Easter/Conference Weekend!!!

The two weekends that we have General Conference are perhaps my favorite weekend of all the year! I love being spiritual fed and hearing from the brethren, feeling the spirit, shutting the world off for the two days, and focusing on what the Lord wants me to hear. I am so grateful now that we can record it, watch it again on the Internet, print it off LDS.org the Wednesday after Conference. We are just truly blessed to have all of this available.

I also love on conference weekend that my family gathers together, that we have traditions and that we always make very yummy food together. Below are some pictures from Easter Sunday of the baskets our children got on their chairs during Easter dinner and the two Matt got me from the Chocolate Cottage. Now that was heaven! Also pictures of Easter dinner. We had the missionaries over for dinner and then after wards we went over to my brother's home to visit with both my brother's family and my Aunt and Uncle who were in town from Reno visiting. What a wonderful Easter and I am truly grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ who gave of His life freely so that we may have Eternal Life and live with our families forever and be able to repent and be washed clean.







Matt without his basket showing!
Coby was taking the picture! Darn

Colton's 1st Novel--Standing by at Lulu's

Colton's 1st book is written and published. He wrote it when he was 15 for his creative writing novel class and he also wrote it in a month. We are really proud of him because when he was a young lad writing was one of his worst subjects in school and he really struggled with it. One day with determination he decided that he was sick of this and he wanted to make this one of his best subjects so he just started writing and writing. And boy is he extremely creative. Now writing is one of his best subjects in school and he writes with ease. This is his first book and he has several others he is working on that are very well done. So Congrats to Colton on a job very well done. Way to go bud!!! We love you Colton!

Random Pictures from Easter Weekend/Spring Break

I got my hair cut with a little bangs and done a little darker. It was done kind of by accident, but it is starting to grow on me. Matt likes it better so I guess that makes it almost a done deal!

Some of the ladies I work with on the Eastmont PTSA board. What a great bunch of women. Our principal, Jan Sterzer is in the suit in the front and standing next to her on the left is our PTSA president, Joanne Andrus who is one heck of an amazing woman. She is also Kara's voice/piano teacher. I love the opportunity and privilege to be to work with these women.
Here is Kara and one of her friends. She stayed with us for half of the week while her parents went to a funeral for one of her grandparents in another state. She is a fun girl to have around and the girls had fun.
One of my former Beehives that I had the privilege and honor of teaching when I lived in Olympia/Lacey, WA and she also baby-sat my boys when I lived there too. She was in town for General Conference and we were able to get together. It was so fun to see her and her five little girls and husband. What a cute family and what a beautiful woman she has become inside and out. It is hard to believe that Kara is now the same age that she was when she use to baby sit my boys. If she lived closer Kara could baby sit her girls! Thanks for coming and visiting; it meant a lot to me when you were so busy in Utah!!!

3-30-10 Spring Recital

Spring Piano/voice recital came and Kara sang two numbers for it and played two songs on the piano. Matt, Colton and I were all there to hear her perform. She did a wonderful job! We were very proud of her and she also found out that she made it into Concert Choir which she was very happy about!

She also got her 3rd quarter report card which was a 4.0 and she will be in the only two honors classes offered, Honors U.S. History, and Honors English. The competition is so tough to get in these classes that it is unbelievable. All I can say is~~~Utah. She also got the Reading class waived for next year because of her score, so she gets to take a foreign language class next year instead. So guess what she has chosen to take, Mandarin Chinese, why of course. Could it be that I forgot that she was adopted after all of these years? You know that seems to be the only explanation right now that seems to work!

3-31-10 Kara got her braces on

The big day arrived for Kara for her to get her braces on. Here is a picture of her pre-braces, but you will have to wait a while for her to smile post braces because she wasn't as happy to smile and show off the expensive metal, but I must say she really looks quite adorable in them!

April's Theme for the Month/April's Fool's Day!

Family Theme for the Month of April:

April's Theme: The Armor of God-Spirituality
Scripture: Ephesians 6:10
Song: Behold a Royal Army

"There is no Knight in black armor with such power as you may have if you live righteously." Boyd K Packer

"We need to accept the full truth---even all of it-"put on the whole armour of God," and get to work building up the Kingdom." Glenn L. Pace

Other great scriptures:
Romans 13:12
II Timothy 2:3-4
D & C 27: 15-18

April Fool's Day was part of Spring break and boy did we wake up to a big surprise!!!! It was snowing A LOT. So we changed our plans for fun and instead decided to enjoy the SNOW by going snow sledding. I kept telling my children that they would never forget this spring break because it will be the one where they went sledding. Colton didn't want to go, but wanted to keep working on writing his second novel! I took Kara and her friends sledding and it was such a beautiful day. You just can't beat living in UT! You gotta LOVE it. Afterwards, they came over to our home very tired, (I am missing one cute girl who left early). I made them yummy chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa and then they watched a movie and played games.

Later on that day I did my April Fool's Day "Crazy Cafe" Meal. I put on my apron, pulled out menus and was a short ordered cook. They all ordered from the menu and decided what they wanted. And they were really surprised when they got something very different from what they ordered. I got the idea from a web page. I just LOVE the internet and all the great ideas that can be found! The girls, Matt, Colton and Spencer loved it. Spencer had to hurry to a class, but he brought some of the food to one of his friends at class. The kids had fun pulling pranks on us and I must say that they did a really good job. They seemed to have really gotten us this year rather well.

Menu Plan for Dinner

Sunday-Crock pot

Pot Roast/Turkey/Swiss Steak/ Flank Steak/Pepper Steak/Ham/Beef Brisket		Homemade Rolls		Peas Caesar Salad
Monday-Chicken Chapala/Chicken Alfredo/Lemon Chicken/Swiss Mushroom Chicken/Chicken Foil Dinners/Hawaiian Haystacks/Chicken Lasagna/ Chicken Parmesan/Orange Chicken/Chicken Cordon Blue/ Cream Cheese Chicken/Southern Fried Chicken/Cashew chicken		Muffins: Applesauce Pumpkin Blueberry Oatmeal		Broccoli/Cauliflower	FHE Treat
Tuesday-Easy Sloppy Joes/Swedish Meatballs/Impossible Pies/Meatloaf/Spaghetti/Turkey Roast/Hamburger Helper/ Tater Tot Casserole/Cheeseburgers Tacos		Biscuits		Mixed Stir Fry assortment or Asparagus	Pears
Wednesday-Soup Corn Chowder/Chicken Noodle Soup/Potato Cheese Soup/White Chili/Broccoli Cheese/Vegetable Beef/Stew/Taco/Clam Chowder/Minestrone/Tomato Bisque/Ham & Cheese/Canadian Cheese/ Beef &Bacon		Breadsticks		Raw veggies assortment w/dip Blue Cheese Salad
Thursday-Beef/Seafood Shepherd's Pie, Dinner on a Breadstick/ Lasagna/Beef Stroganoff/Beef Manicotti/ Halibut/Salmon/Fish Tacos/Cod/		Garlic French Bread		Green Beans Veggie Salad	Applesauce
Friday-Quick/Date Night (just for kids) Fish Sticks/Bagel bites/Pizza rolls/macaroni &cheese/pizza/chicken patties	French fries/Tater tots		Ice Cream
Saturday-Sandwiches/breakfast for dinner Pulled pork/Grilled Cheese/Ranch chicken wrapped/Pastrami Sandwiches/BLT/ Caesar salad wraps/ bakes submarines/ hash brown quiche/ham quiche/ stuffed French toast/omelets/ Crepes/ Eggs Benedict/Biscuits and gravy w/ sausage/	Buttered toast	Hash Browns	Popcorn

I taught a class about how to organize menu planning for a Relief Society Enrichment activity and I just wanted to put it on my blog so I can add it to my digital scrap book and so when I am old I won't forget. I am betting there is a chance I very well could! Doing it this way has made my life so much easier and I rarely ask the question at night, "What is for dinner?" I came up with this idea when I was living in Olympia, WA and I have tweaked it to what has worked for me. Since I have done it I have seen a lot of people do variations of it that have worked, my favorite being someone named something Ricks~~there goes my memory. I only did it because I was struggling with dinner and needed help and this was soooooo much easier than what I had been doing.
I really try to go to the grocery store only once a month for my big shopping trip in the beginning of the month and I save a lot of money because of that. I still go once a week for coupon specials and to get produce, but I don't go more than that except for great BARGAINS because I LOVE saving $$$$$ I have some categories where I don't have to make something the same for three solid months. So it gives us a lot of variety!!! Here is the menu for March below:

1. Pasta
2. International nights (Chinese, Mexican, German etc)
3. Vegetarian
4. Seafood
5. Try a new recipe night

March 2010
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	1Cream Cheese Chicken	2 Hamburger Helper	3 Chicken Noodle Soup	4 Shepherd's Pie	5 Fish Sticks	6 Pastrami Sandwiches
7 Flank Steak/Red Potatoes	8 Coby's Birthday Celebration	9 Tater tot Casserole	10 R.S Meeting Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches	11 Beef Manicotti	12 Bagel Bites	13 Biscuits and gravy
14 Swiss Steak	15Orange Chicken	16 Spaghetti	17 White Chili	18 Salmon	19 Pizza rolls	20 Stuffed French toast w/ hash browns
21 Pot Roast	22 Chicken Alfredo	23 Swedish Meatballs	24 Tomato Bisque	25 Fish tacos	26 Chicken Patty sandwiches	27 Grilled Cheese w/tomato
28 Turkey Breast	29 Parmesan Chicken	30 Sloppy Joes	31 Taco Soup

Young Women's General Conference with Kara 3-27-10

Kara and I went to the General Young Woman's Session together. I LOVE spending time with my daughter and I cherish her and the sweet, beautiful young woman she is becoming. I feel so blessed to have her be one of my best friends and to want to share with her things that I love and enjoy. I find that when I am with her now that we do a lot of giggling and have a lot of fun. On Saturday we left at 3:00 pm to go get an early dinner together in downtown Salt Lake City at Olive Garden. We had some yummy food. Kara had just gotten spacers in her teeth in preparation for braces so sadly for her, her teeth weren't feeling the best. After wards we walked to the Conference Center where we had wonderful seats up close.

When the prophet walked in we were so close to him because we got their so early and because of where our tickets were that I just got tingles all over! I love our prophet and his counselors and I feel so fortunate to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. What a wonderful world we live in! My cup truly runs over with blessings!

12 Dancing Princess Pictures and other favorites!

Kara was in the play the "12 Dancing Princesses". Her middle school does one musical once a year and this year they did the 12 dancing princesses. Over 300 hundred students tried out. The director had a tough job picking parts so Kara knew that being a 7th grader meant that the 8th and 9th grader would get most of the parts. She still was very optimistic and held hope. There was 12 main roles for the princesses and all of the princesses went to 8 and 9th grade girls except for 1 princess which was her friend and then the next main roles were the 12 ladies in waiting and most of them went to 8 grade girls except for 3 seventh grade girls and one of them happened to be Kara. She was thrilled and she did an amazing job!

There was 198 students involved in the play and they did such a great job. It was fun to also be involved in the play behind the scenes because the youth were so excited to be a part of it. There costumes were so colorful and they had worked so hard!

Matt's office wall; don't the ladies do a great job of decorating for goals?
One of my sons wearing pink~~~~~Spencer ----I LOVE it!
Kara after her play with her brother Coby who came to see her play!!!!

A scene during the play!
Back stage with another fellow lady in waiting

My decorations for our R.S. Birthday dinner centerpiece, at home. On the birthday presents I put cupcakes on them on the cupcake wrapping paper.
Matt holding my newest nephew Jett who is 4 months. Isn't he a cutie?!
Ms. Kimball our wonderful Director as patient as can be!!! She deserves a very big 1st place gold medal for all of her hard work!

Kara with more of her friends!!!!
I had lunch with two of my girls friends from high school and one of their daughters. Heidi and I were in the same ward since we were in 1st grade and we grew up right up the street from one another. Melanie and I were in the same class together starting in 2nd grade and shared the same teachers a lot. She joined our ward, the Federal 1st ward when Heidi and I were moved to the Federal Way Stake from the Renton Stake and Melanie was moved into our ward. It was pretty remarkable how they formed our ward then. But when they did we had around 10 to 12 active girls in our age group. We had so much fun growing up together as young women and we were all very close. One of those young women became my sister in law, Annette Anderson,now Mackey. I hung out a lot with her too so that was pretty sweet to have her in the family now!

Happy April Fools Day!!!

I am trying to debate what I will make this year for dinner for April Fools day. They had a lot of great ideas in Family Fun magazine. One of them was having dessert for dinner. There are so many choices! Here are some of the ideas I am thinking about and more from the magazine Family Fun. I have been getting this magazine for a couple of years now and can I just say that I LOVE it!



Recipe from FamilyFun.com

Ingredients:
"CHOCOLATE" MEAT LOAF FILLING
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon dark, unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten

"STRAWBERRY" POTATO TOPPING
2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
Salt
1/2 cup canned sliced beets (not pickled)
1/4 cup (or more) warm milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Instructions:
Heat the oven to 350º. In a small saucepan, combine the barbecue sauce, milk, molasses, cocoa, and chili powder. Set the pan over medium heat and whisk the mixture until it is lukewarm and the cocoa is completely dissolved. Set it aside to cool.

Sauté the onions in the tablespoon of canola oil until they are transparent, about 7 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, celery salt, pepper, and bread crumbs. Then add the beef, egg, sauce mixture, and onion. Thoroughly mix the ingredients using your hands or a wooden spoon.

Remove the pie shell from the freezer. (We placed ours in a Pyrex dish to help ensure that the pie would bake evenly.) Transfer the meat to the shell, spreading it evenly with a spoon. Bake it until the meat is cooked through, about 60 minutes.

While the pie is baking, prepare the mashed potato topping. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and add enough water to completely submerge them. Salt the water lightly, cover the pot, and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and cook the potatoes at a low boil until they are tender, about 12 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, puree the beets and 1/4 cup warm milk in a blender until only small bits of beet are left in the mixture. Set aside.

Drain the potatoes and transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and pureed beets and, using an electric mixer, whip the mixture until it's smooth and fluffy. Add more milk if needed and salt to taste.

Spread the whipped potatoes over the top of the cooked meat pie with a spatula, as you would whipped cream, mounding it slightly in the center. Slice and serve the pie while the potatoes are still hot. Makes 8 servings.



These are meatloaf "cupcakes" above. Don't they look delicious?
Recipe again from Family Fun

Ingredients

Meatloaf

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 egg

• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• POTATO FROSTING
• 3 cups mashed potatoes
• Food coloring

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with foil bake cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the meat loaf ingredients until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the lined cups (the liners should be about three quarters full).
3. Place the filled muffin tins on cookie sheets and bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.
   
4. Divide the mashed potatoes among three small bowls and stir a few drops of food coloring into each batch to create blue, yellow, and pink pastel frostings. Spread a generous dollop on each cupcake. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Family Fun is one of my favorite magazines. It gets me thinking creatively for fun things we can do as a family. If you want to go there for ideas go here

The recipe calls for a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt and a topping of butterscotch or caramel sauce gravy just before serving for what looks like the mash potatoes! Yummy!

Coby's 22nd Birthday

Coby above at 2 months.
Coby turned 22 on March 8th. We went down to Provo to celebrate at his apartment. This year for his birthday he wanted: Tomato Bisque soup, Clam Chowder, Shrimp Alfredo, Caesar Salad, and Cheesy French Bread. For his cake I made something I had never made and that was a Brownie/Cake Ice Cream Cake. It turned out really good and was really tall.





We are so glad Coby is a member of our family, he has brought us a lot of joy and happiness. He is great to have as the oldest sibling of our family and has set an excellent example for his younger siblings. We love you Coby more than you can believe!!!! We know this will be a fantastic year for you.

She has arrived and she ROCKS!!!

We have been busy this weekend celebrating what Kara thought would never happen---she became a teenager. No longer is her age a primary, basic number, but now we have to add teen to it. She wanted to do all kinds of teen activities for her birthday so there was no pretending that she was still a child. I took Kara and Mia ice skating and they had a blast. While there a boy came up to talk to her and she was so excited, the teen kind of way. I love watching her grow up and have thoroughly enjoyed having this sweet daughter so much, who reminds me so much of myself that it is scary sometimes, but also fun.
I want to slow down her growing up sometimes and have her be little and funny thing is that she sometimes wants that. I am so glad that she isn't in a hurry to grow up. I am really enjoying her and I just love her to pieces.



On her birthday we had a lot of fun. Dinner with the family and presents she wanted and lots of love and fun. And I even got to try out a new cake I wanted to which she really liked!

Happy 13th Birthday my Kara! I love you more and more each day.