Tis The Season to be Jolly

Dalton and I have had a fun week ramping up our Christmas baking and enjoying our Christmas decorations and of course our new Christmas Tree.




When we went to put up our Christmas tree this year we found that a 9 ft. tree won't work in a house with 8 foot ceilings. Arin and I went on a hunt for a perfect Christmas tree and found one! Now we have a cute 7 1/2 ft. tree with lots of colorful lights!





Now as far as baking goes, this year I made my traditional cherry cordial cookies:

1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 3/4 c. Flour
1 1/2 c. Butter
1/2 t. Almond Oil
Combine


Place the dough in your cookie press using a flower shaped disc.
Press cookies onto the cookie sheet 1" apart from each other.
Place half a marachino cherry in the center of each cookie.
Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes
Drizzle melted milk chocolate on top and sprinkle with toasted sliced almonds.
I realized this year that I have been making these for seven years! They are a crowd pleaser. :)



So my new need to try them treat for this year are Cake Truffles. I have made two kinds so far but the possabilities are endless!

These are my new Pecan Spice Cake Truffles:

1 Spice Cake Mix (bake as directed)
1 Container Cream Cheese Frosting

Crumbel the baked cake and mix in the frosting.
Form the mixture into balls and dip in melted white chocolate.
Finish with a sprinkle of chopped pecans and Christmas colored sugars.

Finally we have these scrumptious Chocolate Peppermint Cake Truffles:1 Chocolate Fudge cake mix (mix in 1/2 t. peppermint oil and bake as directed)
Crumble the baked cake and mix in 1 container Fudge Frosting(I also put 1/2 t. peppermint oil into the frosting before mixing it with the crumbled cake.)
Form the mixture into balls and dip in melted milk chocolate.
Sprinkle with your favorite holiday sprinkles and presto...Delicious and adorable holiday treats!

I hope your holiday season is fun and family filled as ours has been so far! Have a very happy baking, decorating, shopping and celebrating season!!

Halloween Fun

Halloween Weekend Events

Costumes Gallore!!

My sister made us Jello worms that looked disgusting but tasted delicious! I can now say that I have eaten worms! Thanks for that Tara!

We decorated Halloween cupcakes. These are a few that Dalton did.

The Princess and her Knight in Shining Armor:

I asked Dalton what we should be for Halloween and this is what he came up with! Fun Fun!

This cake was adorable and delicious if I do say so myself!! :)

We participated in a couple of parties and went trick or treating of course! It was a super fun holiday for us this year!

M&M's mmmmm...Yummy!

There is nothing like a rainy afternoon with cousins! Especially when you get to have M&M's at snacktime! Ethan is enjoying them so much that he is completely distracted from the camera and Meleah is giving me the "Hello!! Are you ever going to give me more??" look. Oh wait, this is just her typical camera face...he he!! Candice we just love our serious little lady!!

Jayden and Lydia are showing off their smiles and their delicious sweets. Jayden's smile will knock your socks off every time and Lydias pink flowers are just adorable!!

Oh man, here is trouble! Carter has M&M eyes and that face Dalton! It is clear that you are up to no good! It was so much fun having the cousins over for a visit this week! Thanks Tara, Candice and Rachel for coming out.

A few more Brownies

Bonita Janana

Rachie Baby

Gorgeous Gals!

Kiddies!!

The Brown Family

Cari and Roger

Candice and Randall

My cute Parents!!

Steve and Jessica

Tara and Jay

Ben and Taryn

What a group we have these days!! This is everyone except Cari and Rogers, Derek. It was so much fun wrangling the kids and we really did get some awesome shots!

New Pictures

Dalton and I got our pictures taken when the whole family was in town.

This park in Draper was such a nice setting!

Dalton is seven and decided to make as many crazy faces as he possibly could but gratefully we ended up with a few pictures that I can put up in our new house.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Dalton loved the fountain in the front.

My little crazy man playing by the tents.

Arin, Dalton and I enjoyed the beautiful afternoon at the open house.

The temple is beautiful of course. It is so neat that we have been able to go to two temple open houses this year! What a blessing!

Easter in Henderson

I have had every intention of posting some of our Easter adventures on my blog since April! Here are some fun pictures that I have from our weekend at mom's house in Henderson.





My little brother Ben made the cool swords for our Easter egg hunt. They were a hit! The kids spent time doing crafts and coloring, blowing bubbles and having a vicious water gun fight!





It was such a great weekend and was the first time in a long time that our entire family was in Henderson. With 20 grandkids and families in Salt Lake and Henderson we cherish these times that we get to be together!

Kitchen Before Pictures

This mop will be lucky to be alive by the time the next two weeks are over! =0)

Actually I should have the opposite feelings for the poor mop! It has been my aide in cleaning up so much dust...spider webs...even dead spiders! Yuck!! I know!! I am living it!! =0)

Dalton's room is ready for primer and I can't wait to get back to Salt Lake so that I can finish it.

I look forward to the day when the painting and the detailed cleaning in the house is done.

The Kitchen is almost done! This mop picture showes a little corner of the kitchen and into the washroom of the house. I am putting one other picture on this post that shows the lovely wallpaper that we worked for days to remove. It also shows the bright peach paint found under the wallpaper. I am excited to have an after picture! That will be coming soon! =0)

Dalton and I are in Henderson, NV. for the weekend with the family so our work on the house is on hold for a few days. I will enjoy the small break and be back to busy as ever again next week.

Work Work Work!!

You are all going to have to be patient with me as far as pictures go. I have been taking some and will be posting them shortly. This past weekend was spent putting primer on the walls in the kitchen. Today I will be doing primer in Dalton's room and then tomorrow if all goes well we will be painting! The loan is supposed to close on Thursday so we are all very excited! I am hoping to be mostly moved and set up by the end of next Monday! That will be quite a task considering that we are spending Easter Weekend in Henderson! (I will have pictures for that soon also!)

House Exciting!!

This fall we said farewell to our dear Grandpa Jensen. We had no idea then that our loss would bring such a change in our lives. Over the holidays Rhonda and I joked about buying grandpas house together. Well, when both of us seriously sat down and thought about it we decided it was a really good idea. For months Rhonda worked to set things up with a loan and our first answer was no. We were devastated! Well, I am happy to announce that the final answer is yes! We will be buying Grandpa Jensens house! Dalton and I have been hard at work pulling down wallpaper with Aunt Rhonda and Arin. It is quite a job! I am hoping to get some pictures and post more as we work through setting up and repairing the house. One post that will be coming soon is Dalton's garden that he and I have been working on. All of us are so excited to have our new place! I love this picture of Dalton. It is from a few years ago when we were visiting Grandpa Jensen. I am so excited that this special place will be a big part of our future! We hope that all of the family will be able to enjoy this place, that is so full of memories, for many years to come.