Mmm... green smoothie

I just have to share this. It's for all of you mommies out there with children big and small who need some more veggies!

April (a lovely gal from the Tri Cities) shared her recipe for what her boys call her "Green Slime Smoothie". It is fabulous - I mean it!

1 c. green grapes
1 small container of yogurt
1 banana
1/2 an apple (I like sweet ones for this)
1 1/2 c. baby spinach leaves (or 2 big handfuls)
1 c. of ice (leave out if you are using frozen grapes, bananas, etc.)

Place ingredients in blender. (If your having trouble mixing the items, stir things around with a spoon or add a T. or so of water.) Blend until perfectly smooth.

I buy the big pack of spinach at Costco and then divide one blender serving each into freezer bags with the apple, bananas, grapes so they are all ready to go and so my ingredients don't go bad before we can get to them.

I didn't even tell Rick what was in these before he tried a glass. I told him it was green b/c of the grapes. :) I said it was such a dark green b/c I added blueberry yogurt. He really liked it!

I hope you try these - they are so healthy and a great way to get a painless serving of veggies!

:)
Erika

One you can actually see!

I sent Ashlyn outside to play after her nap and she came right back in about a minute later.

"Mom, there's a deer in our backyard."

"It's a mommy deer. You can tell because she doesn't have any antlers."

"I think she might be pooping." (cuz that's what deer do in our yard!)

Here are some pics! Lovely that it's here in the daytime - even though I'm not sure why it would come in broad daylight with a huge construction site booming just yards away - now you can actually see our Colorado wildlife!

Enjoy!

Congrats to Jami and Kurt!

Usually we refer to them as "Kurt and Jami" but I think after delivering her fifth beautiful child the lovely Jami deserves top billing today!


Welcome to the family sweet Kate!

Wedding Pictures

We've seen so many of these "in the door" wedding pics I wanted to do one too! And then of course so did Ashlyn!

More SLC pictures

Spring Break in UT

We went for Kelton's blessing and after we got home I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of Kelton! Man - what a nice sinus cold can do to the rational mind! I'll have to copy some of the family's.

We did take pics at temple square though! Kim and her 2 kids, Ravin and Stasia (I probably misspelled those!) came to meet up with us for a bit as well. The grounds to the actual temple were open and we really enjoyed getting a close up look at the Salt Lake Temple.

General Conference

Since none of us were feeling all that great we did General Conference over the internet. Ashlyn and Nathan were very excited about playing their harmonicas the whole time so I had to convince them that it wasn't really appropriate when we (that would be me mostly) were trying to listen to the speakers and the prayer. I wasn't totally mean though - I told them it was ENTIRELY appropriate for them to play along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when they sang.

Ashlyn's tomb

Nathan's tomb

Edible Tombs

Here's the snack for our Palm Sunday FHE. Notice the "stone" Nilla wafer that's been rolled away...

Easter Week

This week we're doing mini FHE's each night. We started on Palm Sunday and will go through Easter. It has been so nice! We are using a different Gospel Art Kit picture each night to discuss and then we tape them up over the fireplace in order so we can see the progression throughout the week. We are basing what we did on Melanie's ideas at www.sugardoodle.net. Go theck them out - she is terrific and her page is a great resource!

So far we've done...
Sunday - The triumphal entry (with discussion on Hosanna and palm leaves and why they were said) including a lovely dramatization by the our family! :) Nathan was Jesus, Ashlyn was a disciple in search of a donkey, Mom was narrator and Dad was owner of said donkey. (Is it OK that I never read a** when it's in the scriptures??)

Monday - Cleansing of the Temple and how our bodies and homes can be a temple. How we cleanse them to recieve blessings? (Read the scriptures in the New Testament to see the parallel there).

Tuesday - I had a Passover feast with the Young Women for our activity night (it's called Mutual). Rick and the kiddos did the same here. Grape juice, unleavened bread, olives, raisins, lamb (a.k.a. "we're too cheap to spring for lamb, this is really beef, shhh, don't tell" steak), honey, etc. Discussed the washing of the apostles feet too.

And more to come!

We've decided to do the whole bunny/egg thing at another time entirely but call it a Spring Egg hunt, Spring baskets, etc. Cuz let's face it - that has nothing to do with Jesus unless you're going to wax symbolic. But this time of year is my favorite and a great time to celebrate!