A Little List of Things....

Here is a little list of things that Lincoln thinks are ipods.   This seriously makes me giggle!   I will add to it as I discover more.   Happy Friday!

Family Self Portrait

I think this is my favorite family photo of 2008, it is so us!!  I have a big post planned about our trip to Vegas but it has yet to make it out of my head and onto paper, so to speak.  So for now, what will most likely be next years christmas card photo!  :)

Happy Friday!!

Quote of the Day

This quote actually came from Monday and it has a little story.  

Monday night we are playing Go Fish as a family, we really like this game because it is one that Link is good at and we all have fun playing together.  It was my turn and I asked Link if he had any Star Fish.  He looks at his cards and as he is handing me 2 cards he says in the sweetest, softest, little voice....  

"You're going down"

We all had a great laugh, but I was a little scared!  he-he-he

a visit

I came from a family that would sometimes have Christmas  a week early because we were all too excited.  Mike's family was not so much like that, so tonight when we got a little surprise on our door step, we had a dilemma.   It all started when we were eating dinner, we heard a knock at the door and Jackson went running.  He opened the door and then we didn't hear anything, so I went to see who was there and Jack was walking back in the house with an arm load of presents.  There was one for each of the boys and one for Mike and I as well all from "Santa's Elf".  The boys were jumping up and down and as they asked if they could open them tonight, I smiled and Mike said "nope".  We went back to the dinner table to discuss it and I was thinking that if Santa's Elf stopped by early then it would be totally fine to open what he brought.  Mike sat there shaking his head at me with this funny smile on his face and I knew he was thinking about telling me how impatient we all were when Lincoln said " I think that Mom should be the boss of the presents."  Yay, I love to be the boss, especially of presents!  So in the end we made a compromise, the boys could open theirs tonight but Mike and I would wait and open ours on Christmas.  It was a perfect night, thank you so much Santa's Elf for stopping by our home.  Spontaneously opening presents a week before Christmas takes me back to being a kid and there is nothing better than being a kid at Christmas!

Snow Day

Why I love snow days in St. George...

1. a few inches and no school!  sweeeet!

2. as I was driving this morning nearly everyone that was shoveling snow had on a short sleeve shirt.  awesome.

3. the boys look at everything in a new way and that rubs off on me. I like that.

4. large amounts of hot chocolate and playing Zelda.

5. mismatched gloves.

6. last but not least, the good ol' classic St. George snowman (note all the leaves and dirt! I love it!!).  

Here are a few from our neighborhood.....

Here is a shot of a pine cone that was covered in snow, Link decided to "save it's life" and clean off the snow.  It made me laugh.

When we got home we had a cup of hot chocolate, this was Link's. :)

say what??

Today I sat down at my desk and was looking over my list of things I had to do today. It goes like this...

1) go to costco

2)call Treo

3)book Allyson

4)all together now

wait...what?  all together now???  I don't remember writing this and I have no idea what it means.  It's a Beatles song, that I like a lot, but that is all I know.  I am so confused by this and it kinda makes me laugh, anyone have any ideas that could help me out? 

Pumpkin Roll... Pioneer Woman Style

My Mikey grew up eating pumpkin roll, and because I had never even heard of it I had his mom give me the recipe so I could be a good wife. I am pretty sure that is the best thing I ever could have done for my Mikey. He really, really, REALLY loves pumpkin roll. Whenever we have it in the house he eats it for breakfast, yeah, he loves it that much! That is pretty much the reason that I only make it around Thanksgiving but this year my friend Sarah wanted to come over and make some with me so I had it all planned and as usual life happens, this time of year is always so crazy. So I finally just asked her if she wanted me to make it and bring it to her, there was no way that she was going to turn that down so today I set out to make another big batch of the beloved pumpkin roll. As I was getting ready it occured to me that I could blog the whole thing and then I could share it with the world and Sarah all at the time!

I searched for my inner Pioneer Woman and went to work. (Here is where I add my disclaimer that in no way do I wish I was the Pioneer Woman, there is no way on earth that I could do one tenth of the things that she does. I am not even a cook at all but I do like to look at her photos of yummy food. So that is all.)

I am thinking that I will go thru the recipe with the many photos that I took and then at the end I'll post the whole recipe together so you can save it if you want to. I have kind of taken it and made it my own, it took me a lot of years to figure it out and then a lot more years to remember what it was I did the year before, I think I have it where I like it now. What I do is double the bread part but not the filling. Amazing, right? And today I made four big pumpkin rolls because I have realized over the years that you can buy friends with pumpkin roll, and I like friends this time of year!

Ok, let's get started! First, I always try and find my recipe, every year I panic a bit and think that I maybe lost it and I will never be able to make it again. Now that I took a photo of it I won't worry so much. So, here it is, in my mother-in-law's pretty handwriting.

Here is a nice little photo of all the things you need for the bread part of the p-roll.

First you throw in the eggs, remember that I doubled this part, normally you just need 3 eggs. For the rest of this post I am just going to pretend that my batch is not doubled, have I throughly confused you yet? Good.

Then you need to beet the eggs for 3 minutes. beat, beat, beat.

Add 1 cup of sugar. Beat some more.

Stir in 2/3 cup pumpkin and 1 tsp lemon juice.
Beat some more and it will look like this...

In another bowl mix 3/4 cup flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1 tsp baking powder.

Add that to your pumpkin goodness.

Beat, Beat, Beat.

Mmmmm, so good!

This next part is important, you need to grease and flour a pan, you will thank yourself later if you do a good job at this.

Pour in your pumpkin goodness.

I think this is pretty. Pop that in the oven and bake at 370 degrees for 15-20 minutes. My oven runs hot so I only need 15. Awesome, I know.

While it is baking, you will need to get a dish towel and cover it with powdered sugar yummyness.

This was the point in my day that I realized that I didn't have enough powdered sugar. So I had to go borrow some from Jill. Thanks Jill!!!

Here is what your yummy bread will look like just out of the oven, can you smell it? Ahhhh

Let it sit for 5 minutes and then turn it out onto the powered sugar covered dish towel. I told you you would be happy about flouring the pan really good.

Now you roll. Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'. You will then leave it to cool for 30 minutes.

While your roll is cooling, gather all the stuff for the filling.

You will need to mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 4 TBLS softened margarine, 1 8 0z. package of cream cheese, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

This stuff is really hard to keep your fingers out of, so, so yummy!!

After 30 minutes, unroll your roll...

and spread the filling over the top. I had a little helper, he had to quit half way through because he was too busy licking his fingers. Niiice.

You are now ready to roll again, without the towel. After that pick it up and place it on seran wrap. Look at how pretty that is!!

Cover it up and stick it in the fridge.

But, don't forget to slice yourself a piece first. This is the best part of the day, make sure you sit down to enjoy it and not just scarf it down while you are standing over the sink. It's better that way, I promise.

Here is the whole recipe if you would like to copy it.

3 eggs 2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup sugar ½ tsp. salt

2/3 cup pumpkin ½ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp. baking powder

¾ cup flour ½ cup chopped walnuts

Filling

1 cup powered sugar 2 packages of cream cheese

4 TBLS softened margarine ½ tsp. vanilla

Beat 3 eggs for 3 minutes. Add 1 cup sugar. Stir in 2/3 cup pumpkin and 1 tsp. lemon juice. In another bowl mix ¾ cup flour, 2 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. salt, ½ tsp. nutmeg, and 1 tsp. baking powder. Add to first mixture. Pour onto greased and floured cookie sheet. Top with ½ chopped walnuts (optional).

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Turn it out onto a dish towel that has been covered with powered sugar. Start at narrow end and roll up with towel. Let it cool for 30 minutes.

While cake is cooling make filling. Mix 1 cup powered sugar, 2 packages of cream cheese, 4 TBLS softened margarine, ½ tsp. vanilla. Unroll cake. Spread filling and roll up with out towel. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate. Slice and enjoy but beware! It will make you FAT & HAPPY!!!

Now for my not so favorite of the day. *sigh*

I hope that everyone enjoys this, it was kinda fun. Thanks for stopping by.