Teacher Appreciation Day 2

Here are the happs for day two of teacher appreciation. This was my day so I made cinnamon rolls for the teachers. The labels read "Our Horizon Heros are on a "roll"". Cheesey? Yes. I am running out of corny superhero sayings. But seriously, who cares what it says as long as the contents tastes good! Right? Day two prize bucket contained a 25.00 gift certificate to Red Robin and more superhero paraphanelia. I think the teachers are really enjoying the week, they keep saying they want to leave the posters up all year. The principle even brought her husband to show him all the things we have been doing. I cannot thank the women helping me enough! They are so amazing!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Some how(I can't say no)I ended up in charge of teacher appreciation week for the elementary school this year. Our school is HORIZON SUPER HERO'S so we chose a superhero theme (thanks Jodi). We blew up the teachers heads and put them on superhero posters in the front of the school instead of having room moms decorate each teachers door. I turned out so great, the teachers were gathering around and laughing, and the kids thought it was so great. Other events this week will include:
Something fun in the staff room everyday, a drawing for a gift certificate every day, a lunch on Wednesday and kids bringing different things each day. It is going to be a fun and long week!
The moms helping me this year are so amazing. They are each in charge putting something in the teachers lounge one day, they all helped with the bulletin board and they are doing all kinds of amazing things! I couldn't have pulled it off without them!

One of the cute ladies helping me found these umbrellas at the dollar store and found this cute saying to go with it! Funny thing---it poured today! This is what was on the tables in the staff room when the teachers got to school today.

This is what we gave away for the drawing today. Another cute lady on the committee got pasta factory to donate a 25.00 gift certificate, then she put together this adorable superhero bucket.

Happy Heart Day!

I liked that Valentine's Day was on Saturday this year. It made for a nice, long drawn out holiday. If you know me at all, you know how I like a nice, long drawn out holiday. Here are some of the happs. For the first time since my kids have been in school, I did not have to help in their classroom's. I hardly knew what to do with myself, so I decided to make a festive Valentine's dinner. Chinese was the theme. I found an amazing Orange chicken recipe here. I had to try it, hence the theme. Cooper and I went about town finding take out boxes (mini ones for the kids), chopsticks, little packets of soy sauce and red, white and pink decorations. Mood and food(as aunt Nancy calls it). I spent the afternoon making homemade fortune cookies (complete with fortunes specific to the receivers, orange chicken and fried noodles. I also made a cheesecake for the ward dance the next night. My kids were tickled when they came home from school to find the place all festive. One of their friends came in and said "Hey Jack, are you even supposed to be in here?" We sat down to a yummy dinner and enjoyed each others company. It was just one of those rare evenings where everyone was happy and we had such a great time together. The kids opened all the fortune cookies hunting for fun fortunes, and they ate every stitch of food on the table--every bit! I knew it was a successful evening when Bowen said "Mom this is way better than last year when we got toys on the doorstep. We should make this a tradition!" Well worth all the work. Below is a really hard recipe for the fried noodles and for the cheesecake I took to the ward Valentines party. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of extra love! PS Try the orange chicken recipe and skip the frying for a healthy alternative.

Fried Noodles
1 package of chicken ramen noodles
Boil until just barely soft and drain all water
Put packet of power on noodles with a little bit of sesame oil.
Put in frying pan and fry

Fortune Cookies
This recipe is from Martha Stewart

These delicious cookies don't have to be confined to Chinese meals; they also make wonderful party favors, place cards, or everyday desserts. The batter used to make these fortune cookies is traditional tuile batter. Tuiles are thin, crisp cookies that are easy to mold into curved shapes while still warm from the oven. Remember, the key to success with these oversize cookies is to shape them quickly.
Ingredients
Makes 15
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
Nonstick cooking spray
Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 5-inch circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean kitchen towel. Using your fingers, fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Hold the cookie with your index fingers inserted at each open end, and slide your thumbs together along the bottom line. Press into the center of the cookie while bending the two open ends together and down to form the shape of a fortune cookie. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it. Place the fortune cookie on the kitchen towel to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.
Write your message on a long strip of sturdy art paper, such as Japanese moriki. Thread the fortune through the cookie when it has cooled.

Chocolate Carmel Toffee Chunk Cheesecake



INGREDIENTS
1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup butter, melted
50 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered English toffee
4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered toffee, chopped

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine wafer crumbs, powdered sugar and cocoa with the melted margarine. Mix well. Press onto the bottom and half-way up the side of 10 inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow to cool.
Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a saucepan over low heat, melt the caramels together with the chocolate chips and evaporated milk stir until smooth and pour into crust.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and flour; beat until smooth. Add eggs, then yolks, one at a time. Blend in heavy cream and vanilla. Add 3 cut up candy bars to mixture. Pour over caramel and toffee layers. Wrap outside of pan with foil.
Set in a large pan that has been filled with 1 inch of hot water. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; reduce oven to 250 degrees and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off oven and let sit for 1 hour. Remove from water. Chill overnight in the refrigerator. Top with 2 more Heath Bar candy bars that have been chopped. Drizzle with remaining chocolate and caramel

Some Valentine Ideas....

We did these Love blocks for RS Enrichment. They were a big hit and the ladies are already planning thier spring set.



I found this cute idea here. The idea was to buy a box of chocolates and put it out on your counter along with some heart shaped pieces of paper and pens. If someone wants to eat a chocolate they have to write a love note to someone in the family first and trade it for a chocolate. We have been doing this for about a week now and the kids are loving it. The notes that they leave for each other are so cute. I had to make a "one a day" rule. I think we will do this every year.



These are the cute valentines Courtney made for her fiends. We just covered a Hershey's bar with scrapbook paper and printed the label on sticker paper. I thought they turned out pretty cute.



I found this idea online here. This is what we made for the kids teachers. Cheap and cute! I used rub ons from Roberts. I just wish I could have found white pumps on the hand sanitizer. I think they have them at Target..they didn't at Walmart.


Stay tuned for more V-day happenings. I've got some yummy food up my sleeve.

Read On!

Just finished this....

and this......

and this........

and this..... The Tennant of Wildfell Hall was my favorite with Bel Canto as a close second. I have way to many things to do than to be reading so much, but I just can't help it. I love to read.

Honestly!

I have been nagging Jackson to finish ONE Faith in God goal to get his religious knot. For some reason it seemed like a mountain for him. He had to write a poem or a short story on a gospel principle. The more I nagged him the more upset he got and the more daunting the task seemed to him, I even tried writing the title for him. When I pray... No luck. So I dropped it. I figured if he wanted the religious knot bad enough he would do it, if not his fault. I didn't hear much for a week. When my kids go to bed it is no secret I like to mess around on the computer, one night I kept hearing them in and out of bed. I yelled (nicely, of course) for them to GO TO BED! I had just about had it and I really didn't want to go up there..it's like 15 stairs. When down floats this paper airplane. I ignore. As I get up to go to bed I notice it says "unfold" on both wings. I do and this is what it says..." Honesty ...
Honesty is warm, loving, and gentle. To me honesty means everything. Honesty is a great attribute to have. When you are honest you feel like you just did the right thing. When you lie all you feel is guilt. I truly hope always to be honest"

See- not that hard. He did a great job. Jack is a great kid and I have learned time and time again not to push him to hard. He knows what is right and by george he will do it if given the appropriate time and space.

Bye Bye Basketball

Whew! Basketball season is officially over. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy watching my boys play, but several months of two games each Saturday can get to anyone. The boys really enjoyed playing this year. This is an action shot of Jackson. He did really good this year. His team only lost one game.

Jackson made his own fashinon statement this year with his socks.

This was Bowen's first year, so Carter coached his team. It is getting harder for him to find the time to coach so it was fun for them both. Since it was the last game of the season we made giant basketball sugar cookies for each of the boys with their names on them. They loved them!

Bowen is right under the basket. He loves playing defense.

As a mom of three active boys I know I will have to resign myself to the fact that I will spend all of my evenings and Saturdays on the sidelines, but I don't mind.....I love concession food!

Christmas with the Cluff's

Here is a small sampling of what we did during December. We went to Tuachan to see Christmas in the Canyon. We saw Santa and got hot chocolate before the show.
We made the kids pose for our make believe Christmas card.




The traditional decorating of the Gingerbread house.

Pie plus.......
Pajamas = Pie and Pajama night. This is one of our very favorite traditions! We have been known to do it more than once during November and December.
Jackson was in Dallas at the Cowboy's game so he missed it. He was not happy.




This is Christmas Eve. This is a picture of our kids pretending to be interested in our Christmas program, but really wondering if I was going to let them open a present before bed.
Carter reading the Nativity.
Christmas morning our older kids crept downstairs and ruined the initial Christmas surprise. I yelled for them to high tail it back up the stairs and the above picture is what happened instead.





Christmas Night at our good friends house. The Mayfields make us feel like we are one of their own. We love their family and are grateful they took pity on us on Christmas.
Notice all the men doing the dishes. I had to catch it on film.

We spent the next week up at my moms house. We got to visit with Carter's mom and dad. We saw my cousin Gary get married, I hung out with my sisters, we got to go to the annual Bowen family Christmas party at PG rec. and we got to celebrate the new year with my family. We had a wonderful, and relaxing time.

What Happens When it Snows in St. George!

This is what it looked like last night when we got the call from the school district that all Washington County schools would be closed today.



This is what it looked like when we woke up this morning. Notice the hodge podge of winter clothing we have. Pathetic. We used to be so winter savvy. No more. This is our third winter here and we have never needed snow clothes. So I don't buy them.

We had a yummy "snow day" breakfast. We had french toast with caramel sauce and hot chocolate with marshmallows. We are still in our jammies and listening to Christmas music. Perfect.

This little man is even more delicious the the caramel french toast!