The Obligatory Halloween Photos

Halloween rocked this year. The ward Halloween party was fun, the kids loved their costumes, Spencer and I had a great weekend. We loved it.

The best parents in the world

Mom's candy stash, I love Kit Kats and Reese's peanut butter cups.

Auri was a little nervous at first.

Trick-or-treating at my parents house

The two coolest ninjas ever. Warren really got into character.

Family Home Evening Pumpkin Carving

This was Auri's initial reaction to wearing a costume.

I tried to give her a matching doll to pacify her.

Can't wait for Christmas!!!

It's a beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I love this time of year. I wish October was 60 days long. I love all the Halloween specials on tv, mainly the Simpson's, I love the apple spice air freshener in my living room, I love seeing pumpkins outside every grocery store, I love the crisp chill in the air, not too cold but not hot. I love school and all the fun activities. I love the FALL!

On Saturday it felt like out whole neighborhood was out raking their leaves.

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Child Protective Services

a photo of cleaner days




You know those days when if Child Protective Services were to do door to door rounds, you know they would take one look at your house and then take your kids on the spot? Well, today is one of those days. Not one of my bathrooms is clean, (thank you little boys with no aim) (gross by the way I know, but I really think it falls upon the Man of the House to take the boys and show them how to clean it up themselves, or at least show them how to aim), most of the beds are not made, there are leggos all over the play room floor and a nice trail out to the hallway, there are dvds everywhere, because in my house it would practically be illegal to put the dvd back into its original case. There are piles of laundry that the poor put upon laundry basket cannot compete with, the recycling bins are suffering from the same condition. My work-out gear is begging to be washed for a power workout tomorrow and I am pretty sure the spider who keeps building webs in my living room is our new family pet, still cleaner than a dog right?

Please Child Protective Services do NOT STOP BY TODAY!

The Mandatory Pumpkin Patch Photos

It is time once again to be brutally honest with myself about my hair. I cannot pull off long hair and I hate it. I don't like short hair on me but when my hair gets to a certain point I just stop doing it and only wear it in a pony. I try and try and try to grow my hair long but I just can't make it look good. Bummer. I didn't want my hair to get shorter the older I got, but here we are. I am coming up on my 33 birthday and hair past my shoulders makes me look tired. Or perhaps I should be even more brutally honest with myself and admit something much worse. I once read a book called "Hanging Up" and the main character kept changing her hair and complaining about it then finally her sister said to her, -it is not you hair you don't like it is your face. I am pretty sure I don't like my face.

Sorry that is so typical of me, here we have a bunch of beautiful photos of my kids in the most perfect setting and I turn it into some kind of self declaration, epiphany, philosophical moment. I think I might be annoying, or it is just after 9pm and I am getting tired and loopy.

Here is all I should have written in this post.

We went to the pumpkin patch on Monday. It was fun. We got 2 really big orange pumpkins and the boys picked out a little white one for Auri. I was able to resist the gingerbread cookies. (yawn, are you bored yet? I know I am)

Here is the photo of me with semi-long hair that I don't like.

October 1st

Max, Auri and I busted out out Halloween decorations today. I think it was like Christmas for Max. You should have seen him opening the boxes, trying on old costumes, going through the movies and books. I love this Holiday. If the decorations at Target were more reasonably priced I'd have my whole house decorated. I feel like that at Target a lot lately. The things that are priced $14.99 really should be $8.99. Is it just me or has that place gotten more expensive over the past couple of years. Maybe it is just that I now live close to a Walmart and Winco and by comparison everything seems expensive. I get sticker shock when I go to the mall.

This is my pumpkin collection.

My Mother in law gets me a pumpkin every year for my birthday.

These are our Halloween movies. I have to keep them hidden in a box year-round otherwise they would be so scratched by the time Halloween rolled around.

Some of our favorite Halloween books.

Gourds for my dining room table.

My "spooky tree" as Max affectionately calls it. This is where I wish I could afford target stuff. Today I saw more houses, but for the bargain price of 19.99, 14.99 and 10.99, so let me get this straight that is basically 50 bucks for a couple houses that I only get to see one month out of the year. Do you ever ask yourself this

I'll know I've made it when I can______________________________

Here are some of my answers---when I have a driveway that you don't have to back up in, you can just go around in a circle. I think they are called train station driveways, or something like that.

---when I can make my dental decisions based on what I want not on what I can afford.

---when I don't have to let my hair grow a full inch before I get to a salon.

---when I can buy all the Halloween decorations I want.

This is my Walmart house that I bought for 2.99. That is what I want to pay for a

"spooky house"

This was actually my review of this book on Goodreads.com.

"I was fully prepared to skim this book. I am not a big fan of food or cooking, so when my friends recommended a book that included a passionate love for both, well suffice it to say I was a little apprehensive. That said, however, I loved this book. Not only can this woman eat, she can write. I have never heard anyone ascribe healing powers to cake and I have never seen writing that used "people adjectives" to food and "food adjectives" to people. She once explained that a friend of hers , during a soup phase, had a "tawdry love affair with the food mill". -Hilarious. What endured me to this woman the most was her appreciation for ginger with chocolate (I thought I was the only one who liked chocolate pudding with crumpled up ginger snaps), and she is a hopeless romantic. She used the word "magic" to describe meeting her husband. Lastly, when reading this book be prepared to see this a lot: "do not use low fat or skim" and "use heavy cream, not milk"

Well the book was so good that those of us who read it decided to go to her restaurant. It was awesome. For the ride to the restaurant my friend Becky made the banana bread with ginger and chocolate chips, (again with that combination)and my friend Heidi made the chocolate dipped macaroons. AMAZING. Her restaurant was perfect. We couldn't decide on what to get so we ordered 6, count them, 6 pizzas, 2 salads, and 2 desserts. It did not disappoint. I would go there again in a heart beat. Molly, the author, even came out and signed our books and menu's and took a photo with us. She even cuter in person.

I like living. This is one of those things that in my youth I would have always talked about doing. But now in my mature wisdom it is one of the things I actually put on the calendar and force myself to do, not that this took much use of force, but still. I feel proud of myself every time I step out of my comfort zone and try something new. Yea Me.

That is Molly at the head of the table. She is adorable.
I highly recommend her book and her banana bread.

A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet

It's Friday, so Max and I decided to make popcorn balls in order to

celebrate the fall season coming upon us. I think they turned out pretty well. I tried a new recipe that I found on allrecipies.com. Last year we made the popcorn balls with marshmallows, this year we made them with a caramel sauce. It was fun.

Here is the recipe

5 TAB veg oil

2 1/2 cups of unpoped popcorn

1/4 cup butter

1 cup packaged light brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tea Valina extract

1. Pop all the popcorn ( do it according to the package directions)

2. In a medium saucepan with a candy thermometer inserted, combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Stir well and bring to boiling over medium heat. Stir in condensed milk; simmer, stirring constantly, until thermometer reads degrees F (114 degrees C.) Stir in vanilla.

3. Pour caramel over popped corn and stir to coat. Butter hands lightly; shape popcorn into balls about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.