Enjoyable

This is for Dad......

Snail Rolls Rule

I tried the recipe for crescent rolls last night. They are pretty good. I mixed them up before leaving for seminary at 4:00 and returned to punch them down at 6:30 after a "come back to church/visiting teaching" visit. I rolled half of the dough out (we were supposed to go to a lesson with the elders at 8:00) and popped them into my tiny oven (very small cookie sheet) at 7:40 and pulled them out at 8:00 just as the elders called to cancel. So.........I prepared the other half and baked them for 15 min, which was still a little too long. Remember Dad likes them dark! (the recipe didn't say how long to cook them).
Evaluation: Snail rolls are better, but for quick rolls, these work (the eggs do make a difference). I will do them again. (Dad says they are great!)

Rolls

I am going to give it a try. It is missing the eggs. I wonder if it will taste as good. Mine bombed so bad at Thanksgiving that I haven't tired again. Let me know how yours turn out.

Snail Rolls?

I copied this from a blog. It is very similar to ours, but without the overnight. I will try it!

Crescent Roll Recipe
I have the yummiest recipe ever and since it uses food storage items, I thought I would share it here:

1 1/2 c. scalded milk
1 cube butter (I use frozen butter if I have it)
2 pkg dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp salt
4-6 c. of flour

In small saucepan, scald milk. You know it is scalded when it starts to get frothy around the edges, but is not yet boiling. Remove from heat. Add butter. Set aside. In mixer (kitchenaid or bosch) mix yeast, warm water and 1 tsp sugar. Set aside to proof. Once milk mixture is lukewarm, add remaining sugar and salt. Pour milk mixture into the yeast mixture. Add flour gradually while mixing. Once dough is pulling away from the sides of the mixer, cover with towel and set aside to rise. Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Divide it into halves. Roll each section into a circle, cut into triangles using a pizza cutter. Roll and place on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise again (half hour to hour). Bake @ 375 until lightly browned on top. Yummy!

Excerpts from the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon

Chapter One
1. And it came to pass that Heber, son of Bradley, did have a wicked virus, which did cause him to awake in the night many times, so many they could not be numbered. By and by his mother, having felt the pains of exhaustion, placed him in his swing instead of his crib.
2. And, lo, because of the angle at which his sinuses rested, he did sleep the night through. And the heavens opened with shouts of hallelujah because verily, his mother did also sleep the night through.

Chapter Two
1. And the days were accomplished that Ezra, son of Bradley, should be enrolled in kindergarten.
2. It was needful that his mother should obtain a birth certificate for the enlightenment of those that preside over the registration.
3. (For, behold, she was a slacker mother, and had procrastinated the day of her obtaining birth certificates, yea verily even after having much posterity.)
4. And it came to pass that the wife of Bradley, and his sons and his daughter, traveled many miles to the Health Department, and by trading their gold and fine linens (or rather, their debit card), they did obtain the certificates.

Chapter Three
1. And it came to pass that they arrived at the school, a bountiful and large building.
2. And the wife of Bradley, and his sons and his daughter, did journey through the school, Bradley's wife having chosen to park on the wrong side of the building.
3. And the journeying was long and difficult, yea verily, because of the many strange and wonderful things to be seen and touched along the way.
4. And because of the slowness of Gideon, son of Bradley, who is quick to anger if his walker is touched.
5. (But great is the gratitude of Bradley and his wife, for the mobility of their son.)
6. And behold, the wife of Bradley obtaineth and completeth a great many forms, yea, even unto her hand cramping.
7. And it came to pass that Ezra, son of Bradley, was registered for school. And they went away rejoicing, for they also obtaineth books from the school book fair.

John is wiser too

Happy Birthday John!

One year older and wiser too-Happy Birthday to YOU!

An intersection in Las Vegas...

Dissent is the new patriotism

(If the title of this post is bothering you, don't fret. I'm just kidding.)

So on Friday I dressed my four kids in layers (many, many layers), packed them, coats, blankets, stroller, walker, and camera into the car, and trekked up to the state Capitol building in SLC for a protest, dude.

(What was I protesting? Well, the stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill, the mortgage bailout...I think that's all. I won't bore you with political stuff unless you ask me.)

(It was such a weird thing. Protesting seems such a left-liberal pastime, it was odd to find myself doing it. Vaguely uncomfortable, vaguely exciting, and mostly fun. But still very very weird. Not unlike myself.)


About 100 people showed up, and a good time was had by all except possibly Heber, who cried everytime there was applause, and Ezra, who was bored silly. But awesomely enough, I was interviewed by the Deseret News reporter, and Gideon's picture was taken and used for the story. So, basically, we're famous now. Oh, and half of Mercy is on Instapundit, a rather famous website. (Far right side)

Trust Like a Child

Ezra and Mercy have been downstairs alone, watching videos from the Church web site based on the Book of Mormon Reader. Mercy isn't feeling well (slight fever and lethargic), but they were excited to watch the videos. That have previously watched chapters 1-10 and they were waiting for me to download the rest to my computer so they could watch. Finally, their chance has come.

After letting them watch the first 10 chapters (2-5 minutes each), I was surprised how much Ezra (5) was picking up. I assumed he would find them boring since they are essentially narrated slideshows. Nevertheless, he remembered where they had left off and asked me to find chapter 11.

They have been downstairs for about 15 minutes.

He just came upstairs to me and announced, "Dad. I said a blessing for Mercy and God's power will heal her. She'll feel better soon. God can help us feel better because He has a lot of power and I just said a little prayer for her. So don't worry about her, because she'll feel better."

Ready for my closeup...

More pictures at our scrapbook blog.

Basketball Eric

http://dbaphotography.com/p793378231
Check out these photos of Eric playing basketball. Go to the link, scroll to the bottom and click "Show All". Eric is #5.

Thanks For Sharing!

That slide show is so great. Planning for Lauren's wedding must be so fun for both of you!

Lauren, Thanks!

We just got home from Trinidad! What a great surprise, Lauren! I love it! I love it! It is awesome to see the pictures. I love your dress! You are going to be a beautiful bride.
I love the place for your reception. Since we have been there, it will be easy to visualize you and Devin there. Awesome! Keep them coming!
Love,
Grandma

Job Search In Progress

Thanks for checking up on us. We are doing well, and are optomistic about what will happen. At the moment I am still going in to the office every day helping to wind down the operations there. I am supposedly going to be needed until early April, unless I find new employment before that. I have had a few contacts and a few phone interviews so far, but nothing that looks real promising yet. A lot of companies are in hiring freezes right now, so I just keep looking and talking to contacts to see what might be out there.

I'm looking primarily in retail again, and have also had conversations will cell phone carriers as well. We are willing to look pretty much anywhere in the country right now, but we would love to use this opportunity to move back West and be closer to everyone out there. I'll try to do a better job of keeping everyone posted on our progress. Hope you are all well.

Skip

This is for Grandma...

I thought I would document our planning so Grandma wouldn't miss out. I have been checking out DVD software. I like this one. See what you think.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Concerned Siblings

Hey Skip. How is the job hunt going? Do you have any leads? We would sure love to have you come to Mom & Dad's and hang with us here in Utah! Please let us know what is going on and if we can help in any way. I would love to get the word out with my friends in the cell phone industry if you want to go back in that direction. ( I heard AT & T is hiring a ton of people right now.)

Please let us know what's the latest. We are all concerned.

New Date

Lauren & Devin had to move their wedding date. Devin's Dad is the chief auditor for the church. The Prophet called a mandatory meeting on June 12th. Jeesh. I never knew listen to and obeying the Prophet would included moving my daughters wedding! ;)

They will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on Friday, June 5th at 12:40. She will be taking out her endowments on Wed. June 3rd and we are having a "rehearsal dinner" (not to rehearse the wedding, but rehearse being a larger family hee hee) on Thur. June 4th.

Deb said we can count this as her year for the family reunion. I vote we head to Disneyland next spring and count that instead!!

Weekend Whilrwind

This weekend I had the opportunity to take 21 of our Young Men and Women to the Draper Temple Open House. Wow! What a wonderful experience! We hosted the girls at mom and dad's and the boys at Kim's. We also were able to have the older youth go to a dance, and we all visited Temple Square. I was even lucky enough to be at Kim's to see Lauren on her big night. (Sorry about all the screaming Lauren, I get carried away sometimes! (: Ha ha) I still think of Lauren as my own "first baby" in a way. What a beautiful and graceful young lady she has become! With all of the events of the weekend, I have reflected a lot on what a blessing it is to have temples here on the earth. How thankful I am for the ties that bind our family together forever!

Thanks again Kim and family for all of your help and hospitality! I could not have pulled this off without you! When we had our little testimony meeting on Sunday night at mom and dad's, I was so impressed that this trip was supposed to happen for these kids. It touched them. It will change some of their lives. We are so fortunate to live in a place where we can go to the Lord's house! I look forward to seeing you in the temple in a few months on Lauren and Devin's day!

Details

Hey everyone! Here are the details about my engagement:) On Friday the 13th Devin and I went to the Draper Temple open house. I was so excited about the date, because he said he had been planning it for us all week. After the temple, he told me that we were going to his brothers house to borrow a movie. On our way, he let me know that he had made reservations at Spaghetti Mama's (we went there on our first date). When we arrived at the house, he told me that he had not actually made the reservation after all. He opened the door to the most romantic setting I had ever seen! Rose petals were all over the floor, dozens of candles were lit, my favorite dinner was on the table including chocolate covered strawberries, and a dozen roses were on the table. I couldn't hold back the tears, because it was so beautiful! I was starving, so I started chowing down. Once I was done eating, I noticed that Devin hadn't eaten very much at all. This was crazy because he eats a ton! I still wasn't phased until he asked if I wanted to come eat the strawberries on the couch. He started feeding me the strawberries and telling me things that made me realize what was coming. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife forever! Ahh! I said yes of course:) I was so happy and shocked and I couldn't wait to tell everyone. We went straight to my house only to find more roses and candles. It was an amazing night and I couldn't be more happy to be with him.

We called the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday and made an appointment to be sealed for time and all eternity on June 12th! (I am taking out my endowment Wed. June 10th.) Hope you all can make it. Love you all!

Whatever Grandma

Don't listen to her Lauren. We all need to have the details posted on the blog so we can savor them as a family unit. So give it up girl and let's hear the gore! Yippee!!

Way to Go Lauren! Congratulations!

You know that grandma's get to hear all the details. You have my email address if you don't want to publish it on the blog!

YAY!

Congratulations!

Congrats!

We want DETAILS! :)

Are you kidding me?

Congrats Lauren!!! Claire says,"When I get older I will get married like Lauren." When is the happy day?

Lauren is ENGAGED

KUDOS

Michelle has done a wonderful job of coordinating and collecting the items for sharing with the children in Tobago. You all touched the lives of many people with your generosity. Today we went to an orphanage run by a family that provides a home for 24 children 6-18. There are 3 sets of twins and other siblings from different families. We had a suitcase of clothes for them as well as some school supplies and hair ties, and bubbles.

Yesterday we delivered clothes and school supplies to an elementary school that houses classrooms for the deaf and special needs children. Happy Haven, a special needs school, received 3 CD players and tons of pencils and some books.

The Tobago branch received a CD player for the Primary. The children in the branch will receive school supplies, bubbles, markers, etc. Games will be used for Wednesday night activity nights. Music CD’s will help members teach songs to the Primary children. The conference DVD will be used on visits to the homes of members. We can’t thank you enough for your loving generosity. What a great family to be part of. You are awesome!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!Thank you!