Merry Christmas

We spent the weekend before Christmas in Wyoming visiting our families, and having a mini family reunion with my family. We had an adventure getting there. On Thursday evening we hit a BIG storm in Evanston with white-out and blizzardy conditons. We also learned that the mountain pass to get to Lander was closed, so we had to take the LONG way around. Our 5 hour trip ended up becoming a 9 hour trip. We feel so lucky to have made it safely, even though I was white knuckiling it most of the way. We had a good time visiting our families even though it was too short. It has been a few years since my family has had the chance to all get together.

We had a very quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We opened new Jammies on Christmas eve and watched "The Christmas Story" Lucky we didn't have a reenactment with Ian's new treasured BB gun!



Mogan is eyeballing the presents under the tree!

Morgan's LOVING her new baby doll!

Frontyard Sledding!!

So much to get done this month so little time left for blogging. Sorry to my dedicated readers for being a slacker. I've also had problems loading pictures on my blog. It ONLY took me about 20 tries to get this one picture uploaded. So FRUSTRATING!!!!




Last Saturday we received a GOOD amount of snow. Jeff and Ian decided to make a sled run in the front and back yard. They spent hours outside packing down the snow, testing the run and then spraying it with colored water to make it even faster. The sled run in the front yard is about 150' long and includes a jump. It continues to wind its way down toward the sidewalk and crosses the driveway behind our car and ends in a snowbank on the far side of the driveway.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend, even though it was a normal work week for Jeff. Jeff goes into work very early (4 am) so he's usually home by 1 pm. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Jeff's brothers house. We had a great time visiting with his family and ended the evening watching Spiderman 3 in the theatre room. On Friday, Ian and I decorated a gingerbread house. I was going to make it from scratch, but when I went to the store to get the ingredients and candy, I saw a pre-made one in a box ready to assemble, so rather than spending hours making it, it only took us about an hour from start to finish. On Saturday we didn't do a whole lot, in fact we all felt like buckets most of the day watching the BYU-Utah game. Jeff and Ian were VERY happy BYU won, I of course was too, but I don't get into football like they do. I am so grateful for my family and everything that we have. I love this time of year when we can reflect on everything that we have been given to be Thankful for. I'm looking forward to Christmas and having the opportunity to spend time with my family.

Ian's masterpiece!!!

A Thanksgiving letter from Ian

Ian came home from school today with a Letter titled "Two Thankful Turkeys". It was the sweetest letter I've received from Ian. He is so thoughtful and such a sweet boy (most of the time) This is what it said:

Dear Mom,

Mom Thank you for loving me. Mom, thank you for helping me in my life. Thank you for my birthday presents. I love you Mom. Thank you for having my sister. Thank you for helping me do the right thing. Thanks for everything.

Your Kid

From Ian

It's definitely payday when your child brings home cute letters like this from school! SO SWEET!!!

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

I thought it would be fun to start doing a recipe on my blog since I like to bake so much. I'm going to try and do it weekly, but I'm not making any promises. I haven't tried the recipe that I'm going to start with but I saw it my Kraft Food magazine that I get a few times a year and thought it look delicious!!! I'm really not a fan of just plain pumpkin pie, but anythying with cream cheese has to be good.

Prep: 20 Min - Total 4 hours 20 min (includes refrigerating time)

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 T milk
1 T sugar
1 tub - 8 oz Cool Whip
1 Honey Miad Graham Pie Crust ( 6 oz) - or you can make your own
1 cup milk
1 can - 15 oz pumpkin
2 pkg - 4 serving size each Jell-O vanilla flavor instant Pudding and Pie filling
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloved

Mix cream cheese, 1 T milk and the sugar in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in half of the whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.

Pour 1 cup milk into large bowl. Add pumpkin, dry pudding mixes and spices. Beat with wire wisk 2 min. or until well blended - mixture will be thick. Spread over cream cheese layer

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Top with remaining whipped topping just before serving. Store in refrigerator

Makes 10 servings

Calories 300, Fat 13g, Chol 15mg, Sodium 240mg, Carbs 42g, Fiber 1g, Sugars 20g, Protein 3g

My Dreaded Treadmill!!!

My poor treadmill stands so lonely in our family room collecting dust. Every time I walk by it, I feel so guilty for not utilizing it like I should. I know it's calling out my name begging for some attention, and I know it's telling me that 2 times a week isn't nearly enough attention. Why or Why is it so hard to give that piece of equipment some desperately needed attention. Maybe it's because Morgan has been sick and very fussy and just wants to be held all day. Maybe it's because I have ripe bananas that need to be used to make banana bread. Maybe it's because the dishwasher needs unloaded and re-loaded, the carpets need vacuumed, the bathrooms need cleaned, the beds need made, the laundry that's been sitting in baskets for 2 days needs folded, bills that need paid, visiting teaching that needs to get done, organizing my desk and so much more. I am more and more amazed at women who seem to have it all together. I want to be more together, more organized, less stressed about cleaning my house and take more time to play with my kids. It's all a balancing act, and sometimes I feel like I'm tipping off to one side or even upside down most of the time. I know I only have 2 children, and those of you with more children are probably thinking "She's got it easy, she only has 2". I know it's my fault that I'm so unorganized and not good at keeping a schedule, but some days isn't it so nice just to say "schedule schmedule, I don't want to do anything today, but just stay in my P.J.'s all day, hold my baby, and watch Oprah"!!! Someday...maybe I'll have it all together like my idol June Cleaver, but for now, I'll enjoy my kids while they still like me and work on that another day!!!!

Sickies Sickies!!!!

Both of the kids have been sick since Wednesday. It started with Morgan having diarreah, And Ian tossing his cookies in the middle of the night on Thursday. I woke up to "Splat, Splat". I literally JUMPED out of bed to see what it was, Needless to say I don't think I'll ever be able to eat Chicken soup with wild rice again. They are slowly getting better, but poor Morgan's bum has a bad rash. I can't count how many times I changed her clothes and diaper yesterday. Both Jeff and I started to feel bad too, but it quickly passed. In the back of my head I'm thinking that Morgan got sick from one of my cub scouts on Tuesday that couldn't keep his hands off her. No better way to build a child's immune system, bring them to my cub scout den!