Halloween FHE

Last Monday (10/22) we invited one of our couples friends Matt and Sadie over for Family Home Evening. We carved pumpkins, ate pumpkin cake (the recipe that I posted previously), drank hot caramel apple cider (that was DELICIOUS! Thanks Sadie), and made pumpkin seeds! We also played the Wii for a while. We had such a fun time! Thanks for coming over Matt and Sadie!
Here is the four of us CARVING away!
Matt being silly and Sadie showing her jack-o-lantern concept
C & C showing our skills
This is Craig's GOOFY pumpkin (not Disney Goofy...just silly goofy)

Here is my finished product...I don't know if you can really tell but it is a PICASO Pumpkin! So everything is askew! I dunno...something different!
Sadie with her silly pumpkin
And Matt with his INTENSE clock pumpkin! What is funny is that he was the one that when we started he didn't really want to do it and didn't have any idea's and then he came up with the most unique idea and and idea that would take the longest to carve! but it was really cool! Nice work Matt!

Craig and Sadie playing the Wii while Matt is STILL carving his pumpkin!
When Matt was FINALLY done carving then him and Sadie played the Wii...Sadie is basically ducking b/c Matt was getting so into it and almost hit her a few times.

I played the Wii too but when you are the photographer you don't always get in the pictures.

Anyway it was so much fun! Hope we can get together again!

no posts

Hey all...I have been trying to post stuff for a few days but ever time I try to load pictures it says there is an ERROR or that they can't load them right now...try again in 30 seconds! But it still never works. SORRY I have a few things to post but I haven't gotten it to work yet. Check back soon!

Salt Lake Sunday

On Sunday in the morning I woke up a little before Craig and wanted to make him some breakfast...I was going to make pancakes from scratch but then I realised I didn't have any syrup and thinking back to making syrup how it's basically all sugar I thought I could make that too until I realized that I needed Maple flavoring!!! So I called my parents to double check and then my dad told me that Mom had made Popeye Pancakes for them so I decided to copy them. So Here are my Popeye Pancakes before they cooled (that's my favorite part about them...that they get all tall and crazy first).
After Breakfast and getting ready for church we walked over to the church (as usual) but the doors where locked and all the lights were out in the church!!! We then realized that it was stake conference. So we walked back home and got into our car and drove over to temple square. We didn't know what time it started b/c we were both out of town last Sunday and missed the announcement. Anyway long story short we asked some people and it hadn't started yet...we were just on time. It was held in the Assembly Hall at Temple Square. It was neat...except they were having problems with the sound system so we really didn't hear much of the speakers.

After Conference we decided to drive out to see the GREAT SALT LAKE! We have never been before (well I sort of went once for a YW thing but we didn't go down to the water...we were just at the Salt Air). So it was fun. We went down to the "Marina" which is so tiny! We walked down to the water and we even put our finger in it and then licked our fingers to see just how salty it was...and WHOOO-EEE is it salty!

So as we are in the parking lot looking down at the shoreline we see all this white stuff and we both say "SALT" and we were talking about how we should have brought zip-lock bags for salt and then when we get down there,.,.

Come to find out it's just BUBBLES!This area looked like a little Jacuzzi it was a small enclosed area with rocks and a bunch of bubbles...it made me really miss the hot tub at our old complex.
I had fun taking pictures of all the suds. I don't know why I was so fascinated with them...but they were so pure and white.
Here is my cute boy with the snowy mountains behind him. It is like winter here already. I hate it. It should not be snowing!!!!
All in all it was a fun little adventure!

Pumpkin CAKE Recipe

Here is the recipe to to my Great Aunt Kathleen 's Pumpkin Dessert:

1 lrg. can pumpkin (28 oz.)
3 eggs
1 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger (optional)
1/2 tsp. allspice (optional)
1 Package yellow or white cake mix
1 cube butter

Mix together all ingredients EXCEPT CAKE AND BUTTER. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the dry cake mix on top of pumpkin mixture. Melt butter and drizzle on top of cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 Minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, cool whip, or VANILLA ICE CREAM!!!

Creative Team

As you all know I digital scrapbook and one of Tara's friends designs digital scrapbooking elements. She has amazing stuff and she put a call out recently that she wanted to put together a design team (which is a team of scrap bookers that have access to the all of the designers products and does layouts for them and posts them on website gallery's like advertisements and to show people what you can do with their products). So anyway, there was a challenge to post some of your layouts on gallery's and she would choose who she wanted on her team. Well long story short I am now a part of Jacque Larsen's DESIGN TEAM!!!

Here is a layout that I did with her collaborative kit called Scared Silly that she did with Dani Mogstad
This is a layout that I did with Jacque's Pumpkin Pumpkin and Chunky Alphabet Soup elements.
Borderline, Cowboy Up, Don't Date Me, Fun Frames
Those are the links for her elements that I used on my Santa Barbara Rodeo page

It's so much fun to be on her design team and Tara is on it too!!!! Anyway...fun times!
Here is a link to one of my gallery's too

Craig's new TOY!!!

Yesterday we received the new desktop computer that Craig ordered about a week ago. Our old desktop was getting really slow so Craig has been looking for weeks at new computers online and in stores. He finally found a sweet deal on a Dell with a 24" WIDE SCREEN monitor. We didn't need that large of a monitor but it was a good deal and Craig really wanted it so whatever. He has been so excited about it coming and is now having fun playing with it and getting it all set up.

I asked to take a picture and he put on his "heck ya...check this out" face Then I asked for a normal one
And one of him playin'
It's a really nice computer and it has Windows Vista and all kinds of cool stuff. And OH MY GOSH the screen is ginormous!!! When Craig first showed me I was SHOCKED! When you are sitting in front of it and have something maximized in the screen you can't even see the whole thing. It's crazy!@!

What I do

I thought I would share some of what I do at work and school....as you all know I have a new job...I am an assistant designer there. My duties include helping walk in customers, pricing out new inventory and putting it in the register, designing the floor (and keeping it that way), and helping with client projects/going on client meetings/pulling fabrics, furniture, etc for client projects.

A few nights ago I was working on clearing out the floor...the store had gotten extremely cluttered and you couldn't even see all of the great products that we sell so I spent the evening (i was working a closing shift) cleaning up the floor...re-organizing things and making it look pretty! I was so excited with what I did that I took a few pictures of what I rearranged. Here they are:

in both of these pictures (above and below) you couldn't even walk into these groupings (they are across from eachother). It was crazy...stuff everywhere but it's getting better by the day and we have sold a lot more products since we've cleaned up the clutter and put are up on the wall etc.
This table was covered with lamps and all kinds of stuff!!! You couldn't even see that there was a beautiful table underneath. Now you can see the beauty!
At school I'm constantly doing PROJECTS! Let me tell you it gets old...I'm so over school (I know we've all been there). But here is a project that I did (the one I was working on in the previous post). So you know a little about what you are looking at...we had to design a waiting room for a co. that sold medical products. We were giving the floorplan and we had to design a custom desk for the receptionist (that is what the elevations are). We of course had to pick out all the furniture and finishes and do the space planning.
I was going for a kind of Feung Shui feeling by bringing in the elements (metal, earth, water, plants, etc.)

Anyway....those two things take up a lot of my time....then I also tutor AutoCAD a lot too. Crazy life running around workin'

Enchilada Pie

Per many requests here is the recipe for the enchilada pie that I made.

Ingredients:
Ground beef or turkey
chopped olives
red enchilada sauce
grated cheese
corn tortilla's

How to:
Preheat oven to 350. Then just cook up some ground beef or turkey in some taco seasoning. Drain and set aside. Get out 9x9 or 13x9 inch glass pan. Put corn tortilla's across the bottom of pan, then meat, cheese, olives, and sauce. Keep layering like a lasagna until full. Top off layer with tortilla's cheese, olives, and sauce. Place in oven at 350 for about 30minutes or until fully cooked. (really you are just heating everything up but there is a point where everything is perfectly melted together).