As of Late...

Aside from moving, here's what else we've been up to during the month of June:

Our stake hosted a Super Saturday Activity/Open House with a BBQ, games, and a few missionary events (i.e. tours of the church...).  

Aside from the jumpy house being the HUGE hit for the girls, they were actually pretty good at ladder ball.  I was very surprised!

  

We enjoyed a birthday party at Monkey Bizness.  We sure will miss the McKeons and "Big Jack" (he's only 5, but that's how the girls differentiate from "baby Jack", their cousin) when we move at the end of the summer!

Sadie practiced her air hockey skills.  A long way to go on this one...

 Sadie spent hours singing Primary Songs with her special song book.

She also spent hours sleeping...all while using her hand as a bookmark.  I guess she really wanted to hold her place!

And, since we've moved, the girls have a picnic every day for lunch.  They love to eat outside and stare at the parking lot.  A few times, we have seen bunnies in the grass, and they love that!

Happy Birthday, Morgan!

Wow! I can't believe she's already five!  

Last Saturday, we celebrated Morgan's 5th birthday.  She'd been celebrating in her own little world for about a month now.  And, on Friday, when we were running errands, she was sure to tell EVERYONE that tomorrow (Saturday) was her birthday and she would be turning 5.  

Saturday morning, we went to Target, where Morgan got to spend her birthday money from grandparents.  She picked out a Play-doh cake set and it's quite fun!

With all of my cake decorating stuff in boxes in a storage closet somewhere (a lot of good all my labeling ended up doing this time around...), we resorted to a store-bought cake.  So, Morgan picked out her birthday cake at the grocery store--double layer chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate frosting.  To lighten it up a bit, I sliced up some strawberries to go with it.

I'd been debating for a while on what to get Morgan, and finally decided on pattern blocks/tangrams, which I found at the learning store.  These are a HUGE hit!  On Saturday, she just had fun with the shapes, but then I printed out a few patterns for her, and she's just going to town!  She's even requested I print them plain, because the colors make it too easy to follow.

Morgan requested playtime for her birthday (as if we don't have it every other day, but, it is her special day), so she and Sadie spent a fun-filled half hour or so at the water table, while Brian spent a stress-filled half hour panicking because they were "dumping water" or "getting wet"!  I gently reminded him that it's only water, it will dry, and they're supposed to get wet.  (I bet it didn't help that we had just been talking to our neighbors and they were filling us in on what to expect for our utility bills, which, apparently, is WAY MORE than we ever paid in our house, so with every cup of water, I think he was just seeing dollar signs.  We'll see just how bad it is when our bill comes!)

Here's Morgan with her very first pattern design.  I'll have to get some more pictures of her giraffes, butterfly, trains, owls, cars, etc.  She's just loving it!

Morgan's Favorties at age 5:

Song:  Scripture Power (She sings: "Because I want to be like the Savior and I can, I'm reading His destructions, I'm following His plan."  It's funny the way kids hear and interpret things!)

Food:  She's become vegetarian, except for hamburgers, chicken nuggets and Papa Dale's BBQ  (I'm sensing a love amongst the grandchildren for grandpa's BBQing)

Color:  all the colors--she even claims to like red again

Number: 5 and 7

Book: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (She picked it out for her birthday and read the whole thing in 3 days!!  The kids' chapter book version is 182 pages long!  She didn't want to put it down!)

Toy:  Dolphin (she got a stuffed animal from her dance teacher at her recital and quickly became very attached to her new friend)

Movie: Anything princess, but currently, she likes Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty (she loves Princess Aurora)

Person: Heavenly Father and Jesus--"Because I love them so much!" 

Breakfast: Pancakes and Waffles 

Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwich (currently, she loves them with banana slices)

Dinner: Spaghetti--no sauce, with Myzithra cheese

Animal: sharks, elephants, bunnies, dolphins, and horses

Dearest Morgan,

It's been a busy year for you!  Last summer, you learned how to read, and quickly discovered that you could read just about anything!  I'm amazed at how well you read even complicated words.  You're incredible at sounding out new words in the Book of Mormon and have such a deep desire to study the scriptures and learn about the Gospel!  You took a ballet/tap class and I find you dancing everywhere you go!  You even started teaching Sadie some of the things you learned in class.  We're still working on your temper, but I'm glad to tell you that your outbursts are getting better, and you're learning how to handle yourself better when you're upset.  You're a great helper and are willing to help out almost every time.  I appreciate the good example of service you are setting for others, especially your sister!  I love you!

Love,

Mommy

Swim Lessons

Yep.  It's that time of year again.  Our two little fish have found the water and are loving every moment in it!  

Somewhere, amidst all that splash, is fearless Sadie.  She figured out that she's tall enough to stand up in this part of the pool, so, she jumps in whenever she wants--whether someone is there to catch her or not! There's a lifeguard about 5 feet from her in this picture, so I wasn't too concerned.

Morgan and her friend, Addy, in the pool.  Morgan can also reach the bottom here, but thinks she's extra cool because she "swims" away from the wall by herself.

Thanks for the pics, Betsy!!

Knock You Naked Brownies

I'm not one for posting recipes (mostly because I haven't been adventurous with cooking for the last SEVERAL months), but this one is very delicious, and I thought I'd share it!  It's from Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.  She's got lots of tempting recipes on her website, which I'll now have to steer clear of, if any of her other recipes are as good as these!

Knock You Naked Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used Duncan Hines)
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• ⅓ cups Evaporated Milk
• ½ cups Evaporated Milk (additional)
• ½ cups Butter, Melted
• 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped
• ⅓ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• ¼ cups Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, chopped pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick.

Press half the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside.

In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water) melt caramels with additional 1/2 cup evaporated milk. When melted and combined, pour over brownie base. Sprinkle chocolate chips as evenly as you can over the caramel.

Turn out remaining brownie dough on work surface. Use your hands to press it into a large square a little smaller than the pan. Use a spatula to remove it from the surface, then set it on top of the caramel and chocolate chips.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, generously sift powdered sugar over the surface of the brownies. Cut into either nine or twelve helpings, and carefully remove from the pan.

*Adapted from the standard/classic “Knock You Naked Brownies” recipe. These brownies don’t really knock you naked…but almost.

Kid Swaps

A friend reminded me the other day of something very funny that Sadie did a couple of months ago and I had totally forgotten about it, so I'm writing it down now so I don't forget about it forever.

Let's start with a little bit of background.  My friend, Jen, and I "kid swap" every once in a while to help each other out.  Not only does it help us out in a pinch, but all of our kids (she's got 4 and we've got 2) LOVE to get together.

Before last week's kid swap: When I told Morgan and Sadie their friends were coming to play, Sadie simply sighed and said, "I like Eli.  He's so cute!" (That's their little boy Sadie's age.)  Morgan informed her that Eli's no longer a baby and he can't be "cute", to which Sadie just repeated, "I like Eli.  He's so cute."

But, that's not the story I want to remember.  Here's the story:

A couple of months ago, Jen watched the girls during my ultrasound.  When we got to her house to pick up the girls, naturally, we rang the doorbell.  While we waited for someone to answer the door, here's what was happening on the other side of the door:

The doorbell rings.  Sadie, who, moments before was perfectly happy playing with the other kids, without a care in the world, jumps up from playing, dashes to the front door (I think she may have even pushed Jen away from the door), and stands guard across it (you know, arms out, legs spread), screaming, "No!  Don't open it!  I don't want to go home!  I want to play!"  Brian and I are listening to this from the other side, but not quite able to make out what's happening.  About 30 seconds later, Jen finally gets the door open, at which point, Sadie runs off back into the house, crying and yelling at us (Brian and I) to "Go away! Go away!"  She did eventually decide to come home, but, if I remember correctly, there was another battle involved and she was not happy about it.

The girls went over to play again this morning, so I could get some packing done.  And, when I showed up on the doorstep, Sadie was at the top of the stairs.  She looked down at me and said, "I don't want to go home.  I'm playing.  I'm hiding from you."

I've been inside the Johansen's house--several times, in fact.  And, nothing in particular has ever caught my eye as being so amazingly fun to play with that would warrant Sadie never wanting to leave.  But, then, again, I'm no longer 2 years old--I must be a poor judge of fun toys and great playmates.