Dinosaur Coooookies

Turkey has been bugging me for weeks to "make dinosaur coooookies".  A couple weeks ago, he picked out some dinosaur cookie cutters from the sale rack at Williams-Sonoma.  We needed some more masculine cookie cutters around here. :)  Today we finally had enough free time to do the cutting, baking, and decorating.  I'm not the hugest fan of sugar cookies ... they're just kinda boring to me, but it was definitely fun decorating with the kids especially since they are getting old enough to sit and finish the project without jumping up every 10 seconds!

Good Job

Tuesday was Hubby's last day at San Tan Dental ... YIPPEEEEE!!!!!  We are all happier and less-stressed people.  They were nice over there and had a little lunch/going-away party so the kids & I took over some brownies.  Today I was in the mood to bake some more (even though I still had cookies & brownies sitting on my countertops) and we had lots of leftover bread from our Primanti Bro's sandwiches.  I baked TWO 9x13" pans of dark chocolate bread pudding.  We shared one pan with Crossroads Dental and kept the other pan for us to enjoy at home.  There is something so wonderful & heavenly about bread pudding.  Our next-door neighbors in Pittsburgh were from New Orleans, so they made us some bread pudding among lots of other delish food ... I was immediately hooked.  And what can be better than the ultimate comfort-food dessert with lots of very dark chocolate?  I don't know....

Never knew plain ol' bread could taste SO good!

Oh Happy Day!

I can't believe it's been SEVEN years since Penguin became ours.  Someday I'd love to write more about her adoption story and how she came to be mine, but not today cause today I wanted to play. 

Seven years ago today, Hubby & I stood in a Russian court room with high hopes that a little someone would soon call us daddy & mommy.  Penguin is my oldest (a tough spot to have sometimes ... I should know!) and I'll be eternally grateful to her for making me a mom.

I'm kinda glad that Daddy had the day off work today cause we were able to do some things that we might not have done otherwise.  We also decided last minute to have a little dinner party ... we made Primanti Bro's sandwiches with homemade fries & slaw.  I also made a couple batches of Russian Tea Cakes (some of you may call them Mexican Wedding Cakes) to go along with our dinner.  I tried a new recipe this time and although it's a very simple recipe, I think this one had a very nice flavor & texture, so I thought I'd share it with ya. 

Russian Tea Cakes:

(24 small cookies)

Recipe by Maida Heatter with a few of my variations. :)

1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 T confectioners sugar (plus more for sprinkling over the cookies after they have baked)

1/2 t vanilla extract (I don't usually measure my vanilla, but I'm pretty sure I put at least 1 whole teaspoon into my batter ... the more, the merrier!)

1 C sifted all-purpose flour

2 1/2 oz. walnuts, chopped very fine, but not ground

~Adjust the rack 1/3 down from the top of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375* F.

~In a small bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until softened a bit.  Add sugar & vanilla & beat 1-2 minutes.  On the lowest speed add the flour and then the walnuts, beating until the dough holds together.

~Remove from mixer.  Use a scant tablespoon of dough (most of mine were probably more like a heaping tablespoon) for each cookie.  Roll into 1-inch balls.  Place 1 inch apart on unbuttered cookie sheet.  Bake about 15 minutes, reversing position of sheet during baking, until lightly colored.

~With a metal spatula, transfer to a rack to cool.  When completely cool, strain confectioners sugar generously over the tops.  I took some liberties here by dumping a bunch of confectioners sugar in a small bowl and then I just rolled my cookies in the sugar so they were completely coated in sugar.

When I made these, I doubled the recipe.  From the time I started getting out ingredients until I pulled the last sheet out of the oven was about 45 minutes ... not bad if you're looking for a simple & quick dessert idea.

An Adoption Story

Before we adopted Penguin, we had a group of friends from church that we'd hang-out with for Sunday dinner, birthday parties, etc.  It's been fun to watch each of our families change & grow over the past 7 or 8 years.  One friend, who has since moved away, makes all our blogs beautiful ... isn't she so awesome & talented.  In honor of my Penguin's "Gotcha Day" tomorrow, I'd like to share another good friend's adoption story. Just think of her as my guest blogger for the day. :)  Thanks for sharing your story with us!!

from Gods arms, to My arms, to Yours.....

By: http://lovinlifewithmymen.blogspot.com/

LONG POST WARNING!!!

I was asked to write my adoption experence for an adoption newsletter, so I thought I would include it on my blog. (don't feel obliged to keep reading)

Mark and I were married quickly after a long distance courtship. I moved to Arizona after our Scottish wedding.

We wanted to have children right away but after months of disappointment and negative pregnancy tests, we knew something was wrong. We spoke to the doctor who referred us to a specialist. It was then that we discovered that it was going to be imposable for us to conceive naturally. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be pregnant ladies. And every conversation seemed to focus on labour stories and epidurals. I felt so lonely.

We threw ourselves into adoption. I was completely obsessed with getting paperwork done, making profiles, doing fingerprints, EVERYTHING that needed to be done. It was HARD work but my fuel was my desire to be a mother. It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning, and my last thought of the day.

On Aug 6th 2003 We raced to Iowa to meet our birthmother Sandra, We were nervous and excited all rolled into one, we went out for dinner and got to know each other. It was so exciting. The next day, We got the call. He was born! Our son. We raced to the hospital to meet him. We named him Jacob. We fell in love with him instantly. The hospital set us up in a little side room off of the nursery where (for the next 3 days) we stayed with our boy. We fed him, we changed him, we cradled him, we loved him, we sat in the rocking chair and planned our future with our new precious son.

Nothing could have prepared us for the news.... Sandra had changed her mind! She had decided that she did not want him to be placed for adoption. We were devastated beyond belief. We returned home to arizona with an empty car seat and a broken heart.

Three months later, We headed to Utah where we met Ann. We had planned to spend the day getting to know her, but the baby had other plans. She went into labor through the night and we got an early morning call and raced to the hospital. When we got there, she was in labor and invited us in to the room to witness the birth. We were honored. We sat in awe as we watched his amazing birth and then the doctor placed him in my arms. It was the best feeling in the world. We named him Kyle (a family name of the birthmother). I was very worried that history would repeat itself and that she might change her mind. But this was to be our child and we were able to take our boy home to arizona and raise him. Six months later we finalized the adoption, and a week later we were sealed to our son. It was one of the highlights of my life!

A year later we had a successful round of fertility treatments and I was able to carry a pregnancy and delivered a beautiful son we named Brody. Two years later with more fertility help we conceived and delivered our third son Owen. Life with three boys was busy but perfect. Life was full and happy beyond belief.

In February this year we learned of a situation that involved a friend of ours and her sweet sister Tia (from Puerto Rico). She came to stay with her sister here in Arizona to have the baby. Her plan was to place the baby for adoption so she could be sealed to a family. We were not looking to adopt at this time, as Owen was very young and also, we had found the fertility route was working well for us in our desire to grow our family. However I could not get this girl out of my mind. When I saw her at church I felt very drawn to her. One evening I felt very prompted to volunteer ourselves as a potential option Tia could consider. There are so many small details that are too sacred to share.

Very quickly we found ourselves "matched" with the birthmother. There was a special connection there that nobody could deny. The baby was due in about 2 months, We were not home study certified there was soo much to do! We were able to move fast and got through the stacks of paperwork in just one week! LDS adoption said we might have broken the record for the fastest submitted paperwork EVER! We both felt that this child was meant to be part of our family, and we were determined to bring her home.

In April of this year, we were informed that the birthfather was making plans to come to AZ to contest the adoption! We considered the emotional and legal risks and both felt that we wanted to proceed. On April 23rd Tia went into labor and was rushed to the hospital she was given an emergency c-section due to the breech presentation of the baby. Mark and myself waited outside the room until it was time to meet her. I was allowed in first and as I held her in my arms the tears fell from my eyes. She was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen! We named her Ava Grace. We took the baby in the nursery and fed her and cuddled with her. When Mark's dad got there Tia had requested a blessing so we all went in to her recovery room to be there for the blessing. This was potentially an awkward moment for us all, as this was the first time Tia saw the baby. We were all in the room together, but the only thing anyone could feel was complete LOVE and PEACE. It was such a beautiful and special feeling.

I spent the next few days in Tia's hospital room with her. Me Ava and Tia. It was soo comfortable and special to be able to have all this time together. I felt like I needed to be a sponge and soak up as much of Tia as I could, so that I would be able to give it to Ava. Oh I forgot to mention Tia speaks fluent spanish and her english is extremely limited, but this was not a problem for us. We found ourselves communicating without any problems. It is especially interesting as I have a thick scottish accent and people usually struggle to understand me, but this was not a problem for Tia. Infact I found myself translating for her often!

When we left the hospital Mark and I took our new baby home. It was a beautiful day!

That same evening, we got a phonecall from LDS social services, telling us that the birthfather was in town! He had flown in from Puerto Rico. We were stressed and anxious that this baby girl that we loved so much, might not get to stay! The birthfather had 30 days from the time of being served notice to file a petition with the court. We were to wait this out acknowledging the fact that she might be removed from our home, leaving behind a painful hole in our hearts. It was the most intense few weeks of our lives! But on the 31st day after his notice was served, The agency checked the court and there was nothing filed! The adoption could proceed! It was the biggest relief of my life! I was literally dancing about in my living room!!!

We met with Tia where she signed away her parental rights, and we signed our adoption placement papers. We explained to our boys that Tia was agreeing to give the baby to us, and that we were promising that we will always love and care for the baby. (an adoption covenant)

The next day Tia was to fly home to Puerto rico. It was an emotional day for us all. We had gone through this intense few months together, and had felt such an emotional connection to each other. There were many tears and hugs. She flew home that night!

We are currently in the adoption process awaiting finalization. We have our courtdate set and our sealing is scheduled. This is what JOY feels like!

So here we are now, our family. Our special little family. Each of our children came into our family one by one. Each with their own amazing stories. One thing that I have learned throughout this experience is that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of his precious children. He is in charge of where they go. I am grateful that he has trusted me to be the mother of these precious spirits. I love my amazing children and am honored to be their mummy. I love our birthmothers and their courage and strength. They are both hero's to me. We will always be grateful for the amazing sacrifices they made on behalf of these children. My advice to anyone anxiously waiting to be parents is, do your part, then let the Lord do his part. It will happen in His time. Only in His time. Be ready!

It is worth the heartache, the pain, the hard work, the waiting, the disappointments. It is WORTH IT!!!!

(The names of our precious birthmothers have been changed to respect their privacy)

Young Women Manual 2 Lesson 28: Agency

As an attention-getter, I had 3 gifts on the table.  I told the girls that they could each choose a gift but that they had to use & follow-through with the consequences of the gift.  One gift had Windex & a paper towel (to wash the window in our classroom), another gift had a feather duster (could be used to dust the piano, a table or moulding in the room), and the final gift had candy.

For handouts:  At Target, I found 3 packs of seeds for $1 in the bins near the front of the store. I printed out THIS onto green card stock & stapled one to each packet of seeds.

In the June 2010 Ensign/Liahona, there is an article about agency.  You can read it HERE.  I'm not sure about the Liahona, but if you have a copy of the Ensign magazine, there are little pictures that go along with the article. Or HERE is the PDF format with the pictures.

I also brought up a few points during class that were not in the printed lesson .... #1. the term "free" agency.  Agency isn't really "free". Christ had to pay a price for us to have agency and if we sin, then there is a price to be paid for repentance.  #2: We talked about our reactions & agency when someone else uses their agency to make a choice that effects us.

Surgery Day

This morning I got up before the sun cause my baby boy had to have surgery.  Not fun for mom or boy!  I dropped my girls off at my mom's house around 6am and then Turkey & I headed out to Phoenix to the surgery center.  Turkey had a small "mass" on his back, so it wasn't a huge deal, but it's always scary when it's your baby.  We had about 2 hours worth of paperwork, interviews, etc before surgery.  At one point while we were waiting, Turkey kept asking me to fix his back.  I had to keep telling him that I didn't know how & that the Dr. had to do it.  It was kinda sad.  I was the most nervous about the Turkey being put to sleep for the surgery, but the various nurses, the surgeon & the anesthesiologist put my nerves at ease, which I appreciated so much.  After waiting a little while, a nurse came in to take Turkey.  I wrapped Turkey up in his brown blankey & the nurse picked him up & carried him off while Turkey screamed for his mommy. So sad!  After about 30 minutes, the anesthesiologist  came out to talk to me.  The first thing she said to me was, "What a charmer he is!"  She said when she went over to him, we wasn't crying at all and that he had his head wrapped up in his blanket, so she just slipped the gas mask down into his blanket & let him fall asleep with his blankey.  She said this everything was done & that he was just sleeping.  A few minutes later the surgeon came to talk to me.  He verified that everything went very smoothly & that all the nurses wanted to keep my sweet boy.  Another looong 20 minutes passed and someone finally came to get me to go back to my Turkey.  When I saw him in recovery, he was just laying there in his bed watching everything going on around him, but as soon as he saw me, he popped right up.  For the next 20 minutes or so, it was my job to stand by his bed & keep his attention off of all the tubes, IVs, etc. which he tried to remove himself on several occasions. Turkey got to ride with me in the big wheelchair out to the car and we stopped at Sonic for chocolate milk on the way home.

By the time we got back to my mom's house to pick up the girls, Turkey was one angry little guy & we couldn't figure out what he wanted or how to make him happy.  He ran outside and stormed around the yard for a few minutes, but he finally relaxed and stopped crying when he saw "Pete's truck".  He crawled right up onto it and played while my mom snapped a few photos.  30 minutes later he was asking for tacos ....

It's a Boy!

My younger sister called me today to tell me that she just found out that they are going to be having a BOY!  I'm super excited to welcome my first nephew into the world & that my Turkey will have a little buddy.  The full name has already been picked-out, so they are on the ball!  This little guy is due two days after my birthday, one day after Penguin's birthday & two days before Christmas, so it will be fun to see if he shares a birthday with one of us or maybe he'll decide to bake a couple extra days (like Turkey did) and be a Christmas baby.

Photos

One of my friend's sisters, who was also in attendance at the 4th of July Stadium of Fire, took some fun photos.  Go HERE to see her photos. 

Sunday afternoon we had dinner at my sister's house.  Remember her sweet newborn  HERE & HERE?  That little newborn has turned into a chubby little baby!  My Turkey    L-O-V-E-S this baby & wants to give her tight (very tight!) squeezes & hugs every time he sees her.

Lesson Ideas for Young Women Manual 2 Lesson 27: Strengthening Testimony through Obedience

Here are a few lesson ideas for Young Women lesson 27 in manual 2, Strengthening Testimony through Obedience.  This video from Mormon Messages can be downloaded to your computer.

I also like the idea of putting some Oreo cookies in a snack-size bag with a tag that says, "A testimony is the good stuff that holds everything together."

Fruit Salad Trifle

The AC in our house hasn't been working for over 2 weeks now!  It's totally insane.  We've now had 2 different companies just walk off the job.  The kids & I sit around the hot house waiting for the AC guys to come, babysit the workmen while they're here & then spend more precious time cleaning up after them.  They track insulation all over the house, leave lights on, leave their garbage just sitting on the floor, use my bathroom, etc.  After they leave, I vacuum & disinfect everything they've touched! 

There is no way in the world that I'm going to turn on the stove or oven to cook meals ... except a little bit for breakfast cause that's before the house gets too steamy.  So, we've been doing lots of eating-out & invading my parents' house for dinner every night.  Yesterday afternoon we changed things up & ate at my sister's house.  Since I couldn't cook anything, I was in charge of bringing some fruit.  Because we can eat fruit without heating up the house, I actually have a lot of it on hand.  I was in the mood to be a little bit fancy, so I decided to put my fruit in my trifle dish.  Once I got going, I was liking the layers so I decided to stick with keeping the layers rather than stirring up the salad.  I used watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, grapes, cherries, strawberries, and bananas.  Just thought I'd share in case it inspires you to do something fun with your food. :)

Eleven Years Ago Today

Today my hubby & I are celebrating our 11th Wedding Anniversary!!  It's kinda turned-out to be a poopy weekend, but I'm sure we'll make the best of it & plan to do something fun another time.

I certainly wasn't an English major and I can not write beautiful words that accurately describe my feelings, so to celebrate, here are ELEVEN things I love about my hubby:

11. He is such a hard worker.  He works hard days & long hours to provide for all the wants & needs of 4 other people.

10. He's patient with me ... even when I seem to have lost my marbles.

9. He watches chick-flicks with me!

8. He's good to help around the house with cleaning, dishes, giving the kids baths, etc.

7. When my nerves are shot at the end of the day, he takes charge of bedtime routines including brushing teeth, saying prayers with each child, & reading multiple bedtime stories.

6. I can ALWAYS trust him.

5. I can always count on support from him when I want to take a class, run off to another rehearsal, spend all day shopping, or whatever it is that I want to do.

4.  I've never heard him swear ... not even a minor curse.

3. He rubs my feet and puts lotion on them every night ... ahhh.

2. He has given me THREE beautiful children!!

1. He married me in the Mesa, Arizona Temple for time & all eternity & he treats our marriage with the respect it deserves.

Eleven years ago today, I never imagined my life to be what it is today, but it's been a good journey.  I love you, my hubby!

★ Camp Awards ★

I was given the assignment of making awards for the girls who attended camp.  The YW President had already come up with the names of the awards, so I just made certificates.

My awards are 5x7" & they were printed at Costco with a lustre finish.  After finishing the awards, I found all these cute ideas for awards ... including little gifts or candies that go with each award.  Definitely something to keep in mind for next year!  I tried to upload the PSD (photoshop) file onto scribd.com, but it doesn't accept PSD files.  I'm assuming I can emails a PSD file if you'd like to try and dupilcate my awards ... the PSD file should have all the layers so you can go in & change the name & other info that is specific to each girl.

♥ Love ♥

I'm always sucked into songs like this....

4th of July Weekend

Our family made the looong drive up to Utah for the 4th of July weekend.  We all arrived in Utah Friday evening ... my parents & my sister (along with her hubby & baby) also drove up to Utah & another sister, her hubby & bun-in-the-oven came down from Idaho.

Saturday, we spent several hours at Salem Pond relaxing in the soft, green grass, playing on Grandpa's boats & eating food.

{mi familia}

{the paddling phends}

{tomily}

After getting rested-up, we made our way to Provo for the Stadium of Fire.  I hadn't been since 1997 & I had forgotten how great of a show BYU puts on for America's birthday.  We were entertained by violinist Jenny Oaks Baker , the 5 Browns, & of course the Osmond 2nd Generation group.  But the highlight of the night was Carrie Underwood.  So fun!  And the fireworks show can't be beat!

Here's some video from the show ... not my fave songs of the night, but this video is much better quality than most posted in You Tube.

Sunday we took the kids the Temple Square in SLC.  Penguin hadn't been up there since she was a baby & my other two kids had never been, but we didn't take a single photo ... boo. :(    That night we had a big family party for my sister's 25th birthday.

{my grandpa}

{peacock & great-grandpa}

Summer Sale

This past weekend, I spent way too much of my husband's hard earned money at Williams-Sonoma.  That place is a death trap for me!!  Or my husband.   But I found some fun treasures and now I just need an excuse to use some of them!

If you like to do some vegetarian cooking, their awesome  Food Made Fast Vegetarian cookbook is on sale for $3.35!!!  (Marked prices may not reflect what you actually pay)  It's a beautiful book that usually sells for $18.  It's loaded with photos & tips.

Other cookbooks from the Food Made Fast series are also on sale for under $10.  I also picked-up the Asian & Pasta editions for about $6 & $9.  If the Food Made Fast series doesn't strike your fancy, there are a variety of other books on sale as well, including a Martha Stewart Cooking School book ... usually about $45, but you can find it for under $10 if you hurry to your nearest WS store.

Young Women Lesson #26 Manual 2: The Sacrament

Yesterday I taught lesson 26 titled, The Sacrament.  I was really bummed when we finally got into the classroom and I realized we only had about 20 minutes for a lesson cause I had some nice things planned.

I found this booklet on Sugardoodle's website, but I changed it up a little bit.  I made it so it can be printed on regular 8.5x11" paper.  I reduced some of the font sizes as well so it is fewer pages.  I'm glad we had the booklets cause it made it so the girls & other leaders could go home and continue learning about the sacrament.

I used a portion of John Bytheway's talk, The Best Three Hours of the Week: Getting the Most from Your Sunday Meetings.  If you  start listening around 28 minutes & 30 seconds, that is where he talks more specifically about the sacrament.  The entire talk is great, if you have time for the whole thing, but the sacrament portion lasts about 20 minutes.  If you are lucky enough to round-up some Internet access for your lesson, you can watch the video of his talk.  If not, you can download the audio to a laptop and just listen to the talk.  Find the talk HERE.  I highly, highly recommend the talk to everyone!!  It's quite entertaining & Bro. Bytheway brings up so many points & talks about symbolism in a way that I just felt like I could not do as well as he does.  Also, if you listen to the talk, he covers some of the YW lesson.  If you follow the booklet for your lesson, you'll know what you can skip over & what portions of the lesson still need to be covered.

Before I found John Bytheway's talk, I was considering using this video for my lesson.  I liked it enough that I thought I'd share it.  I believe this hymn is mentioned in the lesson.

Young Women Manual 2 Lesson 24: Revelation in Our Daily Lives

A couple weeks ago, I taught lesson #24: Revelation in Our Daily Lives.

I used the following document and cut the scriptures & answers into strips.  Lots of different games or activities can be done with these strips of paper ... like memory, matching game, etc.

Revelation in Our Daily Lives Game : 

(This is my first attempt of sharing a PDF file through www.scribd.com ... please let me know if you run into problems!! I believe you can get a free account & then download this document through their website.)

I also put this video onto my laptop & used it for part of my lesson.

Good Things to Come

A lot has happened & changed for our family in the last couple of days.  It's amazing how everything has fallen into place and not how we would've thought or planned, but it's good & I finally feel at peace.

A week ago, we thought we were going to get kicked-out of our rental house.  A family that we go to church with found out how much our monthly rent is & decided our house was the best deal & that it was best for their family to live in our house.  Even though we went over to there house a couple of times and asked them to not pursue our home, they continued.  Without going into more detail, it all worked-out in our favor and we are staying for the time being.

Hubby has been looking for work for a couple months now.  Nothing has panned out.  We've looked at several employment positions as well as practices that are for sale.  We got pretty serious about a practice in Payson, AZ.  We pretty much found a house we wanted to buy, were qualified for financing through the bank to buy the practice, and this past weekend I think we were able to take a step back and realize that this was a great job, but probably not for us.  We weren't surprised at all yesterday when the broker called us to tell us that the current owner has decided to go with a different buyer ... personally, I felt relieved.  I think if the owner would've chosen us, we would've eventually backed-out of the deal or asked for so many changes in the contract that the owner wouldn't have been happy with us.  And just so we wouldn't be freaking out today about money & work, another opportunity opened up for us this past weekend that we could be OK with.  Hubby was offered a job within the same company, but at a different office ... his favorite office.  The office that's been wanting him & that's he's really wanted to work at pretty much since the beginning. 

I still don't really know what is in store for my family or where we were supposed to end-up.  I still dream of living on the East Coast, but I just don't know if that's in the cards for us.  I don't know if living in the East Valley of the Phoenix area for the rest of our lives is in the cards for us either.  But for now, we are here & things are good.

I've watched this video many times the past few weeks & I wanted to share it with you.  I think we all have things in our lives that we are trying to work through. We can have hope that there is something better in store for us.

Provo Parade

Monday morning we went to the parade in Provo, UT & then enjoyed the food & booths afterwards.  Here are a few highlights courtesy of Hubby ....

{my turkey}

{bro-in-law & my momma}

{kiddies painting with marbles}

{painting penguin}

{my daddy}

Can I just say that the singing Moses really made an impression?  Wish I had a photo ....

Uploading Files

Due to the number of requests for PDF files, I'd like to find an easy, free way to upload my lesson helps, handouts, games, etc for all to use.  That way my readers can have access to them even when I'm out of town & away from my computer, too!  I've used two websites in the past to download docs, but I'm wondering if anyone out there has any strong opinions or insights as to which is better or maybe you can recommend another site that I don't know about.

Option #1: http://www.scribd.com/

Option #2: http://www.4shared.com/

4shared says I can get 10 GB for free, but I don't see that kind of info on scribd's site.  It looks like scribd is linked to Facebook, which may have it's pros & cons ... don't really know.  Any thoughts? Ideas?