More Basketball

Ethan had another game last Tuesday. They were run over by the other team. The kids were older and you could tell they practiced a lot. But the boys still had fun, I think. Here are some photos:

Best Brownies

Last night Ethan was the treat for FHE and we didn't have anything on hand. He wanted to make brownies, so I found this microwave brownie recipe that is really good! I thought I would share it.

Microwave Brownies:

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup chocolate chunks or chips
* Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Put the butter and chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.

In a large bowl sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the egg and chocolate mixtures along with the vanilla and stir well to combine.

Spray an 8 by 8 by-2-inch microwave safe glass pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out evenly, and scatter the chocolate chunks on top. Cook on high for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes before cutting and eating.

(Don't overcook them. They are really chewy at first but the second day they are perfect!)

Basketball Season Again

Ethan started his basketball season with Ivins City tonight with their first practice/game. He is on a team with a bunch of neighborhood boys and is have fun. Bryan is the head coach this year and he has some great assistants (they actually did the game today because we got the schedule really late and Bryan couldn't make the game). It's fun for the boys. They are all so much bigger this year that it's amazing. Ethan is #14. (I couldn't get any front shots, but there are still 7 more games to go!)

More snow fun

Here are some more snow pictures from Monday when it snowed. Bryan and Courtney went outside and made a snowman with a carrot nose and a fruit snack mouth. They had fun. Ethan got into the winter clothes bin and found an old 9M jacket he wore as a baby and decided to try it on. It was pretty funny!

SNOW!!

We woke up this morning to see this in our backyard!



We were supposed to get snow last week but didn't get any. I guess it's "better late than never" around here.

Trying to make it to a new year...

The kids wanted to stay up until midnight so we decided to let them try. We watched movies and popped popcorn. At about 11:10 Courtney lost the battle and fell asleep. Ethan was on his way out around 11:30 so Bryan suggested he play his DSi and that woke him right up.

At 11:50 Bryan woke Courtney up and put her on his lap but she didn't want to stay awake and buried her head in his neck. At 20 seconds to midnight, Bryan tried to wake her up again but she wasn't interested.

After the ball dropped Bryan climbed Courtney up into her bed where she woke up and proceeded to tell him off for not waking her up "fast enough" to see the ball drop. He explained that he tried to wake her up but she wasn't having any of it and kept yelling that now she couldn't sleep. I went to warm up her rice bag and by the time I got back (2 minutes later) she was asleep.

Ethan fell asleep pretty easily too and they both slept in this morning.

Happy New Year!!!

Ethan trying to stay awake:

Proof that Bryan did try to wake her up:

Laser Mania

On Thursday, we went to Laser Mania. Ethan and Bryan played laser tag (Ethan won) while Courtney and I played mini-golf with blue lights. It was really fun. We don't keep score because Courtney is a use-the-golf-club-like-a-broom type of golfer. But she had a lot of fun and so did Ethan!