Happy Birthday and we love you, Carrie

Our first daughter Carrie's birthday was this Easter Sunday. We love and enjoy her so much. Thankfully she and Matt and their four children live close by. What is Carrie like - most importantly she's a wonderful wife and mother, focused on her family, always planning some fun activity or outing for them, reading to them, teaching them some new thing. She's bright and articulate, a BYU business graduate, and is founder and president of Elase Medical Spas. Things we especially appreciate about Carrie - she's happy, she's non-judgemental, she'll share everything she has with anyone whether she knows them or not, she's thrilled with everyone's success, she's a hard worker and though it seems like a small thing, she cleans up her kids' toys when they leave here :).



This year I surprised Carrie with a cherry chocolate cake layered with a cherry yogurt cream frosting (which you can see got eaten before we got around to candles).

Cherry Chocolate Cake

1 Duncan Hines Dark chocolate cake mix

21 oz. cherry pie filling

3 egg whites (add one yolk if making a layered cake)

1 tsp. almond extract

Mix all ingredients until fluffy about 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 cake pan or 2 layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. For layered cakes I put a piece of parchment paper cut to size on the greased pan bottom before pouring batter in. It makes it easier for layer to tip out. If you're going to torte the layers (cut them in half cross-wise) partially freeze them before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar or frost with Cherry Yogurt Frosting. The cake and frosting can be made fat free using only the egg whites and 'lite' and fat-free ingredients. Be aware fat-free coolwhip will not hold it's shape for a layered cake.

Cherry Yogurt Frosting

4 oz. cherry yogurt

4 oz. whipping cream or 8 oz. coolwhip

Whip the cream. Stir the yogurt to soften it then fold the yogurt into the whipped cream. Refrigerate iced cake if keeping for longer than a couple of hours.

When Carrie was little she expected events to be celebrated right, fully and well. For her 3rd birthday party the theme was bunnies and Carrie asked for a bunny cake, probably because she was just becoming aware of Easter.

It's made with two round layers. The ears are cut from one layer and the bow is made from the two triangular pieces left after cutting the ears. It's covered in coconut with pink tinted coconut for the nose, ears and cheeks. Carrie loved it.

We Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Happy Easter. It's beautiful now. The bluebirds have returned, buds are on the trees, the tulips are poking up through the rich dark soil, the sun is warming our home and my heart. That warmth renews and invigorates. I feel alive and ready to venture forth from the quiet solitude of the blanketing winter.

How appropriate and symbolic that this season of birth, of renewal and of light is the season our Savior Jesus Christ gave us His gifts of hope and eternal life. He was perfect in obedience and purity. He was perfect in love, offering His unblemished life in atonement to redeem us if we will but repent and follow Him. He was perfect in power, raising His body from death, opening the way for us to also be resurrected and live eternally with Him and our Heavenly Father.

But that is not the end of His love for us. He knows and loves us still. Our prayers are heard and answered. He continues as our Savior to guide, to send comfort. I am grateful to Him. I love Him. Talk about warming Light! Becky

"3 down and . . ."

I'm feelin' great tonight! The pressure's off - I just took my last 'final' - for now. I'm enrolled in the Brigham Young University Bachelor of General Studies program, which means I'm finishing the bachelor's degree I put on hold when Eric and I got married (1972) and started our family (1973). The BGS program is just the ticket for me. Almost all of my previous credits were accepted (why not all? -it's safe to say shorthand is pretty much obsolete). Even my 1968 ACT scores count (yeah! no college algebra!). I can take classes online through BYU Independent Studies and on the Provo and Salt Lake City campuses. You're given a year to finish each class and eight years to complete the whole program. I just finished my third class, so it's 3 down and . . .

(BYU Salt Lake Center where I test.)

. . . just 22 more to go. Wish me luck!

Just Enough Irish

The Passey clan is just enough Irish that every year we celebrate St. Patrick's Day; but we're not enough Irish to focus on only our Irish heritage. So St. Patrick's has become our ancestral heritage celebration. Each year a different ancestor or geographical area of our heritage is spotlighted. But we always have the traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage.

King Brian and his leprechauns spend the day counting their gold. But when the wee ones start to arrive the gold disappears back into the pot and King Brian sits guard.

If a wee one should scare him he flees in haste to hide the gold, leaving a trail of footprints.

It never fails that the wee ones are able to follow his footprints and find the pot of gold.

Would you like to be a leprechaun or sing along to ". . .oh, shes' my dear my darlin' one, her eyes are sparkling full of fun. . ." during Darby O'Gill and the Little People ?

The evening ends with a billard's tournament and the champion takes home the trophy.


Boy it's great to be Irish!

"Over the meadow and through the woods . . .

. . . to Hardware Ranch we go . . .

(Bryanna, Eric, Hallie, Becky, Cambry & Bryn riding the haywagon)
baby Kylan is in mom's coat

. . . the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

through the white and drifting snow-ohh . . .

. . .Over the meadow and through the woods

It's lots of elk we spy . . .

. . .Ho, ho for the fun but now winter's done,

Hoorah for spring's bright blue sky."

'fun 2b home"

There are so many ways it's 'fun 2b . . .' that we've added a new blog, 'fun 2b home'. 'Fun 2b home' is a place for sharing ideas about abundant living in our homes - homemaking ideas, housekeeping how-tos, gardening tips, tried & true recipes and more - a place to talk about what makes a home.

We hope you'll share your ideas, tips and "how-tos" in the 'comments'.

What makes it 'fun 2b home' for you?

Top O' the Mornin' to Ya, Dearie

Well, Dearies, St. Pattie's Day is just around the corner and we locals have begun a celebratin' with a Mystery Dinner Theatre - a rompin' 'who dunnit'. Who stole the pot of gold from King Gilroy, king of the leprechauns, killing the goldsmith in the effort? Were it poor Rory the cobbler or his proud and firey-haired wife Aileen?

(aka Dan and Vicki Collett)

No, it couldn'a been mild-mannered Magee the blacksmith. Perhaps it was Tara the once-wealthy spinster or Brigette the lovesick milkmaid wishin' a dowry to win the handsome fiddler, Malone McSweeny. Oh and to be sure, we shouldn'a be forgettin' the wee folk, Hendo and Maeve.

(Paul Jensen, Bishop & Laura Adams, Diane Jensen, Kent & Betty Demars)

But, lads and lassies, to tell ya true, tis the 'high' people, the miserly King Desmond Laogharie and his greedy wife Mona, I've got me eye on.

(aka Allan and Brenda Baird)

By evenin's end we'd found our man and our woman. Then we filled ourselves with ballymaloe and green j-ello and laughed ourselves over the rainbow. St. Patrick himself would'a been pleased.

Blessed Event - Kylan Trey Heiner

(warning: lots of family, lots of pictures)

Kylan Trey Heiner, son of our daughter Bryn and her husband

Kerry, was blessed Sunday, March 2 - Such a special event.

The Loveless and Heiner families filled the church

and Bryn & Kerry's home in Wellsville, Utah.

Most everyone was coming from out of town so Spencer & Melynn offered for the Loveless family to stay Saturday night at Spencer's family cabin in Providence, a few minutes away from Wellsville.

So thoughtful. Thanks so much, Spencer.

Amidst all the fun and festivity I took a moment for some solitude and reflection.

Early Sunday sunrise from the cabin. Crisp, still, serene.

You might want to get a bumper sticker

I love reading young mothers' blogs. Ty and Meg's friend Emily Aldrich has a great March 3 post sharing "In the Motherhood", a witty mimi-series webshow based on real-life stories sent in by real mothers. Talk about bringing back memories of rearing children. . .



. . . .like the time 3-yr. old Cortney got left at a resort in Park City and it wasn't discovered until 45 minutes later when, as I walked in the front door, The Park City Police Department called asking if I had a 3-yr. old boy named Cortney. How in the world you ask? The outing started with 2 moms, 14 sets of swim paraphernalia, a huge picnic lunch and 12 kids including 1 determined 3-yr. old packed into 1 9-passenger van (before required seat belts). When it was time to head home we asked the older kids to get everyone into the van while we gathered up all the wet stuff. We were the last ones out of the building (so we thought) and when we called out over the din of laughter to the back of the van, "Is everyone here?" it was 11 thumbs up. The only thing that saved me that day was that when the social worker (yes, DCFS was on the case by the time I got back up to Park City) asked Cortney if anything was written on our car Cort answered, "Yes, it says I Am a Child of God". "I was pretty sure he hadn't been purposely left," the social worker told me. You might want to get a bumper sticker :).