OPAH!!!!

For over a year, I have been pestering my friend Jennifer for her recipe for Halva, or "Greek pastry".  She finally gave it to me a couple of weeks ago.  Today I made it for the first time, unsupervised all by myself.  I was thrilled when it came out just the way it was supposed to.  It is has a rich creamy yummy flavor and is addictive!  So here we go...

You'll need:

1c sugar                            1 1/2 sticks butter

2c hot water                      1c cream of wheat

On one burner mix one cup of sugar with 2 cups of hot water, bringing to a boil.  Simmer until ready to use.

Then, Melt butter in large pot, then add cream of wheat.  Stir over medium heat; making sure it doesn't burn.  Stir in syrup.  When pleasant aroma is emitted, and it starts to thicken, pour into a form and wait until cool to serve!*

When it has cooled a bit and is set, turn out of form and sprinkle with some cinnamon.  Then ENJOY!!!

sorry, all my pretty serving dishes are in storage, so you get a sheet pan :)

*now, if you don't have a form of some kind, use what you have.  an 8X8 pan, cupcake pan, even just a ceramic bowl.  However, if you are looking for one, Target has some way cute ones in different sizes and designs.  That is where I got mine.

Saying goodbye (for now)

Recently Grandma and Grandpa Pressgrove decided to move.  While they were in Utah this summer, they up and bought a house.  Here is a photo of the boys with their grnadparents a couple of days before they moved to Utah. 

Dressing the part.

Some of our best activites are watching Ethan play at dress up.  This is something he has started doing the last 8-10mos or so.  Here are some of his creative outfits I have been able to capture

Day at the Zoo.

One morning I went outside and it was kinda cool. I thought it would be a great morning to go to the Zoo.  So I loaded up the boys and we got there just as it was opening.  By the time we got there the cool breeze that I had felt less than two hours prior was all but gone and the temperature had soared and it was HOT!  Needless today we did not last too long, but here is some of the fun we had.  As you can tell from the pictures, one of our favorite things when going to the Zoo is refilling our bucket of popcorn and drink cups.   I just noticed my Zoo pass expired today, so sad.

More Summer Fun

While downloading some pictures I came across a few more pictures of some the fun that went on while we were in Utah.

Gracie got her wisdon teeth pulled.  This is her fresh from the Dr. Jared's, still a little happy from the drugs:

Fred got a pedicure from the Gregson girls:

Pressgrove cousins:

McKay Seth Sutton Blayne Ethan

The triplets.  Seth and Sutton were born on the same day as Blayne

approx 20hrs appart and 2500 miles away

Aunt Michael's house.

The 1st place we stayed was at a Aunt Michael Joan's house. We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and played in her fun backyard. Oh what fun we had.

I think this was one of the highlights of the zoo, the gorrila not only picking,

 

and eating his boogies...

 

 

Play time.

While in Utah we spent most of the time at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Robert's house.  This is where we always stayed when we went to Utah as children.  Well, here and at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They were so happy they had an actually yard to play in and to be able to run around and much as they could.  Here are some highlights of their favorite things.

Everytime Blayne went outside this was where he headed.  It didn't matter if no one would take him for a ride, he could read a book or play with a toy.  He loved the wagon.

Ethan became a pro at his tricycle and these wiggle carts (you use your wiggle power to make them move and steer them). and would take off at the 1st chance he got.

Hiking the Y

For almost a week, my sister would call and say "we are hiking the Y do you want to come?"  I would politly say no, my boys won't make it.  I can see major disaster and meltdowns 1/2 way up.  My cousin convinced me go do it, they have it paved now.  ME: well, if it's paved that will make it easy and it could be do-able.  So  I called Mandy and said sure we will give it a try.  We get there, and guess what? The parking lott is paved, and that's about it.  But we were there and there were older kids to help out with Ethan and a sturdy jogging stroller for Blayne.  Heck if Mandy and Syd are doing this with Heath and Creed on their backs, I could certainly do this with a stroller.  The out come: FAIL! MAJOR FAIL!

That is one steep trail, with 10 different turns, we (me and the boys) made it to turn two.  Keep in mind that they are the two longest turns of the trail.

 I decided to wait at turn two while the other's hiked to the end.  we waited about 45 min before pooey diapers and meltdowns began to set in.  My next challange was how to figure out how to get a tired two year old and a cranky 1 year old down the side of the mountian on my own.  We got back down to turn one and started down to the base, and Ethan was DONE.  big time.  He plopped himself down and would not get up.  Fortunatly a young man named Austin, stopped on his way back down and asked if he could help (forgot to get his pic).  Thank goodness for answered prayers.  By the time we got back down Blayne was a sleep.  So while we cooled down we watched a movie and had a drink and waited another 20 min for the others to come down,  Congrats on the ones whi made it.

View of BYU Stadium

The Y.  This is the view from turn two.  not a good angle but that was the destination

Splashing the day away...

What to do with four little boys who are full of energy?  Take them somewhere they can run wild.  Aunt Nancy and I took Kayden, Kelton, Ethan, Blayne and Karissa to the splash pad is Spanish Fork.  Chris shortly joined the outing and was a great extra set of hands.  I love this splash pad!





Let's go!

 


I don't know about this





Come on in, the watere is great.



ok, maybe this isn't so bad after all



How does this thing work?



taking a break

Just relaxing



Things that go BUMP!

Little boys are accident prone, throw in a child (Ethan) with an unbalanced head and large feet, and a Daddy that is also accident prone, and well, bad things happen.  It started with a trip to the park and a scraped knee.  Bath time rolls around and we slip in the tub (water had been drained) and bump our teeth.  Then a mark on the cheek from who knows where.  He falls in the back yard after playing all afternoon and now has a scratch on the back and on his head (found only at bath time when washing child's hair).  While playing with what seemed like a thousand cousins last night, he takes a couple of steps away from where he had been standing, and into the path of Jacob on his skateboard, who had no time to stop and down goes child flat on his back.  After a good snuggle and kiss from mom, he wants back down, only to trip over my feet trying to get back into the action of play with all the others.  At this point I decide if we cannot stand up with out falling, then it must be time to go home and go to bed.  Fast forward to the next morning and we wake up with a swollen top lip.  As Chana put it, it looked like a duck bill.  My poor baby!  What did he eat or do that would cause it?  We ended up at the ER only to determine that an infection had set in do to him bumping his teeth a week ago when he slipped int he tub. Keep in mind we this has all happened since we have been in Utah, that has only been 1 week.  I guess nothing says vacation like a trip to the ER