Epic Treat

Every Monday our family has what we call Family Home Evening. It is a program in our church where we gather as a family to spend the evening together. We take turns teaching a lesson, singing songs, planing service opportunities, most importantly sharing a treat.

Esteban was assigned to choose the treat this week. Knowing it was his last chance to choose the treat, he invented one. It included a warm blonde brownie, Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and topped off with a no bake cookie.

It is essentially three treats rolled into one and it was delicious. It will always be remembered as Este's Epic treat. I will never eat one of these things without thinking of him.

Middle Child

AJ is right in the middle of our family. He has two older brothers and two younger sisters. He is such a joy in our family and has always been a good kid.He reminds me of my Grandpa Taylor in so many ways. Tonight, he asked me to make peanut brittle for the FHE treat. He didn't know that was my Grandpa's favorite candy. Now I'm even more convinced that his DNA comes from my Grandpa.

P.S. This is off subject but, I used a recipe I found online for peanut brittle since I've never made it before. The recipe was titled Neverfail Peanut Brittle. Well, it FAILED! They lied to me. I'm trying to keep my self confidence up after failing a neverfail recipe. (My second attempt went better and AJ was a happy boy.)

Happy Birthday Esteban!

Wednesday was Esteban's 12th birthday. Honestly, in my mind, I still see him as my baby boy. He is (I hate to admit it) all grown up.

He has virtually taught himself to play the piano with little help from mom or dad.As you can tell from the picture, he is an awesome big brother. The girls adore him. He babysits for us all the time. It is nice to not have to call a sitter every time we go out.

He recently taught a Family Home Evening lesson on Captain Moroni's war stratagem,
complete with visual aides.

He is working hard in scouts and is excited to leave Primary and start in the Young Men's program at church. He is doing great in school. He loves soccer and playing with his team. I love that we can carry on adult conversations. He is almost as tall as me so, we talk face to face.

As a mother I haven't decided. Do I love to see my kids mature and grow? Is it too hard to see them get older knowing the inevitable is coming? He is one day going to leave home. I don't even like to think about it. Since I am indecisive, I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time and enjoy every minute of it. With Esteban as my son, enjoyment is the easy part. Happy Birthday, Steb!

Ryan's Place

A family in our area lost their 2 year old son in a boating accident last summer. In his memory, they raised funds and organized thousands of volunteers to help them build a park. The entire park was built in 4 days last month. All of the blood, sweat, and tears really paid off. We visited Ryan's Place Park for the first time yesterday for our FHE activity.

Vanessa was Rapunzel. It is ironic, in reality her hair is really thin.Esteban was Sir Laughs Alot.
AJ enjoyed the climbing wall. Ethan and Savanah liked riding on the boat.

The park was a lot of fun. I am thankful Ryan's parents were willing to share his story. It is truly inspiring!

I'd Like S'more Family Home Evening!

You can probably tell that I love FHE. It is honestly one of my favorite events of the week. This week was especially fun. Esteban started a fire in our fire pit (he is becoming such a great Boy Scout.) Then, we burned the boys schoolwork (I saved some of the really good stuff). It was great way to celebrate summer vacation. YEAH!!After our lesson, which truly was fireside, we cooked s'mores. My favorite s'more is the traditional-ooey-gooey-melted-chocolate-bar-toasted-marshmallow s'more. So delicious. My mouth is watering remembering it.

Our activity was hide-and-go-seek outside. We had a lot of fun, but next, I'm going to wear camouflage.

This FHE was definitely one of my favorites of all time.

Family Home Evening

We were asked to visit the assisted living center just down the street to share with them our Family Home Evening. The residents love children. We have lots of kids and are willing to share.We chose Prayer as our theme. We sang "A Child's Prayer" for the opening song. Ethan read a scripture, Esteban read a story, and AJ told about the time I lost my credit card while on vacation and he prayed that we would find it. His prayer was answered. That is one of his favorite stories to tell (a bit embarrassing on my part). Savanah said a poem and held up the picture that she colored. She was so proud of her picture. She held it above her head almost the entire program.
In closing, we all sang "Did You Think to Pray?" It was really enjoyable. The residents were kind and seemed genuinely happy we were there even though we are not a great performing family. I was reminded how much I loved working in nursing homes. I think the past generation has much to offer us and yet so many times they are neglected and passed off. I'm grateful for the chance to teach my kids the importance of loving and serving the elderly.

April Fool's

Most of you know that we love April Fool's around here. I believe that holidays are a lot more fun with kids, especially this particular holiday. I didn't do anything this year on April 1st. I waited until Monday for our Family Home Evening treat when I prepared "meatloaf, potatoes, and gravy". You should have heard the kids groan when I told them what we were having for our treat.

Although, upon closer look, they were pretty happy. It was actually chocolate rice crispies treats, vanilla ice cream, and butterscotch topping. I can't take credit for the ideas. They all came from Family Fun Magazine, a great resource for having fun with kids, if you can wade through all the advertisements.

Ice Cream, You Scream

Last Friday night, Aaron and I went to his company's party. We went to a great Italian restaurant, Bucca di Beppo, in Salt Lake. They brought out huge plates of different kinds of food. We ate "family style" where we scooped off the main plate what we wanted to eat. You put a plate of pasta in front of me, and I will eat it. The best part of the dinner was the dessert. I love cheesecake and it was wonderful! Aaron passed on the cheesecake (I didn't think this was humanly possible, but it obviously is). He said he would rather have ice cream. I for one, would prefer any dessert that is baked. If it came down to it, I would choose cheesecake over ice cream any day.

In Aaron's honor, our FHE treat this week was homemade ice cream. I remember doing this as a kid. We had an antique crank ice cream maker. We kids would crank the handle as long as possible until our arm felt like it was falling off than, the next kid would take a turn. It's a good thing there were four-n-more in my family growing up. The end result made the sore arms all seem worth it. These days, we have an electric ice cream maker that I simply plug in and let it do it's thing.

I made vanilla ice cream, which is my favorite. A lot of people don't consider vanilla a flavor, but it is. I have to admit that if I go to a ice cream shop, I don't get vanilla, I choose a flavor that is vanilla with something mixed in. My favorite mix-in is Reese's peanut butter cups. Sometimes I go wild and get caramel and nuts. There was the time that I had birthday cake flavored ice cream. That was good! Again, it was vanilla with yellow cake mix in it. Now you know my flavor preferences. What are yours?

The kids seemed to enjoy the ice cream. Ethan said should rename it "Perfection". Next time, I'll go out on a limb and make Cookies & Cream but, can you have something better than perfection?