Christa's Baby Shower

A couple weeks ago Christa's sister Hilary and I threw Christa a baby shower for all her friends out here in utah. In July we had talked about a date and decided on august 8 because christa's due date wasnt until the end of august. then christa had little baby parker a couple weeks later on july 28 so we decided to just keep the same date for the shower. we were just glad that we didnt have to worry about him coming DURING the shower haha... anywho, here are some pics from the day. we had some great food and fun games. thanks to hilary and christa's mom for helpin me out wth all of it. we had so much fun getting it all ready and it seemed everyone had fun there at the shower. and congrats to christa for havin that cute baby!

the yummy food:
a couple games and paker's baby book and pictures:
christa with her diaper cake that i made for her:
me with the cute mommy! (notice the fun balloons we picked out):
most everyone that came:

Requested Recipes

So a few of you friends and family members have been asking me for some recipes lately that i have been trying out. Sorry it has taken me FOREVER to finally post them. I was gonna email them but then i thought, well why dont i just post em for all to enjoy! so here ya go!

Chicken Parmigiana (easy!):3/4 c. plain breadcrumbs (italian works good too)
3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
8 chicken cutlets or 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 large egg
2 c. easy chunky tomato sauce, jarred tomato sauce, etc
1/4 c. olive oil
6 oz mozzarella cheese, preferably fresh, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

1. Heat broiler. Combine breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a shallow bowl. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. dip chicken in the beaten egg, then dredge in the breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat both sides
2. spread tomato sauce onto the bottom of a baking dish (i used 9x13). Heat 2 tbsps. olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over med heat. place 4 chicken cutlets in the skillet; coot until golden, 1-2 mins each side. using a spatula, transfer the browned chicken cutlets to the baking dish, placing them on top of the sauce. repeat with remaining oil and chicken.
3. top each cutlet with a slice of mozzarella. broil about 4 inches from the heat source until the sauce is hot and cheese is melted and lightly browned in spots. about 5-8 mins. make sure chicken is cooked through. serve immediately with pasta.

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Here is another one i have tried recently. it was pretty yummy. not very healthy im sure but it tasted great! haha....
Slow-Cooker Chicken and Dumplings:
2 c. chopped carrots
2 c. chopped potatoes (i used red potatoes, yum.)
1 1/2 c. chopped parsnips
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried sage, crushed
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch pieces (i used chicken breasts, it worked just fine)
1 14 oz. can chicken broth
1 10 and 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
2 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz.)
2 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. butter, melted

1. for stew, in a slow cooker, combine the carrots, potatoes, parsnips, garlic, bay leaves, sage, 1/2 tsp. salt, and pepper. Place chicken on top of the vegetables. in a med bowl, gradually whisk broth into soup. pour over chicken.
2. cover, cook on low-heat for 8-10 hrs or on high-heat for 4-5 hrs.
3. after cooking, if using low- heat, turn slow cooker to high-heat. with a wooden spoon, stir stew. remove bay leaves; discard. in a small bowl, combine water and cornstarch; stir into stew until combined.
4. for dumplings, in a med mixing bowl combine flour, cheese, cornmeal, baking powder, and remaining salt. in a small bowl combine egg, milk, and melted butter. add egg mixture to flour mixture. stir with a fork until moistened. use 2 sppons to drop dough directly on top of stew.
5. cover, cook for 25-30 mins more or until a toothpick inserted into a dumpling comes out clean. (do not lift cover during cooking.)

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and finally, the "Better than Sex Cake"
1 cake mix -german chocolate or regular chocolate flavor
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 bottle or jar of caramel ice cream topping (i tend to use more than just 1/2 the jar. hehe)
Whipped cream or Cool Whip
bag of Heath Bits

Bake cake in a 9x13 pan with regular instructions

While cake is still hot, poke holes with a knife or skewer. pour can of sweetened condensed milk and jar of melted caramel all over the cake. Chill in the refrigerator. Top with Cool Whip then Heath bits. it's that easy!!

Sam's Mosaic

So remember this mosaic i made a few weeks ago?

Well i decided to make one for Sam too and i love how it turned out! He thought it was pretty cool too.. way more boyish than mine haha:
1. His name: Sam- short for Samuel

2. His favorite food: if there is something sam could never get sick of, its a great steak. when we go out to dinner, he almost always gets a steak at whatever restaurant we are at lol

3. His high school: Friendswood High School.. the Mustangs

4. His favorite color: Navy blue. I actually couldnt think of sam's favorite color because he never talks about it. then when he told me it was navy blue, it totally made sense even tho he had never actually said it before.

5. The place that he is at now: BYU in Provo, UT.

6. His favorite drink: Root Beer! dr. pepper comes close but root beer is definitely his favorite.

7. His dream vacation: Tahiti, Bora Bora, OR somewhere in the bahamas. basically an awesome tropical beach with clear water and white sand.

8. His favorite treat: Better than "anything" cake. he loves brownies and what not but this is his all time favorite

9. What he wants to be when he grows up: a professional wakeboarder! hehe... sam loooves wakeboarding and hopes he can someday do tricks like the guy in the picture.

10. Whats most important to him: family.

11. A word to describe him: This was easy for me to think of... the best word to describe sam is boyish. He jokes around a lot (not in a mean way of course). He loves to have a good time and play and be adventurous. He is HILARIOUS and we have so much fun together.

12. A nickname of his: This one is kinda complicated but i couldnt but 2 pics down.... sam's family has always called him ELTON KELLER. half elton john because he plays the piano and sings all the time (name came from when he was 9 years old and would play 'can you feel the love tonight' everyday on piano lol). and half Helen Keller because he is partly blind in one eye (this also came from when we was younger- when he would mow the lawn, he couldnt mow very straight and when people tried to call his name, he wouldnt hear them). sooo sam's family just kinda combined the two and from now on, he will always be Elton Keller. hehe

If you wanna make one for yourself, here are the instructions!! Have fun!

Step 1: Go to flickr.com

Step 2: In another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

Step 3: Choose 4 columns, 3 rows
Step 4: Answer the questions in the search bar of flickr and pick your favorite picture on the page and paste the address into the mosaic maker. Create the mosaic and then save it to your computer and post it as a picture. Have fun! :)

Christa and Randall had a baby!

So my best friend Christa had her baby the other day! the original due date wasnt until august 27 or so but the little guy decided to come a whole month early! he was born on July 28 and even though he was so early, he still weighed 7lb 4 oz!! good thing he was born early or he woulda been huge! lol... anywho, they named him Parker Lewis Hendricks and he is way cute. and christa is doing great! there were no complications or anything... it is a lot different seeing my best friend go through the whole baby thing than watching my older bros and sisters have kids. and its way cool to be able to hear all about her delivery and what not. i think seeing her go through it all makes it so much more real to me. probably just because she is my age and my siblings are all older so it makes me realize that we could be having kids soon.. (dont worry! that is NOT me making any announcement whatsoever lol).. but yeah. just had to post a congrats to christa and randall on a cute, healthy boy! yay!

Lake Powell Trip No. 2

So we were waay lucky and got to go to Lake Powell twice this summer. The time in June was only for a couple days tho. This past week was the actual planned trip and we were able to be there for almost the whole week. and as usual, we had a BLAST. we always come home saying we wish we could live at lake powell. we both love it soo much! it was especially fun for sam this trip because all the brothers were able to be there (all 5). he is way close to his bros and was so happy to be able to hang out with all of em together. it was nice to see everyone and all the neices and nephews. it is crazy how much they are all growing up and what not. a couple are finishing up high school soon and a few more are comin up on the age that i remember sam and i as teens. kinda funny because i think back to the first time i went to lake powell back in high school with sam's family and how we would hang out with HIS first cousins who were all teenagers. so crazy to think of sam's nieces and nephews being that age or close to it! anyways, we had fun and cant wait til next summer, of course! thank you to Dad R. and Patricia for letting us come! especially letting us come both weeks this summer!

getting ready to wakeboard on the first day:
2 mile hike with jeff, michell, patrice, and whitney to the "island" around the corner, in the next cove:

the island in the background:

on the island! you have to swim out to it, then there are some fun cliffs to jump off of:
sam doin jet ski tricks with his older bro jeff, lol:so the mable died! but we had fun on this new tube thing called the viper, kinda similar:
hole in the rock! if you click on the pic, you can see michell, patrice, and some of the kids walking along one of the cliff things:
yay! made it to the top! it seemed a lot harder than in june.. prolly bc it was a lot hotter this time around...

wakeboarding, startin to get the hang of it. i can go outside and back in the wake now pretty easily.. maybe next year, i will try some jumps! lol maybe..... :
sam doin jumps:


chillin on the viper:
with jessie on the way to see rainbow bridge. i love riding on the ski boat thru these cool narrow canyons:
the group that went to rainbow bridge:
sam's dad got a new board for a sport called "wakesurfing," you arent strapped in, and ride close behind the boat the surf the wake.. soo fun and actually pretty easy:

i did it! this was actually on the last day, right before we rode to the marina. i wish i woulda tried this sooner in the week so i coulda gotten better at it. no worries tho, there is always next year! lol... so fun!

Random Summer pics

These are just some random pics we have taken while enjoying our summer these past few weeks in utah... (all phone pics). yay for summer! hope you all are enjoying yours as well! :)

the beautiful stephanie, sam's neice:
climbing trees in downtown provo:Saturday afternoon drive up through Alpine, over the mountain, and into draper, such a fun ride:
we could see the Draper temple from that backside when we were comin over the mountain:first time seeing the Draper temple, it is gorgeous:sam's favorite pic, haha:

4th of July Weekend

For the holiday weekend we headed up to Idaho to visit Sam's sister Amy and her family. Steve and Sarra came with and Sam's mom was actually in town visiting as well. we had such a great time with everyone! and it was pretty cool to celebrate the 4th Idaho Falls style! :) on saturday morning, we went to the city parade which was pretty cool.. then that afternoon/evening, we met up with Matt's(Amy's husband) family at a park in idaho falls for a BBQ and fireworks. there was so much good food for dinner including Texas style Brisket w/rolls, Brazilian ribs, steaks, hot dogs and potato salad! YUM! then we hung out til the "Meleluca Freedom Celebration" fire works show at 10pm. it was pretty late but they have wait til then because it doesnt even start to get dark til 9 or 9:30. crazy! anywho, we had a blast seeing everyone and cant wait to go visit again!

At the parade, baby Alex and Matt:

with matt:
later on at the park, we were all enjoying the awesome watermelon. love these girls:




waiting for the fireworks to start... this was prolly right at 9:30 and it was still pretty light. oh yes and apparently it had started to get pretty chilly, lol:
fireworks! we were kinda far away but could still see em pretty well. the show was a half hour long and went with music on the radio. it was cool to watch; this was part of the finale.. Happy 4th of July!:

Fun Mosaic

I thought this was SOOO cute and had to make one for myself. (thanks Linds!) It was so fun seeing all the different pics to use and seeing how they all fit together at the end. I love it!

1. My name: Kathryn. I have always loved the way its spelled. easy. none of those tricky e's and i's in there.

2. My favorite food: definitely Vietnamese vermacelli noodle bowl with Vietnamese eggrolls. my favorite place to find this specialty is called PHO YEN in Friendswood (in Houston). Vietnamese restaurants are pretty common in Houston. not so much in Utah.

3. My high school: Clear Lake High School. Go Falcons!

4. My favorite color: Purple. I have always loved purple. dont know when it started but i do remember that when i was in grade school, I would get so annoyed with all the silly little girls who just LOVED pink. lol..

5. The place that I am at now: BYU in Provo, UT. not for too much longer though! yay!

6. My favorite drink: Diet Coke. I like regular Diet Coke but I especially love it with lime! yum!

7. My dream vacation: Bora Bora. Sam and I have always been fascinated with this place. Some day we want to go and stay in one of the cool hut resorts they have.

8. My favorite treat: warm homemade chocolate chip cookies. i love all chocolate but when it comes down to it... this is definitely the winner.

9. What I want to be when I grow up: even though my life revolves around music and I do love it... I have always wanted to be good at making floral arrangements. I secretly hope I can become a florist someday.

10. Whats most important to me: my family. of course.

11. A word to describe me: This was a tough one. I asked someone intelligent I know and they said I was Melodic. meaning musical of course, but also agreeable, mellow, pleasing, soft, sweet, friendly and tuneful. I liked it. :)

12. A nickname of mine: Cat or KAT. I think it all started when my brother in law Neal started calling me Kat when i was younger. lol.. Sam has always called me Kat and now pretty much everyone uses it.

Anyone who wants to do this is tagged!! Have fun!

Here are the instructions:
Step 1: Go to flickr.com

Step 2: In another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

Step 3: Choose 4 columns, 3 rows
Step 4: Answer the questions in the search bar of flickr and pick your favorite picture on the page and paste the address into the mosaic maker. Create the mosaic and then save it to your computer and post it as a picture. Have fun! :)