Best Pals! . . . oh and Go UTES!

SO this deserves its own post! Scotty Mack and Brad have become best buds these last several months! They talk on the phone at LEAST once a week about life, and football!

Brad went with Scott in Oct. to the Oregon-Utah (home) game! They had such a blast - of course because it ended up being one of the best games to be at! They leaped onto the field and slapped and hugged the UTE players after they won!!! PARTY!


So as many know the UTES are still 12-0 and are awaiting the details on their BCS Bowl invite!


And here are these Best Buddies in their matching Utah Conference Champions - Perfect Season shirts . . . hilarious!!!

Cuties

P.S. They were yelling GO UTES when I took this pic - even tho you can't hear that in pictures, it had to be authentic ;)

A time of Thanks, Food, and Family . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What a FUN, DELICIOUS, AND THANKFUL day, and week, we had!!!

(above) Preping the delicious meal! It was a family affair! Also enjoying Mom's deliciously-popular homemade cheese ball with crackers as we prepped the meal and enjoyed the company of each other's craziness!



(above) And we finally get to eat! YUM! Here most of us are at the Thanksgiving meal table! Kendall's brother Aaron and his wife Sabrina were able to join us for the festivities! They were so FUN to have there!!! Also, Scottie's g-friend, Jocelyn joined us too! She's awesome! I LOVE having so many people together for holidays!

We sure missed ya Becks and Cam -- we heard your Thanksgivings were Fabulous too!!!

Pie Instructional with Mom!

So in prep for Thanksgiving we had "Baking With Nan: Pie Making Course."

(Since Becks wasn't there to document for the blogging world, I took the liberty! Missed ya Beck!)

(above) Brad and Kendall were WAY into it! It was SO great! Mom is also VERY GOOD at making and baking pies! Masterful instruction, Masterful work! (we thought the Minute Tapioca (used in Apple pies) box was so old looking, so we took some "ad" style pics -- funny) I also love the pic of Michael and Mom singing to the music as they create!

Also notice the pie dough after it is rolled out . . . it must have big beautiful swirls, of the shortening, so it will create the flakiness in the delicious crust!

(above) Here we are putting the apples in and learning the techniques of putting the pies together!

(above) Here are the different TOPS we each did for our pies! Brad chose to create a Laddis style, and Kendall chose to create the beautiful Traditional style! They were both so proud!

(above) Mike and I worked on this one together! Great team effort! Mike did the cutting out of the top crust and he shaped a beautiful APPLE shape to go atop our lovely pie! I buttered and did the edges of the crust! Good Times!


(above) And FINALLY the BEAUTIFUL finished pies! They turned out SOOOO amazing -- and very delicious! Mom did the pecan pie on her own after we did the apple pies! What a woman she is!

(above) This is a GREAT pic of the after math of the pie baking! Mom used the rest of the dought for the Pecan Pie!

SOOO FUN! Thanks Mom for the great instruction and good times! We all had a blast! Great memories!

childhood memories . . . my amazing family!!!

Today at work (The Sharing Place) I met with a mom and her 6 children, the oldest child was 15. I couldn't help but have flash backs of my childhood as the oldest in my big, wonderful family!!!

I just couldn't help but think of my family. My mom was so similar to this woman, and the kids were so similar to me and my sibs.

I am so grateful for everything about my childhood. I couldn't have been raised by two more wonderful parents, who of course didn't have a manual for how to raise their kids, but they did an amazing job (and still do, Mom!). I remember so many fun times, so many learning experiences, and SO much family time and family outings. Even when I was in High School and into my friends, we still did a lot of family things all together.

I remember my Dad, and Mom too, were so huge on family time. Dad loved having his family all together and really vocalized and exemplified the importance of that.

Memories fill my head of:

- camping

- fishing

- hikes

- Saturday outings to explore Southern Utah

- Family night and the conducting and acknowledgements- "We'd like to welcome everyone out to Family Night! We'd especially like to acknowledge the presence of the most wonderful, most beautiful, most harmonious, most fantabulous, most superific (and whatever other wacky words came to mind) ___(?)___ Glauser!!!!!!!!!! And the person named would stand and do a silly bow (and we'd acknowledge a different family member each week - SOOO fun!)

- Sunday cookies and movies

- Random, yet perfect, family teaching and sharing moments

- Uno in the tent

- Picking Peas out of the garden in the Spring

- weeding the garden

- water fights

- hallering moments, followd by teaching and learning moments

- "Take the punishment!" (inside thing)

- Dad's bulldosing moments and Mom always there to replant (Dad learned to replant too, a little)

- The Narrows (the little ones) at Pioneer Park (I wonder if I still fit in those?)

- Easter morning and Thanksgiving with the Taylor's or the Garrett's

- Family trip to Laguna Beach!!!

- Disneyland (and meeting the Neff's there one time, when I was real young)

- Our blue Astro Van (and the surfing sticker on the back window that Bri Neff gave my Dad)

- Taking out the middle seat in the van and laying out blankets and pads for a long road trip (so seatbelt safe)

- Performing nights at home (random, never planned)-- Me and Brad's Aladdin performance, Michael inbetween ;), Becky and Scott (or Cami and Scott, or Cami and Michael?)) doing the Phantom of the Opera, Michael inbetween ;), Cami's dance moves, oh and Michael inbetween;), and Jeffery just laughing so hard and Sara just trying to think of something to perform, dance moves, poems, you name it --- And most hilariously Michael's random, yet awesome, raps and rhymes! Hilarious! (I sure miss those lately Mike! Really - I do! No jokin' this time!)

The list goes on and on! I hope others in my family can comment and add more to the list - ones I am forgetting or some of the endless ones I didn't list!

I love my family! Thank you for being perfect just the way you all are!!!!!!

Halloween!

I LOVE Halloween - almost more than Christmas! I love dressing up and doing the whole dress-up and trick or treat thing with my kids!


(Above) Here we are with the McKinnon Family picking out pumpkins the weekend before Halloween and spending Halloween night with them! So FUN!

(Above) Here are some fun pics throughout our day of Halloween. The finished product after I made Conrad's Peter Pan costume (super easy - awesome!). I dressed up (middle top pic) as my supervisor at work (I am on the right - he is on the left) Hee Hee! How did I do? (My chest is not very large so I was able to pull off the "boy" look pretty well) :)



Then Scott and I took the kids to Discovery Gateway (Children's Museum) for some Halloween celebrations. The kids had a great time playing. Conrad won 1st place in the costume contest and was presented with a little plastic trophy by two guys dressed like the Ghostbusters! It was hilarious!

Then we spent a fun filled evening at G & G Mack's house eating pizza and trick o treating!!!

Here are a few more fun pics:


Hana's first Elementary School Halloween parade! Fun!

Conrad and I (Scott behind camera) waiting for Hana to walk through the gym with her class in the parade!

Two cutest kiddos ever! Hana as a "Pink Tink" and Conrad as Peter Pan! SO FUN!

Hobbies

I am in the mood to bake! I did not bake this delicious dessert, but I want to make it. It is a peach cake. I am blogging about this because I feel like I have NO time to do little hobbies, such as baking. I just needed to comment about it - and make your mouths water when you see this picture. :)

Was it worth it?

I got a fun cabinet and now have a little pantry! yay! So my house is older and does not have a pantry. I have been on the look out for some type of cabinet to put in my kitchen for added space . . . I finally found a GREAT deal at Shopko with a 3-day special . . . a $140 cabinet for $45. Sweet!

So the question is . . . Was it worth the drama of getting it? A maybe 1 hour excursion, turned into an all day ordeal . . . Its one of those situations where they only have 12 in stock, its an incredible deal and you don't realize the demand for the item. So I go to the store, buy the cabinet, they take too long getting it for me, Amy's bothered, cuz I have to leave to get Hana, they tell me they can't hold it for me, I get my $ back, take care of Hana, return an hour later to buy it, I found out they could've held it for me, Amy's grinding, they tell me they are out of them now, Amy's pissed, they call other stores and they are also out, Amy's very pissed, but composed, they finally find a store that has one, they hold it for me, I drive across town, finally get it, rush staight from there to drop Conrad off with Scott and rush to work.

Was it worth it! Well, I could've done with out the ins and outs, but am glad for the extra space and it was fun to set it up and organize it!

The funny part is the customer service lady told the guy at the store where they finally found one, "You better make sure that you hold it for her, because if she gets there and you don't have it, you are going to be sorry." Funny :) I was pretty mad :0 I guess.