New Snow, New Games. New Trouble.

That's right! It's still snowing. This is actually the pre-storm that hit mid last week. Before the 'big one'. Tony took these pictures in the dead of night. Kinda neat!
Mason is getting more and more personality. Sometimes it's cute- sometimes it's a little much to deal with. Here's a 'cute' moment.

Since he's been stuck inside for so long, he's found some new activities to keep himself busy. At least one of us is happy being inside!
We let him sit in a big boy chair once for dinner. He thought it was the coolest thing, ever!
A Hosaflook family favorite: Snow Ice Cream! Just get a huge bowl of snow and quickly mix in canned milk (though I used whole milk and it was fine), sugar, and vanilla to taste. It melts quickly so you have to hurry and eat it all at once- but it's a tastier way to rid that snow off the deck/walk/porch than shoveling!

Let it snow!! Ok, now let it stop!

I guess winter just wanted to make sure we got a little 'friendly' visit as well this year. We were in Utah- go figure- when the big blizzard hit right before Christmas, so we missed most of the snow. I haven't seen snow like this really since I was in high school. I remember it- it was my senior year, and we had over two weeks total in snow days. Since graduation was already scheduled, the seniors couldn't make up the days while the rest of the school had to go into the summer. What an awesome year that was! Mason is over 31", so let that be your guide as to how much snowfall we received. I ventured to my friend, Stephanie's house last night to watch a movie. I was thinking I was doing pretty well on my way back home until I turned off the main road and high centered my car. It took four policemen and an emergency staffer with a four wheel Jeep to help get me out. Needless to say, my car is still near the road and I got a ride home with an excited civil servant who kept on calling me 'my-lady'. Someone was enjoying rescuing damsels in distress! And someone else - me!- is so grateful to have made it home safe and sound.
Mason always loves the snow, but I guess it towering close to your height can be a little daunting. This was a brief little 'adventure' and then a race to get him inside and warm!Here is a lovely chocolate Valentine's tart I made for the get together last night (recipe compliments of Martha Stewart). I should have taken it as a bad omen when, on my way up to the car to leave, the tart flew out of my hands and landed face down in the snow, shattering my plate as well. From the few pieces we managed to salvage - and scrape off the snow- it was quite delicious. What a shame! On the other hand, there is some beautifully colored pink snow outside our apartment.

Girls Night Out

Thank you to all my girls who came to The Melting Pot last night! It was so delicious and made even better by all the great company. I must admit, I had dreams of fondue all night long. Sad, right? Or maybe just a tasty side effect. We actually had our best showing for a girls night yet- so let's keep it up! And also, thanks to all the husbands who were willing to stay home with the kiddos into the wee hours of the night. You guys are the best!

Freestyle Writing

So I guess I am beyond the hope of winning anyone back who may even be reading this with a simple apology and excuses for not blogging for so long. I admit, I have a blogging problem. Step one: confession. Now, for the cure? In an effort to start my 'creative juices' flowing and hopefully jumpstart my blog posts once and for all (ha ha ha ha ha ha), I am going to try a writing exercise. The one where you just write down whatever you are thinking, even if it's completely unrelated to the topic in the sentence before. Read if you dare. If you just stop here, no one will ever know.

So what exactly is it that I've been busy with recently? I can't really think of anything significant. Is watching a lot of TV significant? I wonder if anyone has ever won an award for watching television. Are there special television critics who just watch endless amounts of media like there are food critics? If so, sign me up. Or maybe I want to be a food critic instead. Of course, then I'd have to eat all that strange stuff that is supposed to be so delicious- like some animal's tongue or claw or who knows what. Not that I'm saying I mind a little Top Chef when it comes on. Of course, now it seems that so many of those talent-based reality shows just cast to pump up their ratings. There is some number to meet in terms of race, gender, sexual preference, religious background, family members or ex partners, etc. I want 24 to come on again. It was much easier to watch on DVD- how does anyone ever wait an entire week for a show with an actual plot to see the next episode? I don't know how long I can wait. Not like I have a choice. I do have a choice about what I eat. I'm so bad about just eating what I want and not always what's best. It's nice when the two collide- like, my new favorite nighttime snack is just some romaine with mushrooms or tomatoes and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar- but oh how often they do not. I failed to mention that my salad tonight was then followed by eating a few cookie-sized portions of cookie dough when I decided I just had to have peanut butter oatmeal cookies tonight. Not sure why I decided that, it was a new recipe I hadn't tried- I just knew it would be good. I probably shouldn't eat raw eggs as much as I do, but hey, I've never gotten sick! Yet, anyway. So if the salmonella is all over the egg shell, how many baby chickens are exposed when they hatch? Is it only a harmful disease because it's foreign to the human body? Do chicken bodies fare just fine with the stuff? I saw a show about a family with four kids who were allergic to food proteins. They all had to eat through feeding tubes. How sad would it be to never be able to eat? I wonder how skinny we all would be. Do you think anyone has ever intentionally gotten fat just to be on the Biggest Loser? I don't know how they could do it, on purpose or not. I felt the worst I ever had when I was the size of a full term pregnant woman. Pregnancy aside, I could just tell me body wasn't really meant to be that big. Thank heaven.
Oh no. I'm stuck. What do you think is the stickiest thing in the world? One of the stickiest things I've encountered recently is anything that Mason manages to get his hands on. Somehow, he can turn the most mundane things into sticky works of art. He was equally impressive at clogging the toilet with a golf ball. On Tony's watch- at least he's safe. And now we all now how to pull up a toilet. I'm sure that will be helpful in the years to come. I wonder if anyone doesn't have a crazy relative in their family somewhere. I can think of several- not to mention any names, of course. Is it really that bad, though? Would you want the crazies to just go away? Would it be too boring and 'ordinary' then? I am just not sure. One time my mom and I went to Michigan for a BYU-Marshall football bowl game. My uncle wore a shirt that said "Mormons for Marshall". I was really mad at him. I wonder if I should pick up photography. It seems interesting enough, I just don't know if I have the eye for it. Tony is pretty good, but he has to take quite a few pictures to come up with the good ones. Is that just how it is? How true is that of other things in life, I wonder. How many times do we have to try and try and try before we get a desirable result? Do we notice? Do we quit before we get there? I will say that I'm glad Tony traded in his roadbike for a camera. Now we have virtually every moment of Mason's short little life documented. I wonder how old the oldest document is right now. What kind of condition it's in. Why does the Bible start with Moses as the author? Was there not writing before then? Are those records lost, if there was? Did he just abridge some of the records that were around? How many people in the world now don't know how to write? It would be so strange to meet someone who was illiterate, especially since we take it so much for granted here. I just have a hard time picturing places where it would be a privilege. Though I know they're out there. And how lucky are they for never having to know what is written here... at least for one night ; )

One Year Goes By Quickly

Birthday Cake, Take I (above)
We've had quite the eventful couple of weeks or so! Mason was weaned and broke his first teeth on the same day (just in time for poor mom! I couldn't have asked for better timing than that!). He turned one two days after that. Hard week. As you can tell below, he and I are having a bit of a rocky time post-weaning. (JK...but really)

Birthday Cake, Take II

Yeah, the rolled out Starburst cut into letters looked like a good idea in the magazine, but man, did it take forever! Since I was too cheap to spend the $17 on the fondant letter cutters, I had to cut these by hand. But I guess it was kinda cute.Mason is starting to have so much attitude! He is so much fun and we love having him in our family. We've already learned so much, it's hard to believe we have years ahead of us. Here's to another great year, and Happy Birthday Mason!

Oh What Do You Do in the Autumn Time?

We do quite a bit in our family! That will be my excuse for taking so long to post all of this.

We play in the leaves,

And learn how to walk,

And we watch Tracy finally get kicked off of The Biggest Loser (HOORAY!!!),

And we have visitors come in from Utah!,

And we eat lots of food,

And we go to Halloween parties dressed all up like crazies,

Sarah Palin, the alien and the rock climber,

And we go to the orchard again to get more apples, even when it pours down the rain as soon as we get there,

And we bake scary treats,

And we go for a walk,

And visit Monticello,

And get thrown in the air,

And we Trunk or Treat- Mason wanted to collect lots of candy, we couldn't help it,

And we chum it up with our bud, Thomas Jefferson,

Yeah, they're close like that,

And we contemplate while we're there, too,

I'm sure that leaves you all just wanting more. Or maybe less. A lot less. Until next time...

So we had the great privilege to go to the U2 concert this Tuesday! Muse opened, which was pretty awesome. Many thanks to Amy, our saint who watched Mason for us! Since we left around 5 PM and got back after 1 AM this really was quite the task! Muse played some great songs, and U2 played all the classics that I could remember. And then some. It all started about half an hour late, which was great because we were a bit late, too! It was perfect- just as we were all situated in our seats, minutes later the lights went out and Muse came out. Great timing, Muse! They played about 45 minutes. Then about 50 minutes for the switches and U2 played for almost 2 hours.

Don't take the rest of this post the wrong way. The concert was UBER great and I'm so glad we went, but when you share the experience with over 91,000 (not including everyone on the field) of your NOT closest friends and neighbors, things are bound to happen. In honor of that, I continue...


Dear Sound Tech Guy,

Thank you so much for having all of the sound completely askew during Muse's whole performance. I could ALMOST even hear the singing! I really love the bass guitar, so I was super glad that you made it so that was pretty much the only thing that was audible. I discovered that if I plugged my ears to block out the excess, I could actually make out some of the words. Sincerely, Jen


Dear Venue Staff,

Thank you so, so very much for coming up with the top-notch rule that only the women workers can do the 'pat-downs' on the women entering the stadium. It was so much fun to meet with the other women who share our love in Muse and U2 as we waited endlessly in our one line, watching the men pass by us with ease, and even seeing some male workers bored with no lines at all. You know who else appreciated this? All of the men on the inside of the ticketers who were waiting for their corresponding women-folk to get through the line. Oh, and thank you also to the old ladies who cut in front of us in line, too. We didn't really care when we got in anyway.
Sincerely, Jen


Dear T-Shirt Vendors,

Thank you for having such crappy, expensive merchandise. I really wanted to pay $40 for a hideous shirt advertising the tour more than the band. Was the band even mentioned on the shirt? I can't remember at this point. And also thank you for not having Muse tshirts available nearby. Awesome. Sincerely, Jen


Dear Bono,

Thank you so much for all of the unneccesary commentary that came along with the music. I had forgotten how much we like your music and how that's why we paid to come listen to you. Only through your ongoing words of political fluff did I realize how true this was. Thank you for 'sending messages of love' to foreign leaders under house arrest and pretending like that is actually making some kind of difference. Thank you for talking about starving children throughout the world as you performed on a ridiculous stage instead of donating those proceeds toward your cause. Thank you for likening each individual member of your band to various members of the Cabinet, Congress, and Presidency. We forgot that we were in Washington, DC, so it was nice to have so many reminders. Also thank you for putting so much emphasis on Nancy Pelosi's presence and likening yourself to her wonderfulness. Thank you sooo much for putting that one song out there for the late Senator Kennedy. We had nearly forgotten about him, until you reminded us. And thank you for the part of the concert where a man of Middle-Eastern descent came up on stage and danced around with an American flag. So great. So good. And, most importantly, thank you for wearing night goggles during the concert- you looked much older and scarier without them. Sincerely, Jen


Dear Fan Three Rows Down,

Thank you so much for your 'love' expressed in so many forms during this concert. Your love of women, as you rotated among the various women present in your group. I'm sure they're all so glad that you spread yourself out among them all. We really enjoyed watching your embraces, especially as they blocked our view of the bands. Thank you for your love of nicotine as you blew your smoke up into the stands surrounding you time and time again. Thank you for wearing your brand new U2 tshirt AND hat together during the whole concert. That was so awesome. And mostly, thank you for standing up and dancing around and being just generally so stinkin' annoying the whole time. We only wanted to kick you over or push you down...four or five times through the evening. Sincerely, Jen
PS- In the words of our fellow concertee, Michelle, if you had saved the money you spent on beer and cigarettes and apparell, you could have simply gotten much, much better seats.