Callings

I got my new calling a few weeks ago. I am the new bear den mother. As of right now, I have one bear!
It took a little longer for Phil to get his calling. Anyone want to take a guess?
It isn't official yet, so I can't say. Stay tuned....

Shell Collecting

The kids were out of school Monday for President's Day, and it was a beautiful sunny day. Deceitfully beautiful, as it turned out, cuz it was stinking COLD. Down by the shore, anyway, and that is precisely where we went.
We took the boys down to one of the beaches in Milford, about a 25 minute drive from our door. (Am I rubbing that in, oh, I'm sorry...)
There were literally thousands of shells for them to pick from. We weren't as prepared as we should have been, and didn't bring bags, but we did have one in the car. I just took pictures, and my hand was FREEZING! But it was beautiful. Here's a little taste of what I saw...

I love this one:

And this is my favorite:

Valentine's Day

I decided to carry on a Wilkins Valentine tradition this year. It was fun to make these big sugar cookies, and I was even happier when Phil told me how good they tasted on Sunday!

I also carried on my own tradition. It's been going on for probably 8 years now. I make a "fancy" dinner, (chicken cordon blue, asparagus, funeral potatoes, jello and rolls this year)
decorate the table, and end with a delicious trifle. We changed up the trifle a little this year, and it was DELICIOUS!

Makes me hungry just looking at the picture!

The day itself was great. Phil, Mady, Jake and I all spoke in Sacrament Meeting. I was so proud of my family! They all did a great job! At least for me, it was a Spirit filled meeting. And that flowed over into the rest of the day for me. We had some friends over to share dessert with us. They brought a "porcupine cake", very cute!

It was fun to get to know their family a little better. A great end to a fantastic day.

Oh What Do You Do on a Snow Day, When ALL the Kids Are Home?

Here is what we did on Wednesday:

I made flubber:



The kids had some friends over and they played Wii.

Jake and Marek built a snow sledding course, starting on the deck, going down the stairs, around the corner, and down the 2+ foot drop to the back patio:


Sledding:



More flubber:


A little light reading:

and of course, more Wii.


The kids were exhausted come Wednesday night. I guess snow days don't have to be nightmares for the parents!

Not that I want another one too soon.

A Visit from Spiderman

We have some crazy times around here, and our three boys definitely keep life interesting. So we shouldn't have been surprised when we were met by this one day:

Spiderman was in the house....You can't blame him, really. It does look very much like a bleached Spidey Mask. Maybe that is where the whole idea of Spiderman's costume came from to begin with, a little boy putting underwear on his head...

It wasn't the first time Jackson put something on his head. He left the hotel room one morning on our trip to Connecticut with a shower cap on his head. The lady who rode the elevator down to the lobby with us got a big kick out of this sight:

Jackson, you crack us up. Thanks for giving us new perspective on old things. Such creativity is welcome here!

Forts (by Gabe)