Jousting!

The kids' school had a medieval fair today and the Knights of Mayhem came and did a jousting show for us. They threw spears from horseback, sliced cabbages in half with a sword from horseback, and then did a proper joust with solid lances. I'm glad I took today off.

Painting, Planting, Pottery

First off, I felt it was warm enough to paint the front door last week. I got the paint last fall, but it always seemed too cold to leave the door open for a whole day, so I put it off. I really like the way it looks, and I also painted the white frame around the door as well, since paint was peeling on it. Now the railing needs a coat of paint too, but I will get around to that later. Also, last spring, we got more bulbs from the local park. They plant all new bulbs every year and just let the public come and pick them up when they get pulled out. So, I went one morning and grabbed a bunch and planted them. Of course, I didn't know what they would look like, but I think they look really nice in my yard. Also, they all don't bloom at the same time, so I had red and yellow ones in bloom earlier, now there are a bunch of pink, darker pink, orange, white, and yellow ones in bloom now.



The fifth graders from all around Utah County and even some from SLC, all participated in a program called Hope of America last week. They split it into 2 days this year because there were 8000 kids participating. There were dances, videos, the chorus of 5th graders, and a pre-show to entertain us. It was really big and we had fun. Valerie was wearing yellow, and was in the first row above the blue row of kids. We found where she was sitting because she had her sunglasses tucked in the collar of her shirt and I could see them from where we were sitting.


For the last month, Valerie and Scarlett were taking a pottery class where they were able to learn wheel turned pottery and other skills. They made a bunch of pieces and I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow if I remember. Maybe I will post a picture of all their work when I get them. The class was put on by the Scera Arts Council and there was an Art show of all the kids taking drawing, painting and pottery. It was fun to go and see what other kids did as well as see our own artists.



The girls also had some art at a school art show last week as well. Valerie and Ella brought some pottery pieces they made at different classes and Scarlett had a painting she did at school exhibited there. There were different craft projects for the kids to do also, and the kids had fun doing the crafts.

Scarlett's Birthday

Scarlett had a fun birthday this weekend. I made omlettes for the kids in the morning, Scarlett opened some presents from family in the late morning, and then we had a friend party at Jump On It in the afternoon. The kids had so much fun. One of Scarlett's friends wasn't able to come, so I used her pass to go jump with the kids. I guess I'm too old to jump on trampolines for an hour and a half, because my lower back and feet have been in pain ever since.

Pinewood Derby

Cars all ready
Originally uploaded by mrklaw

The cub scouts in our ward did a pinewood derby this last week. Since Becky is over Cub Scouts in Primary, we tagged along and Valerie raced a car from last year during the open races at the end.

Easter eggs

Easter eggs
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

We spent one night dying eggs with the kids. They had fun of course.

5th grade wax museum

5th grade wax museum
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

The 5th grade does a wax museum every year, where the kids pick a historical figure and do a report about them. Then on one night, all the kids dress up like their person and pretend to be them. The parents walked around and pushed a "button" and the kids would tell about their person. Valerie was Marie Curie. It was fun to learn about her. Valerie did a good job with her report and memorizing facts about her.

girls in Easter dresses

girls in Easter dresses
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

This year I thought I would make dresses for the girls. Here they are wearing them. We had stake conference on Easter this year like last year.

New blog and new this week

I just created a new blog to write about my quilting/sewing projects. You can find it here

We had a pretty busy week where the kids had a dance festival. It was very fun to watch and sometime John will post videos of it somewhere. I am trying to upload pics, but blogger seems to be really slow at that the last few days. Yea! I finally got them to upload.






Today after church we went to Mike and Megan's house for dinner. We had some really nice weather (61 degrees) and a fun time together (other than when Scarlett accidently hit Max in the face with the swing, I think he walked behind her or something) and got a bloody nose). That was the only trauma and it was fun to get together.


When my Mom and Dad were here last for MacKenzie's baptism, they gave us each an amaryllis bulb. Mine put up two flower stalks and has 5 flowers on it now. Very pretty. Oddly enough, Megan's didn't put up any stalks at all, and just produced leaves. I wonder what Liz's did...

Mormon Temples Video

I'll try to post some more family pictures soon, but in the meantime check out this new video about LDS (Mormon) temples on YouTube. It was produced by the Church to help explain the importance of the temple to Mormons. There is a show on HBO called "Big Love" which spreads a lot of innacurate information about the Mormons and it has an upcoming episode that they say will include portions of the temple ceremonies. There is going to be lots of extra media attention to the temples in the next few months, and we should take every chance we get to dispel any innacuracies in the information that is being dispersed. Share this video on your blogs or on Facebook to help get the word out!


Our family got to go to the open house of the new Draper Temple here in Draper, Utah a few weekends ago. The kids loved it! This was their first time in a temple, and they had a lot of questions. Ella was especially excited to see the room that "is just like Heaven". Valerie is looking forward to being old enough to go do baptisms soon.

I'm thankful to live in an area that has so many temples so close to our home. It's so convenient. We take it for granted so often. I have a lot of respect for people that live far away from a temple but still manage to take the time to attend regularly.

Wow, this was a wordy blog post (for me at least). Back to family pictures and craft/vacation updates!

Val's big day

This year was not a friend party year for Valerie, so we celebrated family style. First, we had present opening and cake at lunch time before we spent the rest of the day away from home. The kids were suspicious of the cake and thought it might be red/green inside. I would suggest frosting it with darker frosting if you make it. They were really excited with rainbow though and it was all fun. Valerie also loved all her presents and said she had the best day ever.


We went swimming at the indoor pool in Lehi in the afternoon which was a blast. This pool had a baby area with little slides, a medium sized kid play structure with a slide and other water splashing items, as well as a regular sized water slide (the slide went on the outside of the building, but started and ended on the inside). There was a lazy river and bubble couch as well. The kids did not want to leave ever. But we were there way past dinner time, so we had to go. After, we went to an Indian restaurant called India Palace in Provo. It was fantastic as usual.


Now, here is how I made the cake. I saw the instructions on a blog posted here: http://omnomicon.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-rainbow-cake.html
I'm not thrilled with the writing on this site, but they explain how they made the cake with pictures as well.

I of course did not make the cake that way, I just used a sour cream white cake recipe I have, then divided it into 6 bowls. I used gel food coloring I have to make the 6 colors and mixed it in the bowls. Then you prepare your pans. I learned a trick to make the bottom of the cake come out well and you use a plain paper napkin cut to fit the bottom of your pan. First you grease the pan, then put the napkin down, then grease again. When the cake is finished, you just pull the napkin off the bottom of the cake and it is perfect, your cake doesn't stick to the bottom at all. After you prepare the pan, start adding the batter into the pans. I did one pan red to purple, and the other purple to red. Add most of the red to the bottom of one pan, most of the purple to the bottom of the next pan. Then a little less orange on top of the red, little less blue on top of the purple, about half of the yellow on top of the orange, and half the green on top of the blue etc,,, until you end up with the last of the purple on top of the blue, and the last of the red on top of the orange. I kind of gently shook the pans so the batter would fill out the pan a little better (it is rather thick batter). Bake, then cool for a few minutes. I usually pull the cake out of the pan and cool on a wire rack. (pull the napkin off as soon as you can, sometimes it comes off in pieces, but get it all off). I evened out the tops with a long serrated knife so my cakes would stack better. Then I used the buttercream frosting recipe from previous post about cake making, and frosted the top of the first layer, then stacked the second layer so the bottom was on the top (do this so it isn't as crumbly). Now crumb coat, then frost like you want.

It was fun to make, though I don't think I will make it all the time. Of course, I will never have the element of surprise again, but you could if you make it! Have fun.



note about this picture: since I used the glass cake stand, I didn't want the kids to see the bottom, so I frosted the bottom of the cake before I put it on the stand. ( I assembled and frosted the rest of it on the cake stand)

Secrets

I spent the morning making this:



look like this:




Shhhh It's a secret!

Let the Month Long Birthday Celebrations Begin!!!

January is THE month of birthdays in our family. It starts out on the 1st with John's Grandma Betty. Next comes John on the 8th. Then MacKenzie on the 12th, my Aunt Jeanne on the 14th, Kristen on the 17th, Brian on the 20th, me (Becky) on the 21st, and Valerie on the 31st.





For John's birthday, we celebrated as a family and had dinner at home, cake and ice cream (not enough candles), and opened presents. The kids were super excited and were dancing and spinning in the kitchen. We told them to stop repeatedly, but Dante managed to not listen to us, and also managed to hit the back of his head on the corner of the banister causing bleeding and crying. We thought it looked bad enough that we took him to the doctor to check it out. Fortunately, he didn't need stitches, but they did cut his hair a little, and irrigated it. We were there pretty late for Dante, so he fell asleep on the way home. A very eventful night.





Speaking of birthdays reminds me that we spent time at our friends' house (Michelle and Lowe) after Christmas one evening. We brought a cake for dessert (what was I thinking? I was thinking I hadn't had cake in a long time, so it would be great. I forgot that we eat cake all January, but it was really good anyway) Michelle wanted the recipe so here it is. This is one of the easiest and best tasting cakes I can make from scratch (without eggs because of allergies). It is simple, but can be made extra special with layering and frosting, which I did for our friends.

Crazy Cake (also called Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tblsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into and ungreased 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients. Pour oil into one, vinegar into one and vanilla into one. Pour water all over and mix thoroughly with a fork to moisten all dry ingredients. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This is the simplified version. Nowdays, I just add the vanilla and vinegar into the cup of water before I pour it in and that works too.

To make this cake extra good, I double it and pour into 2 greased 9" round cake pans and bake. I take the cake out of the pans after it cools for maybe 5 minutes and cool on a rack. Even out the layers using a serated long knife (to take the rounded top off the cakes). I like to fill with a chocolate buttercream frosting and top with ganache, but you could top with buttercream as well. Or, use any frosting recipe you have and like. It is hard to go wrong with chocolate cake.

Here is a buttercream frosting recipe. I have used this recipe without the cocoa powder for a white buttercream recipe (add food coloring to make colors).

1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa powder (haven't used this amount of cocoa before, it seems like a lot, I might use less, edited: I made this recently and used 1/2 cup and it was a lot. I would go between 1/4 -1/2 cup)
1 lb powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp mik

In mixer add everything and mix slowly at first so you don't get a mess. Use more milk to thin frosting, less for thicker frosting. I like to beat it for a while to make it fluffier. This will make about 2 cups I think.

I like to use ganache on the tops and sides because you pour the ganache on top and let it drip down. It is easier to make it look good, if you aren't a professional, which I'm not.

Ganache Frosting

2 Tbsp unsalted butter
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 Tbsp granulated sugar (or corn syrup)
1 cup heavy cream

Heat cream, sugar, and butter just to boiling point. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate (in bowl), Let stand 5 minutes, then stir with whisk until well blended. Let cool, then pour on cake. Pour a lot in the middle, so you have enough to drip over the edges. I use a spatula to direct it over the edges and around the sides. You can refrigerate leftover ganache in fridge and make truffles when hardened.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of this cake, but it is really good. I will have to try to remember to take a pic the next time I make it fancy.

Happy Birthday everyone!!

Christmas

We haven't posted in a while, mostly because we haven't downloaded our pictures off the camera yet. And I realized that we really didn't take very many pictures at Christmas. It must be because we did video record some of the morning. Anyway, we had a great Christmas. We spent the evening of the 24th at Mike and Megan's house in Kearns. It was fun to spend time with their family. Christmas morning was spent in excitement and glee as we opened out gifts. The kids all loved their presents and we spent the rest of Christmas break playing new Wii games and having fun with all the new toys. If asked, Dante will tell you he got lots of boy stuff for Christmas. And he loves it all (and lots of it was Star Wars related, which is why Darth Vader made an appearance at our house).




I guess I didn't get any pics of Val that morning, but here is one from her class party. She is playing "Don't eat Santa!" which is one of our favorite games to play at kid parties. We even had a round with the hometeachers when they came this month. It was very entertaining.

Pogo Progress

Scarlett has been practicing jumping on her pogo stick since she got it on Christmas morning and has really made some improvement. When she got it on Thursday, she was lucky to get two or three bounces. Now on Saturday she can do well over 100.

Getting up to date

We had a great Thanksgiving. I'm not going to type all the details, because I think my sister did a good job of it at her site here: http://lizandbrianelledge.blogspot.com/2008/12/thanksgiving.html , http://lizandbrianelledge.blogspot.com/2008/12/black-friday.html , http://lizandbrianelledge.blogspot.com/2008/12/surprise-visit.html .
A few things I will mention about the trip is first, we had tons of fun. The kids loved playing with their cute cousins, and John and I had fun playing games with Liz and Brian and my mom too. A few kids got throw-up sick, not fun. It wasn't really warm in Arizona. It was raining the day we drove down and kind of rainy on Thanksgiving. Then it was cool the rest of the time. Not what I imagined at all. The scenery going down to AZ from UT is amazing. There is so much diversity in the landscape it was really pretty to see it all. Not that the kids saw any of it (except when we stopped and made them look at the Glen Canyon Dam, and tail end of the Grand Canyon, which they thought was cool). They were watching movies on the DVD player for most of the time anyway. Dante travelled pretty well this time. Here is a funny story about him. We had brought a box of juices to drink in the car and planned on using them on the way home. THey were just sitting next to Dante's chair by the door the whole trip. While we were driving home, Dante demanded juice and I looked for the box and couldn't find it where we had it. John hadn't moved it either, so we didn't know where it went. Dante kept demanding juice and didn't want water, but we couldn't do anything about it. Later, when we were almost home, I talked to Liz and asked her if they found a box of juices on their driveway or something because it must have fallen out of the car. She told us when we were loading the car the night before, Dante had brought in the box of juices and set it with their boxes of juices in the kitchen. She didn't question why he did it, and we didn't know he did, so at least Liz got the juice and it didn't fall out of the car in the middle of Arizona somewhere when we stopped. What a good helper, doing things without being asked to! Aren't we lucky parents. He does really like to help out.




Now, I wish we had taken more pictures along the way. We saw some really pretty mountain/rock formations near Bryce Canyon and Zion's National Park. We will just have to go back some day to see all that again.

Only 2 more weeks until Christmas, and the kids are really excited. We seem to always be super busy with activities and this week we still have 2 performances at the school, and a ward service project/party. Hopefully we will remember to take pictures of these events and post about them later. I am really thankful for the season and how it reminds us about the Savior and his birth. I am in charge of sharing time in Primary this month, and even though it is super hard for me to be in front of a big group, last Sunday went pretty smooth. I was thinking the other day that I actually am enjoying serving in the Primary Presidency, even though it was always a calling I dreaded having. We have tons of fun as a presidency and I really do love all the kids. Sharing time I think will always be a little hard, but everything else makes it all worth the effort.

Christmas in Salt Lake City

For the transplanted Utahns, here's a little video of the Temple Square Christmas lights from last year.

Hope everyone is having a merry Christmas season.

And here's another montage from this year.

"Give the Lord equal time."

I just read an article in the Deseret News about a fireside that Elder Ballard gave. In it, he mentioned that he spoke with a guy that was losing his testimony after reading anti-mormon literature. Elder Ballard asked him how much he was reading the Book of Mormon and he replied that he hadn't read it in a while. After 10 days of reading every day, he no longer had any doubts. Elder Ballard said "Give the Lord equal time."

Link

My Ghouls

John and I organized Valerie's class party this year, and we decorated sugar skulls (Mexican tradition for the Days of the Dead). We made the sugar skulls and the royal icing to decorate them with. The kids had fun decorating them in the class, and we had a few left over, so we decorated them at home after school. Also, Valerie and a group of friends planned and got permission to dance in front of the school to the Ghostbusters theme song at school. They danced it again at the class party, and this pic is from that. They each had parts choreographed and brought a strobe light. They also sprayed silly string at the audience. Very thorough preparation. They did a good job.