I guess I took a bit of a break.  I've turned into a busy lady!  Sorry to the grandmas.

Here are the recipes from our Chinese New Year.

Chinese Takeout Garlic Shrimp 

Orange Chicken

And egg rolls.  I just sort of made these up by combining recipes and using what I had.  I warmed up a little shredded chicken and chopped it up more finely.  I cooked half a bag of cole slaw until it wilted and then added some soy sauce and sugar.  I can't remember how much of each... A tablespoon or two, maybe?  Then I added some scrambled egg shopped finely.  I would have added some bean sprouts and green onion if I had them.  Then wrapped them up in egg roll wrappers and fried them.  It made 6.

If you are looking for a good recipe, try this one!

Roast Chicken and Gravy.

I know this is a funny picture with a crappy camera, but I thought Hayen's reaction was funny.

 It was sooooooooo good!  Amazing.
 Also,
Country Gravy.  I did leave out the onion and pepper because I didn't have any... It's perfect with biscuits.  Tonight I made a breakfast burrito with sausage and peppers, eggs, and this gravy over fried up corn tortillas.  Delicious.

So Hayden pretty much can say his ABCs.  He learned them mostly from sesame street and the Letter Factory DVD we have.  This is our favorite song that he watches on youtube.  Be warned, it will be stuck in your head for a week.



He also asks for "La la" about seven million times a day.  He acutally sings the words to it too.

Here we are at Family Home Evening.  We bought these carpet squares for our primary class, which was a class of 13 four year olds!  They split the class so we had extra and brought them home.The kids love them during FHE and they actually sat on them and folded their arms reverently for the prayer!
Have I mentioned that this kid doesn't take naps anymore???  It's really sad.  But at the same time, I do get to spend some good quality time with him while his sister naps so it has a good side.  For some reason one day he fell asleep.  It was such an odd occurrence I had to take a pictures.

Look!  We are outside on a walk!  It's finally warm! (And I scored this double stroller for free!!)


Don't they just look so happy?  It's been warmer here - in the 50's and it's supposed to be even warmer now.  We have spent as much time as possible outside the last couple days.

We went to see the ducks in the pond near our house.

And we found this trail right near the pond.  I can't wait until everything turns green!

Remember the slide Derrick made for Hayden's sled?

It is now a little puddle. :)

Purdue's basketball team won the Big Ten Championship!  We went to the airport when they flew in and they had a little celebration.

Hayden was scared of the noises and the people, so he just held onto his hat the entire time to hide.

I have a really good story to tell you.  I was downstairs and suddenly heard the microwave going.... Hmm it must be Hayden.  I decided to go check in case he had put something metal in there.  He did.

I sometimes just cannot believe what this boy is capable of.  Derrick had accidently left his lunch out of his bag when he was leaving this morning.  Hayden found it in the living room and opened it.  Saw that there was food in the bag, took it to the kitchen, pulled out a pan from under the stove, put the food on it, pulled a chair up to the stove, climbed up, put his food in the microwave, shut it, and turned it on.

I just had to laugh really hard.  I guess he knows how to take care of himself.

Please also note the disaster of a kitchen he made.  All this in the 3 minutes I was gone from the room!

I need your opinions on Hayen's birthday cake.  I made a practice one because I have never used fondant. My mom made him some adorable invitations, so I blew up the elephant and did a buttercream transfer.  I think the top looks ok (minus my sloppy writing because I was in a hurry.

I'm not really happy with how the fondant turned out on the side and I think I will make it so it doesn't come down so far on the next cake.  And I will not use gray for the border on the bottom because it's not that appetizing.  Should I maybe add some yellow, or just another color?  Should I not use fondant?  Do you know why it wrinkled on the sides? Give me your expert opinions.