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,

"Big, Dreamy Pop From SoCal Guitar Romantics",

and we couldn't agree more.

If you like their mellow tunes too,

stop by and rate them now!

Thanks!

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

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!

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}

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.

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!

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!

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! }

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!

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 !