Christmas Card

We hope the Magic of this time will fill your home! May you have the gift of faith, the blessing of hope and the peace of His love at christmas and always!

Tradition

Every year we take the kids out to get a new ornament to place on our family Christmas tree. We have been to many different stores over the 15 years we have been married to purchase all of them. It is fun to see and remember the meaning behind each special trinket. Here are the new ones for this year.

Thankful for...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was delicious. The turkey was perfect along with all the other foods prepared! At least that was what everyone told me. I even tried some new recipes that will be at our table every year now. Joe's nephew was missed as he left for his mission but I still had five teenage boys to feed. I still can't count how many rolls I made that day. A tradition started when I learned how to make them from my "cooking group" days in Syracuse, Utah.
So, I was on a friends post and saw she posted the things she is "Thankful For" and I thought that was a great idea. My list is forever long, so here is my top five in no particular order...

Turkey Fling Game

Okay everyone here is a little "Turkey" fun for you & your family! Post your scores on my comment space...Can you beat me?
I scored: 11312!

I did it!

Okay as everyone knows by now, Joe is a huge airplane freak! I say freak in a nice way. He love, love, loves to fly. The one thing he asks is that I muster up enough courage to go with him. Of course, I can do that in our big plane when I am tagging along to go visit some friends or family.  Our new plane in UK coming home 

But when he asks me to go sight seeing in the little plane I tend to have panic attacks and talk myself out of going up. 

I just can't seem to find the courage. I like to be up high over all the obstacles on the ground! The higher the better, that is why we have the big plane. The little plane does not go as high or climb as fast. A problem in my book!

Well, I did it tonight! I took my first flight in our little four passenger "Columbia" aircraft.

I climbed in and got myself settled as well as I could with my stomach in my throat! I was soooo nervous! Not because I thought I would die or that Joe had no idea what he was doing, but because of the unknown. I didn't know if I would enjoy myself like Joe does. 

Well, I was surprised. The plane was so smooth and steady. It was better then I thought it would be. I was able to go up TWICE, we did a "TOUCH AND GO". (Come in for a landing and touch the wheels on the runway and take of again.) That sucked and I don't want to that again. 

All in all, I did it! I swallowed my fear and flew in a four passenger death trap and survived. 

Please note, this is no way stating that I will fly in a little plane all the time nor does it mean that I will ever do this again! 

Happy halloween

We celebrated this holiday with a trunk 'r treat at our ward building the night before,

 then a fun parade at the elementary school 

 Classroom parties   and then door to door candy searching! We even stumbled upon Santa and his wife handing out ice-cream! 

 The kids were thrilled with the day of festivities and I am happy to be home resting my feet! 

My Scrapbook Retreat

My retreat to scrapbook at my cabin has come and gone. The three day trip went by so fast that I was surprised at how much we all got done.

 

We always have so much fun watching girly movies, listening to IPODS and sharing funny stories with each other.

One of the highlights this trip was a fun photo shoot. The area where my cabin is has a ton of great places to take wonderful pictures. Thanks to my friend Natalie for using her photography skills and taking all our pictures!

  

Oliva Jane came up also and she was the hit of the group! Just love her red hair!!!

There was this way cool old Garage and I love the way our photos turned out!

We are on our way to our EAGLE!

Joey and I went to our first "Board of Review" to get his Eagle project approved tonight. Both of us were nervous. Everyone had told us how hard it is to get an approval the first go around. But, he did it and they loved his project... 

Our stake is hosting a "Safety Fair" on Oct 25 and his project fit right in! Now the fun begins!

Halloween is Going to suck this year!

Just had to share this one with everyone! 

Happy Birthday Jessica!

My daughter is officially in the double digits! The big one zero! She celebrated with a great birthday party on friday with a bunch of her friends. We decided the party theme was "Alice In Wonderland" and I made these fun invites to go along with it. The written is hard to read, but it did say all sorts of fun stuff with following the theme. 

Everyone had a blast and Jessica was thrilled with the party. Here a few pics! 

2 New recipes for the fall season

Here are two new recipes for the fall both with pumpkin. My cooking Group is meeting next week and I just finished creating these cards for it. Hope you get a chance to try them.

Twenty Five Hundred pages later...

Okay, I know it seems nuts, but I finished four books in four and a half days! Just about twenty-five hundred pages! The "twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer is now on my top ten best books to read! I devoured them. I was a little worried that the topic of vampires would make me feel a little weird, but the love story was written so well that I found myself staying up until 3 am finishing the first book! I ran out the next morning and purchased the other three, knowing that I would go from one book to the next until I was finished with them all. I just had to see what happened next. I give all the books rave reviews. A must read! If you get a chance, like your husband goes out of town for five days, pick up this series and enjoy it. I know you wont be disappointed! Now I have to get back to the living and out of my fantasy. You should see my house...YIKES!

Hope this puts a smile on your face!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids
each for six weeks. Each kid will play two sports and either take
music or dance classes. There is no fast food.
Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean,
correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry,
and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.
In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each
week.
Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives,
and send cards out on time--no emailing.
Each man must take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist
appointment and a haircut appointment. He also must make one unscheduled
and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.
He must make cookies or cupcakes for a social function with only an
hour's notice.
Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house,
planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep
and all chores are done.
The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with
jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails
polished and eyebrows groomed.
During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe
abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood
swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.
They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at
least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the
morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair
by 7:00 am. *
A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be
required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday,
height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the
child's
weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor; each child's
favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite
drink,
favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.
The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man
wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment's notice.
If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over
again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be
called Mom!

Out to Dinner

  

With my ward making delicious Brazilian drinks, I was looking forward to a 

meal at one of my favorite restaurants in salt lake on our last visit up north,

 "Rodizio Grill: The Brazilian Steak House". I love it so much that I skip lunch knowing I am going to eat there! The food is so yummy and I love the way it is served to you right at your table from rotisserie sticks. Even my children enjoy this place, plus they get to taste a lot of different things that I don't cook. It is fun for all.

Yummy New Recipes

Our ward has been having a "Cooking Group" that meets once a month to exchange recipes. I have been enjoying going to this fun activity. This month was "foods on the grill". 

Here is my delicious hamburgers and a yummy drink our host shared with us. Hope you get a chance to try them both out. If you must choose just one, go for the drink....OMG it is amazing! 

Jacob's Birthday Bash

My little guy  turned  SIX  sunday! He will always be my baby!  

Here are a few pictures of his Birthday Bash 

     and family party.

        

Jacob's Birthday Invitation

Okay, I know I have posted a lot this week, but I wanted to add Jacob's birthday invitation. I just love it! The best part, I had this digi stuff already and it made a fun card. Plus, I sent it over to Costco and it was less then a buck to print all six of his cards! I love love love this Digital stuff!

Sugar Run

Late last night, 10:00 p.m. I think, Joey and I ran out to get us a snow cone! One of his friends works at the snow cone shack next to Harmons and he was working until 10:30 last night. 

Who wants a sugar rush that late at night?

His friend was so nice he upgraded us to 32 oz slushes with Joey getting pure syrup added to his! 

The highlight of the run was one of the workers didn't know me and thought I was Joey's sister! YES! I know it was dark and late, but I will take it for all its worth. Nothing better then someone seeing you young and I loved it!

A very busy August

I have had no time to even post anything we have been up to this month. I feel like I've been running around like crazy getting from one thing to the next. The great thing, I have had a small pocket camera with me and do have some fun pictures to post. 

Let's see first things first. My kids are back in school. Jacob is repeating Kindergarden due to his birthday being Aug. 24. He is very excited to be going again. We were thrilled to find out his best friend Chandler was in his class this year.

Jessica our little fashion Diva was having a hard time figuring out what to wear the first day. Entering the fourth grade was a big deal and she wanted to look her best. It was fun seeing her find her perfect look to go with her perfect bag. No Backpack this year. A stylish bag is the way the tween scene goes!

 

Joey really could of cared less about going back to school. As a ninth grader you would of thought different, but not Joey. Although he was happy to find out the first day of school that he did make the golf team! Talk about the longest two weeks of our lives. We changed vacations, cancelled basketball camp, drove back and forth 3 times a day. Got blisters from the clubs. Just wore himself right out! The worst part, the weather. It was awful with high winds and lighting. They cancelled the tryouts twice! The poor kid thought he was not going to make it, but he did.  It been a busy few weeks, but I wouldn't have it any other way!