Father's Day Feast

I know this is a few days late, but I couldn't just leave out Father's Day! Sarah made Tom a shaker out of beans and paper stapled together, and Alan gave him a key holder he had made at cub scout day camp, and all three of the kids brought home muffins from primary with little ties on them. Tom told me he didn't want me to spend any money on him, and so I decided to make him all his favorite meals for the day. For breakfast he just wanted pancakes with fresh strawberries and bacon. For lunch he was at church, and for dinner I made a really easy, but really good Pork Tenderloin and vegetables in the crock pot. We also had butternut squash, and homemade biscuits. I also made a triple berry berry pie. The Pork Tenderloin and the biscuit recipes were so simple and yet so good that I just had to post them for everyone to try.

Creamy Pork Tenderolin and Vegetables:
2-3lb Pork Tenderloin
5-6 potates squartered (I use red potatoes, but any kind will do)
large handful of baby carrots-no need to cut these up
Cream of Mushroom Soup-Family Size
1 TBSpn of your favorite seasoning ( we like to use the "Chipotle" McCormick Seasoning Packet )

Place the vegetables in the bottom of the crockpot. Place the Tendorloin on top of the vegetables. Mix the seasoning into the soup. Pour the soup and seasoning on top of the roast and vegetables. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Do not add any liquids to this. This will be very juicy. The Pork will be very tender, and there will be alot of gravy that we always put over some rice.

Super Easy-super quick biscuits:
2 cups Self-rising flour (Or 2 cups all-purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder)
1 cup of milk
4 TBspns mayonaise

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). If you are not using a nonstick muffin pan, grease a regular muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, milk, and mayonnaise. Spoon into prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until nicely puffed and browned.

Toothless...

Sarah lost her front tooth on Sunday. She bit into an apple and it almost pulled the tooth out. Tom pulled it out the rest of the way. She has such a cute grin now. Just for fun we put her in braids and painted on freckles for this picture. Kaitlyn also wanted to have her hair done and picture taken too.

Magic Beans...

Never undersestimate the multiple uses of food storage. Kaitlyn and one of the kids I babysit had the greatest time playing with dry beans and muffin tins the other day. Who needs expensive toys when you've got a few muffin tins and fun stuff in your pantry?

Homemade chalk

We made some side-walk chalk today. I found this recipe on everythingpreschool.com, and I had the ingredients so we tried it. It made really thick bold chalk. Fun!

Side walk Chalk:
1 cup plaster of paris
1 cup water
1 TBSPN tempera paint (liquid or powdered)
Toilet paper tubes
Duct Tape

Tape up one end of the toilet paper tubes. Mix all other ingredients and pour into the tubes. Wait for 2 hours until the chalk dries. Peel off the tube. Voila! You have side walk chalk! (I put the tubes in a mini muffin pan to stand them up while they dry.)

Enchanted

Kaitlyn insisted on playing one of the last scenes from the movie "Enchanted" this afternoon. Over and over and over she wanted to play it. She'd demand that I'd be the "scary grammy" (in her words) that gives Giselle the poison apple and then she would fall asleep just like in the movie. Here they are posing as Giselle (Kaitlyn asleep on the floor), the people watching (Sarah sitting by in shock and awe), and Prince Edward (Alan) who is waiting to give her "true love's kiss" Of course Alan didn't actually do that. And Kaitlyn wanted Alan to act like the litte boy from primary whom she has a crush on. I can't belive my 3-yr-old is so into stuff like that....

Home made Tortillas

We had the missionaries over for dinner yesterday and we wanted to have tacos. I didn't have any tortillas, and I didn't feel like going to the store with my four little monkeys, so I looked up a recipe on line for tortillas. Did you know that tortillas are just flour, shortening, baking soda and a little salt and water? Wow they taste different than store bought. I think I put too much salt in them. Luckily I had Tom buy some from the store on the way home from work.. I also cut some of them up and fried them to make chips... still too salty. I still want to try again and make some better tasting ones. Any of my spanish speaking brothers know of any good recipes?

Painting the Birdhouse

Alan built a birdhouse at cubscouts last week. He was so proud of it. I let him use my sand paper and paints to finish it at home since he didn't get to paint it at scouts. He loves going to cubscouts. He's the only boy in our ward that goes, but he still enjoys it. He goes with Tom each week when Tom goes to do Bishopric stuff, and he runs around and plays with the young men when his scouting activity is done.

"When we're helping we're happy..."

My kids are still young enough to think that doing chores and helping me is cool. I've been having them do alot around the house, and they actually enjoy it. Here's a picture of 3-yr-old Kaitlyn doing her laundry. Yesterday I taught Alan and Sarah how to do their laundry themselves. From start to finish they collect their laundry from the baskets in their room, turn on the washer, put the soap in and then put the clothes in. When it's done washing, they put the wet clothes in the dryer. They then help me fold it and put away. It was funny to see them try to fold their socks. I also noticed that most of their clothes go from being folded by me, to being a ball of clothes shoved in their drawers by them, but nevertheless, they are helping. They liked learning, and I thought Kaitlyn would like it too. So, I had her help me do her clothes. We also started taking turns making the salad for dinner every night. I make the main dish, while Alan, Sarah and Tom take turns making the salad, and Kaitlyn sets the table. So far they all really like it when I have jobs for them. Hopefully that will continue. :)

Aunt Mary and Uncle Ben are having a boy!

I hope Mary doesn't mind me stealing this picture of her off of her family website. It's just that they are so far away, and we probably won't get to see her while she's pregnant. Mary is my brother Ben's wife. We're very excited for them to be having a baby boy. Another boy to carry on the McGiffin name. I just realized that my kids have only 2 girl cousins of all the cousins we have between the Roses and McGiffins. ... Anyway, congratulations Ben and Mary!!!

6 Months old and crawling!!

William turned 6 months old yesterday. He is just starting to crawl. He likes to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Today he started actually moving his knees forward to push himself forward. Once he moves himself forward though, he plops down on his little chest and throws his arms out at the sides. Then he gets up again and pushes himself forward with his legs again. It's not quite crawling, but almost, and very cute.

Bugs and Butterfly Party

We had a party for Sarah's birthday on Saturday. She wanted a "Bugs and Butterfly Birthday". We made the invitations last week and gave them to everyone in the class. Since it was memorial Day weekend, only 4 could come from the class, but we also invited a family from church that has 6 kids plus one on the way. So it was a nice sized party.

The first activity I had planned was to let the kids decorate cupcakes however they wanted.

Then, we pretended that some of the kids were caterpillars and we wrapped them up in toilet paper like a cacoon.

Then we had a "bug hunt" on the trampoline where I had put toy bugs in balloons and blew them up . I filled the trampoline with balloons (We have an enclosed trampoline, so the balloons didn't blow away). The kids had to bounce around on the trampoline and find the balloons with bugs in them, then pop them. They loved that, but it was soooo hot that the balloons were popping on their own every few minutes.

Lastly, we had a pinata with tons of candy.

Marshmallow spiders made out of toasted coconut marshmallows and crunchy chowmein noodles.

Gummy worms in apples.

Girls Night

Sarah's 7th Birthday was on Friday. It was also the last day of school, and the day of the Stake Father and son campout. So, Tom and Alan went to the Father and son campout while Sarah and Kaitlyn and I had a girls night. We did our nails, put on play make-up and watched "The Princess Diaries". (William stayed with the girls, but slept most of the time) It's the first time we ever had a girls night, and they loved it!! We even had popcorn and ice cream sundaes. It was alot of fun.

Pancakes by Alan

Alan was trying to create his own pancake mix the other day. His mix however, was just flower and water mixed up in his little sister's play dishes. So, last night I let him make some real pancakes with me for dinner. He had a lot of fun. If he likes to cook other things like he does pancakes, I think I'm going to like having my kids get older. I'll let them do all the cooking!

Couch Slide!!

I thought this was so cute. Kaitlyn really enjoys making a giant slide out of our couch cushions. She even lines up the pillows from the couch on the edges of it.

Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon

I just bought the new version of the "Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon". At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I just have to say how much I love these books. They illustrate the entire book of mormon, not just the stories, and they don't skip anything. It really helps when we're reading them!! We read the scriptures every night before bed, and we use the pictures from these books for the kids to look at as I read the actual scriptures. My parents had the original set back when I was growing up, and I have memories of reading them to myself before I went to bed. It is the entire Book of Mormon Illustrated in 8 Giant volumes. They have beautiful full color pictures on each page and scripture references that go with them. In the books, they summarize the scriptures so that it's easier for us to understand, but we read the actual scriptures to help our kids get used to the language. My kids really enjoy them, and they actually look forward to scripture reading every night!! I found them used on ebay for $53 plus shipping. (They were barely used, they still smelled new and there was nothing wrong with them.) You can also still find them at LDS bookstores new for around $200.