Another Ison Chick Chat

We gathered at Grandma Ison's house for another session of Ison Chick Chat.

Megan-Candice 

The inspiration for the gathering was having the Wilson sisters in town. 

Megan was moving across the country and Martha came to visit from Ohio. As a part of their sister time together, they decided to come to Idaho to see Grandma Ison and hang out with us. We wanted to get in as much chat time, before everyone went their separate ways.

 Me-Amber

 Shegay-Martha-Grandma Ison

I had so much fun chatting and snacking I didn't get many quality pictures... just enough to document. :)

 Jana-Me

 Megan-Shegay-Martha

Liz-Annette-Rachel

 Wilson Sisters

We went around the room and shared what we've been doing, what's new and what's on the horizon. It was so fun to get together and be with one another...to the tune of 2am! 

We LOVE our cousins... and Ison Chick Chats!

PS-I went back for a second round of cousin chat the next evening. Martha and I found a quiet bench, in the hotel lobby they were staying in, and chatted each other up until WAY late...2,3,4am?...I can't remember.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We invited Grandma McKinley over for dinner, to celebrate her birthday.

We had orange chicken with stir-fry veggies and a Jello poke cake for dessert.

To make up for the lack of chocolate in the cake (actually no chocolate) we gave her a BIG Symphony bar. :)

After dinner we played games and enjoyed being with one another.

Happy Birthday Grandma/Mom!

We LOVE you!

Happy Easter!

For Easter, we had our annual Jerusalem dinner.

Of course the highly anticipated goat cheese was there along with something new... pita chips and hummus. The kids opened the eggs, while Jason read the scripture references, then we watched He Is Risen.

Happy Easter!

April Fools!

When it comes to April Fool's type jokes, I'm pretty mild. Generally I think they are kind of mean. Guess I don't have a very good sense of humor in that way. So when I saw a KFC April Fool's dinner on Pinterest, I knew it would fit my non-mean, cute type of April Fool's joke.

"Fried chicken, corn on the cob and baked beans".

The chicken bones were made from a pretzel rod and 2 mini marshmallows, dipped in white chocolate.
The chicken meat was Rice Crispy treats formed and shaped onto the bone. Then I slathered them with a peanut butter white chocolate combo and then dipped and patted bran flakes onto them for the crispy fried skin look.

The corn on the cob was a Twinkie that I frosted and then placed Jelly Belly (buttered popcorn) jellybeans onto, in rows. The butter pat was a lemon Starburst.

The baked beans were chocolate and vanilla pudding mixed with some orange and red food coloring then chocolate covered raisins stirred in. The original post suggested Sugar Babies, but I didn't find any at the store. My baked beans didn't look as authentic as the original, but they did the trick.

For dinner... oh, I mean dessert we had "cupcakes".

Meatloaf frosted with pink mashed potatoes.

I invited the family to come in for dinner. They knew we weren't really having KFC (it was a Sunday), but they couldn't figure out what exactly they WERE having for dinner.

Jason (and I) still being on the "no sweets" wellness challenge, just kind of sat there not knowing what was safe and what was "off limits" to eat. I assured him that he could have these cupcakes, but probably should wait on the other things. :)

A mixed up kind of dinner...

April Fools!

Dean confided later that he had the opportunity to have some live chickens given to him. He had wanted to put them in his innocent, unsuspecting siblings homes, through their back doors for an April Fool's joke. He didn't do it...but he wished he had.

How would you react to a live chicken roaming your home?

General Conference

General Conference... two of our favorite times of the year!

I often make up activity packets for my kids to do while they are watching. Usually a note-taking type for the older girls and puzzle and games for the younger 2. This year, I decided they were all old enough to take notes..and have less other type activities. They each received the same packet that had a picture of the apostle/prophet and space to take notes. We also had pictures on the wall. As each person spoke, they took turns placing their picture with their name and then writing down a few things from each talk.

Our Direct TV contract had ended this very week (maybe not the most convenient or best timing) AND the color wheel of our projector t.v. upstairs had broken.... sooooo we had to get a little creative in watching conference.

Plan A- was to watch it on the t.v. in our bedroom, BUT local channels weren't working right yet.

Plan B-watch on my laptop from lds.org.

Not ideal viewing, but really not all that bad either. So grateful for technology.

Later when Jason was home, he figured out how to connect the laptop to the t.v. so we could watch it on a bigger screen. And for the last session, he had finally figured out how to get the local t.v. station working.

Each kiddo made a "spot" (sometimes they have so many pillows and blankets it looks like a nest) for themselves.

Guess who. :)

I have to admit there was a little candy bribery that went on too. After the first congregational hymn, Treyson was the only one to receive candy (the only one beside myself who sang). Next several songs, Abree wanted to receive candy for singing, but I had to inform her she would only get credit for the congregational hymns, not the choir numbers. :) Candy was also distributed to those who participated in writing notes on the posted pictures.

I'm so glad to have this tradition of watching General Conference together as a family. I cherish the time spent together, as well as the guidance/direction we receive from our prophet, apostles and other leaders.

Track Meet

It's that time of year again... track season.

Rylee's first meet was at Boise High. It was a cloudy, windy day that threatened rain.

On your mark...
get set...

GO!!!

Go Rylee...Go Rocky!!!

Rylee didn't like her time, but said she was glad she didn't come in last. :)

Towards the end, it started pouring rain, creating little streams and puddles all around the bleachers. We went home cold and wet.

The next meet proved to be better all around... sunny skies and a time Rylee was really proud of.

Way to go Rylee!