Staining the deck

The owners before us PAINTED the deck - probably for a 'quick' sale, eh?

So, we finally got around to pressure washing, then sanding it:

And we stained it - ahhhhh, so much nicer:

I asked the boys to pressure wash some of it and Brady (proudly) spelled his name out with the pressure washer. Yeah, it's still visible, even after we sanded and stained it - I couldn't get it to show up in a photo, but it's just funny how parents just can't think of everything to tell their kids NOT to do while doing a task. I guess it's good to look at the positive because I only thought to cover how to avoid the dangerous scenarios! And we didn't have any of those - hehe

Coconut Cream Pie

I made up a recipe for coconut cream pie =) Sorry - you'll have to make 2 pies . . . because it's tough to cut in half! I was thinking you could freeze half of it before you start cooking it and that would probably work great.

1 can coconut milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

-Pour all the milk into a big liquid measuring cup

then add enough cream cheese to make it 6 cups

-Add the above ingredients to your mixing bowl and mix together until blended.

6 egg yolks

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 tsp kosher salt

-Add the yolks and mix in for 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, corn starch and salt and stir well. Add it to the mixture and beat for about 2 minutes more. Transfer to a cooking pot and add 4 Tbsp butter. Cook together until thickened and bubbly - maybe 10 minutes or so.

-Remove from heat and add:

2 tsp vanilla

-Pour into baked crusts and add toasted coconut.

1 pkg coconut, toasted

Makes 2 pies or 48 mini ones . . . or 1 pie and 24 mini ones ;)

Beehives

Our ward split and we're the Big Rock Ward now. We had church for 1 hour the first week, stake conference the second week and for 2 hours the third week as it's being organized - a lot of callings have to be made! I am the advisor for the Beehives, this will be my 3rd year with a lot of the same girls as I was their primary teacher for 2 years previously. When the 2nd counselor and myself went to welcome the girls we had a little something to give them:

It has the 2009 youth theme on it and then the 3 things the Bishop talked about today as a combined YW/YM group: Strengthen each other, Get to know each other & Love each other. One of the dads of the YW we visited came down while we were talking with his daughter and when we were leaving, he was like 'where are the treats?' - he totally thought we were bringing goodies and he wanted some - LoL Both the counselor and myself are known for bringing food! The really nice thing about our new bishop is he is all about food for the kids - that is rare these days =) Our Bishop wants us to 1) have fun 2) love the kids & 3) teach the gospel - in that order! We are all really excited and thrilled to be part of such a neat ward!!

I just got a letter

that catchy tune from Blue's Clues was in my mind when I got a letter from Nat:

Nat made me a bracelet from embroidery floss:

Uncle Jonathan tied it on and in one day I lost it - it wasn't my fault! Thanks for being precious Nat! Love you =)

Hollandaise Sauce

I threw some ingredients together as a hollandaise sauce and it turned out yum!

2 eggs

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 whole bulb roasted garlic, chopped

In a blender, blend eggs, lemon juice, mustard, salt and butter together until creamed.  Add mayo, sour cream and cream cheese and blend again until mixed.  Stir in Parmesan cheese and chopped up garlic, bake for 30 minutes on 200 degrees while you make the rest of your dinner.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups:

It did turn out looking like a souffle - you can certainly not bake it as long. . . but it worked great as a dip for our artichokes - I just stirred it around.  Great served warm.

Adult Baptismal Gift

My good friend Ann Marie husband's getting baptized today! So awesome and neat for their family =) I made this for him:

It's a chocolate flower bouquet. It says Baptism, my first covenant at the top. On the chocolate nuggets that are glued to a skewer and poked into craft foam,

there are 5 that say At my baptism, I promise to:

-Come into the fold of God

-Stand as a witness of God at all times

-Take upon me the name of Christ

-Serve others and keep his commandments

-Bear one another's burdens

and 3 that say Because I was baptized, Heavenly Father promises to:

-Pour his spirit more abundantly upon me

-Forgive my sins

-Give me Eternal Life

The flowers have a different piece/size of chocolate in between 2 punched flowers.

I'm so excited for their beautiful family and I that I can share in their special day!! Love you guys =)

If I only had a heart!

I had to dress up like the Tin Man for our YCL Kickoff, so I made some earrings out of heart marshmallows:

Jonathan made me the oil can with a cabinet pull and an actual empty oil can that he painted silver and I painted a funnel silver (which stayed on with 2 bobby pins) and modernized (made it girly!) with some ribbon:

I made heart ice cubes with frozen concentrated red ruby juice, I only added 2 cans of water to keep the flavor strong when it melted into the sprite:

I made a mailbox that held chocolate nuggets 'if I only had a heart':

here are the nuggets up close:

Maybe I'll bring my funnel hat to Girl's Camp with me - I rather like it still!