We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

This last week we took the kids to the zoo, that is the kids from work.
It was a very nice day, not to hot and NO RAIN!! YEAY!!!

Of course I had my camera with me! :)

I got some amazing animal pics and some awesome pics of the kids, but I'm not allowed to publish them :(
I wish I could because let me tell you these kids are ADORABLE!!! Especially at the zoo!!

But what I can publish are my pics of the animals!


King of the mountain!!




This owl looked at me as I was taking his picture!!


A cute little owl. Seriously like the size of my hand!


Aww.. nap time!

And Now...The rarest creature of them all...
The illusive MAN AT WORK!!
So rare they could only find 2 to put on exhibit at the zoo!




Lol...jk! They are building the new primate exhibit.

We did see the new roar area but I didn't take pics, sorry. You guys will just have to go see it for yourselves!

Loves!!
~Becky

Christmas thoughts

Today Elizabeth, one of my coworkers, asked me about Christmas. How things were going and all that. I actually answered honestly instead of the usual fine, or good, or GRRRRREAT!
I want to say that it has been super-fantastic-awesome! Not that it has been bad. But I don't have the usual traditions that I am used to and that is mostly due to this whole thing called marriage.

It's awesome that I am married and Brandon and I get to start our own traditions. But at the same time I was happy with my own traditions. I don't really want to change. And while I keep some, like with my family, I am also adding his family traditions and starting our own.

My perspective on Christmas and the spirit of it that I love and enjoy so much is not at all in Brandon. It's just a new thing.

What I love about Christmas is the hope and the joy and the love of the season. There is all this hope. The hope of the Savior coming and fulfilled that we read and hear during the season. The hope for presents, the hope for snow (that's me!!), the hope to hear Santa's sleigh, the hope that everyone can be there together to celebrate.

The joy of seeing a person get a gift, the joy of finding that perfect gift, the joy of music.

The love of family and spreading joy and hope to others. (sigh)


So I just wanted to share that thought.
Or those thoughts.

~Becky

Christmas Cookies!!

On Saturday mom and I had our Christmas Cookie Bake Off!!
We've done this for who knows how many years now. We bake a ton of different treats for the holidays and share with friends and others who have really helped us out this year.
It was a little different this year since I am now married and had to go back to Canby to my parents house.

We started at 9am...

The stage is set...



And we're off!!!


Mom starts with a Neapolitan rice krispie treat


I love making Spritz! And these poinsettias look awesome with the little drages in the middle!


Oh Christmas Trees...oh Christmas trees...


Peanut Butter Blossoms with Almond Kisses and Raspberry Drizzle


Chocolate Blossoms with melt away mints


And the classic Peanut Butter Blossoms!


These are delicious Mint Cutout cookies!


Look! I have little green men!! hee hee! ;)


Yum...here they are finished and drizzled with chocolate!!


These are my new cookies for the year! I found it in a magazine. They are called Chocolate Peppermint cookies. The chocolate cookie dough turned out really gooey and I gave up trying to fix it to follow the directions and cut out circles. So I rolled them into small balls and flattened them with a cup. :) And they turned out AWESOME!! And then of course they are dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint! I ran out of white chocolate so I used regular chocolate too!


My Peppermint bark! Yum!


Mom's Fudge. It's not the crazy, rich, about-to-die-from-chocolate-overload fudge. But it's still good.


And Peanut Butter Balls.

12 hours later... we are finally done and ready to share!

I love Christmas time!!

~Becky

p.s. If you would like a recipe of one of these delicious treats just let me know and I'll hook you up ;)

Christmas Traditions

Last year my extended family decided that instead of exchanging gifts for Christmas we would do something for someone else. My Grandma introduced us to Operation Christmas Child.

The organization, headed by Samaritans Purse (click on the link above to see more) is really an amazing thing. Essentially you provide Christmas gifts to kids in impoverished places while spreading the love of Christ at the same time.



All you do is get a shoe box and fill it with toothpaste and hairbrushs' and toys and school supplies and soaps, and underwear and candy and other fun things like that!Then you add $7 or more in the box and drop it off at a specified location. You can pay online and then track where your box goes! (Which is what we are doing this year!)

My family gets together and we have snacks and drinks and then we put all our stuff that we bought for the kids into piles on the table and fill up shoe boxes till we are out of stuff! It is so super fun to shop and pack boxes! I LOVE it! And it's a great way to spend time with your family in a selfless way! It has totally become a new tradition with us.



We have to do it in early November though cause the dates to turn them in are in November. It's still not too late to do it though! It is so worth it! Check out the site and watch the video. Get some friends together or your family and start a new tradition this year!

Time for om-noms!!

I've been getting off work earlier this week so I'm home before Brandon. Which means I get to cook!!!!

For dinner I made a favorite from my teenage years.

Biscuits and chocolate gravy!!!

Cassie's mom, a.k.a. Man used to make it sometimes when we (the girls) were over. It is sooooo good!!! And it's like having dinner and dessert at the same time!!!

As Brandon said, It really sticks to your ribs.

Thank you Man for sharing your recipe with me!!!

~Becky

Heart of stone

I saw this heart shaped hole in this pillar today.

It figures that I move out of my hometown of little 'ol Canby and they get a movie theater...

The first picture is of the brand new theatre that just opened on Friday.

(The other pic is of a hole I found in this pillar today.It has nothing to do with the movies.)

But that's okay since I don't live that far away and tickets are only $6!!!
My dad gave Brandon and I two free tickets for the movies last night. We saw "Cirque details Freak: The Magicians Apprentice. " It was pretty good, definitely a movie from a book. I'd like to read the series of which there are 7 in the series. Hopefully they will make at least one more in the movie series because this one was left WIDE open at the end. If they don't then don't bother seeing it cause it will confuse you and leave you hanging off a steep cliff of endless confusion and dissatisfaction, which may end your faith in the capability of the movie industries ability to produce quality book to movie translations that satisfy our reasonable desire for quality entertainment.

Becky Bakes Beautiful Bounties

I really love to bake! I enjoy cooking but baking is really what I love to do.

I have discovered though some new uh.... joys.

I decided to bake a pie for the FORGE potluck tomorrow! YUM!!
And instead of using a pre-prepared crust I decided to make my own. I've never done my own pie crust before.

The ingredients started easy enough, flour, salt, shortening. and then I needed a pastry cutter to blend them together...but I don't have one of those!!
Fortunately they suggested using two knifes if you dont have one! :)

Phew! That was close!

The dough is done!

Then I needed to roll out the dough. Uh-oh! I don't have a rolling pin!!

Fortunately I DO have a smooth water bottle! It turned out to be pretty useful!
The rolling was pretty easy... The hard part was moving it into my pie pan. It kept falling apart and cracking!! It was aggravating. I finally got in there and repaired it the best I could.



Now it was time to make the filling. I decided pumpkin was fitting for the season.
Don't you hate it when you start something and realize you don't have a key ingredient? Well I forgot I didn't have any eggs...so it was off with the oven and off to the store for eggs.

15 min later I'm back in the kitchen finishing my pie.

Here it is going into the oven


And here it is coming out! (of the oven people! Come on!)


Lessons learned:
~I have taken advantage of my moms baking tools and I really need to get some of my own now i guess.

~You don't always need a mixer to make things. I've already made 3 cakes, 2 pies, cinnamon rolls and a few other things without one...but it would be nice to have one.

Here is one of the cakes I made recently by hand. And I mean by hand!
Remember NO MIXER

My mom asked me to make a cake for my brothers birthday. I wasn't sure what to decorate it as and I have this one "fancy" cake pan that is flowers in a pot.



To make it more "boy" friendly (a.k.a. no flowers) I made a bouquet of skulls.


You're welcome Alex :)

~Becky