November Festivities

It's been a while again. There hasn't been that much exciting stuff going on around here. Just my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday.

My birthday was fun! Lance made me breakfast in bed. Then, I went shopping to my favorite places. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun just to look. When Lance was done with work, he took me on a date. We ate dinner at Zhang's Chopsticks, and went to a movie (Inception). It was a fun date! I loved the movie, and the food was delicious! I got a fortune cookie, and my fortune said: "Good things come in small packages. One is coming to you." Well, the small package I was hoping for didn't come yet, but hopefully soon.

Birthday Dinner with Lance's family. I chose Chocolate Pudding Dessert YUM! There was also a Vanilla Pudding Dessert.

Lance gave me this dresser. It's not in full use yet, but hopefully soon!

We had cheesecake at my parents' house YUM!

Thanksgiving was fun. We went to my parents' house to celebrate. All three of my brothers were there, and so was my sister, with their families, which meant that all of my nieces and nephews on that side were there! I had fun looking at the Black Friday ads with my three-year-old niece, Brielle. She had her birthday two days before Thanksgiving, so she opened some presents. She is in the princess stage, so she got a ton of princess stuff.

Declan is so cute! Don't you love his Mohawk? The Belle doll is his big sister, Brielle's, but he likes to play with it too.

Brielle is being cheesy before opening her presents. She was super excited!

Paxton loves firetrucks! He used to call them fartefarts.

Black Friday isn't my favorite day of the year. I really don't like waking up early, so Lance got a couple of good deals without me. He got two 24 packs of batteries at Lowe's and a tent at Big 5. Later that day, we looked around at some places for fun. We were sort of looking at fridges, but we got a bathroom vanity with a sink basin at Home Depot instead. We weren't really in the market for that yet, but for only $39 how could we pass that up? We do plan on remodeling the basement bathroom sometime in the future, so now we have a head start.

Lance set up the tent in our living room for fun.

Something Lance has been waiting to do for a very long time is break our old windows. We got some of our windows replaced in our house last winter, and he saved the old ones so that he could break them. He loves being destructive. So here are some pictures of his joyful demolition.

Action shot of Lance shooting the window with a slingshot.

In the air shot.

This Week's Project

This week, I had a HUGE, fun project! I redid some of my chairs! Since my birthday is coming up, I went shopping with my mom, and got a few things to redo my chairs. Initially, I wanted to buy a big, comfy chair from the DI, or Savers, or something, to redo it, but I found one that didn't need reupholstering. But, I had these dining room chairs that were extremely old and decrepit, so I decided to redo them instead. I got black spray paint and some fabric to put on the seat of the chair, both at Hobby Lobby (I love that store). Here are some pictures of how it went! Thanks to my mom for super cool early birthday presents!

The chair in the corner is one of the chairs I redid. There are three of them in all.

This was the old cushion. See the paint? See how ugly?

This is the newly refurbished cushion. BIG improvement!

I spray painted the chairs black. Notice that there are no cushions. Spray painting with the cushions on is a big no no! Also, I have newspaper underneath the chairs. I didn't want my patio to become black.

This is the finished product! Isn't it beautiful?

This is the chair I got that I was thinking I would reupholster. It looked and smelled fine, so I decided to wait on that. I just did a good clean by using carpet/upholstery cleaner, and scrubbing, then an upholstery powder that smells really good, then vacuum like crazy! Maybe in like ten years I'll reupholster it. It's super comfy!

Halloween is over Already!?!?!?

Well, this year is going by way too fast. I can't believe Halloween is over already! Halloween weekend was fun for Lance and me. On Friday, we got to see our cute little niece, Katie, perform in her first dance performance at a Halloween carnival. She was AMAZING!!! She watched the teacher the entire time, and did exactly what she was supposed to! I hope she continues to love dance as much as I do. On Saturday, we did our big celebration for Halloween, since we live in Utah, and honor the sabbath. We went to my parents' house and ate dinner in a pumpkin (as you know from a previous post, that is a Hansen family tradition). I got to see some of my nieces and nephews in their cute costumes. Katie was Tinkerbell, Paxton was Elmo, Dallin was Woody, and Kohl was Darth Vater. Sunday didn't really seem like Halloween to me. We visited Lance's grandparents in the morning, went to church, and hung-out, just the two of us, all evening. I still don't know if Trick or Treaters come to our house or not. We weren't home on the Halloween celebration night, and last year we were out of town. I guess we'll find out another year.

Everyone knows that Donuts and Halloween are a perfect fit! I decided to try out making donuts from scratch! Believe me, they are a lot of work, and the hot oil decided to attack me and burn my hand! But they are delightful, though, so they're worth it every once in a while. Here is the recipe:

Homemade Donuts
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk
1 egg beaten

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add butter or margarine and beat until combined. Then mix in milk and egg. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Roll dough out. Dough should be 1/2 - 1 inch thick. Cut out circles, then cut out holes in the center of each circle. Fry donuts about 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Holes will fry up in about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Donut toppings
-Plain glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with 1/4 cup milk. Dip donuts in glaze
-Vanilla frosting: combine 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 1-2 tablespoons milk until desired thickness.
-Chocolate frosting: combine 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, and 1-2 tablespoons milk until desired thickness.
-Cinnamon-sugar
-Powdered or plain sugar



You know what it means when Halloween is over? It's November!!! Don't you think that November is the best month ever? People are thinking about all of their many blessings, making good food, and planning for Christmas. But the BEST thing about November is that 25 years ago, I said hello to the world! Yes, my 25th birthday is coming up in the middle of the month. And yes, I'm sort of freaking out. I'm getting older. I finally understand why people give you presents on your birthday. It's a way to ease the emotional pain of aging. While I've accomplished a lot before age 25, there are still a few things I wish I could have done. It has been a good 25 years with many ups and downs. I'm proud of my accomplishments, and I'm always working on more. So, wish me luck for the next 25 years! I'm definitely going to need it!

Lance became a cowboy!

Last week Lance went on another trip for work to San Antonio Texas. He stayed at an EXTREMELY nice resort that had a golf course, lots of swimming attractions, and much more. He went to a ranch for one of the socials that the forum was doing, and rode on a real Texas Longhorn bull. I was going to go with him this time, but the cost was a bit out of our budget . . . well, a LOT out of our budget. I, of course, stayed with my parents because I get scared easily, and need someone in the same house as me at night.

Here are some pictures that Lance took.

Lance LOVES golfing! However, the actual course was much too expensive, so he decided to go to the driving range instead. They still gave him a super nice golf cart!

Lance is comparing his real face to the silly drawing of him.

This is the water park at the resort. Lance loves swimming, so he definitely took advantage of that.

And the picture you've all been waiting for! Lance is riding on a Texas Longhorn bull. It wasn't as exciting as it looks. It just stood there.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Every year growing up, my mom made dinner in a pumpkin on Halloween, and she still does. What? Dinner IN a pumpkin? Yes, it really is made inside the pumpkin! I didn't like it much as a kid, but now, I think it tastes great!

Last night, I decided to have a little dinner in a pumpkin party. I made the dinner in a pumpkin, and people who came brought pot luck dishes. It was really fun.

It started out as just a simple little dinner party, but you know me and my outrageous imagination . . . It turned into a full-fledged Halloween party! We played Halloween trivia, guessed which Halloween creature we were (it was taped onto our backs), and I made up a Halloween word scramble. I got very creative all week. I added some cute homemade decorations, and made some really cute place cards.

This is the recipe for Dinner in a Pumpkin:

Choose a nice medium sized pumpkin. Cut a lid, and scoop out the inside. Draw a face with permanent magic marker, or acrylic paints.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-4 oz can sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cups chopped onion
2 cups hot cooked rice
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce

Brown ground beef along with salt, celery, onion, and green pepper. Mix in remaining ingredients. Stuff pumpkin with meat mixture, put on lid, place on a foil lined cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Serve pumpkin as a vegetable with each serving of meat casserole. Serves 6-8.

*I have used chicken and turkey instead of ground beef, and each are delicious. I also didn't use celery or green pepper, and it still turned out good.

Here are some pictures of how everything turned out.

One side of the pumpkin I decorated.

Another side of the pumpkin.

I decorated four sides of the pumpkin so that people could see from all angles.

The last side of the pumpkin.

I punched out little pumpkins and leaves for decoration on the table. I did black for Halloween.

I traced bats and colored them black with a magic marker, then I hung them up in my curtains. I love the silhouette look.

This is the table all set.

This is my place setting.

This is Lance's place card. I went online and found some Halloween clip art, and made them on the computer. Every person's had a different picture.

One plus of doing this is that if you have some of the pumpkin leftover, it's easy to cut up and puree. I've already made pumpkin bread, and I'm excited to make a pumpkin pie soon! I also was able to save the seeds and bake them for a yummy snack! Well, I hope this gives you some good ideas for Halloween, or if not, at least I hope it will put you into the Halloween mood!

Wacky Weekend

This weekend was very fun! I had lots of fun things to do, and spent time with lots of fun people.

Friday, one of my best friends went through the temple, and she invited me to this wonderful experience. It was at the Ogden temple, so afterward, I decided to get some pictures of the temple, since it is going to be redone very soon.

Ogden Temple

Ogden Tabernacle

Saturday, Lance went on a hike in the morning, and got some great picture. Then, the Wellings went to Gardner Village, and we got a huge group picture, as well as looked at witches throughout the village. Then, we went to Melissa and Dan's house for pizza and treats.

View fro m the mountain.

They saw a few moose.

Welling Family

Lance and me.

Sunday, we celebrated October birthdays in my family. Four of my nieces and my dad have birthdays in October. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Happy October Everyone!

Well, it's October, and you know what that means? It's FALL, and it's starting to look like it, too! This weekend we took a drive over the mountains to look at the colorful leaves. It was beautiful! I also have put up my Halloween decorations. I'm so excited that the holidays are starting up! I love festively decorating my house! So, here are a few pictures to get you into the Autumn/Halloween mood.