Merry Christmas....

Life is busy... I've been keeping up with my recipe blog pretty good but I'm quite the slacker at this one....
The month of December was a busy one. I did get my shopping done pretty easy this year... mostly gift cards (perfect for college age kids I think) but I got a few fun surprises for them everyone too!
We did the yearly 'treat the office' at work, this year I did fruit with coconut fruit dip and key lime dip, then homemade cheese stick crackers, and cinnamon nuts... Went over well I think.
Then after that was all done, Andrea and I decided we needed a 'Sveaty balls' party (have you ever seen the Svetty ball' episode of Saturday night live? if not you need to go look on You Tube)
So the office all wore 'Ugly' Christmas sweaters and we all brought Sveatty balls, I made ginger bread balls and key lime balls....

 And we had  a big Cheese ball and Oreo balls........ and the photo below is all the ugly sweaters in teh office and our ugly office Santa........

Then..... Christmas came.... For Christmas Eve I made Chowder and we had Mom and Dad over for a Christmas Eve game of scrabble(that's are favorite thing anymore... scrabble games)

 We LOVE our scrabble games.......

 I had surprised the kids this year with their Christmas ornaments. They got me hooked on the TV series 'The Walking Dead' and we had been watching the old episodes we had missed and couldn't wait for the new season to start. If you don't know, it's about Zombies... so I looked up Zombie ornaments and found some!!!

 Sarah got a Christmas stocking (with the foot still in it) and a Zombie Gingerbread man.... Yes.. she still makes the face she did when she was a little girl posing for pics!! LOL

 Andy got a Candy cane arm and hand shaped like a Candy cane and a zombie gingerbread man...

They loved them! 

Then I had one more surprise for Christmas eve.... red flannel bum pajama's for all of us!!! Yay! 

 Should make one of these our Christmas card pic for next year shouldn't I???

We all went to bed after that with visions of sugar plums (and zombie ornament and red pj's) in our heads!

Christmas morning we slept in, then got up and did the usual Christmas breakfast at Mom and dad's with scones, fruit, quiche, scrambles eggs, bacon , sausage and eat to our  hearts content YUM! I thought I had pics of our breakfast feast but alas I didn't take any. After breakfast.. which lasted all morning. We came home to open our presents......

 Finally... I got a slight smile from Jim....

 As you can see I kept my long johns' on all morning!!!

 After Jim passed out the gifts... we began taking turns opening them!!

 How can Jim NOT smile with that person handing him a present!! LOL

Then after that I got ham and sour cream potatoes in the oven for dinner in the evening with Mom and Dad. LOVE ham and sour cream potatoes!!! And of course we ended our day with a game of Christmas Day scrabble. I had also gotten us a game of Head Bandz.... LOVE it! 

And that was our Christmas 2012... I'm so thank-ful for the times I spend with my family and the happy memories we make to keep with us always. Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As you can see, I'm still trying to get caught up on my blogging. I keep up with my recipe blog pretty good, but have fallen behind on this one. I usually get a blog book made every year, and I need to catch up! I"ve been getting coupons for discounts but can't use them because this isn't done!
Anyway... we had a happy Thanksgiving. I took the day off the day before so I could bake all day instead of doing everything the big day. I don't really like getting up on Friday the day after to shop in the crowds, so I volunteered to work it. Sooooo glad I did.
One year, I did an all day eating day for Turkey day... was fun, but a LOT of cooking. So this year, we had a Thanksgiving "eve' feast of stuffed mushrooms, pumpkin rolls, and butternut squash soup, and a game of scrabble. It was fun, and yummy! My parents LOVE scrabble so we try to work a game or two in every chance we get!

 So fun! The food was good, and the competition was tough with Jim's mom here as well. I love holidays with lots of food and family.
Sarah helped me bake pies and rolls for the next day and we had a grand time. You can't be in the kitchen with Sarah without taking a few pictures here and there.

Thanksgiving Day, I got up and got the Turkey ready. I had let it soak in a Brine all night so we didn't stuff it. Instead I do my stuffing in the crock pot. We had rolls , yams, turkey , mashed potatoes, stuffing and a new recipe for green bean casserole. Jim's mom said this was one of the best 'tasting' Thanksgiving's I'm ever done.

We had a lemon meringue pie, pumpkin-pecan cheese cake (tried to be like the Cheesecake factory, it was yummo), and Sarah's Jello cheesecake for dessert, and pecan pie of course. If you click on the collages they will enlarge so you can see all the pics better.

 It was all soo good. We visited and played more games and that was our Thanksgiving.
I LOVE Family and food holidays..... they were made for me :)

more cakes, crafts, and cuts....

After Halloween, I took down my Halloween decor and put up Turkeys and Autumn decor... I made a few new Autumn crafts....

I also did a plate with "In all things, Give Thanks" that I did in vinyl lettering but I must have not taken a picture of it.  I also helped Jim and the Young Men make gifts for the elderly in the ward. We did wooden blocks made out of 2x4's that were about 10 inches long. Then painted the edges and mod podged scrap book paper on the top. Jim and I had found sayings like "trust in the Lord with all thine heart" and 'Families are Forever" etc. that we printed out on  creamy colored paper. Then one evening Andrew and I spent a couple of hours burning around the edges so they looked old. Then the boys mod podged those on top the scrapbook paper. We put furniture nails in the corner and Viola... a nice present for the widows in the ward. I had pictures of those on my old phone... but didnt' get a chance to save them when I got a new phone. Oh well, they turned out nice.
I also did another cake for my friend at work's niece, she had bought one of those large cupcake pans and gave it to me if I would make her a cake. This is what I came up with...

it was way fun to make! and she LOVED it.
In December I also made some little monster cakes for another friends' little boy...

he was turning 2. Dont' they remind you something off of Sesame Street? I made the eyeballs out of cake pops....

Then over last Christmas vacation I helped Bridger make a Weenie mobile for the Pine wood derby...
Brian and him had it already cut out and sanded, I just helped Bridger paint it. He did most of the painting himself! I was proud of him. He also got 2nd place for Car design. He came up with the idea himself.

Back in November, I had a mole removed. I don't know if you ever noticed my so called 'beauty mark' on my left cheek (on my face Haha) but it seemed to be getting bigger and Jim and Sarah noticed it getting bigger too. It was ruffly around the edges as well, so I thought I better go get it checked out. I go to Dr. Kay Bishop / Cameron French (Sarah is in love with Dr. French) and Cameron thought it would be a good idea to get it removed with all the history I have of suntanning, sun lamps, and indoor tanning in my younger days. I had fried my face with a sunlamp in High school.. I know... stupid thing to do, but back then a tan was deemed healthy and we were all after that Malibu barbie tan! So anyway, Cameron removed it. He did a great job, I didn't feel a thing and after I got the stitches out you could hardly tell.. plus a little dab of makeup and it's hardly noticeable.

 It was kind of ugly at first... (should have had it done before Halloween! would have looked awesome with my Zombie costume!)  But better safe now than sorry later..

It was benign thank goodness, so now I just have a dimple on that side when I smile!
I had been wanting to get my hair cut again.. into more of a a-lign bob, I have this picture of how I would love my hair to go....

I know I need to let it grow out on the top but the back of mine was getting quite long for a bob, it looked  more like a shag, so I thought I needed it cut. I had heard of this salon in Salt Lake City that specializes in Curly hair, they give you products, hair cuts, and tips for curly hair and all the reviews raved about it. So I booked an appointment with one of the most raved about stylists and away Jim and I went for a little get away and hair cut in Salt Lake City. Here is my before picture. It was on Saturday in the middle of November. I know I look a little shaggy, I didn't really spend much time on my hair that morning.......

I got to the salon, and the stylist loved my hair, she said it was soooo fun! I told her what I was thinking, and she thought about it a minute, and then said she had an idea she knew I would love since I love Meg Ryan hair do's and messy hair.. so I thought okay, Let's do it!  EEEKKKK she just whacked into my hair here and there while it was dry..... YIKES! she left these long tendrils in back and took a BIG chunk of each side of my hair that I had taken sooooo long to grow! Then she colored it, which I don't mind as much as the cut.. she put  darker brown, caramel color (which to me looked red) and light blond, this all meshed with the color already in my hair she said.... but here is an after picture...

 I know.. it's not that bad, but when you weren't expecting this cut and then every time I looked in the mirror I about died. Needless to say I think I spoiled the rest of the day for Jim and Sarah.

Sarah and Jim bonded while I was at the salon....

After my hair cut, we decided to look around in Ikea, we were kind of looking for a new computer desk. Sarah is rather silly when you go shopping at Ikea....

Here are some random pictures.... first at the motel before we left...( cllick on the pic it goes bigger so you can see all the pics better)

Then Sarah found this funny broccoli man that she thought was cute and dragged it with her through the entire store!! When we got to the kitchen area (have you ever been in Ikea?? they have bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms all set up and you can decide what you like and go downstairs and buy it in the wear house) Any way, in one of the kitchens they had all this fake food, so Sarah pretended to be 'Martha Stewart" LOL! Then she took her broccoli man to bed... met a fake horse.... and then was sad to leave Mr. Broccoli behind when we wouldn't let her buy him.... I should get it for her birthday don't you think? for a funny surprise?? LOL! (and yes, Jim was with us through all this in Ikea... although I think he wandered away from us at certain times... )
After our adventures at Ikea we decided to wander around the Fashion Place mall, and then ate at the Cheesecake Factory (our Fave when in SLC) We got samples of pumpkin cheesecake, and took cheesecake for later, back to the motel. YUM

 Doesn't Sarah look cute with bangs? She reminds me of Zoey D'Channel (off of New Girl)

Me and Jim... Jim looks a little stern. I think he was shocked at the price of my haircut (I'm just saying it was WAY expensive, and I wasn't that happy with it) Don't think I will EVER go back to that salon. Later, Jim wanted to go relax in the motel, I think he was tired of me and Sarah's shenanigans. But Sarah and I wanted to do something else, so we decided to go to 'Breaking Dawn Part 2" We were so excited!! Here we are waiting in line.....

 Sarah didn't see the 'watch your step sign' at the bottom of the stairs.... LOL (don't you think it would make more sense to have it at the top of the stairs so you were aware there were stairs??)

 but she quickly recovered after we got in the movie!! We LOVED it .. it was the best Twilight ever.. and the shocker at the end when you thought half of the Cullen's were killed.. Loved it!!

Yes... Sarah hated to admit it but she Loved it!!

We went back to our motel and Jim was asleep, so we went to bed after tasting our cheesecake.

Sunday morning after breakfast, we decided to look around at the new Scheel's store in Salt Lake, it just happened to be by our motel. That's a way fun store, especially with Sarah. There were sooooo many photo opportunities that we had to take advantage of... it's hilarious..... (click on the picture and it makes the collage bigger so you can see the pics better)

I had sooo many pictures that I created a collage so it wouldn't be a mile long post... but look close at all the pics... You should really go shopping with us.. I think Jim even had fun this time! In the middle of Scheels they have a humongous Ferris Wheel. And you can get a token for a dollar at the check out stand. So there's one pic where we are holding our tokens and another where we are screaming... or trying to look like we were screaming. It was fun and terrifying at the same time. I'm scared of heights and of course they stopped us at the very top of the thing to load more people on. I thought I was gonna die. After Scheel's we had to say good-by to Sarah so she could go back to Provo and we had to head back to B-town. All in all it was a fun little get away... and I did get used to my hair. (after I cut off the long tendrils in the back) :)

Halloween

I am sooo behind in my blogging! So here I go a a small attempt to catch up. Autumn time came and went, don't you love Autumn with the colored leaves and the crispiness in the air? And Apple pies, apple crisp, caramel apple topping for ice cream and pancakes..... mmmmmm.  This year at my office, and me and the other two girls I work with at the order desk decided to try to get the rest of our office excited about Halloween. We decided to have a 'Zombie' Party! We put up a flyer in our break room and wanted everyone to bring a 'treat' and come dressed as Zombies. I was trying to think of a good Zombie costume when I ran across a 'Zipper face" zombie on pinterest. LOVED it!
Sarah was down for a visit a couple of weeks before Halloween,  so one afternoon we decided to go get some Halloween makeup and she needed a costume for work. We ventured out to some Halloween stores, and of course we had a grand time. Whenever Sarah and I get together you can count on us being silly and getting the giggles....
Our first stop was the Halloween Bootique....maybe we should get some masks????

But after laughing hysterically, we decided it might be hard to work with a large mask on, besides being hard to breath in them, it was rather hard to see in some of them....

We left the Halloween Bootique since there was limited makeup and thought we'd try the 'Halloween store' out in Ammon. It was awesome!!! We found a great makeup kit for blood and gore just like a Hollywood movie! The girl at the checkout helped me get what I need and even showed me how to make a wound!

                                       

It's funny when you have a realistic looking wound on your hand how it starts to REALLY hurt! It was so achy like I had slammed it in a door or something!! Of course I had to buy that kit and after I told the clerk and the other guy clerk what I was going to do with it I think they were impressed with my idea of a Zipper Zombie and thought I was rather cool (at least I thought they thought that Ha!) On the way out of the store Sarah got 'attacked' by the 'zombie' on the floor and I had to fight it off with my machete....

                            

 Luckily we made it out of the store alive! Sarah decided to wear her sparkling black dress that she wore to Homecoming in her high school days and strap a gun to her thigh, and go as a 'Bond Girl'. (but later changed her mind, and went as Zoey off of "the new girl"... I think she looks just like her)

Sarah and I made cookies the next day, I wanted to try my hand at Jack Skellington cookies and we also make some pumpkins....

                             I thought they turned out pretty good!

Sarah and I also crafted a bit... one day while I was visiting Sarah we went to the movie of "the Help" we always liked to quote it where the one lady kept telling the little girl she took care of  the "you is kind" quote. As I went to leave Provo at the time, I looked at Sarah, but couldn't remember how it when, so I said "you is proud, You is rebellious, and you is kind." We got the giggles and vowed to turn it into a picture frame, so we did. We each made one and this is mine...

I forgot to take a pic of Sarah's... then we posed for pics to put in them.... this is the one I put in mine!

                                     
    While I had my craft stuff out, I made some pics for Halloween, one to hang in my house...

and another to sit on my desk at work...

  I thought they turned out great!! I was sooo excited for my Halloween office party and was looking forward to it with excited anticipation. Halloween morning came, I had made butter  finger eyeballs.

                                                                       

  and Brain cupcakes (with raspberry filling in the middle)

                                       after all, what do zombies eat but body parts!!
Then, I headed to the bathroom to create my Zipper face Zombie, after washing off my first attempt, I did it!

I think I scared Andy when I woke him up to take my picture! I couldn't wait to get to the office and see what the others had done!!! Only when I got there I was rather disappointed... only a hand full out the the 24 people I work with dressed up! One even came as a Zombie killer....

then we had a few that were only brave enough to wear a 'Boo" shirt..

this is the girl I work next to, she came as a Zombie red riding hood...

and even my friend at work that I make cakes and stuff for brought her grandbaby in the costume I had made for him!

I guess you could say he was a "baby Mickey Zombie" but I still liked my costume best!!!

Don't you LOVE Halloween!