Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

Yummy, pumpkin guts!

The finished product.

A Dinosaur . . .

. . . and Minnie Mouse!

They are so cute! But I could be a little bit biased...

Culinary ..erm... Masterpieces

Spiderweb Cupcakes

This is actually the second year I've done these around Halloween. They are super easy, look cool and are pretty tasty. I got the idea from Nestle's Very Best Baking website.

Obviously the website picture is way better but I think I did pretty well. I gave some to the sisters I visit teacher. We also gave some secretly for our ward's secret halloween knock-and-run chain letter/treat.

*edited* I only put these on my blog because I was pretty sure neither of the families would ever see it. However, since I just gave my blog address to one of the families I have a brief message for Mindy: If you could just pretend like we were the first people to leave the ghosty on your doorstep when in fact we were probably NOT that would be great! I forgot to tell Roy to check and he is really oblivious to ALOT of stuff. Uh, thanks.

Jack-O-Lantern Quesadillas

We ate these for dinner tonight. It was fun. I don't have anyone to credit for this. It is a conglomeration of many things I've seen. The quesadillas were refried beans mixed with butternut squash puree and shredded cheese. Spread this mixture over one tortilla. Top with thinly sliced chicken breast that has been cooked with salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper. Put sliced cheese on top of that (so your Jack-O-Lantern 'glows') and top with a tortilla that has been cut to resemble a Jack-O-Lantern. Bake in 350* oven for 5-7 minutes. Just long enough for tortillas to crips and cheese to melt. Serve with salsa if desired.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bowls

I got the idea from this cooking blog. I thought it would be fun to have some cookie cups with ice cream for FHE tonight. I don't have a mini-muffin pan so I just used a regular muffin pan. The blog said I could do that.

Here's what happened:

Cookies? Check

Bowl? Check

Cookies shaped like a bowl? Not so much.

I couldn't get them to detach from the muffin pan. I sprayed and everything. Oh well. They still tasted good.

Next time he gets the shot!

K was still awake because she had taken a 5hour nap! D was feeling flu-ish because we went to the Dr office on Thursday. While there I decided we should get our flu shots. Well, d's reactions was something like this:
"Idon'twannaflushotwaaaaaaaaaaa{breath}
Idon'twannaflushotIdon'twannaflushotIdon'twannaflushot{breath}
waaaaaaaaaaaaIdon'twanna..."
You get the idea. Well, that's okay because they have this great alternative to a shot and that is to inhale/snort it through your nose. When I got the info on it I really should have had that little mom warning voice in my head but I didn't. You see, a flu shot is a dead flu (how do you kill a flu?) but the inhale/snort is not dead. This means I allowed a nurse to squirt a live flu into my son's nose. Seriously?! I didn't think this was a bad idea?!? Whew, I really dropped the ball there. So Friday night D has a fever. Saturday he seems to be fine until Daddy took him out to go hunting and D 'lost it' in the car. Saturday night he 'loses it' a couple more times in the middle of the night.

Sunday morning he seems to be fine. Church isn't until 1. It is the blessed primary program. D has been practicing and looking forward to this for several weeks. He has a part that he has faithfully memorized and practiced. He went to the practice/party Friday. I really don't want him to miss this. We decide to just go to Sacrament meeting then come home.

Here's how it went down.
We arrive early so we can get a seat in the front (third row). I notice the middle front two rows are reserved for primary. Curious. Then D's teacher comes over and lets us know that the kids are going to sit as a class for the WHOLE meeting, not just after the Sacrament. D, of course, refuses. We work out a deal that when his teacher goes up to the stand he does too. All goes well until D's teacher heads to the stand. He has brought a train with him and wants to play with it. Roy took D up to the stand only to have him crying from the stand, "I want my train". I go up to talk to him in an attempt to get him to stop before everyone notices (too late). The program starts while I am leaning over the front of the stand calming my four (going on two--I swear) year old. I return to my seat only to be followed shortly by a tearful D. "I just want you guys." Meanwhile, parts are said, duet sang, more parts. Then it is one of D's favorite songs. I try to convince him to go up. Nope. After the song is the Sunbeams parts. D's teacher come to get him to give his part. He is last. He stands up there and says nothing. Not one word of his carefully rehearsed part. His teachers tries to prompt him. He starts breathing heavy. Think stalker on the phoneline. That's what his breathing sounds like. Finally, he and teacher return to their seats. He lasts 2 seconds before he is heading down to us. We packed up and left. Unfortunately, we sat in the front. We had to walk past everyone on our way out.

We are really gaining a reputation here.

I want to blog...

...but the one year old is still kickin' around and the four year old is feeling flu-ish.

Here's a couple of super cute pics though.

Where to start...

First of all ROY PASSED THE BAR!!!!!! *HUGE HUGE sigh of relief* Not that there was all that much doubt, but until that pass comes in you're left wondering. Now we can get on with life. Oh, yeah, we already did that. Now we know life can go on as we know it.

I had a strange occurance this week. I discovered that I good friend from high school not only lives in the W. Washington area but she actually lives in Vancouver! We spoke on the phone and made arrangements to meet the next day. We met at a park where we had a picnic lunch and played with our kids. I have made some good friends here but it is always great to spend time with someone who has known you since before you could drive a car. Let alone with carseats containing your children in the backseat. Proof once again that I did indeed have a life before I was a mom. Sometimes I forget... (Hi Dannelle!)

Uh, what else? I know there were five or six things I wanted to throw out there. Uh...

Oh, I took K to baby storytime this week. It was so fun!! D has been going to storytime since he was 2-3-ish. This was my first experience with a baby lapsit program. It was great. We sang song and did mother/child interactive activities. It felt great to really devote some one-on-one time with K for a whole 30 min. while D played elsewhere in the library. (He was still in view-- mostly-- through a glass door.)

I joined a gym in an effort to become physically fit and enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Now, I'm tired and I can't walk because I did 500 too many lunges.

My mom is coming to visit tomorrow. Maybe I should clean my house... Nah...

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Our House

Typing that title totally made me think of the song. So I had to look it up and listen to it while I type this.

Alright, I've been planning on doing this for a long time. I keep waiting for everything to be clean. I have finally determined that will never happen. Here are pictures and descriptions of where we live now. If you're not interested then stop reading now. Otherwise, I'm going to progress like this is the most interesting thing you've ever read/looked at.

Here's the front.It's a townhome so only half of it is ours. Our neighbors are super. They are quiet--we almost never hear them. They have a 15-ish girl who's going to watch the kids so I can go to Super Saturday. We'll see how it goes.

Vaulted Entryway, very nice. (Try to imagine it is one flowing picture...)

The Kitchen with WALK IN PANTRY!! I was so very excited when I found that out. I actually have an empty cupboard!

Dining and Living Rooms. Really, the whole bottom floor is open.

Notice the chairs? K loves to climb on the table so now we keep the chairs facing out unless someone is sitting in them.

Okay, my kids won't leave me alone to finish this so watch for part two. Coming soon...

Slug update.

I look back now and think, "21, meeh"

I can step over/on 21 between my car and front door.

I'm running out of salt. Seriously.

Oh, and I saw two slugs making new slugs. EW.

General Conference was AWESOME!!

I really love General Conference. It is always so great to hear the prophet and apostles speak. Plus, 'going' to church in your pajamas is nice.

D actually watched most of all four sessions!! Grandma 'Net sent a Conference packet that included pictures of the apostles and ties for him to color whenever one of them spoke. He would get sooo excited whenever one of the apostles or first presidency spoke because he could color a tie. That's what got us through Saturday.

For Sunday, I took an idea from a great friend who has 6 kiddos to entertain during conference. I fill 6 quart jars with various treats and labeled them with different gospel words. For instance, a jar of mini-Oreo's is labeled "President Monson"; a jar of Cheeto's is labeled "The Gospel"; a jar of Peanut M&M's is labeled "Temple". So whenever a speaker mentioned one of his topics, D would jump up and down and shout, "He just said 'Joseph Smith'!" Then he would open the JS jar and hand out a mini-Nilla wafer to each of us. It was very sweet. Really. Way too much sweet by the end of Sunday afternoon. We had to take a walk in the rain because there was way way to much sweet bouncing off the couch.

Anyway here are some pics from Saturday when the kids were coloring and watching conference.
BTW for one who was having sentimental feelings over a Sesame Street song, those MormonAds after each session were ......ah....... powerful stuff. 'Nuf said.

*yes, I'm sure I'm not pregnant!*

Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

D's new favorite hobby, Slug Salting! Today, it has been raining. This is not unusual here. We headed out back armed with the afore pictured rain gear and a salt shaker. Our 10 minute search yielded. . . drum roll please. . . . .. . . . . 21 slugs of various shades and sizes!
Ugh.
They are so gross. I will share what happens when a slug is salted. The younger ones quickly turn into what looks like marshmellow goo. The older ones shrivel down to half their size and die. It is not pretty, unless you're four then it's pretty interesting!

*For those of you who are sympathetic to slugs, we do have salting standards. We only salt slugs who are invading our space aka our yard. Slugs found in the wild, on walking trails etc are only subject to intense scrutiny and then left alone.*

Why you should NOT ignore. . .

The 15-Month-Old:

The 4-Year-Old:

The Breadsticks: