Family Home Evening

Around here, when it is your turn on Monday to make the treat for Family night, it is akin to a Secret Mission.  You get alone time with mom, you don't tell anyone what you are making, and all others are banned from the kitchen.  I'm not sure how it has evolved into what it is, but it is such.

I'm actually grateful, because I'm always thinking how much I need one on one time with my kids, and this is a for-sure mommy-child date that happens when my other ambitions fall through.  We enjoy looking at recipe books and whispering and giggling about what we are to concoct.  Some times we hear shouts from other rooms, guesses at what we are making, but we always act like it is heavily guarded, to be unveiled at the end of Family Home Evening!
Now, usually, we are not very fancy.  I'm talking throw together graham crackers with frosting or make brownies out of a box (of course we can make up fancy names for these things, though).  But occasionally we have time to make something special, like Nathan's Rainbow Bar Cookies! (Sugar Cookies, sans cutting out)

 

Oops!  I didn't include the sugar in the recipe when I first posted this.  It is included now.  Also, if you shake sugar sprinkles on top of the frosting that makes them even more delicious.

These are divine!  (They are full of fat, so how can they help but be so!) 

My mom found the recipe.

Sugar Bar Cookies:

1 c. butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, & egg until frothy (Nathan said, "what's frossy?") (4 minutes)

add vanilla and almond, beat 1 minute.  Mix dry ingredients together, then add to mixture.  Beat another 2 minutes.  Spread on ungreased cookie sheet, (it seemed like it was in between cookie and cake batter consistency) bake 20 minutes at 350.

Note:  While we were making this, I let Nathan pour in all the ingredients.  Of course I had been doing the gathering, measuring, cleaning up spills, etc.  I said, "you are sure doing a good job!"  He said, "Yeah, I'm doing all the work on this.  You can just sit and relax while I make these cookies"  Ha Ha!

Frosting:

1/2 c. softened butter

4 oz. cream cheese

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

2-4 Tbls. milk

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

Beat all of this for 2 minutes.  And if you are Nathan you'll want to separate it into 4 bowls and color them each differently.  

We had fun today.

Here are some pic's from another home evening:

This is an activity I remembered doing as a kid.  When Saxton couldn't think of one (it was his turn), we pulled out the old stand by:

Can you...

Hold a clothes pin to your nose

While standing on a chair

And drop it into a quart jar below...

While standing up straight, Brinley!  ha Ha

Daddy almost did it, but Ellie was the only one to make it in!  We each took 2 turns with 3 tries each.

And here is Levi ready for the closing prayer:

 

I love my family.  We need Family Home Evening!

Our Trip to Oregon

We took Levi to the Portland Temple.  It is beautiful, but that is an understatement.  I have been inside once, and LOVED it.  There is my favorite Celestial Room found in this Temple.

I think the spires are especially cool.

Here we are, at the ocean, on my birthday!  Cory is running like they did on Chariots of Fire.  Only he's not wearing white shorty shorts.  And music is not playing.  And it's not the same beach.  And he's not as fast.  But still, it was a cool moment.

It was cold and breezy...

Here is Cory's fun jump into the dune below...

And here is my very boring, not really a jump, into the dune below.

So we went on business, (why else could we afford a trip to Oregon?), and these are our funny and very nice hosts, Kathy and Fritz.  We were there for a "20 group", which is a meeting of campground owners to share and discuss financial stuff.  There were 5 other campgrounds represented, and we learned a lot.

 So I have to tell you why this was one of my favorite birthdays...
I have been wanting to learn how to make stained glass stuff.  Mainly little things like stars to hang in windows like these:

I had never found a glass shop where you could buy supplies.  Well, my friend Kathy (above) had some stained glass hanging in her windows, and I asked her about it, and she told me about her friend Lucy in town who helped her with her creations.  When I found out about Lucy, I knew I had to meet her!  So, on my birthday, Cory took me to her shop, and she stayed later than her usual hours to show me how to cut glass and work with it, and she gave me a deal on all the stuff to get me started, and she was such a sweetheart to us-- especially Levi.  She has a cool raspy voice and curly long hair and hands that have worked with a lot of glass and made many beautiful things.  I wish I had taken a picture of her.
Cory was glad to find something I really loved for my birthday, because last year I pouted more than I'd like to admit about the fact that he really hadn't planned anything.  (Last year's birthday was probably my least favorite ever.  Up until that point, I ALWAYS had a sunny day for my birthday.  I considered it my present from Heaven.  Well, last year, it was cloudy, I was grumpy with my Husband, and the spirit pretty much flew out the window.  So, I determined from then on that "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit", as I always tell my children, and.... I was very excited with what I got this year. )   AND on the night before my birthday, KOA bought our group dinner, and I had the honestly best food I've ever eaten in my memory.  Halibut stuffed with crab and shrimp in a casserole dish with a lovely cream sauce.  Holy cow I felt spoiled after all that.

And my next post is going to be about April 2011- our MONTH of SPIRITUAL HIGHS!  But I need to do some picture gathering first.  But yeah, it was so awesome.

Memories random

We've had a lot of snow this year.  The snow you see on the deck railing fell in just one night about a month ago!

Ellie made these cute barrettes with me.  She could whip them out in half the time I could.  They went in the thank you's to those who came to Brin's party.

I have held this little boy a lot.  And loved it.  And wished I could remember all the moments when I held his older siblings, and got sad when I thought how I'll probably forget a lot of his moments, too.  I really believe someday I'll remember it all perfectly, though.  After this life is over.

Brinley woke early (5:30!) to make breakfast for everyone.  Her simple solution if there is a box on the table:  Set right over it!

"Bulls Eyes" for breakfast!  (Her favorite recipe: an egg fried in a piece of bread with a hole cut out)

and of course juice from the fancy punch bowl.

More baths-- his favorite!

Playing the spider web game with cousins-- Ellie doing the instructing, of course :)