I'm Making a List .....

.....and checking it twice. LOL So much to do and so little time. I believe I've said that before. I feel like I am behind this year. Mainly because I ordered a pre-lit tree and it isn't here yet, so I haven't decorated and also because it isn't cold enough and I can't get in the mood. We did have a little snow yesterday, it just looked like a powdered sugar dusting though. So here is my list of what I normally do between Thanksgiving and Christmas (just in case anyone cares)
Decorate (boys have their tree up, but that is all that is done so far, hope my new tree gets here soon)
Get Christmas Cards Out (have cards made, and pictures developed, just need to print off the letter and mail)
Christmas Shopping (usually do this on Veteran's Day every year - DONE)
Wrapping Presents - DONE
Gingerbread Houses - scheduled for first Monday in December - when I was a kid we made these and gave to our school teachers for Christmas. I have continued this tradition with my kids and now that I only have 1 in elementary, we only have 1 to give away, but my older boys still make one and eat it themselves!
Sub for Santa Family - family requested, shopping scheduled for 2nd Monday in December, deliver scheduled for 3rd Monday in December (we do this every year)
Neighbor Gifts - scheduled to be delivered the week of the 17th - I make pumpkin bread, so we usually have to deliver 8 loaves a day unless I find more time in a day to do more baking. I tried doing something other than pumpkin bread one year and my neighbors were mad at me, so we are back to the pumpkin bread!
Ward Christmas Party - Scheduled for December 8th
Relief Society Christmas Party - Scheduled for December 4th
Smith Family Christmas Party - Sean's extended family party complete with soup, breadsticks, treats, a Pinata and Santa - scheduled for December 7th
Evers Family Christmas Party - Fancy dinner prepared by Kenalou scheduled for December 22nd
I'm sure Sean will have a work party thrown in there somewhere and we also usually have a friend party with all of our old friends from when we were first married, but we haven't been contacted yet by whoever is in charge this year.
Christmas Eve - make cookies for Santa - we leave cookies, 8 carrots for reindeer, egg nog, and string cheese (this tradition comes from a dairy council commercial on TV quite a few years ago)
then we sing songs with Sean playing the guitar, read the Christmas story from Luke, open 1 present - PJ's, go to bed
Christmas Day - Open presents, go to Sean's parents house for Christmas Morning Casserole, juice, and eggnog, come back home and play! Then Sean's family usually comes up to our house in the evening for spiral honey baked ham, rolls, and everyone's leftover neighbor gift snacks.
THEN WE HOST THE ANNUAL NEW YEARS EVE PARTY AT OUR HOUSE.
Whew! I hope I can make it through the month.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

I haven't written in a while. This time of year is always crazy. Last week we had our Young Women Evening of Excellence, so I was busy the week before that making invitations (which turned out way cute if I don't say so myself). The theme was "The Beauty Within" and the girls all got makeovers (makeup and hair) before and we borrowed a bunch of formals from women and girls in the ward for them to dress up in. They all looked beautiful. The boys escorted them to their seats for the dinner with their parents and then the boys also served dinner. The deacons didn't get invited to help (ha ha). But the Teachers did, so Travis got to dress up and he did look mighty nice. I had to give the lesson on Sunday so that took up some time. It takes a lot more preparation to teach the young women than it did to teach the 4 year olds I had in Primary before I got this new calling.

This week is Thanksgiving. In Sunday School our teacher had us go around the room and everyone had to say something we were thankful for but there couldn't be any repeats. All of the ones I could think of got taken before it got to me (family, good health, nice area to live in, etc) So by the time it got to me I was afraid there woudn't be anything left. I decided at the last minute that I am thankful for having the Priesthood in my home. Pretty good one huh?!!

I guess I'll have to end this for now. Thanksgiving is at my house, so I have to get cleaning done today because the boys will be home tomorrow and I have pies to make tomorrow to get ready for the big day!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving and remember to think about all of things you are thankful for this year!

Oatmeal Disaster, NOT!

Okay, I have to tell a funny story. On Sunday morning I woke up thinking I would be a good wife and mom and make everyone a nice hot breakfast before church. So, I made oatmeal and when I was done I sent Trevin to round everyone up. He came back to the kitchen by himself and said, "Mom, isn't it Fast Sunday?" So, needless to say, I then had 5 cups of leftover cooked oatmeal and I really didn't think it would warm up very good the next morning YUCK! So, I set out to look for recipes that used leftover cooked oatmeal. I had never seen one, all recipes normally call for oatmeal uncooked. Anywho, I found this recipe for bread made with leftover oatmeal, made 5 loaves and it is wonderful, so I thought I would share it.
Oatmeal Bread
1 c. leftover cooked oatmeal
1 c. warm ater
1/8 c. brown sugar
2-4 c. flour
1 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. salt
In mixing bowl, stir oatmeal and water together to break up oatmeal. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add brown sugar, salt and 1 c. flour and mix to combine into wet dough. Add additional flour, mixing well after each addition until he dough comes together into a rough dough. When dough holds together, turn onto awell floured counter. Knead, adding more flour as needed, for 2-3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead for another 3-5 minutes adding more flour as needed. Surface should be smooth and not sticky. Place dough in bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and shape into loaf. Place in a bread pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and let rise until double again. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 30 minutes. Butter top of loaf. Dump out of pan and let cool an hour before slicing. This makes a really moist loaf of bread. Yummy.
That's all! It wasn't so bad of a disaster after all.

3 TIME SUPERBOWL CHAMPS

We had the most exciting end of seasons ever for flag football. Trevin's team lost over half of their games during the season, most of them just by a couple of points. Last Thursday they began their playoffs and won their game with each team scoring 2 touchdowns each in the last few minutes. We went for 3 extra points on one of ours and that made the difference in the final score. Saturday morning they had their quarter-final playoff game and they were able to beat the other Elk Ridge team, the Chargers. Last night they had their semi final playoff game against the Broncos and won amazingly by a huge score of something like 59 to 63. Then right after that we had to play the final Superbowl agains the 49ers. After a hard fought battle with the other coach playing all 9 of his players at one point and the refs "didn't see it" (each team is supposed to only have 6 players on the field at at time), we came out on top and won 36 to 37. It was pretty cool! So, Travis, Tyrel, and Trevin all won the Superbowl this year with their respective teams.

Halloween is over and I'm already hearing Christmas music on the radio. It's kind of weird because it is still so warm here. Trevin was a Ninja for Halloween. Tyrel went for his last year of trick-or-treating with his friend Tyler. Travis didn't get to go this year. He said we are kind of mean that way. He thought he should still get to go. But, he went with some of his friends and watched a movie and then had air soft gun wars in the dark. He had a lot of fun, but wanted candy so I gave him a full bag we had left over and that seemed to satisfy him.

Trevin has been busy practicing for his talk in the Sacrament meeting program next week. The boys all got their report cards last week also. Trevin is the only one in his class that hasn't missed a spelling word yet this year and got E's (for Excellent) in every category. Tyrel got all A's and A-'s. Travis got mostly A's with a couple of B+'s. They are all doing very well and I'm proud of them.

Travis is getting way too tall. He is 1" shy of 6' now. Trevin has already outgrown his school pants and looks like an orphan. Hopefully Santa will bring him some pants. Tyrel is pretty average for his age, a little on the taller side but seems to grow at a steady pace instead of all at once.

Oh, I did make it to my scrapbooking goal of 365 pages. Actually I am currently at 389. WOO HOO! Now I just need to get the journaling done on them.

I had my first sale at my new online store yesterday. I was so excited. I am still in the process of getting it set up, but drop by and see it if you have time. http://www.kraftykuts.biz/


That's all for now.