Catching Up...Post 4: Las Vegas Trips

We have been to visit my sister and brother and their families in Las Vegas a couple of times so far this summer. My sister has a pool and the kids LOVE, and I think that is an understatement, to go swimming. I think they spent 6 hours everyday we were there in the pool. They swam so much they had rubbed themselves raw in several places from their life jackets. They also rubbed the skin off their fingers and feet. Allison's feet still aren't healed completely and it has been over a week. But they didn't care...they just wanted to be in the water.

They just jumped in all day. They taught themselves how to do front flips and back flips...well maybe more like back flops. At one point, Austin said to just call him 'Diving DeMille.' Then he dove down in the water and came back up a half second later, choking and coughing on water. It was kind of funny.

One of the cool things about metropolitan areas is the shopping. My sister took us to a HUGE out door mall called "Towne Square." They had a really neat park in the center. I didn't know it had water or we would have come a little more prepared but they had fun anyway and didn't mind getting their clothes a little wet.

Asher didn't really want to play in the water even thought it was 200 degrees outside. OK, more like 112, but still too hot to NOT want to get wet. His poor little face was turning so red (unfortunately one of the traits inherited from his mother). I finally just took him and ran him through the sprinklers to cool him off a little which he didn't like. But at least I knew he wouldn't have heat stroke anymore.

They had this cool maze for the kids to go through. It was a perfect height for kids (and OK maybe short people like me too). Parent could climb up on the outside play area and look right down into it so they wouldn't loose their kids in it.

Catching Up...Post 3: The Graduates

We attended two graduations this year.

Chris's baby sister graduated. She is the last of the 10 kids. She was only 4 years old when Chris and I met. THAT IS CRAZY! Also my oldest nephew graduated. We are proud of both of them. I think sometimes we don't realize what a great accomplishment it is to graduate High School. But it really is. I am glad both of them worked just hard enough to accomplish it! (hehe...they know what I mean.)

I hesitated posting this picture because I am very embarrassed by how it came out. BUT, in my own defense, I did only have about two hours to make it in and I am SUPER grateful to my sister, Gail, who helped me. I was determined to make her a graduation cake and I wanted it to be all pretty and fancy for her but I needed at least one more hour to make another batch of frosting and I think that would have helped a lot...but it tasted REALLY YUMMY. There were two rice krispie layers, one red velvet and one red velvet and yellow swirled with the best cream cheese frosting. So even though I am still working on presentation of recipes, at least it tasted good. :)

Proud parents...I am not kidding when I say this was probably the second best day of their lives! The first was when he was born.

cousin Kody with his proud followers.

I wasn't even going to attempt to make a cake for him! This one may have looked better but it didn't taste better. :)

Cathcing Up...Post 2: Field Day and the Last Day of School

We are rewinding time a little. Only a month. To the last week of school.


The kids have field day during the last week of school. I always go and watch. Field day for the older kids includes picking 7 or 8 events from about 20-25. Every year Austin LOVES the obstacle course; in, out and around the playground. For the last two years he has gotten first but this year he had a little competition and placed only 2nd. He was a little sad at first but got over it quickly.

For field day, the Kindergartners rotate between their rooms and outside. I don't' know if Allison has ever played Twister before but she was quite good at it.

Abigail waited patiently for Allison, coloring with sidewalk chalk.

Another station was just playing in bubbles. Oh what joy comes from cheap fun!

Hopscotch!

My beautiful Allison!

Catching Up...post 1

We continue to have lots of changes and challenges in our lives. Chris was recently called to the bishopric as the second counselor. As if being the scout master and me being in the Relief Society presidency wasn't enough for our busy little family to handle! :) Sunday's used to be my favorite day of the week. We had a great routine down and Chris and I worked really well together like a well oiled machine to get the kids ready, to church on time, getting them through sacrament and home to enjoy the rest of the day "resting." Not anymore! :) Not only do I have to get them all ready by myself which is a feat in and of itself but trying to keep them reverent is almost impossible and Chris has so many meetings that the day is definitely not restful anymore. During sacrament, Asher throws hymn books, Abigail fights about who she gets to sit next to, and Austin has what we call "church narcolepsy." Last week, Asher knocked the water tray out of Austin's hands and spilt the mostly full tray out on all of us. I don't think any of us came out of sacrament dry that day. I told Chris that I might go inactive. He just looked at me, smiled and said, "No you won't." I don't think he thinks I am serious but taking 4 extremely active children to church by yourself is NOT fun. On the up side, I have actually had lots of people offer to help me with the kids. If I have to take Asher out, a lot of times I will come back in and see one of the Young Woman sitting with the other three helping to keep them reverent. I guess I just have to learn to be more humble and be willing to except more help. I know this will be a great learning experience for both Chris and I (if I survive it). I also know that our family is blessed when we serve. I have seen it in our other callings and I know it will be the same in this calling.

Sour cream anyone?

I don't think this post needs any commentary.

20 mos. old + sour cream left lonely on a counter = happy baby

"Oh look, mom's busted out the camera...better say cheese."

"Mom has nothing better to do than to clean up all my beautiful masterpieces, right?!" :)

Allison Graduates Kindergarten

I can't believe Allie is going to be in school full time next year. I am really sad about it because I have really enjoyed her in the mornings and she has been a big help to me with her younger siblings.

She was such a sweet little lady at the graduation program. Of course, I think she was the prettiest one there but I hope all the moms thought that of their own kindergartners. She has a strand of "play pearls" that she usually wears with her pretty dresses but they broke so I let her wear my strand of pearls and she was so excited and she took very good care of them.

What's Summer?

This morning when we were in the car, Allison asked, "Mom, is it ever going to be summer again?"

After this picture was taken, at least 2 more inches fell. I just didn't feel like taking another picture. :)

Random Pics of the Kids

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. I could give you a slew of reasons why but I won't bore you with the details. I was cleaning up my desk and found a minute to go through the pictures that I have taken and found some cutes ones of the kids that I thought I would share.

Allison came home from school one day with these glasses on. Of course, they broke almost immediately once she got home and Asher got a hold of them.

Allison and three of her cousins sang a song in the school talent show. Austin and his cousin played a guitar duet. We got the girls these hats for their performance and I had to get one for Abigail as well. They are a little big but they look so cute!

This is Asher being goofy at dinner one night. The pictures didn't come out great but I thought they were cute enough to post!

Asher likes to climb counters and get into anything that is on them. For the most part we have learned to keep them empty because he will get into anything that is left on them. We have cleaned up ENOUGH spilled cups...the ones with soda are the worst! Well, we thought we had Asher-proofed the kitchen well enough but he out-smarted us once again and got into the flour. Look at that "cheesy-I am so proud of myself" grin. I guess you could say there is never a dull moment.

Chocolate Butterflies

When Chris and I first got married, I didn't know how to cook or even like to cook. It was something that I had to do to survive but it was usually full of fast and processed foods. Over the last couple of years though, I have made myself learn to cook and now I love it. It has become a real obsession for me and yes, you could even say that I am a "foodie." I rarely cook the same meal twice especially when it comes to desserts. I LOVE finding new desserts to cook. And I have gotten better at making them look pretty too. I saw these butterfly cupcakes awhile ago and just had to make them. AND since I am also in charge of the Relief Society activities at church, I decided I would make them for the ladies. It ONLY took me 4 days but I made about 70 of them and I actually surprised myself at how good they turned out. Now, I just need to work on my photography skills because the pictures really don't do them justice.

If you want to learn how to make them then you can either buy the book "Hello,Cupcake" or visit this website.

These would be great to do for a little girls birthday party or a spring get-together. However, I found that the adults appreciated my efforts way more then my children ever do. :)









For the chocolate cupcakes I used this recipe:
chocolate cake mix
box of chocolate pudding
mini chocolate chips

For the yellow cupcakes I used this recipe:
Yellow cake mix
box of Vanilla pudding
Filled with white chocolate pudding

And this is the recipe for the world's BEST and EASIEST frosting:
Combine with a mixer 1 pkg. cream cheese (not low fat...sorry girls, this is not a figure friendly recipe
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

After well mixed, mix in 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (scrapping bowl a few times) and then putting mixer on high for about 5 min. until frosting is thick. Although this frosting tastes great, it is hard to use with the butterflies because it is not extremely sturdy. I used it, but with great difficulty. :) If you want to make the butterflies then you might want to use a nice and sturdy buttercream. If you use this recipe, then you have to keep it refrigerated between each step so the butterflies don't slide right off. Don't ask how many of mine did that?

The Biggest Loser

So, I am finally getting around to posting about our "Biggest Loser" 5K run. We had so much fun -- even Chris, who we had to talk into doing it!

The 5k was in beautiful St. George. Chris's brother and his wife were also running with us. We had to pick up our packets on Friday and the race was bright and early Saturday morning so we decided to make it an "over-night date." We got our packets on Friday afternoon and went to the temple and out to eat. We stayed up late in the hotel talking with our family (totally free of interruptions from our wonderful children) giggling like little kids ourselves again. It was nice to get some adult time but we always miss our kids when we are away from them.

We started the morning early and loved enjoying the crisp St. George air and beautiful red-rock scenery. My parent's brought the kids to come watch us and cheer us on during the race. We were so glad they were there. Seeing their bright smiling faces throughout the race really helped to keep us both going. Plus Austin has always disliked running and anything P.E. related but seeing us do this has helped motivate him in that area. So I am especially glad that he was there. In fact, he just ran his first mile in 8 min. 4 sec. Pretty good for his first time.

Here we are waiting at the starting line. There is a lot of excitement and energy in the air and our adrenaline seems to already be pumping.

There were over 600 participants in the race. Because it was a race sponsored by the Biggest Loser, they had a couple of past contestants from the show there that ran with us. If you have watched the show then you may remember them...Koli, Sam and Daris from Season 9. Anna and I finished with Koli.

The kids looking for us.

Still smiling after about a half mile into the race.

We saw the kids about 3 times through out the race, and they high-fived us as we went by. This is about 2.5 miles in the race and after we had just come us a big hill. It was good to see the kids here to keep us going.

Considering Chris hasn't been able to work out since about Christmas time because he has been swamped at work...AND since I got kicked out of the gym (haha) and wasn't able to work out for a month before we ran, I was very happy with our time. Chris finished in about 35 minutes and I finished in 36 minutes. That is actually faster than I had ever ran it on the treadmill so I was very pleased. We were very sore afterwards, of course, but I actually love being sore so I was OK with it. I would like to do it again soon. Hopefully we will be a little more prepared the next time.