Spiders, Snow ‘n Salmon

by Kami

This was yesterday.  It is the first actual drawing I have seen Kayson do!  And it was a spider.  This is very fitting since he has been enlisting Mike and Mykaela and Mama and whoever else can draw to create spiders on the Magna Doodle for him for some weeks past.

 

This is what we woke up to this morning!  It was just at that point where it should have been raining (38 degrees) but came down as snow so it was just dumping huge flakes—probably at least 4 inches.  Mykaela and Micah had a grand time walking to the store to get milk this morning in the snow.

Gazing at the snow coming down

Micah got a snow fort/tunnel made thanks to the snowplows that came through clearing the roads.

My husband made almost entirely this dinner!!!  It was every bit as good as it looked!  Marinated Alaskan salmon, green beans with almonds, rice with butter, potatoes done the best way (rubbed with butter and salt and baked) and yummy berry wheat bread!  Wow!

Banana Pudding Dessert!!

(Posted by Mykaela)

Well, I got inspired and decided to take tons of pictures of the next recipe I made, and put them on the blog.  Yesterday I made some banana pudding dessert, so here’s the recipe.

Banana Pudding Dessert

Crust Ingredients:

1 1/2 packages Honey Graham Crackers

1/2 C sugar

1 stick butter (1/2 c.)

Crust Directions:

Put graham crackers and sugar into a large Ziploc bag and then shake and knead well.

Next, pour butter directly into the bag, and knead again.

Press into a 9 x 13 baking pan.

You can now either chill the crust, or bake it in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.  I personally prefer the baking method.

Pudding Ingredients:

2 C sugar

1 C flour

6 C milk

8 eggs

6 T butter

2 T vanilla

Pudding directions:

Mix sugar and flour in a large pot.  Slowly whisk in all the milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling, then two minutes after it comes to a boil.  Have someone else crack the eggs into a large bowl as soon as the pudding starts to come to a boil.  Beat the eggs well, then very slowly ladle about a cup of the pudding mixture into the beaten eggs, all the while whisking the eggs quickly.  When the cup is well mixed in, pour in another cup of pudding slowly.  Then pour the egg/pudding mixture back into the pot with the rest of the pudding while whisking briskly.  Boil for 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat, then add the butter and vanilla.  Wait for the butter to melt, then stir it in and let the pudding cool for about one hour. 

 

When the pudding is cool, slice 3-4 medium bananas (or enough to make one layer of bananas) onto the top of the cooled crust.  (I like to slice the bananas a bit thick!:) 

Lay them out on the crust.

Then, spoon a very thick layer of pudding on top of the bananas.

Whip 2 cups of whipping cream in a chilled bowl, mixing in 1/3 cup of sugar right before peaks begin to form (or you can use Cool Whip, but whipping cream is better by a LOOOOOOOOOONG shot:). Spread it over top, and chill well.

Here it is!

When it is chilled, this is the BEST thing on the planet, and I am not even a banana lover in the least!  Enjoy!

Beverly Beach and More

We were able to stay in a house with some ocean view while we were in Newport for a Bible Conference.  It was close to Newport and it was so nice to be able to take the small ones for naps and get refreshed.  The owner of the home made darling cupcakes with Disney characters on them.

Here are some of her towel decorations that she had on the beds:

We were just a few minutes drive from Beverly Beach State Park. The weather was warm (mid-50’s), and the children enjoyed playing near the water, making sand “castles,” and wading in the creek that was flowing into the ocean.

Here’s a few more…

Malachi holding Mykaela in his hand…

On Thursday afternoon Mike, Micah, and Malachi went to an outing with the men of the church.  It was at a VFW shooting range.  They enjoyed shooting at clay pigeons for a few hours. After that the ladies met for a Bible Study at Sassafras Sue’s.  This is owned by one of the members of Trinity Baptist Church.  She makes such yummy foods it is almost impossible to resist.  She had some crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside cranberry oatmeal white chocolate chip cookies.  MMMMM!  The bottom right pictures Owner Kim Monroe and her daughter who own this darling little shop.

On Friday, when the weather turned and it was drizzling out, we went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center (http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/) in the last 20 minutes that they were opened.  The kids enjoyed the touch pools and aquariums.

Backing up a few days:  When we were on our way to Newport, we learned from my dear sister Karmyn that OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) was having a free open house for school teachers and their families and homeschooling families and we just happen to be in Portland on that day (I was getting a chiropractor appointment).  We decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up.  I forgot to bring my camera in to OMSI, but Micah got these pictures of the U.S.S. Blueback Submarine they were able to take a tour of.

More pictures of the inside of the submarine…

Astronauts Micah and Mykaela McDowell

Wow--It's Been a LONG Time!

Where have we been? I guess we've been a very busy family with very busy children! What fun and what a lot of blessings we have had since we last posted. We plan to just get goin' here again and put a little bit of stuff here when we get a chance! We took a trip to the middle east with all the children just to get a special picture for our blog! (OK, maybe it was just to OMSI in Portland Oregon...:) We just got back from a special trip to Newport, Oregon for a Bible Conference and had a really good time as usual. More on that later.


These were taken with the kids' camera...I am never quite sure what will come off of their camera. It is usually at least an interesting surprise, if not downright SCARY! Case in point below...One of the kids accidentally got pencil on their face from an artistic enterprise, then the pencil on the face became the fun and art.
Well, this is slow goin'! I am just learning how this blog thing works and it is 11:22 pm and Baby Kebron needs a feeding and I need a good night's sleep. Baby is 2 months, 3 days old, growing so fast, and so much fun! Micah (above) got such good pictures of him smiling. I'll leave you with one of these and hop off to bed for now! More later--SOON!