Once there was a snowman

Here's the song Kate's preschool class performed at the Christmas Sing. Kate is in the back row, between the two tall girls.

Lion House Rolls

I absolutely LOVE the Lion House rolls. Don't they look amazing?

So I decided to try to make them. My first batch was flat. I searched online and found a video that shows how to form the rolls and place them on the pan. I love love love their technique for forming the rolls. It is so fast and easy ... and fun!

And look...it worked!

The inside is flaky and light.


The outside is perfect!

It's a Christmas Miracle! I made Lion House Rolls!!!

Here's the recipe:

Lion House Rolls
Ingredients:

* 2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
* 2/3 cup nonfat dry milk (instant)
* 2 Tb. dry yeast
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2 tsp. salt
* 1/3 cup shortening (butter or margarine)
* 1 egg
* 5-5 1/2 cups flour, all purpose (bread flour can be used if you have it on hand)

Method:

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the water and the milk powder and stir so the milk dissolves. Add the yeast to tthis mixture then the sugar, salt, shortening, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed of mixer until ingredients are wet, then turn to medium speed and mix for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add 2 more cups of flour then mix on low speed until the ingredients are wet, then turn mixer on medium speed and mix for 2 minutes. The dough will be getting stiff and you may need to remove the bowl from the mixer and mix in the remaining flour by hand. Add approximately 1/2 cup of flour and mix again. (This can be done by hand or mixer). The dough should be soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff. (It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour). Scrape the dough off the sides of the bowl and pour approximately on tablespoon of vegetable oil all around the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough over in the bowl so it is covered with the oil. (This helps prevent the dough from drying out.) Cover with plastic and allow to rise in a warm place until double in size. Sprinkle a cutting board or counter with flour and put the dough on the flour. It is now ready to roll out and cut into desired shape and size of rolls. Place on greased (or parchment lined) baking pans. Let rise in a warm place until the rolls are double in size (approx. 1-1 1/2 hours). Bake in a 375-degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are browned to your satisfaction. Brush with melted butter while hout. Yields 2 to 2 1/2 dozen rolls.

Dying Easter Eggs

Sorry folks, I'm here to inform you that although you may have liked your preschool teacher, I had the best preschool teacher.

(I'm on the ladder. Jimmy is in front of me, and I was in love with him.)

Mrs. Stetson lived in my neighborhood. My siblings and I frequently visited Mrs. Stetson. She made the best Chex Mix, pretended to be astounded when I showed her I could play "Birdy Birdy Where is your Nest?" on the piano, took us to the Ice Cream Parlor on our birthday, ... the list goes on and on. What a neat lady. My favorite memories with Mrs. Stetson are of dying Easter Eggs. Now, when I dye eggs with my kids, I always think of that very special preschool teacher.

Here are a couple pictures from this year's egg dying extravaganza. Matt had to work on a book report, and Josh is too cool for egg dying. So it was me, Kate, and Joey. :)

Kate was using the fan to speed up the drying process. She really really really wanted to put stickers on the eggs.

Even to this day, I keep in touch with my dear preschool teacher. Pat, thank you for being such a special friend to me all through these years.

The April Fools Tooth

Kate's April Fools joke: "Mom, I think I have the chicken pox...April Fools Day!"

Kate had lots of fun sharing that joke with family and friends. What a girl.

At dinner time, Joey said his wiggly tooth hurt.

So the kid who got his first tooth at 14 months (notice no teeth in this pic)...

Finally lost his first tooth!

The tooth fairy visited him last night. In the middle of the night, he reached under his pillow and realized he had money there. He woke Matt up and told him. :)

Happy New Year!

To our dear family and friends,
Happy New Year! We wish you much happiness in the new year. We appreciate you all and feel very blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Love,
The Christensens

 

New Online Fabric Store!

Hello everyone! I've launched a new online fabric store. It's called Flannel Queen, and it specializes in flannel fabric. It is independent (not through eBay or etsy), and I'm so excited about it!
Sneak peek:


My sewing/fabric blog My Fabric Obesssion tells all about it. If you like to sew, be sure to enter my giveaway (ends Oct 2).

Other than that, what have we been up to? Josh and Matt continue to do well in football, Matt is a rascal in school (I got the "Mom, I'm calling you because I can't control myself in the classroom" phone call), Joey got 5 stitches in his chin from falling off his bike, and Kate is queen of her tumbling class and preschool class. Life is good!

First Day of School

Here is a picture of the boys on the first day of school. Don't they look excited.


Here are some pictures of Kate on the first day of preschool. She is REALLY excited.

I had to explain to her that we don't take purses and toys to preschool.



After school, we took this one.

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

Back in May, Bryan's cousin told us about the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. He said it's a fast race - gentle downhill slope a lot of the way. Bryan and I decided to give it a shot (our first race ever). We followed a 12-week training plan we found online. We did short runs 2 days a week, cross-trained 2 days a week, and did a long run on Saturday mornings. Each week, the short runs and long runs got progressively longer. I have to say, I loved the training. I never thought I would/could run 10 miles just for the fun of it. But I did, and I loved the challenge. Bryan was always faster than me, though. That kind of ticked me off. :)

Today was race day! We got up at 4:30 AM, drove to Mapleton, and the 1200 runners were bussed up Hobble Creek Canyon to the start line. It's true, it was a fast race. I ran faster than my training pace. Unfortunately, Bryan donated blood earlier this week, so his lack of red blood cells hurt his speed. Even so, he ran at his training pace. My favorite part was seeing my cute kids at the finish line. Claire was nice enough to take them to the race.

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

Bryan: 1 hr 57 min
Sara: 1 hr 55 min
The picture is in black and white so you don't have to stare at our sweatiness!

What's in a name?

Kate (whose full name is Kathryn) came to us with lots of attitude. So did her cousin Kathryn. My sister and I have consequently joked that you need to be careful when naming a child Kathryn. Last night, we took the kids swimming at the community pool. As soon as Kate got in the water, she found a new friend. Her friend's name is Kate. It turns out, this new Kate is also 3 1/2. Her birthday is 2 days after our Kate. And this new Kate is also bossy. She and Kate had a great time bossing each other around. As the new Kate was leaving with her family, she says to me, "What's your phone number?" Her mom was shocked. I wasn't. After all, it's something my Kate would have said!

Swimming: Kate is fearless. She can't swim yet, but she spends most of the time with her head underwater. It's a little stressful for the lifeguards. Joey can swim, and happily goes around doing his own thing. He went off the diving board a few times. Matt and Josh spent the whole time going off the diving board and the high-dive. They both did flips off the high-dive, and ended up over-rotating. Can you say OUCH???

A garden!

This year I decided to grow a vegetable garden. Look...vegetables are growing!

Yellow squash...


Zuccini...


I also planted bell peppers, but I don't have any veggies on that plant yet.

OK, so here's the whole truth. I don't have a designated spot for a garden, so I planted veggies in pots. I knew I would have to water by hand whatever I planted, so I started small.

This is a picture of my WHOLE garden...


Isn't it cute? It's okay if you are laughing right now. I am too.

Football Bribery

Matt and Josh both play tackle football. It starts in late August. I want them to start practicing now, so they'll be better prepared for tryouts. The problem is, these two fine boys CANNOT play catch without getting into an arguement almost instantaneously. It drives me nuts! So I came up with a plan. It's not a perfect plan, but it will have to do...until I can come up with a better plan. I offered to play catch with them. Every time they catch the ball, they earn 5 cents. Every time they drop the ball, they lose 5 cents. And we play to $1. They were a little surprised that I knew how to throw a ball. :)
Two days of this, and I already see improvement. One of the boys got down to negative 40 cents the first day. He ended up only earning 35 cents. He didn't go negative at all today, and they both earned $1. So while this is not the ideal senerio, I guess it will have to do!

Kate - Stitches and Dancing

Last week we were dealing with strep throat. This week, we are dealing with hay fever and ... stitches!

On Tuesday, I had to be at scouts at the same time as Josh's baseball game. Grandma Jodi and Grandpa Vern are in town visiting, so Bryan and the grandparents took the kids to the game. I got a call from Bryan saying Kate needed stitches. Matt had been off by himself practicing is batting swing. Kate came up behind him without him noticing, and the bat hit her in the eye. When I met Bryan at the Instacare, Kate was in good spirits, eating a lollipop and talking non-stop. She listened to the Dr, nodding her head and being very polite. When it was time to stitch her up, they wrapped her in a blanket to keep her arms down. A nurse held her head still. Kate got so comfy, she fell asleep! The Dr was very impressed with his model patient. It was the same Dr that stitched up Matt after his sledding accident. We are getting quite a reputation at the Instacare. Kate ended up with 4 stitches above her right eye.

The next morning, Kate woke up with one eye puffy from the stitches, and the other eye glued shut because of hay fever. It was pretty funny (but not to her). A donut cheered her up.

 

Last night, Kate and cousin Tatum had a dance recital (tumbling show) to finish off their year of tumbling classes. It was hilarious. Kate was wandering around chatting with people the whole time. Little busy-body. Tatum was much more serious about doing the things she was supposed to be doing. But she kept on messing up when Julie would tell her to smile. Apparently, Tatum has not yet mastered smiling WHILE tumbling.

 

 

 

BUGS!

Josh has about a trillion projects due before school gets out in 2 weeks. For his science project, he has to classify 10 different bugs and 10 different leaves. For about a week now, everyone's been helping him catch bugs. Once caught, the bugs spent some quality time in the "kill jar" where the nail polish remover did it's thing.
Here's his bug display:



Appetizing, huh?

Elk sighting

We were visited by the elk again today. Usually we can see them about a mile away in the hills, but sometimes they get closer. Today we could see them from the road leading into our neighborhood. And we've been getting a lot of rain, so everything is nice and green.

Click on the picture to go to the photo album.

04-2009 Elk

A thank you note

I like doing the dishes. As a result, I don't ask anyone else to do them. I know, I need to let the kids do the dishes once in awhile so they learn how to do them. I'm really good at asking them to do the things I hate doing. But the dishes haven't made it to that list yet.

Yesterday, Bryan asked Josh to do the dishes. I walked into the kitchen, and there was Josh, busily trying to figure out how to load the dishwasher.

Today after church, Josh handed me this note:



(smile)

Evidence of Kate's Drama

This video shows some of Kate's drama. I know, it's a little long, but you have to see the very end.

Joey's Poem

OK, it's a first. I finally figured out how to get the videos off the camcorder and into a format that works. At least, I think it works. You'll have to let me know.

Joey memorized a poem for the Storytelling Festival at his school. He was one of 4 Kindergarteners who told their poem for the K-3 grades at an assembly earlier this week. And he won first place for the Kindergarten age group!

Today they had a special little story telling time where any Kindergarteners who wanted to could say their poems. We filmed Joey doing his poem. And it's a little hard to hear, so these are the words:

If I were the color blue, I'd sing sad songs for you.
If I were the color yellow, I'd be a happy fellow.
If I were the color green, I'd grow like a big string bean.
If I were the color brown, I'd be a chocolate town.
If I were the color pink, I'd be a lemonade drink.
If I were the color purple, nothing would rhyme with me!
(I found the poem somewhere in the internet, in case you were wondering)

It's a snowman!

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
I was sick of complaining about the snow, so I thought it would be a good idea to make Joey's birthday party a "snowman party".
We had a snowman cake...




Played Pin the Nose on the Snowman...



Played Pass the Snowball (like hot-potato),
Made Snowman pictures...



And made real snowmen!






I wasn't sure the whole "real snowman" thing was going to work, but it did! The kids had so much fun. Definitely a success!

For decorations, I cut out a bunch of snowflakes.





After making a few pretty lame ones (like the one on the left), I found a really neat website where you can print out snowflakes templates. Very easy to do, and the snowflakes look oh-so-professional! After the party, Kate wanted it to snow in her room. So now some of the snowflakes are hanging from her curtain rod. And now Joey wants it to snow in his room...

The Boss

Anyone who knows Kate (3 yrs old) knows that she always thinks she's in charge. After church on Sunday, I asked her how her class was. She said, "My teacher calls me 'jefe', and that means I'm the boss." Sure enough, "jefe" means "boss" in Spanish. I think her church teacher knows her pretty well.

A mystery

I don't know who would do a donut like this...



Certainly no one I know. And certainly not in this rental car with me in the passenger seat...