Baby A's Birthday

When Baby A arrived we couldn't wait to meet him! My three youngest came with me to the hospital to visit him...and his mom and dad.

Perfect little fingers and fingernails.

Precious pink feet

All 10 toes!

"It's so hard to wake up, Mom!"

Little baby grimace.

Sleeping peacefully

Mommy and Daddy + baby make three!

Their long-awaited little miracle.

Grandpa and Grandma V meet Baby A for the first time.

Grandpa checks for hair.

Grandma cuddles him close.

Grandpa checking out his sweet little face.

He looks like his daddy (I think).

Grandma having some grandbaby time.

Congratulations to my sister and her husband. They have waited for this little baby for many, many years!

Baby Shower!

Children's Book Theme

In February, I helped host a baby shower for my little sister, Kristin. We had so much fun, building around a children's book theme. We asked each of the guests to please bring a book in place of a card, to help build Baby A's library. Thank heaven for creative people whose ideas are posted on Pinterest, because I am good at copying ideas...not so good at coming up with them on my own.

I was in charge of all the food, so I made these little taco bites to go with the book Dragons Love Tacos. I used won-ton wrappers as the shell, and filled them with a small scoop of ground turkey, cheese, tomato, olive, and cilantro. I thought about doing beans, as well, but I was trying to simplify. They turned out quite yummy, and my catering partner (my 14-year-old son) probably ate about half of them!

We did fruit kababs for the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

We made little ham sandwiches and deviled eggs to go with Green Eggs and Ham. I thought about dyeing the egg filling green, to fit the theme...but, really, green eggs are unappetizing...and the point was made without the green food dye.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? had chocolate chip cookies.

This little book is one of my favorites...little sister bunny wants to hear something happy before going to bed, so big brother takes her all around the house, showing her all the things waiting for her to wake up in the morning (one of which are the ingredients for breakfast and include oats, apples, honey, etc). So we made little apple crisps for the book Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep.

Mini cupcakes for dessert. You don't need a book to go with cupcakes. Cupcakes are always appropriate. We had vanilla and chocolate. Yum!

The lady in charge of decorations did such a beautiful job! She made this cute diaper cake, decorated with books, bibs, toys, etc. We had a calendar with stickers, so people could put the sticker on the day they guessed the baby would be born on. The little pom poms on the lamp were made out of children's book pages.

More book decor.

This book "wreath" was made of pages from childrens' books t hat were rolled up and fanned out with a book in the center. It turned out so darling!

A book banner decorated the fireplace.

Our 3rd helper provided her beautiful home, a delicious green salad, and this very yummy punch!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Has anyone who frequents Facebook noticed that the recipe posts are getting a bit out of hand? It's like it is turning into a mash-up between Facebook and Pinterest. Pin-book, if you will. In any event, I have been bombarded with food porn on Facebook lately, as well as the normal amount of food porn that Pinterest contains. So, when Maren wanted to make a Sunday treat for the family, I knew the perfect friend's Facebook page to scroll through for some yummy looking recipes. We found this gem...Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. 

 I confess, I have not tasted these. I am doing a nutrition challenge that forbids me from eating any of the ingredients in these, except the baking powder, soda, and butter (in moderation--which these are not). But they look delish, don't they? It seems to be a new take on the old fashioned Peanut Butter Fingers we used to get as a treat about once a month at the school cafeteria in elementary school. Anyway, they have enough butter and sugar in them, that they're bound to be good.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 3/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

1 cup (6 oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 large egg, beaten

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Heat oven to 350*F. Combine oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in peanuts, if desired. 

Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture in separate bowl. Stir egg into remaining crumb mixture. Press onto bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. 

Bake 15 minutes.

Stir together sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter until well combined. Pour evenly over partially baked crust.

Stir together reserved crumb mixture and chocolate chips. Sprinkle evenly over peanut butter layer.
Bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool. Cut into bars.

Unfortunately, these recipes don't ever link to a website or give credit to anyone, so I apologize I don't know who to credit these yummy bars to. Maren has assured me they are wonderful, and the boys have gobbled up 2, each. So, like I said, you can't go wrong with a cup of butter and that much brown sugar. Enjoy!

Missionary Moment

Several months ago, my good friend and next-door-neighbor moved. She was the best neighbor ever...and I miss her terribly! But, with change, comes new opportunity. There was a man who moved in, and a few months later his wife, children, and his mother joined him. They are a nice family, from Detroit. He is in the air force, and his wife works in Salt Lake. His mother looks after his two daughters, who are 7 and almost 3-years-old. They were kind enough to accept all the zucchini I brought by this summer, as well as some other over-run vegetables I was growing.

One day, after school had started and life had settled down a bit for them, Elsa (the mother/grandmother) knocked on my door and said how lonely she was. She doesn't drive, and with everyone being at work and only the baby to look after, she had become lonely. I invited her in and chatted with her for a while. She indicated that she had always gone with a friend to a Baptist church. I told her there was a Baptist church nearby and that maybe she could go there. However, she had always gone with a friend, and I guess she didn't want to put her son out to take her and pick her up. So, figuring nothing would come of it, I said to her "You could come to church with me and meet some people in the area." I also told her there are activities the women do once a month that she would be welcome to attend with me. Mostly I just thought she needs Relief Society!

About a month after that, she asked if she could come to church with me. This was the day before stake conference, so I explained that it was a little different that day, but she was more than welcome to come. It was a typical stake conference, and I wondered if she would be totally turned off...but a couple weeks later she wanted to come again. This time she stayed for sacrament meeting and most of Sunday School, which was gospel doctrine. The teacher was awesome and gave her a warm welcome to class. He made quite an impression on her.

So, off and on, as she was able to (when her son and daughter-in-law weren't working) she came and said she would come to church with us. People began to get to know her and welcome her to class and say how glad they were she was coming. The missionaries in our stake were doing a big push around this same time, to get the youth involved in missionary work and sharing the gospel with their friends who may not be members or may not be active. One day we had them over for dinner and as they gave the message after dinner, asking us if we had any friends who were interested in hearing the gospel, etc, instead of giving my usual answer of "no, I can't think of anyone..." I was able to say "Yes! My next door neighbor has been coming to church with us!" They were so excited!

A few days later, they asked me to set up a time for her to come to dinner or a family home evening that they could come to. This was right around Christmas, and with all the busy-ness of the season, I didn't get an opportunity to invite her. And then, it was our wards' turn to feed the elders again. The ward mission leader (who was the gospel doctrine teacher at the time Elsa first came to Sunday School) asked me to feed them and invite her to dinner with us. The day before we were to feed them, the elders called and said they had 2 things to speak to us about...first, they would be by at 6:00 for dinner; and second, they wanted to invite us to Elsa's baptism on the 16th of February! They had visited with her and she had chosen a baptism date. Wow!

I started attending the discussions they were giving her, along with a few other ward members. She was very accepting of everything they taught. When they asked her to think of someone she wanted to baptize her, she knew right away...the gospel doctrine teacher who had taught her first Sunday School lesson. Yesterday she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, and today, during sacrament meeting she was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. It has been a very special weekend! Her baptism was beautiful. The Spirit was strong!

It is so amazing to me, that by simply opening my mouth and inviting her to church, she has been baptized. That day I invited her, she noticed the pictures of Jesus and Joseph Smith I have hanging on my wall, and asked about Joseph Smith. I gave her a brief explanation of who he was and what he did. She is the first person I have been brave enough to invite to come to church with me. It is amazing what instruments we can be in the Lord's hands if we will follow the promptings of the Spirit. I love this church, and gospel and I love the Book of Mormon! I just had to share in my excitement and joy!

Looking back

I was looking at pictures on my computer and came across these oldies from 2007. And the quality is lacking...sorry about that. 

Kaden and Maren

Dallin and Liam

Our summer vacation consisted of a trip to Jackson, Wyoming and Yellowstone. We went in August, and it rained every day on us. We were cold, but had a great time!

Kaden, Me, Liam, and Maren in the covered wagon on the way to our chuckwagon dinner.

Erik

At the dinner...happy to be out of the rain! Dallin, Liam, Me, Kaden, Erik, and Maren.

The singing cowboys

More singing cowboys. They sang How Great Thou Art at the end, which was fitting given the beautiful surroundings we were in...in spite of the rain.

Some kids from the audience helping with a song...it may have been She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain, but I can't remember for sure.

Maren and me with one of the cowboys.

Baby Blessing

This past summer seemed so busy. I made friends with my sewing room, and worked on a costume for a friend, and a baby blessing dress for another friend's baby. These projects were fun, and I really do love sewing. As much as I like making quilts and doing other little projects, I really do adore sewing clothing. It was a lot of fun doing both these projects.

The baby blessing dress was a request from a dear friend from high school. She couldn't find what she wanted, so my sister volunteered my services to her. She emailed me a couple of pictures and asked what kind of fabric I recommended. With that tucked skirt, I immediately thought of dupioni silk! But for a baby blessing? So, I took some pictures of different fabrics, sent them to my friend, and told her what I would love to do if cost and fabric-care weren't issues...and gave some nice, less-expensive, easy-wash options. Well, she went to the fabric store, and agreed on the silk!

So it was decided. I found a pattern that had the same little cap sleeves, but that was the only thing. I had to draft a pattern for the skirt and then figure out what to do for the rhinestones across the bodice. She also wanted rhinestones at each tuck in the skirt, instead of a pearl. I found some neat heat-applied rhinestones, but the lady at the craft store said she wasn't sure if they dry-cleaned. We decided to use them anyway. Here is how the dress turned out.

I missed the blessing, and I've been assured pictures of the baby in the dress are coming, but I don't have them yet. This blessed event was filled with a little sorrow, however. As I was in the middle of making the dress, the baby's grandmother passed away very unexpectedly. When I gave it to my friend, though, she cried and said how much her mother would have loved this. It was a pleasure to work on, and I was so pleased with how beautiful it turned out, and even more pleased that it made my friend so happy.

Canterbury Cathedral Choir Boys

Here is the video I promised, and forgot to post.