Hottest Ticket in town

Saturday we were Lucky enough to get four of the hottest tickets in town. We were able to go to the Tabernacle choir Christmas program with David Archuleta. Can I just say he is so cute. He seems like the same humble boy that we first saw on American Idol two years ago.

We knew the concert was very popular and the normal warning of being in your seat 30 minutes early might leave us without a seat. The news recommended at least 45 minutes if not an hour early. They were right it was crazy we were there 1hour and 20 min. early and it was crazy.

It was well worth it. Dallen loved it. We took Courtney and Dallen and rode Trax down. It was a highlight of the Day. It was a memorable day. If you see Dallen asked him about his run in with the law. It is a good story.

Gingerbread men.

Gingerbread Men

I love to eat Gingerbread Men. They are one of my favorite treats this time of year. Last night we decorated gingerbread men for Young Womens and took them to families in the ward. Nicole and I made 12 dozen men. The Young Women were so creative in decorating the cookies. I thought I would share the recipe.

Gingerbread Men

1 cup of shortening

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 cup of Molasses

2 tabl. vinegar

5 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2-3 tsp. ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

Mix together then chill for 3 hours. Roll out then cut. bake at 350* for 8-10 min

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to make candy. Most of it has nuts in it and I don't care for nuts but sometimes I make the caramel without nuts. I was unable to visit the ladies I visiting teach this November so I make some caramel and took it to them. They loved it. Here is the Recipe.

Caramel

2 cups sugar

2 cups white corn syrup

Bring to a boil, let thicken, but not change color, 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile

Scald 1 1/2 pints whipping cream

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 1/2 can)

then add milk mixture 1 Tbls at a time to the sugar/syrup mixture so it continues to boil. Cook to 238* .

Take off the stove and add 1 Tbls vanilla and a shake of salt.

(based on a candy thermometer that boils at 210*)

More photos from our Thanksgiving

Some more Photos from our Thanksgiving Day. I often am amazed when I look at my kids in photo. You forget how attractive they really are.

Marissa was the first one who had enough. When she is done she will not go on any longer. I was surprised to find this photo of just her in the middle of all the family shots. I thought it was at a later time and she was sitting in a chair but that is her Daddy's sweater so she is sitting on his lap.

The boys could go on and on forever. The girls are all done.

Let it Snow!!!!!

In the off season David has collected 5 new to us snowmobiles. We were able to take out the big ones a few weeks ago. Today was the first time we were able to try out the baby ones. They are 120's meant for kids. It didn't stop David from getting on one and trying it out

Dallen had some fun. He really got a feel for it. This is his first time driving himself he has been on back for the past two years.

I hope we did not drive too many of the neighbors crazy on a Sunday morning.

Happy Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving was a fun one. We figured we would start the day with a photo shoot. This year is going to be our last with my dad so we took a Thompson Family Photo Boys in Blue Girls in Red. I do not have those photos. I had Danny take a family photo of us with my camera.

Family Photos are always a challenge. The more kids you have the more challenging they are. With five kids I hoped we could get at least one good Photo. I am narrowing down the only 3 good ones. That is 3 out of 70 that almost look good. Here are the bloopers. I will make a Christmas card out of the good one.

The end

Young Women Christmas presents

Next Years (2011) Young Women's Theme is the 13th Article of Faith. We were just put in as a new presidency and the first question was what will we give the girls as Christmas Gifts. I opened my mouth and suggested a Scrabble tile necklace with word art from the 13th Article of Faith. The art above is what I came up with. I totally copied the idea from something I saw. It was a hard learning curve to figure out how to do it. I could not do it in photoshop because I could not get the fonts to look right. I did some research and found out fonts were vector based and i needed to use a program that was. I used inkscape and it all came together. I will post the necklaces once I finish one. IT looks better than the photo. I had to enlarge it so you can see it on the photo and in the process lost some letters. The tiles are only one inch.

Fall is here and you know what that means.

Leaves

The kids spent the afternoon Raking the leaves and playing in them.

They became scarecrows.

Dallen covered in leaves.

It was a fun afternoon. Even the dog had a great afternoon.

pumpkins

I found a great deal on Pumpkins this year. Winco had them for 8cents a pound. I took a huge one in to the store to see how much it weighted but the problem was the scale only went up to 30 LB. That meant they could only charge me for a 30LB pumpkin. What a deal $2.40 each. I called David and got the OK to buy 7.

Courtney always looks cute doing anything.

Dallen thinks it is gross

Derek worked so hard on getting his guts out.

Marissa took the time to do things right. The only problem with getting huge pumpkins is that they are thick and hard to carve. David even used a shovel to get the guts out. They all turned out cute.

Dallen got a cookie from his grandpa reading buddy. He was so excited he wanted me to blog about it.

Fall break camping

During Fall Break we decided it was time for a road trip. We started out thinking we would take Grandpa Dale and the big girls and hike havasoupi Soon the rest of Davids family decided they wanted to come and we felt bad about leaving the smaller kids. We ended up with a huge group at Capital Reef.

Makenna and Dallen

The Hike.

My favorite tree. There is no dirt under the trunk the roots are growing back into the bank.

Do you see the Man in the mountain. He was hard to see at different times of the day.

The whole gang.

David and diglet tired after the hike.

More of the hike.

David on pride rock. Dallen said the photo is not right the rock that he is on is higher than the one David is on.

Cute photo to end the fun.

Nicole is 18!

Not an easy task but I think we embarrassed Nicole. All you have to do is take her out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and let the restaurant know it is her birthday. They make you sit on a horse saddle and tell everyone it is your birthday.

Nicole acting excited about her gift. She on reacted because I said I would return the gift if she didn't give me a good reaction.

Happy 18th Nicole, we love you!

Marrissa football part two.

I told Marissa to put some shorts on and get ready for football. She said "Why can't I wear a skirt?" I said what ever thinking she would put on her skort almost the same as a pair of shorts. No she comes down in a TUTU. When Nicole asked her why she wanted to wear what she had on she said "So the boys will notice me." Well the boys did notice her. I am pretty sure every one saw her twirling around on the field. This is what she looked like.

This is one of my favorite shots. I will tell you what is going on because you might not see it all. Marissa has the ball. The boys with the orange Flags are trying to figure out how or if they should pull Marissa's flag. The orange boy on the ground has Marissa's shoe in his hand. In all the excitement she lost it. I am surprised the photo is not blurry I pretty much laughed the whole game.

This was Marissa hiking the ball. The coach later said this was the best hike all season. He is very good at humoring Marissa.

We only have two more games until the season is over. I am not sure how we will top this game.

Are you ready for some football? Marissa style!

When Marrissa decided she wanted to sign up for football like her brother I was surprised. I was even more surprised when she was the only girl on her team. We have only found one other girl in her age group.

Marissa was so excited at her first game she even made her first tackle. The problem is she is playing flag football and the boy was on her team. The boys don't take it easy on her and she is hard on them also.

When you are seven it is all about the treat you get at the end of the game. They were very upset when someone forgot to bring a treat to the game.

My favorite game was the week she showed up in a pink skort. She is such a cute girly girl that she always turns heads when she plays.

Her coach is great with all the kids. he is allowed on the field to coach the team. The kids all love him.

Debby your going to be jealous

Look what I got it is the Nikon 5000. Costco has it in a package and discounted $100. It took me a week longer than expected to talk David into getting it for me. By the time I talked him into it they did not have it in stock. I was told they were expecting it in soon only two maybe three days tops. Ten days later and more trips to costco than I care to admit they still didn't have it in. Lucky for me I called Inkleys and they said they would match the deal. So here is my new camera.


That is not what you are going to be jealous of. You have a nice camera. Look What I did to it. It will make David think twice about using it. The new strap has a pocket to put the lens cover in. The strap was easy to make. The bag took longer. I knew I could not ever really enjoy the yellow on it. Pink is much more my style. I can't wait for Dallen and Marissa's football games to start so I can take photos. I think for Family Home Evening we are going up the Canyon.

Family Dinner

The Thompson's got together for a family dinner today. The food was great the company was fun. Danny took some fun photos with my new camera.

The hostess after a long day cooking.

David looking good.

Dallen and Six.

Derek and his Ice Cream.

Grandpa.