Rebecca turns one!

Rebecca had her birthday on Saturday. We had a great time celebrating her birth, beginning with me waking up at about the same time she was born (5:30) and not being able to go back to sleep. We partied with my parents, who drove to Michigan for the festivities. Jacob loves parties, so he was quite thrilled. I had fun making Rebecca's sheep cake and it tasted pretty good in addition to being cute! Enjoy the pictures (I'll post videos later, they are taking too long to load and I just want to get this up!), and check out Rebecca's new hats and one of her pretty new dresses! Happy Birthday, Rebecca Lea!!

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Today I did my baking in Virginia. Jeff isn't here to taste these cookies, but Jacob suggested we save one for Daddy so I'll freeze some and take them home next week.

This week's recipe yields a good, pretty moist cookie, and of course the filling is tasty. My parents and I loved the cookies, and Jacob enjoyed a small taste of the dough while I was making them earlier tonight. I made the dulce de leche with Dave Lebovitz's instructions found here.

Check out Jodie's blog for the recipe, and check out the TWD site to see how everyone else fared this week!

TWD: Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart/Pie

So this was supposed to be a tart, but I used a pie pastry, and I thought it was lovely. I will definitely be putting a star next to this one in my cookbook! I had frozen raspberries from when we last picked some in September and just thawed them and dried them a little bit before putting them on the crust. This is really rich, and I would love to try it again using only bittersweet chocolate, though this time I followed the recipe and used the bittersweet/milk combination. Be sure to check out the TWD site and see how others fared this week! Thanks to Rachelle of Mommy? I'm hungry! for hosting this week. You can find the recipe on her site! Up next week: Dulce de Leche Duos. The cookies have dulce de leche in them and then you sandwich them together with more as filling. YUM. The week after that I'll be making Coconut Tea Cake. Yum again!

Kroger Gift card Winner!

Sorry I'm a little bit late on this, but here is the big winner!

I used random.org to help pick a winner, and #3 came up! Congrats to the Parkers!

I'll be contacting you shortly to get your shipping address for the gift card!

Stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon!

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes...

Jeff's mom was here last week for a few days, and we had a great time with her.

Captions are written from the children's point of view...

She taught me all about elephants, and then I taught my mom.

She helped me see "so many amimals" at the zoo.

She liked the orangutans, but maybe a little less than I liked them.

She helped me look at the gorillas eating lettuce and swinging around in their cage.

She taught me everything she knows about mastadons.

She rode on the bus with us on the way to and from the U-M Exhibit Museum of Natural History. And she even went back later with dad to get the giraffe I dropped on the way to catch the bus to come home.

She let me play in the water at the Hands-On Museum. I played in the water longer than I ever have before.

She let me drive, even though my feet don't touch the floorboards!

She went with me to the Michigan Firehouse Museum.

She made me giggle. And tried to help me crawl since I like to scoot.

She read bedtime stories. One night she read all of the stories in our story basket while mom and dad were at stake conference. All of them.

No empty chairs

I was reading in Alma 29 tonight and when I got to the end of the chapter and saw the phrase "go no more out," where Alma refers to his desire for Ammon & his brethren to gain eternal life, I was curious how many times that phrase is in the scriptures. So, I searched and found out the answer is seven times.

For some reason this phrase reminded me of President Benson's thoughts on there being "no empty chairs" in the eternal family home. That was one of the themes for the Dulles Branch, the branch my family served in when I was in 8th-10th grade, and I remember feeling the spirit when President Flanigan reminded us of our need to support and encourage one another in the work of the gospel. That spirit testified to me then the importance of having a similar motto for my future eternal family that I would later build.

Now here I am, almost five years since Jeff and I began our journey together, and with next Saturday being Rebecca's first birthday and Jacob's 2.5 year mark, I have been pausing a lot to reflect on how I am living and teaching the gospel in my home as my children grow at warp speed. I can unequivocally say that my hope and my goal is that we may all sit down together in the kingdom of God, with no empty chairs, to go no more out. We're working on it now, and it is wonderful.

God intended the family to be eternal. With all my soul, I testify to the truth of that declaration. May he bless us to strengthen our homes and the lives of each family member so that in due time we can report to our Heavenly Father in His celestial home that we are all there--father, mother, sister, brother, all who hold each other dear. Each chair is filled. We are all back home. - Ezra Taft Benson

$25 Kroger gift card Giveaway

Thanks to MyBlogSpark and Kroger and General Mills (and, and, and!), I have a $25 gift card to offer to one of our readers. This will not expire at the end of this week when the Cart Buster event is over, so you can certainly use it to snatch up other good deals once you get it!

To enter the giveaway, be sure to leave a way for me to contact you:

• leave a comment telling me how often you shop at Kroger or the Kroger family store near you
• earn an extra entry for spreading the word about the giveaway somehow (facebook, on your blog, twitter, etc.) and leave a SECOND comment to tell me how you did it

Family members residing in my household (even if mainly only on weekends or in the evening) will not be considered for this prize.

All entries received by midnight Sunday night will be eligible and winner will be announced Monday, March 15th at around 7 or 8 AM EDT. Yes, EDT, I even had to correct myself, but it really is time for the time change.

TWD: Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

I'm a day late and a dollar short, but these cookies looked pretty good to me so I made them tonight while I cooked our dinner. Jeff's mom spent a couple days with us and we took her to the airport this morning, so sadly she won't be able to eat some of these with us.

I only made 1/4 of the recipe and it looks like it will be plenty to just give it a try. I didn't go hunting for hazelnuts to grind, and we don't have any raspberry jam that's not frozen solid, so my cookies have almond and apricot flavors instead. The dough came together very quickly, but was a little dry so I added probably a teaspoon and a half of milk, and I think these would be great if you need to whip something up pretty quickly for company coming. It's the kind of cookie that makes me wish I lived in like 1905 and had a parlor to greet my guests in with a silver platter of cute cookies.

Thanks to Mike for hosting this week. Check out the TWD site to see how everyone else's Thumbprints turned out. And the big secret is that the indents are not made with your thumb; Dorie suggests using your pinkie or the end of a wooden spoon. I chose the latter. And thanks for humoring me for my special edition of Wednesday with Dorie. Stay tuned for another tart next week - Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart.

MyBlogSpark: Kroger Cart Buster Savings Event

If you live in an area where there is a Kroger family store, be sure to check out the Cart Buster Savings Event going on now through this March 14th. I don't think I've ever seen General Mills Cereals on sale for as cheap as they are right now (2.99 for the biggest boxes). I don't usually buy much name brand anything unless I have a good sale and a coupon to go with it, and now would be a good time to pull out your coupons to match with some of these brands participating in the big sale:

Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Hamburger Helper, Yoplait, Progresso, Totino´s, Green Giant, Cascadian Farm, Tide, Charmin, Bounty, Pampers, Pantene, Crest, Iams, Febreze, Old Spice and many more!

Thanks to Kroger and General Mills, through MyBlogSpark, I received a $25 gift card to spend at Kroger during this Cart Buster Savings Event. We have a Kroger less than a mile from our house, and while it seems they just don't have enough employees, it is awfully convenient to have it so close to home. I think I may pick up a couple cake mixes, frozen veggies, and get some more cereal this week. What are some things you plan to stock up on while the prices are so low? Any coupon/sale combinations worth highlighting? Share away!

TWD: Toasted Coconut Custard Tart

Or as Jeff called it this morning, TCCT.

This week's recipe was a little more involved than the simple cookies from last week, and I had forgotten to get some of the ingredients at the store last week and had some sick kids thrown in there too. So I got up early and got to work this morning. Many thanks to Beryl of Cinemon Girl for her excellent choice to bring a little bit of summer into our last month of winter! Visit her blog to get this recipe. I don't have a tart pan and couldn't find one to borrow, so I made mine in a pie pan instead. It would be much prettier in a tart pan, or even a springform pan, but I guess if we have to we'll eat something that looks more like pie, darn.

Here are my instructions for this dessert, and according to Jacob it's "very good!":

• You wake up and want to get back in bed, but go downstairs anyways.
• First you have to toast coconut.
• Then you have to make your tart shell. Or tart pie/pie tart in my case, or whatever.
• Then while that is in the freezer you make the custard, which then goes in the fridge.
• You decide to shower and then you feed your children.
• Then you bake your tart shell in your pie pan because you are silly.
• Then you babysit some kids and pretend you have two sets of twins for 2.5 hours.
• Then your kids take a nap, so then you can make your whipped topping.
• Then when it is almost dinnertime you put the custard in the shell, realize it got thicker than you think it is supposed to and then just ignore it, put the whipped topping on top, add more toasted coconut to the top of that and make a little heart design so you can show how excited you are to LOVE this dessert. Take a picture, ignoring that the edges of the tart in the photo look black, when really they were just a nice brown.
• Then take some to your friends, the ones you promised to share this treat with when you called them this morning.
• Then EAT some!

She Said "Yes" on Ms. Houston's blog

Hop on over to my friend Katie's blog as she features tales of love and engagement and wedding rings for the next little while in her She Said "Yes" series! You might even get to see a post that I wrote. But don't just go for that, because we all need a little more laughter in our lives, and you will do yourself so much good to read her posts about life as a middle school teacher. My mom also teaches middle school and there is seriously always something funny going on. While most of us would probably like to forget those years of our lives for various reasons, it is hilarious to read about all the craziness as an adult.

Things happening at our table...

The Chinese Are Out to Get Me

So, I was talking with a Chinese friend of mine the other day (well, I talk to her almost every day, but, this particular conversation happened the other day). She mentioned that she had sent a link to this blog to her parents in China, but, that they were unable to view it, as it was blocked by the Chinese government. I have been censored by the Chinese government.

I wonder how long some Chinese bureaucrat must have spent reading through our hundreds of posts to determine that our blog creates a threat to the future existence of the People's Republic of China. But, regardless of how long it took to come to such a conclusion, the bureaucrat must have ultimately decided that pictures of my children and Tuesday with Dory food my wife cooks will stir the Chinese people to revolution. Rebecca's silly grins will cause the whole country to be overturned by a proletarian uprising. News about our Christmas vacation outings will bring about political insurrection. Jacob's ABCs will cause a coup.

Or, they have just blocked all of blogspot.

Jacob Teaches Us How to Have a Good Time in the Winter

Step 1: Eat right out of the pan.

Someone liked the baked potato soup I made a couple weeks ago... We were about to take half of it over to our friends who just had a baby, and the other half was still in the pot with the ladle in it in the fridge. I came downstairs after changing Rebecca and this is what I found in the kitchen. At least he is holding his right hand under the ladle so he doesn't spill on the floor, even if his sweatshirt didn't avoid a mess. His mouth is wide open in the first picture. He kept saying "mmm, it's good" while he was trying to eat out of the ladle. Luckily he saved enough for all of us.

Step 2: Sing your ABC's. Did you catch "Jacob" for "J-K" in there? He is still doing that, I love it.

3. Make your baby sister laugh.

TWD: Honey Wheat Cookies

I'm back with TWD! Sorry I skipped out on Dorie's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies last week. I heard they were good, and I may get around to making them at some point in the future. I did make her All-Occasion Sugar Cookies on February 11th, so I thought that might be good for our cookie baking in that week. I don't know that I'll use that sugar cookie recipe again, as I like the one I got from my mom who got it from her friend, Sue Shumway, much better (much, much better). Enough about the past...let's talk about how I did participate this week!

Michelle of flourchild is the Tuesdays with Dorie host for this week. She chose the recipe for the Honey Wheat Cookies. I made these Monday night for our Family Home Evening treat. Jacob was very excited when he found the dough chilling in the fridge. I don't think he knew it was for cookies, but he knew it would be good and so he kept asking me for "treeeat! treeeeat!" until I convinced him we better wait until we could share the treats with Dad.

These cookies have an interesting flavor - they contain wheat germ, lemon zest (I used lemon juice instead so I wouldn't have to go to the store), and honey, as well as other regular cookie ingredients. I ran out of regular unsalted butter last week so I used a ICBINB baking stick instead, so the cookies might be even better if real butter and lemon zest are used.

These are cute, tasty little cookies. I enjoyed the simplicity of the recipe and the outcome was good enough to encourage making these again! Good choice, Michelle! Check out her blog for the recipe.