High Adventure

More Homecoming Pics

For an October day in Seattle, it sure was NICE weather =)

Ben & Kelsey, Olivia & Keaton:

Where is Brady's date AND Clara's date? hehe

Cute!
Handsome!
Ahh, there's Clara's date Dallin:
Keaton & Olivia
Olivia's dad has a few pics but hasn't sent them to me yet - so there will be a few more coming.

Homecoming Pictures

All the girl's corsages:

Danee & Brady (don't forget to notice her corsage I made):

And without the head tilts ;)

I guess they were supposed to do a silly pose - this is Danee picking Brady's nose:

Olivia & Keaton (and I made Olivia's corsage too):

Here's Eli & Nellie and Danee & Brady - they were picked up at the same house:

The guys - Cody was a Homecoming Prince - but they all look sharp! Looks like the front row was posing and the back row was being goofy:

And they still can't be serious - Brady noticed he was the only one not wearing black:

Closer to being serious . . . but not quite:

The girls - Clara was a Homecoming Princess, but they all look radiant:

They did a progressive dinner - started out with an appetizer and pictures at Dallin's house, came to our house for dinner and then to Nick's for dessert. Some of the group went to the dance and some of the group went to a fun center. Then they met back up for a movie at Dallin's and called it a night around 2 am. Everyone said they had a blast!

A really great group of LDS kids:

Everyone was dressed so modestly - it was so refreshing compared to the standard!

Brady guitar with Susan singing

For our VT appreciation dinner, Brady played the guitar while Susan sang - her voice is the most amazing ever!

Susan calls this song cheesy, but she makes it modern as well as outstanding!

How do YOU ask someone to Homecoming?

This is how Keaton asked Olivia:

Drew this up in 1st period since they both have that class together - nice ribbon too - good thing the teacher had some ;) He cut the ribbon in half so it would fit through the holes.

The picture he drew is the cutest though:

Olivia made up this hand gesture that she calls the love gun and Keaton is posing with her trademark and pointing it at her. So funny and cute all at the same time =)

Brady did something cool too - he wrote a note asking Danee to Homecoming and rolled it up and put it in his remote control helicopter. He flew it into the gym where she was at - everyone loved it especially her!

Brady just might earn his Eagle Scout

This was Brady's last requirement for his Star Rank - choose a project and have his family help:

He planted some plants from our old house to the new house - Keaton was very enthused to help ;)
So, yeah, Grandma really directed:
As well as did the work:
And Brady got credit ;)
LoL Thanks Grandma =)

Corsages

I don't know how much corsages cost these days, but for $2 I bought a wrist band found in the wedding section:

And minimal tulle, ribbon and beads cost $1.50 for both corsages. The flowers were in the Christmas aisle and had sparkles and glitter on them - perfect - and cost $1.20 each because I only used 1/4 of each stem.

Pink is the color Brady gets to wear and so I made this for Danee:

Keaton is wearing silver, but there's also purple in Olivia's dress:

Lesson learned from shopping with the boys at a craft store: don't buy 'other' supplies while trying to convince boys that a silk corsage will look just as elegant as real flowers. I purchased colored pipe cleaners and they told me 'that's not going to look good mom'!

They were worried, but now they're not ;) I should twist a pipe cleaner in the corsage just to tease them ;)

Pumpkin Pie

Here's my pumpkin pie recipe:

Makes 1 9-inch pie or 26-28 mini ones.

I added in 1/2 of a caramel for the mini crusts - I think I'd do a whole one next time.

Combine:

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground clove

1 tsp ground nutmeg

In a mixer with above ingredients, mix in 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree until well blended.

Add 3 eggs, mix well

Add 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk, mix well

Pour pie filling into pie shell(s) over the caramel and then top it with turbinado sugar before baking for 10 minutes on 425 degrees, turn heat down to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes. Bake mini crust for only 20 minutes more.

I whipped 1 1/2 cups whipping cream with 1/2 cup powdered sugar for 5 minutes or so and then removed all of it into a separate bowl. Then I added 4 oz mascarpone cheese with 1/2 vanilla bean scraped and whipped it together until the cheese was smooth in the bowl that used to have the whipping cream mixture in it. Then I added the whipped cream back into the bowl and mixed together. Ummmm, yum!

If the pie is still hot, don't add the cream to it - I just did this for a picture:I put a dollop of cream, more turbinado sugar and also added a caramel apple candy corn on top for funness =)

Talent Show at CHS

Brady with Nick singing and Jordan on the drums:

Rhythm of Love

Brady Senior Pics

Whitney took Brady's Senior Pics downtown Duvall and did a fabulous job at an awesome rate!

This is Brady's personality that showed most in any photos:

so, it's my fav!

Star Wars will never go out of style

Stole this photo from Paul's facebook - can't stand how precious the boys seem when they were little - hehe

Happiest of grins because they got to have 'weapons' with their costumes! BOYS ;) LoL

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Emily brought these yummy muffins to a RS potluck and shared the recipe - YUM!

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup rice flour and 1 cup all purpose)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar (recipe calls for white)

1/2 cup butter (recipe calls for unsalted)

2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest (recipe calls for 1)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 egg

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (recipe calls for 1)

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/3 cup thinly sliced almonds (which are now sold at my Costco - yea!)

Line 12 muffin cups with liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the flour, powder, soda and salt until combined. Beat sugar and butter together until fluffy, add zest and ricotta and mix well. Beat in the egg, juice and extract and then stir in dry ingredients. I will add in poppy seeds next time I make these!

Fill liners evenly - I sprinkled the tops of my muffins with turbinado sugar and then the almond slices - nice crunch to it! Bake 20 minutes.

Mummy Buddy

Keaton & Jordan are in most of this video written and filmed by their friend Andrew. Brady &

Chester are at the end of it.

VT Message October 2010

We moved and that was a huge task, but I miss blogging, so I think I'm back!

Here's a handout for the VT message for October on temples:

October 2010 Ensign found here.

Youth theme 2011

Here's my first attempt at the new LDS youth theme for 2011:

It's based on the 13th Article of Faith. I'll probably play around more with it later.

Want the poster - it's found here.

Fall ball

Brady's playing a few weeks of Fall basketball:

He really loves playing!

VT Conference Tags

One of the sisters on our committee is knitting 2 little circular kitchen scrubbies for each sister for our VT appreciation dinner and I designed these tags to go with them:

I'll hole punch the tags at the top between the words. After I see the final product, I'll take a photo and post here later.

VT Conference handout

I used this layout for our VT appreciation dinner:

Our theme is based on the song 'A circle of a woman's reach' by Deborah Fechser Hamilton.

Red Velvet Cupcake & Frosting

I altered a cake recipe for Red Velvet:1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Combine all the above dry ingredients well.

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream (or buttermilk or evaporated milk)

1 egg

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 oz - 3/4 oz red food coloring

Start beating the egg, mayo and oil in a mixer while chocolate chips and cream is melting in the microwave (takes about 1 1/2 minutes) and then add the chocolate/cream to the mix. Beat until blended and then add in the vanilla and red food dye. Add the dry ingredients and mix together for 3 minutes.

Makes 18 cupcakes - bake 350 degrees for 17 minutes.

And the frosting is my own:

1/4 cup butter

3 oz cream cheese

4 oz mascarpone cheese

1 vanilla bean - scrap out the insides

3 cups + powdered sugar (depends on the consistency you're going for)

Beat until blended and then frost when cake is cooled.

VT Message September 2010

This picture came from Jeani, so precious:

September VT message.