Happy Halloween!

We sure had a fun Halloween night. We went over to Josh and Merijane's house and got to go Trick or Treating with their family. Since we hadn't gotten to see them in their costumes on Sunday, because they were sick, we joined them tonight. Libbie and Hailey were Belle, from Beauty and the Beast this year. Their mom's dyed the dresses I made them for Jamie and Jordan's wedding, yellow, and added a few things to them and they were DARLING! Josh decided to be the Beast. He bought a couple of stuffed animals at DI, took them apart and made the cutest costume ever. He is pretty amazing!!!! After a little Trick or Treating, Mike and I went to see Up with mom and dad. Very fun night.

Libbie was a little nervous to dance with the Beast

What a little Beauty!

Another little Beauty!

99 cent a pound chicken!

A new store called Winco, just opened not far from us. They were having some amazing deals, including boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 99 cents a pound. Krista told me that Matt's aunt, and one of her good friends had been canning chicken. I remembered that Bonnie and her girls had canned chicken, and said it was easy to do, so I bought some to can. Mike's dad had given us a pressure canner for Christmas about 25 years ago, that I had only used to make soup, or mashed potatoes, but never as a pressure cooker. Soooo, to make a long story short, after about 5 calls to Bonnie, lots of calls to our local extension agent, the mirro matic company, and a trip to Kitchen Kneads to replace some of the worn out or missing parts, I have 14 pints of chicken all ready to put on my shelves!

The first thing you do, is stuff as much raw chicken into a jar as you can.

Then put it in your pressure canner, put the lid on, and wait for it to reach 15 pounds of pressure.

Then you process it for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Walahhhhh, chicken in a jar, and it is tasty!!!!! Thanks Bonnie for your patience in teaching me how to do it!!!!

Halloween dinner and party

Friday night we went to our ward chili cookoff. I was visiting with a couple of my friends who were telling me about the Halloween parties they were doing for their grandkids. I hadn't even thought about doing a Halloween party, but quickly planned one for tonight, since it was our week to have all our kids. Unfortunately, Libbie had a bad cough, and so their family didn't end up being able to come. We invited Mom, Dad, Lani and Jeff to join in our wild evening. We had fun playing games, doing a fish pond with fun Halloween treats and prizes, frosting cookies, and hearing a Halloween story from Gigi.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

All ready for Halloween!

Here are two of the cutest little tiny girls all ready for Halloween. They were both so cute to pose for pictures.

Aida in her little flower costume!
 

Katie as a cute little punkin!

Easiest Pumpkin cookies ever!!!!

I'm sure I'm the last person in the world to try this recipe. My friends have told me about it forever, and I don't know why I never tried it. Tonight, I had a meeting at my house, and wanted to make cookies. I didn't have much time, so I finally broke down and made the pumpkin cookies I had heard so much about. All it is, is a spice cake mix, 2 cups of pumpkin, and a cup of chocolate chips. Mix together and bake for 10-12 min. at 350. So easy and SOOOOO GOOD!
 

Pumpkins and granddaughters

Tonight is my night to tend Libbie and Katie. Libbie helped me make a pumpkin for her family. They didn't have any quilt batting, but had some stuffing, so we used that, and it turned out super cute!!! Toilet paper pumpkins are my new favorite fall decoration! Anything you can make for under $1.00 in less than 10 minutes that turns out this cute, is my kind of project!!!!
 

Hailey the helper

I stopped by Krista's on my way home from school today, and Hailey was helping Krista make dinner. I had Hailey help me make a toilet paper pumpkin like we did with our young women and she was very helpful and did a great job. (I forgot to get it in the picture)
 

Aida and the pumpkins

Aida was looking so cute I had to snap a picture of that darling little gal!
 

Toilet paper pumpkins

We had such a fun activity tonight at Young Women's. We asked each of the girls to bring a roll of toilet paper. They were so excited, thinking we were going to go toilet papering. We fooled them, we turned their toilet paper into darling pumpkins. All you need is a roll of toilet paper, batting or stuffing, a piece of fabric 22 x 18 for the pumpkin, (you can get 4 out of a yard) a piece of green fabric 2 x 8, for the leaf, and a green pipe cleaner. They had so much fun!!!! Here are a few pictures I took of the activity.

Cut a piece of batting, a little longer than the toilet paper roll, and wrap it around the roll.

Place toilet paper roll in center of fabric and starting anywhere, begin gathering it around and tucking it in.

Gather it all the way around the toilet paper roll.

Push all fabric into the hole

Take a brown lunch bag, cut it in half,(about a 5 x 5 inch square) and wrinkle it up.

Flatten out the sack, and roll it into a tube.

Cut a piece of green fabric, about 2" x 8" and center over hole in toilet paper roll

Poke the rolled up brown paper bag into the hole, pushing the green fabric in the hole.

Trim the green fabric to make them look like leaves

Next, you take a green pipe cleaner, and wrap it around a pencil, then stick it in the hole

Ta Da! The finished product

Here are the girls that would pose for me, everyone's turned out great!

Doesn't it look cute, what a fun project!

Conference Weekend

Conference weekends are always one of my favorite weekends of the year. We are so blessed to have a living prophet, who loves and cares about us. I enjoyed hearing all the wonderful talks and the beautiful music. I especially enjoyed so many primary songs being sung. Robynn and Dick came to SLC for conference. We had a family dinner Sunday night at our house. Kathy, Mom, Lani, Krista and Merijane all brought different kinds of delicious soup. Stacy brought cheese, crackers, and a vegetable platter, Jamie and Kathy brought desserts. I made breadsticks, and we enjoyed a fun visit and a great meal. It is a little cozy in our basement with 5 big tables, but it works!

We were so glad so many could come and visit with Robynn and Dick

I love it when Jamie and Jordan bring dessert to dinner. They always do something so yummy! These are the cutest fishbowl cupcakes! Sooooo Cleaver!

Here are the two cute cupcake makers!

Jeffrey, Katie and Robynn

The other day I had Libbie in my car and a motor cycle passed us, and she said "I miss uncle Jeffrey" (He has tried to get her to sit on his motor cycle with him and she has always been way to chicken) She doesn't really see him very often, so she has always been VERY SHY around him. Tonight she gave him a hug for the first time ever.

Four very cute girls!

Would you think it is asking too much of two 8 month old babies to sit nicely for a picture? Aida was being very cooperative, but Katie was trying to get away.

She really didn't punch Aida, even though it looks like she did!

She's on the move!

Smile for the camera girls!

Cute granddaughters!

I visited with Jamie's family this afternoon, and got a picture of Abbie with her eyes almost all the way open. She is such a little sweetie pie! She is a little jaundiced, so they have been having to take her in every day for a check and it has been going up every day. We hope tomorrow, it will be on it's way down!

Aida is so adorable! She is 8 months old and has been trying to cut teeth for quite a while, and still doesn't have anything to show for all her hard work!

I got to tend Hailey and Aida for a while tonight, and Hailey and I had fun picking grapes from their yard. They had lots of them, and they were Delicious!