Thanksgiving

I am not a pie maker, never have and probably never will. With that said, I did experiment this Thanksgiving. I tried out 2 different crust recipes and found one I liked, the other was icky! The lemon meringue pie was divine, which is good because it is Richard's fav. The pumpkin had the icky crust and the recipe for the pumpkin was less than stellar. I will search on. You have to admit though, they do look good. YUM!It was a small gathering for us. Here is a self taken portrait that I think turned out quite nice.

James, Richard, Kaila and Pat

Saturday in Flag

Saturday we took a quick turn around trip to Flagstaff to drop off some apples to Nat for canning. We could only stay for a few hours but we were able to have fun in the time we had.Trying to get a smile shot of Peter C. Not as easy as one might think.

The kids~notice how all of the boys revolve around Caprina!

Natalie and the kids. Forgive me, I'm still trying to figure this out. I'll turn this picture sometime soon. (maybe)

Ben protests when he has to hold Peter because he drools so much. So.... he was told by his wise mother that baby drool is good for your skin. Just rub it in and it will help with your eczema. Now when Peter drools on the other kids, Ben just tells them to rub it in, it's good for their skin! What a hoot.

Adam

Sweet Sam.

Tyler Cake

Last week was Tyler's birthday. He asked for a cake he remembered having in the MTC for his cake. He said it was a combination of banana bread and brownies together. Well, I looked high and low for some kind of recipe and could not even find one on the internet. I knew I would have to improvise....so that is just what I did. I took it back to basics. I made up a batch of my banana bread (the best recipe) and then made up a batch of brownies (enough for a 9 X 13 pan) and after prepping with shortening and flour I dropped globs of both into the pan until both mixes were gone. Next it was popped into a 350 oven and baked for 30 minutes. I put a foil tent on the pan and cooked another 10 minutes. The cake was incredible. The banana bread part was moist and wonderful, the cake-like brownies portions were great.......but the best part was the oowey, gooey parts of the brownies which were not totally baked through. It was divine. So now we have Tyler Cake and I dare say it will quickly become a family fav.

March 30, 2007

On March 30, 2007 Richard and I were sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple. It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by our families that we love so much. What a blessing in our lives.

Coming out of the temple. The ceremony couldn't have been sweeter and the spirit stronger. We truly felt our parents with us for this sacred event.

Kathleen and Robert traveled from Roswell for the occasion.

Nat, Adam, Dustin and Abish wait for us to exit.

A celebration at Mimi's Restaurant. Wonderful occasion, special family and friends and terrific food. What could be better?

Dustin and Abish

Nat, Adam and Levi. Peter C was born 3 days later!

Picture day at the temple. What a challenge. Dana, Ryan, Michael, Carter and Anna.

Adam, Natalie, Levi, Sam, Ben and Caprina.

Dana.

Kaila, James and Levi.

Adam and Sam. Look at that innocent face.

The boys; Ryan, Ben, Carter and Sam.

All of the grandchildren (except Lindy, she ran off). Carter, Levi, Ben, Sam in back. Ryan, Anna and Caprina in front. We have added two more grandchildren since then, Peter and Bianca.

Dana and Anna.

Kaila.

Aaron, Kyle, Adam (with Levi in arms), James, Dustin and Tyler.
Sam, Ben, Caprina, Natalie, Kaila, Lindy and Abish.

Tyler's Birthday

Tyler turned 23 and we participated in some wholesome competition that comes from having lots of siblings. We went bowling. The others were seasoned bowlers but I haven't bowled that much. My first game I scored a dismal 50+ points, but....the second game I was excited to bowl a whopping 112!!!! I was stoked! All in all we had a great time.



The boys posing in the kitchen. Richard, Aaron, Tyler and Kyle.

Melodie has great form and skunked all of us in the second game.

Tyler reacting to a less than perfect bowl.

Kyle is ever cool.

I sure need to work on my form. This makes my back hurt :(

Kyle keeping in communication with his friends. Aaron checking out the score.

Aaron can sure put some power behind his ball.

Saguaro Lake

Richard and I took Tuesday, November 6, 2007 off work to celebrate our anniversary. I know, our anniversary isn't until November 29th, but we wanted to take advantage of the great weather and take some time when life wasn't as hectic. We went to Saguaro Lake and took the paddle boat tour. It was so fun; a 1 1/2 hour tour of the lake. We learned a lot.

There is an bald eagle on the top of the rocks. We saw 4 that day.

I'm taking a picture of him taking a pict of me!!! (how sweet)

Tyler has been working himself to the bone lately. He is going to school full time, working almost full time, dating full time and decided to upgrade the engine in his CRX. What was he thinking? The engine is all in now and working great. Good work Tyler, we're proud of you.

Tyler demonstrates how desperate he is for a new engine.














Dad lends a helping hand putting the new engine together.














Time to put the new engine in the car! It's a red letter day!














Natalie and Dad help guide the new engine in.














Melodie and Tyler bonding while changing oil.

Richard and I at the top of the Ferris Wheel. I am holding on for dear life!

Tonight, Richard and I went to the Arizona State Fair! What fun that was for a great date night. We had our fill of goats, rabbits, the ferris wheel and fair food. The "MAIN EVENT" of the night was a demolition derby. What a hoot. It was hilarious, the fans were crazy and it even included a few fires :/ . To top off all of the excitement my honey won a stuffed lion for me in the dart throw. Yeah Richard.