APPLE CRISP PIE

APPLE CRISP PIE
CRUST: This is my favorite crust recipe… I’m sure it will work if you substitute with your family’s recipe!
3 cups Flour
1 ½ cups Crisco Butter Shortening
1 ½ tsp. Salt
¾ cup Water
Directions: Place flour, salt, and shortening in a bowl, mix with fingers until it resembles cornmeal. Add water, fold together to form soft ball.

CRUMB:
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
Pinch ground cloves
¾ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions: Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and cloves in a bowl. Rub in butter with fingertips until crumbly. (stir in nuts, if using)

FILLING:
6 Golden delicious apples (approx 2 ¾ lbs) Peeled, cored and cut into ½ inch dice
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch ground cloves
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
Directions: In a large bowl, toss together apples, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and cloves.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
Move an oven rack to the lowest slot. Heat oven to 375˚ F. Roll out your crust to an 11 inch circle and put it in a 9 inch pie pan. Done forget to make the edges pretty! Now put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to add the filling.
Once the filling is ready spoon it into the pie shell, mounding slightly in the center. Next top it off with the crumb topping.
Place on a cookie sheet and Bake at 375˚ F for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350˚ F and bake another 30 minutes until fruit is tender. Loosely tent pie with aluminum foil during last 20 minutes. Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
To be honest I think I didn’t read the last part of the instructions, I think I just baked mine at 375˚ F for 30 minutes. It still turned out great!

YEAH FOR TEETH!

Cheyenne has her first 2 teeth! The best part is that I didn't even realize she was teething. One day I went to put something in her mouth and felt them. I hope she does that well with all of her teeth. My little princess showing off her chompers. The two on the bottom. She loves to try them out on EVERYTHING!
OH HOW WE LOVE TEETH AT THE CRABTREE'S...

Many of you may remember the day that Gage got hit in the mouth with a softball... you all got the chance to see his split lip and the 7 stitches needed to put it back together. What you may have missed is what happened after the stitches had healed!

Yep that is right. The day the last stitch came out we realized that Gage's front tooth(on the left) had died. It was a nice mild shade of gray that progressively got worse. This is the best, or worst, picture I have of it. Gage found a great Dentist that did an amazing job. First came the root canal, then 2wks later, another appt to finish the root canal. 2 wks after that we got to start the internal bleaching process, which was 2 in office appointments a week apart, then finally a few days later an appt for the filing. I'm really not complaining because I didn't go to a single appointment, but I felt like Gage was living at the dentist office. The end result is great. I just hope that Gage's tooth can hang on for at least a few years before he has to get a cap. THE AFTER PICTURE! We were so excited to be done with the dentist.

Too Bad it only lasted for a week! One morning brushing Trevin's teeth he slipped of his stool and slammed his mouth into the counter, which knocked him backwards and he then slammed the back of his head on the floor. I felt awful! I wasn't fast enough to stop it, when I picked him up he had a mouth full of blood and a nice little bite mark on his tongue. It wasn't until that night brushing his teeth that I saw the crack, straight down his bottom tooth...BACK TO THE DENTIST! Janae works for a pediatric dentist so I called first thing in the morning and Trevin's appointment was set for the next day, Halloween. We were so excited to see Janae at work... because it was Halloween everyone at the office was dressed up. Here is Janae working on T's little teeth, while he was distracted watching the TV on the ceiling.

(PICTURE TO COME)

We also had the fun experience of taking x-rays of Trevin's teeth, he sat on my lap, I pried his mouth open, while he bit down as hard as he could, while Janae worked the machine. It was so fun. Trevin did pretty good when the dentist came to see him. We were sent home with a prescription for an antibiotic and another appointment on Monday to have T's tooth pulled.

Poor guy... Sunday morning he started complaining when he ate breakfast, "ouch, teeth" I felt awful, he didn't eat the rest of the day. The before picture from the day of the appointment.

When they called us back into the procedure room, they let Trevin sit on my lap while they gave him a shot in the arm that knocked him out. I ran out and put towels all over the truck (they warned me that Trevin would most likely throw up on the car ride home). I walked back into the office and within 2 minutes they came out and told me they were finished, and that I could come sit with him while he woke up.

Doesn't he look so cute when he's knocked out! Trevin was pretty funny waking up from sedation. All of his answers were delayed and he must have been seeing double because he was trying to touch my cheek at one point and kept grabbing next to my face. After about an hour and a half in recovery we were allowed to go home. Luckily no throwing up in the car, but it still took a couple of hours for Trevin to be able to stand up on his own!
The after picture. I am so glad it wasn't a top tooth!

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THE NEWEST CRABTREES

Trevin did such a great job at the dentist and taking his antibiotic that I decided he deserved a reward.

Meet NEMO and BUBBLES! Trevin's new goldfish and our first official pets! Gage and I had a deal that I could buy what ever pet I wanted, without his permission...with one limitation... "When it dies, it has to be able to get flushed down the toilet." Goldfish definitely qualify. Trevin loves fish right now... He was so excited to watch the tank full of goldfish at the store and I wish I had had my camera to get a picture of his face when the worker handed him his bag with two fish. It was priceless!When we got them home Trevin couldn't wait to hold them again, I think we almost lost them off the counter a few times while trying to get the bowl ready. Trevin thinks it is so cool to feed them and even more fun to just sit on the counter and watch them. This is how Trevin watches his fish, with his forehead on one edge of the top and his chin on the other edge. I guess it's a good thing the opening isn't any bigger!

OCTOBER FUN FEST- part 3

We grew quite a few pumpkins this year and lucky for us we were able to give most of them to friends and family, so we didn't feel like we needed to carve them all. We did carve the huge pumpkins we got on our hay ride. Trevin thought it was really cool when we cut open the top and pulled it off until I tried to convince him to dig out the insides. He didn't want to use his hands, so we gave him a scrapper and that was okay. We had one short fat pumpkin and one tall skinny pumpkin. It was funny to watch T try to reach the bottom of the tall pumpkin, his arm was just a couple of inches too short!

Cheyenne love pumpkin carving. I accidentally sat he a little to close to the garbage bowl and She thought it was fun to play with the slimy pumpkin insides. I was fine with her playing with it until she tried eating it!Friday we made Halloween treat to take around to family. Cassidy came over to help me out. Trevin did his best to help by eating any scraps he could find. First we have witches that got stuck in cupcakes. These I thought turned out way cute and were pretty easy. Just regular cupcakes with Oreo sticks for legs and starbursts molded for feet. The rest is just sprinkle and some extra frosting for her dress!Next was gummy mummy's I'm not sure how these tasted but they looked cute. Brownies baked in mini cup cake pan. With a little bit of vanilla frosting, m&ms for eyes and bubble tape for the wraps.

We were almost finished making all of these when I got a call from Lindsay. She was totally calm and said "Are you busy? Mom can't get here for a bout 15 minutes and Raigen just broke her arm, think you can come watch the girls?" Me (as I grab my keys and run out the door (leaving my kids home with Cass): "Yeah. How bad is it?" Lindsay: "Well, between her wrist and elbow is a U shape." I love Lindsay. I don't think anything really upsets her. This picture is from a few hours later when Rai Rai got home. Halloween night was so much fun! I was originally supposed to work, but Eva a friend was willing to work it for me, so I had the night off! Thanks EVA. I had worked with Trevin all week trying to get him to say "Trick or Treat" with out any luck, until we went visiting Grandmas with cousin's Trevin saw the older girls do it and saw that they got candy... that was all the motivation he needed, He ran up to Grandma Crabtree and said "tick tor teat" and held out his hand. Here are all the grand kids that went to visit the Grandmas. In the back: Sierra(angle) Savana(devil), Trevin (baseball player). In the front: Cheyenne(giraffe), Alexa (thing 2) and Xander (thing 1). Trevin was a pro at the trick or treating by the time we got to Granny's.

Halloween day we went over to the Grandma and Papa's house, then we came home for some trick or treating in our neighborhood. Trevin loved it! Gage pushed him in the stroller and then when we would get to a house Trevin would jump out and walk to the porch and wait for the door to open, then say "tick tor teat" and hold out his bucket! After an hour or so we decided it was time to go home and pass out candy. We had been home for a bout 5 minutes and the door bell rang... I don't think I have ever seen Trevin move so fast. He ran to the door and tried to open it, Gage came and opened it, while Trevin tried to pick up the candy bowl. I think he liked passing out candy as much as he liked Trick or Treating!

After all of our candy was gone we headed off to Jerry and Debbie's for the traditional Halloween get together. Pizza and a movie and trick or treating with the cousins. Starting on the Left: Trevin, Cheyenne, Kennedi(a good witch), Brinlee (Ariel), Rai Rai (Hannah Montana), and Hallie(the chicken). Trevin was hyped up on candy by this point and was running around there house, chasing the dog and cat. The poor cat, Trevin caught it's tail and started pulling it. All I could think was I hope he crashes hard when the candy wears off!

Here are a few more pictures from our Halloween.
Gage wore a shirt that said coach and he had a whistle. I had a "zoo keeper" shirt.

Cheyenne was so cute in her giraffe costume. It was nice and warm, she just hated having the gloves on.
Trevin loves to play catch, so he didn't mind carrying around a baseball glove and ball all night!HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

OCTOBER FUN FEST- part 2

DADDY'S 28th BIRTHDAY! We love when Dad's Birthday comes along and we try to make it last for as long as possible. Gage works so hard for us all the time so he deserves a nice long birthday! This year the celebration started on Thursday with an Apple Crumb Pie. It was delicious. Every year starting while we were dating I have made Gage a Pie for his birthday (He loves PIE) and every year I try a different kind (that way I can't be blamed if it doesn't turn out!) Lucky for me this one was pretty good. Friday night was date night. We very rarely get to go out on dates any more so this was quite a treat. Thanks to Linds and Kyle we went to Outback for a great steak dinner. Then it was off to Salt Lake City. Until now I had never been to a Haunted House.
We had a lot of fun, Gage was a good sport to put up with me. I definitely jumped more than a few times, but to my defense Gage jumped a couple times too! I loved all of the effects- they (the haunted house people) did a great job.
Saturday Gage got to go to the BYU game with one of his good friends. They had a great time watching BYU lose.
Sunday was Gage's real birthday, Trevin woke up sick so we traded off going to church. I made a Rump Roast, layered jello, and Black Cherry Kool-aid for lunch/dinner. When Gage got home we had set up a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents. With CLUES and GPS coordinates it took a few hours (plus we worked in our Sunday Family visits).

Dad and Trevin walking around the park looking for the clue they know is around here somewhere. NOT under there! Better hurry it's getting dark...
They found it! Now where is the present. The clue: I start with an E and end with an E, but I usually contain only one letter.
They figured it out (and envelope), and where do you find envelopes... the mailbox! I hope Gage had a fun weekend! LOVE YOU GAGE!


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THE UNDERGROUND PARTY
Since the start of October I've been hearing about this event that I would be attending on October 30th, but Gage refused to give me details. He thought he was really funny and just said "It's and underground party." Not only did he not tell me... Everyone in his family knew what it was and they thought it was fun to keep it a secret too. So every time the family was together it was the thing that got mentioned, but everyone was sure to not leak any details. When the 30th came along Gage told me that we needed to drop the kids off at Chan's at 9:00 pm, but still wouldn't tell me where we were going. We got the kids settled at Chan's and loaded into the truck with Darrin and James. Then I finally got to know....

A BOX CAR DERBY

I was excited. I think Gage thought I would back out if I knew what it was, not likely. So we headed off to Ryan's apartment to check out the cars. There were a lot more that I was expecting, I think there were 17.

This is just a handful of them. And after looking at them I told Gage that I was betting on at least one broken bone. He disagreed but said there would be plenty of road rash. There were some interesting cars, but the one we were there to cheer for was CHEETAH LIGHTNING (I think that's what they named it). This is Ryan's car.

Looks like it stands a chance to me, but what do I know. After we were there for a little while it was time for all the drivers to meet to go over the rules. Bubba got right down to business.
THE DRIVERS
THE SPECTATORS Next, we headed off to the race location. AND THE RACE WAS ON! It was way cool. Looking at the cars before I thought the racers would have a hard time turning the corners and that a lot of them would be really rickety. I was wrong. They all came flying around the turns and were super smooth. Ryan and Clint came flying around the first turn in 3rd or 4th place. Probably going about 35 mph. There were a couple of carts that didn't roll very fast and actually had to be pushed down the hill.
There was a couple of carts that feel apart during the push race out of the parking lot. There was another spill right in front of where we stood to watch, but everyone seemed to be getting right back up and continuing on. Maybe I was wrong about the broken bone after all... We didn't run all the way to the bottom of the hill knowing that the carts would all be loaded into the trucks (waiting at the bottom) before we got there. So we started the hike back to Ryan's apartment. On the way we got a phone call from Ryan saying he wasn't going back to his apartment... We thought it was because he knew about the coop that was now parked there... we were wrong and apparently I was right about the broken bone. Ryan was on his way to the ER. Gage got the fun job of calling his Mom, I don't think she was very happy.
Bubba was all checked in by the time we got there. Doesn't he look thrilled to be here. It was pretty obvious that he had messed up his ankle by all the swelling. But we were all pretty surprised when he got back from x-ray to tell us that he had broken it up higher too.
We waited until Miles and Sherry got there, then we headed home. Once we were in the truck Gage said, "As parents can you really be upset about that?" (You have to realize that Bubba broke his Femur just a few months ago). I'll be sure to remind Gage that he said that, if we are in the same situation with Trevin!

OCTOBER FUN FEST part 1

WOW I can't believe October is over! We had such a fun filled month that I guess I forgot to make time to blog about it.

At the start of the month Trevin's cousin Chase came to visit. They only get to see each other a few times a year, Kami is such a sport to make the long drive (maybe we'll drive to her next time). Any way in past visits Trevin and Chase got along but this time they were instant buddies! We stopped by Grandma and Papa's on Sunday afternoon to say to Kami and before we knew it Trevin and Chase were in the back yard picking Grandma's "vegebles" and having a blast!

Here they are with their buckets picking Grandma's tomatoes that had frozen. They even found a cucumber and Chase was sure to come show us the "pickle" they found! Once we convinced them they had enough "vegebles" picked they came inside to sort them. They sat for at least 30 minutes transferring everything back and forth from one bowl to the other! Who knew tomatoes could be this fun!This it Cheyenne and Papa playing while the boys were out in the garden. I love this picture!Monday morning the first thing out of Trevin's mouth was "Gandmas...Chase!" I thought it was so cute and it was just fine because we were already planning on going that afternoon. Trevin could hardly wait and was so excited when I told him it was finally time to go see all of his cousins. We ate lunch at Grandma's house and then frosted yummy sugar cookies.

Trevin and Chase decided that there were better things to do than frost cookies and so off they went!They had played with this see-saw on Sunday and they were determined to pull it out from under the deck so they could play with it again! It was so funny to watch, it took a lot of effort on their part, but they sure made a good team.

Next up was a hay ride for the kids, I couldn't wait for this part... Trevin loves Tractors and I quickly learned that so does Chase!

Starting on the left.... Some girl I don't know, then Xander, Chersti and Lexi, Next is Kami and Chase, then Trevin, Me and Cheyenne. Grandma is behind the Camera. The rest of the cousins were home SICK! Bummer... We really missed them.

Trevin and Chase couldn't wait to get on the trailer and were both so excited when the ride started! It was such a nice day for a hayride. When we made it to the pumpkin patch Trevin was so excited about seeing the "punkins". We grew some in our garden this year and he knew exactly what they were. Chersti took some fun pictures. I had a hard time convincing Trevin to sit in the dirt with Cheyenne so I could take a picture. I'd get them posed and then stand up to get a picture and Trevin would have already pushed Chey over (face first into the dirt) so he could stand up. Thanks to Chersti I got this cute one. As you can tell by the look on Trevin's face he isn't doing this by his choice!

There were so many pumpkins to chose from. Trevin walked around from pumpkin to pumpkin until I finally convinced him that one was good enough.

Here he is back on the trailer with his pumpkin!

We got to ride back on the trailer and then carry our pumpkins to the truck. When we got back to our cars the pumpkins looked huge! I couldn't believe how big they were once you had them out of the pumpkin patch!Trevin and Chase were so proud of their pumpkins!

That night Kami and Chase came over to watch a movie for Family Night. Trevin was thrilled that Chase came to his house and was sad when he had to leave. I think that the boys saw each other every day that week and never got tired of having each other around. It has been about 3 weeks since Chase went home and still every time I say we're going to Grandma's Trevin's response is "Go Go Chase!" He always sounds a little disappointed when I tell him Chase is at home. I think Kami helped soften it though... Just this week we got a post card in the mail from Chase. Trevin loved it, he carried it around all day!

Thanks for the fun week Kami ! We can't wait for next time!