FHE

Family home evenings are usually simple and direct at the Ballards, as our kids attention span wanders beyond 20 minutes. However, as they continue to grow we try to come up with interesting ways to keep their attention and get them involved in more meaningful ways.

Our last lesson attempted to recreate Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. Due to my poor artistic skills, the tree more closely resembles a tree of death. I didn't have a fake tree, which would have worked much better. I wanted to hang pretty white lights along with carmel covered apples on my fake tree, but resorted instead to placing individual slices of carmel covered apples in baggies and hanging them off my drawing.

Steven commented that if we had wrapped Thatcher's blanket around the 'trunk' like Linus did in a Charlie Brown Christmas Special that it may have had some hope at being a tree of life. "It's really not such a bad little tree", he says, "all it needs is a little love." Anyway, enough about the tree.

I also took tubes out of the left over Christmas paper and made an iron rod that spanned the length of the living room. We talked about Lehi's vision and then Ryley, Kadyn, and Thatcher each had the opportunity to hold tight to the iron rod and make their way to the tree while Steven stood to the side and "tempted" them with worldly wants of littlest pet shoppe figurines and racecars.

Despite his efforts, they held fast- which Steven says shows either faithfulness or inattentiveness to their father depending on your point of view. It was a fun night, and luckily our kids still believe I'm the best artist on the block!

On My Own

Friday night was a solo mission on my part to create the next big treat from our cook book. Steven and Thatch showed more interest in Thatcher's race set, and the girls were too wrapped up in their imaginations to assist, playing something that included castles, horses, and pet shop animals. I couldn't quite make it all out, but then again this is coming from the mother who not long ago was told that her animal sounds are "not very good"; I have now been demoted to "castle door opener".

As I was on my own and we had friends coming over to play games I thought I would try something for a finer palate than the chocolate marshmallow disaster from last week: Orange Bonbon Cake. It was definitly fancy looking but not very yummy (maybe my palate is not as fine as I imagined). I'm starting to think the people who created boxed cakes knew what they were doing and that we'd better head towards the pie, cheesecake, and cookie sections of this book. I didn't want to post however without leaving a great recipe behind, so here is a pecan-caramel cake that is very easy and always gets high marks. When finished it looks very similar to the layered cake below, but tastes much better!

1 box vanilla cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
20 soft caramel candies
1/2 cup heavy cream

Frosting:
1 pkg. cream cheese,softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter,softened
1 box confectioners sugar (powdered)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 9 inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Prepare cake following package directions using the eggs, 1 1/4 cups water and oil. Stir in the finely chopped pecans. Bake at 350 for 25 to 29 minutes until cakes are brown. Turn out, cool completely. While cakes are cooling, melt caramels and cream in a saucepan over medium-high heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until smooth. Let cool slightly. Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke 12 holes randomly in each layer. Pour sauce evenly over both layers and let stand for 1 hour. For frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla until smooth. Place one layer on a serving plate; frost the top with about 1 cup frosting. Lay down second layer and frost top and side with remaining frosting. Press coarsely chopped pecans onto side of cake. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving and keep in refrigerater at all times.

Which is Which

Each time we move I have the difficult job of finding a new hair stylist, someone who will do exactly what you ask for, especially when you show them a picture, nothing more nothing less.

You ladies know that this is NOT an easy task. Let's just say my last experience has brought me to a new resolution that during the remainder of our time here in Tennessee I will no longer be cutting my hair, with the exception of an occasional trim to keep it healthy.

Having said that I assure you all that I am NOT attempting to clone our daughters to look like their mother. At these ages, however, their hair is baby fine and needs some good trims to thicken it up. While I will admit I think it looks adorable short I promise to allow them their free agency to cut as they wish once it's out of the "fine" stage.
So. . . can you tell which is which?

Let's not forget Thatch. He got his FIRST hair cut this past week as well. I think he's pretty happy about it.

Kadyn's Creation

Ryley was playing at a friend's house so Kadyn selected and baked our most recent desert all by herself (with Mom's supervision). This Chocolate Marshmallow Cake had a good topping, but the cake itself lacked flavor. Next time we will simplify the recipe and put a devils food boxed mix on the bottom while adding this topping to finish it off. If you would like this recipe let me know, otherwise I will just post "tried and true" ones.

Wonderful Weekends

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Just kidding, I actually don't believe that takes place until the first week of February.

Between Steven's schedule and Ryley at school all day we try to make memorable weekends. We have had many successful activites and thought we'd share our most recent with you.

Last Saturday we read about different aspects of the Chinese culture.

We all dressed in red, or varying shades of it (red is considered a lucky color). As you can see we each made a hat and decorated them with stickers and glitter. To top it off, Chinese food was ordered and we had a picnic upstairs while watching Mulan.

I must say Ryley and Kadyn did a fantastic job with chopsticks. . . Thatcher's had to be confiscated due to possible injury to himself or others.

Zoo

A day at the zoo is of course a must. The girls continue to love going and Thatcher is at a great age for spying each new animal and making their sounds.

Crazy for Cooking!

Most of you know that I absolutley LOVE to cook. It's so fun! Little Kadyn is definitely second in command in the kitchen, with Ryley eager to join in too. I recently bought a great Taste of Homes cookbook at Costco (I love their recipes). This one is all sweets! We began a new tradition in efforts to make a dent in this book by the end of the year. During weekdays we eat healthy snacks and treats. Then (this is the good part) on Friday the girls, along with one parent, will make a new pie or cake for a yummy snack over the weekend! So, without further ado, here is pastry number one. Steven and the girls kicked off the tradition together and made a Cream Puff Pie. It was VERY good!






























We also made cinnamon rolls for some new families in our ward as our boundaries were just realigned. They were very tasty (recipe below), but we still gave away MOST of the "fruits of our labor". It was a fun day.
































Cinnamon Rolls

First prepare your yeast.

1/2 cup warm water
4 T yeast (4 packets)

Stir together and let expand.

2 cups scalded milk
2 cups cold water
1 T salt

Combine above ingredients in mixer then add yeast and mix.
While mixing add

4 T sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
13 or 14 cups flour (we have a big mixer)

When all mixed, let rise.
Roll out. Pat on butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar, and nuts.
Roll into a snake, cut, let them rise in pans and bake @400 degrees until golden brown.
For icing I just do a thick mix of powdered sugar and PET milk and drizzle it on, but you may have a cream cheese frosting you like better.
This make a TON so unless your giving them out you may want to half. Hope you enjoy!