A Good Morning

I dropped my boys off to do an early morning session at the Salt Lake temple this morning :) :)
For the full Hunter post, look below....

Elder Hunter C Tanner

Hunter flew into the St. George airport on Thursday after serving full-time in the Ohio Columbus mission. It is good to have my buddy back :) He came home exhausted, but other than that he is great! He spoke in church on Sunday and did a fantastic job. It has been wonderful to see how much he has grown in knowledge and spirituality and it has been a great blessing to our family to have him serve. We are so happy to have him home with us, it was a great weekend and so nice to have our family together again (if only Amy and Brandee were there :)

Here are Kaelee and I watching out the airport window for Hunter's plane

He is about to walk through the door

His four happy sisters :)

Engagements

We got our engagement pictures taken on Saturday. Daryl's cousin Missy Giles took them and did a FANTASTIC job! We took them in a 30 degree blizzard and she was such a trooper, thanks Miss for being so great, we LOVE them. :) I don't want to show too many cause we are sending them with announcements, but I put some on the header and the side of the blog....

I've had enough

It is time for an intervention. I think if enough of us get involved, it will make a difference. Ready?

"Pam Austin-Beistline. We love you and appreciate you, but the time has come for you to post to your blog. No excuses. We want to see little Zac and your exciting life in the Alaskan wilderness. You won't regret it.
Love, your family and friends."

Nice work guys. I think we got through to her....... Pam?

Halloween, Baby!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday...yes, more than Christmas. Sue me. This year we bought me a Snow White costume! I got home, put it on, and found that it was made for a much shorter girl. A MUCH shorter girl. I pinned a bunch of yellow tulle to the bottom to make it family friendly ;) D wanted to be a Disney character too, so I made him an Aladdin costume. I didn't make him "Prince Charming" from Snow White cause who even knows who that is?! He doesn't even have a name! Anways, we threw a little party for our families and ate and played games. That night we ate JCWs and caught up on our Vampire Diaries episodes. I was mad that we didn't get many trick-or-treaters (stupid trunk or treats), but it was still a fantastic day!

Amanda as Elphaba and Carol as Mrs Clause

Aaron the Punk rocker bobbing for apples, Ellie loved that he stuck his whole head in :)

Dan, Kanessa, and Hunter as Barney, Betty, and BamBAm

I'm not sure what happened here. Something awful it looks like

Aubree and Ellie the hula girls

Strawberry Cobbler Cake

Since we are getting our engagements taken in 3 weeks, D and I are on diets. However, last night I had a momentary lapse in judgement and made Strawberry Cobbler Cake. Then proceeded to eat half of it (in my defense, it was only in an 8x8" pan). For those of you who are NOT getting engagements taken in 3 weeks, you should definitely try it. It's heaven on earth. As for me, I will be eating lettuce and water for the next 3 days to make up for it. Haha jk....but seriously :)
1 1/4 c butter, divided
1 c sugar, divided
1 whole egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour, divided
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
3 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
Preaheat oven to 350. Soften 3/4 c butter and beat on medium. Add 3/4 sugar and mix well. Add egg and vanilla and mix again.
Combine 1 1/4 c flour with the baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture, alternating with milk. Start and end with flour mixture.
Pour into an 8in pan and top with strawberries, cut side down.
For the topping, combine 1/4 c flour and 1/4 c sugar in a bowl. Cut in 1/4 c chilled butter. Sprinkle over the cobbler. Bake for about 45 minutes

I got this recipe off Pioneer Woman's tasty kitchen. It was submitted by Mindeola. Thanks Mindeola!

The Weaver

This is one of my favorite poems and today I needed to read it again :)

The Weaver

by BM Franklin

My Life is but a weaving,

between the Lord and me.

I cannot choose the colors,

he worketh steadily.

Oft times he weaveth sorrow,

and I, in foolish pride,

forget he seeth the upper,

and I the underside.

Not til the loom is silent,

and the shuttles cease to fly

shall God unroll the canvas

and explain the reason why

The dark threads are as needful

in The Weaver's skillful hand

as the threads of gold and silver

in the pattern he has planned

3 Things

#1 -Daryl and Pam went to the temple last week so I got to be Zac's very first babysitter! We watched The Hills. Well...I watched it while he slept. Okay okay I mostly watched him sleep. And tried to repeat in my head all the reasons why I should finish school before we have a baby. I wasn't very convincing.

#2- I made stuffed mushrooms for the first time over conference weekend. They were DIVINE. I'm too lazy to post the recipe right now, but let me know if anyone wants it. If it will make you feel better I will tell you they are low fat.

#3- I painted Daryl's old DI chest of drawers for my pirate room, it's striped now :) I love it.

Conference Weekend

Wasn't conference so great? I know that's weird to say because I don't ever remember conference being BAD but somehow every year I hear just what I need to hear. How is it possible that ALL of the members of the church hear JUST what they need to in conference? That seems like alot of ground to cover for the speakers :)
Anyway, it was so nice just to sit in the new condo with babe and relax and listen and cook. I made belgium waffles with fruit (D got me a new waffle maker for our anniversary, the kind in hotels that you turn to cook), chopped veggies with cottage cheese dip, stuffed mushrooms, and fruit pizza. On Saturday night while the menfolk were at Priesthood meeting, all the Austin (and Woffinden) women went to dinner. It was so fun to spend time with JUST girls again and I LOVE this new branch of my family!
Also, Brittain is done cheerleading for the year (unless she does the competition team) and she chose to miss her last game to go to the temple with her YW group. They are trying to go to all of the temples in Utah. I thought it was so cool that she would put the temple above cheerleading :) She is a great little sis and such a good example to her OLDER siblings. Love you BeeBee

Heh heh