Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Silly Pictures Time!!

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).





Tuesday, December 18, 2007

"Some Good, Sacred Memory"




“You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially of a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.”

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov”
As I was putting out my Christmas decorations (and, good grief!, you can accumulate a lot of stuff from 30 years of family life!) it was such a fun adventure down memory lane. My favorite decorations are not the ones that are shiny and new.
My favorites are, in no particular order: a red felt Santa made out of a toilet paper roll by young Mattie Kelly; a popsickle stick manger scene which Grandma Hicks made with the Kelly kids at one of our Tucson Chirstmas's past; a "Snowman Family" stuck on a piece of wood with a snowman to represent each of the Kellys (okay - Jake - did I have to be the fattest snowman?!?!?); hand sewn quilt squares my girls and I made together when they were little at a mom and daughter activity.
As I thought about these treasures I realized it is the MEMORY that accompanies them that I cherish the most.
I am so grateful to all of you who have made such happy memories for me to cherish throughout the years!!! Every single Christmas our family has tops the last one - they just keep getting better and better every year, espcially since Jim's heart damage in 2002, because we now realize each day is such a gift to us all, each Christmas is its own "present" from God to us.
Here's to more wonderful Chirstmas memories in 2007 and for Christmases throughout all eternity!!!!!
Thanks, Miss Sadie, for helping make that Christmas choo-choo and also Miss Thaya for so artfully arranging those gumballs!!!!
I love you all!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Engineering according to Dwight



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.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Thanksgiving Fun










Woooo Hooo! This is my first try at posting solo - without one of my children standing behind me talking me through it.

We thought you might enjoy seeing the group photo of the Thanksgiving Pageant at the Kelly Compound recently.

Doesn't Matt make a wonderful turkey???

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Christmas Music Time!!

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!!



Tuesday, November 20, 2007

PARADING OUTSIDE THE BOX













OKAY - THESE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY HAVE TOOOOOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS. . .

Kate, Neil and Jumpin' Jim Kelly, a.k.a. Uncle Sam, joined the rest of the lunatic fringe and paraded in downtown Salt lake City on Saturday, Nov. 17th in protest of Big Box Stores and in favor of shopping and spending locally.

The festivities were complete with a police motorcycle escort and live music, hence the dancing in the streets pictures.

Monday, November 19, 2007




OKAY - THESE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS!!!
Not uncharacteristic of Kate and her father, they have once again found an opportunity to dress up in crazy costumes for a good cause!
Kate, Neil and Jim joined the anti- big box parade in Salt Lake City on Saturday, November 16, 2007. The banner they carried "Shop Outside the Box!", urging folks to shop locally to buy their holiday gifts.
The event was attended by a large number of college students, self-employed wild men and other folks with generally too much time on their hands. The parade of crazy costumed do-gooders was replete with a band and a police escort.
Once again the KELLYS have made the headlines --- a front-page photo of Jim was featured in the Salt Lake tribune the next day.
!Viva la Raza!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Happy Birthday Season!

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!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Well at least Cancun isn't supposed to be hit by a hurricane...oh wait.

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.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Deseret Morning News: '101' cookbook series gives canned-soup cuisine a fresh update


A lot of home cooks are prejudiced against recipes that use canned soup. They have too many childhood memories of dull generic casseroles.

"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

Story continues below
1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes

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

Friday, August 10, 2007

KELLYS ROCK!!!

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

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Cancun or Bust!


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 :)

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

HR, Morgies, & the Coast!!

Monday, July 9, 2007

Nick Over Seas
















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

Sunday, July 8, 2007


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."

Latest Adventures

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.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Freeeeeeedom!!!!

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!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

I am the champion


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!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Recent developments!

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:

  • A job at the most awesome grocery store EVER - Allen's. Oh yeah. You're jealous. ;)
  • Guys and Dolls in American Fork. I'm playing Chucky the vest, need I say more? ^^
  • Trips (Mexico here we come, baby!)
  • Getting ready for college (?)
  • General chilligernin'
And as promised, i went to the killers.
XD ...here's a pic!















See ya!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Whitewater Extravaganza





Woooo Hoooo!!!

We spent the weekend in the "Lap of Luxury" at a million dollar condo in McCall, Idaho (bonus: for FREE!) and spent an afternoon rafting the Salmon River.
On Left: Jake, Amy, Mom
On Right: Dad, Chris, Matt

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Hot Times in the Old Town


LEFT: Matt, Sarah Peterson, Amy and Chris, Jake at Olympic Park
RIGHT: Bobsledders Amy and Chris; JAke doing the "Luge"


Good Times at Seven Peaks: Winston, Matt, Ty, Brock, Chris, Amy , Jake and Meredith
May went out with a bang this year! First, we got invited to go to Seven Peaks, Provo's Water Park for a private party. We were invited by David and Gisella Brennan, who won a contest naming the new slide at Seven Peaks. "Vortex Blow" is the name she chose (don't ask - I don't know why) and she won a free party for 25 of her friends. Amazingly, she chose us! Free pizza and water slides are two things the Kelly boys are always up for!
Then, on Memorial Day we went to the Olympic Park in Park City. We Did the Zip line and the Alpine Slides. Good Times!

Friday, May 25, 2007

The Granddog

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.

Grandma is doing well after surgery, and sends greetings to all to come and visit in Tucson.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

ConGRADUATIONS!!!

HEY --- IT'S CALLED PARENTS' PAY DAY!!!!!

Jim and Donna are dancing in the streets tonite celebrating the joy of having had two (count 'em) graduates in less than 30 days! Amy graduated from BYU in April and today, May 24th, Jake joined the world of the newly graduated and unemployed.
He will be celebrating with an all night "lock down" at Timpview High. The party ends at 3:00 a.m. - after which his entire class has reserved a movie theater and they will go see Pirates of the Carrebean III - for those of you unaquainted with Jack Sparrow et al, it is THE premeiere of the summer!!!