Winter Wallop

So do I sound like the Weather Channel? They make their titles so dramatic, Winter Wallop 2009! But a wallop it was and it was so fun! I don't remember ever seeing so much snow in one storm, all in about 24 hours.

This was looking out my front window on Saturday night.

I though this looked so cool. Although, now I'm just feeling bad that we don't even have a cover for the grill. No wonder it's falling apart...

I opened my backdoor this morning to see this much snow above the door.

Dan spent over a half and hour digging out his poor little Honda.

This is actually a ruler and a half and there's still snow above it. Don't ask why I have a half a ruler.

We had a great time on a little walk this afternoon.

Adventure Aquarium

We were also able to go to Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey right across the river from Philadelphia. This was the first aquarium I've ever been too, so I don't have anything to compare it with, but IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We loved it! We didn't allot nearly enough time.

Danny got to pet real baby sharks. But since he has issues with getting clothing wet, this wasn't his most favorite thing.
This sea turtle was HUGE! It was so cool. It was much bigger than the ones I've seen in real life in Hawaii.

This was the highlight of the trip!! I could have stayed at the hippo exhibit for another hour, at least! There were two of them and it was so fun watching them play and swim with each other. This may be admitting my ignorance, but I had NO IDEA that hippos swam like this! It was incredible. They had this 20-ish ft. display window to watch the hippos underwater. Danny and a few other little kids would run from side to side following the hippos every movement, squealing with delight. He made a little girlfriend there, Mary Jane. They wouldn't leave each others side after that, so we hung out with her mom for the rest of the afternoon while the two of them ran around, held hands and had fun together! I loved listening to them talk to each other. Mary Jane is about 9 months older than Danny, so she spoke really well. I had no idea what Danny was saying sometimes, but it didn't matter, they communicated! It was really cute.

Here is his little girlfriend!

Sesame Place

Just north of Philadelphia, there is the cutest little amusement park, Sesame Place. It's geared for little kids, so both of my kids were able to do just about every ride with us. They had the greatest parade and some awesome shows. The characters made it so exciting for both Danny and Kate. I'm surprised how much she got into it. Now, she LOVES watching clips on www.sesamestreet.org and will go to the computer, even when it's off, and point and grunt. That means she wants to watch Elmo, and she wants it now, or else I will hear some serious screams of discontent. She is the loudest baby I have ever known. My mother-in-law likes to define this characteristic as just being "assertive." But regardless of what you call it, she still is a bit of a drama queen. And we love every bit of her!

Dan captured this most amazing action shot! This was Elmo's flying fish ride. Danny got to push a button and it would fly high. When he released it, we would start to fall. This was at the beginning of the ride, so you can see Danny was still getting the hang of how to push the button.

And I captured this action shot on Elmo's Peek-a-Bug. I was promptly reprimanded by the 16-year old ride attendant over the quality PA system that cameras were not allowed. Whoops!

Notice the character hedging in the background? There's Elmo, Big Bird and Snuffy.

Golfing with Daddy

Thank you to my awesome father-in-law, John, who took these great pictures! He is such a talented photographer. This picture makes his swing looks pretty good, though I HIGHLY doubt he hit the ball.

Danny LOVES his uncle Matt, almost as much as driving the golf cart.

Celebrate Good Times!

We are celebrating a momentous occasion in our house today. Danny has improved by leaps and bounds in the toilet training efforts recently and today was the first day he had no accidents AND told me that he had to go "number two." I thought this day would never come. I am one happy girl, I mean, mom.

** I hope the following doesn't sound crude and immature, but I don't know how to talk about it other than using these words. **

I don't know if there is a connection with this, but two days ago we started putting Danny's toys in time out when he had a poop accident. He would always be playing with something when it happened, so I decided to put the toys he was playing with in time out. He was told that he could get them out of timeout when he went "poo poo on the potty." Accidents happened two days in a row, but today in the midst of the craziness of getting dinner ready with the missionaries, Danny told me he needed to go, and he went! I was ecstatic about this HUGE accomplishment and he was so excited to take his toys out of time out. Now if we can just keep this ball rolling...

Kate's Party

So I realize she's only one, but it is her first birthday! I enjoyed throwing a big party for Danny on his first birthday, so I wanted to do the same for Kate. And I have been having a lot of fun with cakes, so this is an original Rebecka creation.

I made two cakes in cookie sheet pans, made a delicious pudding-y icing for the center, then cut the cakes into the shape of a one. Then I frosted it with a homemade butter cream icing. For the blocks and letters, I colored fondant and rolled it out, then cut out the shapes I wanted. Just to cover up my icing "issues" I placed Skittles around the perimeter of the cake. If I were to do it again, I don't think I would have used the Skittles. I don't know if it needed anything around it, but I definitely would do something different in the future.

I love this picture, because Kate had three of her cousins AND her brother, all 2 and 3, desperately wanting to help open her gifts. They were so excited they couldn't help but rip the paper every once in a while. Or a lot in some cases.

One happy birthday girl.

Zucchini lovers and haters

For those of you who have zucchini coming out the wazoo and for those of you who hate zucchini, try this recipe! It's smooth, light and delicious! My kids even love it.

Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Curried Zucchini Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
coarse salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1 1/2 pounds zucchini (about 3 medium zucchini) sliced 1-inch thick
1 baking potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted for garnish.

1) Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1 Tbsp salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

2) Add the zucchini, potato, and 4 cups of water; reduce the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes.

3) In batches, puree the soup in a blender (do not fill more than halfway) until smooth, serve immediately, or let cool, and refrigerate in an airtight container until chilled. Garnish with the toasted almonds.

Let me know if you try the recipe. I hope you like it!

Kathryn Hawley

WARNING: Cheesy post ahead.

So Kate has officially completed the first year of her life! I've been thinking about her a lot as we've crept up onto this date and I'm amazed with all the things she is able to do at this point.

For the past few weeks I have been keeping a running list of the things I love about her and that make me smile.

• She loves finding any opportunity when the gate for the stairs isn't up. She then treats it as a race to see how fast she can climb up the stairs. When I come racing up behind her, she giggles so much she can barely continue.
• She has an obsession with my cell phone and the remote. Holding it isn't enough, she HAS to push buttons.
• I have to be sneaky when I unload the dishwasher. If she is in the general vicinity, she makes a mad dash to start pulling things out of the utensil holder and the bottom rack.
• She can unroll the toilet paper with the best of them!
• I love seeing her excitement for new foods. In the beginning, she had the most delicate little fingers as she picked up foods carefully with her thumb and pointer finger. Now, who needs delicate!?! Kate's an eating champ and is currently in the lead over Danny.
• Her walking has improved a lot over the past couple weeks. She still isn't ready to take the plunge and give up crawling, but her cute little, not completely balanced steps are so fun to watch. You can tell she gets enjoyment and satisfaction out of her new found ability.
• I have enjoyed the summer because she has more skin showing than over the winter months and I love it! Her soft, snuggly skin just invites lots and lots of kisses!
• I love her piercing, blue eyes. She really looks at you. It almost feels like she's looking at your soul.
• And I can't get over her scrunchy nose when she smiles. It's one of my favorite things about her.

Kate is an absolute delight. I am so happy that we are lucky enough to have her in our home.

4th of July Weekend

I have kinda been ignoring my blog lately. While I have enjoyed reading up about all of you, I have not felt like posting something myself. (And I have been having fun with Facebook.) But with all the excitment of Dan getting home from his LONG business trip right before the 4th of July, we spent the next five consecutive days together with our family. And it was awesome.

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and this year did not fail to disappoint. On the 3rd we had a fun ward activity. And Danny held perfectly still while getting his face painted. I could hardly believe it. He's never still.

The actual 4th of July was spent at a park for the community fireworks. The fireworks this year were less than spectacular, (possibly due to the recession??) but the kids had a great time. We met up with several of our neighbors and the kids were entertained with a beach ball for like two hours.

But THEY were amazed by the fireworks. So that's all the matters.

Lily plants

These are some of my enormous lily plants. They are in an unusual location for the size of the plants, so I'm gonna try to move them at the end of the season, but I am loving the color!

I'm trying to be a green thumb like my dad and grandma, but I have A LOT to learn.

Love Summer Time

Danny and his cousins playing at the park trying to catch fire flies.

They were really getting the hang of it.

This is Danny's "cheese" face. At least I got his eyes opened in this picture. Usually he squints them as he yells "cheese!"

How did this happen?

As I was getting ready this morning, this is what Danny did while I thought he was playing with Kate. As of now, the clothes remain in the middle of my closet floor, I just haven't wanted to deal with it yet.
Only a few hours later, as I was writing a quick email to my brother Austin, Danny, who was right next to me, found a Sharpie behind the computer desk and wrote all over himself. And I was right there! How could I have been so oblivious??!

Musician in Training

I found this as I was going through the pictures that were taken on my mom's birthday. I just loved it too much to not share it. Danny has loved this toy guitar since we got here and he is just too cute.

Surprise Party

My mom's birthday was on Tuesday. She can now state her age with the help of the word CENTURY!! And for the very special occasion, I decided that I just needed to be there. So with the help of my awesome family, I made arrangements to fly to Idaho to be there on my mom's birthday and planned a little surprise party for her. Nearly everyone except my mom knew about the plans and when she came home from mutual, she walked in the door and entered the kitchen and there we all were. But these pictures tell the story best.

I love this one. It is just so funny. This is raw, real emotion. She had no idea. I don't think her jaw could have been any lower. So fun!

It took her nearly a half a minute to move from her initial position. See picture #1. Once things sank in a bit, then she was able to move and being speaking in a somewhat coherent fashion.

Still in shock.

Josh made the lengthy trip down from BYU-I.

All the grandbabies were there. Danny had been practicing the Birthday song for a month for this very moment. But he of course wanted to help her blow out the candles.

My beautiful sister Alisha and her husband Ben.

Enjoying the pleasant evening out on the patio. We were only missing Kelsey who wasn't able to ditch her class midweek to join us. (She teaches a second grade special education class.) But she will be coming down this weekend. And of course Autie who is serving his mission in Vancouver. We missed him too!