Cooking Kennedy

For Kennedy's birthday she was given a gift certificate for a cooking class. She was so excited about this because she loves, loves, loves to cook. She got to go for a whole month and hopes to go back again.

Reading the recipe.

Thinking, thinking, thinking. She wanted them to be creative and see what they could come up with and anybody who knows Kennedy know that this is pure torture for her:)

It was a fun experience for her but she was a little disappointed they didn't do more real cooking. She cooks so much at home she already knows more than most kids. They played with food more than cooked and she wanted something a little more challenging. She thought she would learn how to cook a dinner for us:) There is a harder class for older kids maybe she can take that next time. Overall she wanted to do it again and for Kennedy that is a thumbs up!!! Thanks Sherry and Chris for the fun experience!!!

Activity Days

Sydney is involved in a program at church called Activity Days. It is kinda like girl scouts but more religious based. They do activities and check things off. Anyway they had a talent show this fall and for Sydney's talent she decided she wanted to sew something. She decided to sew a skirt.

She cut the fabric.

She learned how to use a sewing machine.

Sewing her seam. Look at that smile, she had so much fun.

Ta Da!!!

Here she is presenting it at the talent show. She made scrapbook pages to show all of the pictures of her creating it. She had such a great time and did a really good job. I am so proud of what a great girl she is turning into. I love you Sydney:)

Better late than never....

Okay I have been a blogging slacker lately. So much going on I have neglected my blogging but my wonderful family keeps reminding me they are missing the updates and my camera has 254 pictures on it because I haven't taken them off in forever so here goes. I plan on catching up this week!!! Fun in the park We had freakishly nice weather in September(yes I know it is December) so we decided to take the kids to the park. Now this was no ordinary trip to the park it was double the FUN!!! We do a babysitting swap with some amazing friends of ours that also have 5 kids. We happen to babysitting on this wonderful weather day so we decided what the heck we would walk to the park with all of these adorable children. Now for those of you who know me well I NEVER go anywhere without at least 3 people commenting on my kids. Having 5 girls makes you stick out I guess. What made me think I could go to the park with 10 kids and not get comments!!! It all started with our parade of children walking down the sidewalk and an older couple started to drive past and they kept driving slower and slower and slower. They were counting heads and shaking their heads:) Next we passed another person walking from the park and she had to stop us and ask "Are they all yours?" The last one was great. There was one person at the park with probably a 2 1/2 year. We had been there a little while when she finally asked if they were all mine. My response "Oh no, only 5 are mine." I thought the lady was gonna pass out, her expression was priceless. "Only 5, ha!" she says back. Very entertaining trip to the park:) Now enjoy the pictures of our fun trip:)

In order left to right. Dyllan, Faythe, Sydney, Delaney, Kennedy, Braedi, Corbin

Audrey and Ephram

Mommy and Rory

Daddy and Rory

I think I managed to get all 10 of them this is just one more silly picture. They were all on jail. We are so blessed to have such great friends. We love you Mechams!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. Here are their costumes at our Trunk-or-Treat ward party. It was a bunch of fun! They had game booths, a haunted house and the girls got tons of candy!!!

Rory was a rainbow from the Noah's Ark collection of costumes. SOOO CUTE! She wasn't in a very smiley mood:)

Audrey was the pink cowgirl! No smiling problem here:)

Delaney was Mary had a little lamb but everyone kept calling her Little Bo Peep and it was making her mad. It was kinda funny!

Kennedy the hippie. All the grownups new right what she was but none of the kids did. Totally cute!

Sydney wanted to be Kit Kittridge for Halloween. We found this great 1930's style dress so she went as Kit dressed as a sailor.

Family photo. I love the moon in the background. The funny thing was is the moon was a crescent moon that night so I have no idea how we got the picture but pretty cool!!!

Lyla Brynn Radigan

I'm an Auntie again!

Lyla Brynn Radigan October 18, 2011 4:06am 20 1/4 in 7 lbs 7 oz Congratulations Ashley and Garrett, she is beautiful!

Monthly Menu September

I liked the month menu so much I am doing it again.I know that it is already the 4th but for the record I did it last weekend but am just know getting around to posting it. I read a couple "Once a Month" cooking cookbooks last month so I am trying some new recipes and to make it easier on my self I have tried to establish some days that are consistent through out the month. For example: Sundays breakfast (Jerame is normally not here for dinner because of his new job so super easy), Tuesdays is a crockpot or freezer meals because we get home late from art every Tuesday, Wednesdays is something I bake in the oven because I am home, Fridays is some kind of pizza, Saturdays grill. It made it easier to plan my meals with a theme. I tried to have one theme each day but it got to hard. So here goes....

• Cafe Rio burritos

• Pizza Rolls, veggies
• Grilled Terriyaki Chicken, baked potatoes, corn on the cobb
• Eggs with bread in the pan, peaches
• Mom's house for a bbq
• Pozole Soup, tortilla chips
• Stuffed Shells. breadsticks, salad
• Sweet and Sour ribs, rice, carrots
• Calzones, veggies
• Marinated bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli
• Pancakes, sausage, peaches
• Fish tacos, beans, chips
• Baked potato soup, rolls
• Chicken pesto bake, salad, breadsticks
• Shepherds Pie, bread
• French bread pizza, veggies
• Grilled Pork Chops, stuffing, broccoli
• Hamburger Gravy, peas
• Salsa Verde
• Sour Cream Chicken, baked potatoes, green beans
• Hawaiian sticky chicken, rice
• Chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, broccoli
• Cheddar beef rolls, french fries
• Kabobs, rice, bread
• Eggs, toast, bacon, fruit
• Chicken salad sandwiches, chips, veggies (picnic) It will cool down eventually right???
• Hawaiian haystacks, rice
• Baked chicken, potato salad, corn
• Italian slow cooker chicken, peas
• Calzones, veggies

Let me know if you want any of the recipes and I will be happy to pass them on. I haven't had time to add up my receipts but I will post the amount I spent at the end of the month. I have spent a little more than $200 so far I think. I did discover a new love this month the bread outlet. It is amazing and I got 9 loaves of bread, 4 packages English muffins, 4 packages of bagels, and 3 packages of hot dog buns for $19. How fun is that:)

Favorite picture EVER!

I love this picture and had to put it on the blog. The girls look so innocent and sweet and just like best friends:)

Happy Birthday Kennedy

Kennedy turned 7 years old this month. It is hard to believe she is so big! She started her birthday morning by opening her presents the second she woke up. Sydney and Delaney bought her a new wallet and they couldn't wait for her to open it. Don't you love all the bed heads:)

Kennedy got to have her first friend party this year. She had a mani/pedi party and it was so much fun.

Here are Braedi, Chloe, and Natalie getting their pedicures.

Aunt Christin giving pedicures to Sydney and Dyllan.

Manicure station. Nana and Grandma(who is taking the pictures) were in charge of the manicures and flowers on the nails. Kyra, Trinati, Kennedy and Whitney are having lots of fun!

After our nails were beautiful they decorated cupcakes. Kennedy loves to cook so she thought this was great fun.

Her cupcake looked like a forest fire. It was a lot of candles for one cupcake:)

And of course present time. She had a fabulous party and was spoiled rotten. Thanks again to everyone that helped out and lent us the foot spas, it was perfect. Happy Birthday Kennedy you are turning into such a nice, sweet, beautiful girl. I am so proud of you!

2nd Annual History Party

We had our 2nd annual history party in August. We are so blessed to have such great friends that we do school with and we celebrate when we finish our history program for the year. We home school year round so we finish around August every year. We use The Story of the World and this year we studied The Middle Ages, the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance. I am amazed at all the things I didn't know and didn't learn in school. This year we had a trivia game we played kids vs/ grownups to see who remembered the most. The kids killed us and everyone had so much fun. Thanks for making the game Ashlee! Every year we let the kids dress up in their favorite character they learned about. This year the kids decided to be Henry V and his 6 wives because we had friends staying her and they had one boy and two girls. There is a fun poem that went with Henry V that that the girls liked. It went like this... divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

Here is Henry V with his 6 wives. The girls loved that they got to dress up like queens and had fun making their crowns. We made name plaques for all of them so we could remember who they were.

Queen number one!

Sydney loved that she got to be Queen Elizabeth's mother so she carried around a doll all evening. Notice the red line on her throat to show she was beheaded:) She thought that was awesome.

Delaney had to have a way to show she died so we put gray makeup around her eyes. The girls thought she was the best dead girl because she is already so pale. They are so funny. Delaney just loved it because any time she gets to wear makeup is the best in her world.

Sassy Audrey need I say more:)

Here is the whole gang all dressed up. Not a super picture but what do you expect with 13 kids under the age of 10:) Such a fun night! Thanks Meechams and Joneses.

Grocery Challenge Update

Drum roll please............ Grand total for the month on groceries is $275.63. I spent $55 more dollars over the course of the month on produce, milk, bread, some coupon things and some camping snacks for our impromptu trip. Over all I am very pleased and will be doing it again this month. My favorite part besides the money savings is having all of my meals listed on the fridge. Dinner time was a breeze this month and I cooked everyday minus a few that we were gone. It was the most least stressful month of dinners I have ever had. So what are you waiting for, try it and tell me how it went for you!!!!

Museum for Youth

We went on a field trip to the AZ Museum for Youth in Mesa with our friends we do art and music with. It is full of hands on exhibits and they also had a Peanuts exhibit. The kids had a great time checking everything out.

They had a giant light bright wall the kids had fun making pictures.

Lots of computer art games.

Audrey and Faythe finger painting with ink.

Thank goodness it was washable:)

Here is Delaney's self portrait. Do you see the resemblance? Such a cute girl:)

Sydney doing a grid drawing.

Kennedy is making music. I never got to check it out but the kids liked it.

Rory was a super trooper staying in her stroller the whole time.

Sydney is my art kid and loves to draw so she had the most fun! On to the Peanuts exhibit. this was actually a lot of fun. They had it set up in different centers with costumes including a glow in the dark pumpkin patch.

Delaney and Dyllan open for business.

Audrey as Snoopy.

Sydney had a lot of fun dressing up and tried to got to do most pf them.

I think Ken's legs are a little long:) Oh well we had a great time. Thanks Ammanda for setting it up.