Part of our 12th year honey moon

We went up to Zions for part of our vacation and I got Steve on a horse. If you knew how scared he was of doing this you would realize how awesome this is. He got bucked off of a horse and never got back on. Anyways, we had a blast and it was a "life changing experience."
More to come later. : )

Martha's 11th birthday

Her cake. We did sing and blow out candles but I let Steve be in charge of the camera and so he didn't get the picture. He claims that something want wrong with the camera. Oh well. Here is the pic after the fact.



Best friends :)

Her earings. So cute :P Steve said that he thought that 11 was an ok age to get earings so she was sooooo excited and loves them.



Steve was excited to climb the wall. He was waving to Karissa I am sure who was on the frog ride. LOL

He picked a really hard area and so he didn't get as far up as he would have liked.


Shenna with Dippin Dots. :P

Cutest smile ever!!!! She LOVED the Dots. She ate hers plus whatever Karissa left which was like half. Plus a bite of the other kids.



Daniel climbing the wall.





So we didn't do our usual birthday for Martha. We decided to go and play at Trafalga fun center. It is in Lehi and it was a good time. Karissa LOVED the frog ride. She went on that ride probably 30+ times. LOL So cute. In fact we told the kids two more rides so they chose to go on the rock wall so we told them just that one activity because it takes so long for them to go through the line and Karissa got to go on the frog ride like 10 times or so. I think she got the better deal of all. Anyways, It was a lot of fun then we came home and had cheese cake which she wanted to have instead of a cake. : ) It was nice that I didn't have to worry about a cake for her. Well, we were all really tired and ready to go by the time we left. In the summer we will probably go again when the outside rides are open as well. Cute part of the day for Shenna was she got to eat Dippin Dots for the first time that was so cute to watch her reaction. Wish I could have gotten a better picture but I got what I got. Enjoy the pictures. : )

Homemade chocolate chips

Still in the hardening process. But doesn't it look good!?!


Steve's words "Those are really good."

So I needed a chocolate fix tonight. Sometimes we just need those and I had no chocolate chips in the house and felt like chocolate covered nuts so I got on the net and found this recipe.

Homemade Chocolate chips

1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 c sucanat or rapadura
1 c coconut oil or butter
1T vanilla

Place all but the vanilla in a glass jar. Place a pan with water on the stove and turn it on to high till it starts to get the little bubbles on the bottom of the pan turn down to medium heat and place your jar of goodness in the pan. This acts as a double broiler. Let sit for about 5 min stir and let sit again for another few minutes stir do this till your butter is melted. Place the vanilla in the mixture and place in a wax lined pan and smooth out evenly. There will be sucanant crystals but it doesn't make a difference cool in fridge for a few hours or until hard then break up and bake your cookies with them or just eat.

Inspire not require and a little bragging. :)

So I have been really impressed lately on how well inspire not require has been working. Daniel has started to read and is doing ok and Karissa comes to me almost every day and asks to learn to read she is starting to sound things out and because Shenna is there she also wants a turn so I am teaching my 2 year old the sounds of letters. I love that we are a reading family. I am also really impressed with my two older girls. I do not know what reading level Cor is at so I got a Leven Thump book and she is reading it with no difficulty and I read on the net that it is a 4.6 grade level. In school she would be in 3rd. I have a feeling she is more like a 5-6 grade level. Martha is not quite there but she will get there I have no doubt. Is she continues to follow her sisters lead. Then in no time we will all become great readers and have a thirst for knowledge. I love it in the morning I get up and tell the girls that it is time to get up. When I go in there to get them up again to make sure that they are getting dressed both of my girls are reading in bed. Some times they don't eat breakfast till 10:30 because they just cant put the books down. We went to the library today and when we got home the girls vanished. LOL I went to Cors room and there they were, both with their nose in a book. It makes me happy. I know that they are not classics but I am just glad to have them reading every chance they get. The classics we will read together for now and when they are ready to read them on their own that will be great. I think any reading is great reading for now.
We were packing to go on a trip and my girls tried to pack all of their books. :) Who needs clothes right? LOL. I had to tell them only 3 books each for our week trip.
I love that they are reading and that my younger kids want to start having love of learning days. It makes me think that I am not going to mess them up after all.:) Which of coarse is a good thing.
Above are how I found my girls after the library. Enjoy.

Daniel's cake

I just got done with daniel's cake. What do you think?

Home made can rotator

I got the instructions on how to make a can rotator on the net at www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net and here is what it looks like. LOVE IT I am going to make a ton of these to keep the new stuff in the back and the old stuff up front. Each one of these holds 8 cans if you dont use the very top and 12 if you do. : ) I still need to paint them. We shall see if that happens.

Corlies birthday party

The cake and the birthday girl. Amazingly enough I got the cake done in a day then just had to put the "palm" leaves on tonight. So here is the finished product. Tomorrow I will be making Daniel's moon cake. So look for more cakes in the next few days. : )
Instead of a goody bag we made candy lays because she wanted a tropical birthday. I likes the idea. Even better is when Jared and Kellie came over and took over that little project so that I could get the pizza out. : ) Thanks guys.





The gifts. : ) Kellie found all but one of the Narnia series so one of us will get her the one that is missing. Then she will have her own set. We are loving these books. She is also into the Magic tree house books and loves all of them!!!!! They are way to easy for her but if she loves them I dont mind her reading them. : )





We had a good time tonight. I am glad that it is over however. Now tomorrow is Daniel's then I am done for a while as we (the 2 oldest and me) are going to go to a hotel to have a girls outing. : ) I am so excited about her birthday.: ) Anyways, here is pics of Cor's day. She got a whole trundle of books. It is a good thing that she asked for a book shelf for her birthday so that she has a nice place to keep all of her books. : ) She also got a bead making kit and her and Daniel are going to combine their birthdays to get a tramp. : ) Glad that they said yes to that one