This and That

Homecoming date; Chandler and Ashlee Hanna and Ruthie

Zanya and Ruthie

Hanna working the Mountain View/Highland football game. (She's in the middle with the white flower in her hair.)

Maranda and Andria goofing around with the camera--one of them took this picture, I love it!

Danica always runs or turns away when we get the camera out, I hope she grows out of that soon. Our other children clearly don't have that inclination.

Happy 13th Birthday Danica!

Hey, I'm only a month and a half late posting this but we did celebrate her birthday. Danica turned 13 in September but she has been acting 13 for a few years now so it was no surprise. We love having Danica in our home for many reasons. One reason is because she is so musical. She sings all the time, plays the piano beautifully and is even learning the guitar. Danica also keeps us on our toes making sure we are sanitary and not spreading any germs. Danica is a talented tumbler and recently broke the light in the toy room while doing a cartwheel, because she is so tall. She is currently the tallest girl in our home, but Hanna and I won't admit it. We love Danica and her righteous choices and good example. She is also smart, beautiful, funny and talented. We are so grateful to have her in our family!

Danica's birthday is only two weeks before her cousin, Kinsey's. So for their birthdays, Kinsey's mom took them shopping. They had a great time!

Healthy Fall Cooking Idea

This month, I tried a new recipe that called for only a small amount of pumpkin. Then I had most of the can left over, but I HATE to waste food. So while I was making pancakes the next morning, I decided instead of substituting applesauce for half the oil, I would use the pumpkin. I figured it wouldn't be a very strong taste and it sounded good in whole wheat pancakes. My family didn't even notice any difference! So then I decided to use the rest of it in everything I was making. Some went into the bagels (no difference), and Hanna used some in these ginger snaps which are also half wheat.

Pumpkin would actually be very complimentary in ginger snaps but there really isn't any noticeable difference from the all shortening recipe. They are still soft and delicious. So if you have some pumpkin left over, don't be afraid to try it in all your baking. It is very easy to use in place of the fat and it's good for you too. I think I'll open another can :)

Birthday Cakes

Hanna has graduated from cupcakes to full sized cakes. Personally, I still like cupcakes better because they are less temperamental. Hanna has also graduated from butter cream frosting to fondant. Fondant is fun because it is like play-doh. Fondant from the store tastes yucky. So, Hanna found a recipe for homemade fondant. It is made from marshmallows and tastes yummy. So now we are on a wonderful adventure becoming familiar with fondant. Hanna's cousin Kylee turned 16 this month so Hanna made her this cake. I especially liked the roses. Hanna doesn't mind if I help her with mundane tasks such as rolling fondant balls.
This week Danica turned 13, so here is Dani's birthday cake. Hanna designed it to display Danica's talents and interests (tumbling, music and daisies). We decided to try cake fillings this time but we learned a lot about what not to do. Next time it will be better. On the bright side, the fillings were delicious. We had chocolate cake with caramel cream cheese filling and vanilla cake with whipped chocolate ganache filling. Very tasty.

(I forgot I took these pictures- the insides of the cakes)

Little Patients

Hanna spends a lot of time in her sports med program at school. She is learning many new skills. One night she needed to practice wrapping ankles. Lucky we have a lot of ankles here. Wrapping Dan,

Zanya

and Andria.

I think Hanna wrapped 6 ankles that evening. We are glad Hanna has found something that she enjoys as much as baking treats. Medicine is more useful, and hopefully more profitable, but not as delicious. Luckily she still finds time for both.

California Beach Vacation 2009

Ok, I know this is picture overload but we are always disappointed that we didn't take enough pictures of this or that. Like the campground. We have only a few pictures there but, looking back, I would have liked a picture of all of us eating dinner together, or the kids playing capture the flag, or making smores around the campfire, or flipping pancakes in the trailer. You will have to imagine those things yourself. This year we had 44 people, 14 adults and 30 children. At least that is my best guess. We camp at the KOA in Chula Vista and go to Imperial Beach every day.

Here, Dan and I were taking Ruth and Zan to the ice cream shop but they sure didn't want to be in a picture. We thought it was funny. These shirts are from the Running Club that Rebecca organizes every year. Whoever can manage to get up and exercise in the mornings while on vacation, gets a cool t-shirt. All the Evans kids right before we got in the car to drive home.

Ruthie in the sand hole.

Andria eating lunch. Speaking of lunch, we like to have bagel sandwiches when we go to the beach so this year I made three batches of bagels to bring with us. Then as we were loading up that morning to leave, I forgot the bagels. They were on my list and everything. It was a bummer.

The boogie board brigade. I love that all the cousins have so much fun together and love spending time together. This is Kylee, Tate, Rachael and Hanna.

Kinsey and Danica

Sherry mentioned on her blog that it is easier to keep track of kids who are buried in the sand. Too true. Hanna, me and Queenie (aka Abigail)

Zanya actually enjoyed getting cleaned up and taking a nap in the cabana every day. She is such an easy child.

Maranda surfing. Greg is such an awesome uncle to take his nieces and nephews out to surf. Thanks Greg!

Maranda had badly burned lips after a few days so she agreed to wear a hat every day after that.

Danica with Trigg and Rachael

Zanya absolutely loved the water, playing in it and finding creatures in the sand as well.

Seaver, Maranda and Janee

Kinsey, Dani and Rachael

Hanna and Kylee; the beach wouldn't be the same without a good book to read. Sometimes I remember the yearly vacation by which book I was reading.

Zan and Dan

Chandler is awesome on the skim board, but we can hardly ever get a picture. He might be sad someday that he wasn't more cooperative.

Maranda, Zanya, Andria

Buried again. When you go to the beach, make sure you bring a few heavy duty shovels. They work so much better than a tiny plastic one when you want to bury many children at once.

Chandler attempting to tan his legs. He claims that the swim team makes fun of him because his upper legs are white. Too bad his mother doesn't care if he is mocked, she would not let him wear his speedo on the beach.

Ruthie with her crab. This year we found many real crabs, not the docile sand crabs that we usually find. At least one cousin was pinched but none were scared off. Such a fun pet.

Back to School- 2009

I was going to wait until I posted the pictures from our summer vacation to post the first day of school, but I don't know when that is going to happen. As it turns out, I only have a few pictures from the first day of school. I completely forgot all morning but was reminded when I brought Ruthie to her kindergarten class and walked past all the other moms with their cameras- Doh! So I did manage to get a picture of her getting off her bus later that morning. She was so happy to be in school! Here are Maranda and Andria after they got home. Maranda is in the 4th grade this year and Andria is in the 3rd.

I never did get a picture of Chandler, Hanna or Danica, sniff. Chandler is a senior, Hanna is a sophmore and Danica is in 8th grade. Those big kids were especially excited to get back to school.