TRYING TO GET A CHRISTMAS PIC

I wanted the kids to come to my work so we could get a Christmas pic for our Christmas Cards. The only day Ashley could come down was today so I said just come to my work and we'll stand in front of the tree. Mikell and Zach brought Boston and we snapped a few photos. I loved the one of Ashley and Boston. Mikell put Boston in his WRANGLERS and his COWBOY SHIRT. He is such a cutie!

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture. Here's Boston's cute little butt in his Wrangler Jeans and his Rodeo Champion onesie!!

BURN BABY BURN!

Last night I received a picture via cell phone from one of Ashley's friends, Erica. It was of Ashley in a hospital bed with her arm wrapped up. I was like WHAT??? Ashley was at work and she was doing the AUTOCLAVE (that's how they sanitize the Vet's Instruments) anyway, the timer went off and usually the door will not open until the temperature goes down and the PSI drops to a safe level. Well, when she opened the door the STEAM burn her whole FOREARM! I couldn't believe it when I saw it! I called her and asked if she need me to go up to Logan and she said no, she had Lytton and Erica to take care of her. It was pretty painful for her but she has a pretty HIGH PAIN TOLERANCE!

Today she came down and I met her at WorkMed and when we pulled off the bandage you should have seen the BLISTER! Poor Baby Girl! She is such a TOUGH girl! She said it hasn't hurt much at all today thank goodness. We have to go back to the Doctor when the BLISTER pops. These pictures don't do it justice but take a look at her poor arm!

HURRICANE WINDS

We were warned that we would have some pretty strong EAST WINDS with gust about 60 MPH at times...well what we got was 90-102 MPH WINDS in DAVIS COUNTY!! It was SO SCARY driving to work. I had both hands on the wheel and felt my car shaking and thought it was going to flip over. Once I got to work Cyndi and Lesa pulled up and they were totally FREAKED OUT! Trees were down, the new building behind ours was fallen over, and debris was flying everywhere! We had a difficult time opening the doors to get in. Lesa's husband, Tom had to get out of his truck to help us open the door so we could all get  in. We weren't very happy that our boss made us come in. The winds were INSANE! We have to be to work at 7:00 am. The rest of the building comes in at 8:00. Everyone kept calling saying they weren't coming in. The POWER kept going on and off and we were told to not turn on our computers. So why did we have to stay? We can't help the public without computers and who would be stupid enough to come in on a day like this???  Well, many of our co-workers had trees topple on top of their homes, windows were blown out, and semi's were tipped over and traffic lights were all over the ground and people were being blown over. It was CRAZY! I have NEVER been in weather quite like this. I called my neighbor and he told me that my PINE TREE in my front yard FELL OVER and I was lucky it didn't land on my house. My FENCE in the backyard BLEW OVER, my SIDING on the side of my house FLEW AWAY, my BARBECUE  GRILL got  thrown across my deck and it ripped off the FRONT DOORS and my LIGHTS ON MY GARAGE got tore apart! My front window on Zach's bedroom window was broken and flew apart. I was stressed about my tree and how I was going to clean it all up because Zach was is Vegas but by the time I got home my WONDERFUL NEIGHBORS had the tree chopped up and hauled away! Our neighborhood looked like a WAR ZONE! It was so SAD to see all of the damage. By 7:00 pm the men in my ward had cut up and hauled every tree out and had cleaned up the neighborhood. I am SO BLESSED to have such wonderful neighbors, and I feel so BLESSED that my tree didn't land on my house! My neighbor took pics of my tree but I haven't received them yet. I will post them when I get them but here are some other pics of this WINDY DAY!

 Seriously hanging on and totally getting blown over. Not even kidding. It was so crazy!

                            Everyone's hair looked like this after being outside for just a few seconds!

 Where my tree once stood! The roots were wrapped around sprinklers! :(  Poor tree...I already miss it!

                                                       One portion of my broken fence!

 This was taken from my car window. It's my neighbors house. He lost a lot of trees! This is what all of Kaysville looked like. It was horrible!

Another view of my neighbors side yard!

 Remember how we set up for 4th of July Parade under one of these trees? Hmmm...how am I going to tell you where the blankets will be set up now? 19 trees down on this one stretch sidewalk!

                                       Again, trees that we sat under for the Kaysville Parade
The golf course by our house lost over 400 trees, Oakridge Country Clublost over 200 and Valley ViewGolf Course lost over 200 trees.

CATCH PHRASE

Ashley came down from Logan on Sunday night with her new friend, Lytton. We all played Catch Phrase and had a great time together. I love playing games and I really liked Lytton. It was so good to see Ashley. I hadn't seen her for awhile and was missing her. We all had a fun time together.

Lytton said he loves to play games and that he usually dominates....I told him to bring it on! He was good and he and Zach won! I was impressed.

Zach trying to think of how to describe his word

Ashley trying to spit the words out fast enough!

Kell giving clues

We all had fun and we all did good. I was lucky because I got to be on both teams to make it even so no matter how you play the game...I WIN! HA! HA!

NICK'S WEDDING

Tonight was Nick's wedding. He is Mikell's older brother. I LOVE NICK! He is such a fun guy! He married a cute girl named Sam. They had their reception at the Farmington Community Center. Here are a few pics of Zach, Kell and Boston:

               Bubsy had a long, long day! He is out cold! He looked so handsome in his pin striped suit!

                                                         Bubsy and Mommy!

                                                        Bubsy and Daddy!                     

                                                           Rachel loves her Uncle Zach

TURKEY TIME

Thanksgiving was so different this year! Hardly anyone showed up for dinner! We had it at Mom's but Debbie and all of her family went to St George to have dinner with Erin, Ashley was up in Logan working, Zach and Mikell were at Beckstead's, Diane was sick, Dad and Mona were in the Philippean's and Jan and Scott's kids weren't there either! So it was just me, Steven, Grandma, Andy, Mom, Ray and Jan and Scott. It was great though! The food was delish and it was fun to catch up with Scott and Jan and hear all about their trip to Hawaii. I really enjoyed myself but then....

After dinner  (well we ate at 1:00, so I guess lunch,) we went home and I sat home all afternoon and evening and got so depressed! I cried all night long cuz I missed not being with my kids. It was just awful! All night I had a pity party and thought this was the worst Thanksgiving I have ever had! I hated being all alone on Thanksgiving!! I feel so bad for anyone who has to spend the holidays alone! Normally I wouldn't mind being alone, I've been alone for a long time now, but since it was a holiday it really effected me I guess. Stupid huh? I cried so hard my eyes were so puffy the next day I couldn't go out in public till about 1:00 in the afternoon! And I sported a headache all day long!
Zach and Kell spent the night at Beckstead's so they could get in line for Black Friday with Brandon so it was a LONG, LONELY NIGHT! I should have just stayed with my mom. Hopefully next year will be better! Sorry for the downer but just tellin' it like it is :)

                                                         Mom made a superb meal!

 

                                                                 Grandma...97 years old!

                                                                 Making the gravy!

                                                             Andy, Scott and Jan

                                        Ray is SO SWEET! Every year he does all the dishes!

                                      Steven in his "Thanksgiving Surprise" handing out his Christmas cards!

BIRTHDAY BOWLING

Steven loves to bowl. So me, Zach and Mikell took him BOWLING for his BIRTHDAY!  We had SO much fun! Steven was SO FUNNY when he would get a STRIKE! He would do this little STRUT and then throw his thumb over his shoulder while walking away from the pins like, "take a look at that!" It was HILARIOUS! We all knew that we had better beat him or we would never hear the end of it. Zach almost won him but...then he got a GUTTER BALL and Steven died laughing. He has called me every day since saying why did Zach's ball go in the gutter? and then he threw another and it went in the gutter! Why Punky? Aha hahaha....we'll hear about that for the rest of Zach's life! :)  Steven bowled pretty good. He got 164. He strutted around like he was all that when he got two strikes in a row and then he'd pound his chest. Hilarious!He couldn't believe it when Mikell got a TURKEY! (3 strikes in a row!) He then said, "you're a turkey! Can I eat your leg?"  Only Steven! We had so much fun with Steven and when I was driving him home he kept saying, "This is the best b-day I have ever had Punky!"  That made my whole night!

                   He would only let Zach take this pic of him if he could kneel down and pose like this!

            Steven would pound his chest whenever he'd bowl a double strike. What a character!

                                                                Yeah! I got a strike...finally!

                                                                            Zachary!

                                 Bubsy was so good the whole night. He loved all of the neon lights!

                                                                  Zach, Kell and Boss Man!

STEVEN'S 54TH BIRTHDAY!

Steven turned 50 on Nov. 21st. Mom, Grandma, Deb, Jess and Brody joined us for cake and ice cream. Steve was so happy that his cake said "Happy Birthday Zombie Steve!"  We had a great time together. Of course Steve had his SECRET SURPRISE! He donned a new COSTUME. This time he was a "MORTAL COMBAT" character. He was so thrilled to hold Boston and was really cute with him.

                                                 Steven...aka...Mortal Combat and Boston

                               Zach and Jessica....she finds out in a few days the sex of her baby!!

                                                                    Mikell and Jessica

                                               Boston loved Brody! What kid doesn't??

                                                Mortal Combat in full costume!

 Debbie with Boston. He got so hot we had to take his cute little hoody off. He has started drooling alot so maybe he's starting to teethe?

                                    It took Steve a few tries to blow out all of the candles! It would help if he took the mask off!  Just kiddin' he did, but then immediately had to put it back on! (That is a horrible pic of me!!)

PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES

I have been wanting to make these NUMMY cookies for over a month. I finally found the time to try them out. These are DELICIOUS! They are PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES WITH CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!!!  You have to put the batter in a cake decorating bag and pipe it into a circle like a CINNAMON ROLL. They don't get wider only a little taller. You then put the cinnamon cream cheese frosting in the middle of 2 cookies and wala...you have a Pumpkin Whoopie Cookie!
These just might be my new favorite FALL TREAT! I really think you need to make these instead of Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Bars. They are that good!!

 Pipe the batter on your cookie sheet so it looks like a Cinnamon Roll starting in the middle and working your way out.

OK, so do you want the recipe? You NEED THIS RECIPE. They are so moist and super delicious!!
Here it is:
Mix 3 C Flour
1 T Cinnamon
1t Baking Soda
1t Baking Powder
1t Ground Ginger
1/2 t Salt
1/2 t Ground Nutmeg
1/2 t Ground Cloves

1 C Brown Sugar
1 C Sugar
1 C Vegetable Oil
1-15 oz Can of Pumpkin
2 Large Eggs
1 t Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat together brown sugar, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs, then vanilla. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Slow incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Using a pastry bag with a round tip squeeze out circles of batter starting from the middle and working otward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter. Bake 11 min. and cool on a rack.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:
1-8 oz pkg Cream Cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1-16 oz pkg Powdered Sugar ( I used like an extra cup than what this called for)
1 capful of Vanilla
A pinch of Cinnamon to taste ( I added way more than a pinch!)

Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Frost flat side of half the cookies and top with another piece. Enjoy right away or chill overnight.

Let me know if you try these and what you think of them!