We are thankful for the Segos

It's true. We are so thankful for the Segos. What great hosts to have us over for the second time in a month, and the second Thanksgiving in a row! We love going to their house. Paul's sister Heidi is one of my favorite people ever. Benjamin adores his cousins (especially Lane and Breton). Rhett gets to chase the cats. ("DAH!" says Rhett, because basically any animal with any amount of fur and four limbs is the same to him as a dog.) For us, it's an all-around good time.

We need to start remembering to actually use the camera we bring with us. We didn't take any pictures until the day we left. I guess that means we were too busy having a good time. We had a nice Thanksgiving meal, but other than that I don't remember many particulars of the visit besides our Black Friday shopping.

Some of the stores we intended to visit opened so early that it didn't make sense to go to bed. So we stayed up. Paul headed over to one store to secure a laptop for Heidi around 2 am and shortly after that Heidi and I started off our shopping at Toys R Us, which we entered and then exited shortly thereafter on account of the massive line that wrapped around the store and which hardly moved at all. Then we found some good deals at Old Navy, walked into Kohl's and out again for the same reason we did it at Toys R Us, and finished up at Target before meeting Paul at the computer place. I think I finally went to sleep about 8 am on Friday. And I'm still feeling it. Later Paul went on a bike ride with Landon, which was really nice for him, and Cara and Lane got to stay up to play games with us. The Duerschs are big on the game Rook, which I had never heard of till I met Paul.

So no pictures until Saturday, but they're of the sweetest nieces and nephews and these kids really made the trip so fun!

Allie and Cara and little Will

Will is just the sweetest baby!

Lane (aka Awesome Cousin of the Year) put together this sweet "trailer" for Lightning McQueen! He pulled Benjamin and Breton around the yard in it and they just had a ball!

Sweet Allie, who gave us this nice Thanksgiving card:

We feel so blessed and grateful to have family members close by for holidays like this one and other fun and special times!

Apple Turkeys

Paul's sister Marianne had the fun idea to make turkeys out of apples with her boys. When Benjamin saw the pictures on her blog he didn't want to do anything else the rest of the day but make apple turkeys. So after a trip to the store where Benjamin hand-selected an apple for each of us, we spent our Family Home Evening making these guys:

(Can you tell which one is Pauls??)

One of the poor birds got carved in the end.

Delicious!

Thanks for the fun idea, Marianne!

Weekend with the Segos, part 2

I finally figured out how to transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer! Such a happy day. With my old phone I couldn't move pictures directly from the phone to the computer. The only way to get them off (so said the Sprint Store guy) was to e-mail them (like I was going to pay for that). My only regret about that set-up (which still stings a bit) is that the first picture taken after Rhett was born (while Paul was in Bellingham and my in-laws were on the way to the hospital) was on that phone. A nurse took a picture of Rhett on the scale for me. I had really wanted to find some way to get that one picture off the phone, but after several baths in baby saliva my phone gave up on me. Even though I know it's not a big deal, it still bugs me a little.

Anyway...

I actually did take some pictures while we were in Richland! These are all from Saturday at the park when the kids played in the Family Friendly Soccer league that their way cool mom and dad created.

Here's Allie (in the middle) during her soccer game

The little boys played at the park while the big kids played soccer. Benjamin followed Breton around almost the entire time, wanting to do everything together.

This is how Rhett figured how to go down the slide all by himself. He thought it was pretty fun. I was pretty impressed with his fearlessness. Later he went down a different slide that had a bigger drop to the ground and he fell on his head. It wasn't so fun after that.
(I don't know what the deal is with the sound on these videos. Anyone know about this stuff?)

Afterwards the kids (and Paul) had fun in a leaf pile. Here are Paul and Lane ready to drop leaves on Rhett (which he thought was so fun)!

A weekend with the Segos

Last Friday we headed down to Richland, WA, to visit with Paul's sister Heidi, her husband Landon, and their kids Cara, Lane, Allie, Breton, and Will. We also got to hang out with Grandma Duersch, Alene and Kelv, and baby Camden who all came up from Utah for Will's blessing.

Of course, we brought the camera but didn't take any pictures. Too bad. My favorite parts of the visit were watching Allie score two goals in her soccer game (and winning!), making salsa and guacamole with Alene and Heidi while talking about good books, watching the video of Cara in the play Pirates of Penzance (in which she did awesome!)... to name a few. We always love visiting with the Segos!

Thanks, Heidi and Landon, for a great weekend!

Honesty

I heard Rhett crying in the boys' bedroom today. I went in to investigate and found Rhett sitting on a pile of Matchbox cars next to a toppled over set of shelves. Rhett has been known to climb onto said shelves, so I said to Benjamin, "Uh oh, did Rhett fall?"

His reply:

"No. I threw a car at him."

Glad he doesn't think to lie yet.

Halloweening (and why my husband is the coolest guy ever)

We had a great Halloween this year! This was the first time in three years that we weren't constructing costumes in the evening right before it was time to go out. It was such a relief to not have a hectic (or too hectic, I should say) Halloween.

Benjamin started the day off by strapping on his tool belt and heading down the street to his friend Jada's Halloween birthday party!


I cut and re-sewed the t-shirt down to size for Benjamin (just don't look at it too closely). It was one that Paul got from work, and it made a perfect shirt for a trick-or-treating construction man with the reflective strips on front and back. Paul and I also worked together to create the tool bags. Paul designed and I sewed, and altogether I think Benjamin went out with a pretty cool get-up.

I should backtrack. Thursday night we carved jack-o-lanterns! Benjamin is just old enough now to get involved in the process. Here he's helping me get the guts out of my pumpkin. Then he helped Paul carve a nice face and a John Deere logo on another pumpkin.


Rhett's participation was quite a bit more limited. Basically he was miserable the whole time because we kept taking the knives away from him and he couldn't get up on the table.


Friday night we had "mummy dogs" for dinner. I saw the idea on a blog, but now I can't find which one. Thanks for the idea, whoever you are.


We did the mummy dogs the day before because on Halloween we had our traditional Duersch family chili-in-a-pumpkin!


Then it was time to jump into costumes and head off to the ward trunk-or-treat. This was they boys' first trick-or-treating experience. Last year Rhett was a wee little baby and both boys fell asleep on the way to the Halloween carnival.

It was a little overwhelming for them at first, and neither of them really knew what to do. Benjamin got the idea after a while, but he wouldn't go anywhere without me because he was so intimidated by it all.

Rhett screamed the whole time. He wasn't crying or scared. That's just how he handles just about every emotion right now. He screams. Loudly. I think in this case he was just overwhelmed.

(Rhett's recycled BYU football player costume from 2007)

So why is my husband the coolest ever?

Take a look.

He built it in just a couple of days with some help from Tool Man Benjamin. And while Paul won't rave about it, I have to say that it was the hit of the trunk-or-treat! A real door to knock on instead of a bowl of candy sitting in a car trunk? What could be better? Paul even had a peep-hole so he could watch people from inside. Most of the little kids liked to knock on the door, but several of the older, pre-teenish ones were sure that something would jump out and scare them so they wouldn't knock on it. Next year (if we do it again) we'll make it a bit more welcoming with a "please knock" sign and a step for kids to stand on to reach the door.

We took two sticky-fingered, sugar-pumped kids home and gave most of the rest of our candy to the five trick-or-treaters who came by our house. (Really, it's pathetic how few kids come trick-or-treating down our street.) Rhett was wasted but so high on sugar that it took a lot of chasing, hide-and-seek and tickling to burn everyone out.


It was a fun day! Hope yours was too!

Note to self:

When the bread recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of water...


4 1/4 cups is way too much.


Also, does anyone else see a pattern here?



Fortunately, the bread still turned out okay. It's actually quite nice. And I got three loaves instead of the usual two.

What's new with us

This is our family's seasonal decor. Pumpkins... and a BYU flag. I doubt Paul is ready to talk about his Cougars after last weekend's game, so I'll leave that for another post.

Last weekend Paul's mom and dad were here so that Dad could ordain Paul to the office of High Priest and Paul could begin serving as a counselor in the bishopric. The main thought that was going through our minds during the previous week was, "Didn't see that one coming."

We had barely reached our pew on our first Sunday back at church in Bellingham when President Youngberg from the Stake Presidency asked to talk with us, just minutes before the meeting began. I must have been pretty clueless because I thought it was just a little "welcome back" sort of chat. When do they ever do that? Anyway, there you have it. Paul is the youngest High Priest in the ward, with the youngest family. Like I said, we didn't see that one coming.

It was great to visit with Mom and Dad Duersch for a couple of days. They drove all the way from Orem, only to have us drag them out in the rain to the pumpkin patch just hours after they arrived in Bellingham. Okay, we didn't drag them, but it wasn't the choicest of times to venture out to the farm. Still, I think it was fun.


I picked out a few small gourds to display in the house. Unfortunately, my favorite, bright orange one grew a nice big patch of mold after we brought it home and I had to throw it away.

This place has a really fun feel to it. They have many, many creative displays around the farm.


In fact, this is where we came last year to get pumpkins (and later a Christmas tree), and I think a little then and now is in order.

Benjamin then (October 2008):

Benjamin now:

This year the boys really enjoyed the farm animals. Rhett had never really seen any in person, and he was completely won over. He really loved the rabbits and wanted to touch just about every animal that was close enough...


and then a chicken bit him, and that fixed him right up.

We came home with some cider and a small selection of gourds. I opted to pay 12 cents per pound for carving pumpkins at the grocery store versus 30 cents per pound at the farm. And I am not ashamed about it.


Grandma came prepared with sticky letters and sticky people, a perfect activity for Benjamin. She even stuck magnets on the back so everyone can hang out on the fridge now.

Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad! We had a good time, and it was a perfect break from the everyday.

I have been so pleased with the beautiful scenes outside this week. There are gorgeous red and orange leaves everywhere. Here is a recent view of our back yard.


It will probably stay this way until it stops raining long enough and/or it seems worthwhile to rake all the leaves up (meaning we won't have to do it all over again in two days).

Sugar Cookie Sniggler

A couple of weeks ago I made some sugar cookies to take to a baby shower. Of course, both boys were eager to sample what was being made. Rhett was a bit more persistent than Benjamin, though. It didn't take long for him to discover the powdered sugar goodness coating my work surface.


A few people at the shower asked for the recipe, so here it is. I found out last weekend that the recipe comes from my mother-in-law's college roommate. Not that you need to know that, but I've been wondering myself.

Kathy's Soft Sugar Cookies

2/3 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. milk
3 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt

Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Dissolve baking soda in milk and blend. Add vanilla. Sit flour and salt; add gradually to mixture. Chill. Roll about 1/8" thick and bake on a greased cookie sheet @ 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

The dough is very sticky, so sometimes I add a tiny bit more flour, but mostly it's important to chill it for a long time. Mine was in the fridge for several hours (or maybe overnight, I can't remember). Then I roll it out on powdered sugar. This time I also tried keeping the cut-out cookies in the fridge for a few minutes, and I think that helped them keep their shape in the oven. Oh, and I do mine a little thicker than 1/8".

Creamy White Frosting
(From Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

1 c. shortening
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. lemon, orange, or almond extract (I used almond)
4 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar (about 1 pound)
3 to 4 T. milk

In a medium mixing bowl beat shortening, vanilla, and extract with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add half of the powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar and enough remaining milk to reach spreading consistency.

When I used this for Benjamin's birthday cake I used 1/2 c. margarine and 1/2 c. shortening. For the cookies I used 1 c. butter. I liked both ways, and I think both would be better than just shortening. I frosted 30-35 cookies (about 4") with this recipe.

Birdhouse painting with Benjamin

Slowly but surely I'm going to try to fill in the gaps about things we did in Alaska since much went unposted with our limited internet access.

This is one of the rainy day activities we did in September. (Whether it was actually raining, I can't remember.) I spent a fair amount of time at JoAnne's craft store while we were in Juneau, which the boys were thrilled about. (Can you guess how thrilled they were?) During one of our visits, Benjamin was rewarded with a $1 wooden birdhouse to paint since he had behaved really well that day. Unfortunately, the birdhouse ended up in the trash as we were leaving for the airport on our way home because it just would not fit. But it filled some time quite nicely, as you will see below. Here, Benjamin tells it in his own words (with some help from me).

I love painting my birdhouse.
Why did you love it?
'Cause I did.

I love painting the roof and the sides.
I love painting the orange and blue.

I love painting a castle.
Did you paint a castle?
No.

Bye bye! I love my birdhouse!

(Rhett was a good sport, too.)