Crockpot Yogurt!!

Okay, I am so excited about this new recipe that I just have to share it with everyone. Last year I made yogurt several times on the stovetop. It saved money, but it was quite an involved, time consuming process and I didn't keep it up. BUT, I found this blog that told about making it in the crockpot. I've done it several times now. Not only does it save money, but it is SOOO easy!
Here's what you do:

Ingredients:

• half gallon of milk (I use skim)
• 1/2 c. yogurt (use a store bought the first time, but you can use your own homemade yogurt from then on. Oh, and I usually buy vanilla or plain, but I have used peach and it turned out good, too!)
• 1 c. powdered milk (optional)
• 1 c. sugar (optional)

The recipe from the blog didn't have you use the powdered milk, but without it the yogurt turns out pretty runny. With one cup of powdered milk, the yogurt turns out thick and creamy.

1. I whip one cup powdered milk into the 8 cups (1/2 gallon) of liquid milk. I do this by first whipping it into two cups of milk then adding that to the rest of the milk.

2. I also whip one cup of sugar into the milk. I didn't use to sweeten the yogurt, but I found I had to add too much jam to make it taste good afterwards. The sugar is to taste, so you can add more or less, but I like about one cup.

3. Turn the crockpot on low for 2 1/2 hours.

4. After 2 1/2 hours, unplug your crockpot. You are just going to let it cool down for a little while. On the original recipe, it has you let the milk cool down for three hours. I have found that 1 1/2 hours was enough time. Maybe this varies from crockpot to crockpot. Because of my prior yogurt making experience, I know that you want the milk temperature to be between 122 F and 130 F. Definitely not hotter than 135 F. Too hot will kill the yogurt, but between 122 and 130 degrees F is the optimal temp for yogurt making. It will help to have a cooking thermometer (mine is digital) to get the exact temp. You can leave it for three hours like the recipe says, but mine is the right temp at 1 1/2 hours.

5. Anyway, when the temperature is right, or after the 3 hours of cooling, you will whisk the 1/2 cup of yogurt into the warmed milk.

6. Then put the lid back on and cover the crockpot with a heavy towel of two. You will leave the crockpot like this for 8 hours or overnight.

In the morning, viola! you have thick, creamy, delicious yogurt! It is sweetened and tastes good as is, but it also tastes good with some jam to flavor, so we usually mix in a spoonful or so to make it extra yummy! Now you have a half gallon of yogurt for less than $2!

The Luckiest Girl

Emily is so lucky! She always wins things. You will recall that not too long ago she won a new bike. Well, last night we attended the softball awards night. They had a prize drawing. You guessed it, Emily won. She won a bat bag, which we'll exchange for a new mitt. A few months ago she won another prize drawing--a movie. And last year when we went to Disneyland, 3 or 4 times she was given freebies in the park. Disney employees would just walk up to her and give her prizes. What a lucky girl. I wish some of that would rub off on me!

Emily's softball team placed 4th at State.

What a Beauty!

For the last few weeks, Nate's sister April has been acting in the Beauty and the Beast at the Scera Shell. It was so fun to go see her. She was the Enchantress (the witch/fairy who changes the prince into the beast). Also she was a napkin, and part of the ensemble. Our kids loved seeing her on stage. They also loved going to the play with cousins, and eating treats there.

April in her napkin costume:

On June 21 my grandma Bartholomew (mom's mom) turned 90 years old! Wow! We had a fun party with lots of people at my aunt and uncle's home. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Here's my mom (left) and her twin sister, Joann (right). It's pretty easy to tell them apart, but when I was a kid, my friends thought it was hard. They have some good stories about how my mom got Joann's driver's license for her, and how they'd switch places at school or on dates. Joann's family lives in Missouri so we don't see them very often, but when we do it's a lot of fun! Most of her kids have come to Utah for school at one time or another, and some have settled here. We still don't see them very often, though. It's hard because everyone's always busy!

My kids with their Great-Grandma, June Bartholomew:

Swimming lessons began on Skyler's birthday, and have been going for almost two weeks. We are almost done. The girls love having a chance to get into the pool everyday, even if it's just for a few minutes. Eliza, Skyler and I get to sit and watch them. What fun!

Waiting for swimming lessons to end!

Emily's softball ends this week (hallelujah!) and Sarah's ends next week. Finally, we may be able to relax for a little bit before it's time for something else!

One-Year-Old!!!

Well, I can't hardly believe it, but my baby boy turned one! This year has passed so quickly! Skyler is such a sweet baby. It's hard to imagine that I ever thought I could be satisfied having all girls. Of course, Heavenly Father knows what and who we need.

Skyler wasn't too sure about the whole birthday thing. When we'd hand him a present, he had no idea what to do with it. He'd give it a little pat, and then push it away or crawl away from it. We had to start the tearing for him. He'd tear a little, but we'd still end up opening the whole thing. Oh well, next year it will be completely different! But then he was annoyed by the birthday hat, and he didn't like how I kept handing him this number 1 to hold. He kept trying to throw the hat and the number away from him.

Here's the cake I made just for Skyler.

Here's the cupcakes I made for the kids. "Skyler is one" was fruit roll ups I cut with cookie cutters.

This picture shows Skyler just after we set his cake in front of him (while he was still mostly happy). He really didn't like the idea of gorging himself on cake (!) At first he stuck his hands in, but then just wanted to get away from it. I tried putting some frosting in his mouth, thinking that if he tasted it then he'd dive in, but he just spit it out!!! Then I broke off a piece of cake and handed it to him. That was a little better, but he just kept pushing the plate away and trying to crawl away from it. His cousin Luke (who is just 5 months older than Skyler) was ready and willing to show Skyler how to eat his cake, but Skyler had had enough! It was bath and bedtime. Good night, birthday boy!

And for the record, Skyler was 19 lbs. 2 oz. on his birthday, officially putting him back on the charts at 5%! Now, if we can just keep on increasing that...

(Now with photos) And the Grand Prize goes to.....

Okay, I seem to only be able to upload photos if I use Foxfire. Does anyone else have that issue? Anyhow, on Saturday we attended Spanish Fork's Huck Finn Day. This is a day of free fishing for kids. They stock the pond at Canyon View Park with 600 trout. There are prizes, and kids can dress up as Huck Finn or Becky Thatcher and win prizes for that, too. Well, Emily won the grand prize for [drum roll, please] having the smallest fish! Yes, you read that right! And it wasn't a booby prize, either. She won a new bike! She caught a 2.25 oz fish! Nate just about threw it back, but we stopped him. Eliza almost won the other bike (only two were given--one for the biggest and one for the smallest fish). She caught a 1 pound 5 oz fish. In the last few minutes someone else caught a fish just 1/2 oz bigger! But, Eliza didn't care--they were giving out candy and she was in seventh heaven with a lollipop! Sarah also won a prize. She got the second prize for the Becky Thatcher costume contest, which was a fishing net. We also came away with 7 t-shirts [they gave a prize everytime you caught anything--but mostly the prizes were leftover sports t-shirts], candy, drinks, not to mention the five fish we caught. They became our delicious Sunday dinner cooked by Nate [that was my prize!] Needless to say, we're hooked and we'll be attending Huck Finn day every year from now on!

Emily and her new bike!

Sarah as Becky Thatcher with her new fishing net

Eliza is a cross between Becky Thatcher and Injun Joe

Skyler playing Peek-A....

....Boo!

YEA!!!!

Life just keeps getting busier and busier...

I'm quite sure that someday Skyler will be thrilled that I took this picture of him. He's just SOOO cute, I couldn't resist. :>)

Emily and Sarah started softball mid-May. We have games 4 nights/week through June. It's great, let me tell you. Emily isn't enjoying it as much this year, and the reason is because in third grade they actually begin to play by the rules (3 strikes your out!) I can't say I mind that she probably won't play next year, and I will happily remind her next spring about how she didn't enjoy it this year.

Ever since we participated in that 1 mile fun run, the girls have decided they like running races. They ran another one on memorial day. Emily came in 4th place overall, with Sarah not far behind. I was so excited to see her coming in close to the front that I forgot to take a picture of Emily, but here's one of Sarah--almost at the finish line!

On Memorial day we also drove out to Fairfield where Nate's grandma Pope grew up. Grandma and Grandpa Pope are both buried there and we go out there every year to decorate their graves. At the park they had some fun activities, including a free stagecoach ride (we were at the Stagecoach Inn, afterall).

The girls have both been begging for haircuts for the past months. I finally made appointments for them with Nate's sister, April. She did a great job!

You just CAN'T resist this adorable face!!

Do I look like I am enjoying myself? Well, looks can be deceiving. Skyler got a ride but it was late and he was tired so he fell asleep and missed most of it!

You've heard of a bicycle built for two, how about a bicycle built for 4? We took a family bike ride: Emily and Sarah rode their own bikes, but Nate, Eliza, Skyler and I were on the tandem. That was fun! We do get a lot of strange looks.

This past month has been an absolute whirlwind of activity!

One month ago was Easter. My 4 little ones looked

very sweet in their Easter attire:

What an adorable little cutie we have!!

He makes me smile! (He's just about 10 months old here).

Then on April 18 my sister Haylee was married to Kevin Kolkoski.

The girls were flower girls. We had a great time being

together as a family. I never realized that Las Vegas

has such a beautiful, clean side to it!

When May rolled around, we celebrated because we

had tickets to WICKED!!!

And of course we were celebrating for two girls

who were both born on Cinco de Mayo, only

three years apart.

Happy Birthday to

7-year-old Sarah

and

4-year-old Eliza!

Eliza got to have her first-ever friend birthday party. Princess, of course.

We went to Pizza Factory for our traditional birthday dinner-out.

The girls like to receive their free (that's the part I like)

birthday-number pizza (yum yum!)

As usual, we also had our traditional birthday cake.

Sarah always likes a surprise. I was going for

movie star/Hollywood star/Sharpay-Fabulous-ish.

It turned out kinda plain. Oh well.

Eliza wanted a princess cake again (surprise, surprise).

Well, we've never done Sleeping Beauty.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo,

we had to have

a Pinata!

A few days later, we participated in a one mile fun run

(a fund-raiser at our school). We were surprised

to discover that we have RUNNERS in our family.

(Sarah was first in her age division, Emily was second in hers, Nate was first in his--

Nate wasn't really trying, he was just running alongside Sarah to help her along).

(They don't get it from me, that's for sure!)

I've since signed them up for another 1 mile race

on Memorial day.

Last, but oh definitely NOT least, on Monday the 11th,

my little sister gave birth to her first child.

A daughter named Sienna Susan Palmer. Isn't she the

most precious thing you've ever seen?!

Congratulations to Tamara and Ryan.

I can't wait to hold her!