Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Expanded

My friend, Laura, taught our family the tradition of making gingerbread houses and we have loved it, so this year, now that I live close to most of little nieces and nephews, I decided to have a gingerbread house party as my Christmas gift to my nieces and nephews also giving three hours of children free time to my brothers, sister and their spouses. It was so much fun!!!
Busy at work. Thanks to Grandma and Aunt M. who came to help.

Is that Uncle Dave trying to steal some candy?!?

We ended up with 11 cute mini gingerbread houses. When their parents came back, it was fun to see if they could guess which house belonged to their child. A new tradition has arrived. Maybe next year, we'll try bigger houses and a night for mom's to make a house.

My Santa Days are Numbered

We went to the Festival of Trees and saw that Santa was there, so I asked the kids if they wanted to talk to him.

Nicole, "Uh, No!"

Beka, "Not"

Davy, "No, Thanks"

Darci, "What? Santa? Nah"

Elisabeth, "YES"

Mom, "The line is really long."

Elisabeth, "That's okay."

So Elisabeth and I stood in line for 45 minutes for her to sit on Santa's lap and tell him her wish list. It was worth it though, because she told me he is the real Santa. She could tell because his beard was real and there was real fur on his coat. And it was worth it for me because this might be the last year any of my children will want to talk to Santa. :(

Wheelin' Jazz

David took me to watch my brother-in-law, Jason, play basketball on Friday night. Woo Hoo! A date! Jason plays for the Wheelin’ Jazz basketball team. We don't get to watch him very often because they play in tournaments all over the country, but they hosted one here in Salt Lake this weekend. We watched them play the #1 team from Dallas and then a team from LA. The Jazz are 3rd in the nation out of about 200 teams. It is fun to watch, but also pretty brutal. It’s amazing how physical they are with their chairs crashing into each other all the time. Can you imagine shooting baskets sitting down? Jason is on the left in the picture above. Here is a link to his team profile. Check it out and help Jason get most popular page on their site. :)
http://www.wheelinjazz.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24:jason-hokansons-profile&catid=47&Itemid=16

Best Food Storage Site

If you're interested in food storage, check-out this website. It has great tips and ideas for planning, storing and eating food storage. I used their 7-day challenge scenarios at a Relief Society activity and we had a fun time realizing where we're prepared and where we could use a little more work.
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

This week in our Life

Liberty Girls at the Hutchings Museum where we participated in a Molly mystery.


Nicole's Birthday
Two of her friends came and "decorated" her room before she got home from school.

Her favorite meal: chicken alfredo on angel hair pasta with sundried tomato baguettes, salad and broccoli. Okay, the broccoli was my idea.

Pretty dress from Grandma. She loves it. Wore it to church today.

Silly, happy children. Tip of the day: if your cake falls apart when you're taking it out of the pans, just cut it into cubes and layer it with ganache in a trifle bowl. I used evaporated milk and it turned out delicious!

David thought Darci's ice-cream antics were picture worthy.

October Pictures

We love our Brother

Last night, Darci and Elisabeth were helping clear the table after dinner and they decided to make up a plate for Davy to eat when he got home from football practice. They put the food on a plate, covered it with a pot lid and left some notes on post-its.

"Dear Davy in joy" "it's yum withe salt and suer creme" "You can put salt and pepr on it" "this is for you :-) Love B.D.E." "thre is food undr the pan if you want" "did you have fun yes/no" "Plese ansr the stiky nost"

Notwithstanding the realization our spelling needs a little work around here, I thought it was terribly cute!! Thanks for thinking of your brother, girls.

First: Day of School, Football Game, cookies

School arrived! Everyone around here was pretty excited. They all liked their classes and had a good day. Elisabeth was happy she had three recesses and was excited about lunch at school. Darci was happy she had her own desk and no homework. Davy was glad he got to decorate his journal with motorcycles. Beka was happy to have a locker all to herself. Nicole liked her teachers.
Davy played his first football game on Saturday. The coaches have done a great job helping the kids learn their responsibilities. It was super hot, but they just kept on giving it their all. Davy plays almost the whole time as offensive left tackle, defensive nose guard, and on the punt and kick-off teams. He got a few great tackles, but most of the time kept two or three guys busy at the line so the QB could make good passes.

I took Darci and Elisabeth shopping yesterday to spend their gift cards they got for their birthdays. Darci bought a soccer ball and Elisabeth got playdough which they used to make me these cookies. They are great- no calories!

Grandma's House

We took a family outing to my Grandma's house two weeks ago. We had a nice time visiting with Grandma and helping her with some household stuff. David mowed the lawn and the girls helped shine things up inside. And then we played. I let Grandma entertain me while the kids rode ATVs with Dad and swam in the creek. Nicole, as usual, had her nose in a book. I had to take a photo of her reading on the swing-set, because you could have found me in the exact spot 25 or so years ago. And probably my mother before that, and my grandmother, would have read there preswing. It's the same ground my family has ranched for over 100 years.
I feel something deep and reverenced when I think of that. There's something intensely personal about standing on a piece of ground marked with greatness. Isn't that part of the reason people travel to Jerusalem or Mecca or Cumorah? To feel the atmosphere of the place someone great once walked? To feel as if you're seeing the same skyline, breathing the same air, touching the same soil? For me, being at Grandma's house is the tangible reality of the family history making me me.

It's Harvest Time!

YUMMY

We're not only harvesting in the garden, though. We're also trying to harvest up some end of summer fun. On Tuesday, I took the kids to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It's pretty cool. Lots of things to see and do and learn. It's awe inspiring to stand underneath a huge plant eater. (Yeah, I'm bad with dino names. Pretty much only know the main ones in Jurassic Park). Mary and Josh came with us and Mary and I decided it was a shame we hadn't been camping, so we went up American Fork canyon with the kids on Wednesday and camped. It rained all night, but we stayed dry and still had fun. Although, I have to say, camping is much more fun if you can have at least one day in between the loading up and unpacking. I forgot my camera otherwise I would post a picture. Mary took Darci and Bekah back to her house to help her setup her classroom and I went school supply shopping. Love all those school things the smell of paper and pencil lead.
This doesn't really fit under the category of summer fun, but three of us have been bitten by wasps this week. Poor husband's face is swollen up huge. Ouch! He's hoping ice-cream will cure it. It might for him. For me, ice-cream tends to have the opposite effect on my cheeks!

Elisabeth's Funny

Due to Davy's football practice, I didn't get home until about 8:40 tonight, so it was after nine by the time Elisabeth read to me. We were sitting on my bed and I noticed how dirty her face and hands were, so I got a wash cloth and wiped her up. Then I noticed her legs and feet. They were dirty, too. This girl really needed a bath, but I was too tired and it was too late, so I just wiped them off with the cloth, too. As I was finishing, Elisabeth looked up from her book and said, "Aw, man! I thought I was tan!" Totally cracked me up.

One is Silver and the other is Gold

Deciding to move with older children is complicated. Three and even eight year olds will play with just about anyone; they just dive right in and have fun, but these older, more self-aware children tend to be a little more wary. Consequently, as a mom, I worry and hope and feel anxious that they will make some good friends who will compliment our family values and be positive influences in their lives. So far it's going great. We have wonderful neighbors who have really welcomed my kids. Great silver friends.

But it's also nice to go back and visit gold friends. The ones you have lots in common with because you've shared so many common experiences. We're having lots of fun visiting our old friends for the 24th of July Pioneer Days. This is Aubree and Raina who look especially smashing tonight after opening night of the Broadway Review. Thanks for being such good friends!!!

A Much Needed Reminder

Do you ever just get too caught up in all the options? I mean, there are just so many opportunities. Right now, Nicole is taking piano lessons, Bekah is taking piano and clogging, they both have young womens, Davy is playing football and has scouts, Darci and Elisabeth are taking a break this summer, but have both been involved with Liberty Girls and other classes. Just these things keep us pretty hoppin', but I also want my children to have lots of varied cultural and spiritual and social experiences. I want them to go to camps and simulations and classes, and... the opportunites are all there. I could seriously pack our schedule everyday with places to go and things to do. I've really been stressing about this lately as I've contemplated what kind of schooling to do this fall. I mean to the point of missing sleep. There are just so many options, all with their pros and cons.

So I was so grateful for the loving reminder Kris gave me while she was visiting. She said, "You know, I just remember my main goal is to raise worthy priesthood holders and righteous daughters of God." As soon as those words came out of her mouth, a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders. That is the point. That is the one goal, that left in my sights, will keep me focused and fade all the periphery distractions. Thanks, Kris. I needed the reminder.

Strawberry Jam and a Twist

I love making jam for my family. It tastes so much better than store bought and I love how it looks in my pantry. This spring I made a bunch of strawberry jam. Sarah, my sister, and April, my sil, came over and we had a strawberry party. I like to buy the low/no sugar pectin and add only two cups of sugar. The result isn't as shiny and bright as full sugar, but it has a much truer flavor and I feel so much better about feeding it to my family. Normal jam recipes have MORE sugar than fruit. Sarah brought a recipe for strawberry syrup that is so good on Dave's killer crepes. My kitchen was one sticky mess by the end of the day, but the results are so worth the clean-up.
So now the twist, Zucchini Jam. I participate in a monthly preparedness class with ladies from church and was asked to do a class on what to do with summer squash. So I pulled out the recipes my good friend Laura gave me and found this one for Strawberry Zucchini Jam. I think I made it once years ago when Dave and I were first married, but I used the whole squash and it wasn't that great. This time I peeled the zucchini and scooped out the seeds and liked it a whole lot better. In fact, a lady that came to the class swearing she could never eat any squash, was brave enough to try it, and said it was okay. It's not as good as the real thing, but does taste and smell like strawberry jam. I was thinking of making a batch with a green color of kool-aid for St. Patrick's. Would that be weird? Here's the recipe:
Strawberry Zucchini Jam
6 C grated zucchini
1 can crushed pineapple
1/2 C lemon juice
2 C water
1 pkg pectin
1 pkg strawberry kool-aid
Mix in a large saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil. Add
8 C sugar
Bring back to a full boil and boil for 4 minutes. Process in pint jars. Makes about 6 pints.

Summer Visits

It's been so great to have my sister from Texas visiting this summer. She and her five kids came for our family reunion and will go home Saturday after girl's camp. She's been spending a lot of time with our Grandma compiling family history and recording stories, so we haven't spent tons of time together, but enough that we wish they didn't live so far away. Last night, three of my girls and two of my nieces decided to sleep out on the tramp. The result?
No, not multiple sprains: Little girls covered in mosquito bites, despite our dousing them with repellent. Guess it doesn't last all night. To keep them from scratching their bites to a bloody pulp, we've resorted to the ace bandage treatment. Anyone have a better suggestion?

After Father's Day, David's only sister and her two girls came for a visit.They were here for Lehi Days. Is that the right name? We went to the parade and I was so impressed. I'm used to the quaint charm of small town parades where you see the same horse teams and vintage cars year after year, so the amazing floats and marching bands were a fun change. The kids were just glad they threw candy.

Last week, my cousin's wife, Kris, who is one of my greatest friends ever and had the audacity to move to Washington, came to stay for a couple of nights with her three youngest while her oldest was at EFY. We had a great time. She's the kind of friend you can talk to for hours and never run out of things to say and wish you could go on indefinitely, but you know, we have to sleep sometimes now that we're older. We took the kids to BYU for the afternoon: went to the creamery, the fine arts museum and the natural history museum. Living so close, you forget what a big deal BYU is to members outside of Utah. I guess we take the things closest to us for granted sometimes.


Summer is 1/2 over now, and I'm tired from lack of sleep because I want to spend every minute I can with family and friends who only pass through my life in person during the summer. I'm sad that part is winding down, but I'm glad I have the rest of the summer to hang with the family that lives with me. And geesh! I better schedule a haircut ASAP! Dave has always had a thing for Farrah, but those feathered bangs are a little much.

Independence Day

While David was visiting Heather and Grandma P., Bekah and I attended all the usual festivities at Grandma True's. The parade was sort of slow this year, but the family and food were great as usual.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Some of the most meaningful, society changing words every written.

For the third year in a row Nicole has attended Simulation Week (previously called Con-Con, short for Constitutional Convention). Kids from all over come and use Roberts Rules of Order and Parliamentary Procedure to enact a simulation of some kind. This year Nicole went with my niece, Sariah. They had a good time writing legislation and getting to know the other kids. One night they held a formal banquet. Nicole and Sariah borrowed dresses from Mike's wife, Tiffany. I thought they looked great and way too grown up.