Sunday, October 31, 2010

May the Force Be With You


Star Wars Family - The Clone Wars


Darth-Tater attacks, R2D2 is down!


Don't mess with the force!!!


Carlie showing off her Ahsoka makeup


How did R2D2 get a light saber?


The CUTEST R2D2 in the galaxy



Ahsoka...cutest Padawan this side of the Jedi Temple


Carlie & Claire....super cute cousins

I HATE when Halloween is on Sunday. Luckily this year our ward put on a great party on Saturday. We went to an orchard and had an apple squeeze, chili-cookoff (I was one of the winners), fishing, & a trunk or treat. It was such a great time.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Carlie is sooo old..Where has the time gone?



My baby girl turned six last month. I can't believe it. I usually do extravagent birthday parties for my children, but this year I went mellow. I am too stressed out and busy this school year. Anyways, we had a nice family dinner of Carlie's favorite enchiladas and southwest eggrolls. Her cake was a store bought ice cream cake (I have NEVER done a store bought cake, but again, remember stressed out working mom). The blue frosting made everyone's tongue turn blue, hence the picture with the kids sticking their tongues out.

Carlie's favorite presents were her dragon and Scooby Doo Wii game. **Interesting Fact: Carlie is 4 foot 7 inches and wears a size 4 or 5 (yeah that is adult size)

Friday, October 8, 2010

Zombie Gina




Posted by PicasaI am a high school teacher. We had dress up days for homecoming week. I LOVE to dress up. One of the days they had Generations Day.

Freshmen = babies

Sophmores = toddlers

Junior = Adults

Seniors = Senior Citizens

Teachers = Zombies

As you can see I am quite the zombie. I looked even better at school because I ripped up an old lab coat and goggles. I said I died from teaching 9th grade science. Plus I tried to stay in character as much as possible all day long. Lots of grunting and weird walking.

SOOOOO FUN!!!!!!!!

Carlie Starts K


Here is some pics from Carlie's first day of school. Not sure what I was thinking having her cover up her cute outfit with her hoodie for the pictures, but oh well. She LOVES kindergarten and is doing well.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Camp & Beads

I am the stake camp director for my church. For all my non-LDS friends this means I am in charge of a week long camp in the mountains for girls ages 12-18. It is an enormous job!!!! Anyways, I wanted the girls to earn beads for the different things they participated in (this is what my stake in Arizona did and it was so much fun). By the end of camp they would have a momento of their week and hopefully remember all the things they experienced. I also wanted them to have a necklace that would hold their daily schedule. If you look at the necklace on the left you can see the plastic protector that held their schedule. It helped SO much! All the girls always knew where they were supposed to be. Thanks to Jillaire McMillian and her hard work to get the schedule cards personalized for each level.....it was so much work and she did an outstanding job.
I spent months shopping, coming up with ideas, and making beads. I could NOT have accomplished this without AKEMI WHITELEY!!! She took my vision and worked tirelessly to create so many cute beads........she is amazing.


Here is what my front room looked like ALL summer! Girls Camp took over my life!!!!!!







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Monday, September 13, 2010

DANCE FESTIVAL....amazing






This past year Corey & I had the privilege to be dance instructors for the regional dance festival for our church. There were over 12oo youth ages 12-18 involved. We taught the 12-13 aged boys a dance to Eye of the Tiger for 6 month prior to the youth festival. For three days in June six stakes from all over the Vancouver Washington area & surrounding areas got together to PRACTICE some more and put on three performances. I will never forget how much fun it was and how much I felt the spirit.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Seattle Fun



I wanted to go to Seattle so I could go to this store called Creation Station. I had heard they had strange materials for cheap that you could use to make beads for girls camp. So I decided to get a hotel room and invited Kim & my mother-in-law around for the ride. We had a great trip. We visited the zoo & the Science Museum (while I went to the store) & ate at the Cheesecake Factory. My favorite part of the trip was when one of the bears went swimming and lunged at the glass.....we were so CLOSE to the bear, it was amazing!!!

Carlie's Summer Softball



Cream Puff Pie...a little of heaven on earth

Pie Crust & Filling Ingredients:

1 cup water

4 cups milk

1/2 cup butter

3 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanila pudding mix

1 cup flour

1 (12 ounce) container of Cool Whip

4 eggs

1/4 cup Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Frosting (for bottom of pie) Ingredients:

2 (1 ounce) squares semi-sweet chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp hot water

DIRECTIONS:

CRUST:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat butter and water to boiling over medium-high heat. Add flour and reduce heat to low. Cook and stir until it forms a ball and pulls away from the pan. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg.

3. Spread in bottom & up the sides of two 9 inch glass pie dishes. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Frosting:

1. While the crusts are cooling make the frosting. First, melt semi-sweet chocolate squares & butter in saucepan over low heat.

2. Stir in confectioners sugar & vanilla.

3. Stir in 3 Tbsp of hot water (I add one Tbsp at a time until I get the right consistency - sometimes that is only 2 Tbsp.)

4. Spread/pour the frosting on the bottom of each of the pie crusts.

Pie Filling & Topping:

1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Then add a small amount of milk and beat the cream cheese and milk. Keep adding small amounts of milk and beat in between until you have added all four cups.

2. Add pudding mixes and beat until thickened. Spread over both cooled pie crusts.

3. Top both pies with Cool Whip & then drizzle chocolate syrup over the top.

4. Keep refrigerated until you serve. You can make it the day before and it does not get soggy!

OK people this dessert is my new favorite. It is absolutely divine. It is easier than making cream puffs, but you get the satisfaction of having a homemade cream puff. I cound sit and eat a whole pie. Good news is you can do that and you still have another whole pie for "other" people.

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Max's Birthday Party

Back in June we traveled to Ridgefield, WA for my nephew's 1st birthday party. He is the cutie in the middle. As you can see the cupcakes were pretty popular with my kids!

Beach: Memorial Day











A few months ago the Maganas (my sister-in-laws family) & my little family rented a beach house at Rockaway Beach for Memorial Day weekend. It was a last minute thing & we really lucked out with a great beach house and lots of fun times.
We also traveled to Manzanita Beach (oh such a beautiful little town) & Cannon Beach for some seafood at Mo's (well I had a veggie burger, but it was yummy).


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Super Duper Chocolate Cake


SUPER DUPER CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE

1 package of devil's food cake
1 (5.9 oz) package of instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs - beaten
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips
small amount of powered sugar (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, & water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased bundt pan.
3. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour & half before inverting onto a plate.
4. Dust cake with powedered sugar. (optional)

I know many people make this cake or a very similiar version, BUT oh my it is the perfect cure for a chocolate craving. Problem is I have a chocolate craving about 17.5 times a day. Maybe that is why I am not the skinny girl I used to be :)

My Cuties





I love these kids...
these are old pictures from February (yeah I know I am WAY behind, but so what - at least I blog unlike some people that will remain unnamed)Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Hot Air Balloons



I used to have my students make hot air balloons every year in physical science class when I taught in Arizona. This is the first year I did them in Oregon. Here are a bunch a photos from our flying day. We had to wait a few weeks for a good flying day - I was starting to think we would never fly them. It is very windy where I live and we needed a day with very little or no wind.
The balloons are made out of tissue paper and glue. Most of the balloons fly for 2 or 3 minutes. But, we had two balloons that flew for about 15 minutes and we had to stop timing because they were so high up in the sky we couldn't see them anymore.

























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