Thoughts About Grandma

Today marks three years since my grandma's passing. It was on the Saturday before Easter (what we call "Easter Saturday" in my family). That was fitting because grandma loved Easter. She was big on all holidays really.

On Easter Saturday, we always have a big family gathering with all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins. That year was no different. Grandma passed away early that morning and later that same day, we all gathered for our traditional Easter party. Of course, there was a different feeling there that year but, I think everyone felt at peace. There was a lot of love.

I miss my grandma very much. She was a beautiful person who I loved to spend time with. She was thoughtful, creative, fun, and warm. As kids, we loved her because she spoiled us with treats and toys constantly! As I grew older, I appreciated more and more about her. I loved how she was always so interested in what I was doing or what was going on with my life. She wanted to know what my current interests were and then she would keep an eye out for anything she could give me to help develop those interests. I loved how she appreciated beauty in the smallest details.

She has been on my mind a lot for the past week or so--with Easter and the anniversary of her passing. I have had memories and thoughts running through my mind; things I loved about grandma, things I remember. I am not really sure how to share or organize my thoughts so, I suppose I will just list a few;

• Grandma loved pink. She had a whole room dedicated to the color in one of her houses. Soft pink flowers, curtains, and pink and green furniture. 
• Grandma loved dolls. (Emma loves dolls right now and it always makes me think about how much grandma would have loved Emma. I am certain that she would have bought Emma several dolls by now, all with brown hair and brown eyes to match Emma's) She had beautiful porcelain dolls all over her house and often gave them as gifts. She even made and sold them!

• 
• Panda bears, ivy leaves, pansies, bamboo, Dr. Pepper, black licorice, beanie babies, and fried ice cream; all things that remind me of grandma. 
• Grandma loved holidays. That's something that has been passed down through the generations for sure. She wore holiday themed vests, earrings, pins, bracelets, and shirts. We always had big family gatherings on holidays-we still do but, boy do I miss grandma's presence at those events. I know she is still there-I am certain of it as I can often feel her-but, I still miss her. I miss hearing her laugh and participating in the fun little things she would plan for us on those days. 

• When I was little, grandma had a toy closet. It was a large closet full of all kinds of toys. We would literally sit in the closet with the door shut playing with Care Bears, dolls, My little Pony's, Cabbage Patch Kids, and all kinds of fun toys for the longest time! 
• I also remember grandma's waterbed-I thought it was amazing and longed to have one of my own! I was sure that when I grew up, I would have my own waterbed only mine would have real fish swimming inside of it. 
• Grandma and I shared a love for cherries. There weren't many other people in the family who cared for them so I always felt like it was one of "our things". (Grandma seemed to have those kinds of "things" with everybody. They were all different "things" but it always made you feel special. Like you and grandma had some sort of special secret.) Grandma had several cherry trees in her back yard and we loved to go back there and pick them together before sitting down to eat a whole bowlful. 
• A day out with grandma was the best! She always took us out to eat at a restaurant and we ALWAYS got dessert. We would go to Croshaw Pies, Tony Ramas, and (our favorite) a greek place where grandma would order us a cheese dish that came out in flames! It was amazing to us kids. I remember one time when mom was there and asked me to keep my elbows off the table-that's when grandma laughed because HER elbows were on the table too! Grandma just seemed to GET kids and we loved her for it. Shopping with grandma was especially fun because if you showed interest in something, she'd usually say "put it in the cart!" We always walked away with a few new toys or treats. She got a lot of joy from giving to others. 
• Grandma always knew when you weren't feeling well and she always knew how to fix it! When you told her you had a headache, it was as if your pain was her own. You could just see the compassion in her face. She would rush to get you a cool wash cloth, some essential oils, and a Tylenol. She would insist that you lay down and would turn the shades in the room down-your comfort was so important to her. 
• I don't think there was anything that grandma loved more in the world than family-especially grandkids. She was just wonderful.

I could go on and on and on with all of the wonderful qualities and memories that were my grandma. I miss her so. 

Today, Emma and I went with my mom to visit her grave. Mom bought a sweet, single yellow tulip to put at her stone. It was perfect, I think grandma would have appreciated the simple beauty of it. I will never forget the advice she gave me just before I was married; "when you go to the grocery store, take time to stop for a minute where they sell the flowers and enjoy them." That was just like grandma, to take time out of a stressful day to celebrate the beauty of a simple yellow tulip. 

Emma slept in the car for a while at first so mom and I wandered around the other stones, reading the names and thinking about what those people might have been like. 

When Emma woke up, we took a few pictures with grandma's stone. I thought again about how much grandma would have loved Emma. I am sure that they were together before Emma was born. (Maybe that's why Emma took her sweet time getting here!) It would have been so wonderful to see them together though. I'll have to tell Emma all about her someday. Emma played and crawled all over her gravestone-I think grandma would have liked that too. 

  

I am so grateful to know that grandma is healthy and happy and smiling in the most beautiful place. I bet she loves all of the flowers there. It will be such a wonderful day when I get to hear her laugh and get one of her warm hugs again. 

Spring Fun!

Spring is my favorite. Spring to me means Easter, birthdays, flowers, green, warmth,and blue skies. It means time with family and friends, hiking, fishing, long walks, baby animals, and saying goodbye to long dreary days of winter. Also, is it just me or are there always a million weddings to attend and babies being born in the spring? So many joy-filled family gatherings and events. I love it! It's so happy and cheerful and full of new life.

I love spring.

We celebrated the first day of my favorite season with a long walk and some play in the park. Emma is all about being outside. She loves to grab the grass in fistfuls or touch it with her bare feet and is always curiously watching the other children play. (I'm certain she would love to run and join them.) She has an adventurers heart for sure.

A couple of days later I got to get together with some good friends of mine that I met while working at the ranch. The three of us were all pregnant right around the same time. Baby Swayze is only a week younger than Emma and Baby Luke is only a few months behind the two of them. The waitress had a time figuring out where to put three moms and three babies but we had a great time together and boy those three are some CUTE babies. We went out to visit the old stomping grounds and had to snap a few pictures of the babes together. I think these three are going to the best of friends like their moms. 

The Easter bunny always came to our house on Saturday growing up and-what do you know, he does the same thing for Emma! She woke up early Saturday morning to a basket full of fun surprises. I think her favorites were the My Little Pony dolls (which is so great because, I used to play with them too!) and her new books. Emma LOVES to read. The Easter bunny brought some fun ones; Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, and Alice in Wonderland (all in baby boardbook version of course.) She also got a beautiful new Easter dress that mom was way more excited about than she was. 

The Easter bunny didn't forget Sam either. I have too much fun with these holidays. 

Emma was excited about everything in her basket right down to the grass! She had her hands full of fun toys and at one point, there was a toy she wanted to pick up but didn't have enough hands for it. Solution? She stuck one of the toys in her mouth to free up a hand. Oh how I love my funny girl.

After the baskets, we headed down to St. George for one of my favorite family get-togethers of  the year; the annual Easter party. Emma quietly read her new books in the back seat for almost the entire drive.

Grandpa's famous pancakes and other yummy breakfast foods, Easter themed minute to win it games, a super fun Easter Egg white elephant "Eggschange", and plenty of visiting with the family. It's always a good time! 

After the Easter party was a visit to grandpa's work AKA Kong's Jungle AKA Sandhollow Aquatic Center. If you haven't had a chance to visit Sandhollow Aquatic Center lately, DO! It has been made over to look like a jungle complete with a giant alligator, a snake, an elephant with water blowing out of it's trunk, gorillas, monkeys, a "pelican pond", and more! I have it under good authority that there will be a tiger living there soon as well. It's so neat and such a fun place for kids! They can climb on and play with many of the animals and if that isn't fun enough, there are now squirt hoses attached to some of the walls that the kid's can use to sneakily spray their friends! What fun!

Our little water baby had a blast in the pool. She loves the water! She  splashed and played and looked all around-even climbed onto the back of the giant floating turtle! 

Oh how I love Easter Sunday. What a wonderful occasion to celebrate the resurrection of the savior and His atonement. It is such a happy day-there is nothing more wonderful to celebrate than eternal life with our forever families. It is my favorite day of the year. We got all dressed up and made it to church right on time. It felt like an even more special Sunday because we had Sam's dad and his sister and her children there with us. I got to sit next to my nephews-they are such sweet boys. I felt a wonderful spirit even through Emma's constant babbles and wiggling. Sam and I had a nice lesson with our class and then I got to listen to the next ward's sacrament meeting in the mother's lounge while Emma slept through third hour. 

To wrap up the day, we headed to Sam sister, Katy's house for their annual Easter dinner. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with even better company. Sam helped Katy hide some eggs for the boys to hunt. As they hunted, they noticed that some of the eggs were empty and open! We thought it was odd but thought it might have been due to the wind. It took a minute for us to notice that their Golden Retriever, Oakley was a step ahead of the boys, happily opening and eating the contents of each of the eggs! We had a good laugh and banished Oakley to the back yard for the remainder of the hunt.

 Cousin Cooper had been taking a nap for the first part of our visit and we were excited when he woke up because we wanted to get the two of them together for some pictures. Poor Cooper was a bit nervous over Emma's super outgoing personality and lack of respect for his personal space. Haha! She immediately poked him and tried to hold his hand. I think it's safe to say that she isn't going to be shy.

We had fun playing with Cooper and the other boys for the rest of the evening. Emma was excited to play with all of their toys. She especially loved his crocodile walking toy and we had so much watching her walk back and forth behind it! She got going pretty fast. So fast that the only picture I could get of her was super blurry but I included it anyway.

We even took a few minutes to try out the cousin's trampoline before heading home! It was Emma's first trampoline experience but she caught on pretty quickly. She bounced up and down excitedly. 

Emma was so tired after all of the excitement that we wound down with a movie (Frozen) on the couch. She is usually way too busy to sit and watch a movie so that tells you how exhausted she was. It was so sweet to watch her snuggle up on Sam's lap. 

Today Emma turned 11 months old! Can't believe she'll be one next month! I wish the time would slow down. She is changing from a baby in to a little girl and I am so not ready! She took her first step on Saturday and I know she'll be running around in no time. I am trying to cherish every moment.

At 11 months, Emma loves yogurt, peanut butter, eggs (with pepper!), arrowroot cookies, applesauce, cream of wheat....I could go on and on because the girl loves food. She stands all the time and does "squats", she says mama, dada, and Daisy (that's our dog's name). She is outgoing, loves to be outside and on the go, and always loves the water. She is really in to dolls and books and is just SO MUCH FUN.

She is getting harder and harder to capture in a picture that isn't blurry but, I managed this one:

I'm so excited for spring and all the adventures it is sure to bring!

Easy Roasted Red Pepper and Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

If I make something delicious, you know it's gotta be easy. I have really never been much of a cook and learning has been a series of tries and fails for the most part with a few successes in between. 

I found a recipe like this a year or so ago and have made it several times. Last time I made it, I decided it needed some added spice so I experimented a bit and loved the results and it was definitely "Sam approved". He even ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

I figure, if I can make it, ANYONE can! So, why not share?

You will need:

• 1 lb Lasagna noodles
• 15 oz Ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese  
• 10-12 oz Well chopped Spinach (I have used both fresh and frozen)
• One red bell pepper (cubed)
• Roasted red pepper flakes (to taste, I like A LOT)
• A tablespoon or two of EVOO (I use chipotle flavored)
• 3 cups Marinara sauce (You can add more if you like, I usually use a tomato basil marinara)
• 1 egg
• Non stick cooking spray

Instructions:

1st. Cook your lasagna noodles according to the package directions. Use a strainer to drain the water and lay your noodles out flat on either wax paper or tin foil with a light coat of pan spray to avoid any sticking.

2nd. Coat the bottom of a pan and add EVOO and your cubed bell pepper into the pan. Place on the stove top at a medium heat for about 5-8 minutes or until they start to crisp just a tiny bit. Stir occasionally. 

3rd. Time to make your filling. Mix your cheeses, spinach (If you used frozen, be sure to thaw completely.), Bell pepper, egg, and red pepper flakes together until combined. 

4th. Now is the fun part. Take a few spoon fulls of filling and carefully spread them onto your noodles. Leave about an inch on each side so that when you roll them the filling stays in.

5th. Carefully roll the filled noodle from one end to the other.

6th. Lightly spray a casserole dish. Add each rolled lasagna noodle to the dish until they are all lined up and ready to bake. 

7th. Add the desired amount of marinara sauce and more red pepper flakes to the top of your rolls. I usually like to cover mine pretty good-that keeps the noodles nice a hydrated while baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. DONE!

Wish I would have taken a picture of my finished result before we gobbled them up but...we were hungry!