Hunter's Performance

To say Hunter loves to sing is an understatement. In fact, if he could, he'd sing and dance all day, every day if we let him. Since Jared's family wasn't able to come to his Halloween Performance at school, he decided to recreate it for them after Sunday dinner.

He played the piano and sang his little heart out. 

We really need to start him on piano lessons. I don't think it would take much for him to learn.

Sorry these are dark, had to use my phone to take pictures.

Hunter sang songs for about half an hour.

He even did the dishes for us so we could hurry and see his concert. He loves doing dishes for Grandma.

Dinner's here are always fun. Had tacos tonight with Jared's homemade tortillas. MMmmmm!

Haunted House

Jared and I took the boys to a haunted house for their first time tonight. I found a free one someone had made in their barn. We went with some friends from football... the Thomas's and the Browning's.

The kids left to right... Hunter, Cody, T.J., Spencer B., Andrew T., Thomas's cousin, Jenna T., & Maddie B.

Waiting in line with the parents. We had to go in groups of 4 or 5. So Jared B. took T.J., Spencer & Andrew. These football players who are supposed to be tough were scared to death! Jared B. said he had to keep pushing them through. I guess T.J. did the best out of those three.

I went with Sharon T., Jenna and Maddie. Those girls were also scared to death! Maddie held my hand the whole time and couldn't stop shaking.

Jared took Cody and Hunter and said they did good.

The entrance to the haunted house. Wish I could have got more pictures but I couldn't. It was a really good haunted house for it being free and in someone's barn. Definitely creepy!

We decided to go again. This time we found out who really got scared. Hunter freaked when he heard we were going through again. He disappeared and headed for the truck by himself.

Jared caught him though (thank goodness, we were parked on the road!).

Andrew was scared also. He's hiding with his Dad. T.J. was also scared. Started crying.

And then there's Cody... he wasn't scared at all! He's pretty tough.

I thought for sure someone would call us in with how Hunter was acting. He was going crazy trying to get away as we got closer to the entrance. He was literally clawing trying to get out of my grasp. He was pinching, kicking, trying to hit me with his head. Out of control! But we still made him go. I carried him the whole way. I swear he's gained 20 lbs. since I did that.

We made it thru though.

The Brownings went home after this one. But us and the Thomas's found another one in Riverton so we headed there. We found out though it was sponsored by Alta's baseball team and since we're playing Alta next week at playoffs, we were not supporting them. So we went to Artic Circle for ice cream instead and hung out there for an hour. The kids all had a blast. T.J. really likes Andrew and can't wait until football is over so they can play.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the last couple months I've made these cookies 3 times. (Double batch, too. I should mention though, I needed some for neighbors and friends also.) And as always, they are eaten up right away. I try putting a few bags away in the freezer for a later time, but that later time seems to be within the next few days. I guess it's safe to say this is one of our family's favorite cookies! So here's the recipe...

* 1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix
* 3/4 C. Crisco
* 1/4 C. Cocoa Powder
* 2 Eggs
* 5 Tbsp. Cold Water

Mix all ingredients together by hand (a hand mixer doesn't do so well with this dough). When mixed, add in 1/2 bag of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and mix well. But if you're like me and LOVE chocolate, add in about a quarter of a bag more of chocolate chips!

Roll into inch and a half size balls. (These don't stick together as well if you use a lot of chocolate chips, but make it work, cause it's worth it!) Roll completely in Powdered Sugar and placed on a non-greased cookie sheet. These cookies don't spread much so I cram as many on a sheet as I can to bake. Slightly press down on cookie dough before baking.

Bake at 350' for about 10 and a half minutes.

This is what you end up with...

Love the cracks in them. Aren't they pretty?!

Makes my mouth water just posting this.

Oooooey Goooey Goodness! 

Seriously. So good!

Not sure how many cookies this recipe makes though. They get eaten so fast I can't keep track. I think maybe around fifty or so.

Jared loves these cookies now. Before, when he was picky, he didn't like them as much. (That was before I turned him on to good food. Hee... hee.) But now he eats about 8 when they first come out of the oven with those warm chocolate chips inside. And that's huge for him, being all healthy CPT now. My favorite way to eat them is when they are cold; especially when they come out of the freezer. Love chocolate that way.

The boys favorite way to eat them... any way! What can I say, they're boys!

See what usually happens when we go shopping with our boys...

Some how, there always seems to be hats hanging around just waiting to be tried on by them.

This happened to be at the leather store. We only came here for materials to make new belts. But ended up having way too much fun with these.

My favorite are the chief's hats. How about you?

Silly boys.

My Grandma Holt's sister Aunt Vauna Mooseman passed away last Friday. Her funeral was today. Mom and I went together.

I loved Aunt Vauna. She was always so sweet. She'd come give me hugs and ask how I was doing every time I'd see her. She was so beautiful, too! Everyone thought so. About 2 years ago she started going down hill. They thought it might be Parkinson's or Alzheimer's but it wasn't. She had dementia. She noticed something wasn't right with her brain right after she started working in the temple and had a hard time memorizing things. It was hard to see her go downhill.
Her funeral was really nice. Here's what stories they told about her:

1. She was a country/farm girl. She was there to help on the family farm in Crescent. She'd drive the team of horses as other siblings would pitch the hay onto the wagon. I miss this farm! I grew up a couple blocks from it. Uncle Jerry-Grandma's younger brother-raised acres of hay there. After Jared and I got married, he'd buy hay from Uncle Jerry. I remember going to my friend-Rashelle's house and looking through the field seeing Jared and his Dad and Brother picking up hay to sell. And Grandma's youngest brother-Uncle Ross- stabled horses at the end of our lane. I'd walk down and check on them all the time; sometimes feeding or watering if he needed me to. I miss the old farm. Now there's a Walmart and Sam's Club where the fields were. It's still hard to drive past and see this. I'll have to put pictures on here sometime of the old farm.

2. Aunt Vauna was the Queen of the Harvest Ball at Jordan High for the Fall Dance. (One of the main reasons I went to Jordan High was because so many of my family members - including my Grandma and Grandpa Holt - went there. Love the history!)

3. Aunt Vauna always kept a clean house. She was always caught up on her housework. (Wouldn't that be nice!)

4. She was closest to my Grandma Holt growing up. In fact, as we were going through the line for the viewing, Aunt Vauna's daughters told Mom and I that Roylance (my grandma) had been living at Aunt Vauna's house the last 6 months. Aunt Vauna would stand at the top of the stairs and call out saying, "Come on Roylance". And as she was passing, she was talking to her and another sister of theirs. I'm so thankful for the gospel to know as we pass from this life, we aren't alone. Family members come to bring us home.

5. She kept awesome record keeping of her life. She even wrote about her siblings and what things she remembers about them or what they did growing up together. I want to be able to say this about myself someday.

6. Her favorite place to vacation was Jackson Hole, Wyoming!! And didn't leave without a visit to the Bar J Wranglers! How cool is that! That is my absolute favorite place to go, too. And I LOVE the Bar J Wranglers!

When we got to the church we got a surprise. Uncle Brent came from Colorado! I miss him. He is so funny! It was so fun to get together with Mom and her Brothers Brent (left) and Ron (right). I miss her family. I wish we still got together. Every one's moved, and gotten busy with life, that we just don't see each other much.

I tried to talk Uncle Brent into moving back to Utah, but that didn't work.

Aunt Vauna was buried at the Crescent Cemetery by her other family members.

Although it's sad we are there for a funeral, I love seeing all the family. I'm lucky to come from great family's on both sides of my parents. Everyday I try to become a little more like both my Grandparents. Take the good, learn from it, and teach my boys a little more of where they come from. And hope we can make our ancestors proud.

Hanging out at the Tractor Store

I love tractors! Seriously love them. Maybe that's the country girl in me, or maybe that comes from my Dad. Some of my favorite things to do with my Dad growing up was to go to a tractor store with him, or ride along side him on his backhoe, or cut grass with him on the John Deere riding lawn mower. So today when he called me and said he and my brother Jim were heading to the new John Deere store here in Bluffdale, T.J., Cody and I jumped at the chance to go with. Poor Hunter ended up getting sick so Jared stayed back with him.
I've wanted to go to this new store for a while now, so I was so happy it worked out. Jim was buying a new lawn mower so of course we had to tag along.

First thing when we walked into the store, the boys jump on the riding lawn mowers on display. Honestly, there has to be a magnet installed that connects with my boys. This happens everywhere we go!

This is like the lawn mower Jim is buying. A zero turn mower with a cutting span of about 4 feet. He's going to start a small landscaping business.

Of course we found all the John Deere toys! And they had some cool ones! We could spend so much money there. I even wanted some... hee, hee. They have a neat remote control tractor there my Dad is asking Santa for this Christmas. It's huge! See, this store brings out the kid in everyone.

T.J. back on the floor displays, figuring out the lights, caution lights, and such. Man that kid can figure out anything!

All T.J. wanted to see was a Combine Tractor. He found it, and sure enough was climbing on. He and Cody couldn't get enough of it. Lucky for them it was unlocked so they could take a spin at the controls. They were in tractor heaven. They were excited to find out Grandpa Kenison used to repair Combines and drive one around, cutting hay for neighbors when he lived up in Kamas Valley. (Back in the 70's, before he married my mom and us youngins came along.) They thought that was so cool. My Dad said he used to stop at the gas station on the corner there in Heber, grab a handful of licorice for a few pennies, and then head to another field to cut more hay. Once the licorice was gone, he'd grab a handful of wheat and chew 'til it made some gum. The boys couldn't believe you could make gum like that. Doesn't taste the best though, but it works.

See them inside checking everything out..

Since Jim bought a lawn mower, they threw in some free hats for us. See my Dad's new hat? He's so funny. He loved sportin' that around while looking at the tractors. The boys and I got a free hat, too. All baseball cap style. The boys are camo and mine is brown with pink stitching and a pink John Deere logo. Love it!!

Such a fun day! Makes me want to buy a tractor! 

Boys Being Men

Cody's been on a kick lately. He's been doing his hair all by himself. Our boys hate doing their hair so this was unusual for Cody. He'd get it all wet and them comb it down all over. It layed down flat all over and looked like he had bangs, but he liked it. He'd do his hair about 3 times a day.

Pretty soon he started spraying Jared's cologne on him as well so he could be like Dad. He'd ask me to smell him, all proud of himself.

Hunter saw this and decided he wanted to do it, too. He sprayed some cologne on and came out singing... "Smell my chest, smell my chest, smell my chest hairs. Smells like Dad's!"

Oh my goodness. Had a good laugh at this one!

Cute boys being men.