Dinner last night:
Alicia: Connor, you have something on your neck. Did you paint at school today?
Connor: Yep, we used the Church colors. Red, blue….
Alicia: You mean primary colors?
Connor: Yeah! That’s it!
I have seen this in print many times. I just never thought it would happen around my kitchen table.
I love FHE! Okay, when we actually have FHE, I love it. Here is the conversation:
Connor: Haden, you don’t bless the treats!
Dad: But Connor, we need bless the treats.
Connor: But that would make them healthy! (With his impish grin)
I guess treats are inherently UN-healthy. Oh well, at least I am training them young.
With the Annual Relief Society Broadcast my sisters and I usually descend down on my Mom’s Stake Center for the dinner and broadcast. It is actually something that I look forward to every year. We LOVE to EAT and visit. Oh yeah, and we look forward to seeing who the music chorister is every year…VERY entertaining. It provides a lot of giggles.
This year we kind of broke the mold. Mom had tickets to the BYU game and was annoyed that it was at the same time as the broadcast, so she took my Dad for a date night, and the rest of us decided to do a sister’s night and watch the game at my house. Okay, so not very spiritual, but we end up talking and giggling so much through Relief Society I am not feeling too guilty about it.
We had our total ESP moment and got tons of Chinese food, gorged ourselves, and then settled down to enjoy the game. The most entertaining part was getting Garrick to start screaming every time we cheered. (He definitely does not like loud noises).
Unfortunately, I forgot to pull out my camera the whole night, so this was the most recent picture I could find of my sisters. So please just ignore the 2 boys stuck in there, we do. Thanks for a great nights girls!!
So I am rolling all over the floor over this new blog. Read about Cake Wreks on Pioneer Woman and thought it was an interesting idea. I was completely won over when I saw this picture for her Labor Day post:
I think the book would be a hoot!
So this may seem dumb to most people, but I was super excited to get the Macey’s ad this week. And this is why:
I have run out of my year’s supply of Sweetened Condensed Milk, which is a staple at my home. I have been looking to re-stock and the prices were making me sick. I ended up paying almost 1.50, simply because I needed to make my Almond Toffee bars for a party. So I was very happy to head off to Macey’s today to re-stock my shelves.
Onto one of the loves of my life: Almond Toffee bars! We have them probably once a month (between me and my mom making them). So I have decided to share the recipe (I told my Aunt Lisa I would eventually get around to posting it - sorry about the delay!) anyway, so here it is:
Almond Toffee Bars
| 1/2 c. butter or margarine | 1 c. almond toffee pieces |
| 1 1/2 c. quick cooking rolled oats | 1 c. almonds, sliced or chopped |
| 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs | 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk |
| 1 (6oz) c. semi-sweet chocolate chips |
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter in 9x13 baking pan in the oven (while preheating). Remove pan from oven. Sprinkle oats and crumbs evenly over melted butter; press lightly onto bottom of pan using the back of a large metal spoon. Sprinkle chocolate pieces, toffee pieces, and almonds evenly over the crumb mixture. Drizzle all with sweetened condensed milk.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until edges are bubbly and center is just lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately run a narrow metal spatula or table knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cookie. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars or squares.
Yum, Yum!! Way easy to make and everyone loves them. Anyway, I always have the stuff on hand just so I can whip out a batch whenever I need them…for me or anyone else!
Connor lost his 2nd tooth this past week. Lovely! He actually got impatient with this one and allowed Dan to just pull it out. This time around seemed so much faster.
My question is this: are you considered a bad mom if you stop noticing when your children lose teeth? It is all new and exciting right now, but I totally could see myself not really caring in a couple of years. I remember as a child when we stopped waiting for the tooth fairy. We would just show the teeth to Mom and she would just pay us right then. Right now, I’m thinking she had the right idea. Poor Garrick. What kind of Mom is he going to have to live with?
Since the 1st I hit my annual “survival mode” and have been trying to work my way out of it. Stupid me, teaching a private class for work a couple days a week in addition to the night class and trying to get control of all of my produce. So, here I am finished with my teaching (in more ways than one…oh wait, that is for another post) and almost finished with my produce. My final tally:
| Amount | Produce |
| 3 batches | Stewed tomatoes |
| 2 bathces | Spaghetti sauce |
| 2 batches | Sliced peaches |
| 10 | Frozen Peach Pies |
| 6 bags | Shredded zucchini |
| 4 bags | Chopped Green Pepper |
| 4 loaves | Chocolate Zucchini Bread |
| Still to Do | |
| 1 batch | Peach Jam |
| 1 batch | Sliced peaches |
Ahhhh, it’s great to have a chance to sit and relax. Oh, and here is a sneak peek at what we did this weekend…..
Wahooooooooooo! Still a few more items to get and then I’ll post more pictures!
We celebrated my Grandpa Hawkins’ 80th birthday this past Sunday and it was fun to see him surrounded by most of his posterity. Aunt Nancy and her family came up from Nevada and we had a big birthday dinner at Aunt Lisa’s. It was fun being with all of the cousins, even though we really missed Seth & Debra. Oh and Heather, since she decided California would be more interesting than family this weekend :).
A few fun facts about my Grandfather.
Grandpa was born on Black Friday (what a way to start your life) and raised in Provo, graduating Valedictorian from Provo High. He received his undergraduate at BYU in organic chemistry, graduating as the Valedictorian of his class, and attended University of Illinois for his doctorate in the same field. A surprise for most people is that he did a doctorate minor in music and still tries to work his clarinet from time to time.
He was a professor at BYU for his entire career, except for his sabbaticals when he worked for Phillips 66 and Du Pont. In his younger days he worked with developing jet fuel, and worked with chemical weapons in the army during the Korean War.
Grandpa met Grandma while working for Phillips in Oklahoma and in 1955, when he was drafted and sent to Fort Ord, in Denver, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. He is the father of 3 children, Vance, Alice, & Nancy, the Grandfather of 13 and the Great-Grandfather of 4.
His passions are airplanes, music, BYU Football – Go Cougs!- and maintaining his family journal. There are so many fun stories that I could share of Grandpa’s early days, that would surprise people that know him, but there isn’t the time. I guess I should make sure that they are written somewhere.
The Hawkins Family. Grandpa is the youngest of the 3 boys. Left to right: Carl, Richard, Barbara, & Keith.
Anyway, the more I learn about him the more I am amazed. What a life to live! Here’s to 80 years!
Anyone who knows Connor knows how much he likes to climb. So a look through the years.
May 2006 (2 yrs old)
November 2007 (3 yrs old)
May 2008 (4 yrs old)
September 2009 (5 yrs old)
Again I ask myself….How do I keep up??
Wow! When did September show up on my doorstep? Well, as a parting shot to August:
There is just something magical about eating a snow cone on a hot day in August.
That is until you take that first bite and remember that you can’t stand snow cones!
Thanks to Dan’s work for an awesome family BBQ! I didn’t have worry about my kids eating dinner after all the other goodies they provided; I just had to survive the sugar rush that followed!
