Recipe-of-the-Month

Artichoke Dip

1 15 oz. can un-marinated artichoke hearts
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilis or 1 Tbs. canned chopped jalapenos
½ c. mayonnaise
4 oz. shredded parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix all ingredients together except 1 oz. of parmesan cheese. Heat in oven for 25 minutes or until warm. Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese evenly over warm dip and cook 5 more minutes. Serve warm with pita chips.

OTHERS January 2009

Put these Boggs Family Dates on your new 2009 calendar:

May 10th: Mother's Day Desserts at Gramma Boggs's
6:00 PM Gramma's house. Bring a dessert and sit and visit for awhile.

July 4th: Fireworks at Durans
Bring a chair and some food to share. We start when it starts to get dark or when they just can't wait any longer to blow something up!

July 17th- 24th: Pismo
Crowd in with the Durans in their two campsites if you want to come but didn't make a reservation. We have room for you. (We will expect delicious food items to be paid in exchange for rent.)

July 24th: Gramma Boggs Birthday Dinner
Dinner out with gramma after we all get back from Pismo. Gramma, start thinking of where you want to eat.

November 26th: Turkey Bowl
Same place as usual - on Armstrong between Shaw and Gettysburg Ave. Treats at Marshalls after someone else wins the Trophy. (Not sure how this happened but right now the trophy is at the Duran's !%#)

November 26th: Thanksgiving Dinner
This is the Boggs's ON YEAR. Everyone and their gramma is invited. We will be having dinner at one of the church buildings and will be playing games in the cultural hall (right Jonathan?).

December 19th: Boggs Christmas Breakfast
9:00 AM at Gramma Boggs's Clubhouse. What assignment do you want this year?

Any questions about these calendar items can be emailed to ELIZABETH.

BCB 2008 Slideshow

For those of you that were not able to attend our Boggs Family Christmas Breakfast - we missed you! And for everyone that was there - thanks for making it such a nice time. The food was tasty, the crafts and games fun for the kids (and adults), centerpieces and table decor were perfect, gift exchange story new and also quite fun, singing time was rousing, nativity was pulled of nicely - with only 2 angels this year and one Mary, and my favorite, the dancing Marshall boys were a hit! Special thanks to ELIZABETH for organzing and coordinating the whole thing.

(**Do not forget! Mica opened the Turkey Bowl trophy during the gift exchange! Then there won't be any unnecessary searching for the trophy come Thanksgiving next year.**)



Thank you to Stephanie for these 2 excellent videos from our BCB 2008. Enjoy!

The Nativity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG7IsjJzk54


The Marshall's Sleigh Ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Clcs0RqWYc



============NEWSLETTERS==========

WARD WIDE WEB
Holiday traditions take over our lives during the month of December - decorating, school events, shopping, parties and everything else that comes with the season. Here are a few highlights from our busiest month of the year!

We did the BCB.

We did a long overdue 10th anniversary photo shoot.

Trevor started wrestling. Check out that singlet!

Logan lost his 2 front teeth! Just in time for Christmas!

Lizzie performed in her first dance recital.

Jackson continued his obsession with trains until he fell asleep mid-play. (He also got his first black eye that week - look closely and you can see a little purple around his eye.)

Three days before Christmas we went up to the Tenaya Lodge for a quick one night trip. The kids love to swim in their heated pool, go ice skating and play in the snow. We woke up in the morning to a beautiful white scene out our window. The snow was coming down as we were all still warm and toasty in our beds. It's a fun tradition we do each year that relaxes us before all the craziness begins.


Happy New Year!!




Waddell's
Lucas is now 17 months old and December was exciting for him in many realms, one of which was decorating and undecorating any Christmas Tree he came across. There were just too many ornaments that looked like his favorite toy, the "ball." He got a DVD player for those long car rides to Clovis and loves his new magnet farm toy as well. He's easy to please!!

Eric has 3 1/2 months to go. He spent his Christmas at their office/shop/bomb storage, where they had a Pizza party with his men, but unfortunately the pizza was terrible tasting. He is super busy as always, and counting down the days until his return.

Caralee is also counting down the days until her babysitter, I mean Eric returns. She is ever so busy with her calling and is sewing, sewing, sewing up a storm. Spring classes start soon and she's excited about her new classes!

La Familia Duran

We were expecting a somewhat quiet holiday season since our family has dwindled in size, but to our surprise this was one of the most busy and fun Christmas's we have ever had. In two weeks time we attended and participated in 18 extra events, shows, and parties - taking food to each one of course - and when that was all over it was time for a mad wrapping of presents to be ready in time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now, with an additional 5 lbs around the waist, we sit as zombies. Well, only because we are finally out of chocolate - the one item which has sustained us due to its constant supply throughout the past 30 days.

Jordan & Stephanie had a good Christmas and made it to every party that they needed to. As well as working like dogs and trying not to go crazy while doing so. Jordan was expecting to have tons of hours but was glad to see he didn't have as many as he thought he would. Stephanie picked up as many as she could so she wouldn't be bored this holiday time. They are both glad to have the business slow down so they can take it easy for a bit. But that wont last for long.

Mica has discovered life with an ipod. Now that she is connnected she surfaces only for food and water.

OTHERS December 2008

Here's a photo (thank you Samuel for this excellent shot) of all this year's hard core Turkey Bowl participants. Stay tuned for a Turkey Bowl slide show to come later on this month. Do we need a Boggs Family Tee or what?!




============NEWSLETTERS===========


Waddell's
November went by quickly for us... Caralee and Lucas spent 10 days on a trip to KY to witness Eric's younger brother's wedding and hang out with his family. It was extremely cold and even snowed one day. Needless to say, they spent all of their time indoors!

LUCAS loved seeing his cousins and Grandparents and they all of course, spoiled him rotten by spiking his sippy cups with juice or even soda when nobody wasn't looking. Shame on them! He hardly drinks water now... They barely survived the flights, but are trying to block them out before their next trip to KY in May, 2009 after Eric comes home.

CARALEE got to see the movie Twilight while she was in KY with her Sister In Law and had a fabulous time being "baby less" for a long evening. That made the trip worth it right there in fact. The movie wasn't nearly as good as the book, so she had to read it again in three days to remind herself why. Yes, she knows she is a big nerd.

ERIC spent his Thanksgiving on the base in Kuwait eating prime rib and abstaining from running the 5K that day due to a long run the previous night. His legs were too sore and he said the t-shirt from the race wasn't worth it. He is now traveling through Afghanistan to Uzbekistan to help do some training for their military forces on bomb disposal. Eric said that Afghanistan looks just like Utah valley and even has trees contrary to popular belief. The men there that perform the same job as he does took good care of him while he stopped by and even gave him a "warm room" to sleep in because they knew he wouldn't be prepared for the cold after coming from hot Kuwait. So nice of them. Eric has 4 1/2 months to go, YEAH!


Ken and Allyson's November:
Our very best friends from Australia came to visit. We had a great time having them over for dinner and going to parties and staying up way past our bedtime. I think we managed to convince them to live here 50 % of the year. Ken's two brothers and two cousins also came to town with their families. We had our very first overnight guests and wrapped up the long weekend with yummy indian food at our favorite restaurant. We had a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving with the Marshalls plus some. We went and visited an old friend of Ken's family's and to see his new bachelor pad. It has live trees planted inside and boulders and lots of steps and levels and weird spaces that you're not really sure what to do with.....very 70's cool. We've just about finished our Christmas shopping and that makes us oh so happy. See ya next month. Merry Christmas!!!!!!


WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took the fam to Disneyland the weekend before Thanksgiving. His favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean - I think we rode it 3 times. He also had the highest score on Buzz Light Year that we've ever seen - almost 600,000!

JENNIFER had a great time organizing our family t-shirts for the trip. It really is so much easier to keep track of everyone if we're all in the same color and we look totally cute all matchy matchy!

TREVOR loves Disneyland. Rollercoasters are not his thing, but these rides are just his speed. He rode whatever he wanted, because he is tall enough finally, and was happy as a clam. He even got to drive his own car in Autopia! (Sorry, no picture of that one. Bummer!)

LOGAN will promise that he loves Indiana Jones - he rode it about 3 times - but, in fact, it terrifies him. The last time we rode it he had his eyes shut tight and head down for the ENTIRE RIDE. (Notice the "I'm-excited-yet-terrified" look on his face just before we got on the first time.)

LIZZIE provided the great finale to our trip. We were about to watch the CA Adventure parade - the last event of our trip - and she PUKES all over. She let it go right in the middle of the walkway. It took those Disney sweeper guys about 30 seconds to come over to where it happened and they were all over that mess. About a minute later Lizzie tossed her cookies again, but behind a garbage can this time so the clean-up crew didn't see the mess. We got to enjoy the smell through the parade and left quickly when it was over.

JACKSON was finally able to let go and enjoy Disneyland. (Last year he had the throw-ups and did not enjoy it very much.) He totally dug the rides and especially the Lightning McQueen car in the parade. He is all about cars. He was literally laying in the street on his belly as the parade started and watched as Lightning slowly made his way towards us. That moment was what the whole trip was about - seeing the magic through our children's eyes.


La Familia Duran
Louie is off of light duty and back in patrol. He loves being in his car again. He is still seeing doctors about his shoulder and will finally have his MRI this next week to see if he qualifies for surgery. We think he qualifies because he is still gimpy and in pain.

Elizabeth has been shopping and putting up Christmas decorations. She put the lights up on the house by herself this year and really enjoyed being up on the roof for the very first time. Getting down was another story. Something about not trusting a ladder on the way down. After sitting up there for a while she had to call Jordan on her cell phone so he could talk her down.

Samuel has been out looking for a job. No fun. So in the mean time he says to tell you all he is sleeping.

Jordan is ENGAGED! He proposed to Stephanie on Thanksgiving and she said yes, but first he had to talk to her dad and ask for his permission to ask her. Jordan and Stephanie will be married in October of 2009 or in November of 2010. Make sure you look at Stephanie's ring. Very pretty!

Mica hates Christmas songs. She has been singing them since October and now is performing them several times a week with her college choirs. Right now she is getting ready for her finals 'cause her very first semester of college is over in two weeks. Well, she will have a final in music fundamentals, and then a final in choir and then another final in the other choir.



Marshall Noose
The Turkey bowl this year was AWSOME!!! The Marshalls pulled to an early lead and the 'graciously' let the Boggs win so that they could have the honor of keeping the trophy this year. We had a swell time visiting with everyone over cinnamon rolls and punch.

The rest of the day was spent with Allyson and Ken and Ryan's family. this year the Darnels also joined us for Turkey and trimmings. It took all day to find room for the scrumptious pies but we managed to fit them in somehow.

This week I am doing the lighting for the Stake Releif Society Christmas Choir. We had the dress rehearsal last night and they sound awsome. The light look great and my legs are sore form all the ladder workout.

Suzanne is gearing up for the Hollidays. She spent 12 hours decorating the tree and another two days doing the rest of the house. It's quite spectacular. Drop by if you can for a visit and a tour.

Have a great Christmas

John and Suzanne


The Garzette
We had a fun visit from my parents in the middle of November. The girls went shopping while the guys played golf. We went out to dinner, played spin the bottle (not like you think) and stayed up too late and ate too much junk food. It was a fun weekend but, as always, too short.

The next weekend, Javier’s parents came. The girls went shopping while the guys built a fence. We had a nice Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, and pie. Everyone pitched in so I didn’t have to make everything myself.

A couple of days ago we found our hamster, Patty, (named after aunt Patti, but with a “y”) in her cage, not breathing. She was in her little ball where she sleeps and we took a pencil and poked her (with the eraser end) and she didn’t move. So we broke the news to the kids. Austin was sad, Marissa drew a picture of a dead hamster (with x’s for eyes) and Elise was oblivious (she probably killed her – she was always picking up and dropping the ball that she ran in). We planned the funeral for the next afternoon. The next day, we were getting ready to bury her and Marissa ran out of the office and said, “Patty’s alive!” and I said, “Marissa, don’t say things like that.” But we all ran in and she was moving and breathing and, sure enough, she’s alive.

BCB 2007

Merry Christmas OTHERS!

Here's a good one from last year to bring you a little holiday cheer.

Pismo 2008 Slideshow

Recipe-of-the-month

Pasta Fagioli Soup
by Suzanne Marshall

Makes 9 quarts of soup:

3 tsp. oil
2 lbs. ground beef
2 cups carrots, slivered
1 ½ cups chopped onions
2 cups diced celery
2 large cans diced tomatoes
2 regular cans red kidney beans
2 regular cans white beans
88 oz beef broth
3 tsp. oregano
2 ½ tsp. pepper
5 tsp. fresh chopped parsley
1 ½ tsp. Tabasco sauce
48 oz spaghetti sauce (I use Hunts)
1 cup dry small pasta

Saute ground beef until it starts to brown. Add onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain and rise beans and add to the pot. Add beef stock, oregano, pepper, Tabasco, spaghetti sauce and pasta. Simmer until celery and carrots are tender, about 45 minutes.

Makes 9 quarts of soup. Cut it in half for about 5 quarts, or cut the recipe into quarters for a smaller family. I cut it in half and have enough for a couple of meals and some to give away, and some to freeze in containers for lunches.

OTHERS November 2008

'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^*SPOTLIGHT*:^'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'

I thought it would be fun to spotlight one family member each month in our newsletter. Hopefully this spotlight section will help us know a little more about each other than we previously knew. Say hello to ... ELIZABETH!

What is your favorite color? Orange!

What are your hobbies these days? Walking for a couple of miles, outside in the cool, fresh morning air. I get to see the sun come up, marvel at the miracle of a new day, and to be by myself for a few minutes.

Do you have a childhood memory you'd like to share? One early morning this week as I walked by I heard a sound coming from the open window of a house. Someone was stirring something in a metal bowl. I could tell it was a metal bowl because the sound was a ting ting ting sound. This brought back a flood of memories of the breakfasts that dad would cook for us each morning. We didn't have cold cereal cause it was too expensive for a family of 10 so every morning Grampa Boggs would get up before seminary and start cooking breakfast. If we heard a glop glop glop stirring sound coming from the kitchen downstairs we would know we were having pancakes with dad's homemade syrup that day. If it was a tinny ting ting ting sound we knew dad was stirring up the eggs in the metal bowl and we were having french toast with gobs of melted butter and powdered sugar. If we smelled bacon we knew we were having eggs (the runny kind) and bacon and stacks of toast. If we didn't hear any sound we knew that we where in for it and would be eating the dreaded oatmeal.

Now, when I think back on it, I realize I took it for granted that my breakfasts would be ready and waiting for me. It would be a delicious homemade entree, steaming hot, and ready for me to gobble down before dashing out the door for seminary (to this day I still eat seminary style). Today, my own kids feel lucky if I even bother to cook them dinner a couple of times a week. How lucky we were to have such good breakfasts. How lucky we were to have such a good dad!

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) I want to look down into the mouth of a live volcano and see the steam and the red hot lava bubbling around.

============NEWSLETTERS===========


Waddell's
Eric is coming home in 5 1/2 months now! Yes, I'm going to tell you each month how long he has left, so stop wondering. He's busy and may be able to go to Uzbekistan later on in his deployment to train some of their men. The weather there is finally lightening up and getting cooler, only 90 degrees during the day. Fresno has nothing on Kuwait as far as the heat goes!

Caralee is half way through her semester at school and has planned her spring semester online and is very excited about it. She's trying to juggle her calling, the kid and her many home projects. Thanks to everyone for having us over for parties this month, it's been so much fun!

Lucas is walking finally, though he prefers to crawl still. He started on Eric's birthday to be exact, what a nice present. He spends most of his days moaning about his painful mouth (teething) and pulling on Caralee's leg so she'll pick him up. After 3 tries, he made it through a hour of playing in the gym's kids care section while Caralee worked out. Third time's the charm apparently. YEAH!


WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY is the best husband ever! He planned and coordinated the most elaborate 30th birthday celebration for his wife. The day was full of all her favorite things and he even took half the day off to do all her home/house duties. What a guy. What a great great guy.

JENNIFER had a blast working on the musical last month with the youth in our stake. She is sad and happy that it's all over. Suzanne did a great job directing everything and Elizabeth and John also did a great job doing all the things she asked. It was fabulous.

TREVOR finished out his cross country season. He improved his time with each race and felt like he could have kept running even when it was all over. Next he's on to try wrestling!

LOGAN earned Student of the Quarter for his class. He is a great student, always trying hard to please the teacher and do his best. He totally earned it! Logan is also doing great at soccer. He usually plays forward and scored his first goal this month!

LIZZIE is still enjoying her dance class. She is also learning her letters really well at Joy School each week. Her favorite part of the week is the weekend when everyone is home and there are tons of people to play with.

JACKSON has turned into our biting monster. He usually only bites adults. And he usually only does this when he is teasing and playing. Sadly, it does not feel like playing when you are the one that gets bit. He is forever our little ball of energy and we love him to pieces.



A note from David:
I wrote this after Chelsy broke up with David Goodlad.

What is Love?

1 + 1 = 1
2 - 1 = 0
2 = 1
1 = 0

Love is a deadly curse but it is also a living blessing. If misused it will lead to the destruction of your friendly self and hurt those around you. Lock it up and wear the key so no one can steal it or give it to someone in minuscule pieces until the final "Will you marry me?". If that special someone hurts you take back all the love you gave them and keep it only to be seen by the one who truly cares for you and would kill them self if they ever hurt you. That certain someone could be waiting around the corner or right next to you. They will always be waiting even if you don't go and find them. Some say "love can't hurt." but it can. It can hurt more than guilt, hate, jealousy, pride, envy, and disappointment put together and thrown at your stomach. How? Love can be used as a poison to kill people you care for by making them jealous and they might think of you as a proud git. You might then feel disappointment because they aren't happy for and guilt because they hate you. Envy can be thrown in there too. If used in the right way and given the right amount, it can be wonderful.

~David Boggs~

Marshall Noose

Had my foot operated on to forget about my REAL surgery. Then I had my face operated on to forget about my foot. Got the last of the stitches out today. Still have butterflys on. No film at 11:00.

Suzanne's Church musical was a great success. She had over 160 kids in it. I sent a picture to Jennifer for you all to see. Liz and Jennifer were a great help. Next time there's a big production, I'm sure they will be tapped again. To commemorate the end of the show, Suzanne got a big cold. We just stopped by Elizabeth's and she has one too. Notice the trend?

I am still between assiginements. Still getting a paycheck so I suppose someday I will get to go do something. In the mean time I will be doing the lighting for the Christmas womens's concert so that should keep me out of trouble.

John and Suzanne