Monday, September 29, 2008

Apples.....

I forgot to mention we have apples this year. Not the kind you want to pick and eat directly from the tree. They only got sprayed once at the beginning of spring, so some (but not all) have a few worms. I took the first few that crashed to the ground during a rain storm last week and cut them up and bottled apple pie filling. Looks yummy! I will also be making apple sauce. Anything that you cut the apples up first will work. If anyone is interested in a few worms you are welcome to come get some. ;) I have to make sure I make enough pie filling to give some to Sharon. Billy is looking forward to "Clock Pie", and apple is his favorite.


The pints are actually cinnamon peach cobbler filling. I'll save one for Poppi!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Soldier Creek

Back to our usual pace!

We had an interesting Thursday night. While bathing the kids before bed, Alec decided to try his luck at wall climbing. Not a good idea if you and the wall are wet. I pulled him down three times and even whacked his wet bum, he just laughed at me and continued to climb the sides of the tub! Well, on his fourth attempt he slipped and slammed his chin down on the side. He ended up with a cut almost an inch long. We had to quickly wash dress and load everyone in the car to go to IHC Kidcare.
My monster was an angel for the nurse and doctor. Not a peep from him, and he was as still as a statue while being stitched up. Eight stitches in all.



We had a fun "quick" camping trip this weekend. We headed up to Soldier Creek Friday night and had to hurry home Saturday so I could get to my last night and Gymboree.

We borrowed James and Taunie's trailer. We were so cold up Hobble Creek a few weeks ago I hadn't planned on meeting my parents for the weekend, until Taunie offered it. I'm so glad she did! We had a good time. It was a quick decision to go as well as a quick trip. We threw our stuff together and didn't get there until dark. But we were comfortable in the trailer. And enjoyed the morning.



The kids around the camp fire in the morning.




Eating breakfast in the trailer.

I used to go camping all the time with my grandparents when I was little. I think my kids will have good memories of the trip. It was fun for me to be there with my cousins, and their kids.


Grandma Williams



Alec had fun playing with my cousin Rory's daughter Faith.



Aidan loves his son Brandon. This is Vanessa (Rory's wife) with Brandon.



Strawberry is cold at night, but beautiful during the day this time of year. The leaves are turning; there are yellow Aspens all around.



The kids enjoyed a ride in Grandpa's boat. Alec was lulled to sleep by the motor.




This Tuesday right after preschool I get to run over to Aysia's school and teach an art lesson on Jackson Pollack. I think it will be fun for the kids to try out his style at the end. I hope it goes well. I guess they probably wouldn't fire me, since I'm a parent volunteer.


I hope we don't have any more major accidents to report next week!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Rhubarb? What rhubarb?

So this weekend was a bit slow compared to usual. That sounds funny because we actually had house guests. My sister came down from WY for the weekend. However, we had dinner at my parents Friday and only the Taylor and Takoda slept at our house. It was good to have Taylor here because Amanda actually wants to come over. Amanda spent most of Saturday with us. Elizabeth and her family stayed with her father-in-law Saturday night, so it was quick.

When I saw Brett and Jenny Burton at church I asked them if they noticed they were missing a big plant in the backyard. Brett asked a few questions to figure out which one I meant. On Saturday I took all the rhubarb. :) I don't think it's been harvested since I last did it in June! The plant was HUGE! Brett laughed and said he hadn't known what it was. The leaves were so big he wondered if it was a pumpkin or zucc
hini plant. He kept waiting for a squash of some kind to grow on it. He said at one point he thought about pulling it out. I said it's a good thing you didn't; Sharon's very fond of her rhubarb! LOL

Speaking of Pumpkins, our three little plants are thriving. I would estimate we have at least 20 pumpkins; some of which have already turned orange. We still have another month until Halloween!


For some reason cucumbers have always done well in our little backyard garden. I give loads and loads of them away. This week I decided I would try putting up relish. It looks and tastes pretty good. If you like cucumbers, let me know!

As I mentioned previously, Aysia is playing soccer this fall. She is pretty good at it. She gets right in there and she is quick. She has made more goals then most. She is also taking a jazz dance class on Wednesdays. She keeps me very busy! Since Pre-k started on Sept 9th I have gone non-stop. So I decided I couldn't do Gymboree anymore. I have put in my two weeks notice. I will really miss all the good deals I have found while there and the great discount.

Oh...guess what! I have a student teacher helping me in pre-k on Thursdays! It's great to have free help; especially on Thursdays. That's the three year old class. She said she was looking for an in home school, because that's what she wants to do. She is impressed with my set up. I tell her I was very blessed to have a wonderful sister-in-law quitting the business who gave me my incredible start. Thank you Karine!

I have been asked to be a chairperson for an enrichment cooking club. They will be meeting - not once a month - but every other week. Once in the day (12:30) and two weeks later in the evening (6:30). This should help keep me busy. Tomorrow is the first meeting. I hope it's successful.

Well, it's not been a very exciting week. I need to remember to take more pictures during the week to make reading this a bit more entertaining; because I'm not very entertaining. :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hobble Creek Campout

This last weekend was another busy one! We went to the ward camp-out up Hobble Creek Canyon. We wanted to get under way as soon as Aysia got home from school Friday (3:00); but when have we ever left for vacation (mini or long) at the planned time? I think...NEVER. We left at 4:30. Taunie and I had planned to have our evening meal together (Dutch Oven). The ward was supplying breakfast. I took frozen chicken down to her around 1:00 pm. When the Anderson's arrived around 5:30 - about 20 minutes after us- the chicken was still a little frozen. We were suppose to get there before them to start the coals. We didn't have any "scout water" and so needless to say it took some time to get dinner cooked. One thing you gotta love about a ward function though, is there's never a lack of advice of what you could've done to make things work out better. Well...lesson learned; cut chicken into smaller pieces, defrost completely, and don't forget the lighter fluid. Once it was finally ready to eat (8:30ish) it was really good, or we were just really hungry. James would've liked more salt, but not enough to get some from the trailer. LOL. The Peach cobbler would've made Poppi proud! Mmmmm...it was good.


The kids had a lot of fun. Aidan was the first to crash. He's snuggled in the sleeping bag next to Alec, but you'd never know from this picture. It was a very cold night! It took a good hour snuggled with Billy before I quit shivering. Taunie and James have their tent trailer, but they didn't turn the heater on - due to a misunderstanding of whether it worked or not - So they froze too!
We enjoyed ourselves. But as part of the activities committee we have voted to do it earlier in the summer.


As I mentioned before, Aidan and Alec are now "officially" sharing a room. I caught Alec curled up with Aidan again the other night. It's pretty cute, he was using Aidan's leg as a pillow.


Preschool has started. It's actually going very well. Usually the first few weeks are the hardest as everyone gets used to the new routine. I'm enjoying having Aidan go to Chloe's on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He doesn't get bored because he doesn't have to do everything twice AND he gets a play date too! What will I do when Christy moves??? Eleanor is such a grown up! I know she's only three, but don't tell her that! I enjoy getting to know my nieces and nephews better when they come to Pre-k.

Chloe 1st day
My Prince Aidan
Eleanor - two handed artist!

I taught the lesson in RS on Sunday. I haven't had a lesson I felt real good about for a while. They aren't terrible, I just can't seem to get past that the last good one I gave was on the day my brother died. As I was preparing I read the wrong lesson (oops), and I was excited about it. Chapter 17 is on The Plan of Salvation. I taught about this hundreds of times on my mission. But I learned some new things! Joesph Smith did speak with the Lord and angels. He restored the gospel and there is so much we can learn from studying his teaching and the revelations he received. That's not the something new I learned! But - it is an awesome lesson (that's chapter 17). I encourage anyone reading this Blog to read it before it's taught. I just taught chapter 15, so it's coming up soon. I taught on Establishing the Cause of Zion, which ended up not being as hard to teach as I thought it would be.
If Babylon is the city of the world, Zion is the city of God. Basically, we need to find a way to live in Zion (be pure in heart) as Babylon (the world) crashes in around our shores. Joesph basically says, service is the key. And attending the temple is a way to bring Zion into our hearts and homes. Keeping us strong against the storms of mortal life. Also we must share the gospel with our fiends and neighbors so it can be spread to the four corners of the earth before Christ returns to reign in Zion. One of my favorite lines from the lesson was "We seek Zion because it is the habitation of our Lord, who is Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. " That's 20 minutes of lesson edited to 20 seconds. Okay, I feel I've shared my part for today.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Aysia is 7!!

This has been a very busy weekend! Aysia had a huge birthday bash Saturday. A Hannah Montana water party. I had planned on setting most of it up on Friday, because I had to work at Gymboree Friday night and we had so many obligations Saturday.

However, I got a call from Grandma Boam Friday about 11:30 requesting "low sodium-homemade chicken noodle soup". Of course I love doing anything I can for Grandma. So I whisked my wet boys (we'd been outside setting up for a water party) to Albertson's for the ingredients I didn't have in my pantry or garden. Not boasting, but I am a pretty good cook. However, I've never been good at making chicken soup from scratch. I've told my mother-in-law (Sharon) she needs to tutor me - she makes great chicken soup. So... I was already thinking this would be hard, but then to try to make it taste good without salt-impossible! Well, I finished the soup. It wasn't to bad. When Aysia got home from school I delivered it to Grandma and she said it was good!!

Needless to say I didn't get finished setting up for the party before I left for work at 4:45. I stayed up late to get some things done. Billy never realizes how much effort goes into planning and pulling off a party for 24 children. Yes, Aysia couldn't leave out anyone! Aysia had a soccer game at 10:15 Saturday in Sandy, I had a RS meeting at 10:00. Thankfully Aysia got a ride to soccer with her best friend Summer. We picked her up at 11:15 to head down to Provo for a Clinger (my mother's) family reunion at noon. We left the reunion early at 2:00 so I could get home and finish setting up for the party at 3:30. We hit bumper to bumper traffic on the way home. There was an accident at the point of the mountain that SLOWED everything down. As we inched closer and closer home, I had visions of kids showing up to our house for a party no one was hosting! Finally as we passed the accident things sped up. We pulled in about 3:00. I raced around trying to get things ready for guests to arrive. In the end - though things weren't exactly as I visioned- it was a successful party.

Aysia and Summer

Cousins cooling off in the pool!
Eleanor, Brayden, Aidan and Alec

Eleanor NEEDS popcorn please!

There are some happy faces!
Chloe, Aidan, Rhett and Josie


After everyone was sufficiently drenched and had their fill of cotton candy (thanks Jana) and popcorn, we had a great Hannah Montana Cake (thanks Taunie) and ice cream with pop rocks sprinkled on top!


Aysia had a huge pile of presents to open. I guess that's the benefit of inviting 20 kids! She recieved so many nice things, mostly Hannah Montana related. Disney's making a fortune. It was such a crazy day, I almost forgot the Hannah guitar pinata. Billy strung it up quickly at the end. Christy and Dale kept tell him to watch his...squirrel food...you know - kids swinging bats.


Aysia took the first few swings. Spencer made
a small whole and Sam Sietz finished it off.


Adison grabbed the bat after the pinata was good and finished. Kids were swarming in for candy, and I barley got it out of his hands before something besides nuts got cracked. WHEW!