Days 5 thru 13

5th Day:

6th day:

7th day:

Here's us eating our cookies...

using caveman spoons, our fingers!

8th day: 

a Yogi Bear movie.

9th day:

a really fun activity sticker book and a "family talk" subject card game.

10th day:

Christmas Oranges movie.

We watched this movie on Sat after Christmas, then 2 kids gave primary

talks relating to the movie.

Haha, same talk: one junior primary, then one senior primary.

11th day:

macadamia nuts covered in chocolate!

Kams loved them.

So did Kashton. Here he is begging me for more.....

12th day: 

For some reason, my kids thought they got to share those mint Milanos.

I say: they get the movie and the popcorn and the music cd...

I get the cookies..... 

13th day: 

a big note that said not to open it till Christmas Day:

homemade whole wheat pretzel bread,

See's candy was to die for (never had the mints before),

a wooden checker box that has suitcase hinge closure and wooden checkers,

Kams was thrilled for the colorful dice and the dinger bell in the Bunco, me not so much,

connect 4 travel game.

I don't know how we didn't get any repeats of games or movies,

and lots of treats we've never tried before,

The kids had a blast getting something everyday.

The items usually came around 10:30 at night after we turned off the street lights lol.

Days 1 thru 4....

Day 1: soft cozy blanket. 

I had no idea what was going on...

2nd day of Christmas: 

Mr. Potato Head full of potato heads was a major hit, and still is.

Kamarie's favorite thing to do in the nursery.

Fruit by the foot is my kids favorite thing to sneak out of the pantry.

Kams loves to play Hedbanz. She just LOVES to tell people what they are...:) 

3rd day:

Kyson was especially excited since he had just been there to see the lights at the temple.

4th day:

Super cute books.

I LOVE look-alike books...

That's all for now...

I need to download

my card to get the rest.

It WORKS!!!!!!

I put up my "Let It Snow" sign, 

and within an hour, it started SNOWING!

It took me a stinkin' month, 

 but here it is.....

Those aren't dots on the sign post, they are inch increments to measure the snow...

just in case.

I have not tried these, BUT

it is the buzz in my neighborhood and apparently worth doing visiting teaching to get your hands on the recipe...lol

Let me know if they are worth the buzz.

Rolo Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Unwrap approximately 48 Rolo candies and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl add:

½ c. butter                                                  1 c. brown sugar

½ c. shortening                                           1 c. white sugar

cream the above ingredients until smooth.

Add:  2 tsp. vanilla                                      2 eggs

Mix until well blended.

Add following dry ingredients:

2 ½ c. flour                                                  ¾ c. cocoa

½ tsp. salt                                                   1 tsp. baking soda

Mix until combined well.  You may have to use your hands a bit.

Using approx. a tablespoon of dough, wrap the dough around a Rolo, covering the candy completely.  Repeat until all Rolos are used.  Place Rolo-wrapped dough balls on baking sheet, 2 inches apart. 

Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the tops of cookies are just beginning to set.  (Do not overbake or the caramel will harden when the cookie cools.)  Let cookies cool on pan for at least 3 minutes before eating; otherwise, the caramel will burn you.

Optional:  Melt some white chocolate chips in a baggie.  Cut a small hole in one corner and squeeze out a squiggle onto each cookie.

 Store cookies in an air-tight container with a piece of bread to keep cookies soft.

**Also works with bite-size Snickers or Milky Way Bars instead of Rolo’s!

This extra warmth is killing me!!

Never, since I have put up decor on my lawn in December have I had to WAIT this LONG to put out my decorations.

The lights are on the house, but the leaves are still in the trees!!!!!

For those of you who are undecorators, that means if I try to put up all my lawn ornaments and stake them down, I will have to rake leaves in and out and around the decorations and the strings when they finally do fall. So, I just wait till the trees are empty, clean it up, then decorate. (remember, I have A LOT  of lawn ornaments...)

PS. The weather has to get COLD enough to kill the leaves, then the weather has to BLOW them down--IN THAT ORDER!

The wind has blown an itty bit, but it blew before it got cold enough to kill the leaves.

December 9th and we still have 25% of the leaves still hanging on the trees.

Cold spell tomorrow night....we need WiND!! BRiNG IT!!!

Things I have learned today...

I LOVE my candle warmer.
It made a nice smooth candle out of my ugly messily unevenly burnt candle.
The fumes from the melting wax with a lighted wick burn my throat, and so far,
 the candle warmer has not burned my throat.
AND I can't wait to use it to keep my mug of hot chocolate warm when it finally cools off enough here to drink hot chocolate.


You'd think that since crusty honey softens and liquefies in the microwave that the bottom scrapings of the Nutella bottle would do the same.......I learned that I will NOT find out.
Let's just say that it's a good thing I was standing by the microwave "in case" I needed to put out a fire that started because of the teensy weensy microscopic piece of foil that was left on the rim of the jar.

I SUCK at cooking white beans with ham! I don't cook beans a lot because
Hubby is DEATHLY ALLERGIC TO BEANS! He would DIE if he ever had to eat one.
At least he said he would RATHER die than eat a bean.
Who knew all the water would cook off while I was gone to the store and the beans would burn.
HAHAHAHA now you know WHY I learned item number 1 !!!!!!!! lololol

I have exceeded my photo uploading limit

but I can upgrade on Picasa for more storage space for an amount of money. I don't know how much. I was too frustrated to read further.

They got me.

The trickery of that store, they got me!

I didn't read the fine print on Kohl's cash.

I didn't realize that Kohl's cash was NOT like real cash at all.

First, I spent $106 and earned $30 in K cash. ($15 for every $50 spent)

The regional manager who was working the register when I checked out asked if I wanted to

apply for a Kohl's card and save $20 off this purchase.

Normally, I am NOT going to get one. But $20 seemed worth my time of 5 minutes.

After it's all said and done, I only got $15 in K cash.

I asked the guy why, and he said that it took the $20 off before the total. 

I looked at him dumbfounded.

I felt like I was uninformed or even tricked.

I told him right there that I would never have signed up for only $5.

Twenty dollars off my purchase instead of $15 in cash back =$5.

Besides the fact that I could have gotten another $15 dress shirt, 

and gotten another $15 back in K. cash. So basically a free shirt!

I hate gimmicks so bad, and I avoid them as best I can, but Kohl's got me on this one.

Then, I went to get my favorite bra that no one else in town carries. I expected to pay $2 for it.

I cost me $7.

They got me again!

When you use Kohl's cash, it takes the price down to a new price before they give you the

15% off for applying for a Kohl's card.

So, I got 15% off of $9 instead of 15% off $24.

Lame.

Obviously, I only shop at Kohl's a couple of times a year.

Obviously, that stat is not going up any time soon.

Brain shut down has a name

It's called "micro sleeping".

I saw a blip on abc this morning that described it.

It is exactly my conversation with Hubby every trip home from Logan.

I call it "my brain shut down".

When I am driving late at night, I can tell when it's time to turn over the driving to

Hubby when the lights on the cars and lights on anything get distorted and turn into what looks like forks.

Our trips to Logan, however, I am sleep deprived before the trip even starts.

I can't fall to sleep till about 2 a.m. when we need to get up at 4 a.m.

Then we drive home the same day just 20 hours later.

Hubby and I will take turns driving home when someone gets too tired to continue.

I described my need to stop driving as "my brain shut down."

My eyes are still fine, no distortion with the lights, 

but I can't get the car to turn when it needs

to turn. My eyes are still open, but it's like I lose consciousness.

So, now that I saw that story on abc, I now know that it is called "micro sleeping."

It is the number one cause of accidents when people are driving tired.

Our last trip to Logan was a little different.

We took ALL the kids. 

We had our "connection" get us all tickets to the championship football game at 1 p.m.

and he also got us tickets to the basketball game at 7 p.m.

All for free.

After the basketball game, we did something we don't normally do: 

we took a nap in the game room of

Kyson's dorm house.

We didn't leave till midnight as usual,

but this trip, we were both out of safe driving skills by 4:00 a.m.

We were only to Beaver, so we checked in with our SDABUS

"Sleepy Driving Adults' Back-Up System."

His name is Koby, and he is 16!

He is normally up at that time everyday anyway going to swimming practice.

He was tired still too, but he was able to drive us home from Beaver.

I don't let my young drivers drive our whole family in the car on long trips

for several reasons:

It puts either Hubby or myself in the back with the pack.

The seats in the back don't recline.

The seats are a lot less comfortable.

I can't sleep in a car unless it is Hubby driving or my dad. 

(weird, I think it has to do with trust and feeling safe.

 I could never sleep on the school bus on long trips either.)

{I should probably note that I don't sleep well with Hubby driving either.

 I wake at every turn taken too fast, or every town with lights,

 or every wiggle wobble while passing another car,

 AND EVERY LANE CHANGE! Yes, I am yelling. 

I finally had to ask him to stop using the blinker every time he changed lanes 

when there was no one around to see the blinker. lol  It always wakes me up.}

If something happened, it would put a lot of guilt on a youngster.

There's too much (like 9 of us) at stake.

Kyson wanted to drive us up to Logan, but I wouldn't let him.

He felt under appreciated, especially when he found out that Koby drove home.

We are always in a hurry to get to Logan.

It always takes me longer to get stuff together than I thought.

I won't allow my teenagers to drive when there is intentional speeding involved.

:)

Besides, the price of insurance going up because of the speeding ticket

 just past Toquerville will be less for a 45 year old man,

 than it will for an 18 yr-old man. :)

PS. I sleep a lot better in the car now that I've figured out how to keep 

the lights from every town out of my eyes:

I use a headband that is designed to keep ears warm and pull it down over my eyes!