Christmas Recap

Kamryn with her cousin at our Shingleton Family gathering Christmas night.

My siblings all meet at my parent's house on Christmas night. We had an easy dinner of sub sandwiches and all sorts of yummy sides. Then the cousins exchanged their presents (we draw names every year) and then siblings exchanged their presents (we just rotate down each year) and then gave presents to our parents. It was a pretty mellow evening and we all enjoyed the visiting.

Taylor with his Nano iPod.
He received a combined birthday/Christmas present from his parents' this year. Now if we can just get our computer up to speed to recognize it. There's always a present that has problems.

Kamryn showing off her new princess nightgown.

Jared showing off his superheros jammies.

Taylor excited to open a present from his grandparents.
It was a basketball set for his room.

Jared showing off the cool football shirt he got in his stocking from Santa.

Taylor in his new "moon" chair that Santa brought.

Justin and Brooke on Christmas morning sitting by what Santa brought them.

We had a great Christmas. Everyone finally was up about 9:30 except for Justin and we all went down to wake him up. We always take our time on Christmas and spread out the opening for as long as possible. Each of the kids take turns opening what Santa brought them and then we move on to what each person got for members of the family.
Paul's parents and my parents joined us for brunch and some more present opening. And then Paul's sister's family joined us during the afternoon. It was a very kickback day and very enjoyable.
At 4:00 when we were getting ready to go over to my parents and loading up presents to take over there the kids noticed we still hadn't opened some big presents that were to our family from their dad. Everyone had a present to open and it was a new home theater system for our family room downstairs. It even included a big screen flat plasma tv. The kids were very excited about that and very surprised. We've enjoyed watching a few movies on it and the kids have fun playing their video games on the big screen. Paul really has been enjoying the new stereo and listening to good music and watching his favorite concerts.
The day after Christmas is my favorite - we stayed home all day and just enjoyed all the new toys. Most of us stayed in our jammies all day. I love just hanging out with the fam and spending time together. It was nice to be able to stay in all day while the snow piled up outside. We ended up getting over a foot of new snow.

Paul's Work Holiday Party

Paul and I at the Layton Company Holiday Party. It was at the SouthTowne Convention Center. We had a yummy dinner and enjoyed watching some people win the raffle prizes (not us this year) and then enjoyed an awesome concert by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband.
(sorry about the picture quality, I really struggle with scanning photos.)

Kamryn's 1st Dance Recital

Kamryn had her first dance recital last week. It was at Taylorsville High School and her class was very first on the program. They did a tap dance to "Up on the Housetop". I took video with our regular video camera and haven't figured out how to get it on the computer (I'll have to have Paul do it).
She did a great job - better than I expected she would do. All those little girls looked so cute up there. Unfortunately I had to leave right after her class finished so I could make it to Paul's work party but Brooke and Jared stayed to watch it. Brooke said that after watching all the dances Jared said he wanted to take dance lessons.

Just waiting

So I was up late (2:45 this year as opposed to 4:00 last year, so it's getting better) and really wanted to sleep in but woke up at 7:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. I gave myself until 7:30 to get back to sleep or I was getting up. Well, I"m up. I had a shower and I've been on the computer working on a last minute gift. I'm not surprised that everyone has slept in, except maybe Taylor. So I'll work on updating some posts I've wanted to do until someone gets up.

9999

Kamryn and Jared on Christmas Eve

This was image number 9999 taken on my camera before it started over on the numbering.
Aren't they cute?

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve 2008
Kamryn, Brooke, Taylor, Jared, Justin

Bath Time Conversation

I'm not sure if I should share this story online but I'm going to anyway.
Tonight while I was getting the bath filled up for Jared and Kamryn they were getting undressed. Jared was standing next to me, totally naked and playing with his "unit".
He said to me "girls don't have these."
I said, "No, they don't. Just boys do."
Then he said, "Kamryn's is in her bum."
I had to leave the bathroom to compose myself and then share the story with their dad and big brother who really laughed about it.

Family Talent Show

For the 2nd year in a row we had a family talent show with my family. We had a nice dinner first and then whoever wanted to participate in the talent show could. We started out with this cute number by Jake, Kyson, Kamryn and Jared. Thanks to Jenny for letting us borrow her bells.

Kamryn's 1st performance

For kamryn's first little dance performance her class did their Christmas dance at Macey's grocery store in West Jordan. It's a very crazy venue with customers being annoyed about the inconvience but Kamryn seemed oblivious to that, thank goodness. I really didn't expect her to do anything so I was pleasantly surprised when she did several parts of their cute little Christmas dance (to the music of Up on the House Top). Hopefully it helped prepare her for the big christmas recital this Friday at Taylorsville High School.

Christmas Luncheon

This is my great group of friends since 6th grade. We always get together for a Christmas party, sometimes at someone's home and sometimes at a restaurant. This year we met at The Garden Restaurant downtown for lunch. The food was delicious but the company was even better. It's always great talking with these friends about our lives, our families, our ups and downs. I owe so much to these great ladies and am so grateful to their friendships and positive influences in my life. Merry Christmas and much love to you all!

The Festival of Trees

Kamryn and Jared sitting on Santa's lap at the Festival of Trees. They were very excited to sit on his lap and talk to him. They both told him what they want - castles, a pink one for Kamryn and a blue one for Jared.

This is the famous "glass" tree that sold for $26,000. It was pretty amazing.

This is the tree that my cousins did. They've done one every year for over 10 years I think.

I usually go to see the trees with my sister but she had a baby the week before and wasn't up to it this year. So I just took my little buddies and went. We had a good time looking at all the pretty trees and talking to santa.

December Festivities

I was really going to try hard to keep up with posts during December but I've failed miserably. It's been a very busy month so far and this week is the busiest yet - we have some type of activity every night plus the regular activities of volleyball and basketball practices, piano and dance lessons.
I should be heading out to my sister's for the day (what I do every Tuesday in connection with Kamryn's dance lesson) but it's snowing pretty hard right now and Jared and Kamryn are still asleep so I thought I would take the time to catch up.
Some of our other activities that don't have pictures:

• Paul's birthday on the 7th - he didn't want us to get him anything so that's what we did. Jared gave him a wrapped box with nothing in it.
• Also on the 7th, we watched and enyoyed the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional.
• Our ward's Christmas party, which we attended for five minutes. We were very sad to have to miss it but had to host a group down from Paul's Idaho hospital project at the Jazz game. at least we got to sit in the suite and have a yummy dinner.
• On the 6th we attended an extended Shingleton family dinner at the Joseph smith Memorial Building. It was a yummy dinner and fun to visit with our cousins. It was crazy trying to get there with everything that was going on downtown that night.
• On the 15th, the Jones Family Christmas dinner. This year it was adults only and we gathered at the Lion House. It was fun talking to cousins again and especially hearing from Krystal, my 25 year old cousin who just spent the past 2 years serving in the Peace Corp in Senegal Africa. She assignment was to help the villagers where she was assigned to plant trees.

Bank Account

I received this email the other day and really liked it so I thought I'd share it.

YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.'I love it,' he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight- year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
'Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room. Just wait.
''That doesn't have anything to do with it,' he replied..'
Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged . It's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.
'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!

Christmas Music

So, now that it's the official Christmas season I've really been listening to my favorite Christmas music. I thought I'd share some of my favorites:

• Believe - Josh Groban
• A Baby Changes Everything - Faith Hill (new this year)
• The Best Gift - Barbra Streisand
• Don't Save It All For Christmas - Celine Dion
• Sending You a Little Christmas - Jim Brickman with Kristy Starling
• When Love Came Down - Point of Grace (I love the whole album, A Christmas Story)
• Song for a Winter's Night - Sarah McLachlan
• Christmas Children - SheDaisy (also love this album, Brand New Year)
• all of THE FORGOTTEN CAROLS
• The First Nowell from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's album "Rejoice and Be Merry"

Hymns

For our sacrament meeting today, the bishop asked five members of our ward to speak on one of their favorite hymns and why it's their favorite. It was a beautiful meeting and I felt the spirit very strongly. Music is one of the greatest ways to feel the spirit. After each speaker we sang the hymn they had chosen. It was a wonderful meeting and one I could listen to every month. They've done this before in our ward and so I thought about what hymn I would choose and why. I came up with "Lead, Kindly Light" (Hymn 97). I really love the melody and the words.


"Lead, Kindly Light"

Prayerfully

1. Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom;
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet;
I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.

2. I was not ever thus, nor pray’d that thou
Shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path;
but now,Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,Pride ruled my will.
Remember not past years.

3. So long thy pow’r hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone.
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Text: John Henry Newman, 1801–1890
Music: John B. Dykes, 1823–1876
Psalm 43:3
Psalm 119:133–135

... black friday.

Seriously, I am thankful for black Friday.

I was able to get everything I wanted this morning and for some good savings.

Brooke and I went out on our own this year. Usually we meet up with my sister and sometimes with my sister-in-law and other sister too but this year it was just us. We got to Shopko just before they opened and went in and got one thing and were out in 5 minutes. Then we headed to Walmart and got one thing for my sister and were in and out in 5 minutes again. Our last stop was Target. We actually stood in line outside the store for about 20 minutes waiting for the store to open. Luckily it wasn't raining anymore and it wasn't that cold. We checked through the add again and found a couple more things that would be good to get. I was actually only after one thing there and got it, picked up a few more things and we were headed home and back to bed by 6:30. It was our most successful year ever!

... my husband!

I'm thankful for many things today and I could write a long list but I'm just going to go with my husband today. For without him, most of the things I'm thankful for I wouldn't have at all. He is my best friend and I'm so grateful for all that he does for me and for our family. He is a dedicated father, priesthood holder, son, and employee. He works hard at his job and provides very well for our family. He sacrifices many personal wants and desires so that our family can have a nice home and "things" that we want and need. He also likes to have fun and I love having fun with him. I love spending time with him and the more time I spend with him, the more time that I want to spend with him. I love his laugh and I am thankful that I hear it a lot. I am thankful for all the times that he has put up with me and I know that he will continue to put up with me.

... a beautiful new baby.

Katie Emma Byers

7 lb 13 oz

19 inches

Born at 7:52 am

I am so thankful my sister's baby was born healthy and perfect. I've just worried about her the last couple of days and hoped everything would go well with the delivery. even this morning i was really starting to worry because I knew she was supposed to be born around 8:00 am and at 9:30 we hadn't heard anything. I guess mom's just worry. Everything did go well and she's a wonderful little bundle to hold.

BTW

by the way, I am feeling much better. I think it was a very good decision to go to the doctor and get started on meds. I think it was a bacterial infection since I am doing so much better this quickly. tHank goodness for the z-pac!!

... Jared and Kamryn!

There is so much I could say about Jared and Kamryn. I love this picture of them on the hill in our backyard. To me it shows how different they can be and how they are each individuals with lots of personality.

Jared and Kamryn are great buddies. They play together non-stop and would keep playing through the night if I let them. They are very much into pretend play right now and are very creative. Just tonight they got all dressed with shoes and jackets and backpacks and proceeded to go to school in the living room. For the most part they get along very well and don't fight very much. When one of them wakes up before the other the one who is up seems a little lost and doesn't know what to do without the other one. Luckily they don't get into too much trouble on their own. On Monday while I was feeling pretty sick they pretty much took care of themselves for most of the day. It was fun listening to them play.

I was trying to get them to smile for a picture so I said "say, Go Utah," and this was the result.



Kamryn is all girl and loves wearing dresses and having bows and ribbons in her hair. She is very ticklish and has the cutest laugh. She is quick to say she's sorry and she loves to give kisses and cuddle. She loves to read stories and especially loves all of the Disney princesses.

Jared is all boy and here he is showing off his muscles. He makes boy noises all the time and loves to dress up as batman, spiderman or a knight, usually one right after the other. He is sensitive and has very nice manners. It's harder for him to say sorry and he's quick to tattle on Kamryn. He loves to play ball with his dad and brother's and tells me all the time that he is on a team. He loves dinosaurs and his "guys" - Taylor's old collection of action figures.

I am very thankful to have Jared and Kamryn be part of our family. Life would be pretty boring without them. It was a long and hard wait to get them here but I'm so thankful that I never gave up.

... doctors and medicine.

Today I'm thankful for modern medicine. I went to the doctor because after more than a week I'm not getting better and am actually getting worse. My head cold has moved south into my lungs and it feels like I've got the start of bronchitis. Luckily she took pitty on me and prescribed the wonderful Z-pac so hopefully I'll be better tomorrow!

... lil' friends.

I'm thankful for all the cute friends that Jared and Kamryn play with (and for those friends' moms!). It's fun watching them play together and be crazy together. This is just some of those friends eating lunch together when we had a play date at our house.

(This was supposed to be posted yesterday but I forgot to do it).

... a BIG WIN!!!

I really am thankful that Utah won the big game today. We had a great group of friends together to watch the game at my parents! It was a lot of fun to cheer the Utes on together. Just in case you somehow missed the game or the final score, check out this article.

... the temple.

San Diego Temple

It's nice to take a night out and go to the temple and enjoy the peace and quiet. It was our ward temple night tonight and I was supposed to meet Paul there for a session. He just barely missed getting on the session and I went ahead without him. It was kind of weird being there without him. It was nice to see him waiting for me when we were done though and I was touched that he waited. He could have gone home since he knew I had a ride home with my friend and her husband - still it was sweet to see him there waiting and to ride home together.

... book club.

I'm so thankful to belong to an awesome book club. My friend Melinda got it started 15 years ago this month and we've been going strong ever since. We had our anniversary dinner tonight at Melinda's house and it was so nice. She made the whole delicious dinner and yummy dessert. It was wonderful to sit and visit with these great ladies.

... braces.

Here's Taylor with his brand new braces that he got today.

He's got white and red elastics showing his allegiance.

Now when I say I'm thankful for braces I really mean I'm thankful we can afford to pay for our kids to have braces. I never did have braces and sometimes wish that I had. I never could do it at this point (I have too many issues with mouth pain) but I'm thankful my kids will have nice straight teeth. I'm also thankful that Taylor's teeth are going to need very minor work and he should be done in about six months and it's not going to cost me what it did with Justin and Brooke.

... a driver's license

I'm thankful that Justin passed his driving test and was able to get his license -- and just in time too. He got his license on Wednesday and we left on Thursday for our trip to San Diego and while we were gone he was able to take Taylor to scouts and then he took Jared and Kamryn to a church near our house to cheer Brooke's team on in Region Volleyball.

I'm Thankful for ...

I'm going to copy of couple of friends who are listing things they are thankful for as we get ready for Thanksgiving. I'd like to do the "12 days of Thanksgiving" but I would have had to start yesterday for that so I'll just try to do 11.

I'm thankful for my health. Especially today as I've come down with a head cold. I think the extreme temperature changes over the weekend did that to me.

San Diego Trip

Yesterday Paul and I were able to go to the San Diego Temple for a session. That temple is so AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL inside and out.

Today we drove up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway. We couldn't decide which beach to stop at and just kept driving and ended up driving up to Carlsbad. Our family went on vacation there a few years ago and we ended up spending a couple of hours at that very same beach. It was such a beautiful day - unseasonably warm for November. Paul even rented a boogie board and played in the surf for over an hour. I stayed on the beach and watched him and enjoyed the sun.

This is Paul and I just before the start of the Utah vs SDSU football game. This was the whole reason we decided to come down to San Diego - to go to the game. It was a great game -

the Utes won 63-14!

It was fun to be there with so many Utah fans - it seemed like there were more Utah fans there than San Diego State fans.

It's been such a great weekend and I've really enjoyed spending some good quality time with Paul. I've loved being back in San Diego and the weather has been fabulous. Thank goodness for grandparents and kids that watch the little ones so we can get away for a weekend date.

Funny Night in San Diego

Paul and I in front of the Ocean Beach Pier Cafe.

We enjoyed watching the sunset and the surfers at Ocean Beach.

Paul and I flew to San Diego today for a little weekend getaway. We had two free tickets we needed to use on Southwest before they expired and Paul had the excellent idea to come down to San Diego for some fun and also to see the UTES play SDSU.
The first thing we did was go to Old Town so I could go back to the Mormon Battilion Visitors Center where I served my mission. When we drove up to the building there was yellow caution tape across the entrances and the parking lot. On the front door was a sign saying it was closed for remodeling and set to open again sometime in 2009. That was sad for me.

We decided we wanted to be on the beach at sunset so we drove to Ocean Beach and walked out on the pier and watched the sunset and all the surfers. There were a lot of them out there even after dark.

For dinner we decided to eat a small cafe right there out on the pier. We were the only couple there eating. We had a cute young woman for our server. We were chatting with her after dinner and asked her what she would recommend doing that evening. She said she didn't know of much since she'd only lived here for a few months. I asked her where she moved from and she said SALT LAKE CITY. We couldn't believe it. What a small world. She grew up in Cedar Hills and is just working done here trying out somewhere other than Utah.

As we were walking back to our car from the pier an older gentleman made a comment to us about fishing and we stopped and talked to him. He asked us where we were from and Paul said, Salt Lake City, and the man said "Oh, you're Mormon." Then he thanked us for our help with Proposition 8. He went on to preach a little to us and then asked us for some tithing for his preaching. It was a funny evening.

Justin's late 16th birthday post

Justin is 16 NOW!

I wish I could say this picture was taken on his birthday but it wasn't. It was taken exactly a week later but he is wearing the Utah shirt we gave him for his birthday.

Justin's birthday was pretty lame, although we did things the whole week of his birthday that we counted as part of celebrating his birthday. I kept asking him what he wanted to do, if he wanted to have a party - no. He finally came up with a couple of things (unfortunately there are NO pictures of any of these events, I must have totally shut my brain down last week due to being in denial of him turning 16):
*On Monday, the 3rd, the day before his actual birthday, we had a nice dinner as a family at home and then watched SNL's "Presidential Bash." That is what he wanted to do so we did it. He also opened the lame presents that we got him - the Utah shirt and a Utah hat, a $15 iTunes giftcard, new earphones for his iPod, 3 boxes of his favorite sugar cereals. I keep telling him his car insurance is a HUGE present.
*On Tuesday, his actual birthday, we had what he requested for dinner "chicken con queso", a good frozen dinner from Sam's Club. Both of his grandparents came over to visit him and gave him nice cards with money inside.
*On Thursday night I put on a nice spread of football food at my parents' home while we watched the Utah-TSU game. Justin said the ending to that game was a great present.
*On Friday, the main celebration, we went to see the new Madagascar movie and had dinner at Bajio. This was all Justin's idea. Now seeing the movie was special because we rarely go to movies at a first run theater and NEVER on opening day.
*On Saturday I took him to lunch at Subway and dessert at McDonalds. And I still owe him a winter clothes shopping trip. So all in all, hopefully not bad of a birthday but still kind of lame.

Justin is a great young man and I love him very much. He's great to have around and I really enjoy his sense of humor. I love watching him with Jared and Kamryn - he's a great big brother to them. I love the friendship he has with Brooke. ( We keep telling him to be nicer to Taylor). I am grateful that Justin makes good decisions (most of the time) and the he is doing well his first (real) year of high school.

Awesome Night

What an awesome night for the Utes!!
Justin, Paul and BROOKE and I all watched the game with my dad tonight. It was a lot of fun to all watch it together. I made a good dinner to have with my parents before the game. Jared and Kamryn had fun playing with my mom during the game. It was great to have Brooke watch the game with us - she's not usually too into football but she really got into this game. We made a lot of noise and really enjoyed the outcome.
GO UTES!!

A Brand New Year

I attended the taping of A Brand New Year last night with Justin, Brooke and 3 other young women from our ward. We got there early enough that we had good seats on the floor section. There were a ton of people there so we didn't try to meet up with the rest of our ward. I guess that was a good thing because I heard they didn't even get in and ended up going home.
I thought the program was very good and I especially enjoyed Elder Holland's talk at the beginning. The music was a little cheesy during the rest of the program but I liked it. Unfortunately our jaded youth didn't really get into it and called it "Mormon Musical." Deep down I think they really liked it, it was just too long.

Twins' Conversation

First of all, let me set up the scene.
Jared and Kamryn are in the living room playing, both wearing their Halloween costumes. I had quickly put out a couple of Thanksgiving decorations this morning, one of them being a stuffed turkey. Jared, as Batman, was shooting things with Taylor's gun. I hear Kamryn getting upset.

Kamryn: "Stop shooting!"
Jared: "I have to shoot it. I am Batman."
Kamryn: "Don't shoot the turkey! I love it!! I love animals."

That is how our morning began.

Happy Halloween

Fear Factor 2nd Edition

Taylor really wanted to go to our mutual's version of Fear Factor but I wouldn't let him go. So I decided to put on the activity again the next day for him and his friends. It was easy since I had still all of the stuff for all of the challenges. We invited his friends and also his cousin and his cousin's 2 friends. They all seemed to like the challenges and it was so funny watching them. The slideshow below shows some of the fun they had.

Fear Factor 2

Fear Factor

On Wednesday night our combined activity was Fear Factor. I got all the ideas from my friend Paige who got them at this website.

The picture above is of 3 teams doing the activity "Mystery Food." My sister gave me that idea from a party she'd been to last Halloween.

The activity went pretty smoothly and everyone seemed to have a great time. It's a perfect activity to do around Halloween, except it's pretty messy and would really be better held outside.

Kamryn's party

For Kamryn's dance lesson this week the whole class got to wear their costumes, even her teacher was dressed up.

My beautiful princess!

Who is He?

This is how Justin dressed up in costume for our ward's trunk-or-treat tonight.

Do you know who he is?

This is What Happens ...

This is what happens when you leave the teenagers home to tend the little ones. Very mean but funny, I have to admit. Brooke did say she felt bad afterwards.

Birthdays ...

Birthdays are great because you realize what great friends and family you have and you feel loved. I received very nice cards, emails, phone calls, visits and gifts from those friends and family. Thanks to all for helping me have a nice birthday.

Happy birthday to me

Can you tell the differences in the two photos?
Today is my birthday. At this point in life the best thing about birthdays is it gives you an excuse to go to lunch or dinner or breakfast or all 3.
I got my haircut and then went to lunch with my sister (while at lunch notice that a cross-dresser/transvestite ?? is sitting a couple of tables over from us - tried to get a picture but too dark). Now I'm off to brooke's volleyball game (the church variety) and then to Stake YW Leadership Training meeting. I would totally blow that off and go to book club but they are talking about pioneer trek that we're doing next summer and I don't want to miss that info.

Sugar Cookies

This recipe was requested by my cute friend, Stephanie.

Sugar Cookies

2 cups margarine (not butter)
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Creme above ingred together. Then add:
3 eggs
1/4 milk

Mix together dry ingred:
6 c flour
1 1/2 TB baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Add to cremed mixture one cup at a time.
Chill for 1 hour. Then roll out (1/4" thick or more) and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. The secret is to underbake these cookies. Barely brown (if any) on the edges.

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup crisco
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
5 cups powdered sugar

ENJOY!

Cabin Time

My kids and I were able to spend a week up at the cabin. I think that is the longest I have ever stayed up there - and I could have stayed longer! We love being up there and are grateful that we have such a great retreat that is so close to us. Paul came up for the weekend and we enjoyed watching the great Utah game! I spent most of my time scrapbooking with my sister. I was able to get 52 pages done up there - unfortunately that is just a drop in the bucket. We also watched a movie almost every night (check my list for what we watched). It was fun watching the cousins all play together and enjoying the beautiful fall weather up in the mountains. It was a great break and I can hardly wait to get back up there again.

Swimming at Snowbird

Desiree invited us to come up to Snowbird where they have a condo timeshare. The kids had so much fun swimming. Kids are amazing - they were in and out of the water between the big pool and the kiddie pool and I was sitting there freezing just watching them.

Dessert Recipes

I thought I would share these two yummy recipes that I got from my sister.

Raspberry Dessert
Melt 1 cup butter on cookie sheet in oven (350 for 1 min or less).
After melted, stir in 1/2 cup brown sugar and then 2 cups flour.
Leave in oven for 15 minutes. Every 5 minutes stir with a fork. After 15 minutes take out and chop with a fork. Let cool for one hour.
Put 3/4 mixture in 9x13 pan.
Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
2 pkg dream whip
Beat dream whip according to instructions.
In separate bowl, beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. After creamy,
add dream whip. Pour on crust. Top with remaining crust.
Make danish dessert using 1 1/2 cups water. Add 1/2 bag frozen raspberries and stir with whisk. Pour over cream cheese/topping. Cool for several hours before serving.

My whole family loved this and Taylor wants to have it for Thanksgiving.

Banana Bread

1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. cinnamon
1 egg
1 c mashed bananas (about 3 med)
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c oil

Put all ingredients in bowl and mix by hand.
Sprinkle brown sugar on top and then spray with butter spray.
Cook at 350 for about 50 minutes.

Makes 1 regular size loaf and about 4 muffins. Can make in an 8x8.

I know there are lots of banana bread recipes out there but this one is my favorite.
Funny story about making this yesterday - I had taken the muffins out and had about 5 minutes to go on the bread. Even though it smelled so good in the house, I completely forgot what I was doing and loaded everybody in the car to go get dinner and just left the bread in the oven. Luckily I had just pulled out of the neighborhood when I remembered about the bread. I went back and took it out and it looked perfect. Can you imagine if I hadn't remembered about it? I probably would have come back to a fire.

ENJOY!

One more layout

I did this layout yesterday.
I am really happy with how it turned out.
It made me want to take the kids to the zoo again.