Happy Birthday Grandma Kissell!!

Birthday funny faces

Birthday smiles

Birthday kisses

Birthday cuteness

Birthday songs

We love you Grandma Kissell!
Happy Birthday!

more kateisms...

Kate's favorite fruit of the moment: Camo-ope

Kate: " That guy has a beard! When I grow up, I will have a beard."
Me: "No, you're a girl. Girls don't have beards. Boys have beards when they grow up."
Kate: "Well, when I'm a boy, I'll have a beard."

Kate (to Sawyer): "Hi Boyeeee"

Me: "Kate, get your shoes on, Daddy is taking us out for ice cream!"
Kate: "Is it my birthday?"

Kate: "I got my flip flops on. I'm going on an airplane. I'm going to Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and then Tucson."
(can you tell where I've been going WAY too much?)

(While riding in the car)
Kate: "Mama, I am so sad. Look at my sad face."
*I turn around to see a fake, bottom lip sticking out, sad face*
Me: "Why are you sad?"
Kate: "I'm sad because I can't talk to Grammie on the computer."

Kate (with her ginormous back pack on her back) : "I'm going to school! Give me a kiss mom and dad!"

Kate: "What time is it?"
Me: "Its 1:00."
Kate: "How old is it?"

Me: "Kate, where are you?"
Kate: "I'm in the family room! I'm at school!"
(I find her drawing letters by herself in the family room)

Kate (while dressing herself): "Mama, is this upside-over?"

After hearing Kate sing the Hokie Pokie in the bathtub
Me: "Kate, did you learn that in nursery?"
Kate: "yes."
Me: "Do you sing really loud in nursery?"
Kate: "no, I sing like this...." *mouth starts to move with nothing coming out*

Kate saying the prayer over dinner: "please bless we will eat this food safely...."

Oh yummy delicious Samoas!

I made these for the ward BBQ last night and I just loved them. Oh how I loved them....too much! I want some right now! And I thought they were so fun to make. Maybe in a different life I would have been a baker. And own a bakery that looked just like the Pie Hole on Pushing Daisies. Only we would serve more than pie. I've always wanted to be a cake decorator! sigh....

Here is the recipe!

Homemade Samoas Bars
Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make the crust.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it’s easy to get it through the topping).
Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Our day started with Daddy making green pancakes (and Mommy overexposing the pictures! oops!) and Mommy made Kate a shamrock that she proudly wore all day long. She loved reminding me it was St Patrick's Day...even though that was about as exciting as our day got!
I did tell her the Spinach Dill Pie we had for dinner was in honor of St Patrick's Day...but really it was just a coincidence! What a lame-o mommy I am!

But she was still excited!

I love to see the temple...

I wanted to post this for anyone who might read my blog and want to know a little more about temples and why we have them.
Feel free to ask me any questions, if you have them!

standing tall

Sawyer has been doing well with his crawling, but he spends most of his time cruising around the coffee table and couches and gets frustrated that he can't spend all his time standing. Today he started actually standing on his own and he was pretty proud of himself

He's also a big fan of marzetti!

the secret ingredient is....

I'm still digging out of my pile of Easter basket etsy orders, but I made this for dinner and wanted to share. It was a hit with my family.

Healthy Mac and Cheese

From MarthaStewart.com

Ingredients

Serves 6

* 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
* 1 cup Homemade Chicken Stock
* 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
* Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
* Pinch of cayenne pepper
* 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more for water
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound elbow macaroni
* 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)
* 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
* 4 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)
* 2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* Olive-oil cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine squash, stock, and milk in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Mash contents of saucepan; stir in nutmeg, cayenne, and salt, and season with black pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt. Add noodles; cook until al dente, according to package instructions, about 8 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl; stir in squash mixture, cheddar, ricotta, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
3. Lightly coat a 9-inch-square baking dish (4 inches deep) with cooking spray. Transfer noodle mixture to dish. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, the remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan, and oil; sprinkle evenly over noodle mixture.
4. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top, 30 to 40 minutes more. Serve immediately.

I thought it was pretty cool to cook with butternut squash. It was a first for me. As was buying it from the store....who buys butternut squash?

After Sawyer ate twice as much as Kate, I had to laugh at how I tricked him. He couldn't stand baby food butternut squash. He devoured it in mac and cheese. It reminded me of when my mom tricked me into eating frozen yogurt...even though I didn't like yogurt. (mmmm, how I love frozen yogurt!)

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!!!

I don't know whats wrong with ABC. The TV network...not Kate's favorite song. I was fiddling on the computer (instead of sewing, like I should be) and I saw that they canceled my favorite show Pushing Daisies. Seriously, this show was 100 times better than the Office to me! (Especially now that Jim and Pam are together. ugh.) And this isn't the first time I've had a beef with ABC.
Did anybody watch Knights of Prosperity? It was so killer funny.
How about Notes from the Underbelly? All the funny things about pregnancy in that show....and being pregnant, I nearly peed myself with laughter when I watched.
Boston Legal was funny, although often a little risque.

At least TV is getting rid of shows like Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) and Swingtown (CBS). Those commercials alone were disgusting to watch.

Is it sad how much I love TV and that this is going to put me in a bad mood all day?

I'm famous!

Just kidding....
but someone I don't know blogged about me and I thought it was fun.
Check it out

a break from my regularly scheduled life...

If you've seen my sidebar, I've started selling Easter basket liners on my etsy shop. I have sold a few and it has started to take over my life...I'm not complaining....I just don't have much time for anything else. Like cleaning my house. Or blogging. I did, however, take the Sabbath to rest and to have fun with my family. Here are some pictures from our afternoon at the park.

Rockin the converse

a


Today I couldn't find Sawyer's little elephant shoes...well I could find one but not the other...and he needs shoes for the gym so I broke out the ginormous converse. They actually weren't too bad and they were so stinkin cute that I couldn't get enough of them!

Today we went the the zoo (it was a perfect day!) and Kate and Sawyer did a lot of sibling interacting and giggling together and it was just wonderful. Having two is fun and it seems to just be getting better.

What you see just might shock you....

Who is this big boy and what did he do with my baby?!?

Today we headed to our favorite Picture People and got Sawyer's 10 month pictures taken! It was a much better experience than last month. Sawyer was so good and I just plopped him in a pose, he smiled, she clicked a few pictures, and then on to the next pose. It probably took all of 3 minutes. When the photographer set up for this pose I couldn't hardly believe how big he looked. Can he really be this big? Here are a few of the few things this big boy is doing these days:

-Kissing. When I look at Sawyer and blow a huge smacky kiss his way, he smacks his lips back at me. (Sorry ladies, so far this only works with Mom.) He also leans in for kisses with a big, open mouth.
- Crawling everywhere. It used to be, when I was getting ready, I could set Sawyer down next to me and he would play with toys or the full length mirror until I was done. This morning I sat him down, started getting ready, and the next thing I know I can hear my kids laughing and playing in Kate's room. Sawyer loves to follow Kate around the house. He also loves when we have "family races." When we're getting ready for bed and we head into Kate's room for scripture reading and family prayer, we'll start at the end of the hall and then the whole family crawls to her room. Sawyer laughs so hard the whole way...and he's getting pretty fast!
- Cruising. He likes to cruise around the coffee table and anything else he can stand up by. He is also a lot more brave than Kate, which has caused him to fall quite a bit. He's had a couple of bloody incidents where he falls and bites his tongue/gums.
- Bumping/Scratching his forehead. I feel like an abusive mom, but Sawyer always seems to have a scratch or something on his head. I don't even know where they all come from!
- Eating socks. This has always been a favorite, but now he can crawl and claim socks along with pulling them off his feet and eating them. I think its so funny how he crawls straight to a sock, picks it up, puts it in his mouth, and then keeps on crawling!
- Eating everything! Okay, not EVERYTHING...I'm still following the "rules" and abstaining from certain things....but he LOVES eating big people food. He eats what we do but especially likes rice, bananas, chicken and cheese (his favorite).
- Moving barstools/chairs. I think he likes how loud it is when he moves them on the tile, but he'll sit by a barstool and scoot it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...

- Sleeping through the night!! I think I mentioned this last month, but its still one of my favorite things Sawyer does!

He is a big boy and we sure love him!

On a side note, I was walking past the Hallmark store in the mall and I couldn't resist this Valentine's picture frame 75% off. Its my favorite (and only) Valentine's decoration now. I also bought a big chocolate and peanut butter candy heart because it was 90% off. Have you ever bought anything 90% off?!? I thought it was fun. 12 cents! And don't worry, I didn't eat it. I bought it for Ryan and Kate to have for dessert tonight. My joy came from just buying it!

Brazos Bend

This weekend we took advantage or Ryan's break from school and camped out at Brazos Bend. The thing that made this most exciting for Ryan was that, we heard, there are alligators. So the question is...

Did we see any alligators?

After less than an hour of driving, we got to the park, set up camp, and then started our search at the nature center. Just down the hill from there we spotted....ALLIGATORS!!


We saw 4 total, all pretty close together. They were down the hill from us, so I felt pretty safe the whole time. Plus, they didn't even move the whole time we were looking! So it was a successful trip.


Here are the rest of the pictures from our camping fun:


Sawyer gets a new bump/scratch/bruise daily. Lots are on his head. Is it just my son, or is this all boys?Playing Uno as Daddy got the fires ready for dinner

yummy shishkabobs
The kids slept great in the tent. Kate was so excited. Check out Sawyer's new teeth in this picture.


Ryan loving cooking bacon

The next morning it was freezing outside so we couldn't explore much outside. So we went to the Nature Center and had some fun.

This button opened the alligators mouth
checking out some snakes
we got to pet a 6 month old baby alligator! Kate wasn't thrilled and she did it so fast it was hard to capture in a picture! But we all did it!



It was a fun weekend of exploring! Like Ryan said, camping isn't really a RELAXING thing to do on your vacation (especially this short of a trip!) but it was some definite family fun!