Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with some friends. They invited us over for a Ham dinner since our family couldn't be with us.

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Christmas Day was wonderful. We always start with our tradition of "Birthday Cake". I have a great recipe that I put in the oven on time bake and we wake up with it ready to eat. It's really a sticky bun recipe that I put candles in and we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

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Christmas Morning Shortcut Sticky Buns

Make this on Christmas Eve just before you go to bed.

(I double this recipe)

20 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup instant vanilla pudding mix (dry from the package)
2 t. cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter

Grease a bunt pan. Mix the sugar, pudding, and cinnamon together. Put the rolls in the pan and sprinkle with the mixture. Pour the melted butter on top. Put in in the oven on time bake to be ready when you think you'll get up in the morning!! 350 degrees for 25 minutes. If you double the recipe, then bake an extra 15 minutes.

Here's a few pictures from our present opening:

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2008-12-25 11-24-53cropped This was my favorite present of the day. Matthew made a Cheesecake for David and hid it in the fridge.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Word Art Quotes

I'm "snowed in" and my company is "snowed out"- they can't get here because of all the snow- the airport canceled their flight, and a freeway on their route is closed. So, now I get to focus on just us. Hopefully they'll still come visit after the snow melts!!

I have 2 quotes I love that I made into word art and brushes in Photoshop. I thought I'd share them:

Quote Family

Family Quote download HERE

Quote important things

Important Things Quote Download HERE

I have this quote in vinyl lettering on the wall above my family photos.

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The download links take you to 4shared. I have never put anything on there before, so if anyone downloads them- let me know if it worked!! (Sorry I'm not an expert) They are saved as a png file. If you want to turn it into a brush then open it in Photoshop, select in with the rectangular Marquee tool, go to Edit> Define Brush from selection, Name the brush and click o'kay, select your brush tool, scroll to the bottom of the brushes and there it is!!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

That was fun!

So I've been  looking forward to this party all week, and they promised they wouldn't cancel even with all the snow! So, we got our babysitter and went to the Annual Adult Only Christmas Party our neighbor throws. I've lost track of how many years they've done it.... over five and it is definitely a fun tradition.

Everyone brings food- and it's always very good. (I ate way too much- but every bite was so tasty!)

Then the games began. This year we played Family Feud- it was a true feud... we have a lot of competitive people at this party as you will see! The surveys for the game were all Christmas questions taken from the Internet such as "Name a symbol of Christmas" or "Name a phrase that starts with 'snow'" There's always a tricky answer!

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We also played Playdoh Sculpture Pictionary- men vs. women. One couple drew the name of a Christmas Carol and had to make something out of Playdoh to represent the song. You had to be creative, but we also decided to just yell out any song we could think of no matter what they made! (The women won)

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Then the part we all have grown to anticipate. (People have already started plotting what they'll bring next year!) Each person brings a $5 gift to exchange. We draw numbers and go in order picking a present from the mysterious pile- or stealing one someone already has.

You never know what you might open... lots of gag gifts like Sponge Bob boxers or ....

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At least there was something good inside once he opened the taped box!

If you get a gag gift you are pretty much out of the game- no one is going to steal it, but we all have a really good laugh!

If a gift is stolen then the timer is set for 30 seconds and people run back and forth across the room stealing gifts (If your gift is stolen, you can steal someone else's who then steals someone else's, etc. You just can't steal from the person who just stole from you and as soon as 30 seconds is up- the person left empty handed has to open up a new present.)

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I told you we were competitive! We had people diving across the floor to steal a gift before the timer beeped!

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The most fought over gifts were gift certificates to Baja Fresh, Costa Vida, a stick vacuum, a loaf of yummy cinnamon bread from Great Harvest, and a homemade super candy coated beautiful caramel apple (that's what I wanted!!).

We faired alright. One unmentionable gag and a Webkin that I think my 5 year old will love.

My cheeks actually hurt from all the laughing. Thanks for a great party!

Eleven Years

Rob and I were married 11 years ago today in the Salt Lake City Temple!

1997 rob and jacki wedding

We watched our wedding video this morning with our boys. Matthew kept saying how big and fluffy and long my dress was, so I decided to pull it out. It fit!!! So I had Rob wear his tux for a photo that Matthew took for us.

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It's been the best 11 years of my life, and I'm looking forward to forever.

Happy Anniversary Rob!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Goodies

So I haven't known how to start my blog- it seems it should have an interesting first post... but too much pressure. So here's my first post just to finally get it started!

We had a half an inch of snow that turned to ice- so school was cancelled for 3 days, then it snowed again and was cancelled again... so it looks like my children will get a three week Winter Break this year! Today the snow turned slushy enough to finally get out of the house- Hooray! I was starting to go crazy!! So I decided to deliver treats and wish some friends a Merry Christmas.

I was craving pretzel hugs, so I made those and hope my friends think they are as yummy as I think they are. And I made a bag topper with a super cute digital embellishment my super digi diva friend made and gave away free on her blog. She's the reason I've started digi scrapbooking and blogging! Thanks Beth! www.bethbydesign.blogspot.com


I hope everyone is enjoying their winter weather! I am glad it looks like the snow is going away for me- it's not my thing!