Halloween Night

Last night we went to a Halloween get together with Jessica & Andrew, Kevin & Calleen and Kim & Brandon (at their house). :) We had chili, cornbread, and Pumpkin Cheesecake and watched "Jaws". I was the only one there who had never seen "Jaws". I thought it was pretty good and I didn't even cover my eyes during the scary parts. 

Strawberry Bag

 A few weeks ago Basket 411 did a giveaway for some cute bags. My entry was one of 50 and wouldn't you know it, I DIDN'T win. :p 

Then last week Jessica called to tell me she had found a similar bag for a really good deal. I'm a fan of Pinching Your Pennies on Facebook, but I never really pay attention to it. But she had noticed they had the bag listed for $12 off, which made it only cost $1. So we both ordered one. :) 

I love how the bag folds up and stuffs into the strawberry pouch! So cute!

Close to My Heart October Pages

This month Janel had two different designs we could choose from for Halloween. I couldn't make up my mind, so I did both.

 I made both of the next pages in my first Close to My Heart group with Andrea.

 This page was so much fun to make! We put a few drops of ink in a bowl, then rolled a marble around in the ink. Then you put your paper in a box that is just big enough to fit the paper. You carefully dump the marble in the corner of the box and then gently roll it around on your paper.

If you want to order any Close to My Heart products, Janel has a website HERE.

Bountiful Basket October 30th

I LOVE getting new baskets every two weeks!

This basket included:

1 head of leafy lettuce

1 yellow crookneck squash

2 cucumbers

9 yams

4 tomatoes

a bag of green beans

6 pears

6 granny smith apples

a bag of grapes

7 bananas

1 pineapple

blackberries

I'm so excited to use this basket! I did have an almost tragic moment today. When they set the baskets out, they have one basket with your vegetables and another with your fruits. They take care to make sure the heavier stuff is on the bottom so the foods don't get squished. That also means that I have to pack my basket carefully so the heavy stuff gets on the bottom of my basket. I had set my blackberries in my basket, but then realized I would smash them, so I moved them to the table. Then when I reached into the basket to get the last few items out, I knocked the blackberries off the table. The container spilled open and about half of the berries fell out. (I stepped on one.) So I picked them up and told Josh to make sure he washes them first if he eats them. 

Bountiful Baskets also has add-ons you can get. Its usually bread and some cases of fruit. This time Jessica decided to get an order of tortillas shells and then I bought half of them from her. They are HUGE and they look so good. We each got 1 dozen corn tortillas, 1 dozen small flour tortillas and a dozen and a half large flour tortillas. 

 When we left today there was a little boy with a wagon. Andrew went with us so he was carrying Jessica's basket. The little boy offered to give my basket a ride to the truck. :) 

Bountiful Basket October 16th Update

Here is a reminder of what was in my basket:

8 green onions
4 cucumbers
2 stalks of broccoli
1 head of Romaine lettuce
3 carrots
4 tomatoes
4 grey squash
The fruits were:

8 bananas
2 bags of grapes
2 pomegranates
7 oranges
1 cantaloupe
8 apples (but only 7 made it home, Josh ate one while driving home)

I gave my green onions, cucumbers and tomatoes to my in-laws. I was also going to give them the cantaloupe, but it had a soft spot that got moldy before I could get it to them. But they still got after me because I could have fed it to the chickens.

For dinner one night I attempted to make a cheesy vegetable soup. It turned out pretty good considering I didn't use a recipe. I just started throwing stuff together.
My soup was made with:
Potatoes (they were from my first basket. I used all but four of them.)
1 red pepper (also left over from my first basket. That pepper lasted 2 weeks!)
3 carrots (They were so good. I was so sad to already be out of carrots.)
1 stalk of broccoli
All I had to buy for my soup was half & half, bacon bits, cheese, and bread bowls. I was so pleased with myself that I used so much of my basket in one meal. I know I could have added an onion, but onions are not my favorite. I'm still deciding what to do with them.

With the fruits we mostly just ate them as they were (bananas, apples and oranges). But I did use the grapes to make Grape Salad. It was so good to have with my lunches last week.

On Friday I needed to use up my lettuce because I would be getting more with my next basket today, so I seeded my pomegranates and had them with the lettuce. It was pretty good.

I haven't used my grey squash yet, but I plan to use them to make Lemon Zucchini cookies for Josh.

No more kittens...

Buddy enjoying the warmth of the fireplace. :) He wouldn't look so happy if he knew what was going to happen in a few days. 

On Friday I took Ally and Buddy to the vet to get them both fixed. I always feel so bad later because they are so loopy. (Ally is still hissing at me.) When we got home I made them sleep in the carrier for several hours. When Josh got home we let them out. They wandered around for a minute, but then went back to sleep. This piece of cellophane was where they slept the rest of the night. I'm  a little sad Ally won't be having more kittens, but also relieved she won't go into heat again. 

Halloween Gift Bags

Earlier this month Jessica and I got together and used my Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cartridge to make some Halloween gift bags. I got a little carried away and made 14 bags. Now they are filled with candy waiting to be delivered to family and friends. :)

Turkey Block Craft

Earlier this week we got together for another craft night. I LOVE craft nights! This time I got a turkey and a few Christmas crafts from the Idea Closet. I always take longer because I always change out my paper for my own, but I always love the finished project so its worth the extra work and time. I was only able to get my turkey done. (Yay for the excuse to get together again so we can do our Christmas crafts!) I just love how he turned out. So glad November starts soon so I can display him. 

Blog 2 Print

Earlier this year my cousin Jessica had her blog printed in book form. It was so cute so I decided to do it too.  I started blogging in August of 2008 so that book wasn't very big, but my 2009 book was HUGE. I used Blog2Print. For me, it was a bit of work because I decided to go through my blog and re-add some posts I had removed and then remove some post that I didn't need printed, like videos. The smaller book cost about $50 and the bigger book cost a little over $100. Blog2Print runs a 15% off sale every few months, so I decided to just wait for another sale. By waiting for the sale I saved $24, so I basically got my smaller book for almost half the price! I really like the books, they remind me of year books. I want to do one every year so I can have a hard copy of my blog. Josh and I had fun looking at it them last night remembering different things. And when I showed them to my cousins, Andrew found his favorite post about the cats being left out in the rain. 

Fondant Decorating Class: Week 2

 Last week in Fondant Class we made the ribbons that would later become...

 A pretty bow! The ribbons had to harden for a while so in class this week we started by assembling our bows. I decided that I love working with the fondant when it is soft because it reminds me of play dough. But I had a hard time assembling the bow. I took it apart 3 times before I decided I was okay with how it looked, but I thought Jessica and Kim's bows were so much prettier than mine. 

Then we started making some quilling flowers. Jessica and I didn't get our all cut out so we are going back next week to finish them so we can assemble our flowers on Wednesday night.  

My favorite boys :)

This weekend was the deer hunt. Josh was able to get deer to add to our freezer. He takes such pride in keeping us warm and well fed. 

Yesterday we had dinner at Barb's house. Preston is in love with his Luigi Halloween costume. Which is really cute, because the last few years he has refused to dress up. I thought it was so cute because he put his costume on, but he didn't have his hats or his gloves that go with it. He's a resourceful boy so he found some garden gloves and grandma's hat.

I didn't have my camera to take a picture of Josh's deer so I had to borrow Barbara's camera to get her picture off. I had to download this cute little cow. These little guys just warm my heart so much. 

 Here is the love of my life with his deer. 

Kim's Halloween party

Last night we went to my cousin Kim's Halloween party. It was so much fun. We played Halloween Jeopardy and then we played a game were we had to throw candy corn into a bucket. Both games were boys against girls and the boys won both games. The girls even had some of the younger kids throw candies into the basket and we still had a really low score. Kim also had some door prizes. Josh's name was the first one drawn. I thought he would pick something out to give to the nephews, but he just grabbed the first thing his hand touched, which is a bag of gross fake body parts. Yick! I was one of the last names drawn and I choose the moon shaped cookie cutter. 

Halloween is my favorite holiday and yet I have never dressed up for it since we got married. Every year I look for a costume, but I think they are all to slutty so I never buy one. But this year I wanted to dress up for the party so I looked extra hard. I think I changed my mind 50 times. Last week when we went to the city I thought about being a rodeo queen, but all the tiaras look cheap, too young (like Barbie w/ fur on it), or if I found one I liked, it was expensive. 

Then we went into a Halloween store and I saw a red cape. One of my ideas had been little red riding hood, but I could never find something to go with it that I liked for Josh. The Fashion Bug was right next to this Halloween store, so I left Kim & Jessica to their shopping and ran next door. I found a black skirt (which I was in desperate need of anyways) and then a cute top. So then I ran back to the Halloween store and bought the cape. Then at Walmart I bought some fabric and flowers and used one of my baskets to make a basket to go with my costume.  I loved how it all turned out. 

Josh, of course, was a cowboy. He was willing to dress up as anything, but I think he is such a good looking cowboy that I let him do that. So he was Clint Eastwood's,  "The man with no name".

New family picture!

This year we once again went to the Altamont Cheerleaders and had our picture taken as part of their fundraiser. This year I didn't want to worry about what to wear, so I let Josh choose. When he suggested his favorite orange shirt, I was a little nervous. But I had something to match so I thought we would try it. I'm real happy with how they turned out.

This is probably the last year we will do our pictures this way because the guy is hard to work with (I think he's a jerk) and I don't want to give him any of my money. Most years we buy a package of pictures so we can give copies to family and friends, but this year we just got the big picture that comes with our donation. As we walked out Josh told me that next year we can use the friend of one of the blogs I follow. :) She lives in Salt Lake City so I think we will use her in February and get some 10th anniversary pictures.

Fondant Decorating Class: Week 1

Last night Kim, Jessica and I started our Fondant Decorating Class. I started buying supplies for this class a few months ago so I have been super excited to get started.

First we learned that you have to knead the fondant (we bought some Wilton Fondant) until it is warm and more workable. You can buy colored fondant, but we all had white fondant. So next you have to knead in your coloring. Randi recommends using gloves because your hands get colorful, but we didn't have any. I only have a few spots on my hand this morning, so I must have done pretty good. I shaped my fondant into a cup shape and put the dye in the center. Then I folded it on top of itself and kneaded it some more to work the color in. After coloring my fondant my wrists hurt because it is so much work. But it didn't matter because next you knead in some gumtex.

After the color and gumtex was mixed in, we rolled it out on a mat and cut it into strips. I need to get better at rolling because one end was really thick and the other end was not. After cutting them in strips we made them into loops using water to seal the ends. We also cut out a circle that we will form our bow on. Then we cut some thinner strips and wrapped them around some dowels to make curlicues.

Every thing has to harden for a few days before you can assemble the bow so we will do that next week. It all seemed like a lot of work to not have an end result that night, but it was so much fun.

Barbara's Birthday Dinner

On Sunday we went to Josh's parents to celebrate Barb's birthday. As always, it was full of good food and good company. I always take my camera, but usually I only take a few pictures and then get too caught up in visiting to remember to keep taking pictures. So that is why most of my pictures are of just Tyler today. I'll try to be better next time.

 Grandpa helped Tyler find the bowl of fruit dip. He loved it so much!

For Barb's birthday Melanie suggested family pictures. So I found a photographer and set an appointment for November 20th. We had to wait until all of the hunts were over so we could all be there. :p I'm so excited. We've not done professional pictures with his family before. I can't wait to get them back and hang them on my wall.