Aaaaahhhhhh Florida.....

 
 
 

 

 

 

These have been our little Christmas trees every year......
and they are darling, but.....

We are so excited to finally have a life-sized Christmas tree this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This year we got to spend thanksgiving with family in Kansas. It was SO nice and relaxing. We had a delicious thanksgiving feast Rita and Dwayne made for us... then we played lots of games!

Who was the Farkle champion??? Uncle Dwayne?????
Nope! Me!! Woot! Woot!

We loved staying with Mary and Dan. They took such great care of us and it was so nice to be able to talk and spend time with them.
And there the games continued......Mary and Joel seemed to win most of the time.....

Till Grandma stuffed Joel right in the middle of rearranging his tiles.....she's great :)

Oh.....Little Sammy boy...

We love grandma and all our family in Kansas!! Thank you for making our holiday away from home so wonderful..... we can't wait to see you all again!

Well, Joel is a month into his second rotation! Only 8 to go! This one is surgery, which he was NOT looking forward to. He thought he would be getting sick and passing out the whole 6 weeks, but to his surprise, he really loves it! He has been right in there assisting in surgery, holding intestines and other internal things, stitching people up from the inside out, draining abscesses, packing wounds, and all sorts of things. He has a new story to tell me every night when he gets home.
The hospital he is working at is about an hour away from our house. So the drive to and from, plus the long surgery hours makes for some really long days, but he is a trooper! I don't think I've heard him complain once. He loves the Dr. he works with, they get along great and have a really fun time.
At this point he is still thinking of starting off in a family practice office. At least to spend the first several years getting really well rounded, before he decides to specialize in anything particular. I am so excited that he has found something he truly loves, and I am really proud of all the hard work he is putting into this!

This last weekend we went down to Utah for the quickest trip of our lives! We almost didn't make it to the airport on time due to a GPS malfunction.....that may or may not have been helped along by an unsmart phone user. But after 15 minutes of driving aimlessly around downtown not anywhere near the airport, a little bit of a freak out, a husband stressed out at his panicking wife, and the help of one single soul in the entire city of Little Rock walking around at 5 am, we made it just.in.time. I still can't believe we actually made it.

Candace and Byron got married! Everything was beautiful......We got to see our babies, and have a sleep over with them. It was so fun, we love them sooooooo much! We spent our entire day and a half there with family. We loved every minute. It was so good to see everyone! We are already looking forward to Christmas.....

Pictures to come later......

My mom is the best cake decorator I know. I wish I would have let her teach me when I was younger (actually there are A LOT of things I wish I would have let her teach me back then....dang you bratty teenage self) Now I have to learn things I could have already known....
Well I decided to take a little cake decorating class....

MmMMmmMm..........homemade raspberry filling.....

My 1st cake

After lots of preparation every Sunday night, batches and batches and batches of icing and TONS of cleanup.....

It was time to make the final cake!

Here she is!
We had a really fun time! And learned a lot. Although I don't think either of us will be making, eating or looking at icing or cake for the next few months....

Saturday night was the Relief Society broadcast. Somehow someone always says the perfect thing I need to hear......its so nice to have little reminders of the things that are really important.

We had dinner before it started and of course there was so much delicious food and dessert!! We had Broccoli Cheese Soup, Spicy Gumbo, Taco Soup and I brought Tomato Basil and the biggest salad I've ever made! Salad for 40 people?? I didn't even know where to begin, I wanted to make sure we had enough.....and we ended up with a little extra....I've had 5 bowls of salad in the past 2 days, and there is still some in the fridge. 40 people don't eat quite as much salad as you might think?? At least we didn't run out!

Creamy/Chunky Tomato Basil Soup

6 celery ribs, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, diced
1/4 C. butter
3 cans(14.5oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 T. tomato paste
3/4 C. fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 t. sugar
2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 1/2 C. heavy cream
(I use half and half instead, I've made it both ways and they are both just as delicious)

In a large saucepan saute celery, onion, red pepper and butter 8-10 minutes or until tender.

Add tomatoes and tomato paste. Heat through. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 40 minutes.
Remove from heat, and stir in basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Cool slightly.

Transfer 1/2 of soup mixture (or more depending on how chunky or creamy you want it) into blender, gradually add cream or 1/2 and 1/2. Process until pureed.

Return to pan and heat through, do not boil.

(This one is not my picture, I found one online that turned out way prettier and more delicious looking than mine did...still working on the food photography)