Please help a great cause!!!

I copied and pasted this entry from my friend's blog. Please help. These are good friends of Mike and I. Sherry's husband, Darin, and Mike were missionary companions in Uruguay. You can contact me or Sherry with any recipe you would like to contribute. My email is mkjacobson@msn.com and Sherry's is at the bottom of the post. Thank you!!!!

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I started this blog http://sugarandspicecookbook.blogspot.com/ (this is also linked under My Blogging Buddies Sugar & Spice Blog on the side bar) so that I can compile recipes for a cookbook I am creating on behalf of my niece, Miss E.

Miss E. was born with Spina Bifida, a common birth defect where the skin does not completely form around the spinal cord while in the womb. Miss E. is an amazing little girlie and requires 24 hr. care by her parents and nurses...

Her family is in need of acquiring a van that is better suited than their current vehicle to transport Miss E. to medical appointments and check-ups. Miss E. requires various medical equipment as well as a car equipped with power sources. With the proceeds of the cookbook, we hope to help her family with such costs...

Here are the GUIDELINES.....
Please post the following:
-your favorite recipe or recipes.
-a SHORT 1 paragraph memory of this recipe.
-your name & state (if you are willing).

Categories I need recipes for:
This is not all inclusive...if you have any other household or cleaning tips, other recipes that do not fall under these categories please submit them!!!
Appetizers
Beans, rice, and grains
Breads
Desserts
Eggs
Fish and shellfish
Meat
Pasta
Poultry
Salads and dressings
Soups and stews
Vegetables
Vegetarian cooking

PLEASE HELP US GET THE WORD OUT....YOU CAN POST ON THE SUGAR & SPICS BLOG OR EMAIL ME AT RIDGECREEKHOMES@MSN.COM, IF THAT IS EASIER!!!!

Christmas dresses...

Every year I buy the girls dresses for Christmas and Easter. Crazy you might say. Consider though that I only buy them dresses twice a year, Christmas and Easter. So really it's not too out of control. Mike's parents give us money every year to buy the girls presents so actually this is one of the presents they get from their Grandpa Jake and Grandma Kitty. So thank you to them!!

I gave up a while after Monica was born trying to get the dresses to match. So Megan, Karly, and Monica (when she was younger) had a lot of matching dresses. The logistics are crazy to try to get size 16 to 24 months to match. So to save my sanity and at Mike's suggestion, I gave up matching. Plus Megan is old enough that she doesn't want to match her younger sisters exactly and she has her own idea of what she wants. So now to make myself feel better we have a color "theme" every year (Megan is agreeable to this). Last year was creme. All the girls had creme as the main color on their dress. This year the "theme" color is red (or with Katelyn's dress as close as we could get it). But let me tall ya, it is hard to find 5 dresses that are not sleeveless. Why stores carry sleeveless holiday dresses in UTAH during the WINTER is beyond me. Sorry, it just doesn't make much sense to me. Megan and Katelyn still wear sweaters over theirs to keep warm in the church building.

Megan and Mikayla

(Mikayla got her picture taken before Megan and didn't want to vacate the area.)

Karly

She hates the flash from the camera so she looks to the side. Crazy girl!

Monica

She loves the fur cuffs on the jacket of her dress.

Katelyn

I love her dress. I picked hers out first. Okay, it's not "red" but it goes well enough.

Mikayla

Her new nickname is "cheese-ball." She loves getting her picture taken.

Happy Birthday to you!!

I would post a most recent picture of Monica but it is in the last post so just scroll down a little bit and you will see it! :) I just want to wish a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Monica Rose! She turns 6 today!

Monica was due January 4 but I knew and hoped she would come sooner. I was miserable at the end of this pregnancy. There was so much pressure that it hurt to walk. But walk we did, got Megan and Karly strapped into the double stroller to walk around the mall. I felt a lot of contractions while I was walking. The only thing was that it was a Sunday night so we chose the Newgate Mall in Ogden because we were sure no one there would know us. I mean it was Sunday. Got to keep it holy! ;) No luck so I told her in-utero that she had to come the 23rd or wait until the 26th. I did not want a baby born on Christmas Eve or Day. Crazy me because I like it now and so does she. She announces to everyone that she is a Christmas baby! So she actually listened and came the next day on Monday, December 23, 2002 at 12:22 pm weighing 6 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 inches long.

Monica is my sweet and crazy girl. We told her that Joseph Smith's birthday is also December 23rd. She replied, "but he's dead already, right?"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA ROSE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

You can't escape genetics....

It has happened. My third child has gotten glasses. Monica got her glasses this last week. She is actually quite excited to have them! And she looks quite cute I might add! Mike took her and helped her pick the frames. He is better at that than I am. So now Megan, Karly, and Monica all now have glasses. Mike has tried to blame it on my family genetics. Not gonna work. I informed him of all the people in his family that wore glasses, two-thirds of his immediate family were glasses. I got my glasses in kindergarten. I still wear contacts. I feel bad for Katelyn and Mikayla because it is just a matter of time.

....and then California.

First some backround info. Mike is the second child of Merle and Kathryn Jacobson. But they go by Jake and Kitty. I mean if your name was Merle Omar, wouldn't you choose a nick name also? I agree. Mike has 1 older brother, 5 younger sisters, and 2 younger brothers. He is the second of nine. The order is Kevin(37), Mike(35 basically, his b-day is Dec. 12), Michelle(33), Katie(32), Kim(29), Melissa(26), Kristin(24), Matthew(21), and Kyle(15). Now there is a little bit of a guide so if I mention someone you can refer to this list! :)

Anyhoo, Matthew came home from the Texas Fort Worth Mission on November 26th. Yeah!! We have not seen him in 2 years. I got pregnant with Mikayla 2 weeks after he left. So he had never seen Mikayla except in pictures. So we left Utah on Tuesday the 25th, planned to spend the night at the California state line and make it the Ontario airport in time for his flight to come in at 12:20. It was a command performance by Kitty that EVERYONE had to be there to see him of the plane. So we were all there to see him come down to the baggage claim. It was fun. Kitty bought all her grandkids "cowboy" hats for them to wear. They were supposed to yell "Yee-haw!" when they saw him, but you know that this did not happen because they are kids and forgot when they saw him. He hugged Kitty first. And it took him a while to hug everyone else. But it was sweet and good to see him. My kids were way excited and had made signs for him to see.

Matthew when he got off the plane and got closer to the "mob" waiting to see him.


Matthew and Mikayla meeting for the first time. She was not sure about him but she did not cry!

The next day was Thanksgiving. We ate dinner at Jake and Kitty's and had dessert at my parents' house. Becky, Greg, their kids, Mike, Nikki, their kids, my Aunt Ellen, Uncle Larry, Sarah, Hayden, their baby, Greg's parents, and my parents were there. It was good and a lot of fun to see them. Sarah and Hayden's baby, Emily, is getting so big!! She's over 12 pounds now. Not bad considering she was just over 4 pounds starting out in life. She has tripled her birth weight in 4 months! I will post some pics of her another time. She is so cute!

The day after Thanksgiving we did not go shopping. Instead we went to SeaWorld. We were very lucky to have one of Mike's suppliers give us free tickets for our whole family! And the coolest thing is that when you bought day passes they automatically converted to season passes for the entire year of 2009! We live in Utah and have season passes for our entire family for the year of 2009! Very cool!! The kids were thrilled because they had never been there and I hadn't either from what I could remember. We went with Mike's sister, Michelle, and her family. Michelle's husband, Jason, and her kids, Kaylee and Austin, were great. They showed us around and told us what we should see. We also met up with Mike's brother, Kevin, and his family about lunch time. So it was a group of 6 adults and 12 kids! We had a blast and the kids loved spending the day with their cousins.

After we left SeaWorld, Michelle and Jason suggested that we go for dinner at a place in downtown San Diego called Dick's Last Stand. It was a hoot! They gave you cloth napkins to use for your dinner because the dispensers of paper napkins that are on the table are used to throw at people! Seriously!! You have paper napkins fights with any one that you see! It was crazy and so much fun! I mean, who would not have fun when you can have a paper napkins fight during dinner!

Saturday was spent at my parents house. But late in the afternoon we met up with Mike's family for family pictures. Then we had dinner back at my Mom and Dad's with Becky, Greg, Mike, Nikki, Sarah, Hayden, and all their kids.

Sunday we went to Mike's parents ward to hear Matthew report his mission. He did a very good job and it was great to hear some of his experiences in Texas. We left right after Sacrament Meeting because we had to get home. We drove home all in one day on Sunday. We were planning to drive home on Monday but Mike's boss said he had to be there for a meeting Monday morning so home we went.

Monica seeing the dolphins. She also petted them too with Uncle Jason's help!

The kids with their cousins, Kaylee and Austin. Austin is easy to pick out because he was the only boy in this picture! They are such great kids! We love them!

The Beluga whales (or at least one of them). I thought they were the coolest animals there. Sure the polar bear, the penquins, sharks, killer whales, and dolphins were cool. But I loved these!! They way that they move through the water is amazing!

I will post some more pictures later! There was a lot more!

First, Arizona....

First, I am going to write about our trip to Arizona. Leaving the day after Halloween is not very bright I tell ya, but we survived. Packing for a trip plus 5 costumes is a little crazy but you just make it through. Mike had to be down to Nogales by Monday so we left Saturday. We decided to drive it in 2 days because it is a very LOOONNNGGG trip. It takes about 12 to 14 hours depending how much you stop. So we get to my sister, Susan's late afternoon on Sunday and had dinner. Mike had some guys from work pick up and he headed down to Nogales. I mean Mike working was the whole reason we were there. He was helping with a third party food safety audit that was on Wednesday. So Susan took me and all my kids in. Bless her soul! Monday we took the kids to the park because the weather is about perfect down there this time of year. Tuesday is when all the "fun" started. Susan broke her hand when she tripped and fell down taking a neighbor's daughter to school because the neighbor had broken her leg. Susan had a double compound fracture of her right leg almost exactly 4 years earlier. She is quite talented I know. Then that night I started feeling sick to my stomach and threw up from 8:30 pm to 2:30 am. I felt better the next day but weak. Katelyn started to throw up Wednesday night but was better Thursday morning. On Thursday, Susan and her oldest daughter Amy got sick. Karly got sick Thursday evening, threw up twice and was over it. Lucky! On Friday, Susan felt better, Amy was still sick, Sean (Susan's husband) got sick, as did Daniel and Kimmy (2 of Susan's other kids). On Saturday, Becca (Susan's youngest) got sick. By Sunday, everyone felt better. We only had 3 holdouts who never got sick, Aaron (Susan's oldest son), Monica and Mikayla. Sadly Aaron lost the fight on Sunday afternoon. So of the 13 people in the house on 2 did not get sick. Megan got sick Halloween night and threw up. I thought it was too much candy. So I guess we took it to Susan's house. I felt so bad and kept apologizing. She felt bad that we couldn't do all she planned. So we forgave each other. I was glad that I was there to at least help out after her hand. On Monday, all the former sick people had a cook out in their back yard. Arizona uses a lot of rock in their landscaping so in their side yard they made a fire pit and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The kids had a blast! It was a lot of fun! We headed home on Tuesday about lunch time. We got home on Wednesday, November 12th and relaxed until it was time to get ready for the trip to California!

Here is Susan's dog, Missy Good Puppy. Very sweet dog. She would sit in Sean's chair when he is not home. :) Katelyn loved her and called her Missy Puppy.

Cousins having fun and wrestling.

Susan holding Mikayla and watching the wresting.

Karly, Monica, and Megan in front of the Christus statue in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center.

The fire pit in their back yard. The kids thought it was so cool!!

Ok, I'm a little behind....

Halloween...it was so long ago, I know and I am just getting around to posting the pictures the day before I leav on another trip. Crazy!! So during the month of November we have only been home for almost 2 weeks. We left November 1st for Phoenix. Mike had a business... thing in Nogales so my eldest sister, Susan, was good enough to take my 5 children and I in for a week and a half. During which time Susan broke her hand and all but 2 of the 13 people got the stomach flu! Good times!! We got home November 12th. Now we are leaving again for California for 6 days because Mike's brother Matthew is coming home from his mission in Texas. Everyone, and I mean, everyone is commanded by my Mother-in-law to be there at the airport on the 26th to see him get off the plane. So 2 parents, 8 siblings, 6 in-laws, and 18 nieces and nephews are going to be waiting to greet him. Fun!! We get back December 1st. Just in time for the girls to go back on track for school. Actually, they will miss the 1st day back but I'm sure we will all survive.

Anyhoo, Halloween pictures...


Mikayla as Piglet


Katelyn as Cinderella (her obsession)


Monica as a black cat


Karly as Cruella De Vil


Megan a doctor

All very cute I know!! :) More details about Arizona and California later!! Let's see if I can survive it all first!!