Saturday Morning

Fun times again at the Wilkins' House on Saturday morning. Roger and Ed (a neighbor across the fence) spent two and a half hours shoveling dirt. We've had a huge pile of top soil in our garden area for 2 years. When we laid the patio in the back yard, we had to remove a grundle of sod and top soil to properly level the brick pavers for the patio. We didn't have a plan for all that extra dirt so we just started dumping it in the garden spot. Um, ya...it's really been there for two years.

Finally Ed said he would take the dirt to plant flowers around the border of the fence in the apartments behind our house. So today, in the wonderful cool March air, they shoveled and

shoveled, hauling load after load of dirt across the back fence to the apartments. They took down a section of fence to make the job a little easier.

Brayden, Parker and Little Ben also had a sleepover with Devin last night. They spent the morning playing All-Star Wrestling on the tramp while Roger and Ed shoveled the dirt out of the garden. Pancakes and eggs for a late breakfast helped fill them back up after two and a half hours of jumping.

Fun times on a Saturday morning!

Big Bad Musical Slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Big Bad Musical -Tuesday Night

It's time for Devin's Musical! It will be presented at our school at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday March 24th. We would love to see you all there. You're all invited to come!

Passing on the Bread Making Torch

Today we spent the afternoon learning a precious family recipe from Roger's sisters, Ellie and Ruth. Roger, Ellie and Ruth always tell stories of their dad making bread for the family while they were growing up. Today Ellie and Ruth gave us a demonstration on the fine art of bread making and 2 other dishes we could make with the dough. They also showed us an enchillada dish made with food storage ingredients like black beans, TVP (texturized vegetable protein) with dried onions, white bean powder and chicken bullion soup base. It was so
delicious! On the 3rd Saturday of each month we are going to can things like flour, sugar, powdered milk, wheat, beans, grains, honey, etc. to slowly build up our food storage. After we've canned what we brought for the day we will make a recipe using food storage items and eat together. We had such a great time today that I already can't wait for next month's classes! Thanks Ellie and Ruth for your hard work and effort today. You taught 3 young ladies a very wonderful skill and we are very thankful and appreciative! We love you!
Is there anything better than homemade bread fresh from the oven?

Filling the dough with cinnamon/sugar and brown sugar for cinnamon rolls.

Preparing the dough for braiding. Fill the center with anything savory like chicken and vegetables, ground beef and vegetables, or something sweet like jams and jellies. Today Ellie filled it with ground beef, carrots and peas and served a cream of chicken soup gravy over the top. Yummy!

Three very happy little

"Taste-Testers!" They were well fed today.

Fun St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Oh my goodness! This year for St. Patrick's Day, Roger made a traditional Irish dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. It was so delicious we just could not belive it!!!

Between the two of us, in 10 years of marriage, we have never cooked corned beef before. The beef comes with a seasoning packet that you spread over the meat. It gave the meat such wonderful flavor. The recipe said to pile everything in the slow cooker and let it go for 8 hours. How easy is that??? By the time we all got home from work and school it was ready to eat and the house smelled incredible. I've posted the easy recipe for your enjoyment if you'd like to give it a try. Happy St. Patty's Day!

INGREDIENTS
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound baby carrots
3 cups water
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (3 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet, cut in half
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges

DIRECTIONS
Place the onion, potatoes and carrots in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine water, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, vinegar, pepper and contents of spice packet; pour over vegetables. Top with brisket and cabbage. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Little Ben Turns 4

We had another fun time with cousins at Little Ben's new favorite place... Jumping Jacks! He insisted on having his birthday party there this year. These kids grow up so darn fast!!! Happy Birthday Little Ben!
Recently he's been learning the 50 states song at his daycare. So far he knows all the way up to Virginia with a little hand action to go along with each

state! In just one more year he'll be off to Kindergarten and he'll be smarter than his whole class...hee, hee, hee! Biased Aunt, who me? No way!!!

One of Six Winners In His Age Group

Devin entered the school science fair this year. His age group consisted of all 1st through 4th graders who took the initiative to compete in the fair.
He studied hard and learned all he could about how Vitamin E helps to slow the aging process.

He/we put all the research & info. together and prepared to make a speech for the judges. When it was his turn to be judged, the judges asked him what his question was and where he got the idea...(which was from a book at school). That was it!!! Then they moved on to the next contestant. He wasn't feeling very confident, considering the limited discussion he was able to have with the judges.












In the end, I guess the judges liked it! He was very thrilled and relieved to hear his name called as one of the six winners from his age group. I've posted Devin doing his practice presentation at home the night before in the previous post. I thought he should get to share all of his hard work with someone!

Be sure to notice Roger's new teeth in this pic. He's been trying to break them in "gently" for the past couple of weeks. What a great new smile!

Devin "Gets Back on the Horse"

For those of you who follow our blog, you'll know that the last time Devin went skiing, he took a horrific fall on his first run down the mountain. The ski patrol had to transport him off the mountain. After a brief examination they decided to send him in an amubulance to Primary Children's Hospital because he was complaining of back and neck pain. It turned out that everything was fine but ever since then he's been terrified of skiing thinking every part of the mountain was as steep as that first run was.
Roger had the day off today so he went back up with Devin and skiied backward the whole day staying with Devin to help build back up his confidence. They had a wonderfual day and Devin has a changed attitude toward skiing. (The next installment will feature Roger with his new teeth!!!)

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FHE With Cousins

A couple of weeks ago Liz told us about this new place she had discovered in West Jordan. She suggested we meet there with the cousins for a Monday night FHE. It was a great place and the kids had a blast playing on the giant equipment together. Little Ben loves this place so much that he wants to have his birthday party there in March, so in just a few short weeks we get to go back there again for Ben's 4 year old birthday party...HOORAY!!!

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Big Bad Musical

Our school is working on a musical called, The Big Bad Musical. The storyline is The Big Bad Wolf on trial for the crimes he committed against The 3 Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Boy Who Cried Wolf. With much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth I convinced Devin to audition and wouldn't you know it, he landed the role of The Big Bad Wolf!!!
We're so proud of him. He's got a great singing voice and he's a little on the dramatic side (I have no idea where he got that from) so we know he will be an outstanding Big Bad Wolf. We've been working on the script and trying to get his lines memorized, and he's also got 2 solos to sing in the musical. Lots of work ahead of us, but he's a natural at this stuff! Come and see it if you can, March 24th, @ 7:00 p.m at our elementary school.

Class Valentines

Well, the valentines for Devin's class are finally finished! And since they were so cute...I decided we needed to make a set for my class too. It ended up taking our whole Saturday afternoon and 2 more hours tonight to get 50 of them made! But...they're finished now and we're both very excited to pass them out tomorrow!

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Superbowl XLIII

My brother, Merrill, has been a serious Pittsburgh Steelers fan as far back as I can remember, even as far back as our Jr. High School days in Wyoming. The last few years have been great for him because his Steelers have made it to the Superbowl a couple of times. This year he and his wife, Cindy, hosted a great party at a place called Noahs in South Jordan. There was plenty of room for everyone to relax and have a great time enjoying the game. Here are some pics of our fun get together today.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Settlers Mania

We are addicted to this AWESOME game!!! Monte turned us on to the game and since Christmas, we have probably played this 2-3 hour game at least 5 times each week. Most Saturdays we have played 1-2 games. It has done wonders at bringing our family together for some good quality playing time.
Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany. Settlers was the first German-style board game to achieve popularity outside Europe. Over 11 million games in the Catan series have been sold, and the game has been translated into twenty-five languages from the original German. The game has rapidly become popular in part because its mechanics are relatively simple, while its dynamics are quite complex. The game is well suited for family play, since no one gets eliminated, and players who are behind can strive towards goals that are within their reach.

Report Card Time

2nd term report cards came home last week and Devin earned another "STELLAR" report in 4th grade!

He earned straight A's in all his academic classes, straight "H's" in his citizenship, and straight "E's" (for Excellence) in his Gifted and Talented pull-out program.

We are very proud of Devin and his efforts to be the best student he can be!

Love ya, son...mmwwaahhh!!!

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm....

Have you ever come home to find strange, unidenti-
fiable food items sitting on your kitchen counter?

Because my husband went to Taiwan on his mission, I have come home to many suprises over the years. Here are just a few of the items that have shown up recently.
To me, the top pic. looks like some kind of leafy vegetable stem, but if you look really close, the supermarket label reads "MEAT DEPARTMENT!" What is that supposed to mean? Hmmmm......

Clearly this is some kind of drink, I mean it looks like the same kind of can you might find a Diet Pepsi in, right?! Maybe it wouldn't be so scary if Icould read Chinese, but by looking at the picture on the center can I can't imagine that I would pick that up and drink it...would you? The can on the right reads, "Basil Seed Drink." Oh, that's better! Sounds delicious right?! Hmmmm......

Once again, being able to read Chinese would be very helpful. Two items that obviously came from the "real" meat department, but they don't have to be refrigerated? Sounds suspicious to me. What do you think? Hmmmm......

Has anyone seen these items floating around your kitchen or pantry? No??? Hmmmm......

My Dad's Demolition Derby

I'd like to be posting some good news after having to put the family dog to sleep last week, but it seems we're not quite there yet! Take a look at my dad's truck after his accident on Monday morning.

The inversion meant a foggy drive to work for people along the Wasatch Front on Monday. In Utah County, it resulted in a big traffic mess that resulted in I-15 being closed along a five-mile stretch for more than four hours.

Southbound I-15 in Utah County was closed at MP 260, south of Spanish Fork due to a crash just before 9:00 Monday morning. It started out when two semi trucks collided, (my dad was driving the red Semi) and within moments there were three other accidents. In all, seven vehicles were involved as drivers scrambled to slow down or get out of the way of the accident ahead.
No one was seriously hurt, but one person (MY DAD) was taken to the hospital for cuts and bruises.

At the time of the accident, visibility wasn't much better than a quarter of a mile. At freeway speeds, it can be difficult to safely slow down or stop if there is an incident ahead. Just before noon, even with much improved visibility, there was another crash where the traffic was being diverted. It wasn't until after 1:00 in the afternoon that UHP had the freeway reopened.

Dad went into the fog driving only40 mph. He was met with a split second decision to take out the silver car with people inside, AND the cab of the jackknifed Harper truck with the driver inside. Instead he chose to put his truck and his life on the line and went up the other side of the Harper truck to avoid all of the people...to me, a true HERO! Dad was the only person taken to the hospital. The EMT's insisted after seeing the condition of his Semi. They didn't know how someone could have managed to be unharmed in that mess. The only thing really messed up was his truck. He only had a cut on his finger that required three stitches and wasn't sure he needed an ambulance ride for that. A testimony of prayer for all of us! Dad could actually feel a higher power guiding his truck to a softer landing than he anticipated.

Here's a link to the news story from KUTV:
http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story/Freeway-Back-Open-After-Nasty-Accident-In-Utah/za5e3lybFk68pZAfTfIpWg.cspx

Goodbye Old Friend

My little brother, Monte, had to do a very brave and difficult thing yesterday. He took the family dog, who has been around since Monte was 3 years old, to the humane society to be put to sleep. Missy's been with the family for about 17 years so that would make her somewhere between 100-120 in dog years.

Missy was starting to look her age and have many health problems i.e., loosing her fur, her hearing, her zest for life and she had a terrible cough that was keeping her up most of the night. She also recently developed a growth on her chest that was changing the shape of her back and made it painful for her to walk. She's had many brushes with death over the years. She was reported to the pound by the mailman 4 different times because she was so "FEROCIOUS" that he wouldn't drop off the mail while she was barking (the mailbox had to be moved out to the street because of her), she was hit by a car one time while she was out with Monte on his paper route, she'd gotten into some anti-freeze one time, she began dragging her back legs as if she'd had a stroke one year and yet she still kept on going. She's been like a cat with nine lives. Mom and Liz offered to go with Monte and give him some moral support at the humane society, but he wanted to go alone. Liz was able to give quiet support in the back yard as Monte said his goodbyes and laid Missy's body in the ground to rest.

Monte chose to bring Missy back home to bury her in her favorite
"barking & treat sneaking" corner of the yard. She would always run out there to bark at and with the other dogs. Eventually we found out the neighbors (Walt & Pacita Miles) were giving her treats and snacks from the other side of the fence. It looks like Missy fooled us all and had the neighbors trained to feed her on command.

The humane society gave Monte a thoughtful poem to bring home and read every now and then which tenderly reads that Missy will be running and playing in a better place now, but every so often she will look back longingly, wondering where her longtime pal is. She will wait for Monte at the rainbow bridge and when they meet again, she will remember him, run to him, jump up and down and they will cross the rainbow bridge together.

Missy 1992-2009
Goodbye, Old Friend. We will miss you!!!