General Conference is on YouTube!

Already!

The final session was today and it's already up on YouTube, including the Priesthood session.

I love it!

Here's a link to the General conference playlist on the Mormon channel

baby Bauer

watching Taylor play soccer with grandpa

(wearing the quilt grandma made for him)

Soldier Hollow sheepdog trials

People and their dogs come from all over the world to compete in the Soldier Hollow sheepdog trials. It's just up the canyon from us so we decided to take Taylor and Cooper (grandchildren with a brand new baby brother) to see the dogs at work.

The main event was herding sheep. The dogs had to heard the sheep through a course, then separate out five and get them into a pen.



There was lots of other doggie fun:

High jumping dogs


Police dog demonstration


Taylor and Cooper loved it when the dogs took down bad guys (in dog proof suits)




There were even duck herding dogs!


Can you believe the dog got the ducks into a wagon??? He really did!



Of course we had to have a little break

I get to pick 3 flavors?!?



YUM!





We finished the day watching "Splash Dogs" compete to see who could jump the furthest into a swimming pool.

Here's 2 nice looking jumps


This one looks just like our celestial dog, Jill.





It was a fun day

BYU TV for kids

I came upon these "Animated Heroes Classics" today while reading my email.

You can take a look here.

Some of the episodes can be streamed right from your computer  and others you will need to catch on BYU TV.

They might be good to keep on your DVR, if you have one. I like to keep a couple of good quality shows available for grandchildren visits - a last resort after playing in the yard and with Grandma's closet of toys and crafts.

There is lots of other family friendly content - you can see a list of shows here.

Cocoa for the heart

There's a nice little article in the August 30th Time magazine titled "Chocolate for the Heart."  It reports that a new study done in Sweden found that those who ate chocolate once or twice a week had a 32% lower risk of heart failure. However, those who ate chocolate every day lost the benefit, probably because of the fats.

I kind of like my chocolate daily, so what about cocoa powder? I buy Sharffen Berger brand which is about 20% cocoa butter - that's much less fat than regular chocolate.

Here's a report about an older study (2003) on the benefits of cocoa:

In their study, Lee and colleagues performed a complicated chemical analysis of cocoa, black tea, green tea, and red wine, finding that cocoa had the highest levels of antioxidants, twice as high as red wine, and nearly three times stronger than green tea:

• Cocoa had 611 mg of phenols and 564 mg of flavonoids.


• Red wine had 340 mg of phenols and 163 mg of flavonoids.


• Green tea had 165 mg of phenols and 47 mg of flavonoids.


• Black tea had 124 mg of phenols and 34 mg of flavonoids.

"These results suggest that cocoa is more beneficial to health than teas and red wine in terms of its higher antioxidant capacity" and ability to fight damage leading to heart disease and cancer, writes Lee.

One caveat: "Even though a bar of chocolate exhibits strong antioxidant activity, the health benefits are still controversial because relatively large amounts of saturated fats are present," Lee says. "However, a cup of hot cocoa has a much lower level of saturated fats (0.3 g per serving) than a bar of chocolate (8 g per 40 g bar)."

Heat may help trigger release of more antioxidants, Lee writes. The new finding makes hot cocoa a compelling addition to our kitchen arsenal of cancer and heart-disease fighting foods.

(Ki Won Lee, PhD, a food science researcher with Seoul National University in South Korea. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry)

Here's how I use (and love) cocoa powder:

Hot chocolate - see my recipe here


Chocolate Banana Smoothie - so much better tasting than a chocolate milk shake!

Recipe for one serving:

Add to blender:

• Half of a frozen banana (or fresh - just add more ice)


• 1 TBS or so of good quality cocoa powder, 1/2 cup of regular, soy or almond milk


• A couple teaspoons sugar or sugar substitute if desired

Blend to liquify and add ice cubes until thick.
Sometimes I add a spoonful of peanut butter.



Chocolate banana ice cream

You need a high power blender for this like a vitamix.

Put 3 or 4 frozen bananas in blender. Add 3 TBS good quality cocoa powder, 2/3 cup of cream or regular, soy or almond milk. Add sugar if desired. Blend until smooth.


We had this tonight along with strawberry ice cream and no dairy no sugar cherry ice cream - using my Five Minute Ice Cream recipe.

Two pictures you have to see

A friend shared this experience with me yesterday.

She said that a woman she knows was riding in the car with two grandchildren. In an effort to keep them entertained she handed them two magazines and told them to look through them and then trade. After a few minutes her little grandson started laughing and said, "look Grandma, this kitty really really has to go to the bathroom!"

She had the children exchange magazines and immediately her grandson started laughing again. He said, "Look grandma, this lady has to go to the bathroom too!"

Bauer the Beautiful

Our 16th grandchild was born today! He makes our group perfectly even - 8 boys and 8 girls, although we've been heavily weighted on the boys the past few years (6 born in 2008-2010).

Here's why I call him Bauer the Beautiful
(click to view video)