Our Dancing Princesses

I got the inspiration from a book I found at the library to photograph the girls as they were dancing. We had a lot of fun and got some good poses too.

Clarissa and Krystal are so happy when they're dancing. They've been taking dance class from Miss Hannah for this whole school year and have loved every minute of it. I was out of town during their recital and Chris forgot to bring the camera, but he took pictures of their costumes once he got home.
They did a dance from The Nutcracker Ballet. Clarissa is the sugar-plum fairy queen and Krystal is a flower.
Both girls did a wonderful job and I got to see their performance when I got home because Chris did remember to bring the video camera.
Clarissa even had a solo and she did great.

Amber wanted to get in on the action too. She loves to dress in tutus and pretend that she is going to dance class. She already knows some of the positions as well.

A Photo Tour of Downtown Radford

A couple weeks ago some friends and I got together with our cameras and walked around downtown Radford to take pictures of anything that we found to be interesting. I learned a lot, but I also had a lot of fun. My family doesn't understand why I took so many pictures of strange things, but this is a sampling of the pictures I think are interesting.

Continuous Fun

One spring day with nothing better to do, the kids and I decided to play with the continuous shooting mode on the camera. We quickly discovered that jumping pictures were really funny. The first four pictures are of Clarissa and Krystal jumping in succession. The others are just some funny shots taken while in the midst of jumping.



This pictures of the four kids is the one that Chris chose for his desktop on his computer at work. We're kinda crazy like that.

The Food We Love

Inspired by my friend's food blog http://love2cooksweets.blogspot.com/, I thought I would include some of our traditional Mattson foods and the events they celebrate in this post.Pretzel Jell-O. We love pretzels, especially when they are coupled with something sweet like yogurt, frosting, peanut butter, or Jell-O. This Jell-O casserole has a crust of crushed pretzels and butter, topped with a layer of cream cheese and cool whip, followed by the jiggly stuff with berries in it. We like Pretzel Jell-O any time of the year, but always have it with our Christmas dinner. The layers of red and white just seem so festive. I got the recipe from my friend Kerrie in Illinois.

Cinnamon Rolls. Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls? Well, we are no different. Although we would love to eat them every day, we keep it to only two times a year. Our tradition is that every six months when we watch General Conference for church, we have this sticky treat for breakfast on Saturday. This way, we hold off the calories and keep the kids excited about watching conference.

Cheesecake. Chris loves cheescake. So on his birthday I will usually make a cheesecake from scratch. When we were first married I made my very first cheesecake and it came out just perfect. We joke that I have been trying ever since then to repeat that culinary feat and have never achieved it since. But, in reality, cheesecake it just really yummy no matter what.

Mexican fiesta food. I make Mexican food every year on Cinco de Mayo. I also make it every Monday...and any other day I feel like it so that we usually end up eating Mexican at least twice a week. Still, it is a tradition. I do change it up each time though. Sometimes it's more authentic than others, but seeming as how Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday anyway, but a Mexican/American holiday, I don't feel too bad throwing in some black olives every now and then (which are not authentic Mexican). This year's big bang was the fresh pineapple, Yum!

Pizza. Years ago Chris gave me a pizza stone for Christmas (the one on top) and I have made homemade pizza every Friday since. The first pizza fell onto the oven door before I could cook it. Many others stuck to the stone or dripped toppings onto the oven floor, but I never gave up. Now, I can make a pizza quicker than what it takes to order one and have it delivered, I have the crust recipe memorized, and I know the perfect brands to use for all the ingredients. Our tradition is pizza and a movie as a family every Friday night. One of the things I love best about pizza is the ability to make each pizza a new and different creation, like the taco pizza on top (see, I sneak Mexican in everywhere). Another thing I love is that I usually have at least one child helping to put on toppings.

There are many other foods that we love and are a part of our traditions that are not included in this post, like coconut shrimp for Chris's birthday, my favorite coleslaw for potlucks and picnics, my Dad's green Jell-O for Thanksgiving, and my friend Kammie's brownies for any pick me up occassion, but I sadly do not have pictures of them because we eat them too fast.

The 10 things I love the most about Spring in Virginia

1. Yellow forsythia and daffodils. These two yellow plants are always the first sign of Spring. I wait all winter long through the grays and whites for that first spot of yellow. I've always wanted a forsythia bush ever since we lived in Wisconsin and my neighbor had one. If you haven't lived in a cold climate you just can't imagine how much of a relief it is to see those yellow flowers start to bud. This year, I finally got my forsythia, it's a little thin, but it will grow!

2. Eastern Redbud trees. Chris says they must have been named by a color-blind botonist because as you can see they are purple, not red. The first spring after we moved to our house I had the most wonderful surprise as I was driving down our road that follows the river. It was full of these Redbuds. At the time I didn't know what they were, but quickly found out and was especially pleased to find that we have one on our property. An added bonus is that when the purple buds are gone, heart-shaped leaves form and stay all summer. These trees are especially beautiful in the light of the setting sun. I just can't drive around enough when they are in bloom.

3. Pink Dogwoods. The Dogwood is the Virginia state tree. They bloom shortly after the redbuds and come in both pink and white. I am particularly partial to the pink. I just love the shape of the flower. Unfortunately, although we have several white dogwoods on our property, we do not have any pink ones, so I have to take lots of pictures.

4. Yardwork. Some people don't like work. I am not one of those people. One of my favorite passtimes is pulling weeds. And there is nothing I find more relaxing than a 2-hour spin of uninterupted time on the riding lawnmower. However, Chris feels the same way and usually gets to mow the lawn while I weedeat, garden, turn compost, pull out dead vines, etc. But, as long as I'm in the sun with the fresh spring breeze, I'm happy.

5. Planting annuals. This tradition started when we lived in Wisconsin on a block full of retired couples. All the women spent hours every day tending to their annuals, I remember my neighbors window boxes were always full of red geraniums. That was where I learned the difference between an annual (die off each fall) and a perennial (last from year to year) and most of their names. Each Mother's Day Chris would buy me a bunch of annuals to plant in my hanging planters on the porch and around my hosta beds. Now days, I don't wait around for Mother's Day, I usually buy whatever comes out first. Incidently, those orange pansies are actually from last Fall. They survived a very cold winter.

6. Finding Black Rat Snakes. Most people who know me know that I love snakes. Ever since I was a little girl and my Dad would take us into the hills around Bakersfield to find snakes, (usually gopher snakes, but sometimes we were lucky and found California Kings) I have loved to catch them. I was so excited when we moved to this house and our neighbor told us that the Black snakes usually come out in the spring. I have never been disappointed. Every time I find one, I pick it up, let the kids touch it and then let it go again. There is one snake in particular that I believe I have found several times. He is very calm and the last time I found him he actually came into my hands without me having to pick him up first.

7. Planting Spring Veggies. In this bed I have planted a mix of lettuces, some swiss chard, several rows of spinach, some nasturtium and radishes. The bed with the lattice has sugar snap peas. But, the best surprise of this spring is that my cilantro came back in droves after sitting under the snow for months. Tacos anyone?

8. The smell of honeysuckle vines. There might be no better smell than the sweet aroma of honeysuckle growing in the wild. I will never forget the vacation when we went to The Poconos Mountians in Pennsylvania. The Poconos are supposed to be one of the best honeymoon spots in the East. It was a great vacation, the mountains were pretty and we had a lot of fun together...but when we got home and got out of the car...the honeysuckle was overwhelmingly wonderful and I said outloud, "I love the smell of Virginia!"

9. Rec League Soccer. I know, I can't believe I'm saying this. As I set my camping chair down on the grass at the first practice I said very loudly, "I hate soccer!" And here I am now saying that it's one of my favorite things. The truth is...I changed my mind. I'm still not sure that I love soccer practices, but the games are actually fun. Jared is playing soccer for the first time. Not that he didn't want to earlier, but somehow I never got him signed up in time. I still haven't decided if it's something we will continue to do, but for now...we're having fun. I think it helps that Chris' schedule at work isn't so bad right now so he's made it to every game and we just make a family night out of it.

10. Campfires at our firepit. All winter long we collect our mixed paper that can't be recycled for the purpose of burning it. After the paper has been burned we put the ashes into the compost to be used later on the garden. We think it's an ingenious idea of recycling. But more than that, we just enjoy campfires. I have often said that I think they should bottle the smell of campfires to be used as perfume. Maybe it just brings back memories of camping at Lake Isabella every summer as a child or maybe it's the new memories that we're creating in our family of having smores, telling stories, singing songs and most of all...inviting friends over. Mattson family campfires are not indigenous to the spring alone, but that is when they can start up again after a long winter.

The blooms are falling off the trees, it's almost warm enough to turn on the air conditioning, it's almost time to plant summer vegetables, spring is nearing the end, but it's been great. I won't mourn it's passing, but will hold on to these fleeting moments and look forward to the many springs to come and the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes they bring.