Earthquake Cake

This cake is really good! And if you don't like coconut or pecans you can easily leave one or both of them off.

Earthquake Cake

1 C chopped pecans

1 C coconut

1 pkg German Chocolate cake mix or I used Super Moist Chocolate Fudge

plus ingredients from back of cake box (probably eggs, oil, water)

2 C powdered sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

Spray 9x13 pan. Spread pecans and coconut on bottom. Mix cake according to box directions. Pour over nuts and coconut. Mix together powdered sugar, cream cheese and butter. Pour evenly over cake. Bake at 350 for 45 min. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cake will be cracked on top, hence the name

Heathere's Banana Bread

I found this recipe online and am claiming it as my own because I loved it so much. This is very banana-y and very rich – you may not be able to have more than a piece at a time.

Heathere's Banana Bread

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla (I ran out and used imitation maple)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 8x8 inch pan (I used this instead of a loaf pan because I can never get it to cook through in a loaf pan). Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Find the lie about Heathere

Let's see who thinks they know me!

1. I have shot a school teacher point-blank in the face with a rubber band.
2. I once peed my pants as an adult while grocery shopping.
3. I inherited a love of puzzle magazines from my mother.
4. I once had a man with a foot fetish stalk me.
5. I have a sweet little boy named Clark swimming in my belly.

Money Saving Tips

Sorry this is a little late, we've been out of town. I thought a good question this week would be a saving money question. Right now most of us are in the "starving student" phase and if you're not then we're all in the "young children" phase and if your husband isn't in school then I'm guessing he is probably just starting out in his job. So we are all trying to save money for the future. A nice house, the kids' missions and college, gas... haha!
So whether it's clipping coupons, shopping sales, having a budget laid out, buying in bulk, or whatever, what do you do to save money?

Little White Lie

1. I didn't attend my High School gradutation.

2. I've trecked through the Tetons with a llama.

3. I've never dyed my hair.

4. I was kissed multiple times on my mission.

5. I was supposed to be a twin.

You can't handle the truth!

1. Valentine's Day 1996 in a Russian elevator: TRUE! My friend Nancy and I went to Moscow for 6 months in college to teach English as a Second Language. We lived in a really tall building, and on Valentine's Day, we decided to get some exercise by running the stairs. (all 20 stories!!) We did this for a while and after we were done, we thought we'd give ourselves a break by taking the elevator back up to the 15th floor, where we lived. The elevator got stuck between the 2nd and 3rd floors, and if you know anything about old Soviet buildings, we could still be there if we hadn't banged and yelled loud enough for the security guards to hear us. (They thought we were nuts anyway, wearing shorts and running up and down the stairs in the middle of February). I guess I wasn't stuck in the elevator the whole day, but 45 minutes in a Russian elevator feels like a lifetime...let's just say the standards of elevator cleanliness aren't exactly high over there!

2. Trespassing on NASA property during my honeymoon: TRUE! Geoff and I went to Florida on our honeymoon, and a woman on the plane ride recommended a particular beach as being very natural and unspoiled by hotdog stands, etc...We found the beach and were walking hand in hand, googling at each other and probably looking like some kind of ad for an arthritis medication or something, and suddenly we heard this person SCREAMING at us. We turned around and there was a woman about 400 yards back, waving and yelling at us. We couldn't understand what she was saying, but she seemed very insistent, so we walked back and she was saying, "STOP!! You are trespassing on NASA Property!"She was saying all this stuff about protected lands and how we were endangering the ability of the astronauts, etc..Geoff said, "Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't realize." She looked back at us like were nuts and said really sarcastically, "Right. I'm sure you didn't notice the sign." SIGN? We turned around and there in ENORMOUS red letters was a huge sign saying NO TRESPASSING-DO NOT PASS THIS POINT. THIS IS NASA PROPERTY." We had completely missed it...We tried to explain that we were on our honeymoon and not really paying attention to anything but she just looked disgusted that we would lie about something like that. Hee hee...

3: I've been up to my ankles in french-fry grease: TRUE! In college, my friend and I got a job working as short order cooks in the student union. One of the closing duties was to drain the big fryer of its grease and fill it up with new stuff for the next day. It was somewhat complicated, involving turning the whole thing off to cool, then turning a valve to drain the fryer, removing the big tube, putting in a different tube, turning the valve back on to fill the fryer back up. My friend was in charge of it that night and I was around the corner. Suddenly I heard a big scream and my friend yelled "Molly!!! HURRY!!!". I ran around the corner and almost did the splits because the floor was so slippery-somehow the tube hadn't gotten connected up and grease was gushing everywhere and my friend was just standing there laughing because she was so freaked out. It really only took a few seconds for us to get the right valve turned but by that time we were both ankle deep in grease and I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants. Fortunately the grease was cool, or it could have been really bad, but I still get the giggles when I think of how funny we must have looked.

4. I have personally helped put a man in jail: TRUE!
I'm realizing all these things happened in college! I managed to leave my wallet/planner under my seat after a class, and then it was gone when I went back for it. I called my credit card to cancel it and you guessed it, it had already been used! This was Logan Utah in 1995, so identity theft wasn't really common knowledge--stupid me had thought some handsome RM was going to show up at my dorm with the wallet and that would be the beginning of our love story...:)

The card had been used to buy some fancy hiking boots, and the woman at the store gave me a description of the guy who'd bought them. I showed up early to class and guess who strolls in wearing the boots! I called the cops and they questioned him but let him go, saying it was my word against his. The guy was waiting for me after class and we walked around for a while (I cannot believe I wasn't scared, but I guess he was kind of short!). He was dancing around the subject until finally I came out and asked him if he had taken my credit card and he said "Yes!" He said he'd never done anything like this before and please could he just pay me back, his parents would be so angry with him, blah blah blah. He played just about every sympathy card there was and I ALMOST felt sorry for him, until he tried to appeal to my sense of religion--he said something about God's forgiveness, and at that point I just got mad, because I realized he was being manipulative. I told him I needed to let the police handle it. At this point we had walked to my dorm (again, stupid I know!) and he turned away, saying he had to go to class. I couldnt' believe he thought he was just going to walk away, so I said, "Um, you're not going to class, you're going to jail!!"

The guy took off running! My friend was working at the front desk and I yelled, "That's the guy who stole my credit card!" And then I ran after him! He didn't have much of a head start and like I said before, he was short and wearing hiking boots, so I caught up to him. We had this completely surreal conversation about facing the music and then a cop car showed up. They took my statement and I wrote how bad I felt for him because he'd never done anything like this before, etc. The cop read it and said, "He told you he's never done anything like this before??" It turns out this guy had a record a mile long...my little Nancy Drew experiment was the last straw and he ended up in jail for a year. I still cannot believe I was dumb enough to confront the guy....

#5: My parents never planned to call me Liahona. There's no real story, and my kid is freaking out, so I'll spare you all another story. :)

I tag Heathere!

Tag

I am going to tag the other Rachael.

Here comes the truth

1. Truth, I was really good as kid at getting my point across to people, so I just thought debating in a court of law would be cool. I have since changed my mind.

2. False, as much as I wish I had stuck with it I never played basketball in high school.

3. Truth, in high school I volunteered at St Joe's hospital in St Paul. I used to get really light headed the first 24 hours of my period and happened to pass out once. The hospital paid for the ER visit and the stitches in my chin.

4. Truth, I never really competed with my car stereo but the guy I was dating and that installed it. Made sure that it was in case I wanted a company to sponsor me.

5. Truth, it all started when I brought a friend from high school to a church dance. It was August and very hot, so we went outside to cool off. While outside we were really excited and hyper, we saw dandelions and it just became a silly joke that we still have.

There you go, know you all know hings about me that you would not have otherwise!!!

Parenting Magazine

This was too fun, I had to share! And what better place to share a Parenting article than the Mommy Blog??



Does anyone read Parenting Magazine? Well if you do, or you happen to pass one at the store or dr. office flip to page 70!!! My daughter, Mayli got to be in the June issue of Parenting. It's a piece on development and they put her picture and a few quotes from me in the magazine. It's so fun to see our names in a national magazine!!
The article is also online if you click here: PARENTING

Buttermilk Syrup

Our easy meals (besides going out or ordering pizza) usually end being grilled sandwiches or spaghetti. Chicken Bundles and Tortilla Casserole are also pretty fast. But since I've already posted recipes for those then our other fall back dinner is pancakes! My kids LOVE pancakes so this is always a hit even if it's for dinner instead of breakfast. And I usually cook some bacon to go with it.
But here's the BEST part of our pancakes! Buttermilk Syrup! And I've always been a box pancake mix with store bought syrup mom before but then my mom gave me this recipe and it is SO SO SO SO good! And it's good for more than just pancakes! I think it would be good as a fruit dip or on ice cream! Yum... and it's easy to make! So here it is:

Buttermilk Syrup
1 stick butter
1/2 C buttermilk (or make your own by adding 1/2 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1/2 C milk)
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
Melt butter in saucepan. Add milk and sugar and stir to a boil. Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla. It will be runny at first but let it cool for a little bit and it will thicken. Make sure to lick the spoon!!!

Lisey's Alfredo

This may not seem like something that I would make when there is nothing else, but for some strange reason I always have parmesan cheese in my freezer and cream in my fridge.
Lisey's Alfredo
Serves 4 (I usually triple the sauce recipe and double the noodles because we like it creamy. We also use bowtie pasta or even elbow macaroni because it is easier for the kids)
Cook 4 oz fettuccini noodles until tender in boiling water. Add 1 tsp oil to the water so the noodles don't stick together. Drain noodles and set aside.
In a saucepan combine:
1/4 C. Butter
1/2 C. cream
1 tsp. Parsley flakes
1/8 tsp Salt.
1/8 tsp. Nutmeg (I don't use this because I don't like it)
1/4 c. Parmesan Cheese
Bring to low boil, simmer for 4-5 min. Toss noodles with sauce vigorously, serve warm :)
I like to also add a grilled chicken breast or 2 and some cooked broccoli for a well rounded meal

Oh the tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive...

Ok--here goes! Which one do you think is false?

1. I spent Valentine's Day 1996 stuck in a Russian elevator.
2. My husband and I trespassed on NASA property on our honeymoon.
3. I have been up to my ankles in french fry grease.
4. I have personally helped to put a man in jail.
5. My name was supposed to be Liahona, but my parents changed their minds at the last minute.

My easy dinner

After traveling or being gone all day or having to make a really fast meal usually means that I make 1 of 2 meals. Spaghetti, or tacos. I always have frozen, cooked hamburger in my freezer, so it is always easy for tacos. When I do tacos, I always add a can of diced tomatoes, plus taco seasoning and then we eat it with whatever toppings we have, tortillas, or tortilla chips, lettuce, cheese, and whatever else we may have sitting around. It's pretty low key, but it tastes good, and Will eats it too! Spaghetti is always a family favorite. And, I can add hamburger to that too, plus I always add a little brown sugar to my jarred sauce, it makes it taste yummy, and if I have green peppers I add those too. Garlic bread is a cinch and add a side of frozen or canned corn, and it is on the table in 30 minutes or less. Boring, yes, easy, yes, tasty, yes!

Family Vacations

Summer is coming and so are the fun family vacations! This year we were invited to spend a week with my parents in a timeshare in Orlando, Florida in July. I know it is not the best time to go, super hot and humid, but free accommodations with a nice pool will make it easier to bear. So in July Ian will be 2 1/2 and I will be almost 5 months pregnant, making Orlando a little tricky. I first crossed off Magic Kingdom from our itinerary thinking that Ian would be too young and that I wouldn't be able to go on anything. I thought Sea World would be more enjoyable. But then I talked to a friend who said, "No, that is a perfect time for Disney, at 2 1/2 yrs they are free and are starting to enjoy stuff like that."

So I thought I would ask you girls. Have you been on a theme park vacation, Disney or others, with a toddler or pregnant? How did it go? Do you have any advise for me? Or have you gone to Orlando and have pros/ cons on going to Disney or the other parks?

What other fun vacations have you gone on with your toddlers or do you have any fun vacations planned for this summer? I'd love ideas for the future.

Guess which one!! I bet no one will!

Sorry mine are not very exciting. I guess I have not had as many adventures as the rest of you!

1. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a Lawyer, because I thought it would be cool to get dresses up and get paid to fight/argue with people.

2. In high school I set the record from most rebounds made in one season at my school.

3. While volunteering at a hospital I passed out in the bathroom and had to be rushed upstairs to the ER.

4. I used to have a competition level stereo system in my car.

5. When I was in YWs I used to smoke dandelions at church dances.

Here you go. I'm not sure if anyone is going to get it!! Good luck!