5 Stars to My Brother Adam

I have to brag a little about my big brother Adam and his amazing ability to cook. He was just featured in magazine, Nicholas & Company (http://nicholasandco.com/articles/foodtrend/foodtrend1.pdf), as an award winning chef for one of Salt Lake’s finest restaurants, Tuscany. He is a great cook and has been cooking for years. According to the article "Chef Adam Vickers training came during years of working in his mother’s restaurant kitchen in Idaho." Mom, why didn't you tell the rest of us that you had a restaurant? I guess Adam was the only one invited! Mom always said Adam loved to cook from the time he was two years old, he would make himself peanut & jelly sandwiches all the time. Look at him now "an award winning chef." Congrats big bro, you are amazing! You can cook for us anytime you want! We love you!

Tierd of Looking for the Answer

Okay, I have been looking all over the web and my blog for the answer to my question. How do I make comments show up under my posts? If anyone could let me know how to do that, I would be very grateful and it would save me a lot of time. Thanks!

Children Say and Do the Funniest Things!

Emma is our little "goof ball," for those who know her know exactly what I'm talking about. She is constantly making funny faces, dancing, or just being herself which is always funny (like in the picture above). We were walking back to the car after the Utah State Aggie game and she decided that she needed to be cool and walk with her hands in her pockets. She walk almost two blocks like that, until she tried to pick up some leaves and found out she couldn't pick them up with her hands in her pockets. It was so funny because she was looking at us like "what's wrong with you guys? Can't a girl walk down the street with her hands in her pockets without someone laughing at her?" We get a kick out of her daily! Emma hasn't gotten over Halloween, every day she wears a costume. She even tried to wear the Snow White dress to church last Sunday. Today we went to the library, while McKenzie was at preschool, and she wore her ladybug costume. I think she loves all the attention!

McKenzie is a funny girl too, during sacrament on Sunday, Fred was talking to her and all of a sudden he starts laughing really hard. McKenzie was showing him her little burn she got from helping me cook lunch before church that day. He asked her what happened and she said with a very serious face "I cooked myself!" He couldn't stop laughing!

I love remembering and recording all the funny things our girls say and do because they won't be little very long. Time goes by so fast every day! I mean Christmas Eve is only six weeks away!

Zucchini Chips

I was just reading some other blogs and came across a friends blog (Julie) who had canned a bunch of food. Which reminded me about the three buckets full of carrots in our garage that I still need to do something with, but instead I am blogging (anything to not do work)! Oh yeah, and I need to can the rest of our tomatoes that have been ripening down stairs. I'll just add them to my list of things to do but don't really want to do. Anyway, her blog also reminded me of a great recipe for zucchini that I grew up eating. I love it because it's pretty healthy, at lest it seems healthier to me than frying them, and my girls love zucchini this way. Emma can't get enough!

Zucchini Chips

Ingredients:

1 or 2 medium size zucchini

fresh graded Parmesan cheese (the kind in the bag)

Directions:

First wash zucchini and slice about ¼ inch thick. You don’t want them too thick or too thin. Take a cookie sheet and spray it down with vegetable spray, so the zucchini won't stick to the pan. Place sliced zucchini in rows on the cookie sheet as close together as possible. Then cover each zucchini chip with Parmesan cheese. Broil for 10 – 15 minutes or until cheese is browned. Place chips onto a plate and serve warm (not as good when they are cold). Enjoy, we always do!

Halloween Weeks!

Well it is finally all over but what a crazy few weeks we had. I think Halloween gets longer and longer every year. There are just so many things going on all month long. I think if someone tried to make it to every event around the area (including Halloween night), they could have enough candy for a whole year. The Gooch family didn't go that far but we might have enough candy for 6 months!

Our Halloween events actually started on the 18th of October for an annual Halloween party with a few friends in Utah. The theme was Super Heroes or Villains! Fred went as Jack Burton from this really cheesy 80s movie and I went as Cruella Deville.

In this picture, that is my real hair that was sprayed black & white, what a mess that was! I had black all over my neck, face, and hands by the end of the night. So I was smarter the next few times that I dressed up as Cruella, I got a wig and sprayed it, instead of my own hair. Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the party. Thanks Jim and Heather, you guys always throw a great party!

This year for family home evening, we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. I think McKenzie's favorite part was being able to cart around the pumpkins in the wagon. Emma was too cold to really get into it but she still had a good time and picked out her own pumpkin. She just wanted to ride on daddy's shoulders! We only ended up paying $5 for 4 pumpkins! It was a really fun place, they had a little kids maze made out of hay bales, wagons to pull your pumpkins around, and a big painted board where you put your face through the holes and take pictures. Here's our family picture, plus my mom's shadow.

That night we went home and painted the pumpkins. Of course Emma ended up a mess, but she enjoyed every minute of it!

I tried something this Halloween that has never been attempted by these hands of mine and may not ever be attempted again. I made McKenzie's Halloween costume, with the help of an old dress up that was falling apart. She wanted to be Ariel, she already had the necklace, crown, and shoes. So, for the costume I took parts off the old dress up, added it to some new fabric, and made an Ariel tutu. Wallah, her costume was done! Oh yeah and we got an Ariel wig. It was a hit, especially when we went to the parade at the library. Little girls were coming up to her and touching her hair and telling her how pretty Ariel's hair was. I think she loved all the attention!

As for Emma, I knew it would depend on the day what she was going to be for Halloween. She had a few choices, she could have been any of the princesses dresses we have, Mini Mouse, or a Ladybug. When we went to the library Emma was Princess Erica from Barbie Princess and the Pauper. At home she was or every day now is Snow White. For the actual day of Halloween, she ended up being a Ladybug.

To sum up all our Halloween activities we went to a pumpkin patch, school carnival, a church carnival, a library parade, Halloween street down at Snake River Landing, got a pumpkin pizza for dinner, and went trick-or-treating old school way. Over all it was a fun few weeks of Halloween!

The girls were all tuckered out by the end.