Thanksgiving 2012

Snap shots from the Steed family Thanksgiving (I totally spaced out on the Davis one and didn't take ANY shots! Terrible!)

10 on Tuesday

1. Conference was great. Lots of distractions this year so I am glad I can go back and listen and reread the inspired messages.

2. If you didn't see the post about Lucy's 7th birthday party go back to yesterday's post and read all about it.

3. Last week I got to go to Eli's preschool class and be a helper. Thank goodness I have a friend who will watch Oliver for me so I can do stuff like that!


4. I've recently realized I love making homemade pizza. I always have but I got some restaurant pans and a pizza peel and stone and now I love it even MORE! We seem to have pizza on Fridays lately... a lot.


5. Apparently I probably have something in my arms. That is quite painful... I can't remember the big medical name Regan told me it is. But it's like Carpel tunnel except in your elbows and the outside of your hands. It makes my hands weak and it makes my arms go numb a lot. It is really annoying... but at least I am throwing up less :)


6. Since it was Lucy's b-day this past week I made cupcakes for her class. Red Velvet cupcakes. Some times I wonder if other kids are like where are the normal white cupcakes when I bring stuff like this :) But Lucy's loves it and that is why I am doing it!


7. Are you thinking about Halloween costumes yet?

8. I am moving forward with my plans to make my blogs into one blog.

9. Speaking of my other blog, I've been busy putting up more pictures over there.

10. Oliver is pretty much walking. Still totally like a drunken man... but he can do it!

Lucy's Pajama-o-rama Party

Lucy and I talked about all different ideas for her birthday party and she kept changing her mind. I gave her a deadline and she finally came up with a pj party. So I looked around and we went with a Pajama-o-rama Party. (I loooove planning parties :) HA)

Here's the invite: (I totally found an invite that I liked and then made my own version of it!)


For decorations I went with the same colors I always go with :) The colors in her room!! I used the same banner that I made a few years ago that hangs in her room. And all the puff balls and paper lanterns that hang above her bed. I also found some great fabric that was totally in my color scheme from Value village. (I am going to make them into pillows for her room now). I also got some pretty flowers and had jars of cereal as centerpieces on the table. And I got paper plates and silverware from Michaels and the Dollar Store. I just got square ones for chargers and round ones for the plates to make it all fancy :) Each plate also had a balloon on top of it for later.



For the food, I went with all of Lucy's favorites. She looooves breakfast foods. So we had crepes (her very favorite) with fruit, Nutella, whipped cream, marshmallows, chocolate chips and coconut syrup. And then we had hash browns, scrambled eggs and bacon. PLus chocolate milk and orange juice.


All the girls ready to eat!


For the activities, first up we ate breakfast! Then we made cereal necklaces out of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. The girls ended up spending a lot of time on these (like 20 minutes at least). Which was kind of nice :)




For the girls that finished early then played the classic telephone.


Then I got each girl a new pillow case and we opened those and had sack races in the living room. It was pretty funny.



After that they each got their balloons from the table and they had to sit in their pillow cases and pop the balloon. They each had candy in them. Instead of doing a piñata, they each got their own to pop. And it was also very funny!


Then we took those pillow cases back to the table and the girls decorated them.



Then we were supposed to do cake but the girls all wanted to do presents so we did that first. One of the things I do on every one of my kids parties is take a picture of them with each guest after they open their present from them. I think in the future that will be something cool to look back on.


And then had cake. This is what she picked. Rainbow Cupcakes in a jar.

(She was unsure about the sparklers!)


For the goodie bags, they used their pillow cases and picked out a sleeping mask, chocolate milk (i was going to do small cereals with a spoon attached but two stores were out and I just wasn't going to haul my kids to one more store just in case!), a glow bracelet, a nail polish and a handful of candy.

It all worked out pretty good (except Oliver was sad most of it and didn't want me to take any pictures...)

Happy Birthday Lucy! We sure love you!!

Spiritual Sundays

Happy Thanksgiving!

Foto Friday: Our year in Photos

Instead of the theme this week... A quick little snapshot of Lucy's party today.
I'll share more about the whole party next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the Kitchen: Upside Down Pear Cake

There are not a lot of foods that I don't enjoy. And funnily enough, pears is one of them. I just can not take the texture of them. I want to like them, but then I bite into one and gag. Can't do it.

So this fall being the smart lady that I am, I got a case of pears. And my family just wasn't eating them fast enough. (Maybe since I got a case of nectarines and 2 of peaches at the same time.....) Anyways, I was needing to use up some pears. And I wanted to it in a way that I'd enjoy too. (And I'd already canned my limit for the year..... my self imposed limit that is).

This dessert is a result of all these circumstances. :)



Upside Down Pear Cake
2 ripe pears
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tsp + 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Grease a 2 quart glass pan. Peel your pears and cut into slices and layer into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon over top of the pears.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream, starting and ending with the flour.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
6. Eat it warm with ice cream or vanilla bean whipped cream or let it cool to room temperature.



And here

10 on Tuesday

1. I decorated for Halloween.

2. MY friend Rebecca linked to this great list called 31 Days of Unplugged Play and I love it!

3. I (Lucy) is now selling Girl Guide cookies.... the mint ones. $5 a box. So if you want some, I'd love to sell them to you.

4. I've been feeling the urge to make crafty things lately. Finally. Sleep was easily over ridding any crafting ideas!

5. Lucy's room is totally started and hopefully will be all put together this week!

6. Alden and Eli's room is well on it's way too! Just have to get some big pictures to hang above their beds and a few other small odds and ends.

7. I took all the garage sale left overs to Catholic Charities. Everything except two book shelves. Which will leave soon too. LOVE getting rid of things we don't need. It's awesome.

8. Our basement is all done except the tiling of the fireplace. Which hopefully will happen soon.

9. I have lots of fun ideas for my blogs. I want to combine them into one blog. It's just plain smarter. Need help to make that happen though. I can fiddle around with blogs but I can't do all the things I want too. Just don't know how!

10. I kind of want a few days of pouring rain.

Hello October

It's October. That is insane.

Lack of sleep + cranky baby + extra call days for Regan = survival mode.

Do you have survival mode at your house?? At my house that means only the basics. We are talking just making dinner and enough laundry to wear and lots of trying to fit in sleeping somewhere. It also means less blogging and not going to extra meetings, etc.

I am feeling a bit more human this morning. I knew I was getting REALLY tired when random people (lots of them) were commenting on how tired I looked. Lots of people. hahahaha.

Now on to this week:
1. Lucy's Birthday Party
2. 2 Thanksgiving dinners
3. Some family pictures and an engagement session.
4. All those other regular things.

And back to blogging.

Oliver's B-Day Party

We had a pretty low key party for little Oliver. With family. It was just right. But I did want to show you how I made his Owl cake. Am I a tad bit obsessed with owls and Oliver? Perhaps. When I get every thing done in his room you will see how true that really is (eek).

Anywho, here is the cake.


To make it... this is what I came up with.

First I used my dome cake pan (that is actually for Barbie dress cakes)


And made a stack of sugar cookie circles to use....


And cupcakes. (Now the cupcakes and the cake are all from the same batch that I made from Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook (which if you've read my blog for a while you know I love!) It's called the Yellow Cake.)

I cooled them all. And made my icing (made a chocolate buttercream.)
First added two cupcakes on the top of the cake. I added a wooden skewer in each just to make sure it was steady.


Then covered the whole thing in icing - making the parts at the top a little pointy with the icing.


Let that dry a bit then smoothed out the icing more. And added the cookie eyes.


Then added some Oreo halves for the eyes, some broken Oreo halves for the eyebrows and one small orange smartie for the beak.


I decorated the rest of the cupcakes too....

A little flock of owls....


All the treats together (had to ice the rest of the cookies too!)


And here is Oliver with his cake... which he touched twice and then cried to be done :)


I'm linking this up here

And at Love Bakes Good and the 36th Avenue

Listography: List 90

List 90: Who/ What I hope to remembered as

Kind of a deep list topic today!!

1. Kind.
2. Generous
3. Friendly
4. Faithful
5. Good.
6. A Latter Day Saint who lives what she believes.
7. Loving.
8. Happily Married.