Halloween Party

Every year Craig's sister Sheila, throws a giant family Halloween party. She started the tradition with her husband, Mike, whose favorite holiday was Halloween, and after he died she continued the tradition and now does it with Sherry. It is a huge event and the kids look forward to it all year!

This year Becky and Monte's son, Ryan, was getting baptised and so we got to go up for the baptism and go to the halloween party. Carrie and Allen donated their house and we had a BASH!! There was even a super haunted house in the basement!

The donught eating contest was so funny. Even the little kids took a turn. The most fun to watch were the "big boys"!

One of the big hits of the night was the new karaoke machine. Everyone sang and it was so much fun. The 80's hits really got the older crew going. The kids sand Hanna Montana and High School Musical 3. Even those who said they were not going to sing were eventually belting it out. It was great fun!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. We especially enjoyed having John McCain and Sarah Palin join us!

Cookie Class

I taught a cookie decorating class at my house today and it was so much fun. Instead of using decorating bags I put the icing in Wilton squirt bottles. We outlined each cookie and waited about five minutes for the outline to dry. After it is dry you "flood" the inside with frosting. It was very easy and the cookies looked great! Even the kids did a marvelous job. Here are a few pictures of our finished products.




This is Aaron's cookie. Yes, there is a cookie in there!

For those of you that are interested, here is the recipe for the icing:

1 2lb bag powdered sugar (spprox 7 1/2 cups)
2 Tbsp meringue powder
1 tsp vanilla
3/4- 1 cup of water

Mix the powdered sugar, the meringue powder, the vanilla and 3/4 cup of water. Add the last 1/4 cup of water slowly, until the frosting is the right consistency. When you lift the beaters from the icing the drips should slowly disappear into the surface.

When the frosting is done, pour it into the bottles using a measuring cup. Add some cake frosting color and stir with a knife. When you are done you can just put the lid on and stick it in the fridge to use later--I love it!

I'm at Carrie's House

Here's a short post from my sister-in-law Carrie's house. We came up for my nephew Ryan's baptism and had our annual Halloween party. Lots of fun--pictures to come.

Favorites

These are my two new favorite sayings:

"You can never get enough of something that you don't need."

"Wanting less fells better than having more."

Both true for me!

Just Wondering

Do you notice that in almost every picture I post Adam is wearing his football jersey? Just in case you did, and you were grossed out, I do wash it!

You would be so proud of me!

I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my stupid computer--none of my pictures would upload. Then, all by myself I figured it out. Turns out, it wasn't stupid computer, it was stupid me!

Family Fun

Last week Craig's sister, Becky, and her family came to see us. We had a really great time with them! We always love it when they come down. Becky and Monte have four children. Courtney is 12 and she and Megan are the best of friends. Nicole is 10 and she and Keri have a great time together. Ryan and Adam are only about 4 months apart in age and Kyle is 4. The boys always have a great time together and this visit was no exception.

On Friday we had a great day trip to Los Alamos. Craig had to work, Tori was in Colorado at a band competition with Amie and my mom, and Katie had to go to school so it was just Megan, Keri, Adam, Aaron and Me. Craig's dad works in Los Alamos and so it was fun to go see where he works. Everything he does is super classified so we couldn't even really see the building that he works in but we got the idea of the drive he makes everyday and the proximity of his office, (he drives 1 1/2 hours each way to and from work).

The first thing that we did was go to the Atomic Museum. The Atomic Museum tells all about the first nuclear bombs and how they were made. I was not that excited, I mean learning about a bomb that killed so many people is really not up my alley. I soon changed my mind, however, and decided it was a wonderful place to go! I would even really like to go back without my kids so that I could read everything there.

We went to a movie about Los Alamos. It talked about how Los Alamos came to be, (it was a secret city during the war, set up to try to make the bomb and end the war). They talked about how many scientists, including Albert Einstein, wrote President Roosevelt and begged him to do research in this area so that the war could end. I loved that their goal was ultimitaly to save lives!

The museum also talked about all the advances that have been made as a result of nuclear power. It had a great kids room with hands on activities. All of the exhibits has computers you could work on to help you understand the science behind the exhibit. It was really cool!

After we left the museum we went to Bandelier. It was perfect weather, (70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky) and a perfect time of year, (lots of green, yellow and red leaves, beautiful blue sky). We had a delicious lunch by the river and then hiked to the ruins. Bandelier is National Monument full of native american cave dwellings. You can hike up to them and go inside to see what the native americans lived like many years ago. There are also Indian Ruins on the ground that you can see. We all had a great time.

We drove home through the Jemez mountains where we saw several deer and other wildlife. It was a gorgeous drive home!! The perfect ending to the perfect day!