Today is Monday

Mondays...aren't they great?! I'm kinda in love with them! It's the beginning of the week and i'm still so happy from church. Its not Thursday...when you just can't wait for the week to end :P

Today was an amazing day! I got my braces tightened and they are now blue instead of pink because blue reminds me of winter and especially snow...don't ask me why...but today I was a little home-sick so instead of going with the red and green idea it took Seth and I an hour to come up with for Christmas, I went with Blue! It makes me so happy!!! and it reminds me of Utah's snowy mountains!
Today I did math and lets just say, I rock! It's supposedly Thanksgiving brake and I did math. That's pretty awesome right?! Oh the joys of a home-school! I also read ALL of George Washington's rules of civility. Here are a few of my faves:

*Keep your nails clean and short, also your hands and teeth clean, yet without showing any great concern for them.

* Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.

*Do not express joy before one sick in pain, for that contrary passion will aggravate his misery.

*Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others and ask not how they came. What you may speak in secret to your friend, deliver not before others.

*THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK, pronounce not imperfectly, nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.

*Undertake not what you cannot preform but be careful to keep your promise.

*Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.

*Be not angry at the table whatever happens and if you have reason to be so, show it not but on a cheerful countenance especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat and whey.

If only teenagers these days could even live ONE of these rules, this world would be a better place!

I made dinner tonight...it took me three hours! Thank goodness I like cooking. I tried making chicken soup...it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Sorry Boby Fley or whatever your name is, that recipe is not going on my keeper list! I also made bread. That recipe will be on here once we get a decent picture of a loaf of bread. Tonight's bread didn't rise quite perfectly and Fierb wouldn't let me take a picture with in-door lighting anyway! With the bread I made our favorite tuna melts. They are amazing!!!

I'm tired and tomorrow we have a full day of baking ahead of us! It's pretty exciting!!!

One last rule for ya before I hit the hay

*When you speak of God or his Attributes, let it be seriously; reverence, honer and obey your natural parents although they be poor.'

Just some things to think about this week ;) I'm out!

Houston

Gratitude

Hello!

I have been deathly ill this last week and I will admit, in a very poor mood. Sorry to anybody that had to talk to me! But, it being the week of Thanksgiving thought tonight...WOW i'm a pretty blessed person!!!

Last week in seminary my seminary teachers brought waffles, but I had a sore throat and hadn't eaten anything for 48 hours. One because it hurt to bad, and two i'v found that fasting helps you get better faster! (i'll fill you in on this amazing piece of information i'v been reading about in another post). Let me just say I have the best seminary teachers in the whole world!!! Sis. M and Sis. J will be another post ;) Back to waffles...so I hadn't eaten in a long time and I still had a sore throat. What person eats waffles, whipped cream, berries, and syrup after that experience...oh and there was hot chocolate and pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting!?!?!? Actually I know A LOT of people that would to that :P haha...but me NEVER!!! So I sat there...and watched EVERYONE eat waffles and ask me if I was sure I didn't a waffle?...for the fifth time... Are you crazy? I would think, of coarse I wan't a waffle, I just know that I will be screeching in pain if I try to swallow one!!! Thank goodness my seminary teachers are angels! Sis. M, knowing I was sick had made me miracle chicken soup. And I kid you not when I say it's a miracle. I ate it for lunch and my sore was totally gone!!! Thank goodness I forced my lazy and very sick body out of bed because even though I had to endure waffle Friday I was reminded again that I have people that care very deeply about me and I will be forever grateful for them! I love seminary so much and let me just tell you it takes a lot of Satan's minions to keep me from going ;)

Houston

CHRISTMAS!

Yesterday we set up our Christmas tree!!!!!!!! I could use 1000 exclamation points on that sentence. There is nothing better than setting up Christmas stuff, listening to Christmas music, and being with family on a Saturday morning. It just makes me so happy! Normally we would do it the day after thanksgiving but we were a little homesick and we knew it would make us feel better ;)

After we set up the tree we went and saw Reck it Ralph...it was WAY better than I was expecting!!! I'll tell you about that later though ;)

Halloween

So I realize that Halloween was almost three weeks ago but I want to post about it anyway...and I'm on my moms I-phone where all of our Halloween pictures are and...well...I'll just say it! It's pretty awesome to use an I-phone!!!

Anyway...halloween! It was pretty fun. Evidently I am to old to trick-or-treat so I decided to take the littles as an excuse to get some candy ;) I'm pretty smart that way! Whats awesome though is it actually worked! Some very kind people had some compassion for me and gave me a few handfuls...I love Texans!

GBTV Tour

We are Glenn Beck fans. Not even ashamed to admit it. My husband and I have been listening to his radio program for a few years now. We feel he is usually right on with his prognosis of the future. I must admit, he is a little dramatic, but that's what makes him a great story teller. I appreciate how he doesn't try to hide his flaws from his audience...it makes him human and more enjoyable to listen to. I appreciate his insight into history, his love of freedom, and his humor.

Imagine how surprised we were when Glenn moved his studio to Dallas, TX and shortly after Big Chief was offered a job in Texas. We hoped for a possibility to meet GB someday, or be able to participate in some of his GBTV (now The Blaze) shows. We were very excited to hear that Restoring Love would be happening in Dallas, TX after we had moved to TX so we could attend. Restoring Love was pretty awesome! I'll let someone else write a post about that.

In August we had an opportunity to be a part of the GBTV studio audience. Richard Paul Evans was releasing Michael Vey 2 and our girls and I had already read the first book. They were looking for audience members who had already read Book 1 and could read Book 2 before they recorded the show. Since I still had a nursing baby and littles, Big Chief was going to attend with the girls.

He had an "in" with Joe Kerry (through Mercury One) and was offered a studio tour of GB's new studio before the show. I was so disappointed I wasn't going! But those who know Big Chief know that he never thinks it a bad idea to give other people an opportunity to do something nice for him. He asked Joe if our whole family could attend the tour. Then he and the girls could join the studio audience while I stayed outside the studio with the littles and Joe was happy to oblige! To make a long story shorter...we went. We made it through security, loved seeing the studio in person (after seeing so much of it on TV), and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Joe Kerry. As we quietly wandered through the studio, Glenn was busy recording something. Unfortunately we didn't get to personally meet him then, but it was pretty cool to see him recording.

Our family in "The Oval Office"

We ended our tour in Glenn's office! So cool! His desk was made out of an airplane wing. For those that know Glenn, he loves historical items and antiques, things with a story attached. His office was so cool! Oh wait, I already said that.

As we were leaving, Joe pointed out that Stu was in the other room. Joe went and asked Stu to come meet us. Miah almost fainted when Stu hugged her and was a little dazed for this picture. :) Pretty cool, huh? We like Stu too! Such an awesome day! We hope to go back sometime.

The Lake

Some friends of ours invited us to join them at the lake. It was only an hour drive, 45 minutes if you don't wander around trying to find the right entrance. Of course we showed up late, but at least we made it before the sun went down. The kids went straight to the lake which was warmer then we expected. Eventually they made it up to the beach. They separated into teams and raced to see who could dig the biggest hole and fill it with water.

Then of course someone had to get buried in the sand.

And before we knew it, the sun was starting to set and we were already dreading leaving.

Can't wait to go back.

Christene

These next 4 years

Now I know i'm right when I say this is what your brain was doing last night if you were watching the election

You weren't the only ones thinking this. I don't know about you but this is still what is occupying my brain. I can't even believe that this terrible thing has happened (if your'e wondering who won the election i'm going to have to be mean and tell you to go find out for yourself it will help your brain grow) But over the next 4 years we need to remember some key things which are ....

Have a good night

Ferbie

Yummies

I love baking and cooking and frosting things that are delicious! The only other person on this earth that loves it more than me, is my sister Ferbie. She is a true Sugar freak, through and through. She could eat breath and live sugar if that was an option...but sadly, mom shoves salad down her throat instead. I'm sure you will hear about her hatred of salad some day ;)

Lets not make this a post about salad though...that would be kind of depressing. I want to talk about cupcakes...and muffins...and cookies. Oh how I LOVE cookies! Us 4 girls quite enjoy a good ol' HOMEMADE chocolate chip cookie. It must be homemade though ;) We love them so much we decided to sell them. Yep, we started our own business! It's pretty exciting!

There is nothing worse than a store bought cookie...from a STORE! Talk about disgusting!!! and to think people actually do this. They walk into a store and waist money on a terribly disgusting cupcake, or cookie, or muffin. This is a disgrace! If you believe as strongly as I do about this topic, call us and order a homemade one instead...or if you don't agree, you can still call and order one. You wont regret it ;)

We make Yummies... There are 4 of us and we believe that a homemade cookie is still the best! Come check us out on Facebook

Swimming

This past summer it was pretty hot, although not as hot as we expected. Either way, we swam about 3 times per week. We would head out shortly after breakfast and swim for about 2 hours.

At first the kids were somewhat timid, especially the littles. But after a few weeks, the fun began. First it was just taking cool pictures with a vintage camera app on my iPhone ...

Then the girls got more creative. Of course their games were inspired by the Summer Olympic Games. I observed some pretty great synchronized swimming routines ...

The littles became very comfortable in the water as well. The girls would take them one at a time, without their floaties, and let them dive for rings. They started swimming underwater more and spent more time under water than above. Indy would go underwater and pretend she was a mermaid or dolphin and forget to get the diving ring. Seth would swim quite a distance, picking up two or three rings at a time. Brig would let me put him on his back and float around with his eyes closed.

Our last day of swimming the girls were busy with other things, Brig was napping, so I just took the other two. It was a perfect day. We had the pool to ourselves. The pool was the perfect temperature and we all had the perfect temperament. I took each one separately and let them swim to their hearts content. Aaahhh, it was hard to see the pool close for the season. Good times!

The End ....

Christene

My first business

My family and I moved to Texas recently. I made a new friend here and she invited me to her house to play. When I saw her room, I knew she loved crafts because there was paper and crafts all over her room. My family also loves crafts. (We have a whole room dedicated to paper, sewing, beads, and things like that.) 

I knew my friend would love to see our craft room so I invited her over the next week. We spent the entire time making cards. While making cards, she had an idea to start a card business. I needed money so I agreed. The next few times we played, we just made cards. We even used some of our money to buy more paper and ribbon. 

                               
                 

After making about 20 cards, we went door to door in my neighborhood to try and sell some of our cards. Nobody bought any of our cards. I kind of knew nobody would, but we had to try. My friend's mom ended up needing a bunch of cards so she ordered 20 cards from us. It was nice to get a little bit of money from that order.

But after that we haven't made any more cards. Now we just play when we are together instead of working on our business. We have fun together. 

Eden

Pumpkin Muffins

I love breakfast! It's my favorite meal of the day. I love to make it and I love breakfast foods. Unfortunately, most breakfast foods don't fit into our diet (that's a story for another post). Take muffins for instance. They are usually full of sugar and white flour, two things we try to avoid in our regular meals. 

A few years ago I went looking for a pumpkin muffin recipe. I found a few recipes that used gobs of sugar and white flour. They looked absolutely delicious....as dessert muffins. I chose a recipe that I could work with and started substituting. At first I substituted half of the flour with whole wheat and used 1/3 of the sugar. My kids loved them! The next time I substituted half of the oil with apple sauce, used all whole wheat flour, and honey instead of white sugar. Again, my kids didn't even notice the difference! I tried substituting all the oil with applesauce but didn't love the outcome. Also, we noticed when there was no sweetener so we always add at least 1/2 c. of honey. A few more substitutions later we found the right recipe for us. 

We usually have muffins once a week for breakfast. I serve them with fruit, a green smoothie, or scrambled eggs. We rotate through about 4-6 different muffin recipes but these are by far our favorite. It's probably the chocolate chips :). We usually make these at least once a month...sometimes more. In fact, I've added pumpkin (and nutmeg) to our food storage, just so we never run out of pumpkin when the craving hits. You know, canned pumpkin is hard to find in July!

We've also given these muffins to neighbors and friends (who might not be used to whole wheat muffins) etc. and they've loved them as well. 

You should try them sometime. Here is the recipe.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 c. canned pumpkin
2/3 c. water
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. honey

1 c. applesauce

1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
(If I don't add chocolate chips, then I increase the honey to 1 cup.)

In large bowl, mix wet ingredients together with whisk. Then add flour on top of wet ingredients, covering the entire top of the pumpkin mixture. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients including the chocolate chips on top of the flour. (This is how I avoid using a separate bowl for dry ingredients. I'm "smart" or lazy that way. Use a spoon to stir the dry ingredients into the wet until well mixed. The dough should be very moist. Grease muffin tins and fill full with dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.

Christene