Happy Birthday Goose!

Wow, was it really just Goose's 2nd birthday?!  I can't believe she's 2!  And yet, of course I can.  This child is a dream.  An absolute dream.  We all adore her and love her smiles, her funnies, her happiness, her cuddles, her loves, and her friendship.  She is learning so much and makes us all so happy. 

A few things about Avery:

She loves books, puzzles, dolls, and her blanket. 
She can count to six without help and then counts "nine, twelve, thirteen, six, nine...there's nine!"
She knows all her letters in the alphabet, some also with their sounds and others with associated words, like A for Avery!
She could spend all day outside just enjoying being outside. 
She loves playing with her sisters and has recently developed a sweet friendship with Taryn.
She sleeps great, doesn't like lunch, and loves oatmeal.
She loves to say the prayer and at every meal the conflict arises "No, Avery pray."  "No, Avery, it's Keara's turn."  "Avery pray lunch."  "Okay, you can say it for lunch."  And then she reminds us all day that she'll say it at lunch.

Though her prayers have recently turned to "Dear Heavenly Father, Amen" "No, Avery, thank thee for this day" "Amen."  "Say day"  "Day.  Amen"  "No, thank you for our food."  "Amen."  "No, say food."  "Food, Amen."  You get the idea.

She loves her mommy...much to daddy's chagrin.  She is a cuddler, which I love!

She is seriously the sweetest, cutest thing we've ever met and I can't even begin to tell you all about her.  She is just so fun! 

When we'd say "Happy birthday Avery", she'd reply with "Mmm-hmmm."  You had to be there.  She's working so hard on getting her little fingers to cooperate and show that she's two years old.  But apparently, she understands how many fingers she's holding up because this morning, she held up three instead of two and when Braden asked how old she was, she looked at her hand and said "Three!"  This afternoon, when I asked, she held up four fingers and said "Four!"  I didn't realize she knew that.

Anyway, here are some pics from her birthday celebrations.  Braden had class basically from 9-9 on her actual birthday, so we had some minor celebrations that day and then had her real celebration tonight with my brother's family.  I know these are a lot of pics, but there are a few in her you HAVE to see, so at least scroll thru them, even if you don't read about them.


Her birthday began with opening "presents" that Keara had wrapped...library books, some of Avery's books, a play phone we have, and a baggie of animal crackers.  She wrapped them all in different colored construction paper, wrote "Avery, Lov Keara" on all of them, and then beamed for 24 hours waiting to give them to her.  It was so tender and Avery absolutely loved every one.

 This girl is not only beautiful, but she is also a complete HAM!  She is so funny and she knows it.

 I cannot believe how grown up she is!  Look at her!  Wasn't it just yesterday...??

 After naps, the girls and I headed over to these beautiful (free) gardens that are just 5 minutes from our house.  The gardens are H.U.G.E.  And stunning.  We loved this particular pathway lined with pink, Pink, PINK!

 Taryn loved this flower "as big as my head!"  I learned tonight it is called the "Dinner Plate" something...

 I love these three girls!  What a treasure to have daughters and for these girls to have sisters.  I know how much I adore my sisters and I am grateful these girls have each other.

 When we got home, we had ice cream with sprinkles and practiced blowing out candles. 

Tonight, we opened her real presents with my brother's family.  She was so excited!  She definitely figured out this whole unwrapping thing by the end of the night.

When we were in my brother's ward (church congregation), Avery would always ask to play with his watch.  Actually, she would do that any time she was with him.  He always graciously let her.  A few weeks ago, he got a new watch but didn't throw away his old one.  Instead, he wrapped it for her and gave it to her tonight.  When she opened it, she immediately hopped up and went over to put it on his arm.  Finding another one there, she was very confused!  But then she was very excited to have one for herself.  It is definitely going in the church bag.

Avery's favorite present was this baby doll and doll stroller.  She was then doubly excited to open her next present from Grandma...another doll!!  Tonight, she is happily sleeping with her own two babies.  It is adorable.  And she is thrilled to have her own stroller.  No more sisters being left out!

Okay, get ready for this.  Braden had this great idea to make a 3-D cake, ever since we saw some episodes from "Ace of Cakes" on the cooking channel.  He got inspired, had ideas flowing, and insisted that he get to make her cake this year.  I haven't let him make a cake for our children since his last two ideas bombed MISERABLY.  But I decided to back off, though I still had serious doubts when he told me his ideas.  He has GREAT ideas, but the execution always seems to lack.  I was truly worried we wouldn't have a cake at the end of it.

But not only did we have a cake, we had the most AWESOME cake I have ever seen in real life.  It comes in close with my brother's toilet cake he made my nephew 14 years ago, though he insists this is actually cooler.  I may have to agree.  It was incredible.  I was so proud of Braden sticking with his ideas, taking advice when necessary, and just going with the creative juices that were flowing.  And we were all blown away by the result. 

Isn't it incredible!?!?!

You may be asking, why a pig?  Because pigs are Avery's favorite farm animal.  She loves them and does a perfect pig impression.  I'll try to get that video uploaded...

Oh, and of course, pigs are pink.  Braden graciously wore a pink shirt today, much to his daughters' delight.

I know there are a lot of pics of it and you're probably thinking, "why are there so many pictures?" Because I couldn't choose just one and I can't believe how amazing it is so I just look at picture after picture and think "Oh my goodness! That is crazy amazing!" Braden, I concede. You can make the cakes from now on.

This cracked us all up.  Avery reached up and broke off the curly tail and just popped it right in her mouth. 
 

Avery loved her cake, especially the marshmallow fondant. 

 Avery cake and presents, we ran back over to the gardens to show my brother's family how beautiful they are right now.  They LOVED them and I hope they'll come back while they're still beautiful. 

Happy birthday baby girl.  I guess you're not a baby anymore.  But we adore you and love you and can't get enough of you.  You light up our lives and our home and our hearts every single day.  You are such a joy and a total blessing to us.  Before you were born, I had a strong, distinct impression that you would be an angel to our family.  And you are.

Three More Recipes

I have three more recipes to share. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but each holds its own charm.

*****

The first I actually got off a gal's website where she is trying to make something in her crockpot every day of 2008 without repeating anything. Since I love my crockpot and how it takes so much time out of dinner, I perused her site and found this recipe. As you know, Braden and I are trying to like fish, so I'm willing to try just about anything.

CROCKPOT PESTO FISH

1-2 lbs white fish
Bottled pesto
Shredded parmesan cheese
Aluminum foil

Spread a layer of foil on the counter top. Put a piece of fish in it. Cover it with a spoonful of pesto and sprinkle on some cheese. Fold over the foil to create a little packet. Put the packet in the Crockpot. Continue to layer in the foil packets until you run out of fish. Do not add water. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Check it after 3 hours. The fish is done when it is fully white and flakes nicely with a fork.

Verdict: This was good. Considering I don't really like fish, I ate the entire thing. Braden, on the other hand, likes fish even less tham me and he still didn't like this. But, if we're going to eat fish again, I will probably try this recipe again. He also says the picture looks like someone's lung, so sorry if it looks too gross to eat.

*****

This recipe is a variation of one I found on allrecipes.com. Braden LOVES fried chicken. I do not. It's not that I don't like the chicken part, it's that I don't like the fried part. So, if he's lucky, I make fried chicken once a year. Because I knew he would really love it if I made it, I was looking for a recipe that used less oil. I also wanted a better "crust" on the chicken. This is what I found with the changes I made. I also have an eggless option, which was really good.

FRIED CHICKEN

30 Saltine Crackers
2 Tbs Flour
2 Tbs dry potato flakes
1 tsp season salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
½ tsp paprika
2 eggs
¼ cup flour
3 chicken breasts, pounded and cut into strips
¼ cup oil (truly)

Place crackers in a large resealable plastic bag or food processor; seal bag and crush crackers until they are coarse crumbs. Add flour, potato flakes, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika to crumbs and mix well. Beat eggs in a shallow dish or bowl; pour crumbs in another bowl; heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Pour ¼ cup flour into resealable plastic bag and put all chicken strips in the bag and shake until well coated. One by one, dredge chicken pieces in egg, then dip in crumbs to coat. Reduce heat to medium and cook coated chicken in skillet for 15 to 20 minutes, turning frequently, until golden brown and juices run clear.
For eggless: Dip floured chicken in ranch dressing or other sauce and then coat with crumbs.

Verdict: Excellent! Oh so good. And beautiful too. The coating was perfect and delicious. Braden really enjoyed it the next 2 days for lunch by putting a couple strips on a hamburger bun with some pickles so it was like his favorite sandwich at Chik-fil-A.

*****

We were invited to our neighbor's for dinner last week (where they made the most amazing ribs...I'll get the recipe). They asked us to bring dessert. I have this thing about going to people's houses for dinner. If they ask me to bring something, I think I should put in as much effort as they are going to put into the dinner. I think it's tacky to show up to a big Sunday dinner with a plate of cookies, especially if they are store-bought. So, I'm going to make pies, cakes, or something beyond ordinary. Well, I needed something simple and cheap but fun, so I came up with this.

ANGEL FOOD PUDDING CAKE

1 Angel Food cake (from a mix, homemade, or store bought), cooked and cooled

1 pkg instant pudding, any flavor, made according to directions on package

2 cups whipped cream (I used whipping cream, but you could use cool-whip. I think Dream-whip would be too soft)

Fruit

Hershey chocolate bar

Powdered sugar

Cut the cake in half, horizontally. Place the bottom half on serving plate. Divide the pudding into two portions, one being about 2/3 and the other about 1/3 of the total. Divide the whipped cream the same way. Mix 2/3 pudding with 1/3 cream (in other words, this mixture will be predominantly pudding). Spread mixture over top of the bottom layer of cake. Top pudding with fruit of your choice. Place the top half of the cake on pudding/fruit. Mix 1/3 pudding with 2/3 cream (to make a predominantly cream based frosting). Spread this over the entire cake as a frosting. Grate the chocolate bar to create shavings or curls. Sprinkle over top of cake. Dust with powdered sugar.

Verdict: This was delicious. It looks good, tastes good, but even looks like it takes a ton of time when it doesn't. Also, it doesn't have a lot of fat or calories, depending on what you put in it. Ours was banana pudding and bananas, because that's what we had on hand. But we're looking forward to trying white chocolate pudding and raspberries. Mmmm. My sister made a chocolate variety last night, so I can't wait to hear how it turned out. Oh, and as you can see in the picture, I swirled in some chocolate angel food batter before I baked it. All I did was take a tablespoon or so of unsweeted cocoa powder and mixed it in about 1 cup of batter. Then I swirled it in the cake. It was a great addition. It made it taste like a very light non-donut boston cream donut.