Candy Making

I thought it would be fun to make candy this year. Dad thought it would be fun to have a treat to hand out at tithing settlement, and I thought it would be fun if it were candy! The first week we only made 4 batches of candy: Caramel, Peanut Butter Balls dipped in chocolate, Ego Boosters and Toffee.

That little bit didn't last too long, but it was so much fun that we had a candy making session the next Saturday. Mom, Katie, Mark and I got together to spend a few hours making candy and ended up with 13 batches. Mom made the most (although she also had the ones that went together the fastest): Ego Boosters, Rocky Road Fudge, her mom's Rocky Road, her Fudge (good stuff!) with and without nuts. Katie got two batches of Peanut Butter Balls (smooth and crunchy) and dipped them in chocolate and finished off the chocolate with some cashew clusters. Mark spent an hour by the stove making two double batches of almonds (Orange Almond Sweeties and Oriental Almonds). I made Caramels and two kinds of Bark (one batch each with peppermint and cherry candy canes) then got the toffee started that Mark helped with and I finished off with chocolate on top.

It was lots of fun, but it made a mess of the kitchen!

Go Mom Go! (she's cooking her fudge)

This was towards the middle of the session. We even had fresh home made bread and honey butter from the night before!

I think I'll call this a success! We started at 3 and had to break at 5 for the ward party and did the finishing touches and last batch or two at 8. We finally headed to bed at 11, after talking, laughing, and cleaning! We'll probably do this again!

School Pictures!

I have a magic trick of Shelly's that I was going to put on here, but the video file is too big, and I've been too lazy to figure out how to make it smaller. I'll put up the kids' 'school pictures' instead. These were taken on the day that Shelly burned her hand on the stove, and I had french braided her hair just before the drama - so her hair is a mess (it always looks messy when it's up, but even worse when it's in a braid - I could get into the gel thing, but that's too much work) and she's holding her hand rather funny so she doesn't have to touch her burnt fingers. Jason tried for all his worth to get his hands in his pockets! It worked better with the second shot, which was a close-up...

Shelly's 4th B-Day

For Shelly's 4th birthday we decided to have it be just a fun day for her at D-land (it helped that they gave us a gift card for the price of a ticket...) I waited for Mom to get home so she could watch the other kids, and then Shelly and I headed out to meet her Daddy at Disneyland. She was quite excited! After getting into the park we let her buy some candy with her gift card b-day money and then headed off to have some fun.

Shelly liked the Christmas Tree

Our first stop was Buzz Lightyear where I totally whooped Shelly (and even Mark!).



On the way out Shelly wanted to buy something. She kept talking about the money she has in her piggy bank (really it's a car they can paint, but it's the same concept) and we found a cheap toy for her to use the money on. She had about 30 cents in the car, and we didn't bring any of it, but I had enough change in my wallet to buy it with change so she thought we were using her money. It was kinda fun to have her think she was buying her own stuff. When we got home, she then gave me all the money from her bank.

Then we decided we were hungry and went and got some pasta and pizza. Shelly got her own kid pizza and ate away.

We were on our way to take her on the Rockets when we realized she was tall enough for Space Tours, so we detoured to see if she's like that ride. I was nervous that it would scare her, but after it was over she practically screamed 'I liked that ride!' We had to coach her a few times to use her inside voice. Then the whole way out she was talking about how she went into space and almost ran into a comet and then got shot at and she was just a little bit nervous, but it was still fun.

Then we headed over to the Rockets.

Shelly waiting in line for the Rockets

Mark and Shelly went on while I walked through, I wasn't feeling well and I don't really like that ride...

After the rockets we were going to head over to see the fireworks on our way out, but Shelly decided she wanted to go on a driving car ride, so we turned around and headed to Autopia instead. She almost fell asleep while walking to the ride, but once she saw it she got quite excited.

For future reference, during the fireworks is a horrible time to get on Autopia. There aren't enough people to cycle through the cars, and, since the passengers are the ones who move the cars, once you're on you have to wait until after they're over and for people to head over before you can get off.

Shelly got to go over the intercom and tell the passengers not to bump, but she was to tired that she didn't really get it. (it was after 9:30 by this point, and she usually goes to bed at 7:30)

She fell asleep in Mark's arms on the way to the tram. The poor kid. She was so tired that when I had her climb into her car seat she slipped and fell face first onto the floor. (her and Jason are in the back of the minivan and Emily and an empty seat are in the front bench seat - easier on extra passengers to not have to dodge seat belts and nicer to the kid who would otherwise be by themselves in the back) I couldn't get to her from the side of the car I was on, so I had to run around the car to save her. She passed out on the way home - once she calmed down from the fall. She seemed to have a blast, and it was fun for Mark and I to get to spend some one on one time with her.

Thanksgiving Dinner

So, I'm a little behind, but I have the photo of the pie that Mark and I made - Mark made the crust, and I did the filling, so I figured I'd just add all the other food we made to the list too.

Mom and Dad invited the singles in their ward who didn't have anywhere else to go to come over for Thanksgiving. We made quite a bit of food. Thankfully Mom and I were practiced since just two weeks before Mom and I had cooked basically a Thanksgiving dinner for the entire singles ward (100 people), with just a little bit of help from another couple - oh, and Dad helped carve (and Mark helped watch the kids!!)

For Thanksgiving we brined and basted a 20lb turkey, made gravy, made 15 lbs of homemade yukon gold potatoes, made Granny dressing from scratch - even down to the loaves of bread, made pumpkin delight, tasty sweet potatoes casserole, broccoli with parmesan and bread crumbs, two kinds of homemade rolls (mine and Mom's), pumpkin pie, apple pie, lemon pie (that was not the success we were hoping for - but it wasn't bad for a first try), cream cheese pie, and 2 kinds of home made ice cream (vanilla and cookies and cream). Other people brought green bean casserole, cheesy mashed potatoes and a boxed stuffing. We had 15 family members and about that many singles come. All in all it was quite the fun, filling meal.

Emily Through the Years (or weeks...)

Just in case you were worried that I neglected to take pictures or video of the baby; this should calm your fears - or bore you to tears - one of the two! Mostly this is for Grandma who I know would love to see all these videos. The rest of you feel free to pick and choose, or ignore them all. Either way.

It's easier having Emily nap in the office. It's closer to the right end of the house, and makes it so I can hear her if she wakes up while I'm trying to rest, and I don't have to go as far to go get her. It also gets her used to sleeping around noise so hopefully she won't be woken up quite so easily later in life when she has to share a room.

This is what we see when she wakes up. It's kinda cute!


Here's Shelly and Emily

Shelly loves to play with her sister.


Shelly doing a 'trick'

Here's Emily drooling. It's not the most exciting video ever...

And she does love to drool!

I was trying to get her to roll over, but it didn't work...

I don't know where this came from, but it was in between many pictures that were either of Jason's finger or random photos, so I'm thinking it was the kids. The shadow doesn't tell me much either except the photographer has two legs...

Don't shake the baby! ;)

Katie came to visit!!

Playing in the Yard

In early November we finally cleaned out the back yard and pulled all the dead plants from the garden. Turns out it was also a good day to play in the yard!

Mark set up a 'T-ball' type thingy for the kids to practice swinging a bat (or lathe).
Both the kids had a blast, but I didn't get out with the camera soon enough.

Picking the last of the carrots

Jason's turn.

Yuck! It's dirty!

Wash off the carrot, but don't get me wet, Daddy!

Thanks.

Here Jason, want to try?

Tasty stuff.

Eh, What's up Doc?

What day is it?

How to tell if you're tired:

You're pretty sure you put the baby down on her belly, but she's now on her back and the only thought in your head is 'at least she's quite' and it takes about 15 minutes before you realize that you're only sorta sure you didn't put her down that way, or at least in that spot. I still don't know...

You're driving home from the store and realize that your 2 year old is napping in the back seat and suddenly you're much closer to tears than you should be because you're dreading the afternoon knowing that he won't nap when you get home, and you were so looking forward to being able to lie down for at least 10 minutes!

Your 4 year old comes out of her room with not one single thing on and it takes at least 3 double takes before you realize what it is about her thats trying to catch your attention

The wrinkle guard beeper on the dryer has been going off every 5 minutes for over an hour, and all it will take to make that stupid noise stop is to walk over there and open and close the dryer, but instead you lie on the couch and wonder how much longer it will take that dumb thing to stop on it's own (at least another hour - btw, in case you were wondering)

The baby has been crying in her car seat on the way home from the store and as you're picking her up you realize there's a mushy wetness on your arm that shouldn't be there, but it takes until you're halfway up the stairs before you realize it's not just a wet diaper. Then you wonder what the car seat looks like, but decide it can wait for another wash day even though there's at least 2 more loads of guest towels and sheets left to run.

The idea of going to a RS Presidency meeting actually seems like it take less brain power than staying home with the kids - after they're in bed...

After carefully typing out an e-mail that you then send to three wrong people instead of the one who really wants it, you then send out 5 more trying to fix it - only to find out that you made the same mistake with the same people on an e-mail you sent out yesterday and somehow you think that sending out more e-mails to the wrong people will fix it...

That somewhere in your head you think this e-mail is actually worth putting up, but then you realize that even though it's totally pointless, it's better than what was there before, and at least it's updated...

I'm going to bed now. Good Night.