A Night in Bethlehem - Corey Style

Corey is the activities director in our ward. This was his very first activity in his new calling. He changed up the old and tired eat dinner and see santa ward tradition and took a chance and did "A Night in Bethlehem". Everyone dressed up in Biblical wear, got gold coins to spend at the booths (that Corey built), and ate dinner while sitting on a blanket with their family. They also had a simple nativity program with everyone singing all the favorite spiritual Christmas carols. It was a really nice evening and got me feeling the true spirit of Christmas. Thanks to my hubby for all his hard work! We didn't even miss Santa!

The Fruit booth was the young women's booth - It was so much fun to decorate a booth and I think us ladies did a splendid job. My favorite booth was the music booth (this is where you got the sheet music for the program to be able to sing along). Paul Ferguson and the missionaries were singing and acting like real street vendors - such fun personalities.

What a Year!

Every Christmas the daughters on both sides of my family make scrapbook pages for our moms (my mom and my MIL) of the year in review.

This is the first year I went digital and here is what I came up with.

Christmas Casualty

OOPS! Poor Corey got mushed by our Christmas tree.

The worst part is I didn't help him get up until after I took a picture!
Nice wife.

Thanksgiving 2008

This year Thanksgiving was at our house. A month before I sent an email to all the family attending and had everyone sign up to cook a few dishes from a list. So everyone had to share in the duties. It worked great. I wasn't so tired by dinner that I just wanted to go to bed (that is how I felt last year).

My SIL Anne Marie made these super cute turkeys to decorate the table.

Berkeley and the "boy" cousins chillin in my chair

Carlie and her nifty tights

YWIE 2008

I am the YW President in my ward (this is a youth group leader for all the girls ages 12-18 for those of you who are not up on mormon lingo) This year for our Young Women in Excellence program we had the Emma Awards. Every girl received a golden Emma award (gold spray painted Mrs. Butterworths). We ran it like the Oscars. We had categories and nominees. I was the announcer (due to my cheesy announcing voice and dramatic flair) and I would read the fake celebrity nominees with one of our young women's names and then of course the young woman would win. For example, Shasta (one of my YW) was up for an award in Excellence in Duet Singing, she was up against Celine Dion and Michael Bolton, of course Shasta won. Then she would come up and get her award (we had two primary girls (my counselors kids) dressed up to pass out the golden emmas. The yw would then perform their talent they recieved the award for or they would give a talk on what they did for a yw personal progress project. It was so awesome! My girls are so talented. We also had a movie premeire. We viewed a video I made of pictures from all the activities we had done since last YWIE (this takes FOREVER TO MAKE). I used a program called Show Biz that allows you to make a very professional video. A few weeks before the program we had a photo shoot for the girls for mutual. They showed up looking their best and we took beautiful pictures of each girl individually and as a group. We then blew up the best photos and backed them on foam board and each girl got a pic of themselves and 2 group photos. All the girls also got crowned with a tiara and a feather boa. I forgot to take pics until the end, so the decorations don't look as great as they did before we started, but oh well. It was such a wonderful night. My YW are so extremely beautiful inside and out and I love them with all my heart! I also have a wonderful presidency that worked super hard to pull this night off!



Here is the refreshment table after it got demolished. We made cake balls in all the YW value colors. They looked super cool and they were YUMMY!

Oh So Crazy Yummy!

This lady in my ward (Kathy Cantrell) made the most fantastic dessert for our Super Saturday - you seriously need to make them!
Here is the recipe, I will post a picture if I ever get around to it!

Gingersnap – Pumpkin Dessert

1 pkg (18 ¼ oz) yellow cake mix, divided
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
½ cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (29 oz) solid-pack pumpkin
¼ cup milk
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/2 cup c. crushed gingersnap cookies
¼ cup sugar
½ cup cold butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Set aside 1 cup cake mix for topping. In a small bowl, combine gingersnap crumbs and remaining cake mix; stir in butter and egg. Press onto the bottom of a greased 13-in. x 9 in. x 2 in. baking dish; set aside.

For filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs. Add the pumpkin, milk, cinnamon and vanilla; mix well. Pour over crust.

For topping, in a small bowl, combine the gingersnap crumbs, sugar and reserved cake mix; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 325 degrees for 70-75 minutes or until filling is set and a thermometer inserted near the center reads 160 degree. Cool on a wire rack for 1 ½ hours. If desired, garnish with whipped cream (homemade is best!) and gingersnap halves when serving.

My Boy

Well, time flies... Berkeley is now 7 months old and I still have not

blogged about his 6 month check up. So here it goes.

Berkeley's 6 Month Stats:

Weight: 18 lbs. 6.5 oz. - 60 percentile

Height: 28 inches - 90 percentile

Head Circumference: 17 3/8 inches - 30 percentile

He is now finally loving baby food. When we first tried to feed him he would cry this high-pitched scream that melted your heart. He would cry so vigorously that he would pass out. It was really sad. So we stopped trying for awhile. He now can't get enough.

He is ALMOST crawling...he gets up on all fours and rocks and scoots forward. Kinda like an inch worm. He also does this bear walk thing with his booty sticking up.

He loves his bouncy chair, Baby Einsteins, his "chew toys" (this is what Corey calls them - I try to tell him Berkeley is not a dog!), and Carlie.

He also FINALLY got his first tooth. He has been teething for 3 months! So after gallons of drool and Baby Tylenol, he has a tooth on the bottom left side.

He is so energetic and doesn't like to sit still. He is really hard to hold on to...he is so strong and wiggly I am always worried I am going to drop him. He also has a death grip, I am pretty sure he is going to rip my earring out and I will have a beautiful split ear lobe.