Thank You Bev!

Bev, We just wanted to say Thank You for the wonderful quilts you made for the kids for Christmas! They LOVE them! What a treasure they can keep forever. They've been wrapped up in them almost constantly the last 2 days. We had a nice time at your house on Christmas afternoon and loved seeing everyone. We hope you all had a great Christmas Day!

Fun Cookout

We just wanted to tell you all thanks for coming to our house last Saturday for an end of the summer cookout. As you all felt, it was definately end of the summer! Sorry it was so cold. But it was fun to see you all, and thanks for all the yummy food! Here's the recipe for the Berry Delight. (Dave opened the fridge on Sunday morning and this was piled on top of some other food and it slid right out and crashed all over the floor. I didn't even know it happened, and came downstairs to find Dave wiping up glass and whip cream. What a mess!)

Berry Delight

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar (divided)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, soft (ok to use 1/3 less fat, not non-fat)
2 1/2 cups + 2 Tbs. cold milk
3 1/2 cups cool whip (thawed)
2 pints strawberries hulled and halved
2 pkg (4 servings each) Jello Vanilla Instant Pudding

1st Layer: Combine crumbs, 1/4 sugar, and melted butter. Press firmly into 9 x 13 pan. Chill 15 minutes.

2nd Layer: Beat cream cheese, 1/4 sugar, and 2 Tbs. milk until smooth. Fold in half of cool whip. Spread over crust. Arrange half of berries in even layer.

3rd Layer: Using 3.5 cups cold milk, prepare pudding as directed on package. Pour over berries. Chill several hours or overnight.

4th Layer: Top off with cool whip and the rest of the berries.

Kyler's Kindergarten

Hi all,
I've loved seeing your kid's first days of school. What an exciting time of year! Kyler loved Kindergarten yesterday and was really excited to ride the bus this morning. He should be home in about 45 minutes. I'm anxious to see how his 2nd day went.

I made your school-bus cupcakes, Brigit, and can I just say yours turned out a lot cuter than mine! The only black squeeze frosting I had kept coming out in globs. Needless to say we ruined a few school-busses trying to make it work and then gave up. :) (See my other blog.) But it was alot of fun making them and the kids loved it. So thank you for a fun idea! I hope Tyce's first week of first grade is going well. I'm sure it's a big adjustment for a kid to be gone most of the day!

And Katie, the crepe recipe looks fabulous. Dave asked for crepes for dinner the other night. And cute pictures of Dylan at school. I'm glad you got to go in with him. I wished I could've gone in with Kyler but his teacher said the room was much too crowded to have all the students and their moms. But I stayed a little while after Kyler went in so I could peek in and see how he was doing.

I hope all is well for everyone, with school and all. I would love to see more pictures of everyone, it's so fun. Debbie, let us know how it goes taking Michael to BYU. We're thinking of you. And good luck, Bev and Perry, with the move this weekend!

Lots of love,
Ali

P.S. I've been meaning to ask any of you if you have any links you want included on this blog? I have some on mine and it's so much faster to just open my blog and click than try to find the addresses again. Anyway, if any of you do I'd be happy to add them.

Porter Park

We had a fun time at Porter Park with you all, and seeing Dan and Brigit and kids. We hope Tyce's head is feeling better! When does he get the staples out? Hope you're having a great trip in spite of that! Here are a couple pictures of a few of the kids on the merry-go-round. I wish I could've gotten pictures of all the kids. Anyway, it was fun to see you all.

Camping Trip

Just a few pictures from the family camping trip... It was a fun time! We missed you Dan, Brigit, Darrin and Kris!

Debbie, forever untangling all the kids' fishing poles!
Carving water-bottle boats to float in the creek.Testing to see if they float.The boat-launch.Jessica, the awesome 4-wheel driver! I don't know how many rides she gave, probably 100. Thanks, Jess! All the kids really love her!Poor Bev, cold in the sun. :)Uncle Doug starting Kyler on what will be a life-long love of speed.Misc. pics:

Water Fight

Hi everyone,
We loved Martin's Cove. We had such a great time with so many neat spiritual experiences. All I could do all day Saturday after we got home was cry. Then yesterday at church everyone who went to Martin's Cove said the same thing. It was such a wonderful experience, one of the greatest things I've ever been able to do. I'm so thankful we were able to go.

We loved seeing Debbie, Jessica, Anna, and Mark on Saturday night! Dave started a water fight and we all ended up soaked. Poor Jessica! I think she got the worst of it! And this picture of Anna and Mark posing cracked me up.

We're looking forward to the family camping trip this weekend!
Love you all,
Ali

Happy 4th!

Hey guys,
I would love to hear about your 4th of July's and see pictures of your kids. We had a fun, normal day - parade, BBQ, fireworks. I can't believe summer is 1/2 over. Kyler was asking when his birthday is, and I said in 6 weeks and he was sad it was so far away. I told him it was right before Kindergarden started and then summer would be over and then he thought that was too short and he didn't want it to come so fast. (nice matching pajamas)

Kara, I loved seeing your Disneyland pictures! I just saw them this morning. The kids loved seeing them too. Lexi thought it was so neat that Haley got to meet Cinderella. What a fun trip!!! I wish we could have gone with you!

Brigit, I made your Buster Bars and they were really good! That is such a great summer treat with ice cream and chocolate. Thanks for the recipe!! And thanks for asking for summer recipes. I have a couple to share.

Chocolate Pie

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp butter, melted
3 squares semisweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cups cold milk
2 pkgs (4 oz each) instant chocolate pudding
8 oz cool whip, thawed

Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press in pie pan, bake @ 350 for 6-8 minutes.

Mix chocolate and condensed milk (melt 20 seconds in microwave, stir, melt another 20 seconds, stir, etc.) Pour into crust.

Mix milk and pudding with wire whisk. Spoon over fudge. Spread cool whip on top. Chill for 3 hours before serving.

White Chocolate Macadamia Caramel Bars

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup butterscotch caramel topping
1 pkg (18 oz) Pillsbury Ready to Bake Big Deluxe Classics refrigerated white chunk macadamia nut cookies

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, water and eggs with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Spread in ungreased 13x9 pan. Bake 15-18 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove partially baked crust from oven. Pour caramel topping (warmed) over crust. Crumble cookies over crust. Bake another 18 minutes or until golden brown. COOL COMPLETELY before cutting.

(These bars are really good and really easy. Dave is not a nut fan, so I made them again with a devil's food cake mix, caramel ice cream topping, and chocolate chip cookie dough. You can get creative and mix and match what you like!)

Meat Enchiladas

Hey Ash,
Mitch's lunch looked good today that he reheated - I told him to have you give me the recipe and he told me to blog the request. So would you post the recipe? It smelled yummy but Mitch wasn't willing to share any.... :) Thanks!

Tippetts Reunion

We loved going to the Tippetts reunion yesterday. We got home late last night but everyone else stayed overnight at Lavell's resort in Preston. It was alot of fun seeing Bev's brothers and sisters and some of your cousins. The kids loved the horse rides and especially the swimming! I don't think I've been down a water slide since I was in Jr. High, it was alot of fun. Kyler and Porter loved it and probably could have stayed in the pool all night. I'm so glad we went and that Dave took the day off to go.

Hooray!

Yay for Bev and Katie! I'm so happy you've joined us. :)

Just had to post how great it is to have grass (it'll be soon for you Katie!) and be able to let the kids run through the sprinklers without a muddy mess! Hope you're all having a great day! Ali

Hi Again Everyone

Hi Guys,

I haven't blogged for awhile because I always want to attach pictures but I haven't been able to take any because our camera has been broken (clumsy me - I tripped and fell on it and broke the lense). So I sent it to Sony and they fixed it and just sent it back a couple days ago. I was so excited to get it back! But I have been scrapbooking the last couple weeks and now realize how insane my picture-taking habit is. I have way too many pictures to scrapbook so it's my goal to scale back(much to Dave's relief.)

We're looking forward to the Tippets family reunion next week. I've always wanted to go see Georgetown and see the house where Bev grew up. I'm glad (and a little surprised) that Dave is taking the day off to go. The kids will think it is neat to have a horse-ride. I hope all of you come that can!

Our exciting news is that our landscaping should be done tonight. They're laying sod today and filling the flower beds with bark. I can't even tell you all how excited I am to have it done!!!

Kyler's T-Ball season is over. He was finally getting the hang of it and loving it so I'm sad it's done. He was too shy the first few games to run after he hit the ball, but the last few games he finally ran around the bases and he had so much fun he couldn't wait for each game. He even got 2 homeruns in one game.

That's pretty much all that's happening here. I put some pictures on my blog of the kids swimming yesterday. I hope the summer is going great for all of you! I've missed hearing from you but I know the summer gets busy.

Debbie, how did Michael's graduation go? I would love to see pictures if you have some to attach.

Oh, and I tried an easy recipe the other night for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. It was easy (with already cooked turkey and ham it's super fast to make) and we all liked it. I took a picture of the recipe to attach so I didn't have to type it. If any of you can't read it and want to make just let me know and I can email it to you or something. :)

Lots of love!
Ali

Porter's Birthday

Hi all, I just wanted to share some pictures from when we went bowling on Monday for Porter's birthday. The little shoes in child-sizes were my favorite, they were so cute! And those classic bowling moments all happened where the kids run and slip down the lane, or throw their bowling ball down the wrong lane. It always cracks me up. We haven't taken them bowling for a long time, and this was Porter's first time. They loved it for the first few frames but pretty soon Dave and I were bowling for all of them because they were wandering around the bowling alley trying to get candy out of the candy machines. Hooray for the disposable camera and these photos that look like they were taken in the 70's! :)

Lexi's 4th Birthday

Today was Lexi's birthday party. Many thanks to Katie and Bev who came to help! I was so happy they were here! And Lexi was so happy to have Lizzy come!

Now we have two 4-year olds and one almost 3-year old. Crazy! It was a fun day. We had a little family party this evening when Dave got home and Lexi got a new bike so we went outside for a little while, and Kyler started riding without training wheels. Yay!

New House Update

Hi all, We were in Rexburg yesterday and I took some pictures of the new house so you who live farther away can see it. Dave thinks it's silly to take pictures now because there's not much to see, but I thought you all might be interested. Bev, Dave said you've taken pictures too so I'll let you take over from here to keep everyone updated.The Builders after a long hard day of work. I had to talk hard to get this picture and had to promise it was the last picture I'll ever take of them (as they're building - Mitch, that doesn't mean at family functions! :)

Lasagna Alfredo Roll-ups

Here is a good recipe I made a couple days ago and Dave was eating left-overs for lunch yesterday and Mitch wanted me to send the recipe. It takes a little time, but looks impressive.

Lasagna Alfredo Roll-ups

8 lasagna noodles
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach
2 Tbsp thinly sliced green onion
1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt
1 egg
Olive garden Alfredo sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente. Rinse in cold water and drain well. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan over medium heat add oil and cook spinach and green onions until tender, stirring frequently. Remove pan from heat and stir in ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, salt and egg. Preheat oven to 375. Place noodles in a single layer on a sheet of waxed paper. Evenly spread some of the cheese mixture on each noodle. Roll up each noodle from the short end, jelly-roll style. In a 8x12 inch baking dish, spoon about ¾ of the Alfredo sauce on the bottom and spread evenly. Arrange the rolled noodles, seam side down, in the dish. Top with mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce. Cover loosely with foil and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted. Serve.

(I also make this with bacon, cooked chicken, and steamed broccoli instead of spinach and green onions. I fry 1 pkg chicken and 1/2 pkg bacon together, steam the broccoli for 5 minutes, then add it all to the ricotta cheese mixture. It's good!)

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

½ cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups heavy cream
1/8 tsp pepper
Pinch salt
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, cream, pepper and salt, and bring mixture to a simmer. Add the cheese and continue to simmer sauce for 8 minutes, until thick.

Ok, Yum!

I just made Brigit's Buttermilk Pancake and Syrup recipe for lunch. They are delicious! I tasted them and said to the kids, "Mmmm, these taste like cake." Kyler said, "No, mom, they're better than cake!" And Porter kept saying, "I want another one mom!" So, Brigit, thanks for another great recipe!

Word of caution to you others who make the syrup, she really did mean use a large pan! I was thinking large sauce pan, so I used my biggest little pan (did that even make sense?!) and it overflowed all over my cooktop when I added the soda. Not a big deal, just a word of caution...

Now I'm going to go have 4ths! :)

Pictures and Pancakes

We got our JCPenney pictures back yesterday. It just reminds me of our crazy day, hard to believe they all look so pleasant in the picture. I love all your blogs and pictures. Sounds like you're all doing great! We're just waiting for spring to come here. Yesterday day was nice, we all got a little sun at the park. Brigit's pancake recipe reminds me of our favorite wheat pancakes. Here's the recipe, if you're ever in the mood for wheat pancakes. They're very hearty and yummy with Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. I think I'll make your buttermilk pancakes for lunch today, Brigit, so I don't have to wait until tommorrow morning to try them!

Wheat Pancakes

2 cups wheat flour
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil
2 cups milk
2 eggs

Cook on hot griddle. Flip. :)

Easter Sunday

Hi everyone! I didn't know if anyone still checks out my blog, and I put this picture of my kids on there but I wanted to share it with you guys too. So here it is of them on Easter. A rare moment that they all stood still and looked at me at the same time!

I had some of those JCPenney Portrait coupons so I decided to take the kids to Idaho Falls and get their pictures taken yesterday. What a nightmare! First, Porter would NOT sit still so we only got one picture of all 3 of them looking somewhat pleasant, but I felt lucky that we got at least one! Then, while we were waiting FOREVER for the people in front of us to pick their pictures the kids were climbing around in a shopping cart, and Lexi's skirt got caught in the wheels and it pulled her skirt clear off so she was standing there in her underwear. Kyler tried to get out of the basket and it tipped over on top of he and Porter. It sliced Kyler's finger and it was bleeding, and fell on Porter's leg (I was afraid for a minute his leg was broken). The boys were screaming and everyone was staring. It was so embarrassing. The store manager said an accident report had to be filled out, so 2 1/2 hours after we went in we finally came back out to drive home. What an adventure! Everytime I take the kids to Idaho Falls I always think, "I'll never do that again!" And then it's like childbirth and I forget until the next time I do it again! Ahhh!

We love Easter-time

We had a great time at the Robinson Family Easter Egg Hunt! Always a favorite. We missed you Debbie, Bill and family and Dan, Brigit and family! I always get carried away with pictures and I took a million, sorry to post so many! Perry said they're probably not doing an Easter egg hunt next year at their new house (they won't have a yard yet), so maybe we can have it in Victor next year. We have to keep the tradition alive! I would love to see everyone's pictures so feel free to post away (Kris, Kara, and Katie this means you!) :) P.S. Katie, also I would love your recipe for those cookies you were talking about, with peanut butter and no flour. Thanks! (Oh, and also if you want to see the photos bigger you can just click on them.)