Saturday Night Fashion Show

Nick was invited to be in the Beautifully Modest Fashion Show that Allie Cunningham Organized and put on for the Charleston/Summerville area.

The Young Men who were ushers.

Nick & Irving

Stephanie escorted by Nicholas

Darren took High Def. videos so look for future posts of this event!

Presidents Day Weekend

We walked on the beach just before sunset.

I took the pictures below as the sun shown down thru the clouds over the Pier.

A beautiful Saturday drive around Charleston SC

After attending the General Leadership Broadcast we stopped at our favorite Mexican/American fast food resaurant and ordered some lunch to go. If you know us than you know what that is. After we ate at home. Darren decided it was a perfect day to take the Ferrari for a ride. I grabbed my Italian Tennies and my Camera and ran out to go wih him! It was a beautiful day and we loved going to the Coast with the fresh air and sunshine all around us! Here are some pictures of our ride.

Here is a short video clip with portions of our drive

Aren't we soooo cute?

Parked at famous surf spot "The Washout" at Folly Beach

Fueling up at a BP station on Isle of Palms

Another great bundt cake:)

All right here is another great recipe from Nestle!

White Chip Spice Cake

1 package(18 1/2 ounces) spice cake mix

1 cup Libby's 100% pure pumpkin

3 eggs

1/3 cup evaporated milk divided

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups (12-ounce package) Nestle toll house premier White Morsels, divided

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Beat: cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and vegi oil in large mixer bowl on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 min; stir in 1 cup morsels. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake: in preheated 350 degree oven for 40-45 min. or until pick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 25 min.. Invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

Heat: remaining evaporated milk in small, heavy duty sauce pan over medium heat just to a boil; remove from heat. Add remaining morsels, stirring until smooth and melted. Stir in cinnamon. Drizzle some of the icing over cake; serve cake with remaining mixture.

Makes 18 servings.

This cake is so good, Darren really liked this one. I served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to the missionarys and they liked it too.

January Enrichment night

Today was a crazy day. It started at 6:00 am When we played Brains and Brawn in Seminary, a game to help the kids remember the key words of the 25 Scriptures they should master by the end of the school year. It gets kind of crazy when we play that game. After breakfast Darren took me to the Dr. to get the results of a thyroid test I had taken. Good news I only have to take aspirin to help the swelling go down. Hopefully it will go down. Darren grilled some steak and chicken for dinner. I had to go to the church early to help our Enrichment leader get in and set up. When I got there the building was already open and people were setting up. My friend met me outside and asked if I brought my keys. She needed the library key. I then realized that I had forgotten to get them out of my Seminary bag. I said I would go get them it only takes about 8 min. for me to get home. It was 45min until 7:00. On my way home I got pulled over, I was not speeding. I passed someone incorrectly. This is something that I was unaware of. Any way after giving officer Baxter my licence and important papers, and he collected the papers from the guy behind me who also got pulled over. I waited a very long 15 min. And then was given a warning. That was the least of my worries. I was going to take the ticket being as I have never been given a ticket when I have been pulled over. Once in Washington, Oregon, Utah and now South Carolina. I really do feel lucky that Officer Baxter was so kind to tell me that if I got in an accident I would get a ticket. Ya buddy I think I would be more worried about getting injured than getting a ticket, not to mention my car being broken. I made it home and there were 2 messages on our phone. Darren and Nick don't answer when the are in the theater. I retrieved the messages. Yep that's right it was my two friends at the church letting me know the library was opened. so I took a few min. to collect myself and let officer Baxter get on his way. I really didn't want him to change his mind and pull me over again. Not that I go around braking the law intentionally. When I got back to the church at 7:15 one of my friends was waiting and worried wondering what took me so long. I explained she laughed after I told her the outcome.

They had a health and fitness class and I got some cool web sites. I will post them here so you can have them too.

Worlds Healthiest Foods at http://www.whfoods.com/

To calculate your heart rate, healthy weight,calories burned, ect. http://www.healthstatus.com/ More calculators http://www.healtatoz.com/
http://www.realsimple.com/
http://www.fitness.com/
http://www.runnersworld.com/
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/

After we made a cute valentines flower decoration we sampled a few healthy snacks.

I added the quik-kutz rub ons at home.

Bundt Cake Craze

Wow the recipe Shannon shared on her blog was amazing! I went to Target and purchased my first Bundt pan. I made the Chocolate Cake on Saturday night. It was gone by Monday morning:)

I looked for some more recipes I could try, Hoping they would be a little less rich and sweet. So this is the cake I made Monday night. I didn't take this picture until the cake was 1/2 eaten on Tue. The picture was taken with my I-Phone so it is not so good.

Pumpkin Orange Poppy Seed Cake

1 Pkg. (18 1/4 oz.) yellow cake mix

1 1/4 cups libby's 100% pure pumpkin

2/3 cup Orange juce (I used some lemon juice and orange juice, no sugar in lemon juice)

3 eggs

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Orange glaze (Recipe follows, good without too.)

Combine: Cake mix, pumpkin, orange juice and eggs in large mixer bowl; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. I mixed mine by hand. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add poppy seeds; mix until blended. Spread batter into a greased and flowered 12 cup fluted pan.(bundt)

Bake: in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 min. or until wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 min.. Invert onto wire rack to cool completely. I just turn it over onto the plate after it cools the first 10 min. I'm not very good at following directions though. Frost top of cake with orange glaze. Goes well with vanilla Ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Makes 24 servings.

Orange Glaze:

Combine and stir all ingredients in small bowl.

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 to 3 tbs orange juice

This is a Nestle Toll House Recipe with my added comments:)

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Winter in Summerville

A beautiful warm winter day in Summerville today. So we decided to go play some golf. In fact we dug out our shorts so we wouldn't get to hot!

The club house at Wescott Plantation.

Darren after a sweet hit.

Nick in good form.

Laurel trying to play the game right.

Golf Pro's leaving the tee box.

My turn to drive the cart:)

Nick lookin good

A new year 2008

We have come into a new year. A chance to make changes. One of the changes that we may be able to take part in is who will be the candidate running for President for our political party. This year there will be many candidates to choose from.

New Years Eve 2007

The last day and hours of 2007

Darren and I picked out a good amount of fireworks around the block at the fireworks stand. They were making some deals as it was the 31st. Fireworks are legal here in Summerville.

Darren, Nick, Thomas and Brenden had a blast lighting all the fireworks.

The Launch pad after all the fire works.

Jacquie comes to meet us:)

The day after Christmas we had a special visitor come to visit us. She arrived at the Charleston airport around 1o:30pm. She had a long day of travel. We visited until about mid-night and then we headed of to get some sleep. We had a lot planned for the next few days.

Thursday

Well it's official, this morning Jacquie is wearing an engagement ring! We didn't witness it, but where told he got on his knee, with a little persuasion, non the less they are both happily engaged. We are super happy for them! We love Jacquie too!

After a nice breakfast made by Darren we decided to head for the beach, no swimwear today its a bit chilly for the water. After a stop at on the Isle of Palms and a walk on the beach we headed across the beautiful new Ravenel bridge that crosses the Cooper River.

Walking out of the parking garage downtown Charleston.

A beautiful day for a walk in Riverfront park .

We walked through the market place on Market street downtown and ate lunch at Bubba Gumps. After lunch on our way back to Summerville we stop on Daniels Island and looked at some homes that were having open houses. They were on the Golf Course and were really pretty. We like looking at homes. It's something we have enjoyed doing since the veryfirst year we were married. We made reservations for dinner at a local resteraunt in Summerville, Oscars. The kids ate Shrimp & Grits, you will have to ask them next time you see them how they like it. Jacquie and the boys watched a movie, we went to bed.

Friday

We ate quik breakfasts and then headed to Folly beach.

We wanted to walk down the Pier, it was closed for renovations. The wind was blowing so it was a bit chilly. Of course we are spoiled and used to nice warm/hot weather! As you can see some of us are in short sleeves and a few are wearing flip flops.

We drove down to the washout and a few brave souls were surfing. We could not walk to the light house the tide was in. So we headed back toward Summerville with a stop at the outlet mall. Lunch at Arbys and we were ready to go home. It was nice at home although the clouds were moving in.

Nick on the BMW Go-Kart racing Darren on the Ferrari Go-Kart.

Christmas Morning

It was one of Ben's requests that we keep with tradition this year because he missed the last 2 Christmas's at home. So we have this little tradition that we have done for at least 17 years. After we read the account of the first Christmas we have Family Prayer and say our Good Nights. Mom turns off the lights around the house and puts a chair or two in the hall so no boy will be tempted to sneak into the living room where Santa has left their gifts. Because Santa always sets the gifts and full stockings out on one of the couches or chairs.

When Mom and Dad finally wake up, Dad always checks to see if Santa came. He then goes in to wake up the boys, and every year this is what he say's," I have some bad news" They alway respond with a "What" and he says, " Santa did not come this year!" and after a few oh no's a "just kidding, I did see some coal in your stocking though." Some times this is short lived sometimes a little longer depending on how awake they are.

This year was especially fun as the boys are so grown up and wanted to play along with the tradition. They even said that they would like to carry this tradition on after they leave home. So I think we should give it an official name.

The Christmas Chair Tradition.

This is a cute Christmas chair

Christmas eve.

Today we picked Ben up at the Charleston International Airport. His flight was delayed out of San Francisco so he didn't get in until mid afternoon. We were so happy to see him! As we walked outside He said, "It's nice and warm here".

After dinner and a message with the Missionarys, the boys played in the music room.

Nick was worn out after a couple hours of drumming.

One of those days

It was a nice morning and Nick was outside riding one of the Go Karts. I decided it would be fun to go out and ride the other one. Darren was working on the Ferrari, and what a better time to be out doors. So Nick started the black Go Kart for me. We were having fun riding around the driveway. I was getting pretty comfortable and going pretty fast. Are you getting worried about what I will type next? You should be! I was in the lead, Nick a few feet behind me. I had a sudden fear that I would not make it around the corner with out hitting him or a tree. I went straight toward the gate thinking I would be able to stop in time. Would have worked had I not gripped the gas instead of the break. I closed my eyes and let go of the handle bars. I opened them to see the gate pushed beyond the stop brackets. I was super worried that I had ruined the gate. I got up and felt my head, a grade A extra large size egg bump was already on my head above my left eye. Nick was right beside me saying don't worry about the gate Mom. I peeked in the garage and said" Darren, Darren, I think I broke the gate!" He said, "What, how" I then took my hand off my head. On my way up stairs I realized my right hand was swelling up and was scrapped up. I was a bit worried It might have been broken. Nick got me some ice and kept talking to me just incase I might want to sleep. Darren said I got the worst end the gate would be fine. I felt so bad about the gate. I also felt awful because we needed to go to a special baptism for two eight year old young ladies in our ward. After a few hours on ice and nick keeping me from going to sleep The swelling was going down. I managed to cover the head wound with makeup and my hair. The hand with long sleeves and bandaides. We attended the baptism, it was wonderful. Nick was asked to witness, he loved being able to perform a priesthood duty.

Seminary Breakfast

We hosted a breakfast for my Seminary students. They came over at 8:30 and Darren and Bishop Cunningham made pancakes,bacon and scrambled eggs. After breakfast some played

X-Box and some rode the go carts.

Oakbrook Youth Christmas Activity

Each year the Oakbrook ward youth have a special Christmas activity. They think of a gift that they would give to the baby Jesus, they bring the gift and give it to one of the other youth or leader. This is a very special evening. We were privileged to have it in our home this year.

Charleston Christmas Boat Parade

We drove downtown and found a parking spot near the Battery Park. We walked down to Waterfront park and found an empty bench. It was cold and there was a brisk breeze. We had just barely gotten over being cold in Italy. We watched the boats all decorated for Christmas and the fireworks off of the Waterfront park Pier. Charleston has been doing this for over 8 yrs.

Some of the fun lights on the boats!

Day fourteen of our adventure in Italy(Tue)

We woke up early and pcked our bags, ate a quick breakfast and met the same taxi that dropped us off last night. He drove us to the airport were we said good bye to Jackie. She went to the train and we checked in for our flights home. We were early and so had a few minutes to shop and read before boarding the plane.

Our flight to DC was smooth and uneventful. We breezed through customs and then said our good bye's and headed to our seperate gates. Saying Good Bye was too hard so we said See Ya soon. We had the best time on this trip with the Pennington girls!!!!!! we will always remember Thanksgiving in Italy!

Day thirteen of our adventure in Italy(Mon)

Ah a morning to sleep in. After a quick breakfast we wandered around Viterbo. We found a shop that was open and I bought some cool Italian Tennis shoes. We sat at a fountain and watched people for a while.

This is a Smart car, they are very popular in Italy!

We walked up to Jackies school and waited for her to get through with class. After she was finished we went to eat lunch at the Spagetteria. They serve over 100 different sauces. I had pesto on mine.

Where Jackie goes to school.

We walked back to our hotel and collected our luggage and walked to the train station just out side the city wall. We missed the train we planned on taking by 10 min. So we caught the next train to Rome which took us to the Fiumicino airport. We took a taxi to our Hotel, Hotel Club Isola Sacra. We ate dinner in the Hotel Restaurant. Rachel ordered fried fish, and that is exactly what she got, Head and all. Nick ordered a Hamburger and that is all he got, a patty on lettuce. Not the best food, probably the worst food of our whole trip. We watched Harry Potter 5 and then to sleep.