Carlie's Favorite Toy

Much to the delight of Corey, Carlie has discovered the wonderful world of the I-Phone! She has learned how to use it all by herself. The good news for Corey is she got a Leapster for Christmas and has become obsessed with her new Princess game. Now Corey doesn't have to share his precious friend with Carlie as much.

Facial Hair & the Man

What is it with facial hair and my man Corey?? Here are two of his latest creations.

Christmas is SOOOO Tasty!

This year I made a BUNCH of yummy treats for some of our friends - don't you wish you were on that special list! :).
Here are the recipes (all recipes come from my fantastic mommy & sister)....

Homemade Oreo Cookies

2 Devils Food cake mixes
4 eggs
1 ¼ cup soft butter
8 Tbsp flour

Mix all ingredients together. Bake on cookie sheets. Make drops of dough as close to same size as possible. Don’t make too big – the cookies are rich! Bake on 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling
2 ½ cup powdered sugar small cool whip 8 drops of peppermint oil (optional)
8 oz cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all filling ingredients together using hand mixer. I added some green Wilton's coloring to half & red Wilton's coloring to the other half. Put spoonful of filling in between 2 cookies. Keep in refrigerator.

White Chocolate Mint Popcorn

1 -2 bags of microwave popcorn
1 bag of Wilton melting chocolate (about 16 oz) - white
4 drops of peppermint oil - not extract

Pop the corn. Put in a large bowl and make sure you remove all the unpopped kernels. Melt chocolate in microwave (just follow directions for melting that are on the bag) Once melted - pour over the popcorn. Stir until well coated. Spread on a wax paper covered cookie sheet to cool. If you want to make it not look like plain popcorn (red and green for Christmas or red for Valentine's Day). Melt some of the colored whitechocolate (Michael's carries all the colors) or using Wilton food coloring - color some of the melted white. Use a decorating bag and plain tip make a design on the coated popcorn. I also added the peppermint oil to the colored chocolate. Break into pieces and serve on a platter or put in individual bags and give as a visiting teaching treat.

Millionaire Fudge

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
8 oz Hershey bar 1 large can evaporated milk ½ cup butter
1pt marshmallow topping 4 cups sugar 2 cups chopped walnuts 1 Tbsp vanilla

Mix together sugar, milk and butter. Boil 10 minutes and only 10 minutes – stir constantly. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until dissolved.Pour into a well greased pan – greased with butter. Let stand for 12 hours in refrigerator.

Butter Crunch

½ cup water 1 pound butter 7 oz sliced almonds 2 cups sugar

In a heavy pan combine the water and sugar. Melt butter. Add the almonds. Put the lid on for a few minutes to steam sides. Cook on medium heat stirring constantly until the color of a paper bag or 300˚. Pour immediately onto greased cookie sheet. While cooling put some Hershey bars on top – when they are soft spread and add chopped nuts if you want. When cooled break into pieces. I think this is very much like Sees California Crunch. This is my VERY FAVORITE!

Holiday Pretzel Treats

Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels
M&M's candy
Rolos or Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug

Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Set bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels in a single layer on cookie sheet. Top each pretzel with an unwrapped Rolo, Hershey’s Kiss or Hershey’s Hug. Turn oven on its lowest possible temperature for 5 minutes (just to get warm) then turn oven off. Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss. Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. I also melted white chocolate and drizzled it on top!

Brownie Pops

Visit my sister's blog (it was her creation)
http://abunchofboysandme.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-treats.html

Part of Christmas

Well I am trying out this digital scrapbooking thing, so here is what I have so far for all my Christmas Pictures! There will be more to come. This was such a wonderful Christmas.

Carlie was hilarious - she was obsessed with all Santa Claus. She referred to him constantly

as "My Santa".

YM/YW Christmas Party

Every year for Christmas I throw a party for the youth on mutual night. This year we had a contest where each team created a santa, elf, and a snowman from a bag of supplies provided by me. It was a riot to see what they created. We also played name that Christmas tune, ate yummy goodies, and had a White Elephant Game. It was a blast.

Believe it or not the most popular item in the White Elephant Game was a mini crockpot. Silly teenagers! I love these kids and will miss them terribly since I just got released as YW President. This was my last activity, but it was a great one to end on.

Artic Blast 2008

The last week before Christmas Break some Artic Air decended on the Columbia Gorge and we got snow and then more snow and more and more. It was so fantastic. We had late starts for school 3 days in a row, then they cancelled school the last 2 days before break. It was wonderful. Carlie LOVES the snow. She would have played in it all day long if I had let her. There was so much snow they shut down the gorge (I-84) several times and Corey put chains on my car. Now I know that a few feet on snow seems minor to those of you from places it snows regularly, BUT in The Dalles this is the most snow we have seen in years! The grocery stores ran out of essentials like milk, bread, butter, etc. It was pretty crazy. A lot of the snow has melted now and the streets are clear in town, but the snow stayed around for about 3 weeks. I love driving on snow packed roads. Usually Oregon gets this wet, yucky snow. This snow storm was the dry, fluffy, powdery stuff you get in Utah - love it!