Jumpin' Jacks

Last Friday my parents took the kids to Jumpin' Jacks in Washington City. It's a big warehouse full of bounce houses that are blown up. The kids went nuts! They had been there once before with my parents when Bryan and I went out of town. So I hadn't seen the chaos that is a bounce house warehouse. Courtney has no fear and went down every tall slide she could get up. Ethan took off so I didn't get a whole bunch of photos of him. I just couldn't keep up with him and I didn't pay to play so I couldn't follow him either. After an hour they were both sweaty and tired, so we called it a day. But they loved it!!

Cute Girls

Here is a photo of Courtney and her friend, Hayley, at preschool. I thought they were pretty cute girls. The day I had preschool at my house there were only two girls and the two boys. It was hectic and wild, but I think they had a lot of fun.

Poor Courtney

I am trying to get a business license from Ivins City so I can make wedding cakes in my home. Side note: If you think you would like get your own business license, beware!! There is a lot of hassle involved. Now back to the story. I had to have a fire inspection of my house before the process can move on. I scheduled it for today during Courtney's nap. She was really late napping so when I was putting her down we hear a really loud truck drive up. We looked out the window and there was a big ambulance in front of our house. Great! So Courtney wouldn't go down after that because she was nervous that there were fire fighters here and she thinks they START fires not PUT OUT fires.

During the inspection one of the fire fighters had to check a fire detector to see if it was working. It worked! Courtney had her ears plugged and the fire fighter thought it would be a good time to teach Courtney fire safety. He explained to her that if she hears that noise, she needs to immediately run from the house so she will be safe. He said that the alarm means there is a dangerous fire in the house. Courtney looked at me, screamed "I want to get out now!!" and went running for the door. It took a long time to calm her down and the fire fighter felt so bad.

Anyway, the inspection went well and now I just have to wait for the City to call me and have me appear before the City Council. It shouldn't be too bad because the City Attorney is our neighbor, the Zoning guy is in our ward and the Mayer is Bryan's boss. But you never know.

Buckin' Dad's Rodeo

Ethan came home from school with a flier announcing the "First Grade Buckin' Dad's Rodeo" to be held on Friday at his school. So on Friday, Bryan took a few hours off work to go and watch Ethan be a cowboy. (I didn't go since it was a "dad" thing.) We don't have cowboy clothes but we found a bandana that we tied around his neck so he sort-of looked the part. He rode a stick horse, did some roping and dressed up as a rodeo clown. Then it was time for the buckin' broncos...the Dad's! Yeah, we didn't have any warning but Bryan ended up being a horse and bucking kids. Too bad he was in his nice work clothes! But he was a good sport and the two of them had a lot of fun.

Ethan's Soccer Games

Ethan's soccer team has been doing great. They are 2-1 so far in the season. The photos are from last weeks game, which they lost. But this week they played great!! Ethan made 2 goals...maybe 3, Bryan and Ethan can't decide...and they won 8-1. The boys have been learning strategy and how to play positions and they really have been learning a lot! He is loving it, although he is asleep right now because he is just worn out!

Banana Bread

I found this recipe in the back of the book "Gladys Goes Out To Lunch" by Derek Anderson. It's a funny book that my kids like about a monkey who goes in search of the source of a wonderful smell. After an adventure all through the town following the smell, it ends up being banana bread. At the end of the book there is a recipe and it works out really well.

Gladys' Banana Bread

Cream together:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening

Add and mix well:
2 cups bananas
2 eggs

Add:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3 Tbsp milk

Optional Additions:
1 cup nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup raisins

Mix together well and pour into a loaf pan (makes 1 large loaf). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Best Ever Crescent Rolls

I found this recipe in the "Friend" magazine November 2007 and it's great. I thought I would share it! It's really easy but you spend a lot of time waiting for it to rise. I just make the dough in the morning, let it sit, roll them up in the afternoon, let them sit and cook them right before Bryan gets home from work.

1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup warm water
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup warm milk
5 cups flour, more as needed (I use 1 cup wheat flour and then 4 cups white flour)
1/2 cup butter, melted

1. In a small bowl, mix the yeast, tablespoon of sugar and warm water. Set aside for three to four minutes, allowing the yeast to activate. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, oil, and 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in the yeast mixture. Add the eggs and warm milk. Slowly stir in the flour. Add an additional 1/2 to 1 cup of the flour if the dough is too sticky to form a ball. (I use my KitchenAid for this)

2. Cover the dough and let it rise for three to four hours.

3. Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll each piece into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Brush the dough with melted butter. Slice the dough like a pizza into 12 wedges and roll up each wedge from the wide end to teh narrow end. Place the rolls on baking sheets with the narrow tip of dough tucked underneath. Cover the rolls with a clean dish towel and let them rise another two to three hours.

4. Brush the tops of the rolls lightly with butter and bake them for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 2 dozen.


I also use this receipe to make cinnamon rolls. I just add 1 extra cup of sugar in place of 1 cup of flour. I roll the dough into a rectangle, put butter, cinnamon and sugar on it and then roll it and cut as for cinnamon rolls. They are pretty good.

Soccer Ethan

Ethan started soccer this past week and he LOVES it again. His team is the Blue Jets. They had a game last Saturday. They have 8 on their team and play 4 on 4 soccer. The other team only had 3 players show up. The coach told the parents that she didn't want to forfeit because she thought they could give us a run for our money. So their poor 3 team members had to play the entire time while our guys rotated through playing 4 at a time and then taking a rest. Needless to say, we won by quite a bit. Ethan made 3 goals...one for the other team but we are still counting it! One of the goals was from a mid-field kick that no one blocked so it went into the goal, pretty good aim I think. He also made one save at the goal. The kids on his team have improved quite a bit over last year. He is loving it!

Preschool Girl!

Courtney started preschool on September 2nd and she was so excited!! It's a neighborhood preschool so 5 of us rotate weeks teaching. Courtney loves making projects and being with other children, so she loved it. Her first day was very similar to Ethan's first day...they both just walked away and didn't even glance back to say "goodbye." It's great because I don't have problems getting them to go, but it's sad because they don't even seem to miss me. Oh well. I love to watch them grow up!

Peaches, Peaches and More Peaches

Question: What happens when all the Church members in the St. George area fast for a bountiful harvest at the Church Orchard?

Answer: The Orchard ends up with more peaches than it knows what to do with!!

Yup, that's what happened. Last year I went to the Orchard with my dad after all the picking was finished for the cannery and picked some peaches of my own to bottle. It was great because we got the reject peaches (which are still really nice) for free!! I have been waiting all month for the Orchard to announce that they were finished picking this year so we could run back out. Sunday afternoon my parents called to tell me that the Cannery had too many peaches and was selling them for 35 cents per pound. I couldn't believe it! It wasn't as good as free, but we didn't have to do the picking or drive way out to Hurricane (which, for some unknown reason, is pronounced "her-uh-cun", by the way).

I went over to the Cannery on Tuesday morning with my bushel baskets and ended up getting 73 pounds of the biggest peaches I have every seen (softball size) for $25.00! Great price!! I didn't think it looked like all that many peaches. I took my 2 bushels back to our house, cleaned bottles and started evaluating. My canning book says that each quart bottle takes 2-3 pounds of peaches. Right then I knew I was in trouble!! I am now finished after having ran out of bottles and I have 21 quart bottles and 21 pint bottles full of peaches. I still have about 10 peaches we are going to have to eat in the next few days. But Bryan is happy because he loves peaches and we now have another year supply of them!

Flying Kites

Monday morning the guys went golfing while the girls went to breakfast. After we were all back together we decided to go fly kites at a park near our house. Grandma Pack has a TON of kites so we all had our own. I think everyone had a great time flying them.

Courtney was a natural, and it helped that her kite was the easiest to fly and that there was enough wind. The only problem she had was that we couldn't figure out how to keep the string from unwinding. So her little hand would shake as the string would unwind and it started to annoy her at the end.

Ethan got his kite up but it didn't stay for too long. He mostly played on the playground near the field or watching us fly them.

Andrew had a rough time with his shark kite, but he did get it up once-in-a-while. Grandpa Pack had a DANGEROUS trick kite that wasn't cooperating. The wind would shift or die down and it would take a dive. Mike kept his kite up without a problem and made those of us who were stuggling look like fools ;) Meanwhile, Grandma Pack got out this poor little lost kite that had never been able to fly very well to try and give it another chance....but it didn't want to fly. It was unbalanced or something and just kept going around in circles.

AFter a while we were hot, tired and thirsty. So Bryan, Courtney, Ethan and I left to go home and get dinner ready for everyone else.

Boating on Sand Hollow Reservoir

Grandma and Grandpa Pack came for Labor Day along with Mike and Lisa. Saturday morning we went boating on Sand Hollow Reservoir. Bryan, Grandpa, Mike and Ethan left to launch the boat at about 6:30 in the morning. Then when we girls got up at a normal hour, we got ready and went out to the lake and met up with them.

Things we discovered at the lake:

1. Ethan ISN'T a speed kind of kid. He was ready to get off the boat the minute we started going fast (but this was only when I was around because he had been fine all morning before I got there). Grandpa took Ethan on a slow boat ride and he just loved it, so there is hope.

2. Courtney IS a speed kind of kid. She loves to have her hair flying and go fast. She even got on the intertube with Bryan, but the tube was weird and when they started going faster, it almost dumped them forward.

3. Waterskiing is hard but it's lots of fun to try. I had never been before and decided that I wanted to try it. I tried about 6 times before my arms were dead and Courtney was nervous enough to make me stop. She keeps telling people that "my mommy just kept falling and falling and falling." I was starting to get the hang of it and I just have to figure out how to finish popping up.

4. After about 6 hours on the reservoir, we start to get grumpy and want to go home.

But it was so much fun and a great day!!

The Law Firm Family Party

Bryan's law firm had a party for the families. This is really popular with our kids because two years ago Ethan won the grand prize...a gerbil. We didn't keep it because 1) we didn't want it and 2) it scratched Ethan and he didn't want it anymore. We all went to Veyo, which is about 30 minutes away and has an outdoor fresh springs pool next to a wall which you can climb (with equipment) and a crawdad river. We swam for a few minutes and then they told us it was time to eat. We had dinner and then the children were invited to participate in a crawdad catching contest. They had trophies there for those who could catch the largest crawdad.

Bryan took Ethan and Courtney to catch crawdads. They got a string weighted down with a sinker and wrapped with raw bacon. It didn't take too long before Courtney brought a cup to me with a little crawdad in it. She was pretty excited. Then it was Ethan's turn to get help from Dad. They caught one but it wasn't terribly huge so they tried to get another one. Courtney and I went down to watch the "silly boys." Bryan found a huge one that kept grabbing the bacon, but he was old and wise and knew when to let go so he wouldn't be caught! He kept getting off and Bryan's legs were going numb so I took over. I eventually, with the help of Bryan's boss, caught one but it wasn't the big one. AFter the measurements were taken, Courtney's crawdad measured 2 1/4 inches. Ethan's crawdad was 3 3/4 inches. The largest was 8 inches long!!

Then they played Bingo and Ethan won a toy whale that shoots stuff and Courtney won a game and a Littlest Pet Shop toy. It was a good night!