Jelly

Mom and I made Red Pepper Jelly this week.

We don't go through it as much as we thought we would. So it's been a few years since our last batch. A few hours in the kitchen and we had 20 jars ready for Christmas. 

We used this recipe from 2014!

Bread and Lacrosse

Annaliesse made bread after school today. It’s funny how much can be accomplished when Mom hides all the IPads and computer cords! 😂😂 We actually have a no electronic rule during the school week- there are so many other things for them to be doing. Including making bread for lunches 😊😉😊

90% of the time they play outside, but every so often Annaliesse is done with that. She baked twice this week- bread and cookies for lunches. Mommy is totally fine with it.

This. Kid. Surprises me every day. Today he scored 5 points, leading his team to a win. After a morning of fever and coughing like a 2-pack-a-day-smoker, followed by a afternoon of fighting with his sisters and getting in trouble lots. This was a surprising end to our day. 

Pizza Party

Remy got invited to a Pampered Chef Kids Pizza Party last week. 

She was so excited.

It was at Angies house, and Remy was thrilled to have some playtime with Blake. 

It was a lovely few hours to let the kids make Pizza and chat with friends.  Mommy really needs to let Remy do more hands on helping in the kitchen. Its just so hard!!!

wall recipes

I am still in love with my recipe wall.. really I love it. 

But Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins is...well...

a little kid recipe.

At least in this house.

I still make them occasionally but not nearly as often as I did with toddlers in the house. 

And now that Barker will eat more than 5 things, it's just another recipe. Not a BIGGER THEN LIFE recipe. 

So I got it in my brain to take it down and add 3 different recipes to that wall bringing it to 4 recipes.

In the end... I just couldn't convince myself to take it down and go through the stress of putting FOUR recipes up straight and centred...

 That straight and centred work part became glaringly obvious when I banged the plate going into the microwave and got peas all over. I stood there and almost cried. I can't even get a plate in the microwave correctly....

It's one of my biggest fears having a microwave up high. Catching a plate on the ledge when I am trying to multitask like a normal mother....

No one else?

Nah?

Ya ok.

Looking back I was just hangry- which is a real thing with me.

Instead of doing all that extra work I discussed it over text message with my vinyl lady we settled on putting my 2 added recipes on the cupboard door instead.

I still love it. It was way less work and I was to impatient to wait for Justin and yes its slightly crocked.

But my baking corner, as I refer to it, is living to its fullest potential.

While I was doing all this, Remy is still on her numbers phase and copied out all the numbers in the recipe. Without the slash or spaces so her notes look something like this.

12212214112211221221
14111321411221112112

In her little 5 year old handwriting.

Please stay little!

Justin has been doing moonlight jobs for Gemstone which is helping  pay for his new truck. One night a week he is working late- to be honest it is totally fine around her and just means one less night I have to make a meal for dinner. The kids are happy with hotdogs, grilled cheese and cereal...

Aunties Car & Chocolate Chip Candy Candy Cane Cookies & the Garage

Justin and I went to the temple last night, as I came out Laura had sent me a little video. Apparently my children had washed her car with Clorox Bleach Wipes 😖😖😣 I am not sure who started it, or if Laura gave them the go ahead but it was a mess and we were both worried about a scratched up Aunties car.

Luckily she sent me a picture Saturday morning with her car smudge and scratch (from my kids at least) free. Next time you want to vacuum your car while babysitting nieces and nephews, remember 4 kids can go 1,000 different directions at once. Thank heavens it all worked out.

Up and going at it Saturday morning, it was finally time to clean out the garage. There have been building projects in if since 2nd week of January. Craft group was very supportive while Justin was not working for 3 months and we had lots of orders to fill, but parking outside in that cold snap was rough!

There was sawdust everywhere and craft projects waiting to be picked up. We still have a couple left that need to be picked ups, but the same women who love to order but not pick up... for months and months.... Life.

While Justin was outside in the garage, of course Barker was outside with him. Kalia and Remy coming in and out of the house playing with the neighbours and loving the weather.  Annaliesse wanted to bake, which is becoming a norm. She wanted to make buns, but I just didn't have the energy to do that- instead I taught her how to make Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies. Taught might be a to big of a word, directed might be a better distributed word for what I did. I directed while I sat and caught up on the blog.

We are all enjoying Annaliesse new found joy- I am not enjoying explaining when she bakes she should finish her task. AKA put cooled cookies away and cleaning the dishes.

After lunch Justin took the kids to the Skateboard Park- first trip of 2019. The kids had a great time with Daddy at the park while Mommy finished putting the house back together.

Dinners Lately

I felt old sitting around the dinner table this night.

For dinner I made Najavo Tacos, which I don't make often. 

The girls were thrilled and Barker was more than put out, as he is NOT a fan. Anyways, I have Anna's fry bread recipe, a friend from High School, her fry bread is just as good as the ones, I remember in Elementary School. 

I forgot how much the kids, minus Barker, like Najavao Tacos in fact Remy has asked for them almost daily since. Dinner time is what made me feel old, I told the kids about eating Indian Tacos in Cardston Elementary and large ones at Grottos Pizza as a teenager. I swear, they enjoyed it, I just need to remember Im not 95 😂😂 so I don't need to hog the conversation with "I remember when.."

For FHE we made Elephant ears with the leftover dough- Barker just licked the Cinnamon Sugar Off and the girls were to full from dinner.

Right before dinner Kalia's new Sunday dresses arrive in the mail and she is in total love. Mommy can't decide if I like them or if they make her look to mature :(

Unfortunately Annaliesse's dress arrived much to short- and I need to fashion it to be modest some how.... if you have any suggestions I am open to hear them. She loves the flowly part around the waist, but the shorts are way to short... and I didn't realize they were shorts 😐 Refashioning this is high on Annaliesse's priority list but not so high on mine, at least until the temperature goes above -25.

Another dish we have been enjoying, Lolo's Adobo Chicken!
SO much yummy garlic and Bay Leafs I have had to stock up on Bay Leafs twice! IF you have yet to make this, do it! Such an easy, tasty weekday meal.

Chili Cookoff

I hesitate to write this post- as I am slightly put out.

It was the ward Chili Cookoff the 15 hours after Vegas, which meant I cooked in a haze. We arrived in Edmonton at midnight and drove home- which meant I got home at 3 am and it took me FOREVER to fall asleep. Justin and the kids let me sleep in, but my body was sorely sleep deprived. 

Haha Am I rambling?

Back to it. 

It was the ward Chili cook off and Dad sent us a text to remind us- a pic of him working on his chili- I sent one of my messy cooking in response.

Annaliesse decided she wanted to make corn bread for the night, and I was just to tired to argue or assist. So she got busy baking while I sat and stared once in a while. Turns out, I should have watched closer. Annaliesse doubled our recipe, as she asked questions, I answered from the couch or the chili pot, but really wasn't that much of help.

We drove over to the cookoff and it was flipping freezing. -31 I think, plus a wind chill. The corn bread had just came out of the oven and the chili was hot in the crockpot- so Annaliesse and I were warm holding food LOL

The cookout was fun like always- lots of banter on who was going to win, who's was the best, the kids playing around, and adults chatting. There were 5 judges (3 women and 2 men) and lots of eaters.

Now, we let some friends know that Annaliesse made the corn bread, so to make sure and comment on how yummy it was. We go though the line, get our food and sit down. Justin and I are at different tables chatting with people when Justin flagged me over. I go over and he says "Did you tasted Annaliesse's cornbread?" I was like "no" and took a piece.

I don't know what on earth happened but it tasted like SOAP! She had put WAAAY too much Baking Soda in the Cornbread and it was TERRIBLE. So bad, So so so bad, we were laughing, everyone at the table of course tried it and the laughing started again. I felt terrible for all those who had taken some and had a bite- but oh man was it funny.

We learned 2 things
1) Taste Annaliesse's baking adventures before taking them to public places
2)When there are mess ups all you can do is laugh and discuss in a happy tone how we can do better next time. Annaliesse was not put off her baking bug AT ALL, and thought it was funny after a while too.

Oh and while I was making Chili Remy was using her play makeup on Barker, and he was so kind to sit there and let her :)

Dad won the chili cookoff..... But whatever.
😂😂

I would like to say, however, that true Chili lovers know its supposed to be spicy or hot. NOT Sweet. But again.
Whatever.

Also second place is fine to, but when 3 of the judges are women who don't like spice- of course Dad won. He cooks his Chili for Mom, who doesn't like spice either. Both Male Judges preferred mine..
But again.
Whatever.
😁😂

Nail Polish, Cookies and Lip Balm

Annaliesse has been on a baking kick and we are ALL reaping the benefits. 

I should write a email to her Grade 5 teacher, thanking her letting her class do a Bake Off- cause ever since she came in second place she is determined to get better and win next time. This Saturday Justin and I had plans in the evening, but not a whole lot going on during the day. Sooo we got up and decided to be crafty and bake!

Annaliesse made Chocolate Chip Cookies for lunches- they turned out good!

Remy was her special helper- which means she sat on the counter and watched. Annaliesse is so loving, she let Remy scoop a whole cookie sheet. Which takes much longer, and Annaliesse was so patient with her.

While the cookies were baking, Remy and I made Pretend Make up. Kalia, Annaliesse and I did this YEARS ago- like 2010ish and they remember how much fun they had. So I had saved up some empty Makeup Containers and Remy was SOOO excited to make her own blush.

We did sparkly, red and pink. The sparkly nail polish chipped right away and got ALLL over. But once the red and pink dried they were great. Remy has been playing with the constantly since.

After we got the pretend makeup done and the cookies out and cooled- we moved onto making Homemade Lip Balm for the Heart to Heart Market. The is the valentines market the kids school does every year to raise money. This year they raised money for a new playground. You send the money you would have spent on Valentines, to school with the kids to buy from a shop each class has. Most everything is 25 cents- so you really just send change.

This year we made 45 Lip Balms, in 5 different flavours; Cola, Orange, Watermelon, Popcorn, and Cherry Berry. The kids favourite is Cola- it smells really really good.

We crafted ALLL morning. With a bit of time left before we needed to run into Okotoks we played a few rounds of Skip Bo- where Remy won. Again. She has the Skip Bo Mojo.

Remy had a Birthday Party in Okotoks to attend so we dropped her off and did a few things. By the time she got home that evening she was in love with her Balloon. She kept blowing it up SOO big and then would let it go and fly all over the place. Mommy and Daddy kept telling her if she blew it up to big it would pop, it got really close a couple time so the girls would duck and cover 😂😂

It did eventually pop from being blown to big- and she laughed and laughed at how much spit flew all over.

Friday- Pizza & Primary & Home Alone

Friday!

Remy didn't have school Friday- which means we snuggled and laughed and played all day! 

It was freezing and Annaliesse had patrols- so we had to leave the house twice!

When I woke her up to take the kids to school she was down right ticked! Which made me wonder when Aunt Laura put her to bed last night.... 

Then in the afternoon when it was time to go get everyone she was just as disappointed.. so we stopped and juice to make a concoction of juices for a after school drink.

We got home from pick up, made the juice and fed the kids a snack ASAP. Primary was having a Primary Party and Presentation practice from 4-6 pm.

The juice was a hit with the girls- Barker could NOT have cared less.. he was busy doing a experiment he learned in school. Sadly it didn't work, but we are going to see if we can find a different experiment for later this month. Do you know of one?

They all had a good time at the practice and pizza party- Mommy and Daddy picked them up and we headed home. Still time to do something as a family that night, we sat down and watched Home Alone together. I had never noticed all the name calling and how terrible they treat each other in this movie- the kids loved it- and been ready to watch Home Alone 2 ever since.

Making Bread

My girls have been watching me bake bread for years. The other day I realized that Remy (age 5 ) could probably make bread better then Kalia (age11). ONLY because she LOVES helping me bake and is the only one home during the day. Kalia, years ago, also loved helping but I was always in a rush to get it in the oven. Read: had a nursing baby/toddler was always trying to fit one more thing in during nap time! After this realization- I vowed to get my big girls baking again. For dinner tonight we are having Shepard’s Pie😍 what goes great with Shepard’s Pie? One hour bread! And who made it this time? KALIA! The kneading minute was painful, but we got through it! This will be happening more in our house, thus I swear.

Grade 5 Baking Challenge.

Tuesday night we were in the midst of supper prep AND pick ups and drop offs for piano and volleyball. When Annaliesse remembers that her class is doing a baking competition during their Halloween Class Party!

My first thoughts were "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

BUT since we had just gotten home from a relaxing vacation and my Mommy voodoo was back on track- we just rolled with it.

I was making a dinner that needed pretty constant attention, so I told Annaliesse she could make something but she had to do it all, cause I was busy and we didn't have time after dinner. So she flipped through my 6 Sisters Cookbook and found Nutty Carmel Bars and got to work. There was a bit of fudging as we didn't have walnuts- so she used peanuts and pecans. We also only had half a bottle of Carmel sauce- so she chopped up some baking Carmel and spread it around- it worked great.

Annaliesse is resilient and strong.

Fearless and bright.

Determined and Focused.

She was so proud of the result- and the fact that she made them all by herself. Once again showing my Mommy heart that our big girls are growing up and ready for more responsibilities. And while she was busy showing me her skills, she was letting Remy help, taste, and be close to her.