Taffy Pull

I remember...long, long ago... going to a birthday party where we got to pull taffy. I had so much fun. I have wanted to make it again but haven't dared...until now. I found a great recipe. It's not too tough, the kids loved it, and it turned out great. It's a great activity when your kids have lots of friends over because you need a lot of hands to pull...it makes 12 pieces. Here's how:

Pioneer Taffy

recipe from The Lion House Cookbook

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp glycerin (found at the pharmacy)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp butter

Put all ingredients except for the vanilla and butter into a heavy sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Keep boiling until your candy thermometer reaches 258 degrees (about 30-35 minutes).

Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Butter a large cookie sheet. Pour taffy onto the sheet. Let taffy cool until it is cool enough to handle (about 10 minutes). Pinch taffy into 12 separate pieces (smaller pieces are much easier to pull and turn out a lot better). Once taffy is cool enough it is time to pull. The trick is to pull then fold back together over and over until it turns white and gets a little stiff.

Don't worry, at first it is pretty sticky, gooey, and messy...just keep pulling

 and in about 10-15 minutes it will turn into this:

When you are done, roll it into a rope and put it on a piece of wax paper.

Have fun!!!

Sopapilla Bars

This was a SUPER EASY and TASTY dessert. It would be fun to make for a Mexican Fiesta Night...or anytime for that matter!

Sopapilla Bars

• 2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls (you can get them in a sheet that just rolls out into one piece. They fit perfectly in a 9x13 pan)
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• cinnamon and sugar

Spray 9x13 pan. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Unroll a sheet of crescent rolls and press into the bottom of the 9x13 pan. Spread the cream cheese mixture on top. Cover with the second crescent roll sheet. Brush the melted butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown. Cool completely in the pan before serving. I refrigerated mine after it had cooled and they turned out great!

Enjoy!

Stained Kids, Clothes, and Swingset

What do you get when you combine Spring Break, a sunny day, 3 bored kids, and a bucket of wood stain?

You get one less day of Spring Break, small sunburns, 3 brown kids with stained clothes, and a newly painted swing-set.

Good job guys!!!

Chef Kaylee

Kaylee loves to cook....probably because then she can make things that she likes to eat, lick the beaters, try it before anyone else, and choose the biggest piece once it is done. Whatever the reason, I am glad that she likes to cook. That is her go-to activity when friends come over or when she is bored. She came up with an idea to cook for our family for the entire day...breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. She planned the entire menu and became Chef Kaylee for a day (with me as assistant chef). She did a fabulous job...

 Breakfast...French Toast Dippers

 Lunch...Chicken Noodle Soup

 Dinner...Chicken Strips and Mashed Potatoes

Phew, what a day! After dinner, Kaylee said "Wow, that is a lot of work...I feel like I was cooking and cleaning up food all day". I couldn't agree more!

Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

I love General Conference. It is a time to listen to our Prophet and other church leaders. It is a time to be fed spiritually and be taught how to be a better person. But it can also be frustrating when there are kids who don't want to listen while I do. This year I found an idea to get my kids more involved with watching and learning from Conference.

A few days before, I found a match game about the First Presidency and 12 Apostles. One card is a picture of the person and its match is a card with different facts about that person...here is a link to print that out.

When we found a match we would read about the person and decide on a treat that went with the Prophet/Apostle. Then during Conference, when that person speaks we eat the treat/snack while we listen.

Here is our list of facts and treats that go with it:

• President Monson - Loves to fish--Swedish Fish
• President Eyring - Last name is Eyring--Ring Pops
• President Uchtdorf - Is a pilot--small packaged airplane snacks (peanuts)
• Elder Packer - Makes bird carvings--Peeps
• Elder Perry - Knows how to milk a cow--Chocolate milk
• Elder Nelson  - Likes to ski -- ice cream
• Elder Oaks - Last name is a tree--apples (since they grow on trees)
• Elder Ballard - Likes to fish--Fish Crackers
• Elder Scott - Was a nuclear engineer--Doughnut Holes (little bombs)
• Elder Hales - Loves baseball--Gum
• Elder Holland - Last name--Dutch chocolate
• Elder Bednar - Was President of Ricks College in Idaho--Potato chips
• Elder Cook - Last name--Cookies
• Elder Christofferson - He is happy--Snickers
• Elder Andersen - Speaks Spanish --Mexican treat

 Eating our "Bombs" while listening to Elder Scott

I need to go...Conference is starting. Come and listen to a Prophet's voice with us...and have a little fun while you do it!

Unbroken

Wow! What an amazing true story. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about Louis Zamperini and his spirit that could not be broken. Louie was a former Olympic runner. He joined the Army Air Forces. His bomber plane crashed on the ocean where he endured 46 days on a small raft. 46 days of heat, thirst, starvation, and sharks constantly swimming around them. When that ordeal was over, he was taken as a prisoner of war to several Japanese POW camps. For 2 1/2 years he was beaten, starved, enslaved, and deprived of basic human needs and dignities. What happened to those POW's is heartbreaking. Louie's resilience and drive to survive is inspiring. For him WWII did not end when he was released; his war ended when he was able to forgive those who tried to take everything from him. They almost succeeded, but his unbreakable spirit could not be taken from him.

Parenting With Love and Logic

It's too bad kids don't come with an owner's manual because I could sure use one. I just read a book that comes pretty darn close; Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay. I have noticed a huge difference in the frustration levels in our home (in both the kids and Eric and I) as we implement what we have read. Love and Logic is all about teaching kids responsibility by letting them make their own choices and living with the natural consequences of those choices.

"Effective parenting centers around love: love that is not permissive, love that doesn't tolerate disrespect, but also love that is powerful enough to allow kids to make mistakes and permit them to live with the consequences of those mistakes. Most mistakes do have logical consequences. And those consequences, when accompanied by empathy--our compassionate understanding of the child's disappointment, frustration, and pain--hit home with mind-changing power."

 Here is one of my favorite examples from the book about teaching kids to keep their rooms clean:
Parent: "Would it be reasonable for you to have your room cleaned by Saturday morning?"
Child: "Aw, I don't want to clean my room."
Parent: "Well, that's okay. You don't have to. You can hire me or your sister or your brother to do it. We'd love some extra cash."
Child: "But I don't have any money."
Parent: "You know, when adults don't have any money, they sell something."
Child: "Sell something?"
Parent: "You don't have to decide now what you're going to sell. You can tell me by Saturday. If you can decide by Saturday, that means you get to choose what to sell. And if you can't, that means I choose. So you have a choice of who chooses. That's up to you."

And another funny example from a parent:
"I never knew if the Love and Logic principles were sinking in with my husband until one day, in the car, when we were driving together and the kids were raising low-grade heck and high water in the backseat, he said, "Guys, it's going to be a lot quieter in this car the last mile home because your mom and I will be the only ones in here!"
There was a moment of deafening silence, and then our ten-year-old son, in a slightly challenging and snarky voice, said, "You wouldn't do that!"
Quick as a wink, my hubby said, "That's what Tommy said."
Again a moment of silence. Then one of the kids asked, "Who's Tommy?"
My husband replied, "Your older brother!"
A mile from home, the kids got out and hiked home, and, of course, we never had to use that method again. But the cute and wonderful thing is now that the kids are grown and travel with their families on trips, they write us and sign it, "Poor lost Tommy." It's the family joke. Wandering Tom is still out there somewhere, wandering the highways and byways of the world after being kicked out of the car and becoming lost on the way home."

I am excited to use some of these techniques and to see my kids squirm a little as they face the consequences of their poor choices.