Nathan & Fiona, Kaisa & Everett – Family Blog

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed at church that Kaisa had a big bump right between her eyes.  I asked her what happened and she said she hit it on something.  I thought nothing of it at first, but it gradually got bigger and bigger throughout the day.  The next morning, her eyes were swollen shut.  We determined that it was a bug bite and took her to the doctor.  He said it was probably a spider and she was having an allergic reaction.  He gave her a steroid prescription and after a couple of days on prednosone and zyrtec, she was back to normal.  Here are some pictures of the bite as it progressed.

We teased her that she looked like a Nav'i creature from Avatar. She said, "I'm not a Avatar, I'm Kaisa!"

Silly face!

Love the cross-eyed look!

These were taken right after church. Not too bad, yet.

Here she is the next morning. So sad!!

Poor thing!

After the doctor. She's still pretty swollen, but in better spirits!

I told her to make a sad face. Man she is good!

I was going to post a video on our video blog, but for some reason I can’t get it to upload.  Oh well!

In May, I found out that Rob Gardner was holding auditions for his newest sacred work, “Lamb Of God.” I have performed in many of Rob’s other works and recorded a CD and DVD of two of them.  One of the highlights of my musical career (if you can call it that) was singing the Emma Smith solo in “Joseph Smith The Prophet” at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake.  I think Rob is one of the most talented composers out there and his sacred music is especially powerful and moving.  My testimony has grown a great deal as I have sung his music.

Needless to say, I hurried to my computer to send in an audition track of me singing with the Wasatch Chorale.  I was really worried because my audition was submitted nearly two weeks late, and I was sure I had missed my opportunity.

Amazingly, I received an invitation to participate in the 60 voice recording choir of “Lamb Of God” next week!  To my excitement, I was told we would be recording over the London Symphony Orchestra.  Holy Cow!!!  The recording would be happening in Arizona.  I booked my ticket right away.

Today I started learning the music.  Rob has all of the mp3′s of the actual tracks that he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.  I cannot even tell you how amazing they sound.  I get goosebumps all over just hearing the orchestra.  I can’t wait to hear this all put together with the choir, soloists, and narration!  This is going to be a powerful musical testament to the Savior and his Atonement.  I know that it will be a tool in helping many people gain a stronger testimony of the Savior.  Music is one of the most powerful ways to bear testimony and I am so excited to share mine in this production!

We will hopefully be performing this in the Salt Lake area in the fall (cross your fingers!) and I will be sure to let everyone know when that happens.  I think Rob also has plans to perform it in Arizona and California as well.  And I will be sure to let everyone know when the CD is available to purchase.  If you are interested in hearing some of his other works, they are all available at Deseret Book as well as here.

I got up at 5:45 this morning for the Smith’s coupon event.  When I got there, there were about 20 of us standing outside just waiting for the doors to open.  It was a little bit like Black Friday.  But before you call me a crazy person, let me show you how this paid off:

I got everything in this picture for less than $40.

There were some loadable coupons that didn't work and I'm trying to get them to credit that. Plus, I got two Catalina coupons totaling $3.50. So really, the total is closer to $30. I saved over $100!

I am so jealous of my mom because she lives in Arizona and Fry’s (the Smith’s equivalent there) does this coupon event every day.  I even mentioned to the lady checking me that they should try to convince corporate to do that in Utah.  Then they wouldn’t have masses of people coming in with hundreds of coupons.  They will probably never do it, though.  There are too many couponers here.

I was really glad I got up and went early.  This was the first time I got everything I wanted in one trip.  They had already run out of several things by the time I left.  Some people were taking 10 of everything.  I find that SO annoying!  Anyway, I really am addicted to couponing and I love it!  :)

I have been feeling very adventurous in the kitchen lately.  I generally play it safe with cooking and stick to easy and simple.  Maybe it’s Nathan’s request for fancy birthday cake, or my desire to “spice up” my cooking skills, but I’ve been trying out some more complicated things lately and documenting my experiments with the camera.  Here are a few of my recent creations.

Nutella Cheesecake.  Nathan found the recipe here.

Pretty straightforward as far as cheesecake goes, with a couple of exceptions: add Nutella in the batter before baking and top with a dark chocolate glaze.

So delicious!

Raspberry-filled cupcakes.  I took these to Nathan and his co-workers on his birthday.  I found the filling recipe and tutorial here.

Making the raspberry sauce.

Finished filling, with raspberries stirred back in.

I cheated and used a cake mix. If I had been really fancy, I would have made them from scratch.

I used my Pampered Chef grapefruit knife to cut out the holes. It worked great!

Making the holes for the filling.

Cutting off the bottom of the "cones" to make room for the filling.

Pouring in the filling.

Putting the tops back on.

Then frost, and voi-la!

Delicious, raspberry-filled cupcakes!

This last one was WAY too easy to be considered adventurous, but I just had to include it to show how easy it was and how amazing our new blender is.  It makes soup!  This took me about 10 min total to make.  If I hadn’t added the grilled chicken, it would have taken less than 5 min.  And it was so delicious!

Add all ingredients (except chicken) in blender and press "soups" button.

Meanwhile, grill chicken.

Add chicken to blended mixture and pulse 3-4 times.

Delicious cheesy chicken taco soup in literally minutes!

On Monday, Nathan had his 28th birthday!  We celebrated with friends the Friday before by going out to dinner and having cake and ice-cream at our house after.  On Saturday, we had a party with Nathan’s family where he had one of his favorite dinners (hoagies and chips) and the cake that he picked out for me to make this year…Nutella cheesecake (more on that later).  The most exciting part about his birthday was opening his Blendtec Blender!  He has been wanting one for a while, so his parents chipped in and I went and picked it up from Costco.  So far, it has exceeded all of our expectations.  We love it!  Here are some pictures of the event.

Fake excited smile...I'm pretty sure he knew what it was before opening it.

Cute one of the kids!

I love this one of Kaisa!

Trying out his first smoothie!

Blowing out his candles. Don't ask me why there are only 3.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!  We love you so much!