I'm sorry this has taken a couple extra days to put on the blog. We tried to get Paisley to say "Happy Birthday Grandpa" on the phone but she was always too shy. Luckily we got it on camera!

PHONE-EE FYI

Couple of items to Cornwall Fam Plan Cell Phone users:

• 3rd Party Services: I asked Verizon that all phones (as of 2/29) are blocked from receiving 3rd party services. This is in response to many of us having a problem with being stealth signed up for cell phone "services" like - Joke of the Day, or Premium Messaging, etc... and getting charged on the next bill. Hopefully this will protect us from future problems. If you do get any unsolicited "services" (don't do nothing and delete it) you must call/text the "service" back and text "stop", "end" or "cancel". Let Dad know.
• Update Phone Programing: Verizon recommends that every 3 months each phoner do the following:

1. Dial *228 , followed by the SEND key.
2. When prompted, press option #2, to update your phones roaming capabilities (This process may take up to 2 minutes).
3. Once completed, a confirmation message will be played, and a message will display on the phone screen.

Verizon also said this is a good idea when you travel or move to a new area. I am told it updates your phone to the newest operational cell towers in the area. It will help to not have dropped calls, etc...

GO DOG GO. . .

One of Dad's birthday highlights..

AND Grandma insisted that I post our current desktop background..
.

Already Missing . . . .

These two cute girls!!!

Thanks for coming Katie and Elizabeth!!!

Chicken Lo Mein

We tried another recipe out of the everyday food magazine. This time we tried the Lo Mein. In the book they use shrimp, but we used chicken. This recipe was very yummy. Although if it were on a menu it would definitely have a pepper by it to indicate spiciness. Next time I won't use as much of the red pepper flakes, but I think we will definitely make this again.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

336 MEETS PROVO

Mom, Dad and the "little" girls took a short trip (Thur. - Sat.) to see the BYU kids. Highlights included the Cornwall cousin soccer game + hanging out in the Smith fieldhouse for basketball and Stanford volleyball warmups + temple session + loving miss Elizabeth + Hannah T's engagement announcement + Marybeth's sweet afternoon kindergarteners and couches...

Another New Recipe

I thought before all the big details of the Utah trip got posted I would hurry and squeeze in our dinner tonight. It was brought to us by the Everyday Food magazine. Tonight we tried the mini honey mustard meatloaf. It was delish! I didn't use their recipe for meatloaf because I like my own but we did add the honey mustard/Ketchup combo to the top and it was really good. We also made the potatoes they suggest to accompany the meatloaf and they were really tasty also. Definitely a thumbs up here in Kansas.

Breakfast at Magelbys!!!

We had so much fun in Utah!!! We ended the fun by having Breakfast at Magelbys yesterday morning before we drove home. Many of the Provo crowd had been there many times, but for the 336 gang it was our first time. We fell in love with the French Toast!!! Today for snack after church we were craving it, especially since we had a loaf of cinnamon bread from Great Harvest. I googled Magelbys syrup and had many hits. We tried the syrup recipe, made the french toast and it was fantastic. You can find it the syrup recipe here.

The Results

Well tonight we had hot dogs topped with the homemade sauerkraut. It smelled awful, which was disappointing. It tasted mild. I put the normal toppings on my hot dog in addition to the sauerkraut and I could taste it at times. I'd say it was ok, but I probably won't be making it again any time soon. In fact I have a rather large jar full of it, so I'm not sure what will become of that jar. Since we still love cabbage we are still going to try the sweet and sour cabbage wedges and we'll be sure to report on that later.

(On a side note yesterday Paisley had corn on the cob for the first time and she loved it. I wasn't sure if she would know what to do with it, but as Jason and I were assembling our food she started right in on her corn. It was very cute. She even finished Jason's piece for him.)

President's Day Weekend

Trip to Phoenix

As soon as we arrived at Grandmas she hustled us off to Applebee's for a very fun lunch. Then we prepared for our mini-family reunion with the Larsens and Vance/Hurtado family. It was great to see everyone. Brodie, Barb and Richard.

Brianne, Amy and Burke (Brianne's husband)

Brian

Stephanie, Josh (Mindy's friend) and Mindy

Lanse, Grandma and Terri

We settled down for the night - the girls had great accomodations in the living room.

Dad didn't do much cooking because he was helping Grandma with her computer.

Sunday we went to church, had dinner with Terri and Lanse and then Barb took us over to see Brittany and her new baby Stetson. So Cute!!!!

Monday we spent time again with Terri and Lanse and then headed back to California. We were able to fit a lot of fun activities in in such a short trip. One thing for sure - We have a great family and we love Grandma Hodgkinson so much!!!

A Food Adventure

Today I decided I was in the mood for an adventure so I decided to make sauerkraut. The recipe was in the Everyday Food magazine this month. I received this stock pot and two bigger for Christmas and I haven't used them yet, so I thought I'd have two firsts today. I made my first batch of sauerkraut in the stock pot. I've never tried sauerkraut but it seems like something I would like, so we shall see. It is currently in a jar in my refrigerator. Tomorrow we are going to have hot dogs for dinner (I've had all the bratwurst I care to have while in Germany) and we'll top them with the sauerkraut. We'll let you know how it all turns out. The next cabbage adventure we want to try is a couple pages up from the sauerkraut: sweet and sour cabbage slices! Yummm.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Dad, Mom, Rachel & Sarah had a fine little weekend trip to Meza to stay with fun Grandma H., etc... for a few days ... details to follow. We are home safe and sound - all is well.

Fun with my new MacBOOK!

I got a new MacBook from school and it is pretty great! I made this cool comic with my built in web cam and cool icomic program! Fun huh?

We got a Couch!!!!!

Happy Valentines to us!!! Yes, it IS as comfy as it looks. We have wanted it for a long time and it went on "double sale" and we love it. I hope it gets a lot of use this next week. We hope it gets a lot of use this week.

A Valentine Overview

On Wednesday we had a little Valentine Party with several of my YA friends. Dallin was the only non-YA because Emily's husband Jacob was the 31st YA. We had a fun evening of visiting and catching up. Mimi and Greg had their baby boy Max a week and a half ago, but didn't bring him. Devin and Andrea are expecting a little girl May 26. Emily an Jacob stayed till 1:30am talking about film. It was such a fun night. I will miss them.
For dessert I made my first cheese cake and it tasted pretty good.
On Valenintes I sent Dallin on a scavenger hunt around our quad. One clue was left on the car where I carved "I Love You" in the snow.
Since I teach on Thursday nights we had a romantic Valentine lunch. Dallin made steak and it was so yummy. Dallin took me out to see Jungle Book at BYU and we ended the night watching homemade videos. It was a glorious day.

A Familiar Ring - with a Little Bit More!!

Dad took me on quite a wonderful Valentine excursion yesterday. We drove down to the San Diego temple where we attended a lovely session. There is hardly a Celestial Room like that temple. Dad invited me to one of the balcony's where he presented me with my wedding ring with some beautiful additions. (It is hard to take picture of really shiny rings!!!) Until you see it in person this will have to do. It is so beautiful and I was so excited - beautiful setting - temple and ring - fantastic husband!!! Perfect Valentine's Day. It was followed up by a delicious dinner at an San Diego exclusive cafe.

Happy Valentines Day to

Grandma and Grandpa
Jason, Stefanie, and Paisley
Robbie and Marybeth
Jeff
Rachel
Sarah

I LOVE YOU!!!!
elizabeth

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Cupid hit hard at 336.

For the past 14 days I have received a Valentine every day from the best Valentine a person could have. In each card there was a puzzle piece. The entire picture came together yesterday and I have a date to go to the San Diego temple with my Valentine today. I am so excited. We love all of you kids - no matter where you are today!!!! LOVE YOU KENT!!!!

DAD DIDN'T FORGET THE MEMORY

Several weeks ago Dallin observed that our home computer performance would be improved with more RAM/memory. We were a bit low by 2008 standards with only 256MB with most new computers having upwards of 2 G. Unfortunately the home computer has really "special" Dell memory that has to be upgraded in pairs and it's pretty expensive. After numerous ebay bids over several weeks and lowering our sights from adding a whole 1G we settled for a half a gig. Combined with our existing 256 MB .... which remained... we are up to 768 MB about 3/4G.

We will wait to hear the reviews from the girls/prime users. Are we "fast" or what?
p.s. If you want to check the specs on your computer (including memory) go to this site and download a free copy of their program. They will produce a printout that will tell you everything about your computer even down to the serial number - Belarc Advisor.

GRAND SUNDAY

We enjoyed Grandpa Cornwall's company for Sunday dinner and the Sister Missionaries. I think they enjoyed it too with Mom's traditional heart shaped meatloaf, rolls and red mashed potatoes aaaaand for desert chocolate bread pudding. (Do we talk about food too much on this blog? mmmm...)
p.s. We didn't want to put off sharing Sunday comings and goings any longer. We have been waiting for days for Rachel to post some pics from our fun little trip on Saturday to San Diego, Balboa Park and our dinner with Stefanie and visit with the wonderful Whelchels, BUT Rachel has been busy with other things.