Bun in the oven!

Yup! Here we go again! I decided it would be a good time of year to make the announcement, so here is my costume:

I wish you could see it better, I turned a cardboard box into an oven (which is baking the bun, of course).I am due in may, about 10 weeks along. Very tired and a little sick, but handling it well enough I guess. We are excited!

Jackson is a robot, Zoey is an ice cream cone and Eli is a turtle. Cousin Lili is mini mouse. We had this photo taken at our annual Gray fall party which was a blast as always.

Our latest photos

I was looking through my camera and found a few favorites of the kids I wanted to share. 

Jackson actually took this one, most of his shots are fuzzy and don't have a subject in them, but I liked the expression he caught on Zoey's face. She's getting so big! 

This one of Eli reminded me of Jackson and his peaches. Eli grabbed this apple and went to town on it! His little teethmarks are so cute.

 Eli is so happy to play outside and has recently discovered the joy of walking through crunchy dry leaves. he absolutely LOVES them!

 The rest are just some cute fall pictures taken after church one day. These lovely fall days won't last long.

 Jackson pretty much emptied this branch of its leaves by shaking it like crazy! He enjoyed it!

Friendship Week

Our ward's annual Friendship week is this week. We love participating in this event as we leave a mystery clue and treat on a member's doorstep each night. 


This year, we modified the poems a little, but here they are: 


Day 1 (given with a jar of home canned peaches and our peach cobbler recipe):

The week of Friendship has just begun,

And we hope you’ll enjoy our gifts of fun.

You may ask, “Who treats us so well?”
But that is our secret and we’ll not tell!

We’ll give you clues as to who we are,

The first one is -- we don’t live far!

Another clue, in this poem we will sneak,

To help you guess by the end of the week.

We like to camp and Dutch-oven cook,

We’ll share a favorite recipe from our family cook book.

And so we leave you with this gift and rhyme,

And hope your family has a good time!

                                                               

Enjoy!

Day 2 (Given with a small jar of sprinkles): 

Halloween is a big holiday at our house,

She decorates galore, to the dismay of her spouse :)

But decorating a house isn’t the only thing,

Why! Every holiday cookie needs some “bling!”

We’ll leave you some sprinkles we think are fine,

To decorate your own cookies when you have the time! 

Day 3 (given with homemade pepper jelly): 

The husband is good at working the ground,

But his wife stays busy when harvest comes around!

Canning and preserving for a much later feast,

Home-grown tastes just can’t be beat!

Here’s a little treat we’d like to share,

Top it on a cracker with cheese-- a fine fare! 

Don’t eat it this jelly with peanut butter and bread,

Or it might turn into a jelly you dread! 

It’s tasty, we promise, don’t judge by it’s name,

Life without some spice just wouldn’t be the same!

We’ve made it from peppers we grew by hand,

A favorite of ours, ‘cuz it spices up the bland! 

Day 4 (given with a pumkin from the garden and carving set):

The man of the house has a truly ‘green thumb,’

While the wife is learning just how gardening is done.

We’ve grown all sorts of food in our garden,

This year, we grew tons of pumpkins for carvin’

This one has not been long off the vine,

You can use it to carve a face that is fine!

It wouldn’t be fun to leave you without treats,

So please enjoy carving while these candies you eat!

You may have noticed that for us food’s at the heart,

If you haven’t tried guessing, it’s time that you start!

Day 5 (given with ice cream from the creamery):

We have many reasons to like BYU,

Our majors were health and History too.

It hasn’t been long since we were students with books,

Now they collect dust in corners and nooks.

You’ve heard of the saying, “To thine own self be true,’

And that’s why we’re loyal to the white and the blue.

Yes, we’re fans of the cougars, through and through

And to the athletes who play for BYU.

We might stay at home and watch the game on the big screen,

Enjoying a nice big bowl of cougar ice cream.

Have you narrowed it down to a half dozen families at best?

If this clue doesn’t help you, just wait for the rest!

Day 6 (given with smoke signlas marinade and fajita recipe): 

Although we now claim Utah our home,

Once on the plains of Texas we roamed.

If you’ve ever traveled to the heart of the South,

You’ll know what South’ners like to put in their mouth!

Preparing good meat is nothing short of an art,

So for today’s gift we leave you our part.

Fajitas are one thing that we love to eat,

This marinade is something that just can’t be beat!

You may look for this jar in stores near and far,

But it can only be found where they fly the Lone Star.

We hope you enjoy this gift and our poem,

As we leave behind something of us in your home.

Day 7 (the day we reveal, and a tray of sugar cookies):

Our youngest is still too young to talk,

Just recently he has attempted to walk!

Our girl is active as ever can be,

Appropriate for her age, she’s just under three!

Our oldest boy is clever and funny,

His favorite days are the ones that are sunny.  

The man of the house works in Lindon, not far,

You might see him in a red truck- not driving a car!

His wife cooks and she cleans and gets the kids dressed,

All on less than a full-night’s sleep of rest! J

Have any clue yet as to who we are?

If you do—you’re a real shining star!

  

family photos

A lot of pictures, I know, but I love my cute little family! 

ONE YEAR!

Eli had his first birthday yesterday! He was by far our best birthday cake eater! He took huge handfuls and shoved them in his mouth and begged for more! He had 3 servings (and this was after dinner, too)! I think he ate more cake than I did.

 I baked a banana cake, a recipe Brian brought home from his mission in Chile. It was frosted with a cinnamon spice frosting, and decorated with a dirt road and a pumpkin patch. A little red truck had a pumkin in the back of it, and I found a cool picture of Timpanogos with autumn leaves, which I used as the backdrop to the scenery. I wish I had a picture of it...but we were to excited to get shots of this boy eating his cake!

Jackson and Zoey ate all the pumpkins, and Jackson said in his prayer last night that he was grateful for Eli having a birthday, and being too little to eat the pumpkins so that Jackson could! 

I can't believe it's been a year! We love Eli so much and so happy he is in our home! He's such a great little guy...

You scream , I scream....

You know how it goes..."we all scream for Ice cream!" 

We had a family fun-night and made homemade ice cream out of #10 cans. Jackson was enthralled with the process. I learned how to do this at a YW's camp way back when I was a beehive in Texas (although it was my only year at camp as a youth, I guess I did learn something after all!)

This is all you need: 

#10 can

a smaller tin can (like the formula size cans for babies)

1 pint of half and half

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

any flavor mix-in (berries, cookies, etc. we prefer just vanilla and put stuff on top)

ice

rock salt

mix all the cream, sugar, vanilla together and dump in the smaller tin can. Place that inside the #10 can, surround with rock salt and ice. Secure lid and start rolling! Our kids liked the "kick the can" style!  20 minutes is usually good for a single recipe. It's pretty simple, but there are better recipes out there I think.

 Jackson and Zoey were more than happy to kick the can around- for the first five minutes- and then it was an endurance race to get the to be patient to wait 20 -30 minutes more so the cream could freeze.

But in the end, they couldn't get enough of the ice cream and pretty much ate until their tummy's ached!

 These are just some fun shots of Eli hanging out while we "Creamed." He does this thing right now that we like to call the 'chicken-walk'. Take a look for yourself!

 And from behind...he really does this all the time and I think it's funny!

\

Pet Rock

So, I have been getting pretty good at telling bedtime stories. Not to brag or anything, but I can get pretty creative (I loved creative writing class in school). Sometimes the kids prefer me tell them a story than read from a book. Which is cool with me since I can delegate how long the story is and not get accused of skipping pages (skip pages? Who does that!?!)!

Anyway, the story for Jackson last night was about a boy named "Jackson" who loved to explore in the mountains and found a really cool-looking rock that was really smooth and so he wanted to take it home. A few paragraphs later, "Jackson" realizes that the rock comes to life and loves to be thrown around the yard since he has no legs to walk and he is always stuck in the same spot! The two quickly become best friends and live happily ever after,

yada yada yada....

Well, that was all fine and dandy until I woke up this morning to Jackson wanting a "pet rock" named river-rock. So we found one, decorated it and they have quickly become best friends! I even caught him throwing the rock around the back yard (hope he doesn't break a window, otherwise that story will come back to bite) and painting a picture of him (with legs, no less).

Life is good!

Now or later?

There must be some undetectable smell in spaghetti sauce that sends the message to a baby's mind that "it would be a good idea to smear this delicious red sauce all over my face and hair.... and while I am at it, maybe put some pasta on top to save for later!" 

I don't know what it is, but every child does it!

Jackson's first week at school

Although he learns a lot, when asked what he did at school that day he always says "played trains"...

He enjoys the playing part best, needless to say. The best part is the teachers work in play time with learning, so learning is fun for him. He will walk around the house and sing songs he has learned, or tell me a story they talked about, or mention a fact here and there, so I know he is picking things up whether he knows it or not! It's fun to see him grow. 

Baby Shower!

My sister-in-law Christina just had her first girl!! She named her Emmie Rose. We are so excited for her. Her friend, Angie Terberg, and I threw a "tickled-pink" baby shower for her a couple weeks ago. It was a fun event.... and just in time!  

                                  Liz made this quilt for us to tie, it turned out way cute and was fun to do at the shower as we chatted.

Some decorations that were made...Angie helped a ton with this, which turned the house into something special! Guests were invited to make a fabric hairbow for the new baby... it was a popular station.

 The diaper cake: the bows could be used as hair clips for the baby too!

Flowers from my yard: We sent the boquet home with the mother-to-be

Yummy desserts: Cupcakes and Strawberry souffle

 The buffet: Honey Spiral Ham, dinner rolls, pasta and green salads, fruit, and pink lemonade!

 Christina got showered with some cute girlie outfits and accessories, things every girl "needs":