Happy Halloween!!!

Kynlee was the only company I had this year while I decorated fun Halloween cookies (why oh why does Denver have to be so far away?) Apparently I wasn't letting her help enough because she climbed right out of her seat to get to the dough. The cookies were a big hit at the Halloween potluck for Carson's work, someone even said they would have paid me to make some for them if they had known I could make such good cookies. What a compliment!!

 Kynlee and I went to a "Trunk or Treat" with Stacy, Parker, and Payton. Kynlee thought it was great!!! She figured out pretty quick that the people with the buckets of candy would let you pick a piece if you went up to them and said "Treeeet"

 I really love our costumes!!! (even though they are not super accurate). We decided  that we wanted to be Waldo, Wenda, and Woof from the "Where's Waldo" books clear back in September. I got really excited about it and started gathering what we would need from DI the very next day. I do have to admit that I didn't finish making the hats until today. Talk about procrastination!

Stacy and her kids. Parker is a navy seal, Stacy is a cowgirl, and Payton is a gypsy.

 We also "trick or treated" in our neighborhood, and then Kynlee had lots of fun playing with her candy all over the living room. 

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN  from the Waldo's!!!

Now someone should come get all the candy that I bought because we only got 3 Trick or Treaters.

Fall Fun!!

I am pretty sure I title a post "Fall Fun" every year, but lets face it fall is always full of fun festivities, and I apparently lack any creativity to think up a new title. 

So the other day Payton left my house very sad because they do not have any trees at their house. Which means they didn't have any leaves to rake. Wouldn't you be heartbroken too?? Well Carson and I have more than enough leaves to go around. So why not have a leaf raking party where we can put my sister and her kids to work cleaning up our yard. Sounds like a great plan to me....

...because everyone knows the best part of raking leaves is playing in the big pile of leaves. 

 Later we all carved pumpkins together. Carson and I grew some very large pumpkins this year (some of our other produce didn't grow very well, but pumpkins we can grow). 
Don't you love the totally natural smiles in this photo?

 Parker picked one of the bigger pumpkins to carve, which meant he practically had to stand on the table to clean it out. 

 Man we sure love this cutie!!! Stay tuned for more FALL FUN!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I had a birthday last week!!! My future step-mother sent me these beautiful flowers! Isn't that sweet?? She was nice enough to have the florist put my Dad's name on the card too. Also I have no idea how to describe my upcoming relationship with Marie. I have never really liked the term step-mother, I just feel like it has a negative connotation (possibly from the movie Cinderella). Usually I just say "Dad and Marie" which works fine, but every once in a while it is hard to describe the relationship. Anyway I am so excited that she is joining our family, whatever she is called. 

Okay after that little detour,  back to the birthday festivities. I made some awesome molten chocolate cakes, Carson did offer to make me a cake but lets face it, we would both rather eat something I have cooked.  He did get me a fudge cookie dough blizzard from Dairy Queen, and took me out to dinner though. And the best part... we are going to Thriller at the Tuacahn tomorrow night!!! I am sooooo excited. 

Carson really wanted a picture of the card he got me. We have only watched the first season of Duck Dynasty, you know because we don't have cable, and we are too cheap to actually rent it, so we got the first season from our local library. But we did find it pretty entertaining (if a bit staged). Anyway there was an endearing note in the card about how he loves me more than Phil loves squirrel, don't you all wish you had such a romantic guy?? Well keep wishing because he is taken, and I sure love him.

Angels Landing

Stacy and Jeremy were nice enough to let Kynlee and I tag along with their family on a hike up Angels Landing in Zion National Park. The weather was perfect, and we had lots of fun. 

 Kynlee thought the best part was playing in the sand. She started throwing it, and with all the sunscreen that we had put in her hair, she became a redhead pretty fast. 

 My shoulders were a bit sore the next day from hiking all those switchbacks like this. Kynlee fell asleep on the hike down and I loved carrying her that way because she NEVER sleeps in my arms anymore. 

I am so happy that we live in such a beautiful place.

Fall Photos!!

So Carson and I dragged Morgan down the canyon trail today after church in the wind and cold to take some family pictures for us. She is a great sport, because we are not a photogenic family. On second thought I am not sure that any family with a very active 1 year old who wants to go eat rocks and dirt the whole time can really be classified as a photogenic family. Either way she did an awesome job, and the whole thing took less than 45 min and we still made it back in time for our stake devotional, woo hoo!! Then I had fun editing my favorites. I don't think Carson had any fun thru the editing process though because I kept asking him over and over, "do you like it now??" He wanted me to do all the crazy effects like neon and such, I am much too boring for that. Anyway after that long and boring introduction, here are the pictures!!!

 

Oh yeah and there were QUITE a few that turned out like this, I will spare you the rest of those!

Pinterest Challenge wrap-up!

So today is the day to report on the pins that we did in the last 2 weeks. (or if you are me, the day to finish up 1 or 2 of them). As the challenge was coming to a close, I was worried that I would not get all my pins done, but it turns out, I actually did 12 pins, WOW. Anyway here is the wrap-up on what I did, hold on tight this may be the longest post ever!!

These are the pins that I did. Don't they look impressive??

So this is a DIY waterfall front shirt from here. As you can see, mine is not identical to the picture because I could not find ruffle fabric, and believe me, I looked all over. So I used a slightly less cute fabric, but it still worked well. And FYI it took me exactly 13 tries to get a picture of it that I was happy with, go me!

Oops I forgot to picture these peanut butter pretzel bars above, and I am WAY too lazy to go back and add them now, so you will just have to go from my picture. These were great. I actually used caramel instead of peanut butter because I had some in the fridge that I needed to use, I think they would be awesome either way. Also the cookie recipe alone was one of the best bar cookie recipes I have tried. Highly recommended.    

I tried these breadsticks from this pin, and let me tell you they were awesome. I followed the recipe exactly until the very end when I spontaneously brushed one of the loaves with jalapeno juice, and then since I was taking them to a BBQ I needed a way to tell those apart from they plain ones the olives in the fridge made the cut. I couldn't really taste the jalapeno much, but the olives made a great addition, and all the breadsticks got eaten before the meal even started. 

 I tried to copy this outfit, but as with all my pins, I did not do it exactly, mostly because I don't have a cute red skirt, but I still think it turned out really cute. After I got dressed I realized that the entire outfit either came from second hand stores, or relief society exchanges, so all in all it cost less than $10.00. AWESOME!!!

 Ok I was a bit skeptical of this recipe for homemade thin mints because as a thin mint lover, I know that there is some sort of chocolate cookie in the middle, not a ritz cracker. But even though they did not taste just like thin mints, they were easy and made a great tasty treat. As a bonus Kynlee loved them.

  

I loosely copied this outfit that I pinned a long time ago on My Style board. I was planning on matching it a little closer, but when I went to my closet and saw this striped cardigan, I thought it would look awesome, and I think I was right so that is the way I wore it for the day. The boots were a bit of a stretch for me because even though the fashion rules (you know those rules written by some unknown individuals who tell us what to wear) say that black and brown are neutrals so you can wear them together, I have always disliked putting them together. 

To be honest when I wear it again I will probably wear my black boots with it. 

And that was probably way more than you wanted to know about my fashion dilemmas in the mornings.

 I also took a picture with the black jacket just for a more accurate comparison of the actual pin, but I still think it looked better when I added my own twist. 

I made these awesome molten lava cakes, and they did not disappoint. I cooked them just as long as the recipe said to, and not a minute more, but it might have been a tiny bit too long because they were not quite as gooey on the inside as I thought they would be. 

They were even better the next day, especially when put in the microwave for 10 seconds. I would definitely recommend trying them.

You guys would not believe how long I have been working on this pin. Or more accurately how long I have NOT been working on it after I started it. But I finally finished it!! 

It was actually a very easy craft, although it was made harder by the fact that I cut my hand with the glass and I had to try not to bleed all over the letters while I placed them. Proceed with caution!!!

 I made this pillow to decorate our bed with from this pin. It is actually just a picture so I just had to wing it, but it was  pretty easy. 

I tried out this recipe for watermelon and strawberry lemonade. My Dad has been coming over here almost every weekend to see his girlfriend (may none of you ever live to see the day when you have to double date with your parent) and he leaves a very large watermelon with Carson and I every time he heads back home. So I needed a way to use up the latest one before it went bad. I did not love this recipe, I think it was the liquid watermelon that I didn't care for, but Kynlee really liked it. And just so you know, only the first date was awkward, now it is fine and we are sooooo happy for my Dad. Also removing all the seeds from a watermelon takes a long time!!

We had some zucchini that I needed to use up, and this was a great way. We followed the suggestions at the very end to add some jalapeno and some bacon. A Great way to use up those zucchinis that are getting passed around all summer. 

And lastly I tried out this honey walnut shrimp recipe. Don't judge by my unappetizing looking picture, this recipe was great. When I originally tasted the sauce I thought it was a little overpowering, but when combined with the shrimp and walnuts it was delicious and I went back for seconds, and maybe even thirds.

Good for you if you have made it this far in this long boring post. These challenges are so fun, and they make me feel very accomplished. I also love that I can make them as easy or as hard as I want to. I can't wait to read everyone elses follow-ups, and if you didn't join us, you had better join next time. Seriously people!!!