You should try it

You have to try it!!!. Ok you don't but if you like Key Lime Pie, you should. This is one of my easiest recipes and one that has become favorites for many of my friends for Thanksgiving. I hope you all try it and enjoy!!!!
You never know maybe it will become one of your traditions.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you it is quite healthy too. Well at least compared to most pies. Many of my friends use it when they are on a diet because it is only 3 pts for one piece. You would never know it because it is very delicious!!!!!!! Let me know if you try it.

Key Lime Pie
1(3 oz) pkg sugar free lime jello
1 (8 oz) carton fat free cool whip( or regular if you aren't watching calories)
1/2 c boiling water
graham cracker pie crust( or reduced fat cracker crust)
2 (6 oz) key lime light yoplait yogurt

Mix lime jello with boiling water until dissolved. Add yogurt and gently fold in Cool Whip. Pour into pie shell and refrigerate until ready to serve.

WOW that was easy, anyone can make it!!

Through the years

Many of you didn't know me when my kids were little, so I thought I would post a couple of my kids years ago. These pictures are from one of our first vacations to Disneyland. My kids love Disneyland and they still do. Through the years, there have been many times that I have thought, wow, I have great kids.

This is a picture after we went on one of the water rides at Seaworld. They love the water rides, especially they love seeing me get wet. Aren't they cute!!!! These pictures were taken in 2000. Things have changed a lot but they are still the same great kids.

One of my most favorite stories is about when Mike and I were taking the kids to see Stuart Little when it came out. We thought for Family Home Evening we would go to the movies. We were excited. When we pulled into the theater and told them what we were going to see, Todd proceeded to say he wasn't going. He didn't care there was no way he was going. He had been told at school that the white cat in Stuart Little swears and he wasn't going to go to a show that the cat swears in. Well, what were we going to do now. We hadn't heard anything bad about the show and really knew that they would enjoy it, so we picked him up with him yelling at us and made him go to the movie. ( WOW, making a kid go to the movie, what awful parents)

After the movie, my kids said that they loved it and wanted to buy the movie and Todd loved it too. They said "mom, the cat didn't even swear". The truth is that the cat did swear but my kids enjoyed the movie so much that they didn't notice it at all but Mike and I were watching to find out if it did or not.

I am GLAD that I have such great kids, that teach me so much each day.

Rice Pudding

My son Todd has been bugging and asking me to make Rice Pudding for a very long time. It has been one of those Rice Pudding days many many days in the last two weeks, but my life is quite busy and it hasn't worked that I had the time to make it. I finally made it today. Most of my family just loves my Rice Pudding recipe. It is different than most recipes for rice pudding. It is REALLY yummy. This is my mom's recipe that she used to make when I was growing up and I love it too. (Colt, I know you will be jealous) My brother that lives in Minnesota loves rice pudding like there is no tomorrow.

I hope you all enjoy and give it a try. It is perfect for a day when it is dreary and cold outside.

Rice Pudding

4 Tbs butter
milk ( approximately 2-2 1/2 quarts)
2 Tbs vanilla
3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups rice
4 cups water
bring water to boil and then put lid on it and simmer for 20 min, unless you have a rice cooker.
Mix sugar, cooked rice, vanilla, nutmeg, and butter together.
Add milk until it is real liquidy. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 3 hrs.
About every hour I add more milk and stir it up. It usually ends up being about 2 or 2 1/2 quarts of milk by
the time I am finished adding milk each hour.

I hope you enjoy!!!!!

FYI

I am so excited!!!! I just turned in my electronic portfolio for assessment. It is a portfolio with much of what I have done during my time in school. It has artifacts and I have to send it to the professors at the school and they look at it and assess it. It is one of the requirements for graduation. I am getting a little closer each day. If you are interested in looking at it, let me know and I will give you the link. It isn't anything great but it is to me.

Beauty All Around

This morning I had to wake up early to take Karrilyn to school and it was chilly and I didn't want to get out of bed and as I made it out onto highway 56, I was taken away with the beauty of the sunrise. There was pink and red just above the blueness of the sky. It was beautiful. I just love the sunrises and sunsets in Cedar City. They have to be the most beautiful of most anywhere in the world.

I hope you look for beauty all around in everything that you do and see. The world is such a beautiful place and we often don't even see it. If you can't see beauty in the features of the world, then look for beauty in a child's smile or actions or those that are finding some way to add to the world around them.

Just Find Beauty and share it with others!!!!

The Greatest of Friends

Today I want to share one of my GREATEST blessings in this world and that is my great friends.

One of my friends, gave me this hanging lately and it is how I feel. I hope that all that meet me end up feeling like they are true friends when they leave being around me or my home.
This hanging is a friendship wall hanging that means so very much to me, as you can see it is hanging in my hall. My friend, Annette, that lives miles and miles away made this just for me. She is so very talented and I don't see her much but her friendship is very important to me as SO MANY of my friends are.

I love this poem that I found that tells how I feel about my friends much better than I can.

Why God Made Friends

God made the world with a heart full of love,

Then He looked down from Heaven above,

And saw that we all need a helping hand,

Someone to share with, who'll understand.

He made special people to see us through

The glad times and the sad times, too;

A person on whom we can always depend,

Someone we can call a friend.God made friends

so we'll carry a part

Of His perfect love in all our hearts

Just in the last two weeks I have had people that have called or emailed me to say just the right thing at the right time. Thanks so much!!! I hope you know who you are!!!! I wish I had pictures of all of my friends that are a part of my heart because they are a part of who I am. I am thankful for my friends close by, friends that I have met just online, and friends that are miles and miles away. Thanks to all of you that comment on my blog and make my day. I appreciate every great word.

Many changes in our world as we know it!!

Yesterday, at church we had our Primary program. It was awesome. This year it was definitely a little different than it usually is during the program. They split our ward. (In the LDS church if there are too many people in your ward then they split the ward so that there are fewer people in each ward)
They have been talking about it for a long time and they finally did it. I was pretty teary eyed during the program because it was so spiritual and because I was thinking about all my friends that I will miss. When a ward is split, people always say that they will keep in touch but it hardly ever happens.
This is the second time that they have split our ward since we have lived here. The last time they split it I was serving a RS president and it was about 2 1/2 yrs ago. I know that it is important to split a ward that gets so big because it is so hard for the bishopric and other leaders to be able to attend to everyone, but I have made some great friends that have been split off that I will truly miss.

I think it is even harder for me because while I was serving I gained such a strong love for the sisters in our ward, and I still have that feeling like they are part of us. It will be so different without some of them in our ward. I thought the split was a little crazy, it is amazing what they can do to boundaries to put people where they want to. I was surprised how hard it was on my daughter Angela. She is having a hard time because she has had some really great YW leaders and they have been great friends to her. It is always hard to lose people that care about you. To all of my friends that are going to be in the other ward, I will miss you. Thanks for all of your friendship and support in all I do.

I also am not sure about our change in presidency for our government. It is truly a day of history in our country when a black man becomes the president. I am glad to say that I am willing to support him and give him a chance to be a president. I hope our country will willing accept him and give him a chance to see what we have elected and hopefully he will be an ok president to help get us out of some problems that our country is in at this time. We will see.