Post from the Past #4 Las Vegas Temple Trip December 2008-Webbs, Brackens, and Dyes

Las Vegas Temple Trip with the Brackens and the Webbs in December of 2008, I think...because we stayed at the Brackens in LaVerkin.  We all rode down in a van that Megan and Colten borrowed, it was fun to be all together!  We went to the strip after, I wish we would've taken some pictures of that.  Though as I recall, you couldn't look up, down, or straight forward that night without catching an eyefull!

 the men folk sportin' Colten's (with an "e") Russian hats from his mission

 our turn

 LV Temple

 patriotism and spiritualism

 still has orangish-yellow hair from Halloween, but he's so cute!

 You have to have some serious guns to hold up the angel Moroni

another one with the flag

my chili recipe and my mom's cornbread recipe

I've never made homemade chili before, probably because I've never been the biggest fan of chili, canned or homemade.  I tried it tonight and came up with my own recipe after reading tons of others and I threw in some ingredients of my own.  It was the best chili I have ever had.  Keep in mind though, it is tailored to me.  If you like spicy, runny, chunky, no meat, more meat, etc. you might doctor it up a bit to your liking.  We had it with my mom's corn bread recipe and basically dinner rocked tonight.  I want to try some canned green chilies in it next time.  Save the salting for last, after the other flavors have blended and simmered.  I over salted just a bit in the beginning.  You can also use a chili seasoning mix instead of the cumin and chili powder, but I don't know how much of one so taste as you go folks!  That's the benefit of being the chef! :)  If anyone tries this in their crockpot let me know, I think I want to try that sometime.

Shay’s Chili

2 or 3 TBS oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 pound ground beef

30 oz canned chili beans

1 can ginger ale or lemon lime soda, beer would work too if you don't mind that

10 oz can enchilada sauce (whatever kind you like)

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

3 TBS minced garlic

2 tsp basil

1 can diced tomatoes or 2 tomatoes diced

salt, to taste

optional toppings: sour cream, cheese, cilantro, crackers

In a large pot, heat onion in oil until it browns a little.  Add hamburger and cook until no longer pink, breaking up the cooked burger into little pieces.  Drain the grease.  Add in all other ingredients except the salt and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or longer.  The longer it simmers the better it tastes.  Stir it every few minutes.  At the end, season with salt to your liking.  

My Mom's Corn Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened (I even softened mine for 15 seconds in the microwave, I know, shame shame!  still
     turned out scrumptious!)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup cornmeal

1 1/2 cups flour (I tried 1/2 hard white whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour for the first time tonight        and couldn't even tell a difference)

1/2 t salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

Put it all in a bowl together, don't worry about sifting flour or creaming sugar/butter or any of that junk. You have better things to do, trust me! Throw it in a bowl, whisk it until just barely combined (I love my mom's way of cooking!).  It will taste delicious I promise!  Grease muffin tins, a bread pan, or a 9x13 pan.  You can do it any size or shape you want.  Pour batter in your pan of choice.  Bake at 350.  For the 9x13 it's 20 to 25 minutes.  Adjust the cooking time based on what size of pan you're using.  It should be mostly yellow with a little bit of brown starting to form.  Serve warm with butter and honey.

Plast from the Past #3-Holly's Bridal Shower

This was the funnest bridal shower ever!  Perhaps it was because it was FULL of SUU Track and Field Brides to Be!  It was at my house in the spring of 2008 (Holly do you remember the exact date?  I would like it if you do!)  There were five brides at the party, one couldn't make it.  Can you believe 6 of our sprint team got engaged and married all within a few months!?  Something was in the water that year!  I was sick of the usual games so I decided to come up with some of my own! hehehe

I thought the girls needed some practice at sporting the lingerie!  This was the slurpee bra modeling. 

 We had a lingerie fashion show with music (I think we played Right Said Fred's "I'm to Sexy" but I can't remember for sure).  The 5 brides went into another room while the rest of us played a game.  They had to come up with what was announced while they walked the runway and pick their outfits (I bought all kinds of styles of underwear from the dollar store and walmart that they had to model over their clothes, Val (far right) was bold and sported hers without anything under!)  Michelle, in the purple panties, stuffed hers with toilet paper to add some ghetto junk to her trunk!  Holly's were so little she could barely get them on, notice the belt over the green pair!

Bubblegum Trivia:  I thought it would be fun to ask all the grooms to be about their women!  I secretly sent the boys questions about their wives like what is their most embarrassing moment, what their favorite dessert was, and what their cup size was.  That question was pretty funny; one clueless innocent boy said "96?"  At least he guessed big!  Each time their fiances got the wrong answer, the girls had to insert another piece of Bubbalicious into their mouths.  Some of them got a pretty big wad!  I remember Holly rolling her eyes at Forrest for making her chew so much gum!

another slurpee bra picture.  From l to r and top to bottom:  Val, Jess, Michelle, Holly, and Tracey

Post from the Past #2: 2008 Halloween Party...In light of this Spooky season!

This was the HUGE (and I really mean huge!) party I threw for Halloween.  There was supposed to be 3 of us throwing this thing and it turned into just one, me, lol.  Holly and Amanda saw me floundering and swooped in to rescue me!  Thanks guys!  This party was super fun!  I feel like some of the pictures are missing.  Does anybody have any pictures of this?  If you do, please email them to me at sonkissed05@hotmail.com and add them to the blog.

Sorry some of these pics are bad quality, some of them were taken with a phone. This was a game we played where the girls were blindfolded and had to pick their husbands out of a line up by touch alone!  It's my turn, they played a joke on me and stuck my friend Harmony in the mix.  Boy was I shocked when I grabbed a handful of coconuts! :)

me swinging at the pinata

broken pinata

 Colton and I getting our characters ready.  I was Laura Croft (Tomb Raider) and he was Iceman from Top Gun.  We bleached is hair!  It turned kind of orange on us.

The Ledbetters as smurfs, such a cute idea!

Amanda taking a wack at it!

this was before I got to Harmony!

Little Xander is Bam Bam.

Xander's mommy Bre is a cave woman, in the back ground is Alex and Harmony as Adam and Eve, can you believe that Harmony just had Maquita two weeks before this?  She looks smokin!

another of Xander, he was so stinkin cute!

The Kirks are lumberjacks, The Dyes as Iceman and Tomb Raider, The Ledbetters as Smurfs, and the Webbs as a soldier and a female nurse!

This game is one I stole from our High School Pep Assemblies.  You take nylons and tie one leg around your waist.  You put an orange in the other leg and center that between your legs.  It looks pretty hilarious!  Then you have to swing your hips to bump a balloon across the floor.  We used paper cups.  You want something light that is kinda tricky to steer.  This was one of the legs of a relay.  Niki far left, Cyd the scarecrow girl, Holly, a girl from our ward, someone I don't recognize, and finally on the right is Jessica Henrie (Flory) from the track team.

Niki and Jess, with the "Got Milk" couple on the couch

this is a video of Holly bumping the cup with the orange in the nylons

2nd leg of the relay, another game I stole from my high school pep assemblies (Rangely did some crazy fun things for our assemblies every year!).  You hid a tic tac in a pie pan filled with whipped cream.  Using your face only (mouth and nose) you have to dig around for the tic tac.  I forgot the whipped cream so we improvised and used ice cream.  I think the tic tacs melted in some of the pans though!  Sorry guys!

still searching!

as soon as you found your tic tac then....

another game from yes, RHS StuCo!, The 3rd leg of the relay is to carry an orange,across the room.  The catch is, you have to hold it in your neck and pass it from partner to partner.

tomb raider, scarecrow chick, cave woman girl, and lumberjack diva

same song different verse

This is Nick Garcia.  Ain't he a looker?

hmmm!

He decided to try my hair extension on for size!

Bre made their customs!  Isn't she talented?

This party was soooo fun! But it sure was a lot of work and soooo expensive!  If I ever throw a party this big, I will make sure I have lots of friends to split up the work and cost.  The kind I can count on not to leave it all to me!  Thank you again so much Holly and Amanda for saving me!  This party was such an amazing memory.

See the previous post from the past which is Amanda Webb's baby shower for Cali Jo.

Post from the Past #1: Remember This? Amanda Webb's Baby shower for our favorite Cali Jo!

I'm on an organizing kick and right now I'm going through all of our pictures on our computers and memory cards.  I figured this would be a really great time to post all of the things I haven't yet.  And boy there's lots!  It's also a great time because it's fall and we've all moved to different places and I think we're all missing each other a lot right now!  Keep checking older posts to make sure you see all of my posts from our time in Cedar City!  The first one is Amanda's baby shower that Megan and I gave at my house sometime in the fall (specific dates anyone?) of 2008.

This cake will truly be one of a kind, why? Because I will probably never make one again.  They take so stinkin' long!  But I really like how it turned out and it was definitely fun to do...once!

 Amanda and the girlies, Shenille, Lindsey, Holly, Megan

the yarn game, Niki measuring, little did she know she would have her own lil' belly soon (McCoy)!

Lindsey measuring, she would also have a better idea of sizes in the not too distance future (Kennedy)!

And Megan's turn, her new little one hasn't arrived yet! But we are soooooo excited!

Ready to put our strings to the test!  Shenille, Niki, Lindsey, Holly, Megan, and Shay

Check out how tiny miss Amanda Webb is!  We all remember envying how good she looked throughout her entire pregnancy!  This is Megan fondling the belly! :)

Nikki getting to feel up Amanda! hee hee hee!

Shenille sizin' her up!

Lindsey testin' it out!

Holly checkin' out the baby goods!

Shay sinchin' it up!  ...Ok, Ok, I'm done with the cheesy belly string comments! :)

Megan made this gorgeous blanket!  She is AMAZING!!!  We all miss her and Colten oodles!

The theme was instead of bringing cards, you brought a baby book with your gift instead.  Here is the little poem we put inside the invitations:

Although words are nice with their sentiment and prayer, 

they’re read once or twice and tucked away with care.   

A book is a treasure, words and pictures unite, 

read over and over to teach and delight.   

So instead of a card for Baby and mother, 

Please give a child’s book with your thoughts in the cover.   

Your book will be cherished; God will watch from above, 

When it’s read they will remember your kindness and love.

This post makes me emotional!  I miss everyone so much and look back at this baby shower with such memories!

Sword Fighting...What Uncles Teach Their Nieces! :)

So when we were back home last weekend, Uncles Truck and Colton started sword fighting with water noodles in the living room. When an arm or leg would get hit, then you had to hop around on one leg or hold your arm behind your back. Then they would fall to the ground dead. I'm not sure they realized little eyes were watching until our little 2 yr. old niece started bashing them with water noodles! Here's a few videos from my phone, they're only about 15 seconds each.   The funniest parts are when she chops off an uncle's leg, but then tries to hop on one leg herself, because her uncle is, and also when she plays dead with her legs in the air and her lovely dying noises! 

The attempt to hop on one leg, because Uncle Truck is holding his...and "getting Uncle Truck's bum"...hmmm....?!?!

Uncle Colton makes a jab and the dying legs go up!

Hopping on one leg and then this time, as apart of dying, spun around in circles for so long that my phone camera couldn't catch the actual dying part

the dying noises and the legs in the air

here she clearly wins, but still feels the need to die, more noises, more dead bug legs!

I don't think her mother would approve of what they taught her...that's what uncles are for though, right?!