Spring Fever

This year the groundhog reportedly missed his shadow which means that spring is right around the corner. We have had a small taste of spring the last two days, warm and breezy. Yesterday we spend a lot of time playing outside. I put warm-weather clothes on the kids and we went to the park. I was so glad to put Tristan's clothes on because I have quite a few 12-months short sets that I thought he was going to grow out of before he even got to wear them. Luckily both sets I tried have fit just right. The kids looked cute and were excited to get out and breathe some fresh air.

In other news, we continue to show our house but no takers yet. It has been very difficult, with two kids, to keep the house looking nice at all times. Sure hope someone puts in an offer soon!

Tonight we look forward to the arrival of Grandma Mary. She is coming to help with the kids while I clean the house. We intended on having her here before we put our house on the market but we ended up listing it sooner than we originally thought.

Here are some more pictures I downloaded tonight. The infamous step stool. Tristan drinking from a flower vase--he is his father's son. Whenever we go to Beaver Chris finds my mom's vase that looks like a big drinking glass and uses that for his water.

My Kids

I have not been in the mood to blog lately but today I wanted to write a few things about the cute things my kids are doing right now.

KENNEDY (aka Genevieve)
Kennedy has been through a mix of names lately. She keeps telling me her name is NOT Kennedy anymore it's Genevieve. Last week she was Rapunzel. She is really into princesses lately and I don't know where it's coming from. We took her to Blockbuster a few weeks ago to rent a movie and Chris wanted to get the latest Disney movie but Kennedy insisted on one of the Barbie Princess movies. That was our first indication that she liked princesses. She also informs us that she is not a girl but a princess. Of course, we have always thought that!
Sunday we arrived at church a little late. Chris was already there and had saved us a seat but when I walked in with the kids I couldn't see him so I sat in the back. After the sacrament Chris joined us. Kennedy always likes to test her limits. When the meeting was almost over Kennedy started inching her way to the front of the chapel. Next thing we knew she was almost to the front! She had such a mischievous look on her little face. Chris had to walk up and grab her. Luckily she behaves in primary. We always receive accolades about her behavior and participation in primary.
Last night as I was getting Tristan ready for bed Kennedy was in her room reading. After I put Tristan down I stood outside Kennedy's room to listen to her. She was reading out loud from her scripture reader. She knows a lot of the stories by heart and can tell them better than I can. When she saw that I was there she looked up at me and said, "She found it! She found the coin. She lost it, remember?" I looked down at her book and she was looking at the Parable of the Lost Coin. It amazes me how interested she is in Heavenly Father and Jesus. She asks us to "tell a story about Jesus" all the time. What a sweet girl.

Tristan
Tristan is turning into quite the porker. He consistently eats more than Kennedy. I guess that's to be expected since he is growing much faster than Kennedy. On Saturday we went to the church for a Primary Breakfast. They served French toast, muffins (the great big kind), fruit, sausage and drinks. Kennedy had one piece of toast, a few strawberries and about two bites of a muffin. Tristan ate at least two pieces of toast, a whole muffin, half a banana and the scraps from our plates. He gets so excited when he sees food.
Lately Tristan has been playing this little trick on me. He will crawl over to me so innocently. I will lean down to pick him up or kiss him and then he will grab onto my hair and give it a yank! He thinks it's so funny when I respond to that. He laughs and laughs.
When Tristan was born his hair stood straight up. Kennedy would often reach over and pull it. Now she is getting her just desserts. Tristan loves to touch her hair and he will sometimes pull it. I haven't reminded her that she used to do that to him for fear that she will start pulling his hair again.

What a blessing it is to have these two children in my life. I'm so lucky!

More Recipes

I'm not sure how many people see my recipes and try them but I have most of them typed up anyway and I figure I might as well put them out there. I love finding a good recipe and I find that I have a few sources I can trust, some are cookbooks and magazines and some are people I know. Here are a few that we use a lot. The bar recipe is one that we have used in my family for a long time and there are a few variations on it but I really like this one.

Supreme Beef Casserole
From Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook
1 pound ground beef
1 16-oz can tomatoes
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 garlic buds, crushed (or garlic salt)
1 5-oz pkg egg noodles
1 3-oz pkg cream cheese
1 8- oz container sour cream
6 green onions, chopped
1 cup grated cheese
Brown and crumble beef in frying pan. Break up tomatoes and add to beef with tomato sauce, salt, sugar and garlic. Simmer 20-25 minutes. Cook noodles and drain. Mix noodles with sour cream, cream cheese and chopped onions (it’s easier to have the cream cheese and sour cream already mixed up before adding the noodles). Grease a 3-quart casserole dish. Put a small amount of meat sauce, layer of noodles, and grated cheese. Repeat and top with meat sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. May be frozen and reheated to serve. Serves 6-8.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars (aka Fudge Jumbles)
1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup margarine
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13x2-inch baking pan. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl cream margarine and brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla. In a small bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture. Mix in oats. In heavy saucepan mix sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and margarine and heat until just melted. Stir in vanilla and nuts, if desired.
Spread two-thirds of the dough into prepared baking pan. Spread with chocolate mixture. Drop remaining one-third of the dough on top by spoonfuls (I find it easier to kind of flatten the blobs with my palms so they cover more area). Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, then cut into bars.