Celebrating with Friends

Da' Girls!!

Isabel, Me, and Annika
Don't we look good?

The party favors.
When did these become a must have?

The table decorations.
I loved this idea that I had. I wanted fresh flowers
Instead of buying some that will just get thrown away,
I bought these, which will be planted in my garden.

The kitchen when all the decorating was done.
Yes, it is done my an amateur.
I did the best I knew how.

Annika's name hanging from the ceiling.
The idea came from Aunt Jessica.

Isabel's name.
We wont be forgetting whose birthday it is.

Look how stinking cute they are!!
Yes, they both wear glasses now.
Annika is on the left, Isabel on the right.

The baby sister getting into her mini pizza.

Hannah showing off her sweet tongue skills,
that goes right along with her sweet goofing off skills!

Isabel attempting to cool off her pizza.

Brinley trying to eat the cheese from her pizza.

Jaren played the perfect annoying brother.
Always going downstairs to reek some sort of havoc.

Beckham playing peak a boo with the candles.

The awesome home made
ice cream cake.

I do not have sweet cake making skills.

tStill, I'm proud of the darn thing.

Make a wish, and blow them out!!!

This is what the cake looked like inside.
I ended up dying the vanilla cake to what ever
color Isabel wanted, purple this time.

iAll the friends.
Top: Brinley, Isabel, Jolene, Melaya, Emma
Bottom: Annika, Anne, McKaylee, Abby

Was that enough photos for you Jekka?

Several years ago I decided to throw my kids friend birthday parties when they turn 8, 12, and 16. Yes, I am a party pooper. I don't enjoy putting together parties, which is Ironic since I love to entertain Adults. There are two major factors that went into this party. My BFF guilt visited me from last year. I just remember last year being a terrible day for the girls. And I feel really guilty about that. So I wanted to redeem myself this year. The other factor, this is only 1 of 3 parties that the girls' get. So I better make it good. With a lot of encouragement and a commitment to help from Brent the party went forth. It was to be a High School Musical Party. I went all out on the decorating. With ideas from my own brain and help from Jessica it looked like someone threw up Happy Birthday in my kitchen. The whole time my Mom was helping me I kept asking her, is this too much? Did I go overboard? She immediately replied, "No". I do think that 3 hours was a little long for a party. But I hope the girls had fun, all girls. I had a headache by the end of the night. I have to admit, I did have a great time decorating.

Raising Stronger Saints

Our Family in front of the
Draper Temple.

Self taken photo of myself and Brent.
He "loves" it when people take pictures like this.
Can you just see the excitement in his eyes?

This past Sunday I gave my lesson on Elder Hales talk titled Christian Courage: The price of Discipleship. I went over and over and over this lesson. I wasn't very excited about the topic since I've lived in Utah all my life and never really had my faith or beliefs questioned or tested. But I realized as I prayed and read and re-read the talk that it is so important for us to understand what it means to be a Disciple of Christ. And more importantly, how we as parents can raise our children to be stronger saints.
When I was going through High School I didn't have a cell phone on which I could text, or an ipod, or an MP3 player or an MP4 player. I didn't even know what the World Wide Web was until I was married to Brent. Our children are growing up in a tougher age. They are required to be stronger. Their armor must be thicker then mine was.
So I posed the question, "What can we as parents do to help our children be stronger saints?" We had a really good discussion in Relief Society. Iris suggested utilizing the Friend more. There is a TON of useful information in that magazine. Other things that I thought of were to hold consistent FHE. My sister mentioned to me yesterday that you might not always have a spiritual experience during every FHE, but getting in the routine and habit will allow for those opportunites, and to help your children recognize the spirit. Another thing that popped out in my head and seemed very important, was to have an open dialgue about the gospel. Talk about it on a daily basis with your children. So if they find themselves in a specific situation where someone is asking them a question they wont freeze up because they've talked about it before and often.

This past Saturday Brent and I had the opportunity to take the kids to the Draper Temple open house. We went with the Huhtala's and for the most part had a wonderful time. I wanted my children to understand that the Temple should be at the top of their Goals. It was so great to walk through and show them the granduer and beauty of the House of the Lord. Temples and Eternal Families is what this earlthy life is all about.

Hate and Love

I HATE laundry. I tell my kids all the time that Hate is a strong word and not to use it lightly. Let me say it again, I HATE laundry.

I LOVE hulu.com. It's my new favorite site online. It's where you can watch any show for free. So I've gotten reacquainted with my friends from the OC and the Chef's at Bravo. Thank heaven's for hulu. Now going without cable isn't so bad. Yes, I was missing a few shows. Now, I'm missing NOTHING!!!

My 5th Child is 5!!!!

Beckham with the cake he picked out.

Sorry, I don't do cakes.

Waiting for his cake and listening the our lovely

Happy Birthday rendition.

One of his gifts. Brent took a ton of pics. and realized too late

that the memory card wasn't in there.

Wow, what a huge milestone!! It seemed like all last year I kept telling Beckham he couldn't do certain things until he turned 5. Well, now he's 5 and I can't use that as an excuse!!!

5 thing that I absolutely LOVE about Beckham

1. He is a SWEATHEART. He still loves to sit on my lap and give me hugs.

2. His sense of humor. He is hilarious!!!

3. His smarts.

4. His sense of adventure and always wanting to play with friends.

5. His smile, he can reel you in anytime.

I feel so blessed to have Beckham apart of our family and our lives!!! I can't wait to see him grow this next year!!!

Butternut Squash Soup Portugese Style

Isabel, my little helper today

All my veggies nicely cubed.
Sweet knifes skills!!!

Suating the veggies in the dutch oven.
Don't those colors look great!!!

The end result.
It is truly DELICIOUS

Melissa gave me a butternut squash for my birthday. I was searching for a new recipe to use up the butternut squash with and came across this luscious soup. And the best thing about this soup, is that it's healthy. There is no cream or butter in this soup. You don't miss it either. I changed up the recipe a bit since I didn't have some of the items. Which goes to show you that you don't have to follow a recipe to the T to get it to turn out wonderfully. Here's the recipe tweaked by me.

Dice all the veggies into large chunks:
2 bunches of green onions (1 large onion that I didn't have)
3 ribs of celery
1 large carrot (2 handfuls of baby carrots)
1 butternut squash
2 potatoes peeled
5-6 garlic cloves thinly sliced

1. In a large dutch oven heat 3 TBL of olive oil
2. Add all veggies and saute about 7 minutes
3. Cover veggies with 7 cups of chicken stalk.
4. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover with lid and simmer for 45 minutes
5. Add dried oregano and simmer, covered for another 15 minutes.
6. In 3 bathes, puree the soup in a blender
7. Place back in dutch oven and reheat on stove.


This is a kick-butt soup. Plus, it's super duper easy and healthy. Give it a try!!!
Yes, the Sorceress strikes again!!!

Is it really that bad?

The other day I read in the newspaper that our economy is on the verge of another depression!!! I mentioned this to a friend in church yesterday and she told me that it could be worse then the first depression and that I had better have my food storage. What? Are you serious?

Have I been living in a bubble called Utah? I know times are tough. But come on. Are they really that bad?

Do I have a year supply of food? No. Do I have a 3 month supply of food? Maybe. Am I prepared for another depression? NO!!! Should I get my butt in gear? I guess I should. Should I be a little bit nervous right now? YES.

I am just flabbergasted that we as a society has let our economy and way of life be threatened. And by what? Power hungry politicians? Money hungry Executives? Have we not learned anything from history people?

This brings to mind the cycle of the Nephites. They start out humble and work hard. The Lord blesses them and become wealthy. They forget the Lord and wealth and power becomes their God. I think this cycle can be applied on many different levels. From a personal level to a much larger one, our own country.

I am a little worried. But I am not scared. I am doing what I should be doing and I know all will be well. This might be an ignorant way to look at life. But it's what gets me through the day.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!!

Her brothers and sisters were right there to help her.

This chair is just too cold Mom!!!

I've just finished putting her onsie back on.
Now she's ready to dive right in.


Grace ate the little yellow frosting flower first.

Brent trying to encourage Grace to stick her face into the cake.

Look at that face!!!
What am I suppose to do?

Brent wanted so badly for her to dig right in.

Opening up one of her first gifts.
Thanks Aunt Kelli, Uncle Cory and Alleah!!!

I am laughing in this photo due to Grace's excitement over this dress. I tried to place it aside so she could move on the next present. She exclaimed in protest. I handed her the dress back and she held onto it until she was ready for the next one. She's hilarious, and already knows how to get her way. She has to be loud with 5 older brothers and sisters.

I thought is would be fun to put this onsie on Grace on her birthday.

.This is the onsie that I made to announce my pregnancy.
I surprised my parents and Brent's parents each with one.

The onsie reads:
Congratulations Rick and Penny,
You are going to be Grandparents
for the 9th time in February.
We are so excited!!!

It was so much fun to celebrate Grace's birthday on Sunday. She had a great time opening up her gifts, and eating her cake. The chair she is sitting in was still cold from being in the garage. So when I placed her in it, the cold from the chair on her bare skin was uncomfortable and she began to cry. I didn't even think about that until Brent said something. I put her onsie back on her and that seemed to calm her down. The cake I bought for her had a fudge frosting on it. That's all she wanted, the frosting. Thank You Grandma Penny and Grandpa Rick for all the beautiful clothes!!! Thank you Grandma Donna and Papa Woody for the great toy!!! Thanks Deric and Monica for sticking around and sharing in our good times!!! We love you all and are so blessed to live so close to family!!! And we missed the ones that weren't there, Ryan, Michelle, Jessica, Jamie, Asher, Soren, Aunt Brooke and Uncle Sean!!!!

I can't believe my baby is 1. I can't believe that I am 33. Yes, my birthday was on the 6th. If it weren't for the fact that my children are growing up and getting older, I wouldn't feel older. Yes, my body does seem to be slowly falling apart. My joints ache a little when I get up, my boobs sag a little more, I have a lot more gray hairs, and a few more wrinkles on my face. But I still feel young inside.

1 year of Gracie Grace

I have to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

After Beckham was born I wanted to be done having children. 5, in my mind, was a lot and I struggled to be a good Mom to that many children. People would ask me if I was done. Out of stubbornness I would say yes, 5 is a good round number. But I never had that feeling like we were done. I didn't think I was one of those lucky people. I didn't want to pray about it either. For a couple of reasons. The first one being that I struggled with prayer at the time. I did have faith in prayer or that my Heavenly Father really listened to me. Secondly, if he did happen to answer my prayer about having another child, I was affraid of what the answer would be. Hello, that should have been another clue that I wasn't done.

In March of 2007 my sister came out for a visit from Virginia. She was currently pregnant and still didn't know she was having twins. While she was out we all took a trip to the Temple. It was a weird session. Despite that, during the middle of the session I heard a distinct voice in my head say, " you need to have another child." I was like "WHOA where did that come, and are you sure you are talking to me." I even looked over my shoulder, and then the other. While in the Celestial room I prayed to know if I really was meant to have another baby. I got my answer in a wave of emotion that started from the tip of my head all the way to my toes. It took Brent quite a while to get into the Celestial room and when he did I ran into his arms and told him that I was told to have another baby. He asked me when? where? I told him, here, now. His second emidiate response was, "I knew we were suppose to have another child." And when were you going to tell me that? Of course I was crying and I had to keep why I was crying from everyone else. I was affraid of taking my sisters thunder, and that of my sister-in-law who just recently found out she was pregnant from a successful invetro. On the way to the car Brent simply stated, "Well, I guess you can plan on getting pregnant."

I was so overwhelmed. I didn't feel like I had the skills, knowledge, or power to take care of one more child. That is a HUGE responsibility. But I knew that if I was obedient to the Lord's command he would bless me. So I went on Faith. I was pregnant in May. I told everyone in July.

The day of Grace's arrival quickly approached. One of my last appointments my doctor told me that I didn't have to be a hero and have this baby natural. I could have a c-section. Which is common after already having one, like I did with my twins. Before this appointment I was adament about giving birth naturaly. But as I thought more about it I was impressed to go ahead with the c. I counseled with Brent and he strongly agreed with me.

And so began the blessings of obedience. My C was scheduled for a Thursday morning at 7am. Brent and I needed to be there at 5am. Bright and Early. I thought I would be a nervous wreck. But I wasn't. I was calm as a calm can be. The epidural went smoothly and so did the surgery. I didn't even know they had begun. When they were ready to pull Grace out the Doctor exclaimed, " Look at the position of her head." Apprently the cord was wrapped around her neck and her head was resting on her shoulder. Who knows what would have happened if I had gone ahead with the natural birth.

My recovery took the full 6 weeks, but it was a good full recovery. Grace was a champ nurser and not once did I get engorged. I was able to nurse her till she was 10 months old, what a tremendous blessing.

Grace, in and of herself has been a blessing for our family. She brings joy, laughter, peace and love into our home. I never thought that having a baby would be so much fun or so enjoyable. I have learned through Grace that there is more to motherhood then just fixing dinner, washing laundry, and scrubbing toilets. Motherhood is filled with warm hugs, quiet nights rocking, calming a broken heart, listening and loving. Yes, I probably already new about all those things, but it took one more child to help me remember.

So Happy Birthday Grace.