Birthday, carnivals and soup

Maybe it was a little ambitious to say I'll post every week. But we'll keep trying.

Last Sunday was Hailey's 14th birthday. 14. It sounds a lot older than 13, don't you think? I would post some pics of her b-day breakfast of german pancakes, but she had curlers in her hair. You'll have to trust me that she got some cool stuff. Why were curlers in her hair? Because she got the awesome opportunity of speaking in church on her birthday. In her words "Worst birthday present ever!" She did a wonderful job and looked gorgeous doing it. She asked for chicken tortilla soup for dinner and Better Than Anything cake for dessert. (You may know that cake under a different name, just substitute 'anything' for how babies are made, hee hee.) Pretty lame pictures this year, sorry Hailey! We ended the night with watching "Father of the Bride", one of her favorite movies, and which she happened to get on dvd.

We are so blessed to have Hailey in our family. She is a joy and is turning into an amazing young woman. I am so proud to be her mom.

The kids had their annual carnival at their school on Thursday, and once again it was full of pandemonium. Each of the kids did a song or dance this year, and here are a few pictures.

Kindergarten sang "Hush little baby", 2nd grade did "Witch's Brew" and 5th grade did "YMCA". I know the pictures are lame, sorry kids! There were so many people there, I had a hard time getting to right in front of my own kids. Trent was a cowboy, all of the kids were dressed like members of the Village People, it was cute.

On to the recipe of the week. I should have started out last week by saying that none of these recipes will be low fat. I don't make them very often, and most nights I do my best to cook healthy dinners. These are saved for Sunday nights or when company is visiting.

Dee's Potato Soup - 6 servings
6 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 lrg onion, chopped
1 C chopped carrots
1 1/2 C chopped celery
2 lrg cream cheese, cut up
1/2 C cream
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes, onion, carrots and celery till tender. Drain most of the water off. In separate pan, put cream cheese and cream together. Melt and stir until smooth. Add to vegetables, along with enough milk to get it to the consistency you like. Add bacon, if desired. Salt and pepper to taste. (I always add the bacon, it gives it a great flavor.)

You can add clams to this and make clam chowder. I've also had it with cheese. My very picky kids love this and get so excited when I tell them I'm making Grandma's soup. Enjoy!

Fall is in the air

I love this time of the year in St George. It's considerably cooler than our summer but it hasn't turned cold just yet. Kids can still get away with shorts if they wear a hoodie in the morning. Since it is the desert, we don't get a lot of foliage changing, and I have to admit I miss that. But I can't complain; we went on a walk tonight, all of us in shorts, and we weren't the only ones. It's fun to see families out enjoying this glorious time of year.

Something I love most about Fall is cooking. I feel like I can turn my oven back on without turning the rest of the house into an oven as well. I've made an apple pie and two batches of soup already. It might not be called for yet, but hey, the calendar says it's Fall, so I'm pretending it's chilly.

I've decided that through November I'll post my fav Fall recipes each Sunday. You might notice pumpkin as a recurring theme. I discovered about 10 years ago that it's good for other things besides pie. So here's my first entry and it was a huge hit.

Colonial Pumpkin Squares
3/4 C butter
2 C white sugar
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 10x15 jellyroll pan or large sheet cake pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into the pumpkin mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 min, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese (half a bar), softened
1/3 C butter, softened
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C powdered sugar

Mix together cream cheese, butter and vanilla, until smooth. Slowly add sugar and beat until smooth. Spread over pumpkin squares. Cut into bars.

It has a very cake-like texture and is perfect to plate up and share with friends. It also has a mild pumpkin flavor, so if you like things with more kick, go ahead and play with the spices or even add more pumpkin. Convincing my kids to try anything new is a miracle, so I wasn't going to push it this time. And I can't take credit for the recipe, it's from allrecipes.com, a site I regularly frequent. I've tweaked the frosting for my own pallet, and I'd love to hear what you think if you make it.

What are your favorite things about Fall?

Where have we been????

Really? It's been four months since I've posted? To say this was the busiest summer ever would be an understatement. We didn't do anything huge, but working 5 nights a week has certainly taken a toll on my free time. And to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do on my nights off was record how busy I was. It would have made me feel like an even worse mother than I already did. So, here's a short recap, minus pictures of the kiddies. (We lost our battery charger for the camera back in May, so the only pictures I have are on my phone.)

We did a lot of swimming at the Washington City Community Center. If you come down with kids, it's a must to beat the heat. (Or if you live in Lehi, just go to the Legacy Center, it's almost the same thing; except the WCCC is built on more land, with more space to stay covered and watch the kiddos.)

Rachel has sensory issues, and last summer she wouldn't even touch the water. Not so now! She'll jump and splash, even getting her hair wet. We haven't worked up to the slides, but we're getting there. I'm so proud of how far she's come. Once we get inside, the older three are gone, going down the big slide and lazy river. Seth and I chill with Rachel at the kiddie pools.

We made a weekly trip to the library. This usually involved me following them around saying 'Shhh!' in my loudest whisper; lots of books were checked out and read, as well as old movies for me. (This brain needed some unwinding after work and reading sentences proved too much.)

Hailey went to Girls Camp for the second year. It rained every day but she loved it and came home smelling like a campfire. I loved camp as a girl, and I'm so glad she's had such great experiences, too.

School started on Aug 11th. Yeah, I know, way too early. This was the first year I hadn't been doing a countdown til school started; I was actually sad to see summer vacation end.

Does the picture above give you nightmares? It does me. Maybe that's because we just moved. Wait, didn't we just do that 18 months ago? Yep.
Turns out the owner of the home we were renting was taking our $ each month but not paying the mortgage. Can you say Foreclosure? After months of looking we finally found a cute place about 1/2 a mile away. Same schools, stores, etc. Different ward of course, since we're in Utah. (The congregation we meet with at church is decided by where you live.) It's the easiest move we've done, as far as transitions go. But we've still had some adjustments.
The new place is more our style and is far more family-friendly than our old place. If it had a bonus room, it'd be perfect. It's taken some getting used to only having one main living area, but we're making it work. The backyard is fabulous and Elise has four friends from school within two blocks, so she's in heaven! It's been two weeks now and I'm ready for these boxes to be gone. Anyone volunteer to unpack them for me???

I turned 37 and Greg turned 39 somewhere in there. We try not to remember those days; especially Greg. We moved on his birthday.

That's about it for now. Wish I could show you how these kiddies are growing, but you'll have to trust me: they are still the cutest kids I know! ;)

Look who's 3!

I can't believe my baby is now 3 years old. She is full of life and laughter and brings so much joy to our family. We can't imagine life without our sweet Rachel.

Opening Nana's present; trying on one of the cute dresses Nana sent

Her Mickey Mouse cake. Hmmm...I don't think those are my fingerprints.

Unwrapping presents; Ni Hao Kai Lan sunglasses

Blowing out the candles

Working Girls and Cutie Pies

Because life around here was becoming really slow-paced, I decided to find a job in the evenings. My place of employment:

Yes, I have joined the ranks of the working class again and am feeling good about it. They don't pay me in hugs and kisses, but cash is always nice. It makes for hectic evenings around here, or so I'm told; but we're making it work.
Hey, it's BOGO time til May 3rd, so get on in there and buy some cute summer sandals. You know you want to.

You know I was kidding about the slow-paced part, right?

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Greg and I went on a double date last night with our awesome neighbors, the May's, and had a great time. We ate at 25 Main (though the guys said it was a chick's restaurant) and went and saw Date Night, with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey. If you are married and have kids, you will think this is hilarious. There is a little swearing and a sequence in a strip club that might make some uncomfortable (no nudity), but all in all, really funny.

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Kids keep growing, even though we tell them to stop it. Since Easter was Conference weekend, we got dressed up the weekend before. As I've gone back and looked at pictures from Easter's past, I can't believe how much they've changed and how lucky I am to be their Mom.

Alive and Well

We've been busy living, freaking out at life, and laughing along the way. Mainly freaking out, but we'll paint a pretty picture for posterity.

Uncle Kevin was in town for a night on business and we had so much fun with him. We introduced him to Rockband, and the kids loved showing off for him. We wish we saw he and his beautiful family more, but we take what we can get!

The girls cut their hair. Hailey got hightlights and a trim, while Elise cut off three inches! I may be biased, but I think they look pretty cute.

Our Spring Break was really early (March 8-12), and it rained most of the week. Greg decided to whisk Hailey and Trent off to Vegas for the day towards the end, they were so bored. They toured the Forum Shoppes, and even got their picture taken in a Ferrari. (It turned out really grainy when I scanned it, so you'll have to take my word for it.) Here are some highlights:

Nana was here for a few days towards the end of break, too. It was so great to have her here, the kids adore her, and she them. She took us girls to get our nails done and the boys to buy a treat. She took the kids to their traditional breakfast at McDonald's, and all of us out to eat at Red Robin. Of course I didn't take pictures of the fun stuff, but did I managed to grab one of she and Hailey before she left, though.

Trent had his Pinewood Derby again and had fun. I don't know why I didn't get one of him with his car, but I have one of him getting his Bear rank that night and while he's waiting for his car to come down the track. The orange one is his.

OK, I'll save Easter for another post. I've been on here so long Rachel has forgotten who I am.

Heart attacks, singing chipmunks and refined Englishmen

I hope you all had a good President's Day weekend. Thanks for your kind words after my last post, but I felt bad. I didn't mean for it to sound pitty-pottish, and I'm sorry if it did. I just feel like I've rounded a corner and wanted to share my new perspective.

We've had a fun weekend. Saturday found us cheering on my beautiful niece Abby at her soccer game, then we went bowling. Greg barely squeeked out a win, and that was after heckling me for being in the lead the entire game. That's never happened before; I am the world's worst bowler. Maybe it's because I was competing against children??? Then that night I was up until 2 am doing this to the kids' doors:

It was so much fun to see their reactions. I wrote inside jokes and nicknames on them, and had the kids write love notes to each other on the blank ones the next day. Valentine's Day was pretty low-key, since it was a Sunday. The kids ate way too much chocolate and complained about being bored after church, so it was a pretty typical day here. :)

Today found us having a picnic and playing at the park with our fun neighbors the May's. After that I took Trent, Elise and Seth to see the Chipmunk's 'sqeakquel'. It was my turn to take the kids to the movies, and I was dreading having to spend 90 minutes watching it. But I was happily surprised. I actually liked it a lot more than the first one. I'm not a huge fan of Jason Lee, and he wasn't in this one very much; so that was an improvement.

Have any of you been watching Masterpiece Classic on PBS? Some of you know that I am a Jane Austen nerd. I love all of her work, and have reread each book at least twice. The BBC has done a new version of "Emma", and I think it's the best one I've seen. I could go on and on about movie versions of the books, which ones are good, which ones got certain characters right, etc. but then you'd all know what a true geek I really am. You can watch 'Emma' online until March 9th; so plug in the headphones, snuggle up with a blanket and enjoy!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/index.html