Cool Park

At the end of the trail at the river front park they have a super cool play ground in front of some apartments. It is really fun to see the kids play on this structure and show me how each section works. This slide looks scary because there are no sides to it but the kids seem to stay on it with no problem. Maybe if I tried it my big backside would slide right off of it, hence you will not see me on any of these play structures.

Loraya playing on the climbing things!

Loraya is very strong for her age. I think all of her gymnastics at an early age built up her upper body for such a little girl. Go Loraya!

You spin this really fast with your arms. Don't ask me why! I think Isaac looks so cute in this picture!

River front Park

The weather was perfect every day I was in West Virginia so we went to the river front park and took a stroll. The kids were getting tired of taking pictures so when I told them to smile for me they turned around and bent over!! Quite a cute pose don't you think?? At least you can see the trail you can walk on with all the cool bridges and stuff.

Here is the whole family on the bridge.

Loraya striking a pose!

Isaac striking a pose with some really cool "West Side" gang signs!!

New Baby Macey

Surprise! She has her eyes open. I still think she looks so much like Loraya when she was a baby. Such a sweet natured little girl. She loves to just stare at her brother and sister and especially mommy!
Kind of a little smile on her face. Got to love the bows and cuteness of a little girl!

Isaac is such a great big brother. He loves his sister and likes to hold her unless she starts to cry! Then it is time to give her to someone else. Typical guy huh???

Check out all this beautiful baby hair! She has a lot of dark hair for now. Let's hope she keeps all of it and it stays dark.

Grandbaby #10 has arrived

Today at 7:31pm EST Macey Kelly arrived in Morgantown West Virginia. Weighing in at 8lbs 5oz. and 20 inches long. She is beautiful with lots of dark hair. I think she looks a lot like Loraya did but she is still a squishy faced newborn at this point. I took the kids over to say good night to Julia and Jacob before I put them to bed and the doctor came in a checked her and said it was time to have a baby!! We left the room and 15 minutes later and 2 pushes she was out. It was great that the kids could hold their new baby sister. Isaac didn't like all the crying but Loraya was just loving this adorable little baby. She is going to be a great little helper at home with her! Jacob will come home later tonight and try and get some sleep so we can bring them all home tomorrow. Julia was induced today at noon with pitosan first but that didn't really do much so they gave her an epidural and broke her water and 2 hours later she had Macey! She is so cute and can't wait to put pictures up for all to see. I should be home on the 22nd if all goes well!

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!!