Halloween Traditions

Wow. Does anyone else out there have problems with blogger uploading photos? I'm pretty sure it hates me. I think I won, this time. On to the fun stuff.

We did our pumpkin carving for FHE on Monday night. We've pretty much decided that the dremel tool is a great thing. It looks great, and no guts and knives. Nick did Goofy. And I did some leaves.Ellie and I carved Snow White.Then we made our traditional orange popcorn balls.
And then, it snowed. Yup. Here's Maren heading out to enjoy the first snow of the season.

The kids got all dressed up for the ward Halloween party.

Here's my little tiger:

You can't have him! He's mine! All mine!

My blonde fairy:

Poor thing. Don't let the blooming petunias fool ya. It was cold.My brown-headed fairy:

At the party, we ate chili, the girls got crowns painted on their foreheads and made suckers into ghosts, but the best part of all (for the girls, anyway) was running around on the stage with their good friends. In fact, Maren did a serious lay-on-the-floor-I'm-not-moving fit when we finally had to drag her away.

I'm lovin' the way Ellie and Maren are looking at Abbey. They adore her, even when she looks like a witch.

We are certainly looking forward to this weekend! More fun traditions to come!

Six

Six years ago today, we got married.Now we are several pounds lighter (isn't it usually the opposite?), a bit more hair missing on top, but every bit as much in love. Cheesy, I know, but true - life has only gotten sweeter. Photo taken July 3 - six years to the day we first held hands :).
And just look at what we've accomplished: Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart. I love you.

Better

It took a whole week, but I think my little family is finally mostly recovered. Nick and Everett got sick last Wednesday, and somehow I got away with just a touch of nauseousness. It's a good thing, because someone had to take care of things around here! Here are some photos to document our week:

Ellie and I made these cute little pumpkins out of toilet paper rolls: My little Boo:
I did quite a bit of this:

By the way, I really do love sewing, but it makes a HUGE mess. I think my kitchen completely disappeared for a few days. I very much look forward to the day that I can have a sewing room. Someday...

The girls and I dipped some caramel apples.

And my big girl, Ellie, gave her first talk in primary yesterday. I was a proud momma as I watched my confident girl do her thing. Daddy helped her write and deliver the talk about setting a good example.

Heave Ho

The girls have been sick. I have never seen such a puke-fest. They started throwing up within 15 minutes of each other at about 5 last night, and kept it up until around 2 am - like every 3o minutes. So gross. Thankfully, Warren E, Nick, and I have escaped the bug...so far. Maren puked just seconds after this photo, and Ellie followed suite a few minutes later - she pretty much missed the bucket though and got it all over herself and the couch. Our house smells lovely. They are both feeling a little better this morning, thank goodness. Aren't you glad you came to visit us here today? :)

Anyway, on a brighter note, here are other things going on:

I just had to grab my camera when I saw this:

I think Ellie will be fully capable of potty-training Maren all on her own. Yesterday she had put her in underwear and was helping her onto the toilet. When I told them that Maren needed to wear a diaper to take a nap, well, Ellie took care of that too!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Ellie and Mister E helped me pick the squash from our garden this afternoon. Ellie pointed them all out for me while Everett chewed on a bottle in the cart. A big bucket of squash. My goal is to eat it ALL this winter. Usually we throw away 75% of what we grow. Pretty sad.
We brought the pumpkins up to the front porch.

Yes, I comb Ellie's hair sometimes. My poor ragamuffin children. At least she has clothes on. If I had left it up to her she'd still be wearing her pajamas.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

These are pretty tasty little treats. How can you go wrong with pumpkin and chocolate? Throw in some butter and sugar and we are talking some good stuff. I did add about a 1/2 tsp vanilla too, because I thought it sounded like a good idea. We had these babies without any frosting (which were calorie packed enough, I'm sure) but they'd be extra delicious with a dollop of cream cheese frosting. Enough talking, down to business:

1 cup butter, softened
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips (that's what the recipe says, but we all know an extra handful or two certainly doesn't hurt)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with 24 paper liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together butter, pumpkin, and eggs until well combined. Mix in flour and sugars. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners (they will be almost full). Bake until tops spring back when touched and toothpick comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

recipe from www.kukikookbook.blogspot.com

A Birthday

We celebrated a birthday over the weekend. The day started at 6am when we set up for our yard sale. I don't know what constitutes a successful yard sale (this is our first), but it was all good in my book - we got rid of a lot of big, useless (to us anyway) items, and we made a few bucks too. I know, what a great way to start a birthday!

Ellie was our party coordinator. She's all about birthdays these days. She's got hers all planned out and tells me at least once a day what's gonna happen and who's invited. She wants to make invitations just about every day too. So, she was in her element decorating for her daddy's big day. Notice the large amounts of tape? Don't worry. Nick's special day only got better. We went to Rib City for dinner along with Nick's family. We had smoked chicken and ribs. Yum. Then we came back to the house for pie and ice cream. My French Silk was a big hit. I'll post the recipe someday.

Nick was excited for his 'car pretzels' (from Cabela's).

And this guy is 8 months old today. What a cute boy.
I just realized that those two photos actually did not get rotated (even though I did it, like, 10 times). Sorry. I'm too lazy to go back and fix the whole thing. You'll just have to turn your head. ;) Oh, and that delicious watermelon he's eating? Yep, from our garden.