THIS IS THE WAY WE WASH OUR CLOTHES. . .

One of the perks of having the Bryant's live with us the past 8 months has been watching these little girls grow up. They have been such a joy! Claire is quite a character. She has learned to crawl out of the crib and says " I WAKE UP!" with a big smile on her face, regardless of how long she's been down. She RUNS everywhere she goes. We seldom see her walk. She is always in a big hurry with a happy smile on her face, looking for something fun to do. When she does finally go to sleep, she usually serenades us as she sings herself to sleep with her renditions of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, The Eeensy Weensy Spider, Popcorn Popping, It's A Small World, and of course, The Cruella DeVil song to name a few.




The other day I watched her play with a clean basket of laundry, and before long she was putting it all back into the washing machine, and one thing led to another. . .







Claire does have a serious side. Look at her concentrating while she colors. Such a sweet girl! Idaho is way too far away. . .

REESE REBECCA BRYANT has arrived!!!

LIFE HAS BEEN A WHIRLWIND SINCE REESE WAS BORN 11 DAYS AGO. MOST OF THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN POSTED ON FACEBOOK, BUT HERE'S THE OFFICIAL BLOG VERSION.

Our sweet little Reese was born Tuesday morning, April 21, 2009 at 9:09 a.m. Rebecca was due on the 15th and even though she was dilated to almost 4 and 60% effaced Reese needed a little coaxing like her big sisters. Rebecca was induced the night before and had the nicest labor ever. A lovely epidural helped, and after only 3 pushes Reese made her debut. She is a beautiful little girl and such a sweet combination of her sisters. She probably looks more like Paige, but her coloring is not as dark. Rebecca thinks she might have light eyes like Reese. It will be fun to watch her grow. Rebecca feels great and she and Mark are so happy to check this off their things-to-do-before-we-move-on-May 4th list.



Claire is quite the Mama's girl, so we've all been a bit concerned at her reaction to the baby. At the hospital Mark asked her if she wanted to see the baby and Claire said, "NOOOO" and pushed her away.



It was priceless!



The girls looked so cute with their matching Big Sister shirts. Reese has one that matches, but it says Baby Sister.

Mark's mom, Aunt Kira and I took the girls to the hospital to visit after Preschool that morning. This had to be the world's smallest hospital room, and she had a roomate!



I finished her little quilt Sunday night.
Reese is grandchild #7. The count is now 3 boys and 4 girls, and Melissa has the wild card coming in August. It just doesn't get much better than this!

Sweet Home Kanosh

Craig was born and raised in Kanosh, Utah. His parents and many of his ancestors are buried in the pretty cemetary there, so we stopped to put flowers on their grave. It's the first time we've been there since Craig's Dad passed away almost 9 years ago. It is such a beautiful setting and well cared for. I always feel so grateful to his good, humble parents for raising such a wonderful son! This is where Chief Kanosh is buried. He was kind to the settlers and eventually joined the church.

Utah Trip

We got home Wednesday evening on the heels of the big snow storm that hit Utah. We left Provo just ahead of it and had rain through the entire state. Rebecca is ready to go into labor any time. She's scheduled to be induced on the 20th, but the Dr. thinks she'll go on her own before then. She's dilated to almost 4 and is 60% effaced and having lots of good twinges. I hope she doesn't have to be induced again. FOR CUTE EASTER PHOTOS OF ALL THE GRANDKIDS, CHECK OUT OUR KIDS BLOGS, THEY'VE ALL POSTED RECENTLY AND THEY ARE SO ADORABLE! (links are on the right) I need to add a slide show with all the pictures of Blake and Kaylee from our trip. In the meantime, here's the condensed version:

Easter in Ben and Jamie's ward in Provo happened to also be Fast Sunday, so that is the day Blake was blessed. Jamie's brother Paul, and his family were there for the blessing as well as some of her Meredith relatives. Her Mom's brothers, Alan and Richard made us so homesick for Margaret, who passed away 8 years ago. They look just like her. My parents were also there from Parowan, so we took a 4 generation picture with my Dad,Craig, Ben and Blake.


My sister Dana's two oldest boys from NY live in Provo so we also got to spend time with them. It is always fun for the cousins to get together, even though they have lived across the country in Washington state or NY forever. Since Jamie is the youngest in her family, it is fun for her to have little brothers to look out for. My parents aka "Grama & Grampa Great" (or as Kaylee says: Grama & Grampa Grape-LOL)were also there from Parowan. Jamie had a houseful and we had a lovely dinner of ham, yummy potatoes, jello, green salad and rolls. That night Craig and I played a rousing game of Seqeunce with Josh and Christina, Danny and his friend Sabra and Ben and Jamie. We played boys against the girls and of course, the women dominated, as usual. It was fun with such big teams and the rounds went really fast

Since it was his spring break, Josh came with us to hang out with his mission buddy, Nate Smeding from Layton as well as Nate's friend Christina, who he met when she and Nate and 3 other friends stayed with us for their spring break last month.

I have to get busy on baby quilts for Blake and Reese today, but in between cutting out and sewing, I'll get that slide show posted soon. Blake is growing so fast. He has a darling little dimpled smile and quite the belly. Kaylee is such a sweet big sister and she is so much fun. This long distance grandparenting is brutal!!! And we are just getting started. . .

CRAZY ABOUT CUPCAKES!

I love a cupcake. And so do the grandkids! I think maybe it's because I love a little cake with my frosting! The more frosting the better. Lately cupcakes are on every magazine cover and they are so trendy. I love that they are even doing them in lieu of wedding cakes and birthday cakes. But then, I do adore a tiered platter or pedastal cake plate! So, cupcakes are a win-win for me.

I found this great cookbook at Sam's Club and it is about $6 off the list price. It has the cutest ideas and even better are the tips and hints. I liked it so much I went back and bought 4 more for each of my girls. There are also lots of good recipes in the back. They are on facebook and they have a blog and a web site:

http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/
http://www.hellocupcakebook.com/


Their secret seems to be using buttermilk, 4 eggs and 1/2 cup oil with a Duncan Hines cake mix. The cupcakes are wonderful and they were almost too big. Next time I'll make them smaller and get about 30 instead of 24. I tried the recipe for chocolate mint, and it was really good. Especially warm. You almost don't need frosting. Here it is:

CHOCOLATE MINT CUPCAKES, page 219
1 box (18.25 oz) devil's food cake mix-no pudding in the mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
4 large eggs
3/4 cup chopped mint chocolate (Andes Creme de Menthe Thins)

Make as directed, folding the mint chocolate into the batter after mixing.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1 pound (3 1/3 cups) powdered sugar
2/3 c cocoa
1 cube butter, room temperature
7 Tbsp milk

Beat until smooth. (This recipe is from our ward cookbook from Scott Perkins. It is way too chocolatey for me, I think I'd cut the cocoa in half, or use the frosting recipe for Texas Chocolate Cake).

F.Y.I. We did not enjoy the ALMOST-HOMEMADE VANILLA BUTTERCREAM frosting recipe on page 227.