Happy Halloween...Arrrrr

Arrr...We have been having a fun Halloween week. We had a party Saturday night...Tom and I dressed up as pirates. The kids carved their pumpkins for Family Home Evening last night. More pictures to come.....arrrrr.

Anyone know what "arrr" means in pirate?

What to do with those fall apples....

This apple tart is a favorite! The healthy date, nut crust allows you to indulge without guilt or compromising flavor as you enjoy added nutrition as well as flavor. The walnuts in the crust make one serving of this tart an excellent source of those hard-to-find omega-3 fatty acids! Enjoy!

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes, chilling time: about 1 hour

Ingredients:

2½ cups walnuts
1½ cups dates
3 green apples, such as Granny Smith
juice of 1 lemon in 2 cups water
¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground clove
2 TBS honey
½ cup apple juice
¼ cup raisins

Directions:
Combine walnuts and dates in food processor. Make sure you remove pits if dates have them and cut off end where stem was. Process until well mixed and ground, but not smooth. About 40 seconds. It should be a coarse texture when done. Press evenly into a 9 inch tart pan. Set in refrigerator while making the filling.
Slice apples by cutting into quarters. Cut out core and slice crosswise in ¼ inch thick slices. Put into lemon water while you finish cutting apples. Drain well in colander when done.
Place apples in a large skillet with rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently on medium heat.
Remove apples with a slotted spoon from hot pan to a bowl and cool completely.
Reduce liquid to about half the volume and cool separately.
Spread apples evenly over crust. Brush syrup over apples. Can be served right away or will keep in refrigerator until needed. Keep tart covered in refrigerator so it doesn't pick up moisture. Top with a little vanilla yogurt if desired.

Serves 8

Healthy Cooking Tips:
This crust is fantastic if prepared correctly. First of all, it is important to choose dates that are firm and not too gooey. Zahidi dates are usually good for this. When processing your crust you may have to do it in 2 batches. Combine half the dates and half the walnuts in each batch. Process well, but do not make the mixture too smooth. You should not process more than 40 seconds for each batch. You want to have a coarse texture that is ground enough to hold together when pressed. Take a pinch of crust between your fingers and press it together. If it is over processed the crust will end up pasty and will not be good. If it is not quite ground enough it won't hold together. You can get a good idea of the consistency by looking at the photo.

http://www.whfoods.com/

Somewhere Fun to Go this weekend...

Okay, so I know it's tempting to just skim through these long blogs, but if you want to find out how I got pickle juice on my butt your just going to have to read the whole dang thing....

Sunday morning Tom and I woke up to the fresh fall air coming in through our windows. It's beautiful, this past weekend Fall arrived. Just like that, and just like that we woke up Sunday and decided to skip church and pack up the kids to head up to our favorite hang out in Sedona for some camping, hiking and family fun. An hour later we were on the road stuffed to the gills with sleeping bags, treats, tents and one of the neighbor kids. We picked out a camp site in Oak Creek Canyon at Manzanita Campground...right next to the creek. Then we were off to our favorite Sedona Playground...Crescent Moon Picnic Area. It was a little chilly, but only in the shade. Crescent Moon is an awesome place to spend the day. It's got all the good picnic area stuff, but even better is the hiking path along the creek. It's spectacular! The kids love to go exploring along the creek. There are a couple of rope swings for swimming...the water was FREEZING, but Levi and Lucas both braved the frigid waters for a swing into the creek. We all got wet one way or another and had a perfectly lovely afternoon. The view of Cathedral Rock along this hike is something you have to see..don't be like me and forget your camera! The temp last night was about 20 degrees in the canyon, but we all stayed cozy and warm while in our sleeping bags AND like the true campers we are, all were up this morning at 6 am headed to McDonalds for breakfast and Hot Choc just about as quick as we could zip out of our bags and jump in the heated car! (I'm not a big fan of freezing my touche off waiting for the fire to warm me up! Esp when I'm the one who has to start the said fire!) Sure we looked like a big homeless family, but we were the only ones in the restaurant. By the time we got back from breakfast it was warm enough to clean up camp and head home. My only complaint was the sticky stinky pickle juice someone spilt onto my chair which I sat in and soaked thru the seat of my only pair of pants. This I discovered as I was walking into McDonalds. I did what anyone would do in that situation and stuffed an extra tee shirt in my underware so I wouldn't feel the sticky cold stuff on my butt. That completed the homeless ensemble nicely.

9 words women use

My Friend Lara forwarded this to me and I thought it might be helpful to my male readers...

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and youshould be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a nonverbal statement oftenmisunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing)

6)That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome.

(I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' ... that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a women's way of saying _________ (see #1)

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

What has Tom been up to this week?

"Brisingr"...yeah, pretty much every spare moment.

Nothing in particular...

Here are some pictures of out kids with our dog, London.

We love her.

Happy Birthday Dana!

Today is my sister in law's Birthday! Happy Birthday Dana! That's Tom's brother Pete on the piano. They were singing to us. Dana teaches voice lessons and she has a beautiful voice as does her husband. We Love to hear them sing together. Hope you had a great day sis!

Lucas

Lucas got a new hat and tee-shirt this weekend. He was so proud of them he asked me to take a picture of him. He's cute, huh?

Our Crazy Monday Night

So, here's what happened...On Monday, Levi was riding the bus home from school and this boy (who has been picking on Levi all year) stabbed him in the leg with a needle. It was a large needle stuck inside the opening of a mechanical pencil. Apperantly Levi had to sit next to this kid cuz there were no other seats. He thought it would be okay because they were sitting near the front. So after this kid grabs Levi's backpack and searches it for gum, he opens his own backpack, pulls out this pencil and starts stabbing the seat. Then he just stabs it into Levi's leg, deep. He stabbed him 2 other times, in the finger and leg again. So when Levi is trying to get out of the seat to get away, the bus driver is yelling at Levi to stay in his seat!
So, this same kid had stabbed a knife into Levi's backpack a few days ago. He has done many other abusive things to Levi, but this was the last straw. Against Levi's wishes, Tom and I decided to call the police and press charges. The police officer met us at the urgent care ( we went just to get him checked out, he was fine) Anyway, after all was said and done we pressed charges for both incidents. The kid most likely won't be back to Levi's school. So that is, in a nutshell, what happened on our last family home evening night. CRAZY!