Our Halloween

 The day was actually quite grand.

My brother and I took Zack and Zoey out to breakfast at Panera. I had the new pumpkin pie bagel. It was fabulous. A great start to my Halloween!

There was lots of driving and picking up kids from school. Joel carved pumpkins for the kids. I roasted the seeds for the first time ever. I remember eating them as a child and they were terrible, but today they were delicious. I ate them by the handful. 

One of my friends mentioned that she was getting a pumpkin shaped pizza for her Halloween dinner. I thought it was a great idea and I wanted one too. It turned our local pizza shops were not offering pumpkin shaped pizzas so I had to improvise!

I used THIS recipe for super fast and easy pizza dough from my sister-in-law's blog, and made our own pumpkin shaped pizza.

I know.....but it tasted good!

After pizza the costume parade began.

Ninja Max,

 Kangaroo Zoey, (how funny, it looks just like kangaroo joey!)

Buzz Lightyear Zackary....

 and the little princess Snow White Mia.

 They are cute kids. I like them.

 Ty and I went as super cool party people.....

 As you can plainly see :)

Max showed off with a few karate moves.

 Mia was darling.

 We met up with our friends for trick-or-treating. It was really fun!

 I loved watching the kids run excitedly from door to door.

Everyone had a good time!

We came home and ate lots of candy and played some games. We listened to Halloween music and passed out candy until it was time for bed.

It was a great day!

Happy Halloween :)

Happy Halloween!

I am headed out to Redlands this morning to pick up my brother.
I am sure I will work in a trip to Target while I am out there. (So many benefits!)

This afternoon it's all about the kids!

I have a fun dinner planned and a few games and then....trick-or-treating!

It should be a great day. I hope the kids get some good candy so they can share with me!

Good Things

Yesterday was a tough. The day was long, I was tired, and so were the kids!

To brighten up our day I made one of our "daddy's not home unconventional dinners".

This: Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Bread

The recipe comes from Joy the Baker's cookbook, which I love to cook from.

I thought this was some of the best pumpkin bread I have tried and it was vegan friendly, which is a good thing if you are a vegan :)

Anyway....pumpkin bread for dinner was delightful!

Today I am looking ahead into the next few months.....It's Holiday Time!

I am working on my Christmas shopping. 2 kids done!

I am planning a Thanksgiving thankful countdown starting on Thursday. (because Thursday in November 1st....how did that happen!?)

Halloween is tomorrow and I am throwing together some last minute fun.

Every year I try to be organized and plan ahead, because these months just fly by and I want to enjoy them as much as possible!

I am really looking forward to all the fun this year.

Also: I need to make these

Caramel Apple Brownies  from Foodie Crush

 Halloween seems like a great excuse.

Have an awesome Tuesday!

A List

Today:

1. Take kids to school

2. Treat Zackary and myself to hot chocolate from Starbucks

3. Grocery shopping: milk, yogurt, paper, and chocolate :)

4. Chores! laundry, bathrooms, dishes :(

5. Kindergarten Carpool. It's my week!

6. Pick up Max

7. Homework and reading

8. Dinner (something easy)

9. Karate (Max)

10. Baths and Bed (me too please!)

The end.

Have a nice day :)

Snippets

Sad Buzz Lightyear :(

He was just hungry :)

Zack loves his costume this year. He wants to wear it all the time!

And here we have Zack, Max, and Mia enjoying some time on the front porch swing.

It is a scene we see often.

It's been a great Sunday and we are ready for the week!

Slightly Frazzled

Today is the big day....it's the long awaited, and anxiously anticipated....primary program!

I am so looking forward to the end of sacrament meeting :)

I am handling everything pretty well. This morning, while the rest of the family was upstairs, I went downstairs and turned my music on. I turned it on loud. I rocked out while washing dishes.

It was cathartic.

Prayers have been said and fingers are crossed! Let's do this.

How do you handle anxiety? With exercise, music, chocolate, friends, or something else?

A Bad Rap...

Peanut Butter has had a tough time.

It seems like peanut butter allergies are more prevalent and severe than ever before. So much that some schools have banned it from lunch!

Recent salmonella scares have resulted in massive recalls.

Some of my favorite spreads have been discontinued :(

Despite this, I am still happily eating peanut butter. I hope that sometime soon peanut butter can work it's way out of the doghouse.

Until then I will make this:

Reeses Peanut Butter White Chocolate Bark (Recipe: HERE)

(I will of course be using dark chocolate in place of white, but you get the idea...it's all about the peanut butter!)

Are you getting rid of all your peanut butter and swearing it off forever?

Who's the Roo?

 It's Zoey!

 This afternoon is the Harvest Carnival at Max and Mia's school. Mia will be performing with the choir and all of the kids can arrive in costume.

 This kangaroo is the smallest costume we have and it is just a little big for Zoey.

 but it's still cute!

I think it's a go. Too bad she won't be able to move or see once she is in it :)

Gallery Wall

I am terrible at hanging pictures!

I love this idea for a gallery wall. 

Find the tutorial HERE.

Girls and Bows

We own a fair amount of hair accessories.

Mia has a drawer in her bathroom that is pretty much overflowing with ribbons and bows.

Zoey is starting a collection of her own, or rather I am starting it for her.

I am sure she loves big bows as much as I do :)

Zackary

 Zackary loves his Spider-Man backpack. He loves that inside the backpack is a Buzz Lightyear lunch box that I help him fill with snacks and treats.

He carries around other treasures in his pack; toy cars, his ninjago spinner, and Woody from Toy Story.

After he packs all of his things inside he says goodbye and leaves for "school".

We love our Zackary :)

Today, This Week, and Beyond

1. I  "accidentally" doubled the chocolate chips in my peanut butter cup granola this morning. The result was chocolatey goodness :)

2. Ty is home this week. There are NO home projects lined up and No fun errands to run. Read into that what you will.

3. We are in full blown Halloween mode here! The costumes are ready....Max will be the white ninja from Ninjago, Mia will be Snow White, and Zackary will be Buzz Lightyear!

4. I am already looking forward to making the Halloween candy stuffed cookies after the big day.

5. I have all the kid's Christmas presents figured out. I am buying everything online and I can't wait to be done. (This may seem early to be thinking about Christmas, but it really takes the stress out of Christmas. I get to focus on parties and people instead of presents!)

Happy Monday!

The Pantry Project

I love my pantry, but I would really love it to look something like this one!

I love the painted walls and the storage drawers :)

Who doesn't love a good project?

Sharpee Mugs

I have found several tutorials for "sharpee mugs" around the web.

All you need are some plain color porcelain mugs, sharpee markers, and an oven.

We bought our mugs from Wal-Mart for about $1 a piece.

 I let the kids design their mugs. They were very into the project and pleased with the results. (Ty did a mug too.)

 It says, "Anesthetize Me" and is covered in anesthesia related drawings. Oh Ty.

My mug was simple, but I love it!

 On the back I included a little shout out to "Gossip Girl".

After the mugs were decorated I baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Later we made hot chocolate and filled our new mugs. It was a great Saturday project!

Bubble and Squeak

Zoey loves to drink from a straw.

 She loves blowing bubbles into a straw as well.

 It's extra fun when she can do it in the tub.

 and the tub is already nice and bubbly :)

Good clean fun!

The Lumineers - Ho Hey

This is a good one.....Happy Friday!

The Pumpkin Patch

Ty was home today and I wanted to do the pumpkin patch on a weekday so after school and Sundance Singers we took the kids out for an afternoon of play at the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch.

It's a  little more than just a pumpkin patch. They have all kinds of games and rides for the kids. It is ridiculously entertaining for them!

Max started out by shooting tennis ball cannons at some pirates and winning a foam sword.

and then he did a little bouncing :)

We kept trying to get him to do a flip, but he was content just to bounce up and down.

Mia took a turn. Her little ballerina self came out as she danced through the air.

Zackary didn't join in on the big jumpers, but he LOVED the bounce houses and slides!

and his very favorite activity was racing the mini four wheelers.

Such a happy face!

Max and Mia raced as well.

I didn't end up with a good picture of Mia racing, so here are just the boys.

There was a hay castle that was really just a very tall stack of hay.

The kids were still excited to climb to the top.

Zackary was happy to be there.

Mia was happy to be there.

I think Max may have been less than happy.

Did I mention my parents were with us!

They were a great help and SUPER fun :)

This last picture will show you what Zoey enjoyed most about the pumpkin patch.....a root beer italian cream soda....and my dad!

We had a great time. We ended up leaving with only 1 pumpkin because we had only $2 left after everything else, but we can get our pumpkins from Albertsons later!

You Are Beautiful - Grantsville West Stake (AKA: Cutest Thing Ever!)

Hurray!

It's National Chocolate Cupcake Day :)

I was unaware of the big event until last night when I read THIS post on Sally's blog.

Chocolate, cupcakes, and a national day of celebration....what could be better?

I found 2 recipes especially appealing;

THIS ONE for cookie dough frosted fudge brownie cupcakes.

 and

THIS ONE for snickers chocolate mousse cupcakes.

The kids will want to help make the cupcakes. They will lick the beaters and taste the batter with little wooden spoons. They will wait patiently for the cupcakes to cool and they will be delighted to frost and decorate them. When it comes time to eat the cupcakes, they will eat all of the frosting off the top and leave the rest for someone else.

That's just the way it works around here!

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!