice!

Vicky bought my kids bubble blower. There was a light breeze and it was perfect for bubble blowing!

They had fun making sand castles too.

Disneyland, I miss you already! I can't wait to come visit you again!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's Day Jeff sent me these roses.

I gave Jeff these balloons. I saw this idea on Pinterest that I thought was so cute. It was an anniversary idea but I did it for Valentine's instead of waiting for our anniversary. You put one balloon for each year you have been married with a memory attached to it.

I made Sidney's last Valentine's Day box. Next year she starts at the big junior high so her days of trading cards in school are over (tear, tear ~ sniff , sniff). Cade's teacher had the class make their own Valentine boxes at school. I hate it when they do that. I have too much fun making them at home! Plus they are so much cuter when they are homemade.

~Molly had a party at preschool and at her dance class.

~Jens got a plate full of BIG, fat heart sugar cookies from a girl and it made his day.

~Jeff and I went out to dinner at Riverside Country Club with our friends.

Fun was had by all!

What Jens does for FUN

I just don't really understand boys. I grew up with 4 older brothers and my husband has 4 brothers. I have 2 sons of my own. And with all that testosterone floating around, you'd have thought that I would have boys figured out by now. "They" always say that you can never understand girls, but if you ask me, boys are just as hard to figure out.

Girls will go shopping, curl their hair or paint their nails for fun.

Boys will have self inflicted pain for fun. -- Go figure!

Jens and his buddies love nothing more than a good ol' air soft war.

They don't stop playing until they have been shot so many times and have too many welts to make if fun anymore.

I know, I don't get it either.

Key Lime Cupcakes

I found this recipe for Key Lime cupcakes. They looked so yummy and seeing as how much I love lime, I just had to try them! They were jut as good as they looked.

CAKE

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter - room temperature

1 & 1/4 cup sugar

*cream these together for 4 minutes

2 eggs - add one at a time

2 & 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon lime zest

1 drop green food coloring paste

*Add to butter sugar mixture. It will looked curdled.

1 & 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

*Mix together in a separate bowl

3/4 buttermilk

*Add some flour mixture to the butter, sugar mixture. Then add some buttermilk, then some flour mixture, then buttermilk, repeat.

Bake on 350 for 20 to 25 minutes

ICING

1 stick butter at room temp.

8 ounces cream cheese at room temp.

2 & 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lime zest

Costa Rica

Last week Jeff and I were in Costa Rica for his company's big annual trip. It was so much fun!!! By far my most favorite thing about Costa Rica were all the monkeys. I have never seen a monkey outside of a zoo. There were monkey's, monkeys' everywhere! Everyday we would see at least one monkey. Maybe we would see 6 monkey's in a day. It was something that I never got bored of.

They were SO LOUD and they would wake us up every morning around 5:00am. They had a sound that was between a dog's bark and a gorilla's "ooooo, oooo, oooo" sound.

It was the cutest when you could see a mother monkey with a baby on her back. I saw that a couple of times and it was sooo cute! The monkey's would climb up in these Buttercup trees and eat the flower blossoms.

There were white face monkey's and black face monkey's. I took this picture of this monkey right off my rooms balcony.

And I took this picture right on the beach. There were six of them in the trees above us.

We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort in Papagayo. This resort was HUGE! Really, truly huge. Remember the TV show Fantasy Island? "Da plane, da plane!" Remember how they drove golf carts around? Well I felt like I was on Fantasy Island. Every time we went somewhere, to breakfast, the pool, the beach, or back to our room, we rode in a golf cart.

I loved our hotel room!

We had a super deep tub...... one that I never got in. Not even once. And we had a nice shower too. But if I didn't want to shower in my hotel room....

Then I could use my outdoor shower!

And have this view from my shower!

We had our own private little pool outside our door.

And this was the view from our private pool. Everyday we would all sit in it at sunset and tell stories and laugh.

The thing that I liked LEAST was by far the grasshoppers! They were humongous! They absolutely creeped us all out. Just look at how big this thing is next to the phone! Thankfully we only saw them OUTSIDE!

Another view of one with a pencil. Oooh! They were creepy!

On one of the days, we went to a local village and painted their school inside and out. It was mint green. Before that it had been pink and before that it had been white. The color they chose was a limey yellow. Hummm...

I had to take pictures of the desks and chairs so that the next time my kids said something like, "I hate school!" or "I don't want to go to school today. School sucks!" I will just pull out these pictures and remind them of just how good their school is and how fortunate they are!

Sam & Whitney, Alli & Mark and Jeff and I with some of the school kids.

Most days we spent our time on this beach.

Jeff, Mark & Ryan B. and his brother in law rented a catamaran one day and went deep sea fishing. They saw humpback whales, pilot whales and caught a rooster fish. I couldn't find where I had put my camera that morning so Jeff went without one. Sadly I don't have any pictures of it.

We rented jet skis a couple different days.

We would have lunch either pool side or on the beach. I know I know, this really is the life!

Loved, loved, loved my trip!

Chili Toast

This morning Caden got up for school and made himself some cinnamon toast for breakfast. He took one bite and said,"Eeeww! I don't think this is cinnamon..." I smelled his toast and sure enough, it was not cinnamon!

You can totally see why he got confused and put chili powder on instead!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Say hello to my new favorite lemon cookie!

I have three other lemon cookie recipes and this one is my new favorite. It has a light lemon taste and it bakes up so moist. If you like the taste of lemon, you've gotta try this recipe. It won the LDS Living cookie cook off contest.

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

2 cups sugar

*Cream these two ingredients together until light colored and fluffy.

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

*Add to butter/sugar mixture and beat in well

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

*Add to mixture until just combined

1 cup powdered sugar - in a separate bowl

*Roll dough into 2 inch balls, then roll the dough ball in the powdered sugar. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake on 350 degrees for about 9 - 11 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies