Getting ready for Christmas

Saydria with Jon Schmidt and his daughter Sarah after the Christmas Carole Sing Along at the EnergySolutions Arena last night. It was so fun! The Utah Jazz Bear even rode out on his motorcycle and shot his confetti gun everywhere, threw t-shirts and other things at the crowd. When we started singing "Here Comes Santa Claus" then of course, Santa came out and kids were running down the stairs from all over the stands to claim their hugs. Jon even played his Love Story to Viva la Vida song, which Saydria was really hoping to hear. Jon's daughter also sang a couple songs solo and she was amazing. So brave!!!

Our family in front of SLC temple. :) We went one evening with Kevin's family and saw the lights, and even got to see Joseph Paur sing. He's the guy from Rigoletto, in case you didn't know. What a treat. We were leaving via Deseret Book and he was standing in there singing for a small audience. Our kids just sat on the floor and we were able to enjoy it all until the end.

The cousins that came to visit! Kevin's parents, his two sisters and their families and also his brother came to visit us. We have a tradition of making gingerbread houses, so here's the kids with their finished creations. It's always a fun activity for the kids (and adults).

This is a picture of all the houses, before they started getting nibbled on. :)

Nelson's visit!!!

Our friends from Ohio, Derrick and Brandy, along with their 3 beautiful kids: Dallin, Aaron and Kaylee, came for a visit last Monday!! They stopped in for the evening on their way to a family wedding. It was so nice seeing them again! We had homemade pizza and the kids played and we had family home evening with them, playing a crazy game of charades. I'm borrowing these pictures from Brandy. :) I am having bad camera luck lately. We love you Nelson Family!!!

Unfortunately?

This is a snippit of a conversation I had with Cole one morning recently:

Me: "Cole, did you finish your breakfast already?"
Cole: "I didn't, Mom, unfortunately."


Lately, Kai makes and illustrates books every morning after breakfast. His first one was "All About Stuff", written and illustrated by Kai. Written on the pages were "This is the beach. This is the desert. This is a bus. This is a house." He took it to school and his teacher read it to the class and put it in their reading castle for all the kids to read. He was so excited about it, he's made more: "All About Karate", "All About Me", more "All About Stuff". His Karate book is cute. It says on one page, "This is the dangerous kick. You should only do this in black belt."

We spoke in church last week. Kevin spoke on the power of prayer and I spoke on gratitude. There was supposed to be a youth speaker that week, but they didn't end up having one for whatever reason. We managed to fill the time though. Our ward is huge so we should be good for a few years, at least that's what I'm telling myself. Afterwards, we went to my brother's house in Tooele for dinner with his family and also my sister's family. We've been rotating hosting Sunday dinner once a month. It's been working out nicely and we've been enjoying it.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Twins!! But not mine...

Kevin and Cole riding.

Kevin and me holding new little twin girls! Our friends Levi and Rachel King welcomed these beautiful girls about 6 weeks ago. They join 4 older sisters! Their names are Liliana and Violet. We got to see them while they were in the hospital, but didn't get to hold them at the time, so it's fun to be able to hold them now. Amazing that they got to go home already, they are doing awesome! They weren't due until the end of November. Have you ever seen Kevin smiling so big?! :)

Kai riding.

Saydria riding.

Kai and me all dressed up and ready to go to a wedding. He really wanted his picture taken with me. I'm glad I took one because I think he looks super handsome! :)

PS...Thanks for the pics Rachel!!

Strangers and Bad Guys

Conversations between Cole and me revolve around strangers and bad guys lately. I thought I should write some things down so that I don't forget about them:

This is as we are walking towards a building and a lady was coming down some stairs:
Cole: "Mom! It's a stranger!! Hurry, run!!"

In the car as we are sitting at a stoplight:
Cole: "Mom, some strangers can drive blue cars, or wear seatbelts, or eat hamburgers or have cell phones..." you get the idea.

At breakfast this morning:
Cole: "Mom, bad guys don't eat eggs and toast like we do."
Mom: "Sure they do. They eat the same foods that we do."
Cole: "But we're not bad guys, we're good guys, right?"
Mom: "Yes, we're good guys, but everybody has to eat food to stay alive."
Cole: "Even the bad guys. But if they don't eat their food, then they die and go to heaven."

On another note, I had a dream last night that I went to Best Buy to get a new camera cord and they didn't make the cord that goes to my camera anymore. It must be on my mind. :)

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a local pumpkin patch yesterday and the kids picked out plenty of pumpkins. We set some inside for decorating purposes because our front porch feels a little full. :) I put up Halloween decorations in our home, however sparse they are. I love the little pumpkins, Cole helped me gather quite a few of them to put around the house, but he also loves carrying them everywhere and it looks like he set a couple out on the porch as well. If you can see the paper in our window also, it's a BOO paper. We've been BOO'd a couple times by neighbors bringing treats and then you hang the BOO ghost up. Well, we had one up and then we hung it outside and the wind blew it away. So, we got BOO'd again. You know what that means? You have to make treats for 2 families and BOO them also. However, the kids love doing it, so that means I do too.

camping/boating

We went to Sand Hollow in Hurricane/St. George area this weekend and camped on Friday night. We ended up sleeping in the boat since it was such a beautiful night! Saturday morning, we weren't able go on the water until 10AM because of a triathlon going on. I went to the water to check it out around 7AM and I ran into some friends who were competing! It was pretty cool! So, we were the first ones on the water and the last ones off (around 8PM) and had such a fun time. We did take a few breaks...one to play on the beach and grill up some dinner...and some 5 minute breaks to jump in the water and play when we got hot. It was 100 degrees, but felt like 85 since we had a nice breeze and no humidity.

As for the boarding, I stink at the knee board, but everyone else is really good at it. I was the only one that used the skiis, apparently they are not cool anymore, but I used them as a kid, so it's what I know. It was fun to watch the guys and Brayden do the wake board and wake skate and also wake surf. I really liked wake surfing! It's easier than what I thought it would be. Here's a picture of Cole wake surfing with cousin Cliff. I took a few pics of them, but didn't take one after he threw the rope on the boat and surfed, but that's what you do when you surf the wake. Cole loved it!

We visited my parents in Hurricane after we were done boating. We spent the night and went to church with them. It was nice to see them again and the kids had a fun time playing there also. Grandpa took Kevin and the boys out so Brayden could show off his skills at shooting a gun. (He was 3 out of 3 every time at shooting clay pigeons at Kevin's parents place a few weeks ago). He had a great time with Grandpa!

We close on our new home today, so we are looking forward to another move. :)

Kai's first day of Kindergarten

I don't have a picture, but he looked cute. :) He got up at 7 AM, well before the PM Kindergarten class started and quickly got himself ready for school. He even had his backpack and shoes on during breakfast. After Brayden and Saydria took off for school, our conversation went something like this:

Kai: "Can I just go to school now?"
Mom: "You have to wait until after lunchtime."
Kai: "Well, I finished off Cole's breakfast and so I don't need any lunch. So can I just go?!"

This was at 9 AM and his class didn't start until 12:55 PM. Poor kid, huh? He had a great day yesterday and when kids came over to ask him to play, he made sure they knew he had homework to do and he could play when he was finished.

Settled...kinda

Our house in Ohio sold and on the same day we found out that our offer was accepted on a home here in Utah. Currently we are living in Sandy in a cozy apartment with the bare necessities and actually enjoying this community living...but very much looking forward to moving into our new home. It should be in the next couple weeks. The only pictures I have are from the realtor because I can't find my camera cord, so I may have to buy a new one, but I'm waiting to see if I can find it when we are finally unpacked and in our new home. It's not official yet, so I'm waiting til closing. :)

As for everthing else, it's good. Kids are in school and they are fully aware that if everything goes as planned with the new home that they will be switching schools and they don't seem to care. They are pretty awesome kids, so they roll with whatever.

We've been going camping on Friday nights in Provo Canyon. Having a great time riding ATV's and eating campfire food and being in a secluded spot. Cole is using the potty like a champ and feeling like a big boy. He definitely needs more responsibilities. :)

I'm also on a coed softball team. I play for Kevin's work team, SBFC Law Group. We are pretty good, but there's a lot of teams that are way better than us. :) I've played in 3 games so far. I used to be on a girls fastpitch softball team in my younger years and I haven't improved. At all.

Until then...

Utah-bound

Yep, we're moving. More to come after I can figure out how to get my pics off of Kevin's laptop which happens to be holding them for ransom right now.

Pinewood Derby 2010

Sweet jello cars that my friend Tanya made for the cubscouts and their Pinewood Derby event!

I grilled these steaks on our indoor grill. Smoked my children out, but they loved the steaks. I could only do 2 at a time, so it was pretty smokey in our kitchen. Definitely a fan of the outdoor grill, but I was desperate to get these grilled fast.

Brayden with his Pinewood Derby car and spark plug trophy. :) His car took 2nd place this year. I am so glad we are done with Pinewood Derby for a few years.

Brayden and Kai taking apart a computer tower at COSI gadgets cafe. We had a lot of fun taking this apart and finding little things to hook up to our battery, like a little fan.

Cole enjoying the Pinewood Derby race.

Columbus Bluejackets!!!

We went with our friends Dan and Tiffany to a Columbus Bluejackets game! (The Bluejackets are a professional ice hockey team...the Columbus Clippers play baseball.... ;) We had a great time and there was so much entertainment (from Chipotle and Donatos pizzas falling from the blimp flying around the room to snacks and my water bottle) that the time flew by quickly and we had a really fun time! The kids really enjoyed watching the game also. Thanks Dan and Tiffany for scoring the tickets and inviting us!

And Cole took this photo:

Cole is laughing at Tiffany in this picture because she's laughing at Kevin. It was cute. Bluejackets won 4-2!!! We ended up leaving early so Kevin could get up and go to work the next day, but Brayden stayed with Dan and Tiffany and they brought him home later. He could hardly take his eyes off the game.

Our baby girl is 8!!

Saydria and Dad in their whites. Saydria was the 27th girl to wear this dress that is over 100 years old! She loved it and this was such a special day to her. The dress originally belonged to her Great-Grandmother Ina Christensen and it has since been used for baptisms of all of Great-Grandma's daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters.

Up close pic of Saydria with me (and Cole and Kai), photo by Brayden. :)

We went one evening to Chuck E. Cheese and this is what Brayden and his cousin Joey did most of the night. Even here, Brayden is handing me his token cup so I can hold it while he plays. He and Joey are like 4 months apart, they have a great time together doing boy stuff.

See, this is what I saw of them mostly this night. Except when they came over to eat.

A pic of all the kids!

Grandma and Grandpa Brazier were able to fly out for Saydria's baptism also. My brother Lonnie and his wife Sarah (Joey's mom and dad) were blessing their new baby girl this same week, so the grandparents were able to be here for it all. Kai and Cole had fun playing catch with Grandpa! They also watched Cole for a few hours while Kevin and I went out while the rest of the kids were at school. Cole loved playing UNO. He and Kai always want to play it!!

Grandma taught Brayden how to play Sudoku and he seemed to like it, so she got him his own Sudoku book to enjoy. We had a little birthday party for Saydria, I'll post more pics later!

Make-ahead meals

I found this book called "Don't Panic, More Dinner's in the Freezer" and it's got some fast, easy and yummy recipes in it so I thought I'd share. I made several meals out of it and I even took pics, but this one is the only one that turned out halfway clear. (And I just realized that of the 3 pics I uploaded, this one didn't even post.) NICE. The main thing for me this time was using chicken since it was a loss leader at the store and then I made sure to choose things that I already had all the ingredients for. Next time, it's beef. :)

Here are the meals I ended up making: and I made them all in an hour and I did a couple of each! (The kids were in bed.)

All-Seasons Sesame Chicken
3 lbs bnls breasts
1/2 c EVOO
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c soy sauce
2 T fresh grated ginger
1 T dry mustard
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 c green onion, chopped
3 T sesame seeds

*Combine all ingredients and pour over chicken in freezer bag. Marinate. You can grill all this up and slice into strips and use it on salads, sandwiches, stir fry, etc. They freeze well after they are cooked.

Ginger Glazed Chicken
3 lbs bnls breasts
3 T brown sugar
2 T honey
3 T Soy Sauce
3 T balsamic vinegar
3/4 t. fresh grated ginger root
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 t EVOO
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

*Combine everything in freezer bag. (Very easy!) (Grill or bake when thawed)


Grilled Honey Lime Chicken
4 bnls chicken brsts
1/2 c fresh lime juice
1/2 c EVOO
1/4 c honey
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 t chopped jal. pepper

*Mix it all together and pour over chicken in freezer bag. (Grill or bake when thawed)

Maui Grilled Chicken
4 bnls chicken brsts
1/2 t garlic powder
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 T brn sugar
1/4 t ground ginger
1/2 t black pepper
1 T EVOO
2 T water
1/2 c soy sauce
4 pineapple slices

*Place chicken brsts and pineapple slices in freezer bag. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken and pineapple. Freeze. (These are intended to be made into grilled chicken sandwiches, top the chicken with the pineapple.)

Parmesan Garlic Chicken

6 bnls chicken brsts
1 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c EVOO

*Mix together cheese, garlic, and dressing mix. Dip chicken in oil and coat with cheese mixture. Wrap each coated chicken breast individually in plastic wrap, then place in freezer bag and freeze. (When ready for baking, thaw them and bake at 400 for 45-60 min until it's tender and no longer pink.)

Pineapple Lemon Chicken
4 bnls chicken brsts
1-20 oz. can crushed pineapple
1 small lemon, very thinly sliced
1/3 c ketchup
1/3 c honey
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. salt
1/4 t dried rosemary, crushed

*Place chicken in bag. Drain pineapple, reserve 1/4 c juice. Combine reserved juice, ketchup, Wor. sauce, garlic, salt and rosemary. Stir in pineapple and lemon slices. Pour marinade over chicken, seal bag and freeze. Grill when thawed. (Can bake it also.)

and also,

Frozen Fruit Cups (makes 25)
20 oz. frozen strawberries, sliced and thawed
12 oz. frozen OJ concentrate, slightly thawed
2-20 oz. cans crushed pineapple
1-16 oz. can mandarin oranges
1/3 c. lemon juice
6 bananas, sliced.

Combine all ing., including juices from fruit. Spoon into lined muffin cups and freeze. Once frozen, place liners with frozen fruit in freezer bags. (I ran out of liners and put them straight into the muffin tins and froze them. Then set them in warm water later and transferred them right into the muffin cups and it worked fine. We love eating these as a treat!

So far, we have had the ginger glazed chicken and it was really good with some rice and steamed veggies. Tonight we're having some pineapple lemon chicken. My deep freezer is so full and I'm ready to be done making stuff for a while and just unload it so we can reload it. :) There are so many other things I want to try!

Okay, so here's a picture of Kai in his robe that is getting too small and in Kevin's 3-D glasses he got from Avatar. Kevin thinks Kai looks like a mini-Hugh Heffner when he wears that robe.




I meant to post these swords that Kevin made out of PVC pipe for the boys for Christmas. With PVC pipe, the possibilities are endless. He used those pool noodles and slipped them over the piping and then spray painted them. We found out after testing them on friends (thanks for sacrificing your bodies Dan and Tiffany!) that the paint will stick to you after you are struck (at least in the forehead, right Tiffany?) So, Kevin solved that problem by covering them with clear packing tape. He used electrical tape around the handles for extra comfort. :) So, of all the gifts our kids got (and they didn't even know about these, it was just something Kevin decided to do one day) the kids loved these the most for some crazy reason. Maybe it was because this gave them full access to pound on one another (however gently) or maybe it's because the adults have just as much fun playing with them. However, when kids come over to play, they almost always ask where the "swords" are. It's cool!

GWL

This is what I woke up to on the morning of New Year's Eve. I heard clanging downstairs in the kitchen, so I went downstairs and Cole was unloading the clean dishes from the dishwasher and putting them away! What a sweet little boy!

We went to Great Wolf Lodge a couple weeks ago and Cole loved this slide!!

Brayden brought his friend Brandon and I had him take several family shots of us, but this one is the one that turned out the best. Sad, considering that 2 of our kids are closing their eyes!! This was Sunday morning and we just swam for a few hours before we needed to leave. Brayden and Kai's eyes were pretty sore.

Saydria and Cole in the kids' suite. Cole loved the top bunk and didn't want to give it up.

No, it was not real sushi, it was a cake.

Kids jumping in leaf pile! We were raking when they came home from school and ended up playing in leaves until dinner.

Saydria's gingerbread house. I meant to post another picture of her with it and she was giving it "bunny ears".

Cole, the bumblebee, with his little friend Kaili, the Mermaid. Yes, that's from Halloween, I know.

Cole with his buddy Terry. Cole loves this guy so much! Anytime Terry is around, Cole is hoping to get a snuggle in. :) It's so cute!

Here's Cole with his Terry Bear. :)