Christmas Time

 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season this year.  We like most of you have been busily preparing all month in order to celebrate our Savior's birth. 

We put up the tree.

I finally got around to making our stockings.
If you couldn't guess the snowflakes are mine and the animals are Nathans.
I also have two more almost completed so that someday our children will have a matching set.

Made the Happy Birthday Jesus muffins
Every year growing up my family made a Happy Birthday Jesus cake. 
 With it onlybeing the two of us this year a cake is a little bit too much. 
So I compromised and made muffins!

And it Snowed

We are officially ready for Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve!!!!

Family Picture Bloopers

Last Tuesday we went up to a neighboring canyon and tried to take some family pictures to be used on this years Christmas cards.  Because of our current works schedules this was a very spontaneous trip and we did not ask anyone to come along with us to actually take the pictures. 

No problem right?  Our camera has a timer.  We also have this very handy bendable tripod that can wrap around tree branches and stuff. This should be easy.

And so we headed up.  We took a short walk from the trail head and found a great spot.  Now we just had to set up the camera.   Nathan is very crafty and within a minute or two the camera was hooked to a tree and we were ready to go. 

Now for the really tricky part.  To get Jasper to sit still with me while Nathan set the timer and ran to join us.  As you will all see this took a few tries before we got it all right.

 

"Wheres Jasper?"  "Did that flash just go off?"

 

Well my eyes are closed and Jasper is facing the wrong way.

A little faster Nathan.

Nathan didn't even make it into this shot.

Closer but Jasper's trying to get away.

Almost perfect.  If only Nathan didn't have his hands
 around Jasper's neck.

Believe it or not we did eventually get a great shot that is worthy of being on our Christmas cards. But I will not spoil the surprise by posting it here. You all just get to wait and see its for yourselves when they are mailed out. 

 

Happy Saturday!!!



Window well covers

Nathan and I have been working very hard in order to get our home ready for our adoption home evaluation.  One of the requirements that LDS Family Services has is that we must have safety covers over each basement window.  We have know about this for a couple of months and Nathan wanted to build them himself but has been busy with other projects during the summer and fall.  Now that we have finally scheduled the day for the Case Manager to come out to our home it is crunch time. 

Nathan spent two days cutting, bending, and welding these wonderful window well covers for us.  He only has one more to do and then we will be ready.

Large cover

Small cover

Both of them side by side.

And for your viewing pleasure, Here is a sweet picture of Jasper.  This picture makes him look like a little puppy, so peaceful.  This dog really does make me smile most days.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

Halloween

At work this year we decided that we would have a Wizard of Oz themed day on our hospital floor.  We sent out an email to all staff inviting them to join us in the fun.  My good friend Sharon always dresses up as a witch and so was cast in the role of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, I on the other hand was assigned the role of Dorothy. 

I was given a month in which to put my costume together.  After sending out a plea on facebook asking if anyone had a Dorothy dress I could borrow I was lucky enough with the help of my friend Callie and her Mother to get my hands on a dress that was the perfect size.  All that was left was finding the all important ruby slippers to make everything complete.

Being as I am not a big shopper, and dislike spending too much money on items that I know I will not be using very much it was important to me to find a cheap way to get shoes.  With the help of my very intelligent mother we came up with the perfect solution.

I ended up going to DI and buying a $5 pair of black shoes and a couple of cans of spray paint.  Nathan is a master spray-painter and I think that he had just as much fun seeing how they turned out as I did.  Each shoe got two coats of red, two coats of silver glitter, and one coat of glitter sealant.

I think they turned out great, and for one day of use they were perfect.



Nathan painting



Waiting for them to dry.



Finished product




The Whole Surgical Trauma 'Wizard of Oz' Team
Back Row L-R: Sharon as Elpheba, Me as Dorathy, Ariel as The Good Witch, George as the Tin Man, Kristin as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Vicki as a Kansas Cowgirl.
Front Row L-R:  Gloria as Toto, Jen B as a Flying Monkey, Tracey as the Yellow Brick Road, and Kim as a Munckin.
Not pictured: Brent as the Scarecrow.

Happy Tuesday!

My first Deer

This last weekend Nathan and I headed up to the family cabin hoping that I could fill my buck deer tag.   We headed up on Thursday afternoon and because it was so late we just drove around looking for deer from the road and stopped to take some fun pictures in the canyon that we love.

 

The next day, Friday, we headed out early in the morning with Nathan's dad David and brother Brian.  We drove the Jeep up a neighboring canyon and continued our search.  By mid-morning we had spotted three good sized bucks and tried to sneak-up on them through the snow, but they ended up spooking over the ridge before we could get up to them.  
For the rest of the day we sat in different locations scoping the hillsides looking for more bucks. 
Eventually sunset started setting in and it got cold so we started heading back down the canyon to the main road.  
Along the way three doe's ran across the road in front of us and we stopped to watch them.  When we looked back from where the doe's came from there were two small bucks following them.  That's when we got excited.  Nathan handed me the 30 30 rifle and I jumped out of the Jeep.  During that time the bucks had come down the one hillside, across the road and back up the other side.  I pulled the gun up to my shoulder, sighted in on the second buck and fired.  The boys said it was a  great shot and we watched as the buck tumbled down the mountain side to the bottom of the ravine by the roadway.
Because it was so cold and was going to get dark soon Nathan and David took care of the buck and we than we headed back to the warmth of the cabin. 
Here are some pictures of me with my buck the next day.  He was originally a 3-point buck but in the tumble down the hillside we managed to brake several of the tips off his antlers so he only looks like a two point in the pictures. 

 

I had a great time and I cant wait to do it again next year.  And a big thanks to my guides Nathan and David.

Happy Halloween!!!

My favorite time of the Year

Why is it you ask that THIS is my favorite time of the year?  It has nothing to do with the date, or that Halloween is tomorrow or with all the other holidays fast approaching.  It has more do with the feeling in the air.  And most importantly in the fact that I feel like making my homemade caramel popcorn. 
Every year around this time I feel a certain drive to make my creamy caramel popcorn.  I usually end up making a couple of different batches between Halloween and Christmas every year.  Not exactly for the holidays but more because they give me an excuse to pull out the air popper and get to work.
The tradition, as with the best traditions in life started when I was a young child.  I have many memories of sitting in the kitchen, all of us sitting around the popcorn popper sorting through the popped and unpopped kernels.  

Four bowls of fresh popped popcorn

Two batches of caramel

Bring it to a boil and than add the sweet and condensed milk

Fresh caramel

Pour over the popcorn

And stir in completely

 

I am glad that I can carry on the tradition and continue to share this amazing popcorn with those around me. 

Happy Tuesday!!

Cooking

Today while I was at Walmart I saw a sign that reads:

 

I was almost tempted to buy the sign and hang it above my oven.  I unlike my sister and my wonderful husband do not find much joy in cooking.  I do try occasionally to work on this problem and to turn my weakness into hopefully someday a strength.  Over the years I have found a few things that I am able to cook/bake/prepare without too many problems.

Those items would include but are not limited to:

• Chicken crescent bundles
• Crock-pot roast
• Homemade from scratch Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo 
• Chicken Stir-fry

And just this week I have added two new dishes to this list:

• Baked Eyeballs Casserole
• Au Gratin Potato's

Nathan informed me that my eyeball casserole is good enough that I should make it the next time my family braves the hour long drive up to visit us for dinner. 
Tonight's experiment of homemade Au Gratin potato's is currently in the oven as I type this and I hope that it turns out at least edible.  Wish us luck tonight as we try it!

Happy Tuesday!!!