We can't believe Christmas is over. Boy did Gabe sure love it! Santa brought him a vacuum, a CD player, bath toys and bubble baths, a flute, paints, soda chap sticks, hot wheels, and lots of games, books and treats. Manuel's family gave him a nice Lego train set and he got a walking talking dinosaur from Grandpa and Grandma Willardson. Grandma Bev gave him lots of games and coloring books. Paisley got her first baby doll ( a big one and a little one). She also got new baby foods and baby toys. Manuel and Lindsey also liked what Santa brought them.
Gabe went to a fun birthday party on Saturday at My Gym in Layton. He loved it if you can't tell from the pictures. The instructors there also played with Paisley and she had fun too. Now we are ready for New Years!!
What a busy last couple of weeks. We've done our fair share of cookie decorating for the season. Kids can never get enough of it. We captured some fun moments in our backyard during the last few warm days of December. Now that it has snowed we'll have more fun moments and be sure to capture them on camera. Lindsey's brother just graduated from Weber this weekend in the radiology program. We went to dinner at Ruby River with the family afterwards. Fun times!
Our anniversary is actually December 1st but we just celebrated it this weekend in Park City. 8 years! We stayed in a condo at the Silver Baron Lodge in Deer Valley. Our condo was massive as you can see from the pictures. We originally rented a one bedroom and then when we got there we asked if we could be on the top floor and they practically upgraded us to a mansion. We had so much fun and were so impressed that we decided to make this a tradition every year for our anniversary. Someday we'd like to purchase our own condo or cabin in Park City.
We ate at Cissero's and it was some very fine Italian dining. We felt like were eating somewhere in Beverly Hills or New York City. What a fun time we had but it wasn't long enough.
We went to the mall on Saturday to see Santa and get Paisley's 3 month pictures taken. She was not a happy camper so we didn't get any pictures of her but she did fine with Santa. It's funny how the girls at Kiddie Kandid Scared her but a big old scruffy man didn't. She must have known to be on her best behavior or she wouldn't get any toys.
We made these really yummy "Whopper"cookies after our ordeal and thought we'd include the recipe below.
Whoppers Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened
1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup cooking oil
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups crushed cornflakes
3 cups malted milk balls, crushed (12 ounces)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees�F. In a very large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt. Beat until well combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, oil, and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour and the cereal. If desired, reserve 1/2 cup crushed candies to sprinkle on top. Stir remaining candies into dough.
2. Shape dough into 1-1/2-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden. Place cookie sheet on a wire rack. If desired, immediately sprinkle tops of warm cookies with reserved crushed candies. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool completely.
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