Christmas in July!

So us wives here in good ole Bear, Delaware are getting really creative with all our free time.  We decided we needed a little Christmas cheer.  So on the hottest day of the year (so far) with humitdy going over 10000% we decided to have a little Christmas party.  Christmas has always been near and dear to my heart so I was super thrilled about this party of course.  We decided to have it at the pool and have a white elephant gift exchange and bring christmas treats. I decided to make sugar cookies with a recipie from my sister-in-law Amanda. 

3/4 cup of shortening
3/4 cup of real butter (left out all day to soften)
2 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2t vanilla
5 cups flour
2 t baking powder
2 t salt

Mix fist four ingrediates well.  Then add the rest and mix well.  Chill 2 hours.  Bake at 375 for 7-9 min

So I wanted to make these cookies AWESOME!  So planning ahead I left the butter out in the morning so that it could soften just as the recipie said.... well I had forgotten that I left the butter on the stove... that I forgot to turn off.  Opps!!

Butter was EVERYWHERE!  So I tried to salvage what I could but honestly I ended up wasting some butter.  So after that little incident I went on trying to finish what I started.  Well I didn't plan enough time to let them chill and cool after cooking so I could frost them so I ended up going to the party without any cookies haha.  Good thing I had a funny gift in mind... mwhaha.

Here was all the cute gifts...

This is cute little Chansi, nicole's daugher who we all love!

Cute girls with their funny gifts!

So here was the gift I came up with.  Before you judge, remember it has to be creative and something we already had at our house.... so this is what I came up with..

Slippers!!! Made out of pads!  Creative I know right? haha  We all had a good laugh about them.

This is Nicole, who throughly enjoyed her gift and even wore them to bed that night until her husband realized what they were!

This is Makelle and me with our awesome gifts!

It was such a hot day that we all only stayed at the pool for twenty minutes before we almost hit heat exhaustion, but still was a fun Christmas party!  Merry Christmas!

To finish off the day I went home and finished those cookies... even though they caused me such grief they turned out very moist and yummy!

Parents for a Visit!

I love my family and love spending time with them and definitely haven't gotten to see them enough this summer.  Luckily my parents were able to come into town and visit us!  We filled the week with a visit to Gettysburg...

I think Kenny and my dad enjoyed all the history a little more than me and my mom! :) Or maybe the three hour tour was just a little too long.. haha  It was amazing to be in such a somber place where so much of our Nation's history lies though. 

The rest of the week I got to show my parents all around Philadelphia.  They agreed it was a fun place although none of us are fans of the crazy traffic. 

Then we drove six hours north to Palmyra, New York.  We were able to see Joseph's Smiths house, the sacred grove, and the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  It was amazing and the spirit was so strong in these places. 

While we sat in the Sacred Grove my dad read part of the scriptures from Joseph Smith History and wow it was really neat!  It was also fun to see my parent's testimony through their eyes and example.  I loved being there and having that experience with them. 

We got to play tennis, explore old towns, and play card games throughout the week!  It was so fun having them come to visit and we're so happy they did!