Holiday Treats

I think I could dedicate an entire blog to my favorite treats since eating is practically a passion for me. The special treats I make just once a year do add to the enjoyment of the holidays and since I haven't really mentioned them in my blog yet, I figured I should do it now. I think part of the reason they are on my mind is that we are finally running out of the Christmas treats and I am getting anxious for more and the New Year's celebration doesn't seem to be getting here fast enough.

I made these chocolate reindeer cupcakes for my husbands home teaching families. I got the idea from studio 5 (Alisa Bangerter) and it was easier than I thought. The antlers are made from almond bark melted and then drizzled into the antler shape onto wax paper from either a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the corner or a pastry bag with a medium sized tip. The cupcakes themselves are just from a cake mix, but the frosting is homemade (I am not a big fan of ready made frosting in a can). You sprinkle the tops with cocoa powder and then you decorate the face. You can use any candy you want to decorate the face. I just used butterscotch chips or chocolate chips and red spice drops. I was excited with how they turned out.

Anyway, I have two favorite sugar cookie recipes one is my Great Aunt Klea's melt aways which take me back to the Christmases of my childhood. They are my absolute favorite and it just doesn't seem like christmas to me without them. One funny side note. I have been super clumsy this pregnancy and I dropped a whole tray of these cookies in my inlaws drive way Chirstmas Eve on top of a jar of olives that had fallen out of the car and shattered.

1 lb butter (pretty good start eh)
1 1/2 C Corn starch
1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

2 C Flour

Beat together until creamy. Roll and flatten slightly and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (I usually check them starting at about 8 minutes). They are very fragile cookies, so bigger is not better in this case. The recipe says you can use 1/2 margarine, but I have always just used butter.

Frosting:

6 oz Cream Cheese

2 tsp vanilla

2 C powdered Sugar

pinch of salt

I tend to add more powdered sugar to make a bit thicker frosting.

The next recipe I have only been making since I've been married since my husband for some odd reason doesn't love the melt aways like I do and he prefers this Sour cream sugar cookie recipe. This recipe is also fun for the kids because it is a traditional roll and cut, but with the sour cream and almond extract I think they taste a lot better than most cut out sugar cookies.

1/2 C butter (not margarine)

1 C. Sugar

Cream together butter and sugar then add sour cream and eggs.

2 eggs

1/2 C sour cream

add remaining ingredients (combine dry ingredients and add slowly) and then refridgerate for at least 2 hours.

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Roll out and cut desired shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Frost with favorite frosting with a few drops of almond extract added to it.

I have found if I follow the original recipe above I cannot roll it out because it is too soft and sticky so I end up adding at least 1-2 cups more flour. I add it very slowly because I don't want to take away from the softness of the cookies. I also end up adding 1/2 C. more sugar because I don't want the extra flour to take away from the sweetness of the cookies and make them too bland. I am still perfecting the recipe, but so far I haven't really found anythng better in a cut out sugar cookie.

The last recipe is one I love on either halloween or new years and it is my favorite carmel corn (I am a fan of the gooey caramel corn).

This recipe says just to use the popcorn in a bag from the chip isle, but I usually just use a couple of bags of whatever microwave popcorn I have on hand with the unpopped kernals removed.

popcorn

1 cube butter

2 1/4 C. brown sugar

1 C. Light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Bring butter, sugar, corn syrup and milk to a boil. Boil for 2 min. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix well.

I did try one other version that I really liked which starts with crunchy caramel corn with drizzled white and milk chocolate over the top.

Enjoy!

An early Christmas present

Today we took Beck back to the orthopedic Dr. and they removed his cast. Yay! Beck fell asleep in the car on the way there and he was so tired he slept through the X-rays and the removal of the cast. He woke up when they took the actual cast off but he slept through all the cutting. I had my hands over his ears which helped. I have heard that part can be kind of traumatic for them, so I figured the longer he slept the better. He kept saying "cast boken" and "leg boken". He doesn't seem ready to stand or walk on it yet, but it sure makes crawling a lot better. I am excited to be able to give him a regular bath without having to make such a huge ordeal out of it and that he can fit better in his PJs. It is a nice early Christmas present. I was getting tired of having to carry him constantly. Hopefully he will be more mobile by Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas

I am combining the topics for this week and last weeks Tuesday tell all. Last week's was your favorite Christmas carol and this week is how do you bring the spirit of christmas into your home. I love all the hymns of course and I really don't have a favorite among any of the hymns. Aside from the hymns I would have to say that my next favorite Christmas carol is "O Holy Night" which if I am focused on listening to can really touch my spirit and bring tears to my eyes. In the catagory of radio versions of Christmas music I would have to say my favorite is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by the Bare Naked Ladies/Sarah Mclachlan. However, I think this year this "Jingle Bells" by my son Beck is going to be my favorite. whenever he hears "Jingle Bells" or even "Jingle Bell Rock" he will start singing and dancing. He gets distracted easily though so I usually have to prompt him to keep going and it is very difficult to get on video. He is much better live than when we try to record it, but I thought I'd post the video anyway. He will sometimes sing the la la la la la la la part of "Deck the Halls". but he is not as good as he is when he sings "Jingle bells".

As far as bring the Christmas spirit into our home. This year I decided to do an advent calendar for the kids. I got the idea to make it out of a mini muffin tin from Studio 5 which worked for us because I didn't need to spend any addititonal money except for the candy. I could just use the muffin tin and decorate it with left over scrap book supplies. It has candy, but also activities to do to celebrate the Holdiay season. The kids are really enjoying it.

Each year I try to get the decorations up as soon as I can so we can enjoy them for as long as possible. I love having nativities around to teach my kids that Christmas isn't really about Santa and toys. They love pointing out all the animals and making the sounds and then pointing out baby Jesus. I also listen to as much Christmas music as possible. I am not much for cold weather and my kids are still small so as far as Christmas lights we usually just see them from the car. I do like to have snow at christmas time and of course the kids love building snowmen with daddy and going sledding.
I think the most important thing that helps me feel the Christmas spirit is the focus of our family home evenings during December.

I know my kids are small, but I really want them to understand who Jesus is and all the things he has done for us and to help them develop a sense of gratitude instead of greed at Christmas time. We are trying to find ways to minimize the focus on the the gifts and if you want some good ideas you can visit Suzanne's blog: goldilocksandthe3bears.blogspot.com. Another way to focus on being content and happy with the blessings we have instead of wanting more is to spend time doing charitable service during Christmas. I like that my kids are able to see us gathering food to give to the food bank and to hear the bells of the Salvation Army donation collectors everytime we go to the store and to discuss the answer to the question "why are they ringing a bell momma?" I like that there are so many opportunities to give in the community whether it is a clothing/coat/shoes drive, toy drive, angel trees, sub for Santa, etc. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but I think it is how Jesus would want us to celebrate the season. I think my favorite thing is the wonder, surprise, excitement and joy that you see in the eyes of your children. They are so young and innocent that a simple candy cane and a checkers game from the dollar store is enough to make them happy on Christmas. They don't need or want a lot and they are just happy with life and being with family. I never realized how much my children would teach me and Christmas time is another time to be reminded of how much I need to be more like them.

December Events

Congratulations to Josh and Steffany Briscoe who were married Sunday Dec. 7th 2008!

Kate didn't want to dance with daddy. She only wanted to dance with kids, but all her boy cousins are getting into the girls have cooties phase and wouldn't dance with her.
Kate's aunt Emma was nice enough to buy all the nieces these beautiful dresses. Thanks! It was pretty cold, so the girls weren't very excited about the pictures and poor Elle just wanted mom.

It was a very busy weekend, but it was so fun to have family in town from Arizona and Colorado. Things can sometimes get pretty crazy with a family of 8 kids. Especially when a couple of the middle children like Eli and Dani get together.

Beck really loved playing basketball with his uncle Jake. He had a huge smile and his whole face lit up when he realized all the clapping was for him. My favorite part was probably the food (what else do you expect from a pregnant woman). Eli's dad made some excellent lasagna for the rehearsal dinner and then there was the shower with some of my favorite breakfast foods and not to mention the Krispy Kreme donuts after the Christmas lights on Friday Night.

December Birthdays:

I also wanted to tell my niece Kiaya Happy Birthday! She will be 9 years old tomorrow Dec. 1oth.

I have a nephew whose birthday is also coming up on the 20th of December as well. Happy 2nd Birthday Julian!

Sleeping like a baby

It is funny how kids can sleep anywhere and in almost any position. Since Beck has been a tiny newborn he has prefered to sleep on his stomach. He didn't sleep well the first six months because I was too affraid to put him on his stomach for fear of sids. The only way I could really get him to sleep was to let him sleep in a partial sitting position in his swing. He slept much better once I started putting him on his stomach to sleep.

He didn't sleep through the night probably until he was 14 months old or so and lately it is like I have a newborn all over again. He has had the stomach flu and has been vomiting and having diarrhea all throught the day and all through the night. I think he is finally over that, but still not sleeping very well. I think his body is trying to make up for the lost fluids and nutrition. He wakes up several times a night for drinks and wakes up very early (before 7:30 feels like 4 am to me) for toast. Usually I can get him to lie down for a bit until I wake up completely except this morning he was literally yelling "toast", so I had no choice, but to drag my groggy body out of bed.

This weekend we decided to put Beck in the shower with daddy and I double wrapped his leg and triple taped it, but it didn't work like I was hoping and he got the inside of his cast pretty wet. It took several hours of blow drying to get it completely dry. He fell asleep during the process. I guess all the warm air and the white noise just did him in.

Kate is a great sleeper, but she refuses to take naps even though her body eventually wins out in the end if we are traveling in the car in the late afternoon or if she decides to take a break from her play to rest on the couch.

The other day when Kate actually took a real nap I was waking her and her daddy up to go and neither one would get out of their beds. I told Kate she is just like daddy because she won't get out of bed. Her response was "No I am not like daddy I am like a sleeping horse".

Here are a few more updates not related to sleep about Beck. He is growing up and learning so much so fast.

Beck is getting to be quite the talker and it is so cute. Here are a few of my favorites words.

Bell la la: Elephant

Lilla: Gorilla

Bebra: Zebra

Melmo: Elmo (He calls all Sesame Street Characters Melmo)

Nandy: Candy

Nack: Snack

I think it is also cute that everytime I say something about dinner Beck asks "Daddy Home?"

After the Thanksgiving holiday and spending so much time with daddy Beck has been asking me several times a day "Daddy go?"

If he is hungry he will usually yell "Nack!" "Nack!" but lately it has been "Dinner ready? Dinner ready? Dinner ready?" like 10X in a row.

He refers to himself as "baby Beck" especially if he is looking in the mirror or looking at a picture of himself.

The other day he heard me say something about going to Nana's and Papa's house, so all day he kept whining "wanna go papa's house"

If he sees something he thinks is cute he will say "oh coot".

He also makes up these cute little dances for music he hears whether it is daddy singing or the TV.

He has also been saying "ohhhh" with great emphasis when I tell him something that is new.

Another thing I have noticed lately is that he really likes telling his big sister what to do. Whenever I am yelling for Kate to come he will start yelling for Kate also or he will say things like "Come on Kate" or "No Kate" I think it is kind of funny that eventhough he is the youngest he thinks he is the boss. I am sure it will be even more pronounced when he has a little sister to boss around.

Thankful Thursday

I heard of someone doing Thankful Thursdays on their blog and I figured it was a good idea especially with Thanskgiving coming up. Technically it is not Thursday for another hour, but I might not get to it if I wait until tomorrow.

Some Blessings I have to be Thankful for this week are:

1. I was thinking this past week with Beck breaking his leg how grateful I am that I can drive less than 10 minutes to get his leg X-rayed and splinted and that I have all the pain reliever I need for my kids at home, but if I had to I could drive less than 5 minutes and have access to quite a few different medications. I am so thankful for great medical care that is very accessable.
2. Having Beck be slightly incapacitated has made me reflect on what it would be like if I were in his situation. How awful to be a mother with two small children to take care of and not be able to walk without crutches. It would be such an ordeal just to go to the bathroom (we are in a split level home and the bathrooms are all upstairs). I just don't see how I could take care of my family and I am so glad I do not have to be in Beck's situation or have any other disabilities for that matter.
3. I am grateful for the priesthood and that my husband is able to bless our family when needed. It is something I sometimes take for granted until my son is in pain from his broken leg or some other need is present. I am thankful to have a worthy priesthood holder in my home.
4. I am teaching Sunday on a one of President Monson's first talks as the prophet. It reminds me how grateful I am to have a prophet to guide us and to be able to meet together as a world wide church twice a year to hear our prophet and other leaders speak to us. We had Stake Conference last month as well and we recently renewed our temple recommends which makes me appreciate all that our local leaders do to strengthen us.
5. I am so grateful for the priveledge of being a mother and having my two wonderful children and to be able to welcome a new baby girl soon. I am grateful that children are so forgiving because I make a lot of mistakes. I know I am being especially irritable if Kate is telling me "I love you mom" all the time. It is her way of saying "Geez mom you sure are onery, but I love you anyway." I have been especially tired and irritable this week so I am hearing that a lot.
6. I am grateful that with the difficult economic situation we are able to provide for the temporal needs of our family. I am grateful to have a husband who is a great provider that allows me to stay home to rear our children.
7. I am Thankful for the beautiful weather we have had this week. We have been able to go on some walks and play outside which has been helpful in trying to keep Beck entertained and I need the exercise anyway. All the sunshine really lifts my spirits. I love the snow too, but I hate the cold. Too bad we can't have the snow without the cold.
8. I am grateful for all my thoughtful neighbors who have been checking on me and making sure we are doing okay with Beck's injury and sharing in the excitement of our baby.
9. I am grateful for this wonderful country we have to live in and the freedoms we enjoy. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to vote recently and that we are safe from genocide, civil wars, dictators and extreme human suffering found in countries like Africa and Haiti.
10. I am most thankful for the atonement and the opportunity I have to repent, be forgiven and try again. I am grateful that it can ease my physical and emotional pains and sicknesses as well as my shortcomings and sins.

Beck's Bad Luck

Beck has had a rough week. Poor guy was up all night Thursday night throwing up. I know throw up smells bad, but I could not believe how bad it was and I am guessing it must be the pregancy enhancing the smell like 10X. I still think I am smelling throw up on occasion because I have the memory of it. Well, Friday I decided to make a special dinner which was going to take several hours and I had Beck sitting on a stool at the counter watching and eating snacks when I suddenly saw him slip out of view. I ran around to get him as quickly as possible and he screamed and screamed and screamed and fell asleep, woke up and screamed some more. I was pretty sure after about 10 minutes that he had broken something. He was so upset he could not even tell me or indicate what hurt. Finally he started protecting his leg by putting his hand in the air above his shin as I was moving my hands over his body trying to figure out where he was hurt. There was no bruising or noticable swelling. I tried to see if he could stand and he refused. As soon as I got all the food out of the oven and off the stove and the kids ready, daddy came home and we headed to the ER. After a couple hours they X-rayed the area and then after like another hour of two the Dr. came back and told us he had a compression fracture on both the Tibia and Fibula. Then about another 1/2 hour to hour later they came and splinted it. What a horrible way to spend a Friday night. We have to go back next week for a real cast. He has a splint from his toes to the mid thigh and will have to have the cast the same way for about 6 weeks. If he wasn't so young they would have given him crutches to use since he cannot walk or put any weight on the leg at all. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and amazingly slept all the way through the night. He was pretty mad when he woke up with the splint this morning. He was taking his rage out on the splint by hitting the splint saying "leg broke". Then when the medicine would start to wear off he would whine, "leg hurts". He keeps forgetting that he can't use that leg and he will try to slide off the couch and then realize he can't stand up and walk away like normal, so he just has to cry for me to come and get him. He can't really manuver very well yet, but he is starting to roll around on the groung or scootch on his bum to play with toys. He actually did pretty well in the bath even though it was only like 2 inches of water. He played with his toys and didn't want to get out.
It is going to be an interesting 6 weeks trying to keep him entertained. Hopefully he won't have any more bad luck.

Baby Brother or Baby Sister?

It's a Girl!!!!!!

We had our perinatal ultra-sound today and we found out we are expecting a baby girl. She was being very shy and even kept both arms in front of her face almost the whole time.
Needless to say we didn't really get any good face shots except when her one eyeball was poking out between her arms which makes for a kind of creepy picture.

The only other really good picture we got was the one of the bottom of her foot. Soooo Cute! They checked her brain, heart, kindneys, spine, and so on and everything looked great. Her growth is right on schedule and everything was the way it is expected to be. She already weighs 10 ounces.
Kate is very excited to have a baby sister. She really wanted one of both, but we kept telling her there is only one in mommy's tummy.
I finally grew out of my last pair of pants, so it will have to be stictly maternity pants from now on. I am in the awkward stage where I just look fat and not really pregnant. I think the most pregant looking part of me is my rear end. I tried on nursing bras since mine is shot from nursing two kids already and they are too big. I don't think that is fair to be so disporportionate :(. Here is another embarasing thing about my pregnant body. The ultra sound tech thought I had had a cesearing delivery, but I just reassured her that they were only stretch marks. Pretty sad when your stretch marks are so deep, large, and dark that a stranger mistakes them for surgical scars. I guess I won't be doing any binkini modeling in the future ;). Well, I am relieved to know what we are having especially the obesessive compulsive over planner in me who has been wanting to organize all my baby clothes for weeks now. My husband's resonse after we were driving home in the car was "Well, I guess the names Desmond and Jude are out" (he is a huge Beatles fan). He won't admit it, but he is just joking. Any help with names would be great. My husband will probably just suggest some musicians name like Jewel or even worse Bjork.

The faith of little children

Kate has been so excited about the changing of the leaves and has really wanted to jump in piles of leaves. She says, "I just love to play in the leaves". We don't have any trees, but a few baby ones so we don't have much as far as leaves except what blows on to our lawn from the neighbors trees. The nice fall days seem to be fewer and farther between, but we did get one opportunity to play in the leaves. It was fun practicing with our new camera trying to catch some actions shots and the color and lighting were great.

Beck mostly enjoyed inspecting every leaf and he seemed so serious most of the time, but he finally started to understand that it is fun to throw them up into the air.

Kate has been in the "why" phase for some time now. She is always asking questions like "why does the wind blow?" and the dreaded questions like "how did the baby get in your tummy?" or "how will the baby get out of your stomach? Lately she has been asking "why do the leaves fall off the tree?" I usually give her as honest and correct of answers as I can and sometimes I encourage her to answer the questions herself. She tends to ask the same questions over and over again. I don't know how many times I have told her that the leaves need to fall off the tree so that when the snows come the trees won't break from the weight of the leaves and the snow. Kate came up with her own answer and I liked her answer much better. One day out of the blue Kate made the comment that Heavenly Father makes the leaves change colors and fall off the trees so she can play and jump in them. How true that is that He created this Earth in part for our enjoyment because HE LOVES US! He wants us to be happy and find joy in the simple things of life like the beauty of the earth and the changing seasons. I also thought it was great that she feels she is important enough to her Father in Heaven that he would do it just for her. He knows Kate personally and individually and what makes her happy. How pure the faith of the child who knows these simple truths automatically unlike many of us adults who need to constantly remind ourselves that He loves Us and we are important to him. Why is it so hard for us to believe? Why do we doubt his love for us? I think this is one reason we are commanded to become like little children.

Shortly after this experience I overheard Kate telling her brother "Beck did you know you are a child of God?" How sweet this was for me to hear. I love to watch the special bond that is developing between Kate and Beck. Kate is a pretty good big sister and she loves having a little brother. She has even said that she wants the next baby to be another baby brother. She is always saying "Beck is so cute" or "I love Beck". They are very affectionate with each other also. I think it is funny how protective Beck is of Kate as well. When Kate is in trouble, Beck gets mad at me for disciplining her. It upsets him to see Kate upset. They fight a lot over toys, but they also really enjoy playing together and are quick to forgive each other. It will be interesting to see how Beck responds to the new baby. He is quite a momma's boy and it will be hard for him to have to share me with a new baby. I am not so worried about Kate she is already saying she loves the baby and she has even tried to help us come up with names.

Halloween

I know that it is only the first of November, but I have already come up with a new year's resolution for myself for next year. I tend to over plan and over complicate things especially holidays and that is how this halloween was for me. Way more work than necessary. I added way more stress than I really needed to and it takes away from the enjoyment of holidays and family vacations. I don't think I have the energy anymore to drag my kids to so many different relatives homes, so everyone can see them in their costumes and especially not when I have three kids. I have tried to visit my grandmas and have my family meet me there, but every year I end up having to leave as they are arriving so I can make it to my in-laws where my kids usually trick-or-treat with cousins. I love visiting my grandma, but I will just have to find other times to visit with her when things are so hectic and rushed. Here is Beck and my grandma. It was a challenge to get my kids to keep their costumes on especially Beck's spider hat.

Eli made Kate's costume it is a Japanese cartoon monster (perhaps you've seen it around Target or on line) the name is Domo Coon (I know I spelled it wrong since I spelled it phonetically and didn't bother researching the actually spelling). He also adjusted Beck's costume to give him longer spider legs and to make the legs move with his arms. I think they turned out pretty cute. Kate was originally going to be princess Belle, but then her cousin told her she needed to be something scarry so she picked Domo Coon (she had seen it as daddy's picture for his instant messager). she decided after having to walk around in the Domo Coon costume all night and falling over several times that next year she would rather be princess Belle.

Beck was very excited about all the candy and he couldn't even wait until we got back to Nana & Papa before he had to eat some. He has such a sweet tooth and loves treats and "Nandy". Everytime he sees his halloween bucket around the house he starts yelling "Nandy". He is pretty persistent when he wants something. It is much harder to say no to him than it is to Kate.

He is getting to be a pretty good talker and he is now talking in little sentences. One of the first sentences he learned was "Kate did it" and of course if we ask who wants a treat? or something like that they we hear Beck yell "I do". He is obsessed with cars and he knows which ones are "little cars" he also knows the names of many colors even though he doesn't always match up the correct name and color. I was surprised by that because I have not even attempted to teach him any colors yet. One time I was tickling and nibbling on him and he stuck his foot in my face and said "bite it". I am just amazed he is talking so much at 20 months old especially since he is a boy and they are usually a little slower with their speech. He is also becoming quite the singer and he walks around the house all day singing incomprehensible songs to himself. He even tries to sing along to songs in the car. Well, I am getting off the halloween topic, but it seems like I never have enough time to blog about all the things I want or need to blog about.

My youngest brother-in-law who will be 16 next month and some of my nephews decided to do a haunted house in the back yard. I think they all really enjoyed it even in the rain and wind. Halloween was exhausting for me, but I think the kids had fun and that is the most important thing. Next year I am going to relax and simplify things. I think I will have to with the addition of a third child (only seven months old by next halloween). I did go shopping the day after Halloween and I noticed that the stores and radio stations are already playing christmas music. I also noticed the stores didn't even have the school supplies put away and all the halloween stuff up before they started putting up a few Christmas things. I guess the retail industry doesn't want to even give you a break to breathe after halloween before they start stressing you out with the worry of being ready for Christmas.

Tuesday Tell All

For those of you who haven't heard of Tuesday tell all. It is a blog that gives you journaling ideas for your blogs and the address is Tuesday-tell-all.blogspot.com. Anyway, I rarely end up blogging on Tuesday or the topic they have chosen doesn't particularly appeal to me. However since it is still Tuesday and the topic is Halloween traditions I thought I'd give it a try.

Halloween is one of those holidays where you usually find a couple of opportunities to celebrate. Our ward always had a halloween carnival put on by the young women and Young men. Then their was the elementary school carnival not to mention my birthday parties.
As a young child my parents always took me and my siblings to my grandmas house. She would make Chili and rolls and then we would head out for some trick-or-treating. She lives in a mobile home court which is a huge advantage for halloween with the homes so close together you can get a lot of candy in a short amount of time. We would also hit our own neighborhood when we were done. Then it was home to sort and count all the goodies.

when I got older, it was fun to be in charge of the carnivals and also to do go to halloween parties, dances and haunted houses. There was one stake halloween dance in high school where some guy asked me to slow dance to the song "forever young" by Alphaville. I guess that ages me a bit. Anyway, he had very bad hygeine and bad breath and he was singing the song to me while I was trying to hold my breath. I felt bad but I almost darted away from him at the end to get some fresh air. I was never much for haunted houses (the chain saw dudes and being in closed in spaces freaked me out). I usually ended up punching a few of the actors who came too close and falling down a lot. I went to a corn maze only once a few years ago and it was raining buckets and the mud was up to the mid calf. Pretty miserable!

Now that I have my own children we usually do the pumpkin patch thing that I mentioned last time and this year we went to the Syracuse pumpkin walk. they have volunteers carve hundreds of pumpkins and then they light them and line them up for everyone to come walk through and see all the creations. We usually spend halloween with my in-laws. There are lots of cousins all the same age to play together and trick-or-treat together. It is pretty casual but it is nice that Eli has a big family and that most of them are close. We always miss the cousins in Phoenix and Denver on the holidays though. Hopefully we will have lots of fun memories and new traditions to come. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin Carving

We usually like to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, but this year since the weather was bad and we were out of town during the pumpkin patch times we just had to get them from the grocery store. I was kind of disappointed because I like my kids to have the little tractor ride and to be able to see the fields where the pumpkins grow (plus they give you some pumpkins free). Oh well.

Kate was able to participate a little more this year since she drew the face on the small pumpkin and daddy carved it out.

Eli wasn't really looking forward to the pumpkin carving so he kept the designs pretty simple this year. Kate also drew a little picture of a skeleton that she was very proud of and I am sure she got the idea from the cute skeleton T-shirt her aunt Dani made her. Beck liked seeing the inside of the pumpkins with all the seeds and stuff. He is also my little helper so he enjoyed helping scrape out the inside with my help of course. Kate can't let her little brother show her up, so of course she had to join in on the scaping of the pumpkins as well. Here you can see the finished products. I was glad we didn't show up well (or at least me since my hormones have made my face look more like it did when I was a teenager). I think my favorite part of the night was the Ben and Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake ice cream. I highly recommend it and it is on sale for $2.50 right now at wal-mart. Although I went back to my neighborhood wal-mart to find more and they were sold out. I probably shouldn't be admitting that :).

Heber Valley Camp

These are pictures from Oct. 10-11th when we went with some of Eli's family to the Heber Valley Camp. We had never been up there and we thought it would be nice to stay in the cabins with family and do some of the activities like the zip line. Unfortunately the weather decided otherwise and the activities were cancelled because of the snow. It was a nice drive, the scenery was beautiful, and the cabins stayed nice and warm with the space heaters. The kids loved the snow as long as they could stand the cold and then it was back inside to warm up.

I had to buy new winter coats and they are a little big, but at least they'll probably last two years. Beck figured out real quick that snow is fun to eat.

Kate loved spending time with her cousins. We were so glad Dani and Tom and their kids could come. We've missed them so much since they moved to Denver. Here are Brookie, Kate and Jennie enjoying the campsite as it started snowing. You can see part of the cabins and beautiful colors in the background.

Bacon Wrapped grease filled donuts anyone?

The guys were feeling adventurous (that or the cold air was getting to their brains) and they decided to try a new culinary creation with the left over breakfast. They thought as most guys do, "bacon wrapped anything is good and there are some left over mini donuts so lets try it." The left over donuts soaked up the bacon grease in the pan like a spounge which was not as good as they thought it might be. However later that night we had a couples mystery dinner party and the bacon wrapped cream cheese jalapeno poppers Candi and Kelly made were delicious!

The Heber Valley Camp was a fun experience even though it took me several days to recover from the sleep deprevation and to unpack the car.

Zucchini Bread & Zucchini Cookies

The only thing I really got out of my garden this year was the zucchini and a very few tomatoes. I was getting sick of eating cooked zucchini and decided to make some zucchini bread. I thought it has been a while since I have posted a recipe so here goes.
This is a Betty Crocker recipe with a few adjustments I liked from another recipe.
The original recipe called for 2 2/3 C. white Sugar which I changed to 1 C brown sugar and 1 2/3 C. white sugar. The original recipe also called for 2/3 Cup shortening and I changed that to 1/3 C. butter and 1/3 cup shortening (next time I might try it with all butter). I also added an additional tsp of vanilla.

Zucchini Bread
Heat oven to 350. Grease loaf pans.
Mix: 1 2/3 C white sugar, 1 C brown sugar, 1/3 C shortening and 1/3 C butter.
Stir in: 3 C shredded zucchini, 2/3 C water, 4 eggs.
Mix in: 3 1/3 C flour, 2 tsp baking soda. 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 3 tsp vanilla & 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Optional: stir in 2/3 C nuts or rasins if desired. Bake 60-70 minutes.
Pumpkin Bread adujustment: substitute 16 oz. of pumpkin for the zucchini and omit the vanilla and bake 70 min.

This bread was a very nice consistency smooth and soft as well as tasty.

Another zucchini bread recipe I enjoy is called Zion Zucchini Bread and I am not sure where it comes from, but it is made with chocolate chips. My husband prefers the first recipe with the smoother consistency, but if you love sweets and chocolate this might be a good one to try.

Zion Zucchini Bread
Blend together: 1 C sugar
3 eggs
3 t vanilla
1 C brown sugar
1 C oil
2 C grated zucchini
Add 1/2 cup nuts or chocolate chips
Stir together: 3 C flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tst baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 3 tsp cinnamon.
grease & four pans. Bake at 325 until toothpick comes out clean.

This bread was also good, but with the chocolate chips it was a little denser and I liked that it had a kind of crusty outside and soft on inside.

Here is one last Zucchni recipe from a neighbor. I haven't tried this one but I have tried a lot of things she makes and I have never been disappointed. I wish I could try this one out too, but with the snow ending the growing season a little prematurely I will have to wait until next year.

Zucchini Cookies:
Beat Together:
2 cups sugar
1 cup Crisco
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp allspice or cloves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Add:
2 cups shredded zucchini- (beat in)
4 cups flour
Optional-1 cup butterscotch or chocolate chips (mixed in batter) or frost with chocolate frosting after baking. Scoop onto baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Enjoy!

October

October is one of my favorite months! when I was younger I loved it because it was my sisters and my birthday month, Halloween, and I loved playing in all the fall leaves. Kassie's birthday is actually today. I hope she has a great birthday-she deserves it. We didn't get along too well when we were children. I was a big time spoiled brat! I wish I could go back and do it better because I was so wrapped up in myself that I didn't really appreciate having such a great sister until I got older. I am glad I finally realized my mistake and became more mature and less full of myself, so I could eventually have a good relationship that I have with her today. I love my sister and I am so glad to have her in my life. She is so compassionate, thoughtful and such a good listener. She is always so supportive of me and my family. This picture of her is a few years old. It was hard for me to find a picture with just her alone because she is always helping he own daughter with something or holding and playing with one of her nieces or nephews. She is always thinking of others and quietly helping and serving them without being asked or needing any recognition. she is a great example to me and I hope I can develop some of her strengths.

In addition to the reasons above I also love October because I love to change my warddrobe for the cooler weather and watch the colors change. I love being able to got outside and play with kids without getting all sweaty and overheated. I also love the harvest time and being able to see the rewards of all my summer gardening and feeling resourceful as I do my best to can or bake a few things here and there. My garden has been pretty pathetic this year because our soil quality is so poor. It is basically straight sand and I tried to put enough garden top soil in when I planted the plants and I fertilized as well, but it wasn't enough to improve the quality-at least not for the tomatoes. I have been quite jealous of some of my friends gardens. Catherine and Valerie I am open to any of your suggestions. I doubt next year I will even be able to do a garden with a new baby. Anyway, I was picking some of my vegetables and Kate thought they might like a chance to swing on the swing. I think it is funny how she attibutes human feelings to things like vegetables.

Another reason to love October is the chance to listen to conference. I must be so deprived of the spirit in my busy mom life because just the music alone was almost overwhelming to me-especially the primary choir. I noticed Kate paid much more attention when the kids sang and she asked a lot of questions about the songs. That made it more meaningful as well. I definitely had a greater desire to improve on my prayers and I plan on trying to have some prayers that are just full of gratitude without asking for anything. I also know I need to study my scriptures better individually and as a family. I want to attend the temple more and make greater efforts to be reverent during sacrament meeting. I had never really considered it to be similar to the temple. I can't believe the nerve of some people texting or making phone calls though (at least I am not that bad). I also need to make sure I am living in the moment and using humor to deal with life challenges instead of getting all stressed out. It was also very humbling to me to hear the stories of members around the world, pioneers, and Joseph Smith. There were so many good messages and I tried to focus but with my kids needing attention and my own fatigue I know I missed a lot, so I am excited to be able to study the talks again when they come out in the Ensign.

Happenings

Well like many others I finally got sucked into the Twilight Series obsession which means I have gotten behind on blogging, housework, etc. Here are a few happenings that have been going on in my life. First I had my grandmother (Anna Hart's) 88th birthday party. Here is one of my favorite pictures of her with Kate.

The next day I had my nieces Emma and Bella's 2 year birthday parties. That is always a wonderful occasion because they are miracles and everytime I see them I am reminded of the Mercy, love and blessings that Heavenly Father granted us with their arrival. These identical twins shared a placenta and the blood flow and there was a complication fairly early on where the blood flow was going almost exclusively to one baby (Bella) and the other was not getting enough to maintain the amniotic fluid (Emma). Bella was the one at most risk for death or diability with too much blood pressure damaging her heart and possibly her brain. She had two amniotic fluid reductions hoping that would correct the problem, but they didn't work so we had to fly to San Francisco to allow her to have her placental arteries lasered correcting the blood flow problem. If the in utero condition wasn't hostile enough now the reductions and surgeries added even more risks. However, it was surgery or certain death for Bella and possible Emma as well. Thankfully the surgery was a success and amazingly all of Bella's heart problems reversed themselves in the following month. They were born 7 weeks early though, but they are doing amazingly well considering all they went through before they even made it to this earth. I was going to get individual pictures of them at their parties, but I forgot my camera. This picture is from Easter. It is amazing that they don't have any complications like brain or heart damage or that they even lived. We are so happy to have these precious girls in our family!

One of my good college friends Mary got married and I am so happy for her. The theme of the wedding video was worth the wait. She was 35 and he is I believe 39.

This past week one of my long time childhood friends Maren (34) got married also and I forgot my camera again. She looked beautiful and it was so fun to see her and all my neighborhood and highschool friends I hadn't see probably since my wedding.

I have another friend Maggie who was the Relief Society President in my student ward with me after the mission who is getting married the second week of October. I will be out of town and probably have to miss the reception. I am so happy for her since she is also in her thirties I believe.
At Maren's reception I chatted with a long time neighborhood friend about her daughter who is 25 and starting to worry about marriage and I still have a lot of single friends in their thirties who are living ful lives without their eternal companion. I know that is sometimes very difficult for them and I hope they will have the opportunity like these three friends of mine have had. I love them all so much and I am proud of them for all they have accomplished, their positive attitude and I am grateful to share in their joy when some of them do find their mate.

With all this celebrating you can see why I was on the pie and cake diet.

Pregnancy Dreams

Many of you have experienced the ultra vivid and strange pregnancy dreams. Well, I am beginning to have some of those dreams. Most of the time I wake up thinking I know I had a really wierd dream, but I can't remember it. However after last week's overindulgence in sweets I finally got back on the wagon and was not eating any treats during the day. The problem is now I am dreaming about ice cream. I dreamt about chocolate Sundays, Banana splits, and floats. I just can't stop thinking about treats even in the night when I am asleep.

I promise my next entry will have nothing to do with pregnancy and food :)

My weekend diet

This weekend I thought I'd try the pie and cake diet. Kate has been asking us for pumpkin pie everyday for over a week, so we finally decided to make it for her. Then add Beck's oreos since he can't eat pie, two birthday parties and a wedding and you get the pie and cake diet. Here is the diet.
Friday
Lunch: cheesecake
Bedtime snack: Oreos
Saturday
Breakfast: pumpkin pie
Lunch: Cheesecake
Dinner: Ice cream cake
Sunday
Breakfast: pumpkin pie
Lunch: Birthday cake

This is not all. I also ate full meals before endulging in the desserts. The sad part is you know you are eating way too many sweets when after consuming them you think "that didn't even really taste good to me" and "I really didn't need to eat that" It was like the part of my brain that tells you when you need to stop and that you are overindulging was completely shut off. I felt like I was on the eating autopilot. My brain was just telling me to eat everything in front of me without thinking about it at all. Hopefully I can't stop myself and get back on track before it is too late. This weekend was a major setback and hopefully I can prevent that from happening again.

End of Summer

Since the end of summer is just a few days away, I thought I'd post some pictures of the nice summer days we had at the parks. We are lucky to have some nice parks in our area and neighbors who organized specific days and times for moms to be able to socialize while their kids played together.

Beck's favorite activities were playing in the wood chips and stealing other kid's balls.
We had a little 24th of July parade with decorated bikes, noise makers etc. They had a lot of fun racing around the playground in their parade.
Beck didn't enjoy the parade as much as the bigger kids. He was a little bit of a party pooper.
The other thing I will really miss about summer is swimming in grandpa's pool. Beck finally started enjoying it and would even put his face in the water to blow bubbles. The last day we went swimming he cried everytime I tried to take him out. Hopefully we won't have to start all over again next year with acclamating him to the water.