Thanksgiving

Thankful for family. We had a great Thanksgiving holiday reconnecting with Rick's Cousin DK.

Cougar Basketball

ADK is the shortest player on the team but the most aggressive player. He is always in there trying for the rebound.

ADK plays the guard position.

ADK again in there getting the rebound.

I know the picture is blurry but it's ADK's first basket of the season and it was a three point shot!

ELK playing the chimes.

ELK is playing the chimes for the Advent services at church. December 6th will be there first time playing during church. They have been practicing after chruch for the last 3 weeks.

Lusciuos Pumpkin Cake

This past Saturday we had a Harvest Dinner at church that was potluck for salads and desserts. I made this Pumpkin Cake, which was the first time I had ever made it. It was delicious and adding it to my list of recipes to keep. It is a great change from pumpkin pie. Wish I would have take a photo with my camera. But here is scan from the page I tore out of a magazine.

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped Pecans

HEAT oven to 350°F.
BEAT cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.
BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.
BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; top with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

How to Slice and Stack Cake Layers
Place 1 of the cooled cake layers on serving plate. Make 2-inch horizontal cut around side of cake, using long serrated knife. Cut all the way through cake layer to make 2 layers. Remove top layer by sliding it onto 9-inch round cardboard circle. Frost cake layer on plate with 1/3 of the COOL WHIP mixture. Slide top half of split cake layer from cardboard circle onto frosted layer on plate. Place the remaining unsplit cake layer on a cutting board. Cut into 2 layers as done for the first layer. Repeat process of transferring cake layers to stacked cake layers on plate using the cardboard circle.

Substitute
Omit caramel sauce. Microwave 10 KRAFT Caramels and 1 Tbsp. milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until caramels begin to melt. Stir until caramels are completely melted. Drizzle over cake just before serving; top with nuts.

Veteran's Day Parade

Andrew playing the trumpet. If looks could kill I would be dead. He does not like his mother taking his photo. Typical 13 year old.

Scrapbooking - Fishing trip to Alaska

I spent a few hours on Veterans Day scrapbooking and made these two pages of Rick's fishing trip to Alaska. Getting better and making my own die cuts.

CKC - Seattle

G & T, the ina sisters as we are called at work. This was taken in Every Day Life by Ali Edwards class on Friday afternoon. My last class of the day. We had to rush back to the hotel and attempt to find dinner before the Friday night crop in the basement of the hotel.This was a really neat idea that was in one of the vendor booths. It would be a great way to display photos on your desk at work or business cards. Shopping, Shopping, shopping every woman's dream. There were over 60 booths with every imaginable scrapbooking tool, paper, etc... available at the convention. That is everything but 8 1/2 x 11 size paper with school stuff that I wanted.

This photos is at the Friday night crop. They were looking for 10 brave soles to get up and moo like a cow. I jumped at the chance to win a prize and make a fool of myself. Heck I only knew one other person in the room anyway. I did not win but did get a consolation prize. In fact there was lots of stuff given out at the crop. It was so fun.

G&T waiting for the doors to open Friday morning.

Scrapbook pages

The following two pages are a mosaic layout from December 2008 when we went to Arizona from Christmas. Chihuly the nature of glass was on display at the botanical dessert and we went there to check out the glass work. It was amazing. The layouts are still lacking a few photos. I just ordered a few more. Will post more photos when I complete them.

I have started to scrapbook Rick fishing trip to Alaska. This is just one of many pages that I will do from his trip.This past July the Kain family got together for a week of camping in Joseph, Oregon. These photos were take at the top of Mt Howard where we had a memorial service for his parents.

Halloween - Trunk or Treat

Happy Halloween!!!Saturday Christ the King Lutheran Church hosted the 3rd annual Trunk or Treat party. Not being a real big fan of Halloween I am really not good a decorating the Trunk. My only idea was to hang the web material over the back and hand out candy. The guys did not think that was good but with just 15 minutes to go before the start they did not have any ideas. ADK came up with this idea. He was in the mask and bones glove and would move the bowl or touch the kids hands as they would take some candy. Got them every time. It was fun to watch. I would warn him when a very young kid would come as to not scare them to much. ADK had fun with this.
MK watch out for the hand.....It might get you.....

After seeing this one I know what we are doing next year. Going to have a tail gate party out of the truck and have hot dogs to give the kids. Will fit in with the activities that we do inside the church when the kids finish Trunk or Treating.

ELK and KD trick or treating downtown Freewater.

ELK and friends we met allow the trick or treat route downtown Freewater.

ELK...You got to watch out for ELK's Lodge members, they can be devilish.