Halloween

Henry was kind enough to have his birthday after the Primary Program, Bethany's orchestra concert, Halloween and Matthew's parenting class. Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks: Bethany at her Halloween orchestra concert. Isn't she a perfect little Hermione?
We could barely see her on the stage, so I had to take a picture of her with her violin after the performance. She did so well & we were so proud of her.

The girls got to dress up for school:

and for Halloween Storytime at the library:
And of course, the big night: Hermione

Pocahontas

(& I am never letting Gwen wear makeup ever again. How pretty she looked was the scariest thing about Halloween!)

& our beautiful but evil witch.

(Sorry you have to turn your head sideways.)

Henry

Henry Bevan Lowe

November 6, 2009, 11:50 P.M.

8 lbs. 5 oz.

Jarom Foster Nelson
October 18, 2009

My brother Daron & his wife Christina's son was stillborn last Sunday morning. (I found out shortly after I posted.) Our hearts are breaking for the little nephew/cousin/son/grandson that we won't get to know in this life, but we know that we will get to know him, hug him, kiss him; that his parents will get to raise him, teach him, love him and hold his hand in the next life. Until then, we will miss him, and think about him, and do our best to make it to where he is, to where he got to go without the trials of this life. What a precious spirit.

And barren coves be filled,

O'erflow with reverie!

Let mem'ry salve as Gilead's caressing.

And though the balm be spread,

Let tender rifts remain

That breaking hearts not yield to forgetting.

For hearts rent wide at death,

Unfolded to our dead,

Hear singing from beyond sunlight's setting.

(Let Peace Then Still the Strife, text: David Warner)

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jarom's choice parents, whose hearts are rent wide. We find solace and rejoice in the knowledge that families are forever. "Now we have a reason to live extremely well."

Sunday

Gwen and I are staying home from church today to make sure Gwen is completely over her flu. Here's what we're reading/watching this beautiful morning:

Life Is O'erflowing with Beautiful Things
The Friend, July 2009


"A spurt may appear to be impressive in the short run, but steadiness over time is far more effective, far less dangerous, and produces far better results. Consecutive days of fasting, ultimately, may not be as spiritually edifying as successive months of appropriate fasting and worship on the designated fast Sunday. An attempt to pray one time for several hours likely will not produce the same spiritual results as meaningful morning and evening prayer offered consistently over several weeks. And a single scripture-reading marathon cannot produce the spiritual growth of steady scripture study across many months."

Elder David A. Bednar
Steadfast and Immovable, Always Abounding in Good Works
New Era, January 2008

I don't even like cats

At least, I didn't think I did, but I apparently have a soft spot in my heart for these animals that keep showing up on my doorstep meowing & looking cute and helpless and hungry. When a second kitten came looking for a home, Matthew said absolutely not. We do not want two cats. I had to keep telling myself, "Kittens grow up to be cats, kittens grow up to be cats..." because this little thing was the cutest kitten I have ever seen. She looked just like Princess Fluffy Rosy Nosy (my girls' name for our Siamese) but smaller, whiter and even fluffier. I broke down and fed her (didn't tell my husband), and was a little disappointed that I didn't see her again.

A week later, she showed up in our garage. I had left it open by accident during the day and she came out when we were loading up to go to the cabin. I was secretly happy to see her, but sad that we wouldn't be keeping her. "What are we going to do with her?" I asked Matthew. A friend of mine happened to be at our house and said that she'd love to take the kitty home. Yay! The cutest kitten in the world gets a loving home & I don't have guilt! So we said good-bye to Little Fluffy and sent her to live at Renee's house.

Next day, I was talking to my neighbor across the street and she asked if I'd seen a kitten. "Uh, does it look a lot like our cat?" "Yes, but younger. She's been missing and my kids are worried about their new kitten." "That was your kitten? I'm sorry, but we gave her away." Good thing everyone involved is friends and a phone call later, Little Fluffy was back at her original home with her original owners. When she wanders through our yard occasionally, Cate and I pet her and love her and are so glad she's our neighbor. Then I send her on home because I don't even like cats.

for Carla

Butternut Squash Bisque

2 Tbsp butter
2 small onions, chopped
1 pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
5 cups chicken stock
8 oz. potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp paprika
1/2 cup whipping cream (optional)
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives + some to garnish (optional)
Salt & pepper
Red pepper flakes

In a large pot, saute onions in butter for 5 minutes. Add squash, stock, potatoes and paprika. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, simmer for 35 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Blend in batches until smooth. Stir in cream, season with salt & pepper, reheat gently. Stir in chopped chives or red pepper flakes just before serving. Garnish with chives or cream.

This soup is very forgiving. I have never weighed the potatoes or squash. I just cut up one whole squash & put in about half that much of potatoes. Then add plenty of chicken broth - you can always add more as you're blending it if it's too thick.

It's Fall Ya'll!

I have a great post about picture day coming up, but my camera needs a new battery & that post needs pictures. (It involves a black eye.) So, in the meantime, here is a recipe for one of my favorite soups. I think I found it in a magazine & modified it a little because I can't seem to follow a recipe to save my life. I made it for dinner last night and served it with brown rice pilaf, roasted broccoli & wheat rolls. I felt totally healthy, especially since I'd been eating candy corn all day long. I think that soup is my favorite thing about fall. This is also good to serve with Halloween coming up - all that garlic will keep away the vampires!

Creamy Carrot Potato Soup
1 head of garlic (That's right, 1 HEAD, not one clove. Peel each & every clove from an entire head of garlic & throw 'em in the pot. Don't be afraid, it's so good. Unless you don't like garlic, then perhaps you shouldn't even bother with this soup.)
6-8 cups chicken broth
3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
6+ carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1/3 cup heavy cream (or half 'n' half or milk, but cream is best)
salt & pepper

Bring broth, garlic, potatoes and carrots to a boil. Simmer, covered, 25 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Blend soup in batches until smooth. Return to pot. Stir in cream, season with salt and pepper. Heat through. Ladle into soup bowls, garnish with a few drops of heavy cream and serve.

My girls really like it when I whip up the rest of the heavy cream & top their soup with a dollop of that.

Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Pan Sauce

I think I got this recipe from a Weight Watchers cookbook. (Don't you love how WW recipes are always titled with an ingredient list? Hm, pork tenderloin with cranberry pan sauce, I wonder what's in that?) It is delish. It also contains oranges, so it is not for my mother-in-law! Glancing at the few recipes I've shared on this blog, it's apparent that I really like cranberries.


Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Pan Sauce & ORANGES

1 1/4 lbs pork tenderloin, trimmed & cut into 8 slices (4 servings) (I think the one I bought was about a pound and a half & it fed my little family of 5)

Salt & pepper the pork, brown 2 minutes on each side (in a little canola oil), transfer to a plate & keep warm.

Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of chicken broth. maybe a little more

Add: 1/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce, a little more of this too, actually like twice as much
1 Tbsp orange zest I didn't measure, just zested one whole orange
1/2 teaspoon thyme Mmmmm!
& pork.

Reduce heat and simmer covered, until pork is cooked through, about 8 minutes. I sliced up the orange I zested & simmered it along with everything else. I really like sweet meat. I discarded the cooked orange slices before serving. Then I sliced up another orange & garnished our plates with orange slices. Fancy! Yummy! Easy!

We've been adopted

...by a cat.

This sweet thing (I don't know wether it's a male or female - we're waiting to name it until Ed gets back from the cabin.) showed up on our porch Sunday evening. I think our neighbors that just moved "forgot" it. It meowed & purred and let the girls pet it and what could we do? We had to feed it! We had some leftover dog food after all. Of course s/he was back the next morning, purring against our sliding glass door. And so it's been all week. Matthew told the girls if they liked it, they could feed it, he wasn't going to. They've been very attentive so far. Unlike our last cat, this one really likes people. S/he sits on the girls' laps, lets Catherine pick it up and follows Bethany around the backyard. I have to admit, it's pretty sweet...

...for a cat.

(I hope Lowe pet #4 has better luck than the last two.)

First Aid, or Second, or Third

Steri-strips from my work: Free

Trip to the instacare: $30

Peace of mind: Priceless?

Gwen got to go fishing with her Dad, Papa and Uncle on Labor Day. She had a great time, even though they didn't catch anything. Sometimes those middle children need some time when they're the only one. She also got frozen yogurt from Maverick, so it was a pretty good day for her. The only parts she didn't like were (her words): coming home, not catching anything and cuttting her head open. She was running around the boat in the parking lot and hit her head on the motor. She ran crying to Matthew who looked at her and thought she was fine until he took off her hat and blood started running down her face. They applied pressure, stopped the bleeding and stuck a butterfly bandaid on it. That night I cleaned it up a little more and put a steri-strip on it. We all thought she was going to be fine. She went to school Tuesday, no problems. She went to school today, no problems until after lunch when it started bleeding again. Her teacher gave her some tissue and sent her to the office. The school counselor called me and told me that my daughter's forehead was gushing blood and I needed to come get her immediately. (I think he was overreacting a little, he seemed a little squeamish about blood.) I picked her up and figured I'd better take her to the Instacare. My nurse's instinct (Oh, you'll be fine! It's a flesh wound! Cowgirl up!) had obviously led me wrong and she probably needed a stitch or two. I paid the $30 co-pay and waited only a minute or two for the doctor. He came in, took a quick look at her forehead and told me to do exactly what I'd done on Monday, well, actually, he told his nurse to. She cleaned up the cut and put new steri-strips on it and sent us on our way. He said if it started bleeding again, just to put a little pressure on it and leave the steri-strips in place. Thanks doc, that's exactly what I thought, I just thought I was being a good mom for once by taking my kid to the doctor when they were bleeding profusely. Now, I love to be right and all, but I don't like to pay $30 to find out I'm right. Oh well, at least she got her steri-strips honestly.

Birthday Girl

Bethany turned eight last week and was baptized on Saturday. Thank you to all of our sweet family family members for driving from near & far for our special day. It meant so much to us to have you all here.

We had a rainstorm the night before with lots of lightning & the loudest thunder I've heard in years. My girls slept through the whole thing, but it made our opening song, "I Like to Look for Rainbows" more memorable to me. I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain. Bethany looked beautiful in her new white dress, new white sandals, freshly pedicured toes, new necklace & bracelet from Grandma Carla & new headband from Aunt Jena. (She also had a new haircut from the Paul Mitchell Hair School, but that's another story...) She was so happy all day. She just smiled & walked around with a spring in her step that was more like a high jump.

Both of her Grandmothers gave beautiful, touching talks, that were perfectly appropriate for a baptism and for an eight-year old. I was reminded of Elder Bednar's talk recently about the basic doctrines of the gospel and how the closer we are to the Spirit, the more we will want to learn about and study and understand those fundamental doctrines. (I'll look up the talk.) Carly and Rachel sang "Baptism" (Jesus came to John the baptist in Judea long ago...), my all-time favorite baptism song. It was lovely. I wish I could afford to treat you two to a day at the spa or a shopping spree in appreciation, but I hope you know how grateful I am to you both and how much you brought the Spirit to that room.

Dinner afterwards was easy and delicious thanks to everyone bringing salads, fruit, beans, etc. We drank gallons of homemade root beer and watched the cousins swarm our hillside. It was a beautiful day in so many ways. One I will never forget. It feels like I am entering into a new phase of motherhood. Letting go a little more, letting my children make their own decisions and be accountable for them. It's scary, but exciting. I know that this is the Lord's plan. I wonder if he has the same feelings about us, wondering if we're ready, if he's taught us enough. But of course, he knows we are and he knows he has and will continue to teach us. I pray for the faith to raise my daughters (& soon - son!) in the way my Heavenly Father wants me to, so that they'll be ready when decisions come that they need to make entirely on their own. That they'll have the testimony they need to seek their Father's help and follow their Brother's example when those hard decisions come. The beauty of the gospel is that even though I must let my children make their own choices someday, they do not really need to make those choices alone, they have perfect parents who will lead and guide them when I fall short. I hope that I can just show them where to look and who to follow. Its seems as though only yesterday we were holding Bethany in our arms and taking her to church for her baby blessing and now she has taken her own first steps in her journey back home. I am just grateful that I get to walk this path with her.

One more picture, I know Matthew's blinking in it, but everyone always says how much Bethany looks like me, so I thought I'd post this & ask, where do you think Bethany got her eyes?

Summer's not over yet!

The only way to survive this 100+ degree weather is to stay wet as much as possible.

Right Cate?

Thanks Jena, for having your birthday party at Sand Hollow!

We all had a ball.

Back to School

Bethany is in 3rd grade and Gwen is in 1st this year, so they're both gone all day. While this is somewhat hard for me to deal with, I'm coping by going shopping and getting pedicures while toting around just one child. I only have 2 or 3 more months of this kind of freedom, so I might as well live it up right? Catherine has been a joy to hang out with all day and Gwen & Bethany are loving school.

My big girls:

Plus their left-out little sister:

The mob at the bus stop:


At school (& no, I didn't follow them to the school, I happen to know the counselor & he took pictures for me):


Eating every bite of their healthy school lunch, er, at least drinking all their chocolate milk:


Hope everyone else starting school soon has a great first day too!

Happy Anniversary to us

The Matthew & Emily Lowe Family turned ten years old on Thursday. Me & the husband went to Salt Lake last week for a few days & left our girls with my parents. We stayed in a hotel, ate at resteraunts, walked around town, did a little shopping, went to the movies and had a wonderful, grown-up time. The girls had a wonderful, grandparent time. (Thanks!) For our actual anniversary, we went to the cabin. We made a cake and the girls blew out candles.

We stopped at Cedar Breaks on our way home.

It was a beautiful, crisp, cool day. We found a two-mile guided hike that we haven't taken before. The girls liked reading about the different stations & now we all know the difference between a spruce, a pine and a fir tree.

Funny story from the cabin, because is it just me or has my blog has been really boring lately? The girls found a little "fort" near the cabin and spent much of Thursday and Friday playing there. It was just a few logs leaning against a tree, but it made a cozy little room for them. They set up benches out of logs and swept the floor. They also found a restroom and made a path leading to it. It was a large pine tree (or was it a spruce?) with branches hanging down for privacy. Bethany demonstrated how you could hold on to some convenient branches and hang your bum back to relieve yourself should the need arise and you couldn't make the 1 minute walk back to the cabin and a flushing toilet. I asked her to please not show Catherine the "bathroom" because she would most definitely use it. I shouldn't have been suprised, but when I returned an hour later, Bethany informed me that she and Cate had both used their new bathroom, and that they just air-dried.

Live it up girlies! School starts in 5 days!

Cousin Swap

So, it's been a while... Anyone still there? I have a bunch of pictures begging to be uploaded from my camera, so here are some highlights from the last month or so:

We held the first of (hopefully!) many Lowe/Bocanegra cousin swaps last month. Carly, Rachel & Jacob have stayed with us in the past, but this was the first year we sent a few of ours up north in return. Carly & Jacob came to our house & Bethany & Gwen went to Orem for a week. It was a blast. Our house had the 15, 9 & 4 year-old, while Jamie got stuck with an 8, a 7, two 6's & a 13 year-old. Who do you think had the better end of the bargain?

We started the week off with me dragging my laurels through Yankee Doodle Canyon. Carly got to come too & she was awesome! I don't know if I will ever talk the rest of the girls into going on another "hike" with me, but we survived and they're all a little tougher now than they knew they were.

Also, my mom might be relieved to know that I think that's the last time I'll squeeze into a harness this summer. As Catherine so kindly put it to me just 5 minutes ago, "Mom, you're fat!"

David & Jena just moved to Washington, just down the freeway from us. We're so excited to have them close & almost as excited about the pool in their townhouse complex. The only time I am comfortable lately is in the water, so I'm glad Jena & I get along so well, since I will be inviting myself over at least once a week for the next 3 months.

I don't know what Carly & Jacob like more, the pool or the Wii:

We had to go back to our favorite water-hole in Zion. Curtis, Alyssa, Christy & Maury came too. Everyone slid or jumped in & we had a grand time as always.

I was glad to get my girls back home again after a week away. Thanks so much for giving them the time of their lives Jamie. Can't wait for next summer!

Schools starts in 10 days...