Nauvoo

As Spring Break sneaked up on me, I was trying to figure out a getaway for our family that could be done in 2 days. I knew Steve had one million and one things to do, but I needed something to keep my kids busy and looking forward to for the week. Kelle, another friend of mine, had mentioned that she was considering taking her family to Nauvoo, Illinois. That was it! I had forgotten all about it! We used to go yearly, but then church leadership changes and life goes in different directions. It had been nearly 5 years since we had toured Nauvoo! We had a great time feeling the "spirit of Nauvoo" and having our testimonies reconfirmed of the restoration of the Church, the gift of the early pioneers' sacrifices, and the divine role of the Prophet Joseph Smith.We love the Gun shop. This is where Steve's relatives actually lived before the Brownings bought it!!!!

We took the wagon tour early Thursday morning, which was beautiful, but frigid!

The girls were excited for their front row seat until the horses started doing their "business." The poop-catching bags under the horses' tails kept that putrid smell a little too close to them for their liking. These beautiful smiles seemed to disappear as the smell became overwhelming. I don't think the girls will fight for the front row seat next time. ;)

Lizzie is still terrified of animals, but had a brave moment and touched the horse!

The Family Living Center proved educational as we learned about making rugs, candles, rope, etc. We take for granted the ability to buy these things in the store.

Sweet Hailey left a piece of herself (hair) in the rope, so she got to keep that piece.

Braxton was the perfect size to be a waterboy for the temple workers.

Sitting and listening to all the stories is fun, but the kids found every chance they could to climb and play--even if it is in an ox-shodding stall.

Emma's birthday was the closest to the date we visited the Blacksmith shop, so she got the lucky horseshoe.

A trip to Nauvoo would be incomplete without bricks from the brick shop.

We got to eat at the Nauvoo Mansion House. The kids thought they were in heaven with the buffet. Here they are being kids with full tummies and dessert in their systems.

Some of our crew had to return to our cabin, but the rest of us stayed to admire the temple.

Our stake had a "Twenty Temple Touches" goal a few years ago, so the kids were getting another temple touch. This one is for extra credit.

At the show, the front row is reserved for the kids. I love how well they get along and enjoy each other. My Carter and Andrew Stradling are so funny together. Note how Carter's got his arm around him here.

Cutie patooties!

A quick shot from the show featuring Relief Society--my favorite women's organization!

The Bootmaker's shop

We took the kids to school on spring break. We are tough and mean parents!

I LOVE the Women Statues behind the visitors' center. They are a symbol of all I used to dream of becoming. Now I'm passing through the different stages at a remarkable pace.

Now, I have THREE boys of my own!

My daughter, of course, chose the dating scene to pick as the one she likes best. SCARY! She's got the dream already in her sights. Slow down!

"Look into my eyes..."

I caught 2 tender moments surrounding the Woman of Prayer statue. It's interesting what feelings or actions works of art can prompt in each of us.

So long, farewell!

All fourteen of us stayed in this cabin together. Meshing 10 kids is always exciting, but fun. Luckily, there was a stray cat that kept our children's attention the majority of the time we were at the cabin.

On our way home, we stopped by Carthage to remember the martyrdom of Hyrum and Joseph.

Nauvoo and Carthage are such great places to make memories and connect to our history!

Fancy Nancy Party

We love, no ADORE, fancy Nancy at our house. Her books have a wonderful way of introducing vocabulary in a really fun, girly way. She is everything my house lacked before I had Emma. There was no pink, no ruffle, no extravagance. Things were simpler, but now with my girls, life has a little more sugar and spice and everything nice to it. Emma decided on a Fancy Nancy party to celebrate her life of six years. After searching online, we came up with some fun and fancy things to do at her party. First, all of our guests were fanci-fied with boas, tiaras, sunglasses, and earrings. They were then escorted to 2 stations--one where you could have your nails painted (or decals put on), and the other where you could decorate flip-flops. My marvelous neighbor volunteered her services to help, so I put her in charge of nails. I was head of the flip-flop station, which was much more labor intensive than I had anticipated, so there are no pictures, but some of them turned out DARLING, that's a fancy word for cute. My 2 boys got dressed up for the occassion. They thought Emma's friends were so fun and loved making them laugh. They have always enjoyed wearing costumes, but I never thought they'd want to be fancy like THIS.

Even Steve went for a laugh with his tiara.

Musical Chairs was next. Emma's enjoying herself, while the other 2 girls were going for the win.

Freeze Dance followed.

To calm down before dinner, I read a Fancy Nancy book.

Dinner was superb! We had 2 different types of sandwiches, cut in triangles without crust and with fancy toothpicks, finger jello cut out in heart-shapes, a veggie mosaic, and a fruit mosaic.

The cupcapes were pink, of course, and had pearls on them.

Next, the girls got to make their own "parfaits", that's a fancy word for ice cream sundae. Emma wanted to make sure we had all the toppings. (I was vacuuming sprinkles for days.)

The girls then wanted to open presents. Emma received some fun gifts. She is such a lucky girl to have such great friends.

Time was running out. Mothers were going to be showing up soon, so we gathered the girls for the finishing touches before the fashion show. Each girl got to choose between 2 different perfumes. We "dabbed" it on their wrists and behind their ears.

Then we put on lipgloss--always the final touch.

The moms were brought in to our family room and seated. Each girl came out of the piano room when announced and walked down the catwalk. They posed 2 or 3 times, smiled for the camera, and then lined up.

This is a collage of one of the girls' poses. They were dah-ling. One of Emma's friends surprised us by walking out with her boa under her shirt and then pulled it out and swung it around while doing a little dance. :) She was the hit of the show!

What a fun party! We sent each girl home with a white satin purse embroidered with flowers, a pearl necklace, a hairclip for their hair (Emma and I made them), candy necklaces and bracelets, ring pops, nail polish, and suckers that made a flower bouquet. They also got to keep their boas, tiaras, earrings, and sunglasses.

For the love of Jimmer...

My house (along with countless others) has become a fan-base for Jimmer Fredette, a BYU basketball player in the running for NCAA 2011 player of the year! His name has been mentioned at least once every day for the last month. My boys are obsessed. Even I get giggly when thinking about him (sorry, Steve). It's been so fun to have a BYU basketball star to rally behind. When March Madness began, Steve organized a small trip to Denver, CO so that he could witness the ingenuity of this young athlete and his team. He was so excited to cheer for BYU amidst the other thousands of BYU fans in the stadium. They did not play their best, but they did win. Watching the following game, Steve thought for sure, BYU would lose if they continued to play the same. Then his game time changed for Saturday. The news media pushed the BYU v. Wofford game back in order to be on prime time--not the scheduled 1 and 3:30 pm time slots. Steve's flight left at 6pm Saturday night, so he was going to miss the game. He would have come home Sunday if he wasn't speaking in church and had a special visitor coming to watch. So, after composing himself, he broke the news to me that he was coming home. I was thrilled to have him, but my heart was breaking for this true-blue BYU fan. The girls and I had to drive to Ohare airport late Friday night, pick him up, and then drive to Midway to get his car, and go home. To ease the blow, we invited his sister and brother-in-law over to watch the game with us. Steve smoked the most amazing brisket I've ever had and we watched a great, unbelievable game. My kids have gotten a ton of wear out of their BYU shirts in the last few weeks!

The Brisket--melt in your mouth! One funny side note... When Steve opened the grill (for the first time this winter) to get it ready, a mouse scampered across the back. This little Gus-Gus had been eating the foil from the last dripping pan for who-knows-how-long! He did not want to get out either! It took nearly 5 minutes for us to rid our grill of the mouse. Yikes!

To celebrate BYU making it to the next round, I tried making it special by making Blue and White candied popcorn. My mom had sent me pictures of things to do for a BYU basketball party and the popcorn seemed to be the quickest and most do-able. Too bad BYU lost.

Featured in the picture is the coolest popcorn popper ever! My brother and his family gave it to us for Christmas. We use it almost weekly and love it! Thanks, Wade & Steph!

Now that BYU is out as well as Ohio State, Duke, Kansas, etc., etc., etc. we're hardly even checking our brackets. I think Lizzie is in the lead for our family.

What a fun and shocking tournament!

Pie Day: 3-14

I believe life is to enjoy, so I try to find as many reasons to celebrate as I can. Otherwise, the crazy schedules and to-do lists get overwhelming for me. For pi day this year, I made a spaghetti pie and Chocolate Ribbon Pudding pie. Yum! My name was praised during the entire meal. Positive reinforcement goes a long way with me!!! Sausage Spaghetti Pie 1 pkg (1 lb) spaghetti 4 eggs, beaten 2/3 c grated Parmesan cheese 1 c chopped onion 1/4 c butter 2 c (16 oz) sour cream 2 tsp Italian seasoning 2 lbs sausage 2 c water 1 can (tomato) paste 1 c (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain and place in a large bowl. Add eggs and Parmesan cheese. Transfer to 3 greased 9-in. pie plates; press mixture onto the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. Set aside. (I did one pie plate and one 8x11 pan). In a saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Remove from heat (I skipped this part and put in 2T dehydrated onions); stir in sour cream and seasoning. Spoon into the crusts. In a skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in water and tomato paste. Simmer, uncovered, for 5-10 min. or until thickened. Spoon over sour cream mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Cover and bake pie at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until heated through. Pies can be frozen. Chocolate Ribbon Pie 4 oz cream cheese 2 T sugar 1 T milk Beat ingredients, then add 1/2 tub of cool whip and spread onto bottom of pie crust. Refrigerate. Beat together 2 packages of Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding and 2 c milk. Spoon over first layer. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with remaining Cool whip and Enjoy!

Call me Miss Frugality

So, I've hopped on the bandwagon and am now a "couponer." I can't say that I love it. It definitely takes time to organize and then shop at the different stores in order to "stack" coupons on top of sale prices. However, I've been able to stock up on some key items cheaply and my kids are enjoying some of the fringe benefits of fruit snacks and other foods that I don't typically purchase. Another way I've tried to cut costs is to make my own laundry soap. I do approximately 20-25 loads of laundry a week. In order to minimize the cost of soap (even beyond couponing prices) I've made my own homemade soap using Super Washing Soda, Fels-Naptha, and Borax. I saved some of my old containers and have marked them so that I know what soaps are mine and what are store bought. I love it! It smells good and cleans just as well as my purchased soaps. I looked at numerous different recipes online and have found one that works for me. The one I used takes 1 cup of washing soda, 1 cup of borax, and 1 bar of Fels-Naptha (grated). I had to dissolve the soap in a pot of water. It's then added to more and more water until you have 10 gallons of soap! Which means 10 gallons of soap costs a little over a dollar. I have a high-efficiency machine, but because it doesn't have the sulfates which make bubbles, it works just fine.

The kids were totally confused when they came home from school and smelled soap over the stove, but think it's pretty cool now. I have been using it now for 4 weeks and believe the hour it takes (and shaking the container before you pour each time) is worth the cost.