Walking on water........Literally...

Today we went on a little adventure out on a frozen pond near our house. It was fun sliding on the ice but not too fun when you are freezing cold!!! :( Everybody else seemed to be fine with the weather. Anyway, I managed to snap a few pictures before I lost feeling in my fingers.




Micaiah sweeping a runway to slide on.

    

 I was standing in the middle of the pond...

Gavin looking through the ice for frozen fish. (like in Ice Age) :)

Gavin's little guy.

Gavin's snow angel.

She was not supposed to be on the ice because of her ribs...

Yes, I was freezing!!!

Everybody watching Mic fixing to slide down his run way.

Running...

Sliding...

Micaiah's drawing...

Snow!!!

We finally got snow yesterday!! Only about half an inch though, but still, it  makes the cold weather worth it! There isn't a lot of snow to have fun in...yet, but I did go out yesterday morning for about five minutes and snapped a few pictures. After that my fingers were like frozen solid!

Banana bread recipe

My house now officially has the stomach flu...well, Autumn does but it won't be long until the rest of us get it too. :( Ayala isn't feeling too good either but doesn't have the flu. Next door has it really bad. So with all the sickness coming and going all the time, it is a good idea to stay away from sugar. I was in the mood to make some banana bread today that everybody could eat, whether they are sick or not, so I searched around and found a recipe and added a few things to it. I made it and it turned out really good! Everybody loves it!!! (that's what counts)

Here is the recipe I used...

~Sugarless Banana Bread~                               Makes 1 loaf

2c. flour

1tsp. baking soda

1tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 ripe bananas

1 (6oz.) can frozen orange or apple juice concentrate (I used apple)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup nuts

Stir together first six ingredients in bowl. In a different bowl, mash bananas then add next three ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients along with the raisins and nuts. Mix until just blended. Spoon into a greased 9x4 inch loaf pan and bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

Note: you can take out the nuts, raisins, and any of the spices if you prefer. It is all a matter of preference.

This is how my loaf turned out!

  Enjoy!!! :)

A new year! :)

Today is the first day of 2010! I can't believe it is already here. I have my new years resolutions already and hopefully I can stick to them. I'm going to print up something that has them on there and hang it somewhere in my room where I can see it all the time to remind me.

I heard a saying that says whatever you are doing on new years eve,  you will be doing the whole rest of the year, so I brought in the new year with screaming and yelling while I was running around in a big circle with some of my friends. I don't know what that means but it sounds like it's going to be a crazy year!!

Christmas...yes i know this post is late. :(

We didn't have a big Christmas here in Memphis, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't fun! :) Thursday night we had a big Christmas Eve meal and sat around singing Chritmas carols out of a book that Joel and Rushi printed up for us. We were going to walk around and carol but it was too rainy. :( Friday was sort of lazy day but that night Mic and my dad went out to find some boxes and found a ton of that wrapping stuff that pops and everyone had fun dancing on it! Alaina and Aubrey came out after that to spend a little time with us. Saturday was when most of the fun happened! All my sisters and their families were here plus Jerusha and her kids. Before they showed up, the kids sang some songs and recited a poem and we revealed to our secret people. It was fun because all the guys ended up having guys and all the ladies had ladies except Rushi had Tim. We did not do that on purpose either. :) Here are just a few pictures...

Dancing...

Christmas program...

Revealing people...

Micaiah bringing in a gift for his secret person. It was a bunch of boxes inside each other and a pair of earrings in a tiny box in the middle.

Cute niece...

Sibling pictures...

I can't wait to see what the new year brings!!! :)

Home for Christmas!!! :) :) :)

We waited for the loading of the plane to get done last night and since it had been delayed two hours, some people transfered from that flight to another that left sooner so there was room for all five of us standbys. The plane left around 9:50pm Phoenix time, 10:50pm Memphis time. He didn't give us assigned seats just told us to find an empty one. I ended up sitting next to this guy who wasn't like any of the other people I sat by on the ride to Hawaii. He actually talked to me and was nice and more than that...he smiled! :) It seemed like everyone on the plane was in a good mood, or it might have been that I was in a good mood! :) Towards the end of waiting for the plane, my mom and I were soooo tired that we were laughing at everything! It was great to be in a good mood again and have my stomach hurt. :) The guy I sat by wasn't that talkative but did talk when I asked him questions. He looked like he was in College and was studying some papers. Anyway, the ride was long but endurable. I just read my book the whole way and looked out the window. There was no going to sleep for me. We landed in Memphis at 1:15am this morning and Stephen came and picked us up. I was wearing flip flops, or slippers as the Hawaiians would say, and my toes were like on the verge of frost bite! They were literally really cold. They are used to weather in the 80s everyday not the high 20s. They warmed up though when we got in Stephen's truck and I put them up the the vent. Probably not the best idea but it helped. :) Not forty minutes later I was warm and covered in my bed!
I got up this morning around 10:45am to Autumn staring up at my bed with a humongous smile spread wide across her face! :) It is good to be home!!!!! :) :) :)

At the airport...

So I'm here in the airport right now waiting on my flight that has been delayed two hours! So we are here waiting...again! Airports are starting to feel like home away from home to us now. :(
We had a wonderful time at my cousin's. She was very hospitable!! She was always asking us if we wanted anything to eat or drink and giving us Christmas cookies and stuff. It was just awesome being there. Very refreshing for us. :) When they brought us back to airport we felt almost brand new. My mom was saying that she almost wished that we would miss the flight so we could stay and be with them more. I was like..."NO!!!" I have nothing against them but I've been away from home for forever and just want to be there asap!
Anyway, that's the newest on us. :) Thanks again for your prayers!!

Okay, my mom said I had to blog about our clothes...funny topic! :) So here we are, Monday night in the same clothes we were wearing since Friday morning. Whoa! This isn't exactly my type of first class traveling but it was necessary considering how our suitcases decided to take off with out us to Memphis on Friday. We did wash them Saturday afternoon and I blogged about that and how I wore my brothers shorts and shirt. :) Lucky for me, I don't stink! I was smart and put my deodorant and toothbrush and paste in my carry on bag!! :) My life right now is definitely an adventure but I guess I wouldn't mind if it were normal, or even boring...as long I am home! :)