Pounder Family Christmas Party

This last weekend we had our Pounder Family Christmas Party. We usually hold it on Christmas Eve, but this year we decided it was too hard to get everyone together that evening, so we held it later. We always start off by going somewhere for breakfast, this year we went to The Country Market in Willard:




Scott brought Brett his IOU for winning the weight loss contest, $20 in pennies:


After breakfast we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's (or mom and dad's if you prefer) to play games and hang out until it was warm enough to go sledding:



Of course then the boys all had to start wrestling:


So we decided it was time to go sledding and we all started getting ready:







Then we hit the tubing hill! Check out the slideshow below to see our pics!
When we were all tired out we headed back to Grandma's for our CRAZY dinner (which consists of everything and yet nothing good for you! (mostly snack food items) Grandpa gave in to Easton and let him eat off the serving spoon for the jello salad:


Afterwards we played our traditional game of Present Exchange Bingo:



We had a fun family weekend!

Building our Gingerbread House!

Nik and Austin have been asking to build the gingerbread house since the 1st of the month, so finally on Sunday I told them we would do it after church. We had a great time and I think we did a pretty good job too! Notice the black and white pics - this is where I asked Jason to grab the camera and take some pictures of the kids. He is not very adapt at working the camera so he didn't even notice that it was still on the black and white setting. When we were done I started taking pictures and we came out in glorious color!
We hope you all have a wonderfully Merry Christmas!

a pizza party

Okay, enough of looking at my trees, here are some pictures I took when we had the Stockings over for a family home evening :) pizza party!

Here is Nik and Kylee rolling out their own personal pizza crusts!

Here is the rest of the crew creating their own pizzas with the help of Trulee.
This is adorable McKay, who's dad wasn't thinking he was too adorable at the moment because he spilled his soda all over his dad! "Nash, Nash, where are you?"

And now that the kids are all full and the parents fed Trulee can relax!

The trees are now trimmed and the stockings are hung!

Last week was fairly crazy with a billion things I needed to get done before leaving Saturday morning to Salt Lake City for a weekend of shopping with my girlfriends. With the help of my boys I was able to get all of our Christmas decorations up and the trees trimmed. At the day after Christmas sale last year I bought new decorations for the three trees so I am showing those here as well as my one in the formal living room. It's fun to have something new to look at!

Nash's Sadie Hawkins Date

Nash was asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance by KayCee McCarrey. They went to the church to have dinner, where they made pizza and then played games. They had a group of about 24! They had so much fun they stayed at the church until 9 pm, then went to the dance. What a fun evening!

Another wonderful soup recipe

Mom's Brocolli Cheese Soup

This makes a large pot and is great served in bread bowls.

4 qts. water
12 chicken boullion cubes
3 cubes butter
1 1/2 cup flour
16 oz. jar cheese whiz
3 pkg. frozen brocolli

Bring water and boullion to a boil. Add brocolli. In a seperate pan melt butter and add flour to make a rue, gradually stir into water until thickened. Add cheese whiz.

Makes 5 qts.

Time to plant bulbs!

After a couple of cold rainy weeks we are now having beautiful fall days with weather in the high 60's. So I decided I had better quit procrastinating and get out there and plant this huge bag of bulbs that Jason's sister Yvonne gave me last June. I guess they came from the Utah State Capitol Building Grounds. There must have been about 200 bulbs because I was able to cover all of my flower beds. After about an hour and a blister forming on my palm I had to call in reinforcements (Nash, Nik, Austin and 2 of their friends) to help dig the holes We have really hard and rocky soil here, if you can even call it soil! So now I am hoping to see lots of color in the spring! If it all turns out I'll publish a picture!

To Kiss or be Kissed?

I have heard this story from a couple of my friends, who think it is pretty funny. So I decided to let the rest of you see how crazy my boys are. The Monday night before the elections, Sarah Palin came to Elko to speak. She was due to be in at 10pm that night (although she didn't make it until 11pm). I had a headache and Jason had to be to work early the next day so we didn't go,but Brad and Nash went. They sat across the gym from our friends who also went. Nash and Trulee kept texting back and forth (that's how she knew what they were up to). Anyways, the boys and a group of their friends were next to the Secret Service guys and they were trying the whole time to get them to smile. When they finally succeeded, they proceeded to convince the Secret Service to get Sarah Palin to come over and give them a kiss! Of course they weren't allowed that option, but from what I hear it was pretty funny watching these crazy boys try to get a kiss from the beautiful Sarah Palin!

Thanksgiving Question?

Here is my question to all of you: "With Thanksgiving just around the corner, (this year has gone by so fast) what is your favorite thing about the holiday? Is it the food? The overall atmosphere of warmth and family? The football game on TV? The crazy shopping spree the day after? Or a combination of them all?"

When I think of Thanksgiving of course I think of the food but it's not what I am looking forward to the most. What makes me look forward to that day is the thought of spending time with our family and friends, the warmth and coziness of a house flowing with people and the wonderful aroma's of the Thanksgiving Feast surrounding us, even the sounds of the game on tv, just makes me feel comforted. I love this time of year! I also look forward to the crazy day of shopping afterwards!

Have a SPOOK-TACULAR Halloween!

Happy Halloween

From our house to yours!