Idaho -- brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I've been in Rexburg, Idaho since Christmas day visiting my sister, her husband, and 4 kids. I LOVE visiting with my family, but this cold is for the birds. Day after Christmas it got to a whopping 8 degrees. Today it was positively balmy at 22 degrees, and snowed for the first time.

However, we spend 99.9% of our time in doors playing. Fortunately Kiki has a FULL basement, very very large with 3 bedrooms and a bath. So there is plenty of space for everyone.

My favorite part of the trip so far has been squishing my niece Karlie's chubby thighs, and I've been doing it a lot. They are completely impossible to resist. She smiles at you, waves her hands, and then flashes her thighs and the next thing you know you're picking her up and squishing her.

I'll be headed home on Thursday and I'll be taking tons of pictures and wonderful memories with me.

Twilight Years

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

My cousin Jen lived in NYC for several years and became friends with many very talented people who are in the "industry" -- she being a very talented person herself. Several of those friends from the single's ward put this little spoof together and did an AMAZING job. I love the premise. I will admit freely to being a Twilight fan and yes I am also in my Twilight Years.

Nothing better than a smile

Sunday night we had a birthday dinner for my dad...Happy Birthday, Dad! So I was taking random video and I got a great clip of my otherwise, very serious little niece smiling. Enjoy!



Have a happy day!

What are you thankful for?

I found this video today while preparing for my Sunday School lesson. It is wonderful and thought provoking. There are so many things that I am thankful for, today I am thankful for the opportunity to teach Sunday School. What about you?

Better Than Shopping

I'll admit to hitting 2 stories on Black Friday - Target and JoAnn's. But I didn't get to the first store until quarter 8am.

Rather then helping boost the economy my family and I headed out to the desert for a little R&R ATV style. Me, my dad, my mom, sister-in-law Ellie, friend Susan, and cousin Maka joined up with my Uncle Clarence and his family out at Queen Valley for some outdoor enjoyment. The weather has finally turned cool enough that it is perfect for ATV riding, lounging, game playing, and eating -- eating being the most important activity.
Here are some of the highlights...

Susan heading out for a ride.

Maka's turn.
My cousin John's baby, Kadence, obviously had fun.
Kandice, Beth and Kadence.
My dad and his brother Clarence.
Here's the whole Clarence Schaub family. BTW -- It just so happened to be Kelley's birthday!
Playing some games - Maka, Ellie, and mom.

New Baby Boy Schaub

My brother Justin and his beautiful wife Rachel had a baby boy yesterday. To hear how it went and to see some cute pictures, check out their blog...

schaubfam.blogspot.com

Dutchoven Cookout at Usery Park

Last Saturday some friends and I went out to Usery Park in northeast Mesa to do a bit of dutchoven cooking. There's just something about cooking in cast iron over an outdoor fire that makes the food taste better. This time I made chili and baked some cornbread. I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and always enjoy perfecting my skills over the old campfire. I dragged along my favorite dutchoven cooking partner, my dad. Here are the pics...BTW I'll be posting recipes and more pics on my food site later.

PS -- Jasmine the dog will be featured in a Mighty Dog commercial during the Dog Show which always follows the Macy's Day parade on Thanksgiving Day. To see how she became famous, check out her blog -- And all that Jaz...

Happy Veteran's Day

I am grateful for the legacy of service and patriotism I have been blessed with. My ancestors have fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and most recently the war in Iraq. Family members who have sacrificed so much for me and every other American who daily enjoys freedom and safety as citizens of the United States of America.

Thank you to the men and women, and their devoted friends and family, who continue to serve for our country.

Happy Veteran's Day!

My brother-in-law Jared served in Iraq.

My dad was an officer in the US Navy.

My Great-Uncle James A. got shot down in Vietnam.
My Grandpa Johnson served in the US Navy.

My Grandpa Schaub was a radio operator and door-gunner in this bomber in the South Pacific during WWII for over 15 months.
And my uncle Ken was a Marine at the same time by dad was in the Navy and his son Michael Schaub served for over a year in Iraq.

THANK YOU!

Aunt Megan's Annual Halloween Party - Highlights

It was a blast! This year's Aunt Megan's Annual Halloween Party was great -- great food, great kids, great costumes, and great fun. If I do say so myself. Here are some of the photo highlights.

M&M Dark Chocolate Halloween Movie Game

Couple years back my brother Ryan and I found this online game posted by M&M. Each Halloween I go looking for it because it's a lot of fun, and it's a challenge to see how much I remember from the previous year.

The game consists of trying to identify horror movies by a single illustration. M&M has ingeniously created a fully illustrated scene that hides about 50 different horror movie titles. Some of them are obvious (picture of a bunch of lambs wearing ear-muffs = Silence of the Lamb), others not so obvious. Part of the challenge is the fact that I've probably only seen about 10% of the movies -- I hate scary movies. But I do know the titles of most of the movies, the rest I just have to guess at based on the image and then cheat by Googling.

The first time I tried it it took me almost 3 hours to get them, and I had to solicit a ton of help from other people. One of the nice things about the game is you can pause it and come back to it another day. The last time I tried it I think I got just under 50 minutes.The above picture is just a screen shot of the game. You really should try it. It's a lot of fun. Just click on the picture above and it will take you to the game.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween's Parties of the Past

I was thinking about the Halloween parties I've had in the past, so that lead me to browsing through old photos. I decided to share with you some of the highlights of Aunt Megan's Annual Halloween Party from the past 4 years.

2005Each year we have the doughnut eating game.
2006


2007
2008
(Not a lot of pictures last year, I was just barely recovered from the flu and so I couldn't do much more than sit on the couch and watch the action unfold.)

The Clone Wars were popular last year.

I'm really looking forward to this years party. We'll be having a "Witch Hunt" a little "Pumpkin Bowling" or course the Doughnute Game. And for Dinner...

Halloween - Halloween - My Favorite Time of Year

I Love Halloween!

I really, really do! Who doesn't love a holiday where people give out free candy and you get to dress-up anyway you want, call it a costume, and wear it around all day and have people tell you how "Spectacular" you look. :)

I'm getting ready for my Annual Aunt Megan's Halloween Party, next Wednesday. And I decided I wanted another excuse to try some more Halloween recipes, and get more mileage out of my decorations, so I'm throwing a little Visiting Teacher "Gouhl's Night Out" with ghoulish desserts next week as well.

Here are the invitations to the Annual Aunt Megan Halloween Party:
I made little paper coffins, filled them with gold coins and skulls and pumpkin candy, and wrote the invite inside of the lid. The coffin was super easy to make. I got the pattern from Martha Stewart. Here's the coffin pattern. It would be totally cute with double-sided paper, maybe next year.

Then I found this awesome recipe for cinnamon candy popcorn - ya know that stuff the Harry & David's makes called Moose Munch that tastes wickedly good but they charge ya like $8 for a quarter-cup. Well, while cruising my favorite recipe photo site (admit it, you eat with your eyes first, if there isn't a great picture with the recipe you won't try it) Taste Spotting, I saw a recipe for the popcorn. The "Our Best Bites" site calls it "Cinnamon Carmel Corn with Pecans and White Chocolate" -- I call it freakin' delicious. So rather than post the recipe, I'm going to send you on over to Our Best Bites and just show you the pictures of the finished popcorn that I made today. I won't tell you the bowl is not empty, cuz it's not...I swear! ;)

I did add a small Halloween flair -- just before I drizzled the white chocolate on the cooled popcorn I tossed in Halloween m&m's and I also drizzled semi-sweet chocolate along with the white chocolate. Strictly for aesthetic reasons! ;)

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Survived the "Long Climb"

About 3 weeks ago my dad and I were watching some travel show on the Grand Canyon. My dad is a frequent hiker of the Grand Canyon (1-2 times a year) and we ended of having the following conversation:

Dad: "Megan, when was the last time you hiked the Grand Canyon."

Megan: "It would have to be when I was about 13, so that was XX years ago." ;)

Dad: "Do you think you would like to do it again?"

Megan: "Sure, someday."

Dad: "How about we go hike to Indian Gardens over conference weekend."

Megan: "OK."

Aggghhhh!!!!!

So I busted my butt for 2 1/2 weeks on the stair climber at the gym and I learned one thing...IT DOESN"T WORK!

Nothing prepares you for a 3,000 ft climb, for 4.5 mile (one way, so 9 miles round trip), at 7,889 feet above sea level. Certainly not the the stupid stair climber at the gym!

Nevertheless, I had a great time with my dad. We drove up Friday after work, put up the tent trailer at the Mather's Campground.

Saturday we started the hike down into the Canyon at 7:30am. It took us about 3 hours to get down to Indian Gardens. We had lunch there while I dangled my feet in the creek. Then we hiked out at about 11:30am. We reached the top at 5:20pm.

I know, I know, we took forever getting out. That was because of me. I had to stop about every 20 feet to suck wind. After about a 1 mile I sounded like a child's squeaky toy due to the altitude + asthma. My father was the epitome of patience and kindness and stuck with me through it all, through the three-year old and his parents passing us by (no kidding), and the old Chinese couple passing us by, and even the girl in flip-flop sandles passing us by.

However, I persevered and have the pictures to prove it.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS!