Baby Its Cold Outside

So if my kids and I think it is cold outside (gearing up to go caroling tonight) and it is 57 degrees outside, I guess we're in for it when we head to Utah this weekend. Just checked the weather report for our drive up and the HIGH on Saturday in Sandy is supposed to be 18 degrees?! What.

Left my son's coat at my mom's last time we were there, knowing we wouldn't need it here, but forgetting that we might want it coming back. I guess it's gonna be a cold trip up for him, poor guy.

This truly is the payoff for our blasted summers. Maybe I should start with socks on our feet and a sweatshirt...

Cute Ashley.

Ashley wanted me to post this sad picture of what happened when Jake whacked her with a toy. Poor Ash. She puts up with a lot of physical roughness from her brothers and is one tough cookie. I just sit on them when they hurt her. Kidding. Kind-of.

This year's addition to our Christmas Decor.

Little hands + Christmas decorations = The Little People Nativity

Ashley and Jacob have been playing with this ALL week. Thankfully now, they're leaving mine alone.

Holiday Baking - Hillstead Style

On Sunday we spent the afternoon in the kitchen, playing Christmas music and cooking! In the end we had made lasagna, rolls, pumpkin cookies and sugar cookies. The place was a mess but it was fun!! Afterward I laughed to myself because I had recently seen a friend's blog of their sugar cookie decorating event and it was a far cry from mine... her sprinkles beautifully placed in small glass bowls tied with Christmas ribbons... ours wasn't quite that well put together. But it counts.

I do have two recipies that I thought I could share that are really good and easy, in case you've got somewhere to go and want to bring a quick treat.

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chips:
1 box white cake mix
1 box spice cake mix
1 large can pumpkin
2 cups (or however much you like) chocolate chips.

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl with an electric mixure. Spoon onto cooking sheet in the size of a ping-pong ball (don't spray pan), bake on 375 for 8-10 mins. Makes 4 dozen.

Mint Brownies:
2 packages Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix, made as they tell you to (the big box at Costco has 6 bags in it).
1 box of I think 24 Andes Mints, unwrapped and placed on top of the brownies right when they come out of the oven. Let them melt a bit and spread them around. Rich and Divine!

I washed my phone

I'm putting up a post to let those who call me know that my cell phone had it's life cut short this week. Drowned. It'll be a bit until I get back up and running with a new one, and I didn't want my kind friends or family members to think that I was avoiding them by not answering or returning calls. Please try me at home...

Cute Brothers.

Now that they share a room Luke often reads bedtime stories to Jakey before we turn out the lights. It is so cute.

The home we're renting

I wanted to share some pictures of the house we are renting. We feel so lucky to be in this house because it is in our same neighborhood and ward boundaries and is surrounded by great families! It is also a treat to have a basement which is uncommon here, to have the kids sleeping downstairs and the boys sharing a room. I feel very grateful that things have worked out so well for us to be here, for however long or short it ends up being. This is a great house and we are enjoying the simple life of being renters.

The toyroom

The basement familyroom

Upstairs


Out front, on a nice, quiet street

This I love.

My friend has this 13" "Kneeling Santa" by Joseph studio statue and years ago gave me one in an ornament. I just love it! I guess there is a story book to go along with it about how Santa comes across the baby Jesus and kneels down to honor him. So sweet. Next year I'd like to get the statue to symbolize for my family that Santa is great, but celebrating our Savior's birth and life is what Christmas is really about.

A friend in need of prayers

Here is the link to a friend's blog. She is a really close friend to my college roommate and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. I can't get her off my mind, as she is near my age and has two young children like so many of us.

Sometimes it seems like cancer is getting to everybody these days and it is just scary. Having seen what I've seen and been through what I've been through with my dad's battle with cancer I have a very tender spot in my heart for others who go through it too.

As Rashelle mentions on her blog, this is just the beginning (she was just recently diagnosed and starts chemo this week), but I thought some of you might like to follow along and offer her support through loving comments and prayers.

When you get the her site, click on "survivor" at the top of the page.

web.mac.com/rbug

Family Pictures

Friday night we had professional pictures taken. I've been wanting to have a large picture of our family to put over our piano in the livingroom and wanted to wait until the kids were old enough to understand how to smile and cooperate. I thought now would be a good time, plus with us planning to leave Arizona soon, I wanted to capture our family at this place and time in our lives. The night was stressful like all picture taking experiences can be (Ashley fell down and scraped her knee minutes into the session and would not smile until she had a band-aide), but we ended up with a lot of sweet pictures to hold on to.

I wanted to share some of the ones I like: