Yummy PB Bars!

So after following a friend's blog for several years, I wrote down their family recipe LAST year and finally got myself to make it THIS year. It was so easy and I got most of the ingredients from our food storage! Yummy. Once I started eating it I shared a few pieces with family and friends, ate pretty much 1/2 of the 13x9 glass pan single-handedly and grudgingly took the last 1/3 of the pan to a church activity to share. Now everyone wants the recipe, so here it is:

Ipson Family Peanut Butter Bars

4 C powdered sugar
1 C butter, melted
2 C peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, doesn't matter)
10 graham crackers, crushed

1 C chocolate chips
6 Tbsp butter

Mix together first 4 ingredients, press into lightly-GREASED 9x13 glass pan. Mix butter and chocolate chips and microwave on high for 1-1.5 minutes [I did so in increments of 30 seconds]. Spread over the top of peanut butter mixture. Chill in the fridge until chocolate is hard. Enjoy!!

(photo credit to Stephanie Ipson! My pan was completely gone before I thought to snap a picture!) :)
I must say, my son had fun mashing the graham crackers in a zip lock bag and then mixing them in. Next time, because I like creamy PB and a creamy overall texture, we'll make sure all the cracker crumbs are very fine. The extra crunch was okay but I like creamy best. :) I'd also recommend keeping this in the fridge and taking it out to eat or it turns into a sticky mess. For my chocolate covering I had a little more than a cup because I used a big hunk of chips that had melted together in one of my cupboards during the very hot Vegas summer. It worked well though. :) Just a warning though, these are addicting!! Likely they would go well with milk or ice cream for all my lactose-Tolerant friends out there. Enjoy!!!

Starting up again...

I've been thinking of restarting this blog more with my random ramblings rather than my personal life, so here it goes... I have a family blog which is private. It's one that I try to add to at least monthly. Hopefully with a lack of pictures it won't seem so insurmountable and I'll keep up better with this one.

I love being a member of a family. Being a mom. Having two sons who are the best and worst of friends at times. To have a cute baby girl to feed and cuddle with, smile at and talk to ALL the time! Naturally it would seem to get old after a while, but really that's just when I, the mom, need more sleep. Once I sleep things seem a LOT better. I love my husband of nearly 9 years who does what he can in our family while going through medical school. Life isn't perfect, but we're all working on it one day at a time.

I love being part of a church where I feel I am needed and where I hope to help in all my capacity each Sabbath day. I love the Lord, I love His Gospel and I love the friends I've got at church. I love being able to sing to and with the children in the Primary each week.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (LDS, or Mormon), and I love that no matter where in the world I am that I can have a place to go where the same things are taught weekly and the Spirit can always be felt. I am grateful for being able to read the scriptures and study them so my knowledge of the Savior can expand and I can live my life more like His. That said, I wanted to share what I'm going to try to accomplish this year. I found a link to a page that has the year planned out to read the ENTIRE standard works, as in the Old and New Testaments, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. It has been one month since I began this challenge and I'll admit it's NOT easy. I'm not exactly on schedule but I'm working on it and I WILL finish. Here's the link to that page: http://www.motivatedmamas.net/2011/12/scripture-reading-schedule.html

For my friends who are not LDS, read this post and are interested, you could also set a goal to just read the Holy Bible in the year by this schedule. It's all-inclusive. :) (the page numbers refer to the King James Edition of the Bible) With this invitation I'll close my first post in my non-private blog. Thanks for stopping by.

Springtime Pictures

Mount Timpanogos during the Spring in Utah County. Ornamental grasses with water from a nearby sprinkler. (I took this during a breeze!)

Beautiful blossoming trees let you know it's Spring!

Tulips, daffodils and pansies on BYU grounds.

These next pictures were taken at my brother's wedding on May 1st 2009 at the LDS Mount Timpanogos Temple.

Religious Freedom - LDS Newsroom

Religious Freedom - LDS Newsroom

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Semi-Annual General Conference

Any coming across this blog are encouraged to visit http://lds.org (click the link for 'archives of the conference'), and watch the Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It broadcasted on October 3rd and 4th from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, sent throughout the world via satallite as well as wherever the internet is available. The conference is available to view in many different languages so that all may hear of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own language. I highly recommend visiting this site and listening to what modern-day prophets have to share with the world's people.

Cedar Hills, Utah -Mount Timpanogos LDS Temple

This March day was fairly perfect when we visited the Mount Timpanogos Temple. Here are a lot of photos I took that day. It's a pretty temple and the clouds in the sky were beautiful too!

I'll have to get a different picture of the sign with the window DOWN next time we go.

The Angel Moroni on the top of the spire facing East and blowing his trumpet to call the preaching of the gospel to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelations 14:6)

See the pretty stained glass windows in the spire?

From the back (East) side of the temple.

Tulip and Pansy area
The tulips hadn't blossomed yet.

I really liked this angle. Closer up on the cornerThe South side of the temple.The parting shot of Moroni

As a possible reminder, you can click on the pictures in the post and see it larger. Please do give me credit if you copy or use pictures for any reason. Thank you, Jessica Cox

Provo, Utah -LDS Temple at Night

We had some time to use so visited the temple at night. I don't understand all of the functions on my camera so the resolutions are the best I could do. :-)

Outside the fence

Inside the fence

Closer up

These words are written on every temple ever built. Each temple is a special place where the Lord can visit His people on the Earth, which is a big reason why we must be worthy to enter.

Looking from the temple front at the last bit of sunset over Utah Valley.

I tried playing with different water picture functions on the camera at the same fountain. I call this one The Statue of Liberty. Can you see it in the center?

To see pictures of this temple during the day follow this link http://jessaspiringpics.blogspot.com/2009/02/provo-utah-lds-temple.html . OR just scroll down through my February 17th 2009 post.