Only for you, Sister!

This is for my sister in Canada. (You know who you are!):

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup Crisco Oil
3 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 teas. salt
2 cups pumpkin
2 teas. baking soda
2/3 cup cold water
1 teas. cinnamon
1 teas. nutmeg
3 cups of sugar

Beat all ingredients together for 5 min. and put in greased bread pans. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. Optional 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans.

And just for good measure, I'm gonna give you the best Banana Bread that I have ever tasted. And my awesome sister-in-law Christina, gave me this recipe.

Banana Bread

6 large bananas or 8 medium bananas
4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup oil
4 cups of flour
1 teas. baking soda
2 teas. salt
2 teas. baking powder
Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts/pecans

Mash bananas (leave chunks, that's the secret). Keep a little aside in another bowl, and then add eggs, sugar & oil. Mix together. In another bowl combine all your dry ingredients and give it a little stir. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Do not overmix, it will become stiff. Stir in the little bit of banana that you left on the side and pour into greased and floured bread pans. Place in a 325 degree oven and bake for 45-50 min.

I'm telling you, these recipes were sooooooo good! And tomorrow, I will give you a recipe that will astound you with how good it tastes. It's Pumpkin Carrot Cake! Yup, you heard right! Pumpkin Carrot Cake! You can't even taste the Pumpkin in it! My sister made it for the shower and man was it yummy! The best Carrot Cake I've ever tasted! Who-da thunk pumpkin would be good for carrot cake?....

Wow! That shower was scary!

Remember the baby shower I was throwing for my sister? Well...it was on Saturday and I'm still recovering! There were over 45 people there! Yeah, I was only planning on 30 at the most. (You know, they tell you to plan for 1/2 of the amount of invitations that you send off) I'm thinking that they loved the invitation and knew it was gonna be a kickin' party! We had Pumpkin Bread, Banana Bread, Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin Carrot Cake, Individual Cheesecakes with Strawberry's on top, Chocolate covered Strawberries, Fresh Fruit, Vegetable Lasagna, Chicken in a Roll, Chicken Salad, Artichoke Dip and Crackers, Pasta Salad and Brownies! There was a ton of stuff and it disappeared like it was nothin'! It was crazy!! I didn't get to sit down at all and by the time I got home....I had to take some pain pills and zonk out! But...my sister loved it and that's all that matters.
And now on to my lovely cooking for the day! I made some Cinnamon Rolls in the Bosch! They are to die for! My husband told me they were the best that he has ever tasted! I'm gonna try to make another kind tomorrow and I'll let you know which one is the best! Oh my goodness! They came out perfect! You were right Lynn, never stop trying, you'll get there some time! These things rose like nobody's business! It was beautiful to watch! Sigh....Such lovely Cinnamon Rolls....

This is for you, Diana!

Diana asked me to post a picture of the Bosch Machine, so here it is! (I have a love/hate relationship with this thing.) But it's supposed to be the best for making whole wheat bread! Since I have tons of wheat in my food storage, I figured I better start using it up and rotating it.

That's It!

O.k., I'm gonna have to say it! Please don't think I'm a horrible person. I SUCK at making bread! I really do. I tried it yesterday and they came out like bricks. And after talking to the Bosch store lady, I thought I was gonna be fine. I THOUGHT I did everything that she told me too, but the dough came out sticky again! And then I remembered that I was only supposed to mix it for 7 1/2 min. instead of 10 min. So, I guess I broke down the gluten. (Whatever that means)
I came upstairs to tell Kelvin my horrible news and he tries to fix it. What is up with that? Men are so funny. I can fix it, I'm just mad that I did it in the first place. And I just want commisseration! I'm going to the store and I'm gonna get some more honey to make another batch tomorrow. (If I do it tonight then I'll likely throw my Bosch through the window) Don't want to do anything rash.

Fun Birthday pics

This post is completely backwards! (What can I say, I'm a backwards kind of person!) You should start from the bottom of this post and work your way up!
Here's Emma and Joseph with their presents and their cake. Right after that I had to go to the hospital to take care of Kelvin. The nurses weren't helping him at all. He almost fell to the floor and when he hit the nurse call button, it took ten minutes for them to answer through the call box and the nurse never even came. Kelvin had to call for help. A passerby finally heard him and got someone to help! Can you believe that! He's so happy to be home. And I know what they mean by "through the good times and the bad times" LOL

Here's Becky (my sister) making her baby his first little "Build A Bear" bear. Isn't she gorgeous?! And yes, she kissed heart to make it extra special. I think it made her very happy to be able to do this after waiting so long to get pregnant.



We took them to Build A Bear (sorry about saying the same thing for Emma's pics but the blogger thing confuses me and I post backwards a lot) and Joseph chose a Christmas Moose that has real lights in his antlers. He was so cute doing all the things that they asked him to do. Except for one thing. He wouldn't kiss the heart! Totally said no. But then she said for him to let the moose kiss it and he was all right with that one. Can I tell you how much he loved the whole process!?




Here's Emma with her Build A Bear little bunny that she named "Hannah Montana" She was absolutely adorable making it. They had her jumping up and down, turning around, rubbing her head, and of course kissing the little heart that goes in the bunny. She did it all with total faith that she was bringing her bunny to life! I love her so much. She is the most incredible little girl. I'm sure Heavenly Father had a hard time letting go of her. And I'm also sure that she was sent down with Joseph for a reason. (Maybe to calm him down!)


Here's a shot of my sister (Isn't she pretty? She's 32 weeks pregnant and can still fit in the booth!) Anyway, she loves the kids and she usually comes to all the family functions, including football games, concerts etc. And the twins absolutely love her. Boy, are they going to be jealous of their little cousin! I'd post a picture of my friend but I think she would shoot me. Besides, I don't have her permission.
My sister, a friend and I took the twins to Red Robin for their birthday lunch and I'm pretty sure the only thing that was a hit there was the balloons! They don't care what they eat. I think they each only ate half of their food and drank 2 cups of soda. I loved my food though! Mmmmmmmm.....(Yeah I know, I'm motivated by food.)
This is the twins preschool loot! They love preschool so much and their teacher Ms.Kris is the best teacher a mom could ask for. She thinks that the twins are so cute and treats them very well. I can't believe how happy they are to go. They usually only get this happy going to McDonalds.

New News!

I feel sooo bad for my husband. He is so miserable. He has bedsores. I don't know how he got them so soon. He started getting them the day of his surgery. I didn't know they were bed sores though. I guess that the mattress they had him on made it difficult to move and he stayed in one position the whole night and by morning it was really red with a purple area. That one got progressively worse and then there were more added. Now they are open sores that look horrible. The nurse said she'd try to order an air mattress and then later told us that the Charge Nurse said that she couldn't do that until Kelvin's bedsores were a stage 3. I asked what Kelvin's were. She said stage 2. I asked her what stage 3 were and she said they were when they were in the muscle. Hello......have we not heard of prevention....you're gonna leave him on the same mattress so he'll get the stage 3 bedsores? Doesn't sound very smart to me. He can't even sleep! I wish he could come home. He wouldn't have those nasty bedsores with our bed. I think that he got them from sweating on that plastic mattress.
Oh! The pathology report came in and the tumor was definately Renal Cell Carcinoma. Good thing the doctor said that he thought he got it all. Don't leave even one of those nasty cells in there!
I'll post pictures of the twins birthday stuff tomorrow. I wish I could post the picture of Kelvins incision. It's huge!

Update time

Kelvin had his surgery on Tuesday and it's now Thursday. The surgery went really well and they think that they got everything. The pathology report isn't in yet, but it should be in in the next few days. He's kind of had a tough time, not because of the incision and the pain of the kidney removal (that feels pretty good right now.) but because his shoulder hurts really bad. I guess when they did the surgery they were a little rough on his arm when they were moving it around and some of the tendons were damaged. At least that's what Kelvin was muttering to me after they took the x-rays and finally talked to about it. Of course they didn't say that they caused the damage. We just assumed that that was the reason. (Or they dropped him...that might of done it) Would've been mighty hard to get him back up there though! He's not a small man by any stretch.
He was finally able to have some broth for dinner. And some jello. I think that that was his favorite. He'll probably get some real food tomorrow. Course, I don't think that hospital food is real food. It's disgusting! Scrambled eggs in the morning that are dried out and cold, are not appetizing. But hey, when you have nothing for 2 1/2 days and then broth, maybe that nasty food will taste like ambrosia. (NOT!)
My kids have been loving the meals brought in. They get dessert every day! And they love all the great food. Homemade food every day. They wish Mom would do that. (We have stock in Mc Donalds) They are missing their dad though. I'm missing him too. I don't like to sleep alone. In fact I hate the dark. I am the worst scaredy-cat ever. I don't ever turn off the lights downstairs, cuz I'm always scared something is gonna get me from behind on the way up the stairs. Even now my heartrate is climbing thinking about it. (Think about something else....)
It's Emma's and Joseph's birthday tomorrow and they get to go to the Bosch Store and learn how to make bread. There is a play place for them so I can not feel too guilty for taking them there on their birthday. And then my sister and I are going to take them to Build A Bear and to see the movie "Madagascar" I hope they think the day is fun. I bought them each a gift. A Transformer action figure for Joseph and a Barbie princess with horse for Emma. I know they will love them. And the other kids will bake their cakes for them while we are gone. (I hope)
Kelvin will be coming home on Sat. or Sun. Yeah!!!! Well...talk at ya later!