Portugal Pictures

We love to get pictures from Elder Soutas.  Love to see Portugal too

old roads:

Car broke down   boo!

Elder Soutas in Amadora

Elder Soutas at the Castle of Marvao

Ricardina

Baptism de Jose

JuJu's wedding

Handing out Book of Mormon's

Once there was a snowman

I was busy getting ready for Christmas.  There was still some shopping to do.  But the spirit whispered
Build A Snowman!!! (they won't be little much longer)    I'm so glad we did

Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

1/2 c. butter-flavored shortening
1/2 c. real butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 12 ounce bag Guittard chocolate chips can also throw in some mini choc chips
 Candy Cane Kisses

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together softened butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar for 1-2 minutes on medium-high speed or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Meanwhile, combine the baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, and cocoa powder. Add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

 Use cookie scoop and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until just set, but centers are still soft, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1-2 min.   Top each cookie with an unwrapped Candy Cane Kiss.  Allow to cool completely, long enough for the Kiss to harden.     Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Kaitlyn turns 12

It's an exciting Birthday for Kaitlyn.  She is 12 years old.  The magic of this special birthday is graduation from Primary and moving into Young Women's.  She is a cute beehive.  She has also
looked forward to go to the Temple.  We are so proud that she decided that she wanted to spend
part of her birthday at the Temple!

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and baptized some family names: Angell (see post)

 her new favorite face for pictures

I made her a Raspberry pisachio cheesecake :)

 Favorite frozen Menchies on a cold winter day

Kaitlyn Noelle is our Christmas Baby

Thanksgiving and Service

We had a very nice thanksgiving dinner at Kathy and Matt's house.  Kathy is a gourmet cook and everything is always delicious.  This year she decided to try a "brined" turkey and it was very moist.

As tradition, the men and kids all went to a movie.  This year it was the movie "Frozen".  They seemed to really like it and put them in the Christmas Spirit.  

We didn't do our usual Salvation Army food deliveries this year since my parents went to see Tony and Suzy in City.   However, we still had some good service experiences this month.  Jenessa organized a food drive
in our ward to take food and money to a poor woman.  She did such a great job and collected a lot!  and was able to deliver it via the woman's bishop.

I also was in charge of decorating a tree for the South Jordan Youth Council.  Jenessa and all of the kids on council met to decorate 5 or 6 Christmas Trees to deliver to children who had cancer.   As it turns out
one of the trees was meant for Robyn's grand-daughter.   It was such an awesome experience to take it to her home.  The little girl was so excited to get her "pink" tree.  She was laughing that her daddy would have
to have a pink Christmas tree this year!!  It was humbling to spend the day delivering the trees to these children and their families.  We sang them all a few Christmas Carols.  It was a great experience.

 The youth council did such an awesome the decorations!

Delivering the trees:

This was special to me since it was Robyn's grand-daughter's house

Bookclub Cornucopia

I hosted Book club at my house this month.   We decided to share our favorite books with each other instead of having everyone read the same book.  We called it Cornucopia of Books.  So of course I had to serve a snack to match the theme!  :)

It has been bitter cold outside this week and so I made some hot wassil and made sure we had a warm fire

and a yummy autumn trail mix:  Licorice nibs, candy corn, M&M's and cashews