Easter 2013

We had a lovely Easter weekend down in Salt Lake with my family.  The weather was so nice, Aaron spent half a day Saturday golfing with his brother down in Orem.  I took the kids to my grandma Parkinson's Easter egg hunt and then we met up with Daddy and Dave and Tara's family that evening at a park in Orem.

All the Schulz grandkids who were at the Easter Egg hunt at grandma's house.

 The Easter bunny came to visit our children at Oma and Opa Michel's house this year.  The kids had fun going on horse rides with Opa and playing with the new baby chicks!

Sunday was a beautiful day.   The kids had fun looking for their Easter baskets right after church and then we had a nice dinner with my siblings that evening.

Erika with her Easter basket

Heidi was excited because she got to
sleep in  "the purple tent",  her favorite color.  

What a handsome fella!

Heidi was the first one to find her basket, and was so excited!

Kyle had to search awhile to find his-  he's always up for a challenge.

Kyle was really proud of himself this time because he got a pretty good
hang of riding the horse all by himself in the front field.  

Erika and Heidi riding Dusty

Cocconut Custard Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust with edges crimped
4 extra lg eggs
3/4 C plus 2 T sugar
1/3 C cornstarch
1 C heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch ground nutmeg
 1 1/2 C warm milk
1 C unsweetened shredded cocconut (I like to grind it up really fine.)

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2.  Put the eggs, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl and whisk them together.  Add the heavy cream gradually, while whisking.  Whisk in the vanilla, nutmeg and milk.
3.  Sprinkle the cocconut on the bottom and up the sides of the pie crust, spreading it evenly.  It will rise to the top while baking.
4.  Put the pie plate on a baking tray and pour the custard into the crust about three quarters of the way up.  Carefully place the tray with crust in the middle of oven rack and pour the remaining custard filling into the crust until you come to the top of the pie pan.  You don't want to overfill- (If I ever have extra I like to bake it in a separate dish and eat it plain later.)
5.  Bake until the top of the pie is golden and it doesn't shake in the middle when moved, about 30-35 min.  Remove from the oven and let the pie cool, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.  The pie may be served at once or refrigerated for up to 2 days.  Serve cold topped with whipped cream.

Happy New Year!

Is this supposed to be fun, mom?  

We went up to the cabin for New Year's Eve this year.  It was freezing cold up there, but we had a great time sledding and snowmobiling.  Despite the freezing temperatures (-6), the ice was not completely frozen over on the lake because it hadn't been this cold long enough so we couldn't ice fish. 

We had fun sledding down the big hill behind the cabin and then my dad would pick us up at the bottom with a snowmobile.  It was lots of fun!

All bundled up for the snowmobile ride out 

I took this picture in the truck on the way home from the cabin.  Little Jordan was exhausted! 

The kids have had a lot of fun playing out in the snow this year. This was out on our
little "hill" in the backyard when our friend Andy and his girls came up for a visit.
  

Jan 6th- our happy baby having tummy time!

 We had a few free tickets from Kyle's Jr. Jazz, so we took our whole family to the Jazz game in Salt Lake on Jan 19th.   Since we were down that way, we stopped and visited my Oma and Opa.   We had a nice few hours together.

By the time we got to the game, Jordan was so exhausted, he just fell asleep in my arms.  There is nothing sweeter than having a baby sleep on you!   It didn't last long, though.  As tired as he was, and as hard as I tried to cover his ears, there were too many loud noises.

We had a great time watching the game until Heidi unexpectedly THREW UP all over the seat.  After that, everything was a blur.  Aaron and I were cleaning it all up and then we took everyone home.  I think we get the record for having our kids throw up unexpectedly in the most random places.  (Last year Jared threw up on Aaron in sacrament meeting.    We just thought he was really tired that day.  No one had been sick.  I think it was one of my most embarrassing moments EVER.)  We listened to the rest of the game in the van on the way home.   We wanted to take a few more pictures, but hadn't planned on leaving in a rush.    FUN TIMES!  

Christmas 2012

Erika had another good year singing with her Tavaci group.  Above is a picture at her Christmas performace this year.  She sure loves to sing and really gets into it!

Kyle brought home this "ELF APPLICATION" one day from school and Aaron and I got a few laughs out of it!  What a cute idea!   He mentioned "we have an elf at home" because this year we DID have an elf come to our house.  He came the night of December 6th, St. Nicholas day when the kids leave their shoes out and get yummy surprises left in them.  Our elf appeared the next morning, straight from the North Pole to watch them and report nightly to Santa who was being naughty or nice.   They had a lot of fun looking for him every morning as he would move to a new location in our house every night.   It is so much fun to share the excitement the kids have for Christmas traditions!  

Jordan's first time with Santa at the ward Christmas party 

We spent a few days before Christmas down at the Michel's.  It was great for the kids to get the chance to play with their cousins and for siblings to spend time together, too.   We went to grandma Schulz's Christmas party on Friday, Saturday we went on trax to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  Sunday we had a big dinner and Christmas program and opened some presents.  It was a really nice weekend!

All the grandkids with Oma and Opa (missing baby Jordan who was sleeping

We came home the morning of Christmas Eve (drove home in a blizzard).  It was nice to spend Christmas at home with our own family.  We had a little program that night with the traditional reading and acting out of the nativity and a lot of Christmas songs.  

What an adorable little shepherd!

What a great time of the year- when we can be reminded constantly of our Savior and the wonderful things he has done for us!   

Christmas morning was nice, too.  We enjoyed just staying home with our family, playing with some of the kids' new toys and being together. 

Kyle's 7th Birthday

Kyle had his 7th birthday on November 10th.  It was a fun weekend for him!  The night before, Oma and Opa came up and spent the night.  We went out to dinner at Pizza Hut and then bowling at the Bear River Bowling Center.  

The next morning, we opened presents and Kyle had a good time playing with them with his brothers and sisters.  

I made Kyle a "Lego" cake because he loves playing Legos and can make some very creative things with them!  The cake was a lot of work, but also fun, too.  ( I always call it play-doh for mommies.)  

Kyle is such a great boy and we love having him in our home.  He tries hard to be a good brother and is always game for trying something new and exciting.  He keeps our lives interesting and we're thankful for his energetic and fun personality.  

Applesauce/Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients:

2 Cups flour (I like to combine 1 C white with 1/2 C whole wheat
and 1/2 C oat flour, but you can do any combination.)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 C applesauce OR pureed pumpkin
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 C oil
1/2 C raisins (optional)

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside.   Cream oil and sugar, beat in egg, applesauce, and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients until just moistened.  Fold in raisins.   Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min or until muffins test done.  Cool in pan 10 min then serve!

Contributed by Amber Parkinson

October Events

Kyle and Jared playing in a "fort" they made.

The month of October was a busy one at our house this year, but we also had lots of fun!!   

Kyle lost his first tooth on October 12th.  He lost it at school and brought it home so excited.  He had been wiggling it in his mouth for well over a week.   The tooth fairy gave him a whole dollar bill and even let him keep his first one as a souvenir.  

Over UEA weekend,  (Oct 17-20) Aaron's dad came down for a few days.  He and Aaron got to go golfing and also hunting on the first day of the hunt.  They saw a lot of deer but only a few bucks.  Aaron shot twice but did not get a deer that time.  

The following weekend, on Oct 27th,  Aaron took Kyle out to the same area and they got a little two-point deer.  Kyle was SO EXCITED!!  

On October 28th we had our primary sacrament program.  My parents came up with Jeremy and my Oma Michel.  Heidi quickly became Oma's little "buddy" and wanted to sit by her at dinner and on her lap for the rest of the evening.  

A few days before Halloween, we made caramel apples.  This was my first time, and we had a lot of fun.  The kids got to decorate theirs with melted chocolate, nuts, and toffee.  Mmmm!  

I was in charge of the ward Halloween party this year, being the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society.   We had a big dinner for everyone and a "carnival" for the kids, with a few booths like "fish pond", "pumpkin walk" and face painting.  We also had a costume contest.  

Here are a few pictures of the kids on Halloween at their school:

This pretty witch has certainly cast a spell on me!  

Super Mario Kyle

Heidi-  Every girl needs to be a princess at least once, right? 

Jared as Thomas the Train "Choo-Choo!"  

I thought this was hilarious so I had to post a picture of it.  This is Jared's solution to not being able to open the candy wrappers from his Halloween candy.  He just took a big bite out of it, wrapper and all!

Jordan was the classic "Hot Chilli Pepper".  

A happy boy at bath time!

Jared wanted to help his little baby brother to be happy so he threw a bunch of baby toys in his crib.
Wouldn't want him to not have anything to play with, right?