11/6/08

Halloween Highlights






Here are some highlights from Halloween:

Carving 12 pumpkins and roasting 0ver 10 cups of pumpkin seeds.  

Great halloween

 parties at Cathy's house and at Debby's. 

Paul trick or treating as Darth Vader with the kids in the warm rain.

Home-made donuts, bratwurst, and fondue on Halloween night.



11/1/08

Krispy Kreme Donut Recipe

Halloween is time for home-made donuts at our house.  For the past three years we have been making cider donuts.  This year was my first attempt at raised donuts and I think I'm hooked.  These were a lot lighter and airy.  They didn't soak up as much oil as the apple cider donuts.

I found this recipe online and I changed it a little so that I could make the dough in my food processor. (You will need to adjust this recipe smaller if you have a 7 or 11 cup food processor.)

Here is the food processor version of the recipe:

1 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. warm water (105 degrees)
2 tsp. instant yeast
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
5 cups all-purpose flour - approx. 750 grams (I'm sure if you have cake flour, that would even be better)
1 tsp or 9 grams salt
1/3 cup shortening

Oil for frying
Glaze 

Gently heat milk on stovetop until smoking slightly, do net let burn or boil.  Remove from heat.  Add sugar to dissolve.  Mix yeast with warm water.  Stir and let sit.  When milk has cooled a little, add beaten eggs.  Make sure your milk is not hot, or little pieces of egg can cook.  You can temper the eggs by adding a tablespoon or two of warm milk to the eggs and quickly whisking it in and then add those eggs to the milk mixture.  Place flour, salt and shortening into food processor.  Mix.  Then, with the machine running, add water and yeast mixture and then the milk mixture.   Let it mix and knead until smooth.  You can add more flour or water as needed.  This is a very sticky dough.  Be careful not to add too much flour.  When the dough is kneaded,  transfer into a large greased bowl and cover. (When I cover bread dough, I always put one layer of saran wrap right on the dough, and then another layer on the bowl - this helps the dough to not dry out.)  Let rise until double - at least an hour.  Mine sat on the counter for probably about 4 or 5 hours (because I was doing a lot of other things) and it was fine.  Slide dough onto a floured surface and gently roll to 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into donuts approx 3 inches.  Do not attempt to re-roll the dough and make more donuts.  (I didn't want to waste the extra dough, so I quickly formed some long rolls, let them rise and then baked them to eat our Bratwurst in. - they were good) Place cut donuts on a floured baking sheet.  Let rise for 30-40 minutes.  (I actually cut out the donuts and then put them in the fridge for an hour or two, then I sat them out for 40 minutes before frying because I wanted our guests to have warm, fresh donuts.)  Heat oil to 365-375 degrees.  Fry until golden brown - about a minute (less for the donut holes), turning halfway.  The donut holes are hard to flip once one side is brown.  I found that it is easier to constantly stir them a little as they fry for more even browning.  Carefully remove from oil and drain on a cooling rack placed on top of paper towels.  Then dip the donuts in the creamy glaze or chocolate glaze.  You can then dip them in candy or sprinkles if you want.  I haven't tried the chocolate glaze.  With the overload of chocolate on Haloween, we just stuck with the creamy glaze.

Creamy Glaze:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4-6 Tbsp hot water
Heat butter until melted. (I just put it in a bowl and carefully microwaved it).  Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Stir in water, 1 Tbsp at a time until reaches desired consistency.  I think I made my glaze a little too thick - but there were no complaints.

Chocolate Glaze:
To make the chocolate glaze, it is basically the same as making the creamy glaze, except you melt 4 oz of milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips with the butter in the first step.


*If you don't have a food processor, here is how you mix the dough.  You still mix the yeast with the water and scald the milk.  Let milk cool until lukewarm, then transfer to your mixing bowl or mixer.  Start with your whisk or paddle.  Add sugar, salt, shortening, eggs, and yeast mixture.  Add 2 cups of flour and mix really well.  Then you can change to your kneading hook and gradually add the remaining flour- remember this is sort of a sticky dough.

10/23/08

Fall Break in St George


We had a great long weekend in St. George for UEA break.  It was so nice to be in warm weather again.  Suz and her girls stayed with us one night and the kids had fun swimming together.  We had a great time on Saturday wakeboarding and surfing behind Kimberly and Robert's boat at Sand Hollow Reservoir (even though the water was a little cold).  Abigail lost her first tooth and the toothfairy found her at our St. George home!  We are now trying to adjust to a greater than 30 degree temp drop!





10/5/08

Happy Birthday Superman!!


Phillip and William working as a team at the Gateway Museum.


The life-flight helicopter


Anthony having fun at Chuck E Cheese!


Here are some photo highlights from Anthony's 3rd birthday.  He has been begging for a Superman birthday for months.  On the morning of Anthony's birthday, he came running into my room and gave me a hug.  I told him Happy Birthday and he touched his head and said "I'm still little.... I want another birthday!"

On Monday we met a whole bunch of cousins at the gateway.  We celebrated Anthony, Phillip, and Joseph's birthday at the food court and gave all of the kids happy meals and Cathy made some yummy cupcakes.   We all then went to the Discovery Gateway Museum to play.  The kids had so much fun playing there.  I loved watching all of the cousins work as a team building things with the oversized-stuffed blocks in the construction area.

On Wednesday, Anthony's actual birthday, we had a Superman party at Chuck E Cheese with some more cousins.  They all had a great time.  Ally was the best at winning tickets with over 400.  Grandpa said, "thats great - now you can get a plastic little ball."  It was nice not to have a party at home, because I didn't have to worry about much mess - only the mess of making and decorating a cake and trying to figure out where to put all of the new toys.

9/19/08

Happy Birthday Abigail!




We had a fun time celebrating Abby's birthday.  We had 16 cousins come over for a fun party the day before her birthday.  On her birthday we celebrated at Kangaroo Zoo. (A fun place with big blow up slides and jumping things.)

I can't believe Abigail is 6!  She is such a sweet girl, very smart and obedient.  She is also very patient and kind to her 3 brothers.

We love you Abby!
Abigail wanted a barbie cake again this year.  This is Rosella from the Island Princess Barbie movie.   This cake was actually pretty easy to make because I just looked at my barbie cake tips that I blogged last year.

9/8/08

Quick trip to Washington

We made a blitz trip out to Washington to support the Cougars against the Washington Huskies.  Paul, Austin, and I flew to Spokane on Friday.  We arrived late and stayed up late talking to Rob, Eva, and Jeff, we also happened to see Al and Paul that night.  We woke up early Saturday and drove 300 miles to Husky Stadium for the game.  We met Paul's dad and brother, Tyson at the game and had lots of fun cheering for BYU.  The weather was really great for Seattle, too.  After a fun game that was a little closer than we would have liked, we drove back to Spokane and stayed with Jeff and Tami.  Sunday morning, we drove to Coeur d' Alene Lake to check it out, then back to Spokane for a little tour of the city given by Rob, Eva, and the girls.  It was a fun trip, but I would like to stay longer next time and bring the whole family.  Rob, Eva, Jeff, and Tami were great hosts and provided lots of good food and hospitality.  Thanks so much to Stephanie for watching the three amigos in Provo!


Cute little Cougar Fan


At Husky Stadium in Seattle - we were very glad to have a victory!


Austin with Cousin Leo


University of Washington Campus


Coeur d' Alene Lake, Idaho



8/27/08

First Day of School

Here is Abigail at her first day of school: 

Abigail is really enjoying Kindergarten so far.  She loves being able to ride the bus home and I can tell she feels so big and important.  I have to admit that I did choke up a bit and I shed a tear as she walked into the classroom on Monday.  It makes me feel like I'm getting old and becoming a real "mom" because I have a child in school.  After a few days of school, she said "I'm never bad at school, because I don't like to get in trouble."  Also, on Monday, as Abigail came off the bus, Anthony was so excited to see her, but he was really disappointed that he couldn't ride.  He said "I want to go to kindergarten and ride the bus.  no fair!"



8/13/08

Busy Summer Continues


Unsuccessful fishing at Wahsatch St park in Midway


Playing in the sprinklers at the Olsen's cabin.


Henry, Timothy, Kate, Austin, and Isabelle - hanging out at Opa's house.


Morning view from Dad's Bear Lake Farm (pic taken by Al)


The biggest challenge of the Bear Lake trip - Here is Emily feeding 13 kids at once (yes, the babies count, too because usually one or both of them were hungry during meal times.)  This shows the kids favorite meal - Breakfast for Dinner.


Austin enjoying at day at Bear Lake.






"This is the summer of fair weather."  That is a line from the movie Saturday's Warrior that applies to us right now.  We have just been on-the-go and having fun all summer ever since Austin was born.  We had visits from Suz and Mary and their families.  We spent a weekend in Midway with Cathy and Pete, and then we went back to Bear Lake (while Paul traveled for business) with Al and Emily and their kids.

7/30/08

The Wake Kite

This is Paul enjoying his new favorite toy: the wakekite.  This video shows him trying out Robert's wakekite in Bear Lake.  Paul liked it so much that he bought his own Kite to take to Lake Powell.  However, he was very frustrated in Lake Powell because our rental boat was nothing like Robert's Mastercraft and it had a hard time getting the kite to stay in the air.  (All that did was make Paul really want a boat of his own.)

Busy Summer

Here are some photo highlights from the last few weeks since Austin was born:

My kids with Suzanne's kids at Bear Lake

Paul and Austin at Stadium of Fire

Lake Powell - Cheryl, Emily, and Mary's family all crowded on one boat to go back to the dock.


The kids loved riding the tube at Bear Lake

Andrew with his cousin, Paul on a tube in Lake Powell

Baby Blessing Day:  Timothy Paylor, Austin Hatch, and Katherine Williams

Things have been busy here since Austin was born.  We had about 2 1/2 weeks of quiet and not going anywhere, and then we've been on the go ever since.  
  When Austin was 3 weeks old, we went to Stadium of Fire on the 4th of July, then we went to St. George for a week the day after that.  The next weekend we were off to Bear Lake for the Hatch Family Reunion.  We came home for 2 days before going to Lake Powell for the 24th.  The day after we came back from Lake Powell, Paul blessed Austin in my Dad's ward with 2 of his cousins.  This has been a fun month.  Luckily Austin has been a very good baby and does great with all of the traveling and action.
  Now I am just trying to catch up on cleaning and laundry before our next adventure.  




6/14/08

Baby Austin is Here!

Here is our baby boy:

Austin LeRoy Hatch


He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz - 20 in long

He was born on "Friday the 13th" of June

at 5:44 a.m.


We all are so happy and love him so much. It has been so fun to have the other kids here and witness their instant love for their little brother. They love to hold him and give him kisses.
This is Grandpa LeRoy Wirthin and Grandma Wirthlin holding their 64th grandchild and immediate family member #100


Here is his dramatic birth story:


After a few days of false labor (see post below), I went to bed Thursday night again feeling contractions. I was going to have my mom come and sleep over, but I didn't want to disappoint myself if this was more false labor. Luckily, I was able to sleep for a few hours waking up only occasionally as I felt something. Around 2:30, I was definately awake and could not sleep between contractions. Around 3:30, Paul was up, too as I kept squeezing his arm hard every 6 or 7 minutes. About an hour later, my neighbor came over, who is a doula and brought her teenage daughter to stay with our kids. I remained in bed as this was the best position for me to comfortably deal with the labor. As Paul was loading the car, the pain became very intense and my neighbor was getting nervous. The contractions were still a little bit irregular - about 4-6 minutes apart, so I didn't think that I should worry. The last contraction before getting in the car, was the worst one, yet -  and after that things were very different.


I am not usually a very loud or dramatic person, but at this moment I was not much like myself. I was screaming in the car as the pain and pressure increased. As Paul approached the stop sign by the timpanogas temple, I yelled "don't stop! don't stop!" Luckily it was about 5:30 a.m. and not much traffic - he ony had to zoom around a few cars on a road that is usually pretty busy. We pulled up to the front of the hospital - left the car running and rushed in. I laid down on the floor of the elevator (still screaming) to releive some pressure. Paul yelled to the nurses and they helped me into a delivery room. They told me I would have to wait as the doctor was on his way. I yelled again, "I'm not waiting for anyone!" A few minutes later, the baby was born and delivered by a midwife who was on call in the hospital.


When asked if I would do another natural birth - I think I would (but I would probably try to go to the hospital a little sooner). Right now I feel so great (other than the sleep deprivation from 3 nights of labor). Immediately after the birth, I felt awesome, and it was so nice not to have an IV or to be stuck in bed unable to feel half your body. There was extreme pain, but it was manageable knowing that it would be over soon. It was also nice not to feel any weird side effects from Pitocin or Epidural. When Anthony was born, his heart rate reacted poorly with the Pitocin and I had some weird side effects to the epidural like itchiness and extreme drop in blood pressure. I have to say that even thought I felt the most pain with this birth, I feel that it has been my easiest delivery and recovery out of all of them.

False Labor

False labor is a cruel trick to be played on pregnant women, especially when you are almost a week overdue. This picture was taken on the 12th before taking the kids to the babysiter because I was sure the baby was coming that day.


Tuesday night I was up from about 2:00 - 7:00 having contractions every 5-10 minutes, so, I thought Wednesday was going to be the day. However, around 10:00 am, the contractions slowed down and only came irregularly throughout the day.


Wednesday night I went to bed very depressed - then the same thing happened, although this time the contractions hurt. I was up at about 2:00 a.m. again. I thought for sure this was real labor. So we sent the kids to the babysitter and Paul stayed home from work. Around 11:00 the contractions slowed down and became very irregular, although they were still strong. I was about to break down and cry, then we decided to make a fun day out of it to get my mind off if. So, we went out to lunch, went shopping at IKEA, went to look at boats, and went to a movie together. It was a fun day-off with Paul and it brought my spirits up a little. That evening, Paul took the kids out for dinner and to the Thanksgiving Point gardens while I took a nap. That is when the contractions started again - I did not know it at the time - but this time it was the real thing. (see next post)


Being almost a week overdue and having so much false labor, I was beginning to think that my body would never go into labor on its own. I was convinced that I would need to be induced with pitocin - like how I had my other babies. But I am so glad I waited it out.


I decided since me and four sisters have gone overdue for our babies in the past few months (Cathy - 10 days, Mary 9 days, and Alison - 12 days), that we need to make a song entitled "What do you do when you're overdue?" This is sung to the tune of the primary song "what do you do in the summertime." Cathy has allready given me the lyrics to her verse:


What do you do when you're overdue

And all of your projects are done?

Do you excercise on a ball?
Or walk around the mall?

Or sit in your car and cry?

Is that what you do?........So do I!

6/8/08

Happy Due Date at Lagoon






Friday was my due date and we spent the day with the kids at Lagoon. (along with thousands of other people).  The kids all had a great time on all of the rides.  The weather was great for Lagoon with overcast skies and highs in the upper 60s.  I mostly just sat around and watched, but Paul did convince me to ride the log ride with the family hoping that it would put me into labor.  Unfortunately, it did nothing - so we are now at 2 days overdue.

5/29/08

New Mom Haircut

Before and After

I thought I should blog my new haircut to keep with the trend since both Al, Cathy, and Mary blogged theirs.

I know the before picture is really weird, but it is the only picture I could find of me where my hair was not pulled back.

It feels good to get rid of a lot of hair - it is a little shorter than I hoped, but my hair grows fast.  The kids hardly recognized me when I picked them up.

5/21/08

Crazy Wind Storm

Last night, we were all outside as I was trying to finish planting the veggie garden.  It started getting winding and we felt a few rain drops, so Andrew went to get his umbrella.  A few minutes later, I was still planting and a huge gust of wind came.  A large piece of siding blew through the air, just above my head, then I looked over and noticed this huge tree was down on the lawn.  Poor little Andrew, who was still trying to hold on to his umbrella was really freaked out because his umbrella caught a huge gust of wind, which flipped the umbrella backwards (like on Mary Poppins) and broke it.  Meanwhile, Abby and Anthony were getting blasted in the face with dirt and debris.  I picked up Andrew, and Paul got the other two and we ran inside with everyone upset.  (Andrew is still a little nervous to go back outside).

I am still shocked and sad that this big, nice tree fell.  We will have to call a tree service to come and chop it up and then plant a small one in its place.  We will miss its nice shade this summer.