Hula and painting

It's getting closer to our family trip to Hawaii, so we got together for family dinner and discussed a few things. Of course my parents made it all "Hawaiian" and we showed up with our Hawaiian gear and laid back attitudes!
Rachel and Jason definitely had the feel of being on the beach with their sunglasses.

Elaina, Jacob and Zeus - chillin before the meeting

Even Ben made an appearance for us all to see him while we went through our presentation. Brooke and Josh were on the phone the whole time, probably wondering what was going on most of the time. ;)

My sister also brought her other dogs to play in the backyard. Buddy's a GREAT catch with the ball. You wouldn't believe it, looking at this picture, but he caught that ball.

Diesel just likes to lick the glass door and get his nose print all over :D

Then it was time to get down to business. We're all so excited about this trip and true to Hoffmann fashion, we've got it all figured out... well except the parts where we'll just be relaxing!!

I'm most excited about the pineapple. I LOVE PINEAPPLE! Which is why for our wedding we asked for a pineapple-corer. It is the most wonderful thing.

Isn't it such a wonderful fruit?

This was our dessert. We didn't really know what we were doing but Tucanos does it, how hard could it be?

Not hard at all! Again, may I say DELISH!!!

The next weekend it was our weekend to drive to Lake Powell and work on our houseboat.
We left about 3am and drove all morning to miss the heat of mid-day.
Jacob and Ilene started with scraping the paint off the trim.

I couldn't believe this caramel colored liquid could turn into such a milky white.

Dad and Marlin began painting the trim from the front and we realized it was a two person job.

Then we realized it was easier to do it from above. Well kind of, for us short people we had quite the reach.

Elaina and I then had the job of painting two boxes that sit on the front of the houseboat for the anchors and ropes. That wood soaked it up quick, we had to put 3 coats of oil based paint just to kind of cover it.

Then we joined Ilene painting the underside of the houseboat. Why do the short people keep getting these jobs? ;)

Because the boys were nailing in the trim! Jacob, dad, uncle Gary and his friend Dennis worked so hard and it took so long, while uncle Marlin "supervised"

It was much longer than we anticipated, but looked fantastic when they were done. My dad has DEFINITELY taught me the value of hard work.

Then us girls had the guys put the boxes back on the boat... us short people got lucky with this one.

We finished about 3 in the afternoon and successfully I did NOT get any paint in my hair this year :) It was a long day, rewarded with Stan's at the end.

I had to imagine myself on the lake this year because we won't be able to go. It was a sad day that for only the 2nd time in 20 years I won't be going down this summer. But we've decided to go to Washington with Elaina and Jacob in August. That'll be for a much later blog :)

What to do While Waiting?

Make DESSERT!

So I've been waiting to get pictures from my dad's camera of our events for the last week.... well I've been waiting a week and haven't gotten them yet. So I thought I'd blog about FOOD!!!
Since that's what we do best here is eat, we decided to try something new.
Alex and I LOVE peanut butter and chocolate combined, as he puts it "safe combo every time."
So we decided to put a spin on traditional rice krispie treats.

Start with the mallows.Add some peanut butter!!With of course using Coca Krispies!!

Smooth it out, and with a glass of milk it's pure deliciousness!!!
Some of you may have already heard of this or have tried it yourself. It's not a new thing apparently, they already have a recipe online (I googled it) But if you haven't, you're welcome for sharing! ;)

I just had to post this picture of Alex's face after I almost dropped our camera! That was his exact face!!! Lesson well learned, ALWAYS wear the wrist strap :)

And FINALLY
To end this blog on the bestest of best notes, I am an AUNT again!!!
My brother Josh and his wife Brooke had a little baby boy on Friday April 23rd. He's a little over 7 lbs and 19 inch. long. And understandable that they couldn't name him after me, him being a boy and all, they gave him the next best name Grant Rodney Hoffmann.
We're so excited!!! They don't get to blog often, due to the fact that they don't have internet, so let me be the first to welcome him to cyberspace.

Congrats!!! We're so excited and can't wait to see you all in about a month!

Frustration spills

I have never used my blog for venting.... there's always a first for everything.

I HATE when I let things affect me. I know it is our choice to feel or react in a certain way but gosh darn it, sometimes your human nature takes over before your "reasonable mind" can figure out that how you should react or feel isn't how you're reacting or feeling. I let myself respond to frustrations in the wrong way, and then I get more frustrated that I did that... it's a vicious cycle I'm definitely working on. What makes it worse, is when these feelings begin at work and follow me home. Poor Alex has no warning and he's the first in the line of FIRE. He's under attack before either of us even know what's going on. Is this possible that I am the only one who feels this way? I will not, I REFUSE, to chalk it up to "female hormones" it is neither true nor valid. I have control over such things..... but why do my responses act faster than my brain. I know it is illogical, I know I'm just frustrated. I'm so grateful that my husband knows too.

Alex is so patient and understanding, helping me to work through idiocies of others that have affected me so. I should not have to babysit at work, I should not have to remind you what your job is. The worst part is, you're oblivious! I am understanding what it's like to be a teacher, but without the satisfaction of a student who finally understands the concepts.

I owe part of my frustration to my parents, who taught me well in the manners of responsibility, to know when someone is not fulfilling theirs. I am not old enough to say anything about the "younger generation" but I will say that I am old enough to KNOW BETTER. Come on people!!!

Baby Shower Long Distance

Brooke is far away in VA and could not be here for a baby shower, but would that stop us ladies from having an excuse to get together and have fun?! NO WAY :)
LaRae and her daughter Nichole came, with her two daughters and twins on the way. Aunt Tana and Aunt Debbie with her daughter Celeste were there too while Tyne represented the Karin Randall girls.We played some games, had to have tie breakers cause they were all too good at some of them and laughed a lot. Celeste had some really good answers to BABY A-Z.

Then we took a break to call Brooke and open a package from her.

What a sweetheart!!! All the way from Virginia she sent us thanks yous and favors!!
Mom read the card and inside the box were "rattles" with the coolest pan scrapers, or as dad likes to say, "You could use these for anything. But I guess scraping a pan is a good idea." haha such a guy.

While we were on the phone, we decided to play a game with Brooke..... and used my dad as a visual.
The game was to guess how big around she was and used my dad to estimate.... boy were we WAY OFF. Nobody guessed under 48 inches around, she was 38!!! Can you believe that? Well if you've seen her or a picture of her you would.

Then Mom or Grandma Hoffmann brought out the gifts to OOH and AHH about.
I think pretty much anything tiny is worth an ooh and an ahh. They are SOOOO CUTE

And then it was breakfast time. Really it was lunch by then but mom put together an awesome brunch full of "little" things. Little baby cinnamon rolls, little mini muffins and fruit. It was all so delicious.Brooke, we wish you could have been here, but we had a good time talking to you. Thanks for giving us an excuse to get together. You are so thoughtful.
We miss you, we love you.
We hope everything goes well this week, I expect a call sometime! Dad's not the only one now who's said low pressures bring babies :)

This is for Ben

Friday

Easter at the Hoffmann's begins Friday night with our creativity shining through on our eggs!
All three of Ben's girls came to dye eggs with us. My how they've all grown.
Since Ben wasn't able to be there and his computer had gotten a virus we all got to talk with him on the phone.PorSha has her dad's intensity for art, and her Hoffmann OCD for detail - she's even using a paint brush to make sure it's perfect! BayLee's only 13 but you'd never guess by how tall and grown up she is. It was so much fun to have her come, we don't get to see her often.

I even convinced Alex to get in on the fun. I promised him I'd eat his eggs :)

Alex and I both only colored 3 eggs. These are mine. My Boston "B" had a picture of two Sox on the other side. My sunflower on the end isn't quite visible through the yellow, but I loved doing them anyway.

Saturday
We don't do the "bunny" part of Easter on Sunday because we like to keep Easter Sunday focused on Christ's resurrection, so Alex and I did ours Saturday morning before he went to work and I left for my mom's house.He was definitely surprised when he came out of the bedroom and I told him he had to follow the trail of his eggs to his basket.And such a good sport to do it too.We don't have official baskets yet, so I got creative.
My family's pretty into movies, and the Easter Bunny always brought one for the family.
This one came out just in time. Alex was so excited! How did the Bunny know?As a dental hygienist, I can't really condone too much candy. So I allowed the Easter Bunny to bring a movie and cookies. Alex doesn't like eggs, so like I said, I'll be eating those.The Easter Bunny came to grandma and grandpa Hoffmann's house this year, for Ben's girls. And of COURSE he left Trix, he always does!

Lexus doesn't always eat much, but she'll always eat cereal. LOVE our LEXUS

PorSha found the "lip stick" whopper eggs. It's just not Easter without them!

Torie made sure the girls were very Easterish, matching outfits and all.
(Don't you just love Lexus' toothless smile)

It was too cold for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs outside, so they were found in the basement this year. The girls had to search high, low and everywhere underneath.

That face says it all

Lexus needed help getting her basket down, like a true Hoffmann ;)

PorSha was even daring enough to put her hand inside a crocodile's mouth just for an egg.

I LOVE these girls!!!

Since Alex had to work, I found our basket. Ok Lexus really found it first. She's really good at looking. My mom made all of us baskets when I was born and we've used them every year since. I hope to make the same baskets for my family some day.

After the girls found all the eggs down stairs it was time to use their jump ropes and bubbles, so we headed up stairs.
SURPRISE
Ben came through the front door. My mom and I just screamed and the girls ran to him, arms wide open. He'd brought them baskets all the way from Colorado, where the Easter Bunny had dropped them off, just in case they had been in Colorado ;)

The girls found all of the plastic eggs. Good thing they don't smell if you forget one....

Next it was Rachel's turn. She'd come over after to look for her basket and see the girls......Little did she know Ben was the one hiding it :)
That was AWESOME!!! And we were prepared with a camera for this surprise.

We hung out with Ben all day. The boys came home from work later that evening and headed right off to the Priesthood session while us girls just hung out.

Sunday
We watched part of conference in the morning with my parents until Ben came over. Then it was game time. Thank goodness for DVR ;)
We had a good time with Ben while he was here. I can't believe it had only been 2 weeks since he'd moved. He caught a flight back to CO Sunday night and we headed up to "THE Hoffmanns"
My grandma Hoffmann is crazy about Easter. Alex and I had to hunt for our "bowl" in her backyard. It was good to see family.
I LOVE Grma H!!!

It was such an awesome holiday and I love spending time with family.
Ben, I loved having you here - if you couldn't tell by my scream!
Our FHE this week was on Easter, traditions from the past and ones we'd like to have for the future, and our Savior Jesus Christ. Let us not forget His sacrifice and that we can all be as he is some day. No matter where you live now, we will be together forever someday.

See you soon! Rayne, Tom & Ade!!!
Josh, Brooke and BABY HOFFMANN!!!!