Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2010 has been exciting for us and full of a lot of changes.  We have been blessed immensely.

Esther is 2 (almost 3) and in nursery at church.  She absolutely loves her nursery teachers!  She loves to look at books, sing, dance and she is quite a dare-devil.  She climbs on things at the playground that make Elizabeth's knees shake.  Esther has a best friend named Lydia that she adores and has become good friends with two girls next door.  Esther has mastered animal noises.

Joseph turned 6 this year and started Kindergarten at a Montessori charter school.  It has been good for him and he has made lots of friends there.  Joseph loves to read, build things out of anything (Legos, blocks, car parts, recycled stuff), draw plans of things to invent and sell to people, and run.  He recently got a suit to match Glen's and loves to wear it to church.  He wants to grow up to be just like his dad.  :)

Athena turned 18 this year and she is engaged at school with choir and other great things.  When she is not busy with school performances, she is busy getting good grades and having fun with friends.  She also plays the organ at church. 

Elizabeth has been busy with the house; especially with painting and organizing things.  We recently made our casita available for missionaries in our stake to use and the things from the casita that ended up in the house must go.  ;)  Elizabeth has fun exercising at the YMCA.  She also has very strong entrepreneur-tendencies and is working on projects from home to make extra money for the family.  **Here's where Elizabeth's life gets really interesting:  Because she has dysphagia (trouble swallowing her food), her doctor tested her for several things and one of the things she tested positive for is a gluten intolerance.   Now Elizabeth is learning how to cook gluten-free food.  And it's pretty fun, unless she really wants a nice slice of baguette with a bit of Brie.  Sometimes, there is just no substitute for the real thing, haha... Another side benefit of dysphagia is getting an endoscopy, which will take place at the beginning of 2011.  A specialist will stick a long tube with a camera down her throat and take a peek at her esophagus and stomach.  Eek.  

Glen, the very smart and hard-working head of our household, went back to school and is earning a Master of Ed degree at Arizona State University.  He has completed his first semester and is learning LOTS.  He likes to ride his bike to school when he can and is having a bit of extra fun with learning how to teach secondary school kids (middle school and high school).  He is a Priesthood teacher at church, as well as a ward missionary.

We send you and your families lots of love and prayers for the best blessings the Lord can give you.

With Love,
The Stowers Family

Could It Be? Look At What Came Around the Bend...

Joseph recently latched onto the fun tradition of building gingerbread houses and then slowly taking them apart and nibbling on them over the holiday season.  He then had the awesome idea for us all to make a gingerbread train together.  I cook, but I don't often bake, so I shortened the gingerbread construction process and used graham crackers instead of actual gingerbread.  This hastened us on to what I think the best part of gingerbread is - the decorating part!

The night before, we made the royal icing…

Put the trains together…

And the kids helped me clean up…

The next day, Joseph was so excited to decorate the train (especially the engine), he got up a little after 5am! Finally, after hours of breakfast and getting dressed and preparations, we were ready to go!

Joseph worked hard on his engine…

Esther helped out with the caboose work…

And then Glen made the nicest engine tender...

Here is our completed project!  What fun!

Now...it's time to eat!  We hope that you are enjoying your Christmas seasons!

Easy Rocky Road Fudge

I have been a treat-making machine this week and bought LOTS of baking goodies at the store on Friday in order to fulfill my Christmas treat cravings. I had an idea to make plain fudge and ended up whipping up a version of my own rocky road fudge. We have enjoyed it, as you can see and rocky road fudge is something that is especially fun for kids to eat, because of the marshmallows. This will only take about 10 minutes to make and about a few hours to harden, so plan ahead…


Ingredients:

14.5 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

2 cups (12 oz bag) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate or 3 TBS cocoa powder + 1 TBS butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup marshmallows

½ cup chopped walnuts

Butter a 8X8 baking dish. Pour the contents of a 14.5 oz can of sweetened-condensed milk into a medium-sized saucepan. With burner turned on low heat, pour in chocolate chips, unsweetened cocoa, and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Add marshmallows and walnuts, stir and put mixture quickly into the dish. Leave dish in the fridge for a few hours to harden and enjoy! We did…

Sorry there aren't more pieces of fudge in the picture!  We couldn't resist.

Suitcase Muscles and Christmas Milk

Words are so much fun and I especially love to hear our children’s expressions about different things! Joseph, our son, started speaking early. Because of this, we have been privy to some of the greatest things we have ever heard before. In fact, many of the things we have learned recently are very wise sayings that have come from the mouths of some of the most innocent beings we know; our children. Glen and I used to joke around about how we’d write a blog and title it “Josephisms.” Joseph’s words could fill volumes and we believe that there may be more importance placed on his words in the future.

Grandma Otte came to visit a few weeks ago, and boy, were we excited!  The children especially love that the grandmas love to visit with and devote time to them.  It makes the children feel so special!  A grandma's or a grandpa's love is very significant.  So, for Grandma Otte's visit, we all cleaned and Joseph and Esther helped make up her bed.  In a moment of serious reflection, Joseph told us he would like to go the airport with me and help Grandma carry her luggage. He then posed in true bodybuilder fashion and told us all about his “suitcase muscles.” And he’s right! He’s super-powerful!

After Grandma Otte’s visit, we went to store and we saw it in the dairy case; eggnog!  That one great reminder of Christmas being just right around the corner. Joseph took one look at the milk carton with the picture of “Santa Cow” on it and we just had to buy it.  As soon as we got home and went through the front door with our grocery bags, Joseph called out to Glen, “Daddy, daddy! We got some Christmas milk at the store today!” Christmas milk indeed! The taste reminds me of every good thing in life. And it tasted really nice with our dinner that night! Esther’s little eyes were as big as moons when she tasted the “dessert in a glass.”

I expect that we will hear more and more from Esther very soon. She has some of her own special sayings and currently says these things with her unique baby-speak accent.

I believe children have minds that work well; their thoughts are exceptionally refined and they illuminate light and brightness in the world. Some of the bravest and the strongest are here with us and it is our privilege to have them in our homes and schools. It is our responsibility to use all of our sincere efforts to nurture and guide them. The rewards to them and to the future of our world and its people will be exponential. These little ones have a great work to do!

Our great beings love to talk as they play!

Joseph with one of his favorite dump trucks.

Esther learning to ride her tricycle.