Monday, October 25, 2010

Conference Weekend

Over Conference Weekend my family got together at my folks house. The entire family was together because Jennie and Grant drove in from Denver. It was so fun to spend some time together, be filled with knowledge and inspiration from these great men, enjoying eat great food and conversation and playing too much Agricola! It was a nice long weekend because Tyler had off the next week so we didn't have to rush home afterward. And my dad took our family pictures the following Monday.




On the last night we went to a few towns over for Chinese food. Here is Cecily sitting in her first highchair at a restaurant. I thought it was cute how she barely fit over the table.


Good food was shared.
My little sister Rose and my mom!

Cecily's first corn on the cob. She's clearly enjoying it.


Jennie and Warren.

Grant, Tyler and Gledis (L to R).


Eva.


The kids collected leftover shells from Tyler and Grant's shooting session. They thought they were treasures. lol. Little did they know they were cleaning up!


The gathering.


The carnage left

from these delicious pancakes.

And then more listening and watching Conference. President Uchtdorf's was my favorite again.

Prego Jennie.

My dad taking notes and the corner of Levi's legs.

I did not catch any photos of Alex, Marci, myself, or baby Owen.

Halloween Parties

Any excuse to wear Halloween costumes more than once in a season is fine with me! Plus I was able to work out all the tweeks with their costumes before the big day! I love Halloween and planning, preparing and partying for it!

Party #1:
Pumpkinland , Orem, Utah

The Law Partners hosted a get together at Pumpkinland and the kids were thrilled to go. There was a pretty good (ie, not too easy and TALL) corn maze, a little "farm", and their favorite; bouncy houses. OH, and the funniest looking rabbits I've ever seen. The funniest was the brown fluffy thing I endearingly called "Ewok." Thanks Wendy N. for taking these photos for us.

The kids with friends Amanda and Katie.




Party #2:
Julie's "Earth's Best" sponsored party.

Cute decorations, yummy food and great company. The kids had fun playing with some new and some familiar friends in the ward. Thanks to my dad's cousins wife (ie, Alicia) for taking these photos. The kids are dressed from the Orient. Jocelyn in a Sari, Cecily in China Town garb and Samuel is a homemade ninja.

Trying to make Jocelyn smile. Typical.

At least she's looking at the camera now.


Party #3:
Cousins party

It was a gloomy rainy day. The BYU game was that day so Micaela was stuck in traffic and the deluge that never really quit. But it gave me some more time to prep.

Did you know that dry ice sublimates? In other words, vanishes? I bought some 2 days in advance, you know, thinking I was doing well with planning ahead. The store people kept in a plastic bag and then inside a paper bag and I took it home (with the windows close, which is also a safety hazard...but I wasn't going very far) and stuck it in my freezer right away. The morning of the party I go get the ice and it's gone! The bag is completely lightless and there are frozen fuzzy crystals everywhere. It disappeared! $4 wasted! I had no idea it would disappear in the freezer!!! Tyler laughed at me for not knowing. haha. So our witches brew was just root beer (thank you Emily!).

I did have grand and glorious plans of making a lot more food and decorating a bit more...but I spent too much time on the internet browsing recipes and ideas that I never actually got to executing them all. A lot of inspiration came from this cool website (seriously check out their Halloween food ideas) and from Martha Stewart.

Handmade banner and ghosts in the background.

Samuel devouring his frosting. Vera, as Dorothy and w/o her adorable red wig.

Emma, the witch. Paul (not pictured) was the cowardly lion.

Jocelyn (with princess dress up over her Sari), Peter and Creigh as Indiana Jones'.

The cupcakes using this recipe. And some cupcake flags, of course!

Place markers found on someone else's blog who got the idea from Martha. I was really excited about these. And the kids loved them too!

The food table. Notice no "brewing" action going on. And that is Samuel's sword. He thought it would be cool to add to the photo.

Horrible shadowy picture, does not do justice. Blah. Bat tree inspiration from Martha.

The table. Pizza was served (and not pictured).

I wanted to make these but ran out of time....so we had them on Monday night instead. These little mummy men. And actually, I am learning that not a lot of kids actually like to eat these. At least, not in my family. Jocelyn ate hers but Samuel opted out for leftover pizza.


Ghost cookies (nutter butters covered in almond bark).


The decorated pumpkins. They had fun with this. 3D, washable, glittery Elmer's glue.



More fun times ahead!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Autumn

I love this time of year! And though it's been uncharacteristically warm and long, I am loving it still the same. I am loving the smells from my neighbors wood burning fires, the beauty of the fallen leaves on the wet pavement, the comfort foods and kids wearing rain boots! I am not yet ready for the snow.

Here is a critter, or type of critter that I may have to resign to spending the upcoming winter wit. These very large and hairy things creep me out every time I see one, which is daily:

Here is a new recipe on my blog. My mom's Lentil Soup!



The kids and I made some impromptu ghosts the other day out of trash bags, newspaper, string and marker. Here they are enjoying them as toys before I hung them up. Chasing each other and "oooooohing".



The reason I share this awkward photo is because it's the clearest one of Jocelyn's skirt. I made that. Yes, I love it. It was super easy and made from upcycled materials, namely one (and part of another) of my old shirts! How cool is that? Free, easy and fashionable. A little love for the Earth too. Here is the link to the awesome directions.


Ghostly love.


Accidents happen

I tried making these:
and ended up with this mess:


Here is the link: to the long story of how it melted my heart! ha, a little sarcastic.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

2010 Family Photo Shoot

Taken in Mt Pleasant.

My dad took our family photos over Conference Weekend. Thanks Dad! The weather was perfectly clear. We bribed the kids with getting doughnuts afterward. They were good the whole time. However, "good" doesn't always mean smiling in each photo. Of course. But we did get some good shots! You only need one of each kind right? The one I am going to enlarge for the wall is decent enough. It's this one on top. Enjoy the photos. If you'd like to see a few more, see my facebook album.