I love family!

These last couple of days Brad and I have gone golfing to some beautiful courses here in St. George. The weather has been beautiful and we had a great time! Luckily, the one man in Utah who golfs and smokes decided to pass us up because I was taking too long to get the ball in the hole. lol. I didn't mind one bit....don't people know smoking is especially bad around expectant mothers!?



We also made more ginger bread (graham cracker) houses with Jenna and Jessy. Brad and Jessy were the inspiration for the castle-like architecture and then we all helped with the frosting and decorating. Not too shabby!!!


This picture was taken at a putt putt course where Jessy and I both got hole-in-ones on the very last hole! WAY TO GO CHICAS!
Hate to say it...but St. George is not known for their high quality tennis courts. Not only do they lock up the high school courts, but these courts at Dixie College had cracks on every line. Brad gave some one-on-one lessons to Jessy and I had fun being the little prego ball lady!

Good Times

I thought it high time to update this blog. December has flown by and Christmas is a week from today! I can't believe it! Right now we are up in St. George-- we'll be spending Christmas with Brad's family this year. St. George is beautiful and its fun to get to see Mama Bowles, Jenna, Jessy, and their two huge dogs! It's actually pretty similar weather to Mesa. A little colder, but not bad!

Dakota and Dillon! Dakota is one big boy as you can see, relative to Brad!

Last Saturday we made graham cracker houses over at the Richardson's home. We had a great time creating and engineering our future dream houses. The Bowles' did a Victorian style house meanwhile the Richardson's did a Bunglaow Victorian mix. Hard part was keeping the frosting from exploding out of the bags. We had a few disasters to say the least. The secret though to our success--some may call it cheating--is hot glue gunning the graham together. We find it's much more fun to spend time creating than repairing the walls and structures the entire time.

The finished products!

Our cute married friends busy creating!

Uh oh--disaster strikes the Richardson home.

In baby news--we only have 57 more days until Brooklyn arrives. Last week the doctor said everything is right on schedule and that she is growing normal. My back pain has decreased and that's a blessing! I'm also happy to report that I'm on the two week check up routine instead of every month! YAY! It's getting closer! Can't wait til she joins our family!

31.5 weeks pregnant! Nice try Brad...

This is a gift we made for Brad's sis Jessy for her birthday. It's a memory board for quotes and pictures and was actually really fun and easy to make! I think it turned out so cute! We bought the frame from Michaels, and found the fabric, ribbon, and buttons at Joanns. I secretly want to make another one for my house! Merry Christmas to myself?

Winter has arrived, hopefully to stay...

This past weekend was a lot of fun--mainly because Brad and I didn't have to go to school and work. What a wonderful world to be able to relax! For Thanksgiving we had the best food, but since this side of my extended family is not much into games and fun...we ate our food and then came back to our house to party! We did some quad riding around the farm and played with our little and big dogs. The day after Thanksgiving ended up being a day of sleeping in and going to Wal-Mart (can you believe on BLACK Friday???) Luckily, the rush was over by the time we were there at twoish! We also set up Christmas and invested in a Christmas tree. I wanted to go with the cheap 30 dollar one, but Brad said we should look at the actual display first. Luckily, we did--this cheapee tree was a five foot, charlie brown, see through tree! So sad looking. So we decided to invest in a full 7.5 foot tree which is very full and beautiful! I love it love it love it! Glad I have a smart husband who balances my cheap tastes every now and then. Thanks Brad! Also, Jessica soon to be Olsen and Brad Olsen can thank their sister and bro in law for help in decorating the front and back yard of my parents house. We put up about a billion lights and Brad was the man on the ladder! I offered, but my belly just kept getting in the way. :) The lights do look beautiful and it will be a very magical night for sure. We are excited to have another Brad in the fam, and it was fun to chill with him this past week.

Thanksgiving day

Our first fake Christmas Tree! Don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but I had to distinguish it from our first REAL/LIVING Christmas Tree we had last year!

We also had Meg and Jake over for a bbq and game night last Saturday. We roasted some hot dogs and hamburger patties and had a blast eating good food and enjoying good company. We also practiced our golf and baseball skills by hitting wiffle balls in our front yard. We love our Mesa friends but missed our other friends Devin and Marian. Hopefully we can play during the Christmas season....

Here are some other pictures to update those who don't see us all the time. This is the doghouse the Brad made for Jack. It seems Hercules has also adopted it as his home as well. I guess they get cold and like to cuddle in a warm cozy little house. Meanwhile, Brad and I keep our windows open and heater off because we love the colder weather! YAY for perfect weather!



We bought a crib for baby Brooklyn to be! I actually think Brad was more anxious to buy it than I was. He said and I quote, "I'll clean out the storage bedroom as soon as we buy a crib to put in there." So needless to say, we quickly bought a crib from Babies R Us and the bedding arrived a few weeks ago from Ebay. 32 dollars plus 20 dollars shipping--but it includes everything you see plus a diaper stacker, pillow, and 2 window valences! Thanks to my el ed friend Taryn who gave me the idea of Ebay buying. My first ebay purchase and quite successful I might add. This would have cost me hundreds in a retail store. Not to mention, everything I bought was new in the package! We still have to decorate the walls and get our diaper changer, and glider moved in. I'll be posting more pics as the room progresses.

White Chocolate Caramel Apples

If you've ever had a white chocolate, soft caramel dipped apple--you know how much everybody else loves eating them as well! This is a fun holiday treat for Halloween or a cute take home gift for any Christmas party (the festive ribbon and clear bag make it very cutsie)--or as a gift--maybe for those visiting teachees?! Thought some of you might like this great caramel recipe my mom has been using for years. You'll love it too!

White Chocolate Cinnamon Carmel Apples

(Doubles easy to cover 24 Granny Smith apples and is easier to roll apples.)

2 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar (packed)

1 Cube butter

1 Cup White Karo Syrup

Combine in heavy large sauce pan.

When it boils stir for 7 minutes or to firm ball stage- 250* with candy thermometer.

Add 1 can of Eagle Brand condensed sweetened milk, stirring constantly careful not to scorch- medium-high heat. Boil to softball stage 240* about 8- 10 minutes. Caramel will turn to a darker shade of light brown. Don’t overcook.

TIP: Roll Pretzel Rods in extra Carmel.

Cover cookie sheets with foil and spray with Pam.

Place sharpened wooden dowels in apples and roll apple one at a time in caramel. Cool completely before dipping caramel apples in white chocolate.

Now melt white dipping chocolate over a double-boiler on low to medium heat. TIP: Chocolate may be thinned with a Tablespoon of Crisco

Carefully roll caramel covered apple in white chocolate and tap from top of dowel.

While chocolate on apple is still liquid, sprinkle with Cinnamon/Sugar and then place on sprayed foil again.

Cool completely and place in decorative bag and tie with festive ribbon.

A double batch of caramel makes aprox. 72 pretzel rods.

(Jessica Killian finds that normal white choco chips from grocery store work well for dipping, you don’t even need to add Crisco to thin. She has found that it prevents the chocolate from “falling/melting” off the apple while it is cooling.)

ENJOY!

November News

So....I love the holiday seasons! This last weekend my two sisters flew home from BYU and so Brad and I spent some time chilling with them. We decided it would be fun to go shooting since it's been about a year and we've never been shooting in the desert with them. We went to Sugar Loaf Mtn area and found a good spot. We had a lot of fun, I have to say my favorite gun is the 22 cuz some of the other guns scare me. Especially when the hot shells hit me in the head and I'm not a huge fan of kickbacks. Needless to say, I am not a pro by any means--near the end and thanks to my hubby, I finally figured why I was not hitting anything--I had been closing the wrong eye to aim! HELLO-no wonder! It was still fun though. I do confess though, I think the only person who even hit the targets was Brad. LOL. You can't blame us though--we didn't grow up with guns and quads. We had horses and dogs to keep us busy. Oh ya, we took Jack shooting and he was a little sissy/panzy dog. (He didn't like the loud sounds too much.) He did like hanging his body out the window (while inside) and poking his head inside the car (while he was outside) when we were driving though. Funniest dog ever.

Jack wanting to be with the ladies.

(If you look close, you can tell I have my right eye closed...oops)

My amazing shooter husband getting ready to fire away.

Jessica shooting away! We are happy to have another Brad join the fam soon--and guess what?!? He also loves guns and quads. Brad can have a boy buddy now! YAY!

Also, since the hairstylist in the fam is back in town, Brad and I both got haircuts from Jessica. I decided to cut off about 6 inches or so and then after I have Brooklyn--I'm going to go very very short for a change. Some sorta A-line bob thingee. It's nice having Jess though, cuz we save hundreds of dollars on haircuts and waxing! THANKS SCUZ! She's awesome.

My new haircut--Brad says I look like an Egyptian.

Another prego picture taken after church. Here I am at 6.5 months!

The Good N Bad

Well, I'm at work now and had a few minutes--gotta love the slow days, so I decided to update our blog. Anyways, I thought I'd share something awesome that's happened, and something not so awesome. First off, Brad has been applying and talking to different professors and doctors to try and get an internship to do cancer research. (Great for med school!) Well, after being told a few weeks ago that all the spots were filled at one lab, he was informed by Dr. Tran of TGEN (Translational Genomics Research Institute) if you want more info see website....

http://www.tgen.org/about/index.cfm?pageid=2

that he had been accepted to intern at their facility. He'll have to tell you more about his project for the upcoming year or so, because I can never get the right vocab and words to explain what he's actually doing. He's thrilled though, because he's working specifically on brain cancer, which is what he wanted to study. For the next few weeks he'll be doing orientation to learn where everything is, who everyone is, and more specifically about his research assignment! CONGRATS BRAD-YOU'RE AMAZING!

In other news, I went to the doctor yesterday (I'm 27 weeks along today--CRAZY!) and they had to take my blood for a Glucose Screening Test to see if I have Gestational Diabetes. AH! I hate doing that. (Last time I threw up) So anyways, Brad told me it was all mental so I tried really hard to be strong and not think about what they were doing. Funny thing is, getting blood drawn doesn't hurt at all, but it's the aftermath that gets to me. Well, Brad did a great job distracting me and talking to me about who knows what, but a few minutes after the lady was finished filling her viles, I could tell that I was getting nautious. So I asked the lady if she had any cups of water or Gatorade and she said no, so I told Brad to hurry and get me a nearby trash can. Well, sure enough, I threw up in the trash can and by this time the lady decided to be proactive and get me a cup of water. Magically she found one in the kitchen (good thinking lady) and brought me some water. As soon as I did my business, however, I was back to full color and felt great, so I got up and walked out to our car. Moral of the story, bring your own Gatorade and/or water. Too bad I still think I have some disorder of the mind when it comes to medical stuff and me. :)

Word to the Wise (by Brad)

I feel the need to post two pieces of advice that I have run across this past week.

1. Eye Infections - if you use contact lenses, make sure you take them out every night. This advice is due to personal experience. I wear the "extended wear" contact lenses that are designed to be worn for about six days straight (and I was told that I could wear them so). I recently contracted an eye infection. According to Dr. Gerald Ford, an ophthalmologist here in Tempe, "leaving contacts in overnight increases the chance for eye infections by five times."

2. "Important" Emails - Quite often I receive emails stating supposedly "very important" information regarding who knows what. One email I read said that Bill Gates and Microsoft were giving away a certain amount of money for every time the email was passed on. It even had personal testimonies of people who had received checks for around $14,000 a few weeks after sending out emails. COME ON PEOPLE!!! Do you really think that Bill Gates is going to give away his money? Do you really think that the multi-billion dollar corporation Microsoft is going to give away money for frivolous emails while at the same time cracking down on software pirating? Another hoax email stated that a poor family in need of a surgery were going to receive donations from AOL and Time Warner for every email passed on. Emails cannot be tracked; no checks will be sent; this is a fictitious story aimed at the sympathetic soul. A new email I recently received claimed that John's Hopkins had released new research information on the effects of microwaving plastics and freezing water bottles on cancer. Supposedly doing both of these released dioxins, environmental toxins, into the food. Do dioxins exist? Yes. Are they environmental pollutants? Yes. The only problem is that they don't exist in plastics, therefore how can they be transmitted from plastics? In conclusion, for those of you who have good intentions of informing all of us about new discoveries, please research them before forwarding them to your whole address book. It will save us from misinformation and you from diminished credibility.

Newest Family Member

I thought it time to update this blog since we've had a new edition to our little family of three. We have recently acquired a good ole golden retriever (HERCULES) that really belongs to my sister, Jessica, but seeing how she doesn't have a house yet, my parents have kept him all these years. Anyways, after my parents gave away their other dog, Hercules became very depressed, sad, and lonely. He whined and howled and could be heard at all hours of the night. Well, needless to say, our little Jack loves company and now both dogs live in our front yard and on our porch. Plus, my dad is getting ready for Jessica's backyard wedding reception and doesn't want a dog tearing up his yard. LOL. Amazing how fast our family has been growing lately! Here are some pictures I took tonight while playing outside with the dogs in the most gorgeous weather!

Our new family!

So after a year or so of this quad sitting in our barn, we found out that it belongs to the Ranch and not my uncle, so Brad decided to fix it up. We got a new battery but something is still wrong with the fuel injection, so he's in the process of figuring it out. YAY for mechanics and yay for having a new toy to play with!

In other news, my family took Brad and me out for an early birthday dinner for FHE tonight. We went to one of my favorite restaurants (SWEET TOMATOES) or as they call it in CA-- (SOUP PLANTATION). As much as I love all you can eats, though, I always feel like I need to get my money's worth of food, but since I didn't pay....I just ate until I was content. My happy stomach thanked me later! It was some dang good eating though--thanks daddy!


My sisters in Utah have had some requests for updated prego pictures...here I am at 6 months!
This picture was taken at the carwash today. I had to throw this picture in because I got such a kick outta watching Brad walk around today with these amazing glasses he was given by the doctor. He said he was definitely the man on ASU's campus. Oh baby oh baby! Anyways, after a weekend of pain and blurryness he found out that he has an infection in his eye. DANG CONTACTS! We're looking into Lasik surgery for him ASAP so if anyone has any comments...we'd love to hear them!
These are pumpkin cookies I made for my laurels and for my visiting teachers for Halloween. If anyone ever wants to make my day....SOFT sour cream sugar cookies are my weakness! YUMMY!
Just to show how much I love making cookies....this is a picture I found from a few months ago. I taught a lesson on Making Wise Choices hence the CTR cookies. My little sister Mary helped with the frosting and making as well! Thanks Maria!

Pumpkin Carving

As has been tradition for my family growing up, we carve the most terrifying and/or intricate Halloween pumpkins we can find, the FHE before Halloween! For the last four years I have missed out on this tradition since I was away at school, but Brad and I had the pleasure to join in this tradition once more with my family. As is also customary--for dinner we had pizza and soda and pumpkin pie for dessert. Brad, wanting to be original, decided he didn't want to use a pattern so he came up with his own design. VERY COOL to say the least! I was so impressed and learned one more thing about my husband--he never ceases to amaze me with his hidden talents and creativity! Anyways, his pumpkin is the one with the "haunted Bowles mansion" (don't know if you can see...but Bowles is written above the doorway) he also included a nice little graveyard, moon, creepy clouds, and cat (since dogs aren't that halloweeny). The pattern I used came from the internet, but I thought it would satisfy my desired spookiness. It's some kind of mummy or whatever. I just wanted a pattern that wouldn't take me forever. It was a very fun night for sure!

If we look tired its because Brad had just finished drilling out the cement base of our shower to make room for the drain and I have no make-up on cuz I was running late for work! Story of my life!

ABOVE PIC-From left to right: Grandma's, Brad's, Mine, Daddy's

ABOVE PIC-left to right: Lindsay's, Mom's, Grandma's Brad's

ABOVE PIC-From left to right: Mary's, Kelsey's Lindsay's, Mom's


I loved that Lindsay dressed up for the occasion just so she could match her pumpkin! She cracks me up, not to mention---that's the hottest pirate I've ever seen!

Nuestra Casa

Second blog of the day baby! Well, for Mom Bowles and other family who haven't seen our living quarters, we'd thought we'd post some pictures of our house where we live. You'll notice the desk in the corner with the comp...yeah, my amazing hubby built it! He's the most handy man I've ever met--what a blessing for me who knows nothing construction wise. The kitchen cabinets were stained and polyurethaned by the Killian Clan and Brad and Raylene with all the knobs installed by Brad and Ray (but mostly Brad). We love it here minus the dust, and are currently remodeling our shower. We didn't want mold to kill us all off....including baby Brooklyn. Enjoy! P.S. I'm still trying to motivate Brad to finish building our table (sand and paint it black) and also sand down and stain our heirloom piano that we got free from my cousin. The next major project after that will be cleaning out our storage/music room into a nursery! YAY FOR BABY GIRLS!

Oh, and I'll post up pictures of our bedroom when its clean (yesterday was laundry day) and also keep ya posted on the progress of our shower and nursery.