Black Friday - We Woke, We Shopped, We Conquered

3:00 a.m. - Woke up because nature was calling. Toss and turn for 50 minutes, trying to force myself back to sleep, but no luck.

3:50 a.m. - Alarm goes off for an already-awake me.

4:00 a.m. - Leave the house with Meghann who confesses that she woke up at 3:00 too - we should have just left then! But she was able to fall back asleep. Lucky.

4:20 a.m. - Drop Meghann off at Kohl's with my money and list to do my shopping while I wait in line at Sports Authority.

5:00 a.m. - Enter Sport's Authority. Get my $10 savings coupon.

5:10 a.m. - Leave Sports Authority with goods in tow. Head to Kohls to rescue Meghann from the maddening crowds.

5:40 a.m. - Leave Kohl's with goods in tow. Head to JoAnn's to wait for 6:00 a.m. opening.

6:00 a.m. - Enter JoAnn's, load my cart with $1.49 a yard flannel, pick a number for getting fabric cut - only three numbers ahead of me. Woo Hoo! Until I find out that the lady in front of me has about 100 bolts of flannel that she wants cut. No kidding. I can't believe there was any flannel left for the rest of us.
7:10 a.m. - Leave JoAnns, head to Ashley Furniture who is having a 20% off sale until 9 am. Lucky me, I've been eyeing something there. Talk to my mom on the phone while shopping at Ashley - it's only 5:30 in Utah and they were at the Chocolate Factory. What??? Some people just have to have their morning chocolate I guess.

8:00 a.m. - Head to Target. Can't find what I need - they were obviously wiped out by the 5 am crowd and nothing is left for the second wave. Call my mom back on the cell phone and she finds it there in Utah! Love having them two hours behind us where the shelves are still stocked.

9:00 a.m. - Quik stop at Aeropostle where everything is at least 50% off!

9:20 a.m. - Breakfast at McDonalds - I'm not really lovin' it, but Meghann loves their bagel breakfast sandwiches so I treat her (is McDonalds really considered a treat??? Only on Black Friday...)

9:30 a.m. - return home to give van to Brady so he can head out.

5:00 p.m. - Head to mall with SIX kids (and a husband, gratefully)! That's right - SIX kids. Meet Eric who has been our foster child this week. His family went on a Thanksgiving cruise and he got to spend the week with us! (I think he got ripped off...but we've had tons of fun with him here). 10:30 p.m. - can't keep my eyes open a minute longer. Crash and burn...it was a successful day!

Pow Wow

Friday was Jordan's kindergarten Pow Wow. They sang songs and then the parents were invited to have lunch with their child. Thank goodness for a dad with a flexible schedule because Jordan's mom was MIA. Actually, I was helping with a catering job - my first experience at that and the whole time I was thinking, "Like mother, like daughter. I am becoming my mom!" (which isn't a bad thing). I had a hard time choosing whether to be at the pow wow or earn some money, but in the end cold hard cash at Christmastime won out...please forgive me Jordan and thank you Brady for the great pictures and video.

Enjoying My Birthday Every Day

Here are some pictures of the appliances I bought on my birthday. They came a few weeks ago and I have been enjoying them every day.

And here we are enjoying my "ice cream" (Jeremiah's Italian ice)
And "cake" (donuts with strawberries on top since my friend who brought dinner knew strawberry shortcake was my favorite).

I bought a convection oven. I was hesitant but Brady was excited so we did it and so far, I love it.

Karate Outfits and Hot Tubs

On Sunday evening Brady took the four oldest kids to the rededication (via satellite, of course) of the Mexico City Mexico Temple. It didn't start until 8:00 p.m. here so that set the stage for some pretty tired kids to be paying attention to something they'd never seen before (and also set the stage for some pretty entertaining comments).

When Spencer saw the First Presidency all dressed in their white temple clothes he said, "It looks like they're ready to do karate!"

And when he saw the baptismal font all held up by 12 oxen, he said, "That is a cool hot tub!"

He was only barely awake during the Hosanna Shout and said he just started waving his white hankie around, not really knowing what he was doing. Needless to say, we spent Monday evening during Family Home Evening teaching about dedications of temples and temples in general, something we probably should have done before the dedication. I hope they remember more than just the karate outfits and hot tubs when they look back on this experience.

Lift Off!

Friday night we drove out to the Space Coast to watch a shuttle launch. It was a night launch and was lots of fun to see. It lit up the sky like the mid-day sun! We caravaned out with two other families, parked and watched the launch, then cruised back home. It was lots of fun. (Pictures courtesy of the internet, not my camera...I wish.)

Look What the Mailman Brought

Today when I got home from a craft show Brady handed me this letter that came in the mail:

He had a funny little grin on his face and when I turned the letter over, I figured out why. Look what I saw on the back:!!!

Remember our President Monson pumpkin? Well, at father-in-law Galen's suggestion we wrote a brief letter to President Monson which all the kids signed and included a few photos of the pumpkin in his honor. We told the kids not to expect a letter back, that we just wanted him to see the pumpkin. Well, we were definitley surprised and excited that we did get a letter back - especially the kids. It was cute to see Jordan who is just learning to read turn the letter over and figure out that it said, "Thomas S. Monson" at the top. His eyes got very big!

Thanks for the suggestion Grandpa Galen!

Bye Bye Brown Bag

Ever since Meghann started middle school, she didn't want to carry any old regular lunch box to school anymore. She started carrying a brown paper bag, or even worse, a plastic grocery sack with her lunch in it! So when I saw a class offered at Bernina for a darling lunch bag, I asked the girls if they would carry one in some cute fabric that they had picked out. They said yes so I signed up for the class. It was so fun to make these cute bags. The fabric is covered in vinyl so it's waterproof AND it's insulated so the hot stays hot, cold stays cold...you get it. Courtney chose the turquoise color with a brown inside. I made hers first and then Meghann decided it was a little too big for her so I had to figure out how to downsize the second one a little. I'm amazed and thrilled that it actually turned out!

This is the fabric that Meghann chose (it also matches the makeup bag I made for her). Now they can carry their lunch in style!

Recipe

This is especially for you, Katee. Enjoy!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

1 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. plus 2 T. cocoa, divided
1/2 c. milk
3 T. vegetable oil
1 c. brown sugar
1 3/4 c. hot water
vanilla ice cream, optional

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and the 1/4 c. cocoa in a large bowl. Stir in milk and oil until smooth. Pour into greased 8 inch square baking pan. Combine the brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over top, but do not stir. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Makes it's own sauce.

Growing up we always served this with vanilla ice cream and it was so yummy, the ice cream kind of melts from the hot sauce that is at the bottom of the cake...mmmm. My favorite now is to serve it with peppermint ice cream. It tastes yummy and looks pretty with that pink ice cream sitting on top of the chocoalte cake. It would be fun to experiment with different kinds of ice cream like cookies and cream and my favorite, chocolate peanut butter! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Jackpot!

Rememer this from my post on "quirks?" Well...my wonderful Grandma, being the resourceful lady that she is, went to work and found it for me! Guess where?





Maverik of all places! Can you believe it? You're probably nowhere near as excited as I am, but this is big for me! Now when my girls ask if they can take a swipe of it across their chapped lips, I won't cringe so hard, thinking that it's one less swipe for my lips! Or when Brady goes to kiss me just after I've applied my nightly slather, I won't resist. I'll kiss him back and then slather again! Oh, the joy. Now, if only we had a corner Maverik store, I'd really be livin' large. But, alas, I'll have to add it to my "list of things to stock up on when we go to Utah" list. But that's okay, one more reason to visit, right?



Thank you grandma! (look for a more formal "thank you" card coming in the mail...)


P.S. I've got so much to post about from a whirlwind weekend...new kitchen appliances and our Great Day in the Country craft fair! Hopefully there will be time tomorrow...my blogging time today went instead to making homemade buttermilk waffles for breakfast (thanks for your recipe Joanna), homemade manicotti AND homemade french bread for dinner (thanks AGAIN Joanna, I used your green cookbook twice today!) and finally, hot fudge pudding cake for dessert. We traded in the Nixon popcorn tradition for the Waite HFPC (short for hot fudge pudding cake but now it's not so short when I had to write what it stood for!) this week. Most were okay with the idea, but I'm sure they'll be asking for their popcorn again next week!

I Vote For...

Me! To have a happy birthday. In fact, I'm doing just that. Brady took me to buy a new oven, microwave and dishwasher to match the stainless steel fridge we bought a few months ago, so my kitchen makeover continues! I can't wait for them to be delivered! My good friend Shelby is bringing a pan of enchiladas over for dinner and we're taking the kids to Jeremiah's for some good old Italian Ice afterwards. It's turning out to be a great day.

High School Musical 3

This is one of my birthday surprises for my wife on her birthday. I hope you laugh as much as we did. Happy 30 something...

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My young five year old son!

OK, this one was too cute not to post as well. Jordan is five! He looks so grown up!

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Trick-or-Treat

Here's a few "treats" for you!

Jordan's serious Indy face

Indiana Jones and his whip

A little rope trick for you

Jordan's loot

I'll bet your asking, "Who is Spencer dressed as?"

Well, he brought me this Lego character about a month ago and told me he wanted to be "Gunther" (the name he gave the Lego character). I guess this little guy is on the Lego Indiana Jones computer game the boys play constantly and I think he may be a character from the latest movie as well??? The boys call him Gunther the Russian Guard so that was what Spencer was dressed as.
Spencer's loot

Tucker wanted to be something scary this year. I'm not sure what he is exactly, at Sea World he was called the Grim Reaper but he preferred to call himself the Unknown Phantom.
I loved this cool hood with the mesh over his face (don't know if you can see that or not). The only bad thing about it was that he couldn't snitch candy as we were going along. He kept having to take off the hood so he could eat something.

Tucker's loot

Courtney wore the pirate costume that I made for Meghann last year. Bless her. One less costume I had to make this year - and she looked darn cute to boot!

She's pretty excited about that sucker!

Princess Meghann. She went to a Halloween party instead of trick-or-treating...she's definitely growing up! Ugh.

The whole scary gang