Mint & Missionaries

Tonight we had the Elders over for dinner. Elder McGarr, from Arkansas, got transferred to our area today, which was fun to meet a new Elder, and sad to see Elder Harmon go. Jeff and I try to have the Elders over for dinner once a month, which we have been working on for about the past 6 months. It has been great getting to know the missionaries in our ward - each one shares their spirit and love for the gospel so differently. Not only is it fun to meet them and hear about their lives, but we have also seen blessings in our own life by having them for dinner. I just love it and am glad that we are trying to make it a habit. Elder Pio makes me laugh every time he talks, part of it is his Australian accent, which is way cool, but it's also his carefree attitude about everything . As they were getting ready to leave, I asked them if they were going straight home or if they had appointments, because I wanted to give them the rest of the mint chocolate brownies, but didn't want them to melt and get all yucky if they weren't going home. Elder Pio said, "Oh, that's okay. Melted brownies are awesome!" Haha!

That brings me to my next point, I made these mint brownies for the first time and they are seriously yummy! I love mint and chocolate though - you get the yumminess of chocolate, but the freshness like you just brushed your teeth - PERFECT! Next time you fancy brownies, try these :)

MINT BROWNIES

Bake 1 package of fudge brownie mix according to directions in 9 x 13 pan. Add 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract to mix. Let cool.

MINT FROSTING

1/2 cup melted margarine

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

2-3 drops green food coloring

Mix all ingredients and spread over top of slightly warm brownies. Place in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

GLAZE

1 cup chocolate chips

6 tablespoons margarine

Melt chocolate chips and margarine and spread over chilled mint layer. Chill and store in refrigerator. Set out a few minutes before cutting or chocolate may crumble.

Easter Fun Stuff and Not-So-Fun Stuff

Hope everyone had a great Easter. We had a fun Easter, and the weather was perfect. The only bummer was Costco was out of ham when I finally made it there! I haven't been able to eat ham since I ate it when I was pregnant with Missy, and got sick, over 5 years ago....but all of a sudden, I was craving ham. (No is answer to the question some of you may be asking yourselves. No, No, and No). So, I picked up the filet mignon Costco has - which is super yummy, and we had that instead. All in all, we had a great day.

Last Saturday, while on his driveway, my dad was chased by a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull. My dad was able to run and make it safely inside his car which was parked in their garage, but unfortunately, the pit bull followed him into their garage, and found our family cat and attacked it brutally, and ended up killing it. It ended up being a horrible and brutal event that my dad and mum (who was inside and heard everything) had to witness. My dad tried unsuccessfully to get the pit bull to drop our cat by hitting it with a stick, but it ended up dragging our cat off. After getting animal control involved, the dogs were taken away, but only until the owner builds a covered enclosure to keep them in. I put a poll on my blog to see what people think about this situation - because it bothers me tremendously that an animal that shows vicious behavior only has to be in an enclosed pen. The owner even admitted to my dad the German Shepherd KNOWS how to open their gate. I personally think the Pit Bull should be put to death.... I'm biased because 1) they chased my dad and intended to hurt him 2) when they couldn't get my dad, they ended up killing the family cat and 3) we were on our way to my parents house when this happened.....what would have happened if it was one of my children the dogs ran after. How much vicious behavior in a dog is acceptable before a more tragic event occurs? I'm really interested in everyone's opinions....

Blue Angels

We had a fun weekend watching (and hearing :) the Blue Angels. On Sunday we had my parents and my brother and his family over for dinner and to watch the show from our front yard. It's such a rush to see these jets flying directly OVER your house! It's such a fun show to see - and I am amazed how close they can fly together. It was fun to visit with everyone, and for Missy and Little Dude to see their cousins, and even sign Jake's cast. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Happy Birthday Jeff

Friday was Jeff's birthday, and we filled the day with lots of fun things. We were able to go to the temple together in the AM (thanks Sheila!) and go see a movie and grab a bite to eat in the evening (thanks Mum & Dad!) I had timed everything out perfectly, so that when we arrived home, we would have a surprise party for Jeff. Unfortunately, when we got to the movie, the paper was wrong, and it actually started 1 hour LATER than it said! I was having a fit inside, worrying how I was still going to pull everything off, and not have everyone at our house waiting for us for hours. Luckily, we have patient friends, and we were still able to pull it off. I get so excited about surprise parties, that I can hardly STAND IT! Jeff kept asking on the way home why I was so anxious :) Jeff said he heard lots of giggles when he walked inside the house ( with 15 kids inside it's hard to keep everyone quiet) and kept wondering why anyone robbing our house would bring their kids! :) Thanks to everyone coming over and celebrating his birthday with us

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Allergy Season Hits

Allergy season has started already. MAJOR BUMMER! Poor Little Dude had a really rough night last night. He woke up crying with a bloody nose, all stuffy and unable to breathe. He kept saying his eyes, nose, and mouth hurt. We went for a family walk last night after dinner. I could smell all the pollen in the air, and wondered if this season was going to be as bad as the last two for Little Dude. Little Dude is labeled as having moderate to severe outdoor allergies. Of the 30+ trees, pollens, and grasses he was tested for, he was allergic to ALL of them, which means, that for at least 3 months of the year, he is terribly uncomfortable. The picture is his daily dose of medicine, which consists of eye drops, oral medicine, nasal medicine, and loads of skin creams and steroids. I don't feel completely comfortable pumping him full of all this medicine, which doesn't completely help, but at least it makes his allergies a little more tolerable. I am hoping and praying this year won't be very bad, and that we can limit his outdoor activity on high pollen count days. The last picture is of Little Dude last year (Yikes! looks like those allergies messed with his hair too! I'll have to tell his hair stylist to do a better job! :), after only 30 minutes at the park. His eye swelled shut, and was black and blue for 3 days afterwards. Poor little guy. I had people in the store asking how he got his black eye - I don't think most of them believed me when I said, "from allergies". To all of you allergy sufferers out there- I hope this season isn't too bad and you find a way to enjoy the spring weather.

Craft Night and Twix Bars

Last night, I held a Monthly Vinyl Craft Night at my house - which was so much fun. There were 13 people who wanted to come - which was way more than I thought would be interested. I had 3 different Easter/Spring signs they could choose from. My personal favorite was "What the Easter Bunny Taught Me". Jeff was very sweet and watched movies with the kids upstairs on the laptop while we were all downstairs. Afterwards he said, " I think everyone had a really good time, because you guys were really loud." With that many ladies, doing a craft, and eating dessert, it is bound to get loud! :) I made my Twix Bars, which are seriously yummy. I make a lot of desserts, but these are one of my most popular. I can't make them without people asking for the recipe, and since I had a couple of requests for the recipe last night, I will post the recipe on here for all to have.

Twix Bars
CRUST:
1/2 cup REAL butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
FILLING:
1/2 cup REAL butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
TOPPING:
1/2 cup chocolate
1 Tbsp butter or marg.

CRUST: Cream butter, sugar, and flour and press into 8" square pan. Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes, or edges are slightly brown.
FILLING: Combine filling ingredients in saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour over baked crust.
TOPPING: Melt chocolate and butter and spread over cooled caramel layer. Cool & Cut & Enjoy!

And lastly, since the sun has been out, and spring seems like it's finally here, Missy and Little Dude have been riding their bikes everyday for hours! I love this time of year when the kids want to be outside playing more than indoors - it's great having them come inside dirty, sweaty, and totally exhausted from playing - and send them right upstairs to the bath.

Seven Little Men and One Little Lady

Little Dude is in a JoySchool group...there are 7 boys and 1 girl in the group. A group this size means two things: 1) your turn to teach comes around once every two months, and 2) when it's your turn to teach you have 8 3-year-olds in your house! Sometimes it can be challenging keeping their attention for 2 hours, but it is always entertaining (for me!) and the time always flies by! Today we talked about trying new things, even if we don't think we can do it or if we think we won't like it. I read to them Green Eggs and Ham, which they thought was hilarious! Then, we had green eggs and ham for snack (the ham ended up turning purple-ish from the green food color, but it still had that ewww factor!) I had a mix of reactions when they heard what their snack was going to be, some were, " I LOVE green eggs and ham" (from Mr. Judd :) to "My mom only makes yellow eggs...." to "I think I want a different snack" and lastly, Mr. Laret after finishing his eggs and ham, asked "are there any pancakes?" Half of them ate it, and the other half refused. I don't blame them, because I don't enjoy eating things that don't have a "pleasant" look to them, and green eggs and purple ham does not look that pleasant! (Mr. Brady's face is cracking me up - he is very disappointed by my snack of choice. Luckily, he was all smiles when the goldfish crackers came out).

When Missy finds out that JoySchool is at our house for the week, she takes great care in protecting her room, because "Hayden and his boys are not allowed" in her room. I'm just glad that she now writes her notes on paper she tapes to the wall, rather than writing it actually ON the wall as she has in the past. However, this means that there is always a shortage of tape in our house ( I buy a three pack of tape monthly), and if you can't find any tape, look in Missy's room. Grandparents take note: For birthday and Christmas presents- this girl would LOVE to get her own tape!