Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was wonderful as usual. There's nothing like preparing some of your favorite foods for hours and hours....just to gobble it all up in 20 minutes! What a great holiday-it's all about being grateful, being with family, and stuffing your face! I love Thanksgiving! This year my in-laws were in Hawaii, and all of Dan's sisters were in Utah....so we celebrated with my family. We had dinner at my parents house, ( all the yummy stuff: Turkey, sweet potatoes, broccoli, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffed celery, stuffing, pie, the works) and then we let the kids play outside in the grass for awhile. My cousin Becky and her little family were in town and came over for pie. We finished off the night with pie, and we watched the movie"Up". We had a nice day and very full bellies!

The Table
Our decorations

Whit got into the costumes after dinner

Grandma and Quinn

Grandpa and Parker

What a mess!

Cute little Whitney

Me and my Mom

Mandie and Noelle

Bret and Beau

My cousin Becky and Mia

Grandma bouncing the girls on the Yoga ball

Thanksgiving was a success! On a side note....I have to mention that I made the sweet potatoes. For future reference....crispy marshmallows are only good when roasted over the camp fire. That's what I get for taking my eyes of of them for 30 seconds! They were still good-just not perfect. Oh well.

Lizzie & Adam's wedding

Lizzie and Adam are now married!

We went up to Utah for the wedding last week, and we had so much fun! Things were super busy: preparing, planning, a bridal shower, the wedding, and squeezing in a few family things in between. We played a lot, and even got to enjoy some snow-yep-it snowed the day of the wedding. Hailey and I both enjoyed our new winter wardrobe-nothing fit us...so we bought new clothes for the trip! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to, I guess I already had my hands full. That's what happens when you stay in a house full of things you could never afford to get fixed if your kids broke them. Thankfully-no disasters! Hailey got a stomach bug the day before we left-poor thing, I hate when kids barf. Whitney had a high fever and felt awful all the way home-and a few days later...she's just starting to act like herself again. It was great to see family members and to show off our latest addition-Parker. We are looking forward to the next time we can go and visit.

A BUSY CAKE WEEK

The week before Halloween was a busy baking week. I made a cake for my S-I-L Mandie. It was her birthday and she asked for a cake that I had already made before...a repeat cake I guess. I totally forgot to take pictures, but here's the one I made for Dan's b-day...and I made the same one for Mandie.A PB&J cake...and that's exactly what it tasted like...only sweeter. White cake as bread, PB buttercream and then I did Strawberry preserves for Mandie.

Another cake I did was for a boy in my ward. I'm friends with his mom and I offered to make him his B-day cake. Any chance I get to try something new is a good opportunity for practice. It was chocolate cake with caramel buttercream. Covered in fondant and decorated with little footballs made of fondant.

My mom is the Stake Primary president. They were having a leadership meeting and needed some sweets, so I made some cupcakes. I made chocolate cupcakes w/ PB buttercream, and also carrot cake cupcakes w/ a cream cheese buttercream. I uses some brown fondant to cut out leaves for the topper. I wanted the leaves to look more "fall" like, so I painted them with some bronze luster dust-they turned out really cute. I guess they were a hit. Thank goodness. It's always nice to hear that someone likes your work. Dan wanted some for his hometeaching families and also for his team at work. I made 74 cupcakes!!. Busy...busy...busy. I loved making and creating all of these things. My next project is mini cupcakes for Lizzie's (my sister-in-law) bridal shower. Nothing fancy, they're too little to decorate all fancy-it would overdue it. Some sprinkles, or colored sugar and a nice swirl of frosting will look just great! Can't wait!

Cupcakes for Dans work

Fondant Fall leaves

Cupcakes

Displayed on Table

Halloween 2009

We had a Happy Halloween this year. Lots of candy, fun costumes, pumpkins, and even a Halloween-themed meal! There are tons of pictures below of our great holiday-I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

CARVING PUMPKINS

HALLOWEEN MEAL: hOT DOGS

BREADSTICKS

WRAPPED UP & BAKED

MUMMY DOGS!!

MY 3 KIDDOS

WHITNEY AS DOROTHY

NICE "RED"SLIPPERS HUH?

OUR FRIENDS JAYMIE & JESSE ALWAYS HAVE FABULOUS COSTUMES!

DAN & PARKER

THE WITCH OF THE HOUSE

THE ONLY TIME HE'S EVER BEEN "SKIN & BONES"

SCOOBY-DOO

DOROTHY AND A BLUE PRINCESS

SO CUTE!