Junior Prom?!

Yes, it is hard to believe Schuyler is old
enough to go to Junior Prom! 

 This was fun to see him all dressed up and excited to go. 

However, you need to understand Schuyler. 

He was working out the details and
planning the date months in advance. 

I shouldn't be surprised. 

  He asked his friend Tiffany, who is really
a good friend from swim team.

I was glad he would go with someone
as a friend and not a romantic date.

We rented a tux and bought a corsage.
All fun and new experience for both of us!

  Before the prom, Uthans have this thing
called Promenade.  It's so the parents can go and
see all the kids dressed up. They held the

promenade at the high school at 4:30 so the kids
could get on their way to dinner.

All the kids coming through the floral archway
were announced and would do a funny little dance or move.
A lot of boys would spin their dates.  One couple did the Macrana dance.
Schuyler and Tiffany did this cute little move.  It was fun. 

So, I called a friend who has access to a
wedding boutique here in town.

She said I could take anything I
needed to decorate.  Ummm...let's see.
100 feet of tule, check. Silver beads, check. 

Flowers,check.  Table runners, check!
I just needed some balloons

and a poster and I was set. Here are the results.

 After the promenade, Mark and I rushed home
to prepare the dinner.  Mark had made this fantastic suggestion
of having the kids eat here instead of at a fancy restaurant to save money.
I didn't mind, but holy cow!! Pressure!!

I kept thinking these kids will look back in
20 years and they will remember coming to Schyuler's house
to eat before prom.   I made placecards for everyone

and found some great placemats and these cool square plates.

We served chicken Fondue with salad and breadsticks. 

 One of the boys' mothers offered to bring a chocolate fountain

with all the trimmings!  We had it set up in the dining room so they

could start dessert whenever they were ready.

  The girls were worried about

spilling on their dresses,so thanks to my  amazing

Sis-in-law, Toshia, we had plenty of aprons to go around!

 The theme for prom was "Behind the Mask" So it was a masqurade ball. 

It was held at the Crystal Manor in Logan. 
Schuyler had a great time and didn't
get home until 1am!  Even with all the hard work,
I am grateful Schuyler has some pretty great friends!

 

Daddy does hair

You are Beautiful!

Because we have been raising boys for the last 16 years, it often catches me off guard when Mark will take Brielle for me so I can get dinner ready and play with her dolls or do her hair.  This is an example of Mark's handiwork on Brielle's head!  She loved it!

Didn't daddy do a great job?

More is not necessarily better in this case

Honey Candy

A few weeks ago one of my boys begged me to make honey candy. It was not very hard to give in since our family loves honey candy and what a better time to make it than on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter.  This recipe is from my sweet MIL and is really easy!

First, you melt 1/4 c. butter and 1 c. honey together in a 3 qt. pan. 
Then you add 2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. of water and 1/2 Tbs. vanilla. 
Slowly boil to brittle stage or 300 degrees on a candy theometer.

While the mixture is boiling set out a greased 15x7" cookie sheet. 
Make sure you have a hot pad under your cookie sheet as your pan will get very hot. 
When the mixture is ready, pour liquid onto pan.  Let cool for about 5-10 minutes.

When the candy is cool enough to touch,
take a small amount and start to pull it in your hands.
We always butter our hands really well so it doesn't stick.

I threw in this picture because I wanted to show off
the really cool aprons that my SIL, Toshia sent us for Christmas. 
They have come in handy several times!

When you can no longer pull the candy because it will get hard,
place it on another cookie sheet lined with wax paper. It's fun to make your own designs.
Allow to cool completely and then cover with another piece of wax paper
and hit pieces with a butter knife handle.  This will create the perfect size to suck on.

You can use the same wax paper to wrap the pieces in.  I like to store it in the fridge so it stays hard.  Even though these are loaded with sugar, these are a great substitute for cough drops.

Best Pre- Christmas gift!

Aunt Candy, Uncle Loyal and Braden
Patti and Rick Stott

Grandpa and Grandma Bradley

Even though Kevin and Caleb recieved their Eagle award in October, we weren't able to host their court of honor until December. This was a great day for everyone.

I consider this a family Christmas gift!

IT's the busiest time of the year...

This picture doesn't do justice to the large head on that prehistoric alligator!

These were great displays, but what the heck is a Longhorn bull doing with the dinosaurs?

Brielle really liked looking at the stuffed animals. Good thing they were behind glass!

The boys were tired of posing for pictures

Turkey treat found online. Caleb helped me put them together.

Our adventure in putting a gingerbread house together.

TaDah!

As most of you know, we were trying to drive to Portland for Thanksgiving. But, because of bad weather along our route and because Brielle had an ear infection and started new meds on Monday, we decided to wait until summer when we could enjoy the Portland area a little more.

After making this decicison, however, we thought we should go and do something fun. So we drove to SLC to tour the new Natural History museum. By new, I mean they just opened a week earlier! It was a beautiful day and we had fun looking at the exhibts. The best part was it wasn't crowded and everything was so clean. We spent most of our day there so when we got home in the evening, I shot off to the local store like a mad woman in search of the easiest and yummiest Thanksgiving meal I could find. All was pulled off and none was the wiser. I even had time to put together these little turkey treats to put on everyones plates. It was great and we enjoyed talking about things we were grateful for. One of the weirdest comments was from Kevin who said he is grateful for piano!?!? Really!?! Wow, Kevin is by far the one child who complains about piano lessons/ practice the most! Huh? Then for FHE the next Monday we put our Gingerbread house together. We aren't as creative as most people, but it was a fun thing to do. Now on to the big day......

Dating and diapers

Homecoming dinner

Homecoming dates
Sadie Hawkins

Also Sadie Hawkins

Bri the Bee

A wizard, Bro. Rapp and a bee

Not that anyone noticed my absence, but our computer got sick and had to spend a week at the computer hospital. Life went on as usual but I learned I could get a lot more done without this device around. Sad, but true.

Here is the latest from our little family.

In Sept. Skyler was asked by two girls to attend Sadie Hawkins. I didn't grow up around this kind of dating phenom, so it was fun to see Skyler be dotted on and asked in fun ways. The first girl doorbell ditched this contained filled with blue craft paper and goldfish. The paper was scrunched up and had words on it. Skyler put the words together to reveal the message. It said.."Out of all the fish in the sea, will you go to Sadie's with me?" He responed by making a poster and putting it on her car. The next girl came a couple days later and strung this movie film all over the front porch. the note said..." Sadie's would be picture perfect if you would go with me." He had already made arrangements to go with the first girl, so he drew a picture of an umbrella which said, I'd like to offer this rain check, sorry." and rolled it up with a candy bar inside and gave it to the second girl. A month later was Homecoming. He asked a girl to go and got a couple friends together. The group of 6 came to our house in the afternoon to decorate cakes and carve pumpkins. Then they took their dates home and a few hours later picked them up and had pictures takes in their dressy attire. THEN, they came back over here for dinner which was fondue, salad and breadsticks! What!! This was just homecoming! Can't wait till prom!

The twins have earned their Eagle Scout Awards and we are in the process of planning the court of Honor. There are 2 other kids who have also earned their Eagles and will be joining us. We will be getting out the invitations soon. It will be Sunday Dec. 18th.

Brielle is 14 months old and is walking everywhere. She is at that stage where she has to open every cupboard and drawer she sees. SInce we have new cabinets and din't want to scratch them up with the safety locks, we have found some nice thick rubberbandsthat we can wrap around the knobs. So far it works. She isn't talking yet, but can understand us pretty well. She is learning things like; nose, eyes, ears. She will pick up her shoes and bring them to us if she sees someone putting their shoes on. We have abandoned the bottle and she is good with her sippy cup. For Halloween she was a bumble bee. I found this costume at a yard sale for $2. I loved that it was so warm! She only went to a couple houses with ehr brothers, but it was fun. Caleb was a wizard and Kevin put this mask on that looked just like this guy from our ward!! We called him Bro. Rapp.

Out takes

Skyler trying to imitate "Uncle Rico" from Napaloian Dynamite

Little Miss Vampire trying to take a bite of my nose

Trying to get Brielle to smile

Skyler shilding Brielle's attempt flash the camera

sharing my secrets to a great smile

again, trying to make brielle laugh

just for fun

Everyone knows, a good family picture doesn't just happen. There were over 1000 pictures taken in 1 1/2 hours! It was work, but we had fun. Here are some of my favorite out takes!