Kristin's visit

Kristin came to visit for the Labor day weekend and we had fun spoiling her at Macy's sale and then attending a wedding of her good friend Michelle from high school days. She took me as her escort for the evening so we had a good time. Don't you just love her new shoes and jewelry??
She looks really good for being 13 weeks pregnant!

It was so fun to have her at the house. I won't see her again until her baby arrives next March so I will miss her!! Thanks for coming and seeing us in California Kristin. (We missed Thomas!)

We saw Grandpa Kelly, Ron & Alison's family and then off to Calvin and Joanne's family to see Ryan and Jenn and Clinton and Marga. It was good to see everyone.

Betty got a haircut!

Here is Betty with her new haircut. She did pretty well this time and didn't try to bite the groomer as much. I found a place in Loomis so it is close to take her. They really liked how she turned out.

Another pose for the camera. You don't know how hard it is to take picture of this puppy. She is always moving around so fast it is hard to get her to stay still.

Our attempt at taking a photo shoot with Ava and Betty. They just wanted to crawl around the chair and look at everything.

You get the idea!! We just could not get one decent shot in the 15 minutes we tried!!

What to do with ZUCCHINI

I have tried both these recipes and they are wonderful. The chocolate bread is so yummy!! The cobbler will fool anyone who eats it into thinking you are eating apple cobbler! Enjoy


Chocolate zucchini bread: Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Powdered sugar, optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Pat shredded zucchini dry with paper towels. In a bowl, combine sugar, milk, egg, oil, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.
In a large bowl, whisk together, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Add the zucchini, milk mixture and the mini chips to the flour. Stir just until moistened (lumps are OK)
Scrape into loaf pan and bake until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. 33 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a rack. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top, if desired. (I just cooled it in the pan and it was fine) Tastes just like those chocolate muffins you have from the bakery!!


Zucchini cobbler: Ingredients

8 cups peeled, seeded and chopped zucchini (about 3 pounds)
2/3 cups lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

CRUST
4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cold butter (3 sticks)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15 to 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup into zucchini mixture. Press half of the remaining mixture into a greased 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan ( I didn't have one of these so I used a 9 x 13 pan) Spread zucchini over the top of crust. crumble remaining crust mixture over it. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 40 to 45 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. (I had to cook a little longer because it was thicker)

This is really good with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on the top and warm of course!!

All Quiet on the Home Front!

It has been a while since I blogged and a lot has happened. The kids starting showing up the Friday before the 4th with Nic, Kandis & Nixon, Matt, Stacie, Brayden and Andrew. We had fun eating and playing and then going over the Burgess's house to light off the fireworks. We can't light them at our house so we called and asked if we could do it over there. The kids loved being able to light the sparklers and stuff. Ava slept through the whole thing and Nixon cried at first but got used to the noise. Andrew almost lit his shirt on fire and stepped on some hot wires so he was not so happy about the whole thing. The "Big Boys" liked the fireworks the best! Thanks Jon and Debbie for letting us come and crash at your place.

Monday Kristin and Thomas arrived and we put her right to work cleaning Nic and Kandi's teeth! Jan at the office was on vacation so we needed to get help from Kristin. She was a good sport and did a fantastic job. They were both very grateful for the teeth cleaning.

Tuesday Jacob and Julia, Loraya and Isaac arrived and they were met at the airport with their car to drive to Santa Cruz with the gang. They all met up at the Jelly Belly factory on the way and then made it to Santa Cruz by the evening. They had a wonderful time and the weather was great and the house they rented was really nice. Sid and I opted out of the Santa Cruz place to stay home with the 2 new dogs and get them used to being in California. I really enjoyed the time to get my rest and relaxation for when they returned on Thursday.

Many nights of games and talking were had by all and we had a great time seeing all the kids. We did feel the absence of Josh and Alexis and kids but they honored us with a new grandchild on Wednesday the 15th, weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long. Connor Grant Kelly arrived and we are very excited to see him soon. We were glad to have the pool in the backyard and the kids and grand kids had fun using it in the hot weather. Zip has gotten used to swimming with Sid and loves to jump in with everyone. Betty on the other hand will have nothing to do with the water and fell in accidentally once and has stayed pretty far away since then.

We are resting up now and Sid is getting ready for his big deer hunt in Utah mid August. I will be going out to Louisville to help with Connor on August 1st - 11th. We still get up at 6 in the morning to take the dogs for a walk and that makes me tired by the afternoon!! I still work at the temple on Tuesday nights and Sid still keeps busy at work and in the garden. All the pictures are on the other kids cameras so they will have to post pictures. Mike has borrowed my camera because their camera fell in the pool and does not work now! They leave for Oregon tomorrow so I guess my camera will go with them again!

I hope this keeps you updated on our doings! Hope all of you are having a wonderful summer so far.

Fathers Day at Grandpa Kelly's house

Calvin, Clinton and Joanne in the back yard. Just hanging around after we ate some wonderful food.

Mike, Ava and Brad talking about dirt bikes I am sure!

Marga and Clintons new little angel!! Sophia. She is really beautiful and such a good baby.

Zip trying to figure out what is going on in this strange place. He liked the other dogs and the chickens and was really good on this little trip to Yuba City.

Last day with Nixon in Provo

We got this toy for Nixon while in Provo and he is loving looking at all the toys and noises. He loves to stand up so this will make him feel like he is a big boy!

Nixon likes Zip! The first meeting with the family. The people we got Zip from have a girl that is named Kandis too!! She is at Harvard!

The morning we left we had breakfast outside on the patio and then we played with Nixon one last time before heading home. I just can't get enough of this little man!

Camping at Fish Lake

We put up the tent in the rain but by morning the weather had cleared and it was beautiful. We picked up Zip that morning and brought him back to take down the tent and return to Provo. We had a great time tracking deer, antelope and elk and even saw a huge herd of elk up in the mountains. It was truly a beautiful sight to see these magnificent animals in the wild.

This is our campsite at Fish Lake

You can tell it is a little rainy!