15 YEARS!!!!!

Wow!  It has been 15 years since I married my best friend! 

 What a wonderful adventure it has been!  

I can't wait for the next 15!

Annual Christmas Progressive Dinner

Every year for the past SEVERAL (like 6 or 7) years, a group of us have had a Christmas Progressive Dinner.  It changes a little each year but this year we had appetizers at one house, then main dish at 2 houses and then ended with dessert and games at another house.  I got to host the main dish this year which is always fun!  I get nervous about how to decorate the table and what to cook but I was really happy with how it turned out.

Here is my table - sorry there are lots of pictures but I wanted to show everything.

 The little tag said "Merry Christmas!"  I LOVED the snowflake ornaments as coasters!

 Part of why I liked my table this year is the decorations went so well with what I already had in my house.

 I also really liked that I didn't have to take the centerpieces off the table for everyone to see.

 Here is my new snowman Christmas tree that I did this year - it was in the corner so I had to take a picture of it!

 Now onto the food.  Two couples were assigned to do each main dish so my friend Melanie helped me.  She did the salad, drink and asparagus.  Here is the salad that she made - it was yummy (so I am told - I am not a salad or veggie person).

 This is the fancy mac-n-cheese I made - sounds silly but so YUMMY!  Definitely not Kraft mac-n-cheese!

 I tried a new recipe for rolls, a triple cheese roll.  I was worried how they would turn out so I made my normal rolls as well.

 We served dinner from the counter - loved how it turned out too but not a great picture of it.

 Here are the asparagus.

 I made Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri for the main dish - SO SO YUMMY!

The yummy drink - I need to find out how Mel made it!

 

Thanks to everyone that ate at my house - it was a great night!  And thanks to everyone that did all my dishes - that was AWESOME!  The whole night was so much fun!

     

Pumpkin Carving 2012

We did FINALLY carve pumpkins - of course it was the night before Halloween but we did do it!  I had planned on just the big 3 carving pumpkins but the little 3 INSISTED on carving pumpkins as well.  

 Matthew had fun STABBING his pumpkin!

 Dallin had a great time with all of it!

 Gavin is almost to the point where he can carve his pumpkin by himself.

 Kesley sure wishes she could do it by herself!

 Cameron didn't mind getting help!  Luckily I had 3 little pumpkins for the little 3!

 Gavin puts on a smile but he HATE cleaning out the pumpkin guts - he almost threw-up a couple of times.

 Getting help from Daddy!

 What a cute bunch of kiddos - and Ed of course!

 I even helped carve the little 3 pumpkins - but if you ask them, only Daddy helped!

 Daddy is much better at carving pumpkins than I am - and I am okay with that!

Cameron told me what he wanted for each part of his jack-o-lantern.  He wanted circles for eyes.  A square for the nose and a happy mouth - that I had to draw first and get his approval on.

 Brecken had me draw his first - he had to have a HAPPY jack-o-lantern.  I was okay with that - I like happy and NOT scary!

 Kesley also had me draw hers first - she wanted all triangles!

 The little 3 were so proud of themselves! 

 Do you like the knife sticking out of Matthew's!

 Gavin LOVED his!

 The headless Dallin!

 Here is Brecken with his 2 pumpkins - one painted and one carved!  I wish I got a picture of all 6 with all their pumpkins.  Oh well.  There is always next year!

We Do Dress Up for Halloween!

Ed and I never use to dress up for Halloween but for the last couple of years we have dressed up to go to one of our friend's Halloween parties - and it has been a LOT of fun!  

This year we went as Shaggy and Daphne!

Here are the fun little treats I took to the party - mummy brownies!  I baked the brownies in cupcake pans - no liners, just sprayed with PAM.  I put a big scoop in each hole and baked for 15 minutes (I wanted edges to be crisp so they would come out).  I let the pans cool for maybe 10 minutes (I should have paid more attention to how long) and then ran a knife around the edges and they all popped out.  Then I put a stripe of frosting on each one and set the candy eyes (that I bought at Target) on them and then put more stripes of frosting on each one.  I thought they turned out to be pretty cute - and super simple!

13 Years (yesterday) and Counting!

April 24, 1998

Yesterday was our 13 year anniversary! Since it was Easter and we have 6 little ones, that trumped our celebrating - but that is okay (we did manage to take a picture of the two of us). What better way to spend our anniversary than with our kids!

April 24, 2011