Storm watching

Here the kids are with their Daddy watching a storm in the distance. The storm never actually got to us, but we could see so much lightening in the distance that we sat out front and watched it. There were lightening strikes literally every few seconds. Unfortunately I couldn't get any shots of it. We were glad the storm never got to us.

"HI"

It's been a long summer. Tom has been gone on short trips every week in the month of July. So it's been a little hard for us. And of course it's so hot outside that we can't really go out for very long. That stinks.

Anyway, our kids are so active they like to move. Constantly. Last night we turned off the TV, turned off the video games, and just played games-without boards or cards. We played charades for a little while, but what they really liked was the game where you make letters or numbers with your body.

Climb every mountain....jump every stream...

Here we are at our favorite park. We wanted to take Johnny and Jenette here while they were visiting, but we didn't get a chance. Maybe next time.

Which looks better?

Click on this picture to see the details.
Ok, I really want your opinion on this. I have a natural carved nativity, and a painted carved nativity. I like the look of both of them. I really enjoyed working on the painted one, and I love the way it turned out.What do you think?

Slip and Slide and knock out some teeth...

Painters plastic is longer than a real "slip n slide" and it's cheaper too. We got it out today and had some fun. Sarah however, knocked two teeth out while sliding. That was not so fun for her. Luckily they were baby teeth. She said they were loose... well one of them was. Anyway, here's some splippin and slidin for your viewing pleasure...

Flying through Tunnels and other adventures...

I took Kaitlyn and William to Flat Rock Park today while Alan and Sarah were at a friend's house. It was a beautiful day and not too hot. William went straight to the toys climbed up and all over everything, and went down the slides several times. He didn't wait for me help him, he just seemed to know right what to do. Here's Kaitlyn demonstrating why this is called "Flat Rock" Park. There are lots of beautiful rock formations all over the park. Here's William when he first saw the toys. He just started climbing. Here he is going down the tunnel slide head first. He did this several times on his own. He didn't even want me to help him climb up to it. You can't tell by the picture, but he's going down the slide really fast. He loved it. Yikes. He's only 19 months old!

Sour Cream anyone?

We went out to eat on Friday evening and our appetizers came with sour cream. William loved the sour cream. He stood on his chair dipping his finger in the sour cream over and over and eating it. It was pretty funny.

Water Boy

One of William's favorite things to do is push a chair up to the sink, reach waaaaay over, and turn on the water. He then proceeds to play with any dirty dishes I have around the sink. He usually fills the cups with water and tries to dump them out on the counter nearby. He gets so mad when I take him down from there, that sometimes, I'll just put a towel around the sink and let him play.

Cake Project 4

So we colored the fondant this time, and I let the kids help decorate a cake that Kaitlyn wanted in the shape of a four. Fun!

Hold to the Rod

Our PVC pipes came in handy again for FHE tonight. We made them into "the iron rod" and had a lesson on how important it is to read the scriptures and follow them. We blindfolded one person and spun them around. Then they had to listen to the "spirit" which was a CD of church music playing at the end of the rod. At first they didn't know where to go, they just had to follow the music, and as they did they would find our little "rod". They then would hold onto the rod until they got to the music. We also had everyone else making lots of noise so that it was hard for the blindfolded person to hear the music. It was fun activity. After the activity, since the lesson was about reading the scriptures, we made scripture cookies. The kind where you look up the scripture and it gives you the ingredients. (You can google "scripture cookie recipe" and it will come up in multiple places.)

New look for nativity puzzle

I've now been making my nativity puzzles for 5 years. So, in honor of my 5 year anniversary, I decided to make a special handcarved edition of the puzzle. This is somewhat inspired by the "willow tree" figurines, although they won't be as detailed. I'll still do the flat front painted edition because it's not as time consuming, but I'm really loving the carved look of these. We'll see how well they sell. I'm thinking of leaving it natural because I love to see the natural wood.

Don't look too closely. It's not completely sanded yet. :)

What do you think? Should I paint them or just leave them natural?

Wooden it be lovely

We've been having fun with wood lately. I made giant circle puzzle out of an old table top and let the kids paint it.

I've been wanting to make a rose puzzle and sand it to make it look 3D.

I've also always wanted to make a dinasaur puzzle. Alan designed the little dinasaur.

So, as you can see we've been having some fun.

First time Fondant

I've always wanted to try fondant on cakes. I finally made some marshmallow fondant yesterday. As far as recipes go, it's super easy to make.

I didn't bother to make it different colors because I just wanted to see how easy it was to work with. So I made a mini four tiered cake and tried different designs on the cake. It's pretty time consuming to decorate with, but looks neat. Tastes yummy too.

Marshmallow Fondant

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

DIRECTIONS
1.Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2.Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3.Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4.Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Team Work for FHE

Alan really wanted to be in charge of Family Home Evening last night. He said he had a game he wanted us to play. I told him he could be in charge as long as there was a lesson attached to the game. He said there would be. He prepared for FHE by turning some of our PVC pipes and joints into hockey sticks, and rolling some old socks together to form a ball. Then he gathered us all together and had us all sing, "I am a child of God", and asked Kaitlyn to say the opening prayer. After the prayer, he divided us up into two teams. We moved the couches so that we would have room, and used blankets curved in a "C" as the goals. It was alot of fun!! At the end of the game he explained how we need to work together in our family to accomplish goals. We talked about what goals we might want to have as a family. It actually turned out really well. Tom and I were really suprised at how well he did. I guess he's growing up.

Food, Family, Fireworks and Fountains on the FOURTH

The morning started with getting the food prepared. This was a fruit salad I decided to make into a flag. I put it into a bread pan to get it the shape of the flag. I didn't want to make the traditional flag cake since I was already making apple pie and berry cobbler.
While I was making the goodies, the kids went outside to play with "pop-its". William didn't quite get the hang of throwing them, but he liked stepping on them.

When the evening came, we went to watch the fireworks. There was a water fountain near where we were sitting, so the kids played in it while we waited for it to get dark.

Tom's brother David came from Savannah for the day. He's getting ready to go to Iraq for a year. We all had lot's of fun with him and the kid's loved playing with him. Here's Kaitlyn snuggling up to him on the blanket as we wait for the fireworks to begin.

We were as close as you could get to watch the fireworks. The police barricades were right in front of us. We were so close that we had debris raining down on us during the display. The kids

were picking up peices of it to save as souvenirs. Sarah even found a peice of one of the fuses. It was so fun!!

Here's a little video of William trying pop-its for the first time.