I thought I might as well share some funny photos Sade and I took over Thanksgiving weekend last month. That girl is good at making funny faces!! And can anyone guess who this first picture is?? (If you guessed Chris Jay-Leno-ified, you guessed correct).
Dwight helping Michael calculate where to put a trampoline to break his fall for his fake suicide. I think I'll start using the Mississippi system.
Hello all my friends and familia!! Chris is finally letting me listen to Christmas music (now that it is one week after Thanksgiving) so I started a Christmas Playlist (to the right, red box..). If anyone would like to share their favorite x-mas songs, leave a comment and let me know.
I'd love to expand our Christmas song repertoire ~
Merry Christmas SEASON!!
OKAY - THESE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY HAVE TOOOOOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS. . .
This year for my birthday we did a Murder Mystery party at a turn-of-the-century mansion in Salt Lake. It was a little pricey, but very fun. As always, we did not skimp on the costumes, which if you ask me are the best part!
We have some good new, some very mediocre news, and some very bad news. I will start with the bad news. It looks like Cancun is going to be 5 ft under water before we arrive and we may be spending all our vacation cleaning debris from the beach. The mediocre news is the guy finished the t-shirt although he was about the crabbiest crappy person I have ever worked with. Not only did he make the design to small, take too long, and over charge us he also messed up a shirt and then bought a replacement the wrong size. Oh well they turned out great all things considered. Just so you know we will never be making t-shirts in Mexico again...ever. And the good news is Kate has a job with a great non-profit in SLC and start a few days after we return. Finally after all this hard work Kate is going to be my sugar mama (Jim & Donna, it was just a joke I am getting a job as soon as I get back).
Either way we will have a fun vacation even if it is in Cancun, California. And at least we have the shirts.
"We thought the time was ripe for an update of the tired cream-of-mushroom or cream-of-chicken soup recipes, because canned soup can be used for so much more than that," said Donna Kelly, co-author of a new cookbook, "101 Things to Do With Canned Soup" (Gibbs Smith, $9.95).
Kelly, a Utah County prosecutor, has penned several other cookbooks in Gibbs Smith's popular "101" series. This one was written with Stephanie Ashcraft of Tucson, Ariz., who wrote the original "101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix."
There are so many more soups on the market now, added Kelly. She especially likes those with Southwestern flavors, such as creamy ranchero tomato and chicken chile verde.
The duo included some old classics, such as tuna noodle casserole. "But we added some interesting variations and new flavors," she said. "And a lot of the recipes are totally brand new, such as the Upside-Down Pizza Casserole, which uses drained minestrone soup as a base."
DO-IT-YOURSELF QUESADILLAS
3 cups cooked ground turkey or beef
3 cups minced onions and/or peppers
1 10.75-ounce can condensed nacho cheese soup
12 8-inch tortillas
2 cups grated Mexican-style cheese blend
Place meat, onion, peppers and tomatoes in separate bowls. Allow each person to choose the amounts and types of fillings, as suggested below. Heat a 10-inch frying pan to medium heat. Spread 1 tablespoon of soup on a tortilla and place it dry side-down in pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup ground meat, 1/2 cup peppers and/or onions, 1/4 cup tomatoes and 1/3 cup cheese on top.
Spread another tortilla with 1 tablespoon soup, and place soup-side down on top of quesadilla. Press with a spatula to remove air bubbles. Cook uncovered about 2 minutes and then turn over and cook another 2-3 minutes.
Tortillas should be golden brown and crisp on the outside. Cut into wedges with a pizza cutter. Garnish with guacamole, sour cream and/or salsa if desired. Makes 6 quesadillas.
Variation: Replace soup with chicken chile verde or southwest pepper jack soup.
UPSIDE DOWN PIZZA CASSEROLE
2 19-ounce cans ready-to-serve minestrone soup
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons dry Italian seasoning
2 cups diced pepperoni or cooked Italian sausage
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 3-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and discard 1/2 cup liquid from each can of soup. Pour remainder in a 9-by-13-inch pan. Stir in tomato paste, garlic powder, seasoning and meat, spreading mixture evenly in pan. Sprinkle mozzarella and 1 cup Parmesan on top. Unroll pizza dough and lay on top of cheese; cut to fit. Make a few slits in dough to allow steam to escape while baking. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until crust is browned.
Remove from oven and let sit 5 minutes. Cut in squares and turn upside down on each plate as you serve. Garnish with remaining cheese. Makes 8-10 servings.
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com
I just wanted to say that Dad and I are so very excited for this trip - it will be so much fun with all of us there -
Thank you to Amy and Kate for working on the itinerary - - -
Thany you to Neil for the awesome T Shirt design - -
Thanks to Matt for taking time off work and Jake for missing his first whole week of college --
And let's all send out happy thoughts and prayers for Chris to do well on the MCAT next week so that he can relax and really have fun with us on vacation.
Hasta las Vista!!!
-- Momalicious Kelly
Hello all. We are getting excited for Cancun! We are heading out from here on the 19th. We'll stop at some ruins & possibly Belize on the way. The T-shirts are coming along nicely. They are a nice Pepto-bismol pink. A fitting color :)
Hello all! Nick is now serving our country in the middle east, and we have recieved his address. I am sure he would love to get any bit of mail or packages that anyone would be willing to send! His address is:
Nicholas Henke
Unit # 931003/TFTP2
APO AE 09391
Fun on the Fourth!!
The Kellys celebrated the Fourth with a bang this year - we did all the usual patriotic things -
balloon launch at 6:30 am - then parade at 9:00 then picnic and neighborhood pool party and finally FIREWORKS viewed from Rock Canyon park.
And, yes, that's Jim getting a freebie snack at the park by climbing the apricot tree and swiping apricots, as any good patriot would do!!! And, it just wouldn't be a celebration without Jake wearing an insane costume - in this case 
random people would stop him and ask for a photo with "Uncle Sam."
We just got back from a great tour of Mexico City. It's about a 14-18 hour drive from here, so we took a little plane at a nearby airport. It was a good celebration of our BIG 6 month anniversary.
As for future plans, so far all we've got is that Neil is going to make Macro-mentaries about bugs. He's got some pretty good footage so far, so the future is bright. We might just start wearing shades.
Hello All! I am just announcing that I just finished my LAST college final of my LAST college course! Chris also finishes his Spring Term finals tomorrow, so we are both jumping for joy! I also landed a "Grown up job" interview with a clinic for troubled girls as a therapist assistant this Friday, so yay for finally hitting reality!
Hello all.
Thanks for supporting our blog contest. I won! We are going to keep them updated and start a store on the website. We will be selling all sorts of weird crap. We're on our way to internet fame & fortune! :) Keep your eyes peeled for www.kateandneil.com T-shirts. Coming soon!
Hey all. Figured I hadn't posted in a while, so...yeah.
Contrary to popular belief (!) I'm actually doing stuff this summer.
This includes:
LEFT: Matt, Sarah Peterson, Amy and Chris, Jake at Olympic Park 
Jim and Donna travelled to Tucson, Arizona the second week of May to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hicks and the new granddog. His name is "Mes Amie Charles," or "Charlie" for short. He is a lively furball that is fun and energetic and keeps mom out and about walking him, etc. He is a "Bishon Frisee," absolutely not sure of the spelling on that.
HEY --- IT'S CALLED PARENTS' PAY DAY!!!!!
