Echo Debut

After the kids' choir concert, their teacher Catherine allowed her son and Ch. (the two members of Echo) debut their band. They had really only practiced one afternoon and the friend is only 10, so we thought they did awesome! They had some technical difficulties at first because a child had kicked the amp and it wouldn't work. The song does finally start at about 1:15 on the video. It truly was exciting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqt1aM-d7Y

Our exciting summer event!

Our exciting news comes from Sandy! Ch. has been given the child lead in "Seussical, The Musical" at the Sandy City Amphitheater. He had the part in Seussical, Jr. which is a smaller version of the musical and was a children's production. The Sandy production is mostly adults, and he had to go through a pretty long audition. It's going to occupy our entire summer, but we're all so excited for him! Well, Scot had a hard time with it at first. I started doing a musical (Once On This Island) here in Lehi and was having so much fun dancing. Scot didn't want me to have to quit the show because I was so excited to be a part of it. But.... when you have kids, and they have dreams.... yours come second to theirs. On the positive side Seussical is letting me be in their ensemble since I'm going to be taking him up there all summer. If anyone would like to come, the website is http://www.sandyarts.com/sandy-amphitheater/ticketsseating-chart.html

The performances will be August 14-22. I haven't danced in 20 years, so it should be entertaining just watching me :-)

Also, we went to Snowbird this past week and had a great time. We spent Sunday afternoon at Temple Square and saw so many great things. Everybody needs to take a trip down there and see the International Art Competition at the conference center. It was great! One afternoon we went on a hike, with M. screaming and crying large tears the entire time. That was fun. Afterwards we went to D.I. That really was fun! I love DI. I truly could spend hours there every week. It's a huge yard sale all in one building. What's not to love? To top off that afternoon , we went to Wheeler Farm and milked the cows. It was so nice to go with Scot. He's always working and never gets to go see things with us.

For dinner, we were going to go Indian, but then I saw Sweet Tomatoes and knew the kids would like it. We haven't been in a few years, so Ch. was the only one who remembered it. The kids thought they were in heaven! C. was almost hyperventilating about how delicious the salad was. After dessert, he wanted to go back for more salad!

Our other news is the loss of 2 teeth!

Las Vegas and Los Angeles

At the end of March, we went to Las Vegas with Angie and Dan and their brood of 5. We got some cheap condo bonus weeks and took off for our first big vacation with them. We felt quite privileged to be the recipient of Dan's vacation time, as they spend a lot of it with Angie's family in California. In Vegas, we went hiking to Red Rock Canyon, swam ( I should say the kids swam - It has to be 90 degrees before I'll swim :-) The kids had so much fun. We ate all our dinners together, switched off nights to cook, and even got in a date night for each of us.

We took the four boys to a sports car dealership. We told them that if they "touched" the car at any moment, we were turning and walking out. They salivated a lot , but no touching

Hiking in Red Rock Canyon

About a week before we left for Vegas, Scot was complaining about how many projects he had, and how he needed us to go away for a while. I used to go to my mom's so he could work on the house, but now that's not an option. So I got the crazy idea: Well, we're not too far from California.. Who do I know in California? At first I couldn't think of anyone, but then I remembered a missionary who served in MS when I was 8. I'm sure after 28 years he wants us to crash at his house. Then I remembered Scot had an aunt there - not an aunt he knew very all. But, I am who I am, and I called. "This is JulieAnn, Scot Willey's wife. Do you remember me?" Definitely a close enough relationship to invite yourself over for a week with 4 kids :-) The lady is as crazy as I am --- she accepted my invite to her house.

I was pretty nervous - the thought of driving to and in LA was pretty scary to me. I've been known to have some serious panic attacks while driving. I had a couple of freak-out moments, but over all I did really well. Ch. was my guide - sitting in the front seat navigating for us. He did amazing. One lady at a museum, upon seeing him with the maps, commented that with mapquest now, no one can read maps. End of guilt that we did no homeschooling that day. School fulfilled.

Before I left, I googled "free things to do in LA". I was amazed by all there is to do there on an extremely limited budget. I could have stayed another week (I'm sure the aunt was rooting for that!) and still have had lots to do. We went to La Brea tar pits (with Aunt Shirley - she'd never been), Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (free and amazing!), tide pools, beaches, California Science Center (free and incredible), Farmer's Market, to Carlsbad to see the missionary, stuck one day at home with car problems, Getty Villa (so beautiful and yes, free). We passed through Ethiopan town, Cambodian town, Korean town, and never had time to stop. I'm a sucker for anything ethnic. We took Aunt Shirley out to eat Thai food (she'd never had any). We loved staying with Aunt Shirley. Just so you know, any of you are welcome to make the same phone call to me whenever you'd like. Though Lehi sure isn't a hot destination spot.

Scot got a lot done on the house. He worked on planting the fruit trees, putting in the water purifier he bought 2 years ago, and framing the basement.

La Brea tar pits with Aunt Shirley
Notice some attitude we were dealing with.

Getty Villa (replica of the Villa de Papiri buried by Mt. Vesuvius) Since we did the ancient civilizations this year in history, the Greek and Roman artifacts were somewhat interesting to the kids.

afternoon with Stacey Goodson, served his mission in Miss., many moons ago

Tide Pools, San Pedro

And Our Home Will Never Be the Same...

When Ch. said he wanted drums, Scot assured me that this is a quick phase that all males go through. Wow, he was wrong! Ch. has been saving Christmas, bday, babysitting money for these. He wanted to buy anything he could find, sight unseen. We finally convinced him he could get a better deal on ksl.com. In case you're wondering --- Yes, we bought him ear plugs, and yes it's very loud. What I didn't get were ear plugs for the rest of us. Honestly, the worst thing is not the noise of the drums, but that he can't hear me when I yell for him. I have to walk upstairs to get him -- annoying. If you go to his blog, he taped himself playing with a CD. But he couldn't hear the CD very well so he's a little off sometimes. He hasn't had any instruction yet, so truly I'm really amazed with how well he's doing.

Babysitting

For the four of you read my incredible blog, sorry it's taken me so long to get anything posted! A few weeks, I gladly accepted the opportunity to watch Angie's 2 and 5-year-old for 2 days. You would think after having four children that you're up to the challenge. In the first 10 minutes we were home (none of them had even made it through the door), they found the newly-formed mud created by the melting snow. Of course, each child had only brought one pair of shoes. Luckily, I had other shoes we found for them. S. was so excited to have a friend that she kept climbing on the couches and jumping off the back of them (one of them now has a hole - people just don't design couches for their true purpose - indoor trampoline). Then she proceeded to throw handfuls of dirt from the pitiful house plant that had been sitting there for months without her ever touching the dirt. THEN, M. decides to "borrow" my cell phone and break into two non-functioning pieces. That was all in the first 2 hours. Fortunately, everything improved from this point on, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them here.

Mexican Ham Bean Soup & Oatmeal Molasses Bread

Do you know why I'm not a very good blogger? I hate to type, I don't have a good camera, and I'm not humorous. So I do wonder sometimes why I continue doing this. I've decided it's for me. It's my journal, my recipe box, my reminder of how much I love my kids, my reminder that I accomplished something, made a new recipe, did something that was hard for me (like writing a blog post). So, I press on...Here's one of our favorite winter soups. I make this 4 or 5 times every winter. It's really quite a forgiving soup, so amounts don't need to be exact. You must put the toppings on; they make the soup. Also, the bread is so good with this. You really should eat them at the same time!

Mexican Ham Bean Soup (adapted from CL)

Ingredients
2 cans pinto beans (or 4-5 cups cooked from dried beans)
8 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 ½ c. chopped carrots (around ½ inch slices)
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups cubed smoked ham steak (I always use leftover ham, great with the bone)
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
1 T ground cumin
1 T. dried oregano
3 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 t. chopped chipotle chile in adobo sauce (Use more or less to suit your taste, but don’t leave it out!!)
Toppings
shredded Manchego cheese or Monterey Jack cheese
minced fresh cilantro
sour cream
Preparation
Cook onions, celery, and carrots in a Dutch oven size pot over medium heat for about five minutes. Add garlic for a minute .Combine the rest of the soup ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 1-1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.
Discard bay leaves. Ladle soup into 8 bowls. Top with cheese; sprinkle with cilantro.

Oatmeal Molasses Bread (adapted from CL)

2 loaves (12 servings per loaf) (serving size: 1 slice)
Ingredients
2 cups fat-free buttermilk
1/2 cup regular oats
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
around 4 cups whole wheat flour (I've also subbed a little for wheat germ and liked it)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raisins (if you don't like raisins you'll be missing the best part of this bread)
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. (Ileft this part in , but you all know I just throw it all in with the liquids :-)
Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist; stir in raisins. Stir until dough pulls together in a shaggy mass. Let rest 2 minutes.
(The recipe says to knead this. Impossible. If you put enough flour in to knead this bread, it's too dry.) Mix a couple of times more and drop half of dough into a 6-inch round loaf on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Repeat procedure with remaining dough. Make 3 diagonal cuts 1/4-inch deep across top of each loaf using a sharp knife.
Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375° (do not remove loaves from oven); bake an additional 15 minutes or until bottom of each loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing. Don't overcook!!!

Thumb Sucking Saga

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All but one of my children have been/are thumb suckers. I sucked mine till I was eight. I shouldn't complain. We got M. some Thumb guards that she has to wear 24/7. Of course, she keeps pulling her thumb out and sucking it at night. This is going to be a long process. We called the company, and they recommended taping her thumb so she couldn't bend it and pull it out--tried that, didn't work. Any ideas, anyone?