The Weekly Photo

April showers bring May flowers.

Growing Up (3 years of Easter)

I was looking at pictures of past Easters (of which Elanor has been present for three of them) and it is so amazing how much she has grown up and changed in almost 2 1/2 years.

Elanor's first Easter:

 She was 4 months old, but was already showing a lot of personality and spunk. We were living in Buena Vista, Virginia and were about to move to Utah in one month.

Just look at those cheeks!

Elanor's 2nd Easter:

Elanor was 16 months and turning into a real little person. She could talk, walk, run, etc. We lived in the same house we do now in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Elanor's 3rd Easter:

She is pretty much a kid now at almost 2 1/2. She talks really well,  has opinions, is very capable in many ways and is such an amazing little girl. It is a real treat to be able to witness her grow up (even though I do look back and miss those baby days) and see who she is becoming and all the amazing possibilities that are before her. She is a unique, intelligent, sweet, and beautiful little person and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Easter Weekend

My brother came down from BYU-I for Easter weekend! It was so nice to have Ian here for Easter. I took quite a few pictures so this is mostly going to be a photo post, with limited dialogue (maybe).

On Friday, we went on a little hike. It was refreshing to be in the mountains and be out in the lovely spring weather!

It was pretty hard to get a group shot (Tyler was at work, if anyone was wondering). We all look sort of silly here. Oh, well.

Easter treats! Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches, recipe here.

Decorating eggs! We dyed all of our eggs while they were boiling with this powdered German-made stuff. It is supposed to all-natural?! Who knows as it was all written in German... They make very pretty colors though and Elanor had fun putting these Easter themed (bunnies, birds, and eggs) foam stickers on her eggs (thanks to Tyler's mom/Mema!).

Hard at work.

Ian drew on his, as he is quite the artist...for real. Though, he drew mostly silly stuff like this:

(It is Humpty Dumpty)

 Elanor's Easter basket. 

Elanor kept going on for weeks about how the Easter bunny was going to bring her a lollipop. I am not quite sure how that idea got into her little head but she was so excited about it (she has had a lollipop maybe once or twice). The lollipop is in the basket handle and Whole Foods gave it to us for free. She is easy to please. Elanor was also pretty excited about the book about Jesus and loves to give Jesus hugs and kisses (she hugs and kisses the book).

She is so excited about that lollipop.

Yes, I am aware this is ridiculously blurry but it is the only picture I have of that all important lollipop. She was jumping all around with joy that I had a hard time getting her to stand still long enough for picture.

Easter egg hunt in the morning all around the living room!

She found them all! She only needed help with a few eggs, but she mostly did the hunt on her own this year!

Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, one a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns.

Breakfast on Easter morning!

 All ready to go to church (Elanor had two Easter dresses, so the lucky girl was able to get dressed up twice in one day!).

 Home from church and it was such a warm Easter day!

 Family pictures, sort of. There was a weird filter on in the first one and Ian was taking them and not too keen on spending much time getting a good picture with a wiggly toddler.

 Elanor and the Jesus picture she got in her Easter basket.

Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I forgot to take a picture of our dinner, which is a pity since we ate a roast leg of lamb (bone-in) and it looked fairly impressive.

 After dinner we went on a walk (Elanor got in Easter dress #2 after her nap--dress is from Mema! Thank you!).

Dancing with her Daddy along the way.

 She has dandelions in her hair.

Spring is finally here and I am so grateful for Easter and the time of year we have it. It means so much more because it happens in Spring when all that was dead and brown all winter is suddenly reborn in a riot of color. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and all he did for everyone. Literally, everyone. I am grateful that Jesus was resurrected and lives again and I love that he made it possible for all of us to do the same. We had such a lovely Easter!

The Weekly Photo

My brother, Ian, came down from BYU-I to visit with us for Easter! 

Easter weekend pictures coming tomorrow.

In the Kitchen: Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches

These dainty little treats are quite sweet and the airy, crunchy texture is perfect. I made them for the Easter weekend since they just seemed the right sort of dessert "cookie" for spring.

Don't be confused, these sandwiches are way bigger than they look! Next time I make them, I will make much smaller dollops (or pipe them) on the cookie sheet.

Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches

4 egg whites

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

Whipped Cream (about a 1-1 1/2 cups of cream whipped with a 1/2 tsp vanilla and a tbsp. of powdered sugar)

Preheat the oven to 200* F.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry (still foamy). Fold in half of the sugar and then beat on high speed until stiff and dry (more like marshmallow creme). Fold in the rest of the sugar and briefly beat to combine. Divide the "fluff" into two bowls and add a tiny bit of food coloring to each bowl. I did green and pink (springy and all that). You don't want to use much since you want the meringues to be a pastel color.

{I really do not like to use food coloring ever, but I used very little in this recipe. I have heard you can buy food coloring that is not made with Red 40, etc., so I need to find it!}

Spoon the "fluff" onto a cookie sheet. Make them small! I made them too large so they were a bit of a mouthful when you sandwiched them together. You could also pipe the meringues onto the cookie sheet and they would probably be very pretty. Bake at 200 for 3 1/2 -4 hours. Yep, they take a long time. They are ready when they are firm, can be fairly easily removed from the cookie sheet and have started to crack just a little.

Once cool, spread with whipped cream and sandwich together with another cookie. I doubled this recipe when I made it since I was making these to give to people, so I am unsure of how many this recipe makes (I also made mine too big). I think a single recipe would be plenty for our family and some neighbors, so I don't think you would need to double it unless you were feeding a ton of people.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Recipe from: The Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking by Darina Allen

Preparing for Easter

Elanor and I watched this little Mormon Message video yesterday in preparation for Easter at the end of this week. I am not sure if Elanor understood everything and I tried to explain what was happening. However, she did say, "Bad guys giving Jesus owies? I give Jesus kisses, make him feel better!".  For the rest of the day, Elanor kept talking about how Jesus "got owies" and that she needed to kiss him. It was very sweet and I think she understood some of it and was very excited when he came back and saw Mary ("Jesus all better!"). I tried to explain that he did this all for her and everyone, which can be a confusing concept for a two year old. She did understand that Jesus was hurt and needed help and she wanted to be there (as in kiss and hug) for him. Kisses (especially from two-year olds) make everything better and I am sure Jesus would agree.

The Weekly Photo

Ugghhh. We were sick almost all of last week. I did not feel like blogging at all. We did have a nice weekend and were able to spend it with some good friends down in Provo.

Tyler, Elanor and Malachi getting all cuddly while reading on a snowy day.

The Weekly Photo

Elanor looking at a sheep at Wheeler Farm.