SYTYCD.

I took taylor, kate, and some of their friends to So You Think You Can Dance live last weekend. we had a fantastic time. i loved watching my favorite dances live. the only thing that would have made it better is if i was on that stage... (secret dream).

definitely my favorite show of all time... mock me if you must, but it's true.

grateful for...

...children with impeccable table manners.

pick house.

this year is our first experience on a "year round" schedule. i'm not too happy about it either. tay and jax are out of school for all of november and as much as i love them around, my life is still going on and just as busy which leaves them being bored too much of the time. yesterday amongst the decorating for my cute sister in law's baby shower, we made some houses out of toothpicks and marshmallows. nothing special... but 2 hours of no "i'm bored" made me happy.

chacho!

sorry for the lack of blogging...

i have been

chasing,
cleaning,
laughing at,
washing,
tickling,
trying to keeping track of,
feeding,
protect everyone from,
protect everything from,
screaming at,
loving on,

my muchacho. (levi for short)

my tay tay.

my little beauty queen is on track break (no school for a month). i bribed her with yogurtland if she let me take a few pictures... i love this girl.

need christmas pictures?

for more info, check the photo blog.

halloween 2009.

this is the best picture i could get of the crew... thanks for your cooperation kids...

halloween was a beautiful day... 75 degree weather, no wind, and I loved that it was on a saturday. we carved pumpkins, made some crafts with salt dough (that didn't turn out), had the grandparents over for some corn chowder and went on our way collecting candy in the neighborhood. i bought some dry ice to have a fog effect by the front door, but it didn't really work, next year i'm hoping to get a fog machine... i think i want my house scary?? ( I know, it's a shock to me too.)

the outcome of our pumpkin carving efforts...

here are my little monsters who were not to cooperative with the whole "picture taking thing."

levi loved his "dead groom" costume. it was really a last minute idea, and I sprayed an old coat, t-shirt and flower with black spray paint... and there's your dead groom. he kept checking himself out in the mirror... it was pretty hillarious.

chad and i went to the andrea's fabulous annual halloween party. this year the theme was "dark circus" and with some borrowing from friends and digging through old costume boxes, this is what we came up with. neither of us really know what we are...

Let November begin...

(btw, just to make some of you jealous, it's 84 degrees right now in las vegas... )

home to the pumpkin patch.

i made it home and chad survived being mr. mom for nearly 5 days.... the longest I have ever left him with the kids.  he endured a lot of throw up, a lot of clean up, and plenty of frustration trying to figure out the car pool system, but he really did a great job. the kids were even shocked. taylor said, "mom you wouldn't believe it, he even got us ready for school on time!" thank you sweet hubby. (I posted more from my workshop on the photo blog) 

i thought this guy looked like chad a little... i tried to set him up with amy or ally, but he was married. he's missing out. 

i even got in front of the camera one time... completely unlike me, considering i DO NOT like having my picture taken, but i was a little looney on that trip. look at what a dork i am :)... 

 

sunday night i was so excited for dinner at aunt lisa's. i looked forward to sunday's at lisa's during college and i felt like a school girl again. i finally got to meet my newest cousin Calvin, what a doll!! (and if you can believe it, i even had my camera with me... what a shocker.)

i got home just in time for our annual-ever anticipated  family night to the pumpkin patch. these pumpkin patches in vegas seem to keep growing, what started out as a small pumpkin patch with a blow up slide has turned into a full blown carnival in the past few years.  grama linda and grampa al were there with kaden, and each kiddo got to go on three rides. jackson loved the twirl and whirl (he thought the mechanics of how it turned were "interesting", taylor likes anything that is extremely scary, and kate prefers merry go rounds and the ferris wheel.  their ride choices seem to tell a lot about their personalities.  after the fun, grampa treated us to some yogurt where levi was happy to be free of the stroller and roam from person to person asking for bites of their ice cream. a beautiful fall night. i'm glad to be home.

my personal favorite picture of the evening. look closely... 

shooting in utah.

i drove up to utah yesterday, by myself! i never knew it could be so wonderful to drive by myself, but i sang songs, listened to next month's book club book on my ipod and never had to turn around to see what someone needed. SO enjoyable! i am staying at amy's new condo, which is beautiful, while i attend the ROCK the OCF photography workshop. i have learned so much already and have a couple days left to soak some more knowledge in. i am missing my kiddos, but it has been a blast meeting so many talented women. here are some pictures i took today. see ya monday!

world's best pumpkin cookies.

not joking... these are amazing.

while I was visiting at my aunt lisa in Utah a few years ago, she found the recipe in the newspaper and decided to give them a try... we were instantly hooked. if this isn't your new favorite pumpkin cookie recipe, I will be shocked.

WARNING:
These pumpkin cookies could possibly cause you to eat more than your stomach can handle. You may easily become addicted affecting your ability to stay out of the kitchen. I am not responsible for how many people will be knocking at your door after they have tried them, so please be careful.

Wildflour Bakery's Famous Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups shortening
2 cups white sugar
1 29-ounce can pureed pumpkin
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more to taste)

Caramel Frosting:
12 tablespoons ( 3/4 cup) butter
1 cup milk
2 cups brown sugar
6 cups powdered sugar (or more if needed)
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions
To make cookies, cream shortening and sugar; don't whip. Mix in pumpkin, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add to pumpkin mixture. Scoop on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes.

To make frosting: Combine butter, milk and brown sugar in a large saucepan. Boil for 2 minutes. Take off heat, let cool. Be sure not to add the powdered sugar until mixture is really cool. When cool, add powdered sugar and vanilla. Add more powdered sugar if too thin. Frost cookies and serve. Makes 42 medium-size cookies.

This makes so many cookies that the minute they are cool I put them on cookie sheets in the freezer until the frosting hardens, then I put them into big ziploc bags laying them flat. They taste SO good right out of the freezer and are great for making ahead of time to pull out in a pinch, (if you don't eat them all first).

this isn't even my picture, we ate them to fast to get one. i found it on the internet somewhere and it looked close enough...

skateboarding.

little levi wants to be just like his big brother. he bangs his head on the front door to get outside with the big kids and once he gets there, he couldn't be happier. he actually thinks he can skateboard.... he seriously does.

spooky pillows.

i had fun making these pillows with $1 fabric at walmart, some freezer paper, and fabric paint. basically you just cut out a design on the freezer paper, iron it on the fabric, paint in the stencil with fabric paint and sew the pillow... wallah.

my crafty husband told me i should stitch a mouth on the skull......... which was attractive and extremely unexpected. i think i'm rubbing off on him a little.

joe joes.

don't mess with levi and his Joe Joe's...

just make stuff.

i've been "doing it." making stuff, cooking stuff, doing stuff, and not just thinking about stuff. (that sentence would be a 2nd grade teacher's nightmare).

Here are a few of the projects I "did":

Andrea had a much anticipated craft night and we made Halloween banners. Check her's out on her blog, it's awesome. and here is mine:

I revamped or should i say "revampired" haa haa haa... an old rustic clock and "spookified" a family picture on photoshop (look closely)

Jackson had a project of his own this week, which he was mighty proud of...




I have also been doing a lot of photo shoots recently, maybe it's the amazing 80 degree weather. Here are a few of a true beauty... inside and out. (there are more on the photo blog)

I have many more projects and ideas that are underway... we'll see how long i can stay focused. I must say it is really nice starting and finishing things, I think I could get used to this...

big bear.

For the long weekend (the kids were out of school monday) we enjoyed spending some time in beautiful Big Bear Lake, California. we rented a cabin with one of our favorite families, enjoyed the fall weather, playing cards and ticket to ride. we ate too much, rode the alpine slides, enjoyed "lazy time," the boys did some mountain biking, played a friendly game of kickball, and ate some yummy local sweets. i realized how much i love october, the change of weather, the change of colors, and the excitement it brings.

(stay tuned for things i did for my "just do it project.")