A recipe I have to share

I love to try new recipes. I like to dig through my cookbooks or check out several blogs that I have bookmarked . Well, I discovered this recipe in one of my compilation cookbooks. I don't know if that's the real name for them. You know, it is one of those cookbooks from an organization that is usually sold for a fund raiser. I love those kind because people usually submit their good, tried and true recipes to those. Anyway, I came across this recipe for Honey Bun cake when I was looking to make a dessert from ingredients I had on hand, and my family fell in love with it. I have made it several times and it never lasts more than a day at our house. I made it again Sunday night when Bryan's parents came over for dinner. This is what was left for them to take home.

I know that it doesn't look terribly appetizing in the picture, but it is GOOOOOOOD! So here is the recipe:

Honey Bun Cake

1pkg. yellow cake mix
8 oz. sour cream
3/4 c. oil
4 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
3 Tbs. cinnamon
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. milk
1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix cake mix, oil, eggs, and sour cream. Pour half of batter into a greased 9x13 pan. Spread cinnamon and brown sugar over batter. Cover with other half of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. While cake is hot, mix powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Pour over hot cake.

I always use more brown sugar and cinnamon that the recipe calls for. It is too easy not to try this recipe. Let me know if you try it and how you like it.

This cake also goes well with a game of Uno.

Spring Fling

It is that time of year again. Spring Fling at school has become something that the girls really look forward to. The games, the prizes, the snacks, etc. All of it.

There isn't anything specifically interesting to say about it. So here are the pictures.
Hayden is usually the one clowning around when I am just trying to get one good picture.

She didn't want to waste too much time eating lunch, so she tried to eat both pieces at the same time.

The look on Taylor's face is so typical of her personality. She was having a good time, but she was serious about winning the games. Total concentration.

The volunteer mom at this booth wasn't too fond of Bryan. He was in the background cheering on the girls rather loudly trying to tell them which duck to pick. She must have left her personality at home that morning.

I was glad Bryan decided to take the day off. These types of things are so much more fun as a family. While we were eating lunch, Ms. Burden was going around taking pictures of her students and their families. Since I couldn't get out of getting my picture taken, I handed her our camera too. The pictures of all of us together are few and far between because I am usually behind the camera. But I guess, I have to be in a picture every now and then.

We had such a good time. The weather was pretty good which was nice. We were able to play all of the games at least once and spend some time on the inflatables in the gym. I bought Hayden her own tiger T-shirt at the beginning of the year and she wears it proudly along with Taylor and Payton. After the K-2 kids had their fun, the 3rd-5th grade kids came out. I was scheduled to volunteer during that time. So Bryan got the kids out of school early and took them to see Horton Hears a Who. It was a great day. But when we all finally made it home, I was T-I-R-E-D. I am definately ready for Sprink Break!

We love visitors

The girls love it when we have people over for dinner or just to visit. Having Jilly, Addy, Grandpa, and Aiti over "just because" was no exception. They love having another girl cousin in the family. Anytime she comes to visit is so exciting for them. They are disappointed that Addy is getting passed the age of just sitting still in their lap to be held. So they played with her any way they could. I couldn't even keep them in their chairs during dinner because they wanted to chase her around. But who wouldn't want to skip dinner to play with her. She is too adorable and I don't think she minds all the attention when it is in small doses. All three girls in your face at the same time, can be a little overbearing. When I got the camera out to take pictures, she just kept smiling for me.
Addy did sit still for a few minutes to drink her bottle so, Payton took the opportunity to hold her. The rest of the time they were playing chase and peek-a-boo or getting out our remaining baby toys for her to play with.



After dinner, the girls took turns reading to Aiti and Grandpa. It was a nice evening to spend together as a family. I am glad that Daylyn and Jill live close enough that they can come visit often.

Breakfast for lunch

Did I mention that it rained alot last weekend? While it stormed like crazy (we got somewhere between 7 and 11 inches) all through the night on Friday, we lost power. That means no alarm clock to wake Bryan for the paper route. Good thing he has been doing it long enough to have an internal clock. It was back on by about 6:00 Saturday morning. So it didn't effect us too much. The storm had completely passed by Saturday afternoon. But for some reason, we lost power again Saturday night. Not a problem until it is time to get ready for church. Luckily the water in the hot water heater was still hot so we could take showers. I called the power company and they said it would be back on by 10:30. Fortunately it was conference Sunday so we didn't need to be at church until 11:00. We had everything ready for a marathon ironing session when the power came back on at 10:15. (Now I understand the whole thing about Saturday being the day we get ready for Sunday.) But with no power up to that point I couln't fix the girls breakfast. So we had lunch for breakfast. Yummy PB&J, pretzels, and fruitcups. So I promised the girls I would cook them a special breakfast thing for lunch. When we got home from conference, we didn't waste any time.


And within the hour we had monkey bread. I can almost smell it when I look at that picture.
It was pretty much all gone by the end of the day. And they are already talking about the next time I should make it.

Rain, Rain go away!

Last Saturday, we had a gulley washer. It rained all night Friday night and most of the day Saturday. Even after it stopped it was too wet for the girls to play outside. So we stayed inside all day. The girls decided this was the perfect opportunity to drag out all the color books, markers, and crayons. They spent several hours coloring their hearts out. I loved it, because they didn't argue at all. They had such a fun time just hanging out with each other. I love it when that happens.
A huge bonus was that it gave me the chance to sort through all the color books. We kept one third, threw away a third (the totally trashed ones), and set aside a third for the nursery, if they want them. I also went through the container of markers and threw out all of the dried out ones. Then I went through the crayons and got rid of the little broken pieces. On top of all that, I decided to clean out the closet where we keep all that stuff. Usually rainy days make me feel unmotivated. But, not this time. Guess what color marker Hayden was using? I understand how it gets all over their hands and arms. But how it got between her eyes and up her nose, I will never know.

Lunch time

Lunch time during the week is pretty tame around here. It is just me and Hayden and she usually requests the same thing everyday. A corndog. She can even fix it herself. But as with most things, she likes it better if I do it. She has her little routine. She gets out the corndog, the plate and the ketchup. She waits very patiently for 60 seconds while it cooks. Then she squirts the ketchup on the plate. And everytime, she eats the "corn" then the "dog."

This is just a simple little part of our day. But it is a part I am going to miss next year. Only 6 more weeks of just me and her. I'm a little sad. Okay, a lot sad. I sure hope they serve corndogs in the lunchroom next year.

I 'll cry if I want to

What more can you expect from a houseful of girls? We are always having some kind of drama. Or someone crying about one thing or another. Most days, they all take a turn crying. Well, on this particular day, Payton was taking her turn.

What could she possible be crying about? Did she fall and hurt herself? Did she get in an argument with one of her sisters over a toy? Does she miss the Benhams? Did she get in trouble? No, No, No, and No. She is crying because Darth Vader dies at the end of Return of the Jedi. So sad, I tell you.

She is definately my most tender-hearted and sensitive child. She asked if she could be the one to say family prayer last night, because she wanted to pray that she wouldn't be tenderhearted anymore. I tried to explain to her that being tenderhearted can be a good thing. Because even though it causes you to cry sometimes, when you don't want to. It also means that you have a heart big enough to care about people, have compassion, and be kind. I think it made her feel a little better. But, guess what she did when I was explaining this to her? She cried, but just a little. I think she might be more like me, than I ever thought.

Concentration

Hayden is very serious about her "school work." She doesn't go to preschool, but she loves to learn and do her workbooks at home. Anytime we go to Walmart she tries to talk me into buying her another workbook or some flashcards. We've spent many hours around the coffee table doing her workbooks. She loves to write her letters and work simple addition and subtraction problems. This particular book had two pages about telling time. So she is pretty convinced she can tell time without a digital clock now. I love to watch her concentrate. You can see in the second picture that she has a marker tucked behind her ear. She said she was trying to be like daddy with a pen behind her ear.

Weekend tradition

On Saturday or Sunday mornings, Bryan is always good for a batch of pancakes. He usually makes them himself and calls everyone to come eat when they are finished. But on Saturday, he let the girls help him. Aunt Jill gave all the girls aprons and a boxed mix for Christmas. One of the girls got blueberry pancakes and wanted to make them. So Bryan helped them. They looked so cute in their aprons and jammies. (Thanks Jill.)

It was a just add water mix so there really was no mess.
Of course, they each had to have a turn mixing.

But Bryan was the only one allowed to cook (for obvious reasons.)
They willingly posed for a picture before digging in.

But once I brought out the strawberries and whipped cream, they didn't have time for pictures.

Another one bites the dust...

Hayden lost her second tooth on Sunday at church. Lucky for her the tooth fairy left her another $5 bill. However, she "lost" the other one money from her first tooth. I am sure I will be able to find it soon. She is glad that her two loose teeth are gone because she can now eat apples again. She is growing up WAY to fast!