A fall day

Today was beautiful. It has rained for 2 days(which I loved) and today is bright and sunny and green. Everything is clean and fresh. Ella stayed home sick. She might start claiming sick more often since we read books together, snuggled, watched TV and spent all day together. I must say it was a treat for me too. Kade enjoyed some time outside and even tried the swing although he looks a little worried. In the afternoon the kids did Halloween crafts and put them up around the house. Ella said I was the best art teacher and she wishes I was her art teacher. Thanks Ella. Then I made their favorite fall dinner--Spaghetti quash spaghetti. Very nutritious and my kids think it is the best dinner ever. Of course Carson said, "I love your dinner mom." He's very good about complementing me on my cooking. After dinner we spent the remaining daylight swinging and enjoying the sunset. (That's Carson on the swing.) It was a great day.

Happy Birthday Claire and Kade!

Claire and her dad.

My beautiful girl.

My wild boy.

Adorable

My birthday kids--aren't they cute?

Peace sign cake pops for Claire's Class.

On October 7th Claire turned 9 and Kade turned 2. We started the day with breakfast in bed--which always turns into all the kids eating breakfast in bed. (Funny side note-I've been looking for our level for awhile and I am just noticing that it is right there in front of my eyes--on top of my bed) That night we went out to dinner and then had cake and presents at home. It was fun.

Claire in a nutshell. Where to begin. She is an amazing little girl. She is nine--but tries sometimes to be sixteen. She wants a cell phone so she can text and is starting to be a little trendy--she loves anything with a peace sign on it. But she is still my little girl--she still likes to snuggle me and talks to me about what's going on in her life and is so good to her younger brothers and sister. I just love her. She has been so helpful with Kade lately and he loves her to read him stories. She is smart and pretty and funny and so much fun to be around.

Kado potato. He is loud and talking like crazy. He loves to talk talk talk and yell yell yell. I know where he is at all times--i just have to pause and listen. He also loves to sing and dance. He loves trains and reading books and snuggling. He still gets up early everymorning and never lets us sleep in. It's just me and him while the kids are at school and I love being with him. He cracks me up all day--but is sometimes a major trouble maker. He has his trusty stool that gives him access to way too much. Lets just say we have a lot of messes to clean up with Kade and his stool on the loose. He helps himself to yogurt every morning which cracks me up. He gets a yogurt then a spoon and then eats it at the table. He even stole Ella's yogurt out of her lunch yesterday--poor Ella.

Mom's cinnamon rolls

Today Christy called for mom's cinnamon bun recipe. One memory of mom that we all seemed to cherish was coming home to the smell of mom's cinnamon buns. Not only did they smell good but they were delicious. My mom was a fabulous baker. I have been making them for awhile and I feel like I have finally gotten them ALMOST as good as moms. I miss my mom so much--but somehow I feel closer to her when I do the things she used to do. It's almost like she's along side me working along with me. It may sound strange but I am trying to do as many of the things she did so I can feel her close to me. Well, here's the recipe.

Cinnamon buns(aka rolls for my American friends)

This is also what she used to make dinner buns

5 cups of water--as hot as comes out of the tap. It loses heat when you put it in your cup and into the bowl so it's a good temp once you put in the yeast.

2tbs yeast

1 cup suger

mix a little and let stand a few minutes

add 1/2 cup powdered milk(optional)

2tsp salt

1 cup melted margerine or butter

4 eggs

6cups flour

mix well

side note: in my research I have learned that it is better when baking if your ingredients(ie eggs) are at room temp.

Switch to kneading attachment on your mixer, add 8 more cups of flour and knead for 10 minutes. Dough should be soft.This is the tricky part. You should be able to handle it easily with floured hands. Set the dough in a greased bowl and let rise until doubled. Then flour your surface. I like to flour my hands to make it easier to handle. You want to handle the dough gently at this point and divide into two chunks. Put one on your surface and roll out into a long rectangle. Mom melted butter and spread it on the rolled out dough. Then she would sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it--and sometimes raisins for dad. Then roll it up and pinch the seam together. Mom's trick was to use dental floss to cut the rolls. She would slide it underneath and then pull across to cut the dough. (a demonstration might be needed) Place on a buttered cookie sheet and let rise again--about 1/2 hour. Bake until light golden brown.

An alternative for the filling that I have been doing is 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar and cinnamon creamed in the mixer. Spread on--i'm not exactly sure on the proportions cause I don't really measure so you can adjust it.

Frosting

1/2 cup butter (softened)

vanilla

about 4 cups icing sugar

milk until the consistency you like--thick or glazier--whatever works. It usually gets glazy on the rolls cause they are warm. I like to let them cool for awhile before I frost them.

You can make this a cream cheese frosting by adding a package of softened cream cheese.

Enjoy and share!!

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Today I finally finished the Diary of Anne Frank. It was a pretty slow read for me, but as her diary progressed she became increasingly moving and inspiring. Her attitude and courage through such frightening and confining circumstances was inspiring to me. She was optimistic and continually filled her time with books and learning. Throughout the book her insights to life become more and more profound--much beyond her fourteen years. Anyways, I loved it and think everyone should read it. (Reading it in school doesn't count)

I'll share the highlights from my favorite journal entry. In it she is relating a conversation she had with a young boy named Peter who was in hiding with her family. She asked him, "Quite honestly, I can't imagine how anyone can say, "I'm weak, and then remain so." After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: "Because it's much easier not to!" This rather discouraged me. Easy? Does that mean that a lazy, deceitful life is an easy life...I thought a long time about the best answer to give Peter, how to get him to believe in himself and above all improve himself...How can I make it clear to him that what appears easy and attractive will drag him down into the depths, depths where there is no comfort to be found. We all have hopes for much happiness but we must all earn it for ourselves. And that is never easy...Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction. "

Can you believe a fourteen year old girl wrote this? I think it is so insightful.

One more quote that is actually related.
"How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time."

I think I will put this quote by my bed. I think Anne Frank was an amazing young girl. So sad her life was cut short with such great potential. I wonder, though, if through her death she actually influenced more people for good. Who will ever know.

Captain underpants

Tonight I read captain underpants with Carson. It was obviously his pick. It was halarious. If anyone ever wants to see their son come alive with literature--captain underpants is the key. He used expression and different voices for the characters. I have to say--despite the ridiculous potty talk I loved it--I was totally cracking up.

Our trip to Italy

Our first day we went to the the Palatine, the Forum and the Colisseum. I loved it. It was so facinating to see these ancient ruins right in the middle of the city.

It was our ten year anniversary this year so Matt and I decided to go to Italy to celebrate. Stephanie was kind and brave enough to babysit for 10 days. She did an amazing job. The kids loved her and the only damage was a minor dent in my car:)




We had a six hour layover in Paris so we hopped on the train and saw a few of the sights. We saw the Cathedral of Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Eiffel tower(from afar), and the Arc de Triumph. Paris is Beautiful and definitely has it's own architectural look. We were pretty tired since it was the middle of the night back home. We also discovered at this point that I didn't have my wide angle lens. This made it impossible to get wide angle shots. We were pretty sad.

First day of school

The first day of School. Claire is going into 4th grade and her teacher is mr. Bethel. Carson is going into grade 2 and his teacher is Mrs. Garcia. Ella--little Ella--is going into K and she is so excited. Her teacher is Mrs. Harrah. We are all happy with the teachers we got and the kids are enjoying school as much as can be expected. Here's Ella with Joey Pilimai--they are in the same class.