How We Made Cake Balls

So this year I was introduced to cake balls twice in 2 weeks. Once by the school librarian (she brought them for all the employees and told me how to make them) and once by Stacy when we were in Las Vegas. Stacy's were very smooth, had cute little faces on them and were on lollipop sticks. They looked professional, while Mrs. Miyasaki's looked a lot more like the way mine turned out.

First you bake a cake; we baked a lemon cake. After it cools, you crumble it into a bowl.

Then you stir in a can of frosting. We used lemon frosting. I eventually used my hands to thoroughly incorporate the frosting with the crumbs. This is where I have a question for Stacy: was I supposed to use a whole can of frosting? It seemed pretty sweet and pretty gummy when I was done with it.
Next we rolled little balls of the dough and put them on wax paper on a cookie sheet. We then let them chill in the refrigerator to firm up a bit.Then I melted a bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave and rolled the balls in the chocolate and put them back on the wax paper, then back in the fridge to harden.When I ran out of white chocolate, I used milk chocolate, which evidently has the power to make 7 year olds throw up. (See New Year's Eve post.)The finished product was tasty, but a little on the sweet side. I'd like to try other flavors. One cake made about 90 cake balls. That's a lot of balls.

New Year's Eve 2009

The fact that I'm summarizing New Year's Eve at 9:42pm says a lot about our style of partying.
We spent the day cleaning and organizing Lauren's bedroom, which required all 4 of us and resulted in a 50 pound bag of trash, plus a bag of DI donations. (We did Emma's room yesterday.) We also did 6 loads of laundry and put away all the Christmas totes in the crawl space under our house. We were ready for the big party by 6:00pm.
The Christensens came over with meatballs, a cheeseball, and some sweet, gooey Chex mix, which I LOVE. We made cheesy artichoke dip, bruschetta with crusty baguette slices, and cake balls. We sliced up some beef stick, cheese and crackers and put out some M&M's and nuts. Everything was delicious. This is after we had already enjoyed most of the food...

Lauren went home with the Christensens after some serious begging from both Ketti and Lauren for a sleepover tonight. It is Lauren's first non-family sleepover and the first time Ketti has ever had a non-family guest sleep over. As Lauren said, we're pretty strict about when and if the girls ever sleep over at someone's house. The Christensens are on our list of about 3 people we wouldn't hesitate to let the girls spend the night with.
We played Wii and talked a lot during our party...
Jens let Landon know that he does NOT like to be called "Bubba," and Ketti let me know that the milk chocolate covered cake balls made her want to throw up, but the white ones were OK.

*Here's a side note: It came to me that it would be fun to have a party with nuts and balls as the theme. There's a lot you could do besides eat all the "ball-oriented" foods, like have nut-cracking competitions, play all kinds of ball games, and listen to music from the Nutcracker. There's really no end to the fun.

Christmas Slideshow

This slideshow is just a recap of our Christmas trip to Las Vegas.

Pomegranate Jelly

Today I wanted to put away our Christmas stuff and catch up my blog and maybe get started on some sewing projects. Instead, Landon cut into some pomegranates and started squeezing juice out of them. Soon, I was required to help him get through all 20+ pounds of pomegranates from Grandma Duffin's tree. I ran to the store and got sugar, cheesecloth, jelly jars and pectin. We ended up with 23 jelly jars (half-pints) of pomegranate jelly. I have a feeling that tomorrow he'll get started on cracking pecans and I'll spend another day-free from work and school schedules-cracking pecans out of their shell.
From what we've tasted, the jelly is pretty dang good. If anyone wants to try it, send us some postage money and we'll send you some jelly.
Here's the chief squeezer at work...

The Day After and The Journey Home

The day after Christmas we shopped till we dropped. Nana, Lauren, Emma and I went on our traditional shopping trip where Nana buys some cute clothes for the girls and we squeeze in as much shopping as possible before the sun goes down. This time Lauren only shopped at Justice with us, then went with Dad and Christina to ride her scooter at the park and play some more at Chuck E. Cheese. Nana went with Emma and me to shop at JC Penney, where Emma was able to restock her clothing supply. She outgrows clothes so fast that by Christmas she needs as much as she needed when school started back in August. We met up with Landon, Christina, Lauren, Justin, Stacy and Lincoln at Pei Wei for lunch, then continued our shopping at JoAnn so I could buy fabric to make some church clothes for Emma.
This is Lauren playing with some modeling clay at Nana's house...
When we got back to Nana's house, I did laundry, organized and packed our stuff for the ride home (I do a lot of the preliminary stuff, Landon loads the truck before we leave). We left Sunday morning. We made great time and only stopped once. We made it to the Luke's house in Spanish Fork by about 4:00pm. They had made an amazing dinner for us! I almost wanted to cry because it looked so good after our long drive. We love visiting with the Lukes and unfortunately we only had a couple of hours to get in as much talking as we could. The kids are always so happy to see each other and I think they could play for days without wanting a break. Talking to Jane is like therapy for me and always puts me in a good mood. Sadly, Emma wasn't feeling well and we had to leave early because she was in a lot of pain. We left and drove up to Kristen's house where Emma soon purged a whole week's worth of food. I'm sure the Lukes were grateful we had arranged to stay with Kristen that night.
Monday, Kristen and Oliviana went shopping with us at Barnes and Noble, Nordstrom Rack and JoAnn's (again) and we all ate lunch together at Pei Wei (again). Emma was feeling much better and we kept a close eye on her portion size and food choices.
This is the girls playing on the way inside to Barnes and Noble so Emma could spend her giftcard...

Here's a picture of Oliviana and Lauren enjoying their chicken Lo Mein kids' meals...
We hit the road for home around 2:00pm, and arrived in Rexburg around 6:00pm.
We are so happy to be home! We had such a nice trip, but sleeping in our own beds and relaxing in our house is pretty great after 10 days away.
Here's a video of Lauren doing her hula hoop while we pump gas in northern Utah...

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started at about 6:30am. The girls opened present after present and loved everything they got. Some highlights: Emma got a necklace, boots, a fashion designer kit, a Nintendo DS, and a Barnes and Noble giftcard. Lauren got a scooter, a necklace, an MP3 player, 3 year supply of sugar-free gum, and books. They both got some board games, DS games and Wii games. Believe it or not, they got even more than that, but those are the highlights. They were spoiled again this year, but they're still grateful and acknowledge the love behind every gift extended, regardless of the price tag.

We spent the day playing with the girls' toys and learning how to play some new games. Landon and Christina slaved in the kitchen to cook a delicious meal, which we shared with Grandma and Grandpa Duffin. We ate a prime rib roast, roasted vegetables, salad, rolls, corn pudding and strawberry cheesecake. I was introduced to parsnips, which I had never tasted before. They have the consistency of a potato and the flavor of a carrot. Yummy!

Landon, Christina, Lorina and Nana went to see Avatar Christmas night. They saw it on an IMAX screen, in 3D. Apparently it was pretty good. Great special effects. I'm glad Landon had someone to see it with him.

Landon and I received a box of pomegranates and two big bags of pecans from Landon's grandparents. They got them off the trees in their yard! Watch for a blog post of what we did with the pomegranates!

The girls received mixed nuts and a nut cracker in their stockings. We like to call it their nut sacks.Emma got some boots from Santa, but they didn't fit. We returned them and long story short...ordered some boots online from Payless.com. Hopefully she'll get them in a couple of weeks.One of the most useful gifts the girls got was their own Snuggies. They are loving them.
Lincoln looked super cute in his Christmas jammies. He didn't seem very excited to open his gifts. I think he wanted to cut to the chase and start playing with the presents instead of messing around with opening them and waiting for them to be put together.
Lincoln let Landon help him play with his new magnadoodle toy. Landon spent a lot of time chasing Lincoln while we were there. It was funny to hear Lincoln shriek every time Landon caught up to him.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we (Nana, Christina and the four of us) went to Rocco's pizza place/deli for lunch and it was yet another trip highlight for me. My favorite kind of pizza is New York style pizza and this place was amazing! Everyone there spoke with a New York accent. The food was delicious.
Lorina decorated gingerbread houses and gingerbread men cookies with the girls. The girls usually get one house to decorate together, but this year they each had their own to decorate. They had so much fun and I had so much fun turning that task over to Lorina.
For dinner the whole family came together for appetizers, a new tradition started last year. We had potstickers, leftover buffalo wings, nacho cheese sauce, cream cheese/chipotle dip, chips, and crackers, among other things.
Landon read our two Christmas books, that we read every year. The girls put on the pajamas I made for them, and set out letters and some cookies for Santa.

Days 3 and 4 in Las Vegas

Tuesday all of us met Landon's Aunt Dawna and Uncle Alex at a Chinese restaurant in Henderson, near their house. After a good meal, we went back to their house and exchanged Christmas gifts. Aunt Dawna is always so generous with the girls and us, and we were happy to visit with them.

After the visit, Lorina, Nana and Stacy took Emma, Lauren, Lincoln, Emery, Quincy (Emery and Quincy are two of Stacy's sister's daughters, our girls call them their "other" cousins) to see the Princess and the Frog movie. They LOVED the movie and loved playing at McDonald's with their "cousins." They got home after 10:00pm, which is quite an event at our house.

Landon and I stayed home and watched the football game between BYU and Oregon. It was a pretty boring game because BYU pretty much crushed Oregon...not much to watch.

Wednesday, we went to the temple to do Landon's Aunt Lynn's temple work and to be with Lorina as she went through for the first time. It was cool to witness Lynn's baptism and confirmation (by a proxy...I didn't want to get wet) and then be the proxy for her initiatory and endowment. It was also really special to be there with Lorina and so many other family members. Landon's grandma, cousins, and lots of family friends were there at the temple. This is Justin, Stacy, Lorina, Nana, Landon and me at the atrium area of the Las Vegas Temple...

Aunt Christina took Emma, Lauren and Lincoln to Chuck E. Cheese to play, the Dollar Store to spend money and Fuddruckers to eat, while we were at the temple. The girls had sooo much fun! It was a really fun day for the girls, but I know Christina was pretty exhausted by all the fun.

After the events of the day, Lorina and Christina took all of us out for dinner to Buffalo Wild Wings! I'm not sure if I felt the spirit more at the temple or eating dozens of wings. Close call.

This is Lauren being wild at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Day 1 and 2 in Las Vegas

We had a pretty uneventful drive down to Las Vegas Sunday morning. We stopped way too many times for Landon to empty his bladder due to all the caffeine he was drinking, but other than that we had a pretty smooth ride.

We had a family dinner that Landon helped put together Sunday evening and it was fun to see Justin, Stacy, Lincoln, Christina, Lorina and Nana. The girls were overwhelmed when they saw all the gifts under the tree with their names on them.

On Monday, Nana, Landon, Emma, Lauren and I drove down to the strip to visit the M&M store, see the Bellagio flower garden thing, and walk around a little bit. I especially enjoyed eating at In and Out for lunch! Yummy.

It was amazing to see all the flowers and plants they used to create these Christmas scenes at the Bellagio. That tree behind Lauren was real and HUGE!

The M&M store was 4 floors of overpriced M&Ms merchandise. I had hoped to see more candy and less merchandise. (I bought about a pound of peanut M&Ms with a mix of 22 different colors, but then left it in Las Vegas!!! So disappointing!)

We hoped to see the fountains at the Bellagio, but they start going off at 3:00pm and we were there around noon.

Leaving for Las Vegas

School was out on Friday the 18th of December, so we decided to leave on Saturday the 19th for our Vegas/Utah Christmas trip. We spent all evening Friday and all morning Saturday, cleaning, packing and taking down all of our Christmas decorations. Luckily, there was a newlywed couple who could use our live tree, so we felt good about not letting the tree go to waste. By about 1:00pm on Saturday, we were all packed and ready to leave town. Emma had read about the lights on Temple Square in her Friend magazine, and really wanted to stop and see everything. We got downtown, saw the lights in about 20 minutes, waited 1 1/2 hours for Kristen, Manase and Oliviana to join us (the traffic was unbelievable), took some pictures with them and then drove to Chuck-a-rama for some real Christmas joy. We spent the night at Kristen's house and left in the morning for Las Vegas. The girls like to cuddle up together on the air mattress when the air is being let out.

If you've ever been interested in seeing how "Families Can Be Together Forever" would be sung by a 2 year old on American Idol, watch this video...

Emma's First Concert

Last night Emma had her first orchestra concert. There are 120 5th graders in orchestra and I don't know how many 6th and 7th graders, so they rented the Barrus Concert Hall at BYU-Idaho. That means if we wanted to watch her, we had to buy tickets for $1 each. The concert sold out and apparently some parents weren't even able to get tickets. The 5th graders played 4 songs (plucked 3 and used their bows for 1). It was a 10 minute concert, but it was really cute. Emma sat way in the back, so we couldn't see her, but we still enjoyed it.

This is Emma standing up in the back so we can take her picture before the concert began:

This is Emma eating a celebratory blizzard after the concert:

Yesterday Emma came home from school and said, "I got to digest a squid in science today!" She meant "dissect," but as it turns out they also got to sample some calamari, so she actually did digest some squid.

This is Lauren, playing with our neighbor, Brooklyn, on the playground this afternoon. They were just hanging out on the swings, talking together. I thought it was cute. Lauren has missed Brooklyn lately, because her dad's been in town and she's been staying with him (her parents are divorced).

Finished Quilt!

So Jane bought and sewed the squares together, Jane's mom quilted it on her quilting machine and I sewed together the sashing, borders and binding (learned how to bind it using a tutorial video on Youtube). I'd really like to say I made my first quilt, but I made a little over half of it, I guess. Either way I'm really, really grateful to Jane and her mom and really, really proud of the work I did on this quilt. I LOVE it!!!!
Here are some different views...hopefully the beautiful quilting can be seen in these pictures. Jane's mom did an amazing job.

The Posts That Got Away

Despite the fact that I post on this blog very regularly, I realized there are a few pictures I haven't posted. I was looking through the pictures stored on my computer in the folder marked "2009" and found several pictures I had intended to post but somehow missed. They're very random, but kind of fun...

Meet "Doyle", Lauren's little eraser buddy she bought for a quarter at the Rex. She slept with him for a few nights until he disappeared.

Now meet "Lawrence," the bull frog tadpole Landon bought for his classroom in September. Believe it or not, he is still a tadpole. The kids have lost interest and Landon has since added a pair of gerbils to his classroom because the tadpole refuses to grow legs and evolve. He's planning a way to kill it (leave it outside in the -20 weather for a few minutes) and feign innocence when the kids discover it. He's tired of taking care of a developmentally delayed tadpole.

This is the best apple crisp we've ever tasted. You put the crumble stuff on the bottom of the apple pie filling AND on the top of it. Incredibly delicious.
This is what happens when the dish soap drips into a sink of dirty dishes and then the dishes get put into the dishwasher. This is the hat that Landon's mom bought for him when we went to Jackson this summer. He looks cute in it.
Landon bought Lincoln Logs for his classroom for the kids to play when they have indoor recess. The girls haven't been able to stop playing with them.

This is a picture that explains why we are fat. We like to have little parties as soon as the girls go to bed. Tonight we had crackers topped with cheese dip (recipe on page 1 of our first Cooking Fevre cookbook) and beef stick, pickles and diet pepsi.