Tuacahn Santa

Once again, I am late on posting. It has been hard with all of the other activities that have been going on to update my blog and I haven't exactly been home to do it, so here we are.

Back in the beginning of December we took a little family outing to Tuacahn. Santa was there and each of the kidlets took their turn at telling Santa what they wanted. We followed this up with the Live Nativity, to bring the real meaning of Christmas into perspective. It was fun to see the animals, Carter loved the Sheep, "ba, ba, ba" he kept saying. What a great way to see the story all laid out with people and animals, I think that it helped their perspective. It was nice, because whenever we talked about Christmas they always remembered that it was about the birth of our Savior. I don't know if we will go out there every year, but it was a nice little outing for our family.

More then meets the eye

Brady wanted a transformers party this year. We found a Cars themed pinata and thanks to my friend she told us to cover a plate with the theme you want and glue it on, it worked great! Brady loved it and it was so much cheaper then the $20 Optimus Prime pinata.

It was fun, but scary. At one point one of the kids almost took Bryce out as he was trying to fix the pinata and didn't pay much attention to those around him, may not do a pinata for awhile!

Brady had a lot of fun and has been playing with all of his toys, it is a nice preview for Christmas!

Autobot cake, I learned a new technique to decorate, so easy! I will never need a shaped cake pan if I don't want too!

Happy #6!

Brady's birthday was yesterday and we had a fun filled day of presents, family, friends, pinata goodness and cake of course! Post to come later!

It is crazy to think that I have a 6 year old! My life changed the day he was born and I will never forget the first time holding him in my arms and loving him instantly. I have a picture of me bawling my eyes out when they brought him to me. It seemed that I had to wait forever to be blessed to be a mother, so it really seemed like a miracle to me. He is such a joy in my life and I treasure every moment that I have with this little boy! He really is a cool kid and I am proud to have been blessed to have him as my son.

The day he was born

5 year old Christmas picture

My 6-year-old!

Leilani's Recital

This past week Leilani had her first dance recital. I am not so good with the video setting on our camera so unfortunately the video is a little off, but I did get some of her. I am hoping to find another copy from one of my friends. She did such an awesome job. She got up there and followed her teacher Miss Esther for most of the dance. She was one of the few who danced. It was so fun to watch her and love the audience, no stage fright in this little girl! It cracks me up to see my kids on stage and love it, who would've known? Leilani I knew would love it, she loves dancing and can't wait for her next recital in the Spring. What a doll she was, and is! Good job Lani!

Monroe and Leilani

Leilani's curtsy, with her eyes closed of course!

Enjoying her donut and loving being on the stage, again!

Gotta love Brady's pose!

Christmas Program

Last week Brady had his Christmas program for school. He did such a great job! They have been working hard all year learning these songs and the program was pretty good, I was impressed!. They sang quite a few songs, that I had never heard of. My personal favorite and he sang was "Mele Kalikimaka" and he still sings it :)

Bryce and I liked how much "Christ" was in the music, I love living in a rural town.
During one of the songs they split into sections and I saw Brady turn around and correct a girl behind him for singing the wrong part, it was funny to me. That is my kid!

Congratulations Brady on working hard and enjoying the stage. He loves performing, it is fun to see him grow and develop into such a great kid, I love you bug!

Halloween in December?

My toddler, decided to play with my camera case and lost the connection for the camera to computer, hence the Halloween pictures in December!

We were busy with Halloween activities this year and had a lot of fun. Most of the candy is gone, finally!
Best described in pictures:

The 3 ready to trick-or-treat.

Leilani, costume #1, old dance costume from neice, preschool

Leilani, costume #2, Cinderella, another dance costume, ballet class

Brady at his school's costume parade

I love my Mickey!

Winter Vegetable Stew

I have to credit my sister-in law for posting this site for the recipe. I made it last night and I liked it a lot. Brady ate most of it and Lani was coerced to eat it, if she wanted some healthy banana bread for our FHE treat.

Winter Vegetable Stew

1 cup onions, cut into 1/2 inch wedges

1 sweet potato

2 carrots

1 lb. banana or Hubbard squash

1 cup parsnips

2 cloves of garlic

1 red bell pepper

2 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1 cup pureed tomato (I used tomato sauce)

2 Tbsp. lime juice

1/4 tsp. cayenne (or desired amount)

1 (10 oz) package of frozen peas

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 bunch of cilantro sprigs rinsed or thinly sliced green onions (I used green onions)

Directions:

Peel onions and cut into 1/2 inch wedges. Peel parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes into 3/4-inch pieces. Peel and mince the garlic or press garlic. Rinse bell pepper cut into 1/2-inch strips, I cut smaller, to hide them from my non-pepper lovers!

Cook onions, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and garlic in 1 cup of broth for 10 minutes in covered pan, stir occasionally. Add a few tablespoons of water if it starts to stick.

Add 1 more cup of broth, along with bell pepper, tomato sauce, lime juice and cayenne to taste. Return to boil and then reduce heat. Simmer covered until vegetables are tender when pierced about 12-15 minutes. If stew sticks to pan or gets thicker then desired, add more broth as needed.

Add peas and stir occasionally until hot, about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle soup in bowls and garnish with cilantro or sliced green onions.

It was quite good, I added some saltines for some more texture and my kidlets liked that a lot. I was hoping to serve with freshly baked whole wheat bread, but I took a little nap and didn't get to that!

I found this recipe by searching under ingredients. I got some parsnips from bountiful baskets a couple of weeks ago and wanted a different recipe. I had almost everything in my fridge, my friend gave me a squash and all I needed was the pepper. Good for a colder fall night like last night!

Green Curry

I have been meaning to post this for a long time and I apologize for no picture. This is so yummy, I wish my husband liked it more, but that doesn't stop me :)

I make this with chicken, but it could easily be omitted for those that don't eat meat.

Green Curry
1 c. chicken
1 medium onion thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 c. frozen peas
2 Tbsp. green curry paste
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. fresh basil
1 can coconut milk
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. palm sugar (I have used sucanat and turbinado) I add to taste, how sweet do you want it???
Kaffir leaf (I can never find this, so I have made without)

Saute: chicken, garlic, onion, pepper remove from pan.
Over medium heat add: coconut milk, don't boil, then add curry paste add your saute mix, then add fish sauce, sugar, basil leaves, kaffir leaf and peas. Heat until peas are cooked, but try not to boil.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Brother and Sister

Since Brady started school, my youngest children have really started to have a lot of fun together. At first, Leilani didn't know how to play without Brady she seemed very lost without him. Lately, she has no problem being the "leader" and Carter has no problem following her! He adores her! I love how sweet and loving they are to each other, hoping this lasts! This will help Carter with the adjustment of our new addition coming in the spring.

Soccer fun

As I am posting this, we are finished with soccer. Brady had his last soccer game this morning and since I haven't posted any pictures from the season, I figured we would have a lot of pictures all at one time.

Since this is the first sport he has been able to play, since they aren't available where we live until they are in kindergarten, it was a change. At first he was having a hard time, "Mom, I'm not good!" I kept telling him that everyone else was just learning too, so stop worrying so much!

By the end of the season he had a blast and loved it! He had so much fun playing and had a smile on his face the whole time. He seemed to understand the rules and was quite intense about following the ball. You should have seen the last game when he was goalie, hilarious! He needed some reigning in, because he was going to get that ball!

It liked watching him learn and start to excel at something, but now we will take a break. I am not too excited for the next sport, touch football, so we will take a break and hopefully will have a basketball player next!

Carter enjoying his breakfast, too cute not to post!

Brady's first soccer black eye! I believe this was from his second game.


Brady as goalie


Brady throwing the ball, love that Carter is right on the field!


Brady with his trophy, the soccer ball rolls, he thinks it is so cool!

Team picture, I wish he would smile!

Pumpkin patch and corn maze

Last year we went north and we did the same this year. It was a lot of fun, getting pricey the older the kids get and they love the corn maze, so that makes it even more. Here are some pics from our outing.

Bryce with the kids

Creative Canning

This year was the first time that I really canned. Last summer I did some peaches with my at my in-laws and that was a learning experience, since I had never canned before in my life. Crazy, since my mom canned like crazy when I was little, but I was too little to remember.

So I went crazy, I ordered a 26 pound box of apples from Bountiful Baskets and then I ordered 96 pounds of pears, yes, crazy! Over conference weekend I canned like crazy. I made: apples, applesauce, pears and then fruit cocktail, because I added a half a box of peaches to make it more fun!

The fruit cocktail is frozen so no canning there, not that it didn't take a lot of time to do. I am happy with the results and glad that canning really is only once a year! Maybe next year I will do it again, if I am that crazy again!

I was amazed at how Leilani and Carter were. They were so awesome to make up games and keep themselves entertained, without tv. I had to put up a table, since I had no where to put all of the unfinished cans and they made a cute game using old lids and tops from other cans.

Here are all of the cans and the kids' air-hockey table: