Thursday, February 17, 2011

Rolling Stone's Cover Contender: The Steelwheels



The Steelwells frontman, Joey Winter,
was Samuel's missionary companion
many moons ago in the Philippines!

Now our boy is all grown up and is
playing against 16 un-signed bands
vying for the cover of
Rolling Stone's magazine
and a recording contract from Atlanta Records!

Granted, we're not fans of R.S.,
but we do love Joey and support him 100%!

The mag describes their music as,
and we couldn't agree more.

If you like their mellow tunes too,
stop by and rate them now!

Thanks!




Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sick? Call Iris





She frets,
fusses,
fluffs pillows,
and puts everything you'd ever need
easily within reach!
...

Thank you, Iris.

You take such good care of me!

Love,
Mom


Monday, February 7, 2011

Why Go To College? The Pizza, of course!





Samuel needed to take care of some business at school,
and being Family Home Evening,
it was the perfect opportunity for the kids
to check out Dad's school.

After we walked the campus,
we took to the trail and meandered
along some paths along the river.

What impressed them most?

All the on-campus fast-food restaurants!

Go figure.

But now they all really want to go to college!



Friday, January 28, 2011

Father-Daughter & Mother-Son Dates: Spaghetti vs. Thai


Our elementary school hosts an
Annual Father & Daughter Dance,
and this year was the first year that all our daughters could attend!

Unfortunately,
we couldn't make it.

{sad}

So to make up for missing out,
we created special invites for both the girls AND boys
inviting them to spend an evening with mom & dad.


The girls were delighted to receive THIS invitation
which instructed them to dress in semi-formal attire for this
"grand occasion"
which included dinner & the theater.


Look at all my pretty faces! 


That's more like it!


Owen was convinced his invite would be better,
and of course,
when we opened the front door,
there it was waiting for him!


{truth be told}

With all the excitement of getting the girls ready for their date.
I had forgotten to create the boys invite!

When Owen started peeking out the window,
I quickly realized he was waiting for his "special delivery".

Luckily,
he's easily distracted,
giving me a few minutes to steal some time
on the computer to print one out!
Whew!


Gabriel,
definitely less inclined to be impressed
with something as non-edible as a formal invite.

 

Popcorn!

Now I'm speaking his language!


My sweet, sweet boy.

Just like on real dates,
things can start out so well...


...and then take a nose dive!

Bummer!

My date landed himself on time-out!

If I didn't already know him,
this would have made a horrible first impression!


Lucky for me,
he straightened up,
and a good thing too!

It's time to eat!

While Samuel opted for the menu-friendly Spaghetti Factory,
we went for a noodle of a different sort:

Pad Thai!


Noodles.

An absolute favorite with these two.


Granted,
we need to work on our date-worthy dining skills...


Thank goodness we've got time to practice.

The question is:

How did Samuel fare with his noodles?

{smile}



Friday, January 21, 2011

The Ballfield




Taking advantage of the sunny weather,
Samuel's day off,
and having legs,
we hit the bikes hard
and pedaled like mad to the library.

My favorite part of the afternoon,
aside from watching Iris moping in the outfield,
and Owen pitching the ball,
was seeing the boys clamber around the bleachers.

They're both growing so fast,
and it's amazing to see their friendship and
brotherhood strengthen,
even now,
as just kids.

I'm grateful they have each other,
just as I'm grateful my daughters have one another too.

This family thing...

it's pretty amazing.




Monday, January 10, 2011

Goal: One Post Per Day


I am daunted by the fact that we're in a new year and
I have gobs and gobs of blog posts to catch up on! 

I really do enjoy chronicling our adventures,
but it just reached a point where the living
outpaced the documenting and,
well,  
here we are...
months and months later!

The goal then...baby steps.

One post per day. 

I think I can manage that,
so we'll see what happens!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Kings: Do You Love Us or Hate Us?



I ask because I love my sister and her family,
which is why I can't understand why
they got our family a gift certificate to
Incredible John's for Christmas!

Samuel and I said:

"N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O !"

The kids said:

" Y E S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S!"

Let me explain our adverse reaction...

Samuel and I stepped inside once to
buy a gift certificate for someone else,
and when we got a peek at what it was all about...

[ Basically, it's a Chuckie Cheese on steroids... ]

...we vowed we would never
step foot in there again!

{ Guess again...}


Like I said,
from the beginning the kids were...
O V E R  T H E  M O O N !
...

And granted,
it was a GREAT family outing,
especially on a rainy Christmas-break day.

I mean,
think about it.

Where else can you ride on the bumper cars,
dine in an honest to goodness lodge,
and eat Spicy Peanut Butter or
Mac & Cheese Pizza?


Bowling was a huge hit...


And as you can probably tell,
Iris was bowling like a 300...

...

T H A N K  Y O U  K I N G  F A M I L Y !

We love you too!



Friday, December 24, 2010

Our Cali Spin on a Traditional East Coast Crab Boil


We have been a go-go-go lately
which is why we chose to slow things down
and celebrate Christmas Eve at home.


If you didn't already know it,
Samuel and I have a beloved tradition of
eating King Crab Legs at home.

And the kids,
up to this point,
thought that tradition was disgusting.

But as they've grown older,
their curiousity has led them to want to give
these gnarly crustaceans a try.

Granted,
I'm stingy though.

King Crab is pricey!

But as I was pondering a
simple Christmas Eve dinner,
it didn't take long for me to know that
it was time to get the butter melting!


Our beautiful family!

Though it was casual dress
-we're at home!-
some of the girls chose to don their
best Christmas dresses for the occasion!


The big kahuna!

Traditional East Coast Crab Boils have
whole new potatoes, Kielbasa sausage, and shrimp.

Sign me up!


We chose to keep things simple though,
with the crab-both King and Dungeness-centerstage!


My babies!

Sadly,
when I say "babies",
I'm referring to my lovely little crab legs,
scrumptious corn cobbies,
perfect lemon wedges,
and flowering of fresh cilantro.

Oh yes,
and then there are my girls!

{ I don't mess around when it comes to crab } 


Turns out they really are babies!


For all their begging to try crab,
each sampled a biteful before deciding they'd rather
much on corn on the cob and sourdough bread!

{ That's okay...more for me! }

Now if I could just get Samuel to eat only a forkful...


Dessert:

An irresistible chocolate bread pudding!

T O  D I E  F O R !


And did I mention the Vanilla Creme' Anglaise sauce?

Y U M M Y!

...

We hope your Christmas Eve
was just as wonderful,
and that you found yourself surrounded
by family, good food, and a heart turned to the Savior.

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S  E V E !

{ p.s. recipes coming soon! }

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Our Extreme Gingerbread House



I'll admit it.

We get a little ambitious at Christmas.

And with the kids home for the holidays,
they also shamelessly partake in my love of cooking shows-
especially holiday cooking shows.

Something we always get a kick-out of,
is "Extreme Gingerbread Houses".

Basically,
teams from bakeries across the nation
are tasked with creating insanely large gingerbread houses
in a ridiculousy short amount of time.

The end result?

After a whole lot of blood, sweat, and yes, tears,
there are enormous sweet structures
that any of my kids would happily move into,
and someone is $10 K richer.

Which always gives us the brilliant idea:

We could do that!

Granted,
it's not on the same scale,
but I tell you,
we're getting there!

You see,
size DOES matter.

And after we're done,
we take a step back,
look at our finished product,
and for all of two-seconds we're happy.

Then, without fail,
we make our resoluton:

Next year will be
BIGGER!

And that's how it begins,
and soon you find
yourself sweating and crying
on national T.V.

{smile}


The walls...


Basic design outline...


Candy Quality Control (C.Q.C.)

Very important in any official competition!


The mason...


Ta-da!

She's a beauty!

I can't remember how tall she was,
or how much she weighs,
but she looked great on our buffet!

{ And yes, it's a "she"! }

...

What will we do different next year?

Everyone gets their own house!

I want COMPLETE creative control!




Monday, December 20, 2010

Googly-eyed-ness & The Oakland Temple Lights

Visiting the Oakland Temple to see the Chritmas lights
is something we love to do every year for
family home evening.

Samuel and I were sealed here,
and the kids still giggle over the googly-eyed-ness
of this special place which is where our family first began!


This year the weather was really mild!

Usually it's freezing and it's a quick trip up and down
the grounds before we take refuge in the visitor center.

It was nice to be able to amble...
and take things in at a more leisurely pace.




The kids loved that the water in the fountain was frozen!


Guess again!

It's really just empty!


Owen boy,
full of loves!


And his loves are gone!


Gabriel,
getting a good long look,
and I'm sure thinking all kinds of profound and wonderful things.

I wish I could peek into that head of his!


My beautiful babies-
minus Owen who was officially in the minus-loves.

...

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S !