Apricot Pie

Apricot Crumble Pie

We had a couple of neighbors give us some apricots yesterday and when we brought them home Sierra said she wanted an Apricot pie. Personally I have never heard of Apricot pie but I looked it up at http://www.kraftfoods.com/ and typed Apricot pie and sure enough this recipe appeared. Today all the kids and I made two pies. So if anyone has apricots and wants to try it here is the recipe. We actually really liked it.

2-1/4 lb. apricots, peeled, sliced (about 6 cups)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup MINUTE Tapioca
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter or margarine, cut up
1/2 pkg. (15 oz.) ready to use refrigerated pie crusts (1 crust)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss apricots with granulated sugar and tapioca. Let stand for 15 min. Mix flour and brown sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs; set aside.

Prepare pie crust as directed on package for unfilled 1-crust pie, using 9 inch pie plate. Fill with apricot mixture and top with crumb mixture.

Bake 45 to 50 min. or until juices form bubbles that burst slowly. Cool. YUMMY WHEN DONE!!!

Add a dolup of ice cream and enjoy!!!

One Man's Trash Another Man's Treasure

Sierra is saying he made me get in here!!

For our trip home from Arizona we bought some Minute Maid Apple Juice and when we got home we still had some of the bottles and they had some coke reward codes under the cap. We had a few that were still in the house and then we didn't have enough to actually get a prize so I told Sierra to check the garbage in the car and she found one more and then I asked Elizabeth where Steve and her put theirs and she said they should be in a bag in the big garbage so Sierra went to look. I heard some pounding outside and I looked out the window and to my surprise Sierra had put the cooler over to the garbage and had climbed right in to find the other caps. It was funny so I ran out to get a quick picture of her and Carson doing the dirty work for a coke rewards prize. I think the prize in the end will be a 20 oz. soda hope it is worth it to them.

Dress UP!!!

Parker & Briana (SMOOCH)
Look at that Grin!!!

Check out the posing! Alexia & Sierra

We got to spend the weekend with the Stewart's we had so much fun. It was a quick trip to Arizona but we went to a really fun water park and the kids just played and played together. The first day we were there Alexia and Sierra decided to play dress up so they dressed up and put makeup on (check out the RED lipstick) and modeled for us. Then they put the dress on Briana and so we had her and Parker pose together too they were so cute it was funny. Briana and Parker are so cute with each other they used to say they were boyfriend/girlfriend. Briana still says Parker is her boyfriend but Parker has other loves in his life, anyways they were just really cute. We love spending time with the Stewarts. Thanks again for letting us stay with you guys.

WHO'S BIGGER?????

Elizabeth, Kaden, & Briana
Liz, Kaden, Briana
Liz, Kaden, Carson, Sierra was making Kaden smile
This was Kadens first run in the high chair
This picutre was taken about two or so months ago I just thought his smile was so cute.
Kaden, Carson, and Briana


Here are a couple of cute picture with Briana and Carson and Kaden my nephew. This is for all of you to see how big Kaden is getting. When he first got to our house about two weeks ago Carson asked if he was 2 yrs. old now because he looked so much bigger than last time we saw him. We thought he looked pretty tall compared to Briana but then again we are not sure if Briana ever has a chance to get very big. Kaden will be 5 months old in on the 25th so he is getting big and we got the high chair out for him too.

Rockstar!!

Carson just appeared in the living room yesterday with his hair spiked and his guitar in tow. I thought it was so funny so I had him play a little for us and he was a little shy once I turned the camera on. Check out the mohawk spike in the picture and then I put the video of him playing his guitar. We saw at least two kids yesterday with mohawks and so I think he thought it would be cool to have one too. I personally thinks some styles should never recirculate!! If you go to the bottom of the page you can pause my playlist music in the upper left corner then you will be able to hear Carson's music. ENJOY!!

DANCE LIke Nobody's Watching

Not so much the case with Sierra but Briana loves to dance. I took a couple of little videos of the girls in their dance classes and we will see if things have improved by the time of their recital in about three weeks. Briana enjoys going to dance and Sierra complains but it has been something to keep us busy this summer we go twice week and spend three hours there by the time Briana has her class and then an hour later is Sierra's class that lasts for an hour. It is at the fitness center so while Sierra dances I take Carson and Briana in the stroller down to the track and walk/jog. Hope you all enjoy the clips of them dancing. This is the first time I took video with my camera and I don't know how to flip the picture so I will have to remember to take it the other directions next time. Briana is by the mirror a couple of times you will just have to watch for her. Sierra is the one in the pink outfit.

Carson & Basketball

Here are some pictures of Carson at his basketball camp he did last week. He liked it the first day but by the second day he wasn't so sure. He did ok though when it came time to actually play the game he scored a point for his team and he was a good stealer of the ball he would run right up to the girls he was playing against and take the ball right from them and sometimes they even just handed it to him it was so funny. He was a good player, he kept trying to pass it to the kid that was taller than him on his team because I told him if he ever played real basketball he would probably be the one to dribble it down the court and pass it to someone taller to make the basket. He had lots of fun and did a good job.

I'M HAPPY

For any of you who know Sierra she is a very hard person to please. She never wants me to think she likes anything and tries her hardest to keep up that persona. However I finally did something that made her happy. After a month of keeping her room clean she got to get her ears pierced. The next day she actually told me I'm Happy I got my ears pierced. YEAH!!!! I finally did a good thing!!! I think she had a perma grin for at least the first week of having them done. It is kind of hard to see but if you look hard maybe you can see the flower with diamond like stones around the outside and a blue stone in the middle. The picture of Carson and Briana is just there because they wanted their picture taken too. If you look at Carson's knee you can see a black spot. Sierra thought Carson had a tatoo and was very angry with him, then I enlightened her. It is actually the dirty sticky from a bandaid he had on for a week on a scrape that we weren't even sure needed a bandaid but I guess whatever makes them happy.

Crappy Customer Service

Talk about Crappy Customer Service. We decided to go out for lunch today and chose to eat at Rumbi Grill. On the way there I made the kids decide what they wanted we had a take-out menu and I hate it when we arrive at a restaurant including places like McDonalds and it takes longer to figure out what we are all going to eat than it does to eat it all. Anyways we ordered to kids rice bowls, kids mac and cheese and two sandwiches. We then get our drinks and decide to eat outside. The table in the shade is dirty so we decide to ask them to wipe the table so we can sit in the shade. The server brings the three kids bowls out and before she can get them on the table she totally loses hold of the rice bowl and dumps the whole cup of teryaki sauce all the way from shoulder to toe down Sierra's side. You can see the wiped off version in the picture. The lady says sorry and goes in to get the rag to wash the table and comments that she will get us a coupon for a free meal. I then take Sierra into the bathroom and wipe down the arm and the leg and the foot that is SOOOOOOOOOOO STICKY, and took the top layer off the clothes. It seemed like one of those days that you were just not meant to be where you were cause nothing was going right. By the time I could get Sierra cleaned up we had cold food and the teryaki sauce was still on the chair and the floor, no one even offered to clean it up and then she never came back with that free meal coupon either. Steve was so irritated at the fact that we ate cold food and the mess was all over the place and so he decided to go in and ask for the free meal coupon. The girl looks to the manager and says she needs a coupon and the manager growled about it the whole time and begrudgingly gave us one. I could not believe it maybe I shouldn't have been so nice and just politely helped my daughter clean herself off the best we could. I guess I should have made a big scene I bet then it wouldn't have been a problem to get the free meal. Anyways we did get the free meal but I was appalled that we had to ask for it when it was totally the servers fault. It is amazing how one bad experience can really turn you off of a place. I am not sure if or when we might go back to that place???? I guess at least once to get the free meal. I think Sierra at least deserves that for having had to stick to herself through the whole meal and look like her lunch was on her the whole time. Can you tell I was not happy with Lunch!!!!

Friends

We had a nice surprise this weekend when on Thursday I had a call from a friend I haven't seen in about seven years. We kept in touch for the first couple of years through Christmas cards and a few phone calls and then they moved a few times and we kind of lost track of them. About two years ago I was thinking about them and finally found them through figuring out her parents and calling them to get her info. We were supposed to meet up last Oct. but due to wrong email info we missed each other and I hadn't heard from them since then until Thursday and she said we are coming through can we stay the night so of course I said yes!! We were so excited to see them again and see how things change and kids grow. It was so fun to see you guys. Thanks for visiting Ken, Dedra, Matthew, and Nicole. Here is a picture of our friends and then the kids together. Some of you might remember them from SOOO long ago.

Proud to be an American

Heidi this post is for you. You will never believe what I did. Steve, Sierra and Uncle David went to the Stadium of Fire so Carson, Briana, and I were at home. The plan was to let the kids watch a movie and put them to bed. Instead I decided to do a little celebrating on our own. I just thought that you would be proud of me I got the fireworks out and we did flower spinners and sparklers all on my own with the kids. I know this is a miracle!!! I guess you get to a point in life when your kids are getting to the age where you can't just put them to bed and figure they will have no idea anyone even shot off fireworks. So I turned over a new leaf and celebrated with Carson and Briana, I even drove down closer to the stadium to see those fireworks. Carson stayed awake and loved to watch them but Briana only made it until we parked and she was out. Oh well maybe next year for her. Here is the proof that the kids really did do sparklers. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we are glad for the freedoms we have in this country.

Beautiful Improvements

Here are some of the before pictures of the work my dad mostly did and we helped a little. Our front stairs had sunk ten inches and were just an accident waiting to happen so 4 1/2 years later we finally decided it was time to stop putting the project off and fix the hazard. Our back stair was crumbling away and so we fixed that and then my dad also installed new entry dorrs for us. We can't thank him enough for all the work he did he was up at dawn and worked until dusk. Carson was so cute he just wanted to be outside "helping" and the kids loved to play in the back of grandpa's truck. So after four days of rigorous work I now have beautiful new stairs, some handrails (handmade by my father), and two awesome new doors. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU DAD!!!! We put a sidewalk ramp all the way from the back step to the back yard, we wanted to have a spot to put extra cement if we had some and we ended up having plenty so my joke is that we made a handicap ramp so go into the stairs!!! It is nice to have the sidewalk all the way to the back yard though. In the back yard we had an open spot that we had rocks piling up in and we filled that with cement too and now I have a nice place to put my lawn furniture. It is always nice to be able to make improvements on our house and we are so excited for the ones we were able to do this summer.

Better Late Than Never

I figure better late than never, I was looking through my pictures to see what I should add to the blog and wanted to share Briana's preschool graduation picture. I was in charge of the graduation five mom's from our ward took turns teaching the kids and I was the lucky one that got to do graduation. I had the kids sing the ABC song and tell their names, favorite color, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. The boys said they wanted to be football players so that is what Briana said too. I made the hats myself I was very impressed and then when I gave them their diplomas all roled up they just wanted to use them as telescopes. Oh well, it was fun and the kids were cute.

Summer Swimming

The kids finished taking swimming lessons last week. They all passed their levels and will be moving on to the next ones. Carson is like a fish out of water last year when he started taking lessons he was all over the place and he is not afraid of the water in the least bit. This year he learned how to do the front crawl, he still needs a little work on putting his head in and breathing at the same time as he moves his arms, but I am sure he will catch on soon. Sierra has also learned the front crawl and is great in the water too. On the first or second day of lessons I had been watching and then when I went back downstairs to wait for them to get out of the pool I was looking for Sierra and low and behold she was on the diving board ready to jump off!!! YIKES what are they having my kid do, I thought. Needless to say the teacher was in the water just in case anything went wrong but Sierra was just fine and is now a diving board jumper. I guess it was a good thing she took lessons mom probably never would have been ready for her to jump off the diving board but obviously she was capable. Briana did pass her class too at first we had our doubts since she didn't like the teacher and just wanted to basically sit in the water. However, when she figured out that she was not getting out of going she decided to make the best of it and have fun. She is now dunking her self under the water all the time and thinks it is so fun. She now spends more time with her head under the water than out of the water. I think swimming lessons are great at least they have been for my kids it makes me a more relaxed mom in the pool since I know they are more skilled at swimming.