Jack

Mom wanted me to post some recent pictures of Jack.

I thought I would title this one "Are you messing your pants or are you just happy to see me?"

Here is a little better one. As you can see his face is a little rounder and he is growing. Hope everyone is doing well documenting the weekend. I look forward to your reports.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend Part One: "More D'Sert"

Our weekend started with a ward activity in Chapel Hill. Our kids were able to run around with their friends and feed the mosquitoes while Chris and I ate pulled pork sandwiches on our picnic blanket. Jack slept in his car seat the whole time. We were about to give up on the dessert because the activities were going too long and our kids were getting tired. I didn't want to disappoint Kennedy and Tristan so I sneaked into the kitchen and grabbed a few mini cream pies to take home.

The night ended with Tristan claiming he wanted "more d'sert". Sorry, Tristan, you will have to wait until tomorrow.

Labor Day Weekend Part Two: "Even More Dessert"

We had a seriously busy weekend ahead of us. Mostly fun, but it took some preparing. Saturday morning Chris took Kennedy to run errands while I stayed home with the boys and made some desserts for our upcoming festivities. I made two ice cream pies, a key lime pie, a coffee cake and my famous hot fudge cake.

We had the missionaries over for dinner that night and they enjoyed the hot fudge cake. We devoured the whole thing.

Hot Fudge Cake

1 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

6 Tbs baking cocoa, divided

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbs vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 3/4 cup hot water

Vanilla ice cream

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, 2 Tbs. cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Spread in ungreased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan. Combine brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all; do not stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, there will be a fudge sauce under the cake. Serve warm topped with ice cream.

Labor Day Weekend Part Three: Sundae

Sunday is a day of rest, right? Not at my house. Chris had an Elder's Quorum meeting at our house before church. That is what the coffee cake was for. After the mad rush that comes no matter what time church starts, I actually enjoyed church. When church was over I dashed home with the kids to start dinner.

We were joined by Kaylynn and Greg Osmond for dinner. Chris promised them dinner if Greg would help him translate some documents for his family history research. We gave the Osmonds a few choices for the main course and dessert. They chose steak and key lime pie. It was all good.

Key Lime Pie

1/3 cup key lime juice

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 12-oz container Cool Whip

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 Tbs sugar

5 Tbs butter, melted

1 tsp cinnamon

For graham cracker crust, mix all ingredients and spread into a 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool one hour then fill.

For filling stir together lime juice and sweetened condensed milk until mixture thickens. Fold in 3/4 of Cool Whip. Pour into crust and top with remaining Cool Whip. Serve chilled or frozen.

This was a new recipe for me but it turned out really good. I read in Southern Living magazine that a true key lime pie has a graham cracker crust, not a pastry crust, is not green and is made with key lime juice, not the big green limes. I used juice from a bottle I purchased at the grocery store.

Labor Day Weekend Part Four: "No More Desserts or Is it Time to go Back to Work Yet?"

It was nice to have Chris home for one more day. His department hosts a Labor Day gathering every year to welcome the new residents. This year it was at the department chair's home. Our kids enjoyed running around in his beautiful back yard. I stayed inside with Jack so he could sleep. After we ate we took the kids home to nap because we had an evening event to look forward to as well.

For dinner we were invited over to the bishop's house with a few other families. That's what the ice cream pies were for. They were completely devoured and I'm glad because we have consumed enough calories this weekend to last a month!

Chris and I enjoyed some adult conversation while Kennedy made some new friends and enjoyed playing on the swing set and Tristan found a few cars and was content the rest of the evening.

We enjoyed our weekend and hope you did to. I look forward to reading about it on the family blog. . . .

Windows

Well, things have been busy here. The other day I made 13 pint jars of peach jam. Today I canned some homemade salsa and hosted a luncheon for my visiting teaching. And the weekend will be just as busy with a ward party, feeding the missionaries, having some ward friends over for dinner and going to two cook-outs on Monday. Still we find time to have fun and relax a little.

We enjoyed watching the Olympics the last two weeks. We also enjoyed a visit from Chris's parents.

Jack is growing fast. He is sleeping well throughout the day and night and he is much loved by his siblings.

I wanted to share this picture of our dining room. We have been living in our house for almost a year and a half and we are finally able to start decorating. We purchased this table awhile ago but we just got the rug last week and the window treatments this week. I'm very excited to have these new things in my home. We have not had any window treatments in our home until now. We have also added window treatments and wall paint in Kennedy and Tristan's rooms. It's finally starting to feel homey.

Big as a soccer ball

Two weeks ago, my garden-weary husband came into the house all excited. " Guess what? I found a watermellon", he shouted. He had planted a couple of watermellon seeds that someone had given him and they had produced big vines but so far no watermellon. "It's as big as a walnut", he continued. Oh great! That's going to be fun eating a walnut sized watermellon. But the next day he reported, "Now it's as big as a golf ball". The next day it had graduated to a tennis ball and then a grapefruit. Finally, two weeks later it had grown to soccer ball size. "This I've got to see", says I and, sure enough, he was telling the truth. I can't believe that a watermellon could grow that fast but there it was. Very interesting! Last night he came running in with a report of a sighting of two more walnuts. Does this guy have too much time on his hands, or what?

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Marilee and Tyff. We love you both!

Self Promotion--Yuck!

Hello family,
I honestly didn't have this in mind when I gave you a copy of my book, but I wonder if you could do a huge favor for me. I've got to try to get some promotion going on my book (not something I'm looking forward to) and I'm wondering if you could help me out. Would you mind going on Amazon.com and other bookseller websites (like Barnes and Noble and Borders) and post a review? Also if you're on Goodreads could you mention it (thanks Christi)? Oooh, I hate to ask stuff like that. This is not going to be fun. However, I do want there to be enough sales that Peachtree is glad they took a chance on my book. It would probably be good if you don't mention that you're related to me.
A million thanks!

Growing!

Michael is 2 months old and growing like crazy! His check up was on Monday and he weighed in at a whopping 14lbs and measured 25.5 inches. The doctor said, "He's definately going to be a tall one!" My cousin Toni had her little girl on July 19th and she weighed the same as Michael. When I went up to visit her, it was hard to believe that Michael had once been that same size. We are really starting to see the meaning of "They grow up so fast." I'm happy to let everyone know that we finally found a sitter for Michael. As many of you know that was a big concern for us, but all is well now. She even lives right here in Springville about 9 blocks from our house. As much as I am dreading it, I have to go back to work at the beginging of September. I'm pretty sure I'll be out of there before Christmas though. Brendon and I are really excited for our trip to Beaver this weekend to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Blessing

Today Jack is two months old. It was also his blessing day. He did well. When I got to church he was fussy so I worried he would cry during the blessing but he was a champ and didn't make a sound. He looked so cute in his little white outfit. He is two months old now and changing daily. His face gets more and more animated every day.

We had our neighbors, Jon and Jan, join us in church today for Jacks blessing. We had a really good speaker and I was excited about his message. Brother Bennett used to be the stake president and is a very good teacher/speaker. He spoke on the Holy Ghost and touched on the first vision and the Godhead.

We still have some construction going on in our neighborhood. Tristan--the little BOY that he is--just loves driving past the digger every day. Chris took him and Kennedy down to see it the other day and let them take a turn "driving".

We have been enjoying having Nana and Poppa Kelsey here the past few days. We took a picnic to Duke Gardens yesterday and we couldn't have asked for better weather. The kids enjoyed running around while the adults sat in the shade to relax. This is the last fun thing for summer for us. Kennedy starts preschool in September. She is excited to be going every day.

Hope you are all doing well!

Catching up

I've nothing as dramatic as lightning bolts to talk about. We did have a gorgeous rainbow yesterday that stretched clear across the sky and huge raindrops that were more like plops.
Summer is fast coming to a close for our family. The girls have one more week of doing nothing before school starts again. And that's what it feels like we've done this summer--a whole lot of nothing. That's why I haven't posted much. It didn't seem like anything was newsworthy.
We did enjoy a fun get together for Grandma Mary's birthday. Thanks to everyone who came and joined in the party. Probably everyone knows about my surprise present by now. In case you didn't hear, Tyff, my book is now available. I have a copy for you, but keep forgetting to ask for your mailing address. So, I'm asking now.
We also enjoyed visiting with Kristin and Mandy the week they were here. It was a short stay, but, as Megyn put it, "at least we got to have three sleepovers." Keep us posted on the strike situation, Steve.
Our houseguest will be moving out on August 16th. That means the guest room will be available once again. Any takers?

Lightening Strikes

Yesterday Beaver received a whopping half inch of rain. Uncle Alan has this tale to tell. Every day he rides his little motor scooter to his field down the Creek Bed to change the water. He was half way there when the rain began pelting down. By the time he reached his field he was already wet so he thought he might as well change the water and get it over with. But something prompted him to take shelter under the shed. As he stood there watching the rain spash in puddles all around, one of his cows came up along the fence and stood where he would have been changing the water. Suddenly a strike of lightening bolted out of the sky and zapped the cow dead. He said the earth shook and the shed shuddered and his knees almost buckled. But today he is ever so grateful that it was a cow, not him, lying belly-up in a wet field of hay.

Arm in a Sling

Amy Jo Beaumont was giving the lesson in RS today and she had her mother come to the front and place her arm in a sling. She asked, "If my mother wore this sling for six months, would she be able to use her arm when she removed it?" Of course the answer was "no" and then she related it to our service in the church. She was looking at me when she said that. This morning the Bishopric called me to be the piano player for RS. Talk about having my arm in a sling!!!! Since I returned from the Philippines I have played my piano maybe once. That adds up to seven years of having my arm in a sling. I had even talked to my spouse about getting rid of the thing. (the piano, that is) What happened to that conviction I acquired in the Philippines that it is so important to develop your talents because you never know when you might need them? I don't know--I guess I sorta became side-tracked for a while. I have now added a 15-20 minute piano practice to my daily "to-do" list. I'll have that arm back in shape in no time. Haven't I heard it said, "It's like riding a bike--once you learn how, you never forget"? We'll see!

What's going on?

It seems like we hit the ground running after Jack was born. Life hasn't slowed down much. Last week we had Kennedy's room and Tristan's soon-to-be room painted. We also had someone come by and put some shelves in our laundry room closet so we could use it for food storage. We have also met with some people to pick out patterns and fabrics for window treatments for the rooms and for our dining room . Next week we are having a cabinet installed in our laundry room and I am going to have the same people put some shelves in our garage. Happy birthday Chris (a little early). He doesn't know about the shelves yet.

We are expecting company the end of next week (Chris's parents) so we hope this is all done before they get here.

Last week Kennedy had a day camp at her new preschool. I got a tast of what it will be like taking her to preschool every day this year. I used more than half a tank of gas driving her to and from the preschool in five days. The sad thing is that this is the best and closest preschool to where we live. I hope to see gas prices keep falling.

Here are some pictures. The kids, yesterday and Jack's feet. I have always been fasinated by my kids' feet when they are nursing. They are cute. I had to take a picture this time.

Carrot Zucchini Muffins

I tried this recipe last night and it was really good. I had a zucchini from our garden that needed to be used but I didn't feel like cooking it.

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
PREPARATION:
Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Heat oven to 375°.
In a mixing bowl, beat the oil with eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.
Combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients; stirring until blended. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.
Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired. Bake for 20 minutes.
Makes 12.