7 mnths old

William had his Doctor's appointment this Wednesday, and he weighed in at a hefty 20lbs 7 oz.

Laughing at big brother...

A Happy Boy...

Mom's Makeover

This is Kaitlyn's way of doing my makeup. Notice the drawing on the forehead that goes a little into my hair?And what about the little chunks of purple eyeshadow on my right eye? Most of the makeover was done with lip gloss. Kaitlyn has alot fun putting "make up" on me. She insists that I "go to sleep" on the couch while she does it. What do you think, should I wear it to church like this?

Girls with Curls

Our Girls are so girly... I can't relate because I was wearing baseball caps and playing war with my brothers when I was little. But it's very cute that my daughters want to "be pretty" all the time. Nearly every day they want to put on play makeup, and play "spa". The other day Sarah wanted to curl her hair, so we went and bought some cheap sponge rollers and we put them in their hair and took pictures.

Family Home Evening Fun

Last night we had Family Home Evening. Sarah was in charge of conducting the music, Alan was in charge of the story, and I was in charge of the activity. Sarah picked a song out of the Children's Song book and learned it so that she could teach it to us in FHE, and Alan picked a story out of the "Friend" magazine.

For our activity, I decided to have us make Peach Pie together. A friend down the street has a peach tree and she brought over a nice bag of peaches for us on Saturday. I looked up a peach pie recipe on allrecipes.com. I decided to make the ingredients a scripture guessing game. I looked up the ingredients by name in the scripture on LDS. org and then had us all look up the scriptures to figure out the ingredients-just like the "scripture cookies" that everybody does. Only this time it was Peach Pie. We had fun, and the pie was delicious!!

Scripture Pie

10 Fresh D&C 101:101, pitted and sliced

1/3 Cup 1 Kings 4:22 (flour)

1 Cup Jer. 6:20 (sugar)

1/4 Cup Psalms 55:21 (butter)

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

1.Mix four, sugar and butter into crumb stage.

2.Place one crust in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Line the shell with some sliced peaches. Sprinkle some of the butter mixture on top of the peaches, then put more peaches on top of the crumb mixture. Continue layering until both the peaches and the crumbs are gone.

3.Top with pie crust.

4.Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden. Allow pie to cool before slicing. Best when eaten fresh!

The ironing never ends...

I made 60 shirts for Activity Day Camp for our 8-11 year old girls this week. I was recently released from the Stake Primary Presidency, but I still wanted to help out with camp. So I volunteered to do the shirts again this year. Last year Tom brought the heat press from the church library home for me to use. But this year, because we're not supposed to remove items from the library, I just used my iron. I did use the heat press on 10 shirts one evening when I went to the church... but I didn't have time to do that for all of them.. Anyway, the theme was Presidently Hinckley's "Way to Be". I was so proud to see the girls happily wearing them all week.

Kaitlyn's pigtales

King Alan

Sarah and Alan like to play this game where they pretend like one of them is the King or Queen, and one of them is the servant. This particular day, Sarah being her usual creative self, decided to make Alan a crown to make their game more realistic. They get really into it as you can see..

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. :)