Maggie Moo's

We LOVE Maggie Moo's Icecream!!! Rich's secratary, Julie, knows this. She gave Rich a thankyou card for something and enclosed was a gift card to go to Maggie Moo's!!! I was so excited! We made a special trip down to Salt Lake City today just to get icecream. And I am so glad that we did, it was delicous! We let the kids get some of their own, they each chose cotton candy, with nothing mixed in. I stuck with my tried and true: Better Batter, with cookie dough mixed in!!!!! I can't get enough of it, and neither could Max. He kicked his legs and loved every bite. I don't think he understood when the icecream was all gone and we were leaving the shop. He got upset. Rich had a dark chocolate and black cherry icecream with chocolate chunks and cherries mixed in. Aaron and Matt came with us and we all had a fun afternoon.

Cute Clothes!

Grandma Canada sent us a package that we received in the mail today. It was packed so tight!! There were cute new clothes for all of the kids! And the boys got matching outfits (yeah!). Sophie especially loves her new jeans, they have stars embroidered on them up near the pocket and also on the back. She calls them her 'Hannah Montana' jeans. Just like her new boots. She doesn't know who Hannah Montana is (she is a cool teen TV star), but she knows that some of her older cousins and friends know who she is, and that makes her cool. Long to short is: SHE LOVES THE JEANS!!!! And for some reason, Peter thinks these are pirate clothes....... I don't know....... But that means he loves them! (I do have to mention that Peter was a little disappointed that there were no pirate toys in the package. I don't know where he gets this Pirate obsession!! We have never watched a pirate movie, read a pirate book or even played with pirate toys! And yet he thinks he is a pirate, and loves pirate everything!) And everything fits perfectly.

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING GRANDMA CANADA!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

(In the same package were 2 things from Sophie's cousin Samantha that didn't fit her anymore, there was a cute Princess night gown, and a blue winter coat for Sophie. They fit great and Sophie loves those. They fit, and now we don't have to buy Sophie a new winter coat.

THANK YOU UNCLE MIKE AND SAMANTHA!!

WE LOVE YOU TOO!!!)

Banana Max

I was getting dinner ready, and Max was in his high chair watching me. He was starting to get bored, so I gave him a banana to HOLD... He demolished it!!! It was shredded and gooey and everywhere!! He loved it! But it sure was a mess to clean up when all was said and done... YUCK!

(so much for the tiny bib he has on, it didn't do any good... I should have stripped him down)

Trick-or-Treat

Hyrum (game boy), Jacob(ninja), Sophie (butterfly fairy princess),

Derek (Frankenstein), Rachel (Raggedy-Anne), and Peter (Power Ranger).

They are all set to trick or treat. And this year they actually ran by themselves from house to house, we didn't need to carry them and stroller them the whole way. It was really fun!

Max got pushed around for trick-or-treating, but he stayed in the stroller and didn't get any candy in his bucket. Sophie pushed her way through crowded door steps to make sure she was collecting her candy, one piece at a time. And Rich had her trained pretty good: If they let you choose the candy, go for the chocolate! She let him down twice. Once for bubble gum, and once for a pencil. The other times she came back to us and proudly declared that she chose the chocolate!!! Good job Sophie, you make us so happy!!!

Trick-or-treating is not just for the kids around here!! There is a house in the next neighborhood that decorates their back yard up all fancy with a lighted path from the front of the house to the back, and great they have Halloween decorations. When the path ends you find yourself at a serving table with hot chocolate and fresh hot scones with honey butter to put on them. It is such a great treat, and a good resting spot for the kids. This family does this every year and I look forward to it!!! Even Max enjoyed the scones, once they had cooled down.

So, we made it through another year of Halloween. But I'm afraid this just marks the beginning of the season of hustle and bustle. I'm hoping to be able to enjoy the holidays (that are coming so quickly) before they are gone again for another year. The only way we can do that is through planning and preparation. We're already almost done Christmas shopping for the kids. And we are going to Colorado to visit Rich's parents for Thanksgiving. I'm excited for, and love this time of year and am trying to find a way to keep it around a little longer this year. I don't want to blink my eyes and have it be the new year. Not yet.

Halloween Traditions

We wanted to start some fun Halloween Traditions this year besides and including carving pumpkins, which we finally did last night, the day before Halloween.. Rich stated us off this morning by making pumpkin pancakes. He put little bowls of "parts" on the table so we could decorate and create our own jack-o-lantern pumpkin pancakes. We had walnuts, bananas, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and cool-whip. It was awesome. The kids loved it. Then for dinner tonight we had dinner in a pumpkin. I had so many questions about it but couldn't really answer them because I had never tried it before, but in the name of holiday tradition I was willing to try. Rich said he had had it before and didn't want me to make it, but his sister Kim said she loved it and had a really good recipe, so we tried it. I thought it was really good, and Rich said it was good enough to have once a year for Halloween. So after our hearty dinner we were off to trick-or-treat the neighborhood for candy, the best Halloween tradition. It's not about the candy because he got more than enough at our ward trunk-or-treat (another loved tradition) and Rich pointed out, after I realized we didn't get any skittles, that we can always buy some candy at the store. Trick-or-treating is about dressing up in your fun costume and running around the neighborhood with all the other kids ringing doorbells and yelling TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!!!!! as loud as you can! It is so fun! We were supposed to make our delicous and rich carmel apples, but got home too late from trick-or-treating. We were sad, but we'll do it tomorrow night instead.

For any of you wanting the yummy recipe for dinner in a pumpkin or pumpkin pancakes:

Dinner in a Pumpkin

-Take one small pumpkin / or spagetti squash and hallow it out the way you would to carve it for a jack-o-lantern, and keep the top.

-Brown 1 pound ground beef.

-chop 1 onion and add to the ground beef while browning.

When bowned add:

-1 can of cream of chicken soup

-2 TBSP soy sauce

-2 TBSP brown sugar

-1 can sliced mushrooms

-1/2 of a green pepper, cubed or chopped

Simmer together for a few minutes.

Take your pumpkin and put inside:

-1 1/2 cups of COOKED rice (1 cup dry rice, cooked)

-meat mixture

Put the pumpkin lid back on and bake in a 350' oven for 1 hour, or until pumpkin meat is tender.

Scoop everything out, including the pumpkin, eat and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups flour

3 TBSP brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 TBSP veg. oil
2 TBSP vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients seperate from the wet and then combine. Pour onto hot griddle, just like regular pancakes. Yummy!!

Serve with coolwhip and maple syrup and jack-o-lantern toppings like stated above!!

Carving Pumpikins

We left it until the last minute this year to carve our pumpkins. We started Monday night for family home evening, but we did not finish. We were so tired, that we left it until the next night to finish. Well, when I was visiting teaching Tuesday morning my friend Janalynn invited us over to carve pumpkins with their family. Our kids are the same age and have so much fun together and they were thrilled to hear we could go over that night. Rich came a little late and we were already well under way with pumpkin carving when he finally came. Sophie designed her own pumpkin this year and cut it out mostly by herself. (Peter is holding Sophie's pumpkin in the picture.) Peter's pumpkin had thumb tack eyes, and then he declared it was done, so we left it at that. Jared made this crazy cool pumpkin with a baby pumpkin in his mouth!! I told the Fawson's how Rich taught Peter to take the "crap" out of the pumpkin, and how that became the COOL WORD for the night. When we were starting to wind things up Peter, Porter, Sophie and Natalie were running circles around the room hollering and having a great time. Thank you Jared and Janalynn! WE HAD THE BEST TIME!!!

PS-Thank you Fawson's for the pictures, I stole them from your blog!!! Hope you don't mind...

Baby Shelby's Blessing

This Sunday we went up to Logan for the baby blessing of baby Shelby. She looked so adorable in her tiny tiny real Scottish Kilt! And Steven had a matching tie out of the same tarten. Then tarten is important on Cyndi's side of the family, it is their family clan. It was nice to visit with Cyndi's family for a minute this afternoon too. When the blessing was over Rich, Aaron, Matt and me and the kids all went to a park in Logan and ate our packed picinic in the beautiful sun. Of course the kids wanted to play at the adjoining park after lunch, so we relented and let them. We were amazed to see Peter climb the tallest ladder that led to the tallest red slide and then plunge down without hesitation, and then do it all over again!! I was so proud of my cautious son! But then as he climeb up the jungle gym he was very nervous to cross the stationary, non-wiggley, very safe bridge. You can't win them all I guess. I think Peter is playing the baby step game when it comes to adventure. It was a nice afternoon.

The Corn Maze

WE HAD SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN TONIGHT AT THE CORN MAZE.

I'LL TELL YOU MORE ABOUT IT LATER, BUT I WAS REALLY EXCITED TO SHARE THE PICTURES WITH YOU NOW!!!!!!!

Rich got tickets for all of us, even grandma and grandpa, to go to the local corn maze on trade! We even got $5 concession each, so we were ready and set to have fun at the corn maze. We walked in, past the ticket booth, and didn't know where to start, there was just so much to see and do. So we started off walking past the animals. We saw peacocks, turkeys, and goats. The kids loved them! The kids walked through a hale bale maze. And then we hit the ducky race, where you pump the water to make the ducks go faster. Sophie then ran for the giant slide built on haybales!! Next to that was a little slide playground, with medium slide, more Peters speed. He even climbed up the rope ladder alone. We all went on the little train, Sophie was in heaven!! That was her favorite part and went again and again. Peter only wanted to go once and then headed for the Pumpkin Bounce. Grandpa and Rich did a corn shoot. Peter helped Rich line up the target and hit the target. Rich missed on his own... So did grandpa... We all enjoyed eating our treats around the campfire. Kettle Corn popcorn and apple blossoms (cut up apples drenched in carmel, whipcream and nuts!!) and nachos.

Sophie thought up this pose on her own for the kids, turned out pretty good!

I thought this picture turned out nice.

I was so proud of Peter, climbing without hesitation!

Even Max loved the slides, with Rich.

Here's all the ducky racing...

Love Sophie's face in this one!!

Peter could have spent the day in the Pumpkin Bounce!

THE TRAIN!!

It rode through a path in the corn field, and then around in circles and turns.

A very bumpy and entertaining ride!!

Sophie's favorite, she went a dozen times, mostly by herself!

Love the 'corn' box!

It was so much fun to share the day with Grandma and Grandpa!!

And of course, the reason for the event, the Corn Maze itself! We did find ourselves going in circles once! When we left we could hear the haunted corn maze in the area next to our regular corn maze. By then, both kids were crying and Max was asleep. Peter was crying because he could hear all the haunting and screaming going on, and he was too close. Sophie was crying because she could hear the haunting and screaming, and she wasn't close enough! She was dying to go to the haunted corn maze!!! She is so adventurous! Maybe next year...

Attending a corn maze, with all the bells and whistles WILL become a new Halloween Tradition!

Natalee's Baptism

Natalee got baptised today! Sophie was so excited to go and see her, she even made her a present! It was a bag of candy and the cutest hand drawn card ever! I can't believe how grown up Natalee is!! She wasn't even 2 years old when Rich and I got married, now she is 8, and is baptised!! Sophie really looks up to her and wants to be like her. I love living close to (half) of our family. It is neat to be able to get together for events like this. Congratulations Natalee, we are so proud of you for taking this big and important step in your life!!

Trunk-or-Treat

Our ward does the best Trunk-or-Treat every year!! Everyone brings a crock pot of soup or chili and then after eating we enjoy the fun Halloween Carnival and then the long awaited Trunk-or-treating!! It was really fun this year, as always!!

You should see some of the elaborate trunk decorations and spooking!! Ours is not nearly as cool as some of them, but that's fine by us.

The kids favorite way to travel.

Sophie is a butterfly fairy princess.

What did you catch? The orange teeth in the next picture!!

How much candy is really in those buckets? I want some...

The youth in the ward grew pumpkins this year,

enough for each person to take one home from the trunk-or-treat.

Peter didn't knock anything down in the pumkin bowl, but he still got the prize!!

PS- Don't you love his Power Ranger costume that Grandma made for him!!

He does, now he's an official Power Ranger, yea!

I love getting Candy for Me, I mean Max...