It's Party Time!

  A few years ago Thing 1 went to a birthday party for a neighborhood friend at Barefoot Gymnastics so when it came time to have have his party this was the first place he thought of.  It was an hour and a half of smiles and laughing with playful competitions and a little bit of dancing.  He has such an entertainer personality and watching him with school mates and hearing how he is at school was a crack up! He has some stories to tell his mama!

Playing musical obstacles

The birthday crew.

Kite Festival

 Every year Dixie Power supports a Kite Festival to support local reading programs.  The kids are given a calendar at school and if they do their daily reading they can exchange the calendar for a free kite.  This year it was at Dixie State University so we could just walk over.  The boys had so much fun with all the kites and seeing friends.  

 

Rolo Stuffed Snickerdooles

I recently signed up for the meal plans through The Six Sisters and we have loved everything we have tried, but I wanted to share these and add them to the family cookbook! I had the day off today and I had an echocardiogram this morning, so I thought I would have the boys go to daycare for half of the day and meal prep.  Before my appointment I got the Chicken Cordon Bleu started in the crock pot and made the Chocolate Sugar Cookie Bars.  When I got home the house smelled wonderful with the chicken cooking and since our lives have been so busy I thought I would start the snickerdoodles.  I used to have cookie dough pre-shaped in the freezer so that we could take out a few, because fresh cookies are the best!

Rolo Stuffed Snickerdoodles

by: The Six Sisters

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Butter
• 1/2 c. Shortening
• 2 Eggs
• 3 c. all-purpose Flour
• 2 t. Baking Powder
• 1 t. Baking Soda
• 1/2 t. Salt
• 48 Rolo Candies
• 2 T Sugar
• 2 t. Cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl cream together butter, shortening, sugar and eggs.  Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Use a cookie scooper or roll a 1 inch ball and place a Rolo in the middle and shapes around.  Mix together remaining sugar and cinnamon and roll each cookie ball into the sugar mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown, but still soft.

Note: If you want to freeze them into dough balls do everything the same, but put the tray in the freezer for 6 hours to overnight and then place into a gallon sized Ziploc bag.  Keeps in the freezer for up to 3 months.

 This kid loves Rolo's so these were a score!

Kayenta Chalk Festival

 Every year Kayenta opens its gates to the world and the results are amazing.  The chalk festival lasts 2 days and artists from all over create one of a kind pieces of work.  The kids weren't really in the mood to stand by each piece and watch the art be created, but what I was allowed to take in was remarkable!

Kayenta is set in a tranquil setting.  I love the color of the red rock with the blue skies!

I wish I would have written down more about this piece, but I do remember it is a local high school group that was working on it.  They had a teacher there to advise from a different perspective. 

 Thing 2 is standing by the waterfall of this permanent piece in Kayenta.

Asian Mother's Day 2016

 When I moved to Coupeville in 2011 I never realized the boud that this boy would have with one special lady.  Dr. Chinn used to pick him up and go on ice cream dates and check out the the local pet store.  Carson walked past this coffee mug and told me that he wanted to make it for his Asian Mommy.  He worked tirelessly on this project and was so excited to get it shipped out to her and see it on her desk when we visited her office in May.

Chocolate Slip'n Slide?

This kid had himself a little adventure! I had been seeing posters on campus for a chocolate slip'n slide and knew that it was something that he needed to do! Need to send a HUGE thank you to his interventionalist, Annaleese, because she worked her magic with him so that they could share this memory together.   

Slip'n Slide with Hershey's chocolate cause...Mmm sticky!

The Best {{Snickerdoodles}} Ever

I think it's in my kids DNA that Snickerdoodles are a favorite, so they are a staple in our kitchen.  A few years ago when my little sister got married I helped put together a cookbook for her and some how Snickerdoodles didn't make it in there. I use the cookbook all the time and I keep searching for that amazing recipe and I think I found it to add to the family cookbook! 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2  cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Rolling:

1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

Combine butter and sugars on medium-high until mixture is creamy and well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt and beat on low speed just until combined.  Scoop up 2 inch balls (should make approx 14 even cookie balls) and place on a plate and cover for 1 hour or up to 5 days in the refrigerator.  

Preheat oven to 350 and roll the dough in the sugar mixture.  Place dough balls on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 9 minutes.  You can flatten them a little with the bottom of a cup before putting them in the oven, but I love the center of my cookies slightly doughy, so I leave mine round.  Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes and slide on to cooling rack.  

Hint: Cookies can be completely prepped and put into the freezer for later to bake one at a time or a few at a time (who can have just one) while still in the dough phase. Dough keeps well in an air tight container (we use ziploc) for 4 months.  This is the perfect solution for when company comes unexpectedly and you want something warm to share.

Pre-Halloween Fun at Staheli Farm

 On October 30th we went to Staheli Farm with the Oliverson's and my mom.  I'm sure if we could have just dropped them off the kids would have run happy for weeks, but it was fun while it lasted!

Brogan was so sweet when he asked to hold the baby rabbits! He did really well and James was happy to sit down and make sure Brogan and the rabbit were safe.

The kids loved this huge blow up thing!  Every few minutes the staff would kick off the older kids off so that smaller kids could run amok and act their age!

 Check out that cheesy smile!

 I wish I would have gotten a better angle of the ducks in the watering trough.  At one point all 5 kids were playing with the water pumps; racing the little ducks back and forth. 

 Hand washing station.

 Logan and Carson had fun with the giant tube on the tracks.

 Just a random cow out and roaming the farm

 She won't let me take her picture, but I got a profile along with those stinky cows.

And one more artsy picture.

Color Me Rad

 This year we have done some fun 5k's together as a family.  We've done the traditional, mud run, foam run and now a color run.  If your wondering if it is worth the cost, it totally is!

I love Logan's thug face in this picture.

Look at the stud up there with the pink glasses getting all pumped up for the race!

Here we are about to start! We are on the walking side because my partner said he didn't want to run!

Our first finisher!

The girl in the pink glasses is in our ward and Carson finished out with her.  Logan fell down and didn't want to run at all.

 I was happy to have to have these boys with me at the finish line!

 This was a great race and the best part is having all these crazies with me! 

Camping at Baker Dam

 A couple weeks ago I realized the kids had this break coming up in school (Thursday-Friday off of school) and my first thought was were haven't we been camping.  I asked around to my local friends for some ideas of camping nearby since my boys don't love driving and honestly I don't really like it either.  My nursing supervisor suggested that we try out Baker Dam and it is 90 minutes with plenty of fishing nearby.

Hello fly-away! 

 We were happy to find out that it was only 30 minutes away! Curtis and I got to talking and realized that it was the first time that we had been camping together and I'm just going to say he did a good job! Next time I will have to pack more firewood!