Pinewood Derby

Noah participated in his last Pinewood Derby last night. Jacob was so jealous and cannot wait until he is a Scout! Noah came up with this Arrow of Light idea for his car. He is working towards earning his Arrow of Light award soon. His car won 2nd place in the race but was the coolest-looking car there! All the boys earned a box of Whoppers for running a "whopper" of a race and then we ate derby car wheels (Oreos) for the snack. We love Cub Scouts!

Preparedness Group

Our ward has a Preparedness HFPE group and we talk about things like 72-hour kits and gardening each month. Lately the craze has been canning meat. Meat! I've done it before and it is way easy, except for the part where you worry if the pressure canner will explode and mortally wound you. You just pop in the raw meat (hamburger, chicken, ground turkey, pork, venison, whatever) and some water and salt and process the cans. Given, the end result looks like the jars in a science lab or something gross like that. But the meat is really tender and it is SO easy to just grab a jar when you forgot to thaw meat or you are feeling really lazy about making dinner. Or just leave it on the shelf for food storage. Ta da!

Veggies and Fruits

Last year Isaac and I went with the Family Fun Van to the Arizona Museum for Youth. They had a collage project for the kids but we got there just as they were finishing up. We were told to take what we wanted and we could do it at home. I spied these fabulous old-fashioned-looking fruits and vegetables papers and snagged them for a future purpose. Well, I found that purpose! Our card swap theme this month was "miscellaneous" so I pulled out the paper and started making the cards. Then I saw a Martha Stewart quilled project and thought, "My mom used to do that when I was little." Now I am nowhere near as talented as my mother, but these weren't hard! The tomato, peach, and pumpkin were just super easy and the pear and carrot took a little more imagination. The grapes made me crazy! Ah, but I'm done and I swapped for some way cute cards today, too.

Jacob-0, Trampoline-2

So, Jacob is 0 for 2 in the trampoline battles. First, he broke his nose while jumping on the trampoline in the sprinklers with Noah. Yesterday, he was trying to get off the trampoline and Noah pulled him back on. He tried to hang on to the net and it tore a big gash in his right ring finger. Hmmm...could it be Noah had something to do with both incidents? Hmmm... Anyway, a trip to the urgent care for five stitches and now he thinks it looks cool, like Gollum from Lord of the Rings bit him. Oh yeah.

Heavenly Coconut Layer Cake

I saw this in a Wal-Mart magazine, of all places, and it looked so pretty that I wanted to make it in January some time to remind me what snow looked like. (grin) I made it for book club last night and it was divinely decadent. And so super easy to make (as long as you remember to start it TWO DAYS before you'll need it!) I know some of you may not be coconut fans, but you should be!

Heavenly Coconut Layer Cake

1 (16 oz.) container sour cream
1 (14 oz.) bag sweetened flaked coconut
2 cups sugar
1 pkg. white cake mix
1 8 oz. container Cool Whip, thawed

1. Combine sour cream, coconut and sugar in large bowl; stir to mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions in 2 (9 inch) cake pans; let cool completely. Split each cake layer in half horizontally using serrated knife. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread with about 1 cup of coconut mixture. Repeat layering with 2 more cups of the coconut mixture and remaining 3 cake layers.

3. Add Cool Whip to remaining 1 cup of coconut mixture; stir to mix well. Spread over top and sides of cake. Cover and refrigerate cake overnight. Store cake in refrigerator.

Under Construction: My Eternal Family

On January 3rd we had our annual Primary "Meet the Teacher" breakfast. The theme this year is building eternal families so we dressed up with tool belts and hardhats and decorated with caution tape, Tonka dumptrucks, and other construction-related items. It turned out so so cute! At each table we put blocks, legos, tinker-toys, puzzles and lincoln logs so they could build something while they waited for everyone to finish eating their pancakes, eggs and bacon. We then separated into classes so they could find their new classroom and get to know their new teacher. At the end we gathered back together and learned the new primary song about the children being builders of their eternal families. It was a perfect morning!

Happy New Year!

We had a quiet stay-at-home evening last night. We ate our traditional fondue dinner and a shrimp ring, chips and guacamole, and Martinelli's. Movies were next: Chronicles of Narnia (Prince Caspian) and Young @ Heart (a documentary about a chorus whose average age is 83 and who sing James Brown and Coldplay songs...so cute!). Jacob was the first one who drifted off, but we woke him up for fireworks at midnight. Isaac almost made it to the new year (11:40) and was out cold for all the celebrating. This picture is Noah spraying silly string. I went to take a picture of him and he turned and sprayed right at me and the camera. Really turned out to be an awesome picture, though! Happy New Year!