Who Thought I’d Still Be Dressing Up For Halloween?

I love it though. Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up and always have. It’s been fun that the places I’ve worked have always liked us dressing up too. They in fact have encouraged it. It makes the day fun - I love the way it makes me forget reality and just be silly all day long.

You know that Kathleen works with me at the city right? I don’t see her as much as I’d like, but it’s fun to see her from time to time.

Just to note, this is my dad’s sailor shirt and hat - was fun to have his memory with me all day long. It’s cool to think this is his.

Sunday Dutch Oven Dinner Rolls

Yummm all I can say is yummmm. These were delicious. Crunchy on the bottom and soft and fluffy in the middle. They were so Good!!

All the sudden while I was trying to make dinner, Jeff was like - I want some dutch oven rolls. I was like okay. Because what he meant is, will you make me some bread dough so I can make dutch oven rolls. That works for me!!

Loved them loved them loved them. Thanks hon!!

Delicioso!!

Early Trick or Treaters

Tonight we had some early trick or treaters. Rose called and wondered if she could come trick or treating tonight because Richard wasn’t going to be able to go out with the kids on Halloween night and thought if he could at least visit with family that would make it a little more bearable.  Of course you can.  It was fun to have some trick or treaters. We were planning on going trick or treating with some friends, so we wouldn’t be handing candy this year, so this was a fun substitute for that.

Fall Fun

Today was my day off and Hayden and I did a lot of fun things. First we went to the Peterson’s Pumpkin Patch and picked out 4 pumpkins.  We shopped for a haunted mask for Zac. Zac is in the Letham’s Herriman Haunts spook ally again this year. We found a really gross one that he just loved!

We also headed over to the Up House too. It’s way cute inside. I can’t imagine living there, but I’d love to visit whoever does. It just has a fun atmosphere about it.

Later we carved those pumpkins with family and friends. What a great fall day!

Haunted Woods

Tonight for scouts we thought it would be fun to do something spooky. Being it’s so close to Halloween. So, we went to the Haunted Woods at Camp Tracy.

At first Hayden was a little nervous about it, but he seemed like he’d be fine. Well, when we got there - all the way up there - about an hour drive - he announces that he’s not going. He’ll be fine just sitting and watching Scooby Doo while everyone else goes. Are ya kiddin’ me?

I tried being fine with this, but I quickly discovered that EVERYBODY else was going. I’d feel weird leaving him alone and I felt dumb staying with him. I know that is not a very good example to give into peer pressure but I began pleading with Hayden that everyone else was going we should go too. I’d be right next to him the whole time. I’d hold his hand and put him behind me. He kept saying no. Then I heard it - there was a hay ride. Hayden don’t you wanna go on a hayride?  That got him. That worked! He and I both thought that we could go on the hayride and come back too.

Uh-oh that was not the case. They booted us off and then just as we thought we could walk back down to the hayride - they began to leave. We were stuck.

We made it! But not without a few screams and even a bawling moment. I am staying quiet about which one of bawled but I think you can guess who ;)  Regardless, we made it through !! Found out that Hayden is even more scared than I am of being scared like that. I’m not sure Hayden will EVER do a haunted house again. But he made it through this time. And I do plan to use that against him ;) in the future ;) haha

A New Hooter

Okay that Post Title is a little much - but it’s true!  Lynda brought this to me today and I was so surprised. Hmmmm it’s not my birthday. It’s not Christmas. I was so surprised. She is so thoughtful. She said that she knew how much I loved owls and saw this cute necklace and thought of me and wanted me to have it.

So thoughtful and nice. I really need to return the favor.

Thanks Lynda :D I love it!

Mountain Color

This is a picture from us coming down the canyon on Sunday. I didn’t take a single picture today and am still really love the fall colors, so I thought I’d post this one.  Have I told you that I love Fall?!?!

Clothing Picture Again

Hmmm not so sure about this outfit either. Maybe I need bigger boobs for this sweater. Or maybe I just need to get rid of that double chin I got goin’ on. Or maybe I just seriously need a fashion designer.

Hee-hee

Silver Lake

Thanks for the "strangers by" who took a family photo for us today :)

We decided to go for a drive up to silver fork. I wanted to see the fall leaves. We were almost too late, the leaves were almost all gone, but not completely.

I loved the drive on the way and on the way down. It's funny what I didn't see on the way up that I did see on the way down. All of it was beautiful. A little chili, but so pretty.

We walked around the lake. The shaded side was cold but the part in the sun was wonderful. The lake was so calm and like a big mirror to the sky.

It was a fast little jaunt, we were all tempted by the Silver Fork Lodge Restaurant, but it was Sunday so that's a no go if we want to keep the sabbath day holy.

Maybe we'll go back soon.

Snickerdoodle Brownies

They were so good. I really need to learn how to photograph food. I find I’m often posting about my little food successes. But this is the best I got tonight. Really doesn’t do it justice. These were divine. That’s right I said divine!! I loved everything about them. The chewy goodness, the yummy baked in cinnamon, the powdered sugar drizzle and the yummy cookie flavor in a brownie. They were divine! There is no other word for it.

Thanks Pinterest wouldn’t have even known about these without you. It was pinned from a little website called A Well Seasoned Life - Yum-O!! Click on it to get the recipe. You’ll wanna make some tonight. Promise.

Chicken Confession

Okay I have a little confession to make. I went to Harmon's the other day and bought quite a few groceries. I came home and unloaded the food only to find I had chicken - - - - - chicken that I didn’t buy!! :(  boo :(

What do you do at that point?

Some poor lady behind me went home and found that she DIDN'T have chicken - - - - - chicken that she HAD purchased! I thought about running it back to the store, but the lady would have been long gone by then. I thought of running over some money for it. The one package was $1.80 and the second one was $1.45 for a total of $3.25.  I figured I’d give Harmon's that extra the next time I go shopping there. But technically it'd already been paid for, just not by me. I didn’t know what to do.

So . . . what did we do?  We had fried chicken for dinner tonight with that chicken Ü  Homemade fried chicken! It was good too. I felt a little guilty until it was gone.

So, now I'm curious, what would you do to make it right?

Crab Apples

We have crab apples, coming out our ears. I still have crab apple jelly from last year and don't really want to make anymore. I'm not sure what to do with them or if I still even can use them. I wonder what else I could make with these little apples? Any suggestions?

Henry Herriman

So last night was the scout presentation which I did not go to because we were celebrating with Zac at Café Río. Yum!! I did prepare a presentation for the boys all about their tour at Herriman City. They learned many things but they also learned that our city was named after Henry Herriman.

The boys are always afraid to tell me what they think of him. But you can see in their eyes that if they saw this picture hanging in a dark hallway at night they would all run down that hall. I know it! It’s spooky. I think it looks like one of those pictures you see hanging on the walls in Scooby Doo. No kidding!

But, I am thankful for him. He was willing to come here with one of only 3 other families and start a community here. I love it here and am very grateful he came after Thomas Butterfield found a water source in Butterfield Canyon.

Zac’s 15!

Zac turned 15 today. I have been asking and asking what he'd want for his birthday. He can only come up with a Playstation 3. He is not getting that. Not for his birthday or for Christmas. Sorry . . .  I know I'm mean. Jeff said, he has one more year 'til we have to sell the Porsche. LOL  That made me laugh right out loud. Poor Zac he has two mean parents.

On a bright note, he did let me take him shopping for his birthday and we found some things!! Made him smile and made me smile too!  Ear phones (who knew), a new shirt (which his dad just LOVES ~ said dripping with sarcasm!!) and a new Music CD!  Wahoo!! Love that smile Ü

Things They Are A Changin'

I love it when the leaves change! I’ve noticed it happening in my own backyard and you can see colors all over the mountains too. I love the fall!!  It’s one of my favorite times of year. It’s such a pretty time of year. I love that it's cold in the morning and at night but warm during the day. Now only if we could go back to summer after the fall. I think that would be perfect!!  Spring, Summer, Fall, Summer.

Chili and Blue Corn Bread

Jeffrey decided he was going to make some chili today.  It smelled so good. I love it when he cooks. I made  corn bread with the blue dent corn. Don't you think it turned out cool?!!

I really need to learn techniques for taking pictures of food ;)

When We're Helping We’re Happy

Really? It didn’t last long with my boys.

Actually it started out so great. I asked them if they would please help me with a special chore today and I was delighted that I didn’t get a single complaint!  Not a single one!!  I thought to myself, this is going great!! I explained how dad had worked hard at cutting back the ivy yesterday and I needed their help bagging up all of it. They seemed to act like, piece of cake. They all pitched in and it was going swimmingly.  Then Josh asked me if this could be his chore for the day and when they were done could they go play with friends? I proceeded to explain that this was a Special Saturday chore and he still needed to do chores inside.

And the complaining and whining began :( boo.

At that point I left and helped Jeffrey out front with the flower bed weeding. Amazingly I only heard one other outburst out back and the next thing I knew they came out joyfully explaining that they were done. I asked them to get a rake and finish by raking up the rest of the leaves on the ground. They explained that they already had done that!!

Wahoo!! I was so impressed and they were SO HAPPY again!!

Frankenstein Rice Krispies

Found these on Pinterest and thought they were so cute - had to try them for my witch party.

Rice Krispies cut in Rectangles. Dipped in Green Chocolate and then in black candy for the hair. Decorate them. Next time I’ll use mini m&m’s but I used tic tacs and they turned out cute. This is the only picture I got. Forgot to take one of the finished dish. These were the left overs. Have to brag a little everybody loved them. They were all taking pictures. Maybe I could borrow one of theirs ;)

Eyeballs

Candy Eyeballs that is. These were easy too. They can be made up to 3 days before. They can store for about a week. So cute. I hate this picture though. I should have tried harder at it so you could see how cute they turned out. You really needed to see them from the top. But this was the best one I took. Sorry.

Alas, you’ll have to use your imagination. Pretend they are brown eyes and the dark chocolate chips are the color in the center of your white candy wafer iris. With a few red sugar sprinkles for some blood-shot-ness.

These were also included in the bag of spooky treats. Which I think turned out so cute. I’ll have to show you my label some other time. But I think they were a hit at the treat exchange party.

Candy Corn Kisses

I was invited to a treat exchange and decided to go. This week seemed particularly busy and so I needed to come up with something cute and easy for 20 people. I LOVE that I have Pinterest this year. It’s been so fun saving fun ideas and great blog spots there to refer back to. This was a perfect opportunity for that. So I searched my Halloween Happiness page and found these little bits of joy. This is my type of candy. Easy, fast & cute. I think they turned out darling. This was the first of two ideas to put in a bag labeled Spooky Sweats. It’s the Hugs style of Hershey Kisses melted on top of a square pretzel. Then you place a candy kiss on top and cool it in the fridge for about an hour. Cute :)

From A Different Perspective

Another photo challenge idea was to take a picture from inside the mailbox or inside a doggie door. Well since I don’t have a doggie door it was in the mail box. This picture happened to be my favorite, even thought it’s all blurry. Silly Cindy thinks it’s sort of artistic. Now, if I had a fancy camera I could have followed all the steps with the aperture and focus and such, but I don’t and this is what I got from trying to mimic all those things they wanted me to do. Maybe I can get a new fancy camera for my birthday next year.  In the mean time, I get to experiment with my handy old camera. I think I did pretty good. It was fun to take a picture from a new perspective. I like it.

Strawberry Plants

One of the photo challenges this month was to walk out your front door and take a picture of whatever caught your eye. Today it was the strawberry plants. Look how much they’ve filled in. They are doing so well. We tried to so hard to follow the advice we read online. “How to get big strawberries.” I plucked off all the little blossoms and missed out on any fruit this year. Next year I think we’re supposed to do that too the shooters that are coming out everywhere now. That will be tricky determining which is new growth and which is the older growth, but I want to have big strawberries so I will have to do it.

It’s funny how the leaves are turning colors because of the fall and it’s tricking me. I keep thinking oh my goodness, we have a huge strawberry out there. Nope it’s just a leaf. LOL :)

New Camping Stoves

We got new camping stoves in the mail yesterday. They are compact and very light weight. You use them on isobutane canisters. They are perfect for overnight back packing adventures and camping. They are also great for your food storage. We were going to list them on Amazon, but they are a no name brand and so I can’t. Boo :( now I’m not sure what route to use, but I’m going to try and sell them online.

I thought it would make a great present this year for Christmas. I’m hoping that other people will too.

Headwaters of the Green River

Today before we drove home we decided to take a drive up to a beautiful lake at the headwaters of the Green River. Originally we were going to hike to the other lakes there too. But it decided to snow and so we didn't dare hike out to the rest of them - it was pretty sloshy around there. This one was close just a very short hike down and beautiful. I little cold but beautiful. I'm grateful for nature it's so pretty.

17 Years

I have been married for 17 years today!  Can you believe that? I can hardly believe it myself.  We celebrated by going to Jackson Hole. We reserved a condo at the Love Ridge Lodge. They are so nice - we've been there once before when they were brand new. They still look new to me and so nice!

Jackson Hole is so pretty. They have beautiful scenery all around. I love being there. The shopping was about the same as I always remember it. Fun, fancy and pricey. We didn't find any super deals this time but had fun checking out all the shops.

We don't always have a special getaway every year, but I love it when we do. I'm glad we always make our anniversary a priority. We always spend it together doing something to relax and feel special. So glad we do it's worth it.

Blue Dent Corn

Jeffrey ordered Blue Dent Corn for our "food storage". I think truly he just wanted to make blue corn bread. And as soon as it came, that's exactly what he did. He also made blue corn chips and blue corn tortillas. All of which were delicious and so fun!!  It made me smile from ear to ear to come home to him cooking these blue corn chips up. I love the taste of blue dent corn. It's sort of nutty.

School Pictures

Josh, this year in school you are taking Art and Theater. You seem to like Art pretty well so far. I've seen some of the things you've drawn and I think you are really good. You’ve been in school now for half of your first quarter and you told me just the other day that you want to take Theater again next year! I thought that was pretty cool! I guess you must really like it! I think it’s going to build your self confidence so much, so I'm glad you like it so much. You are also taking honors math and I'm nervous for you, but it seems like you're doing pretty good so far, hope it continues to go well.  

Zac you are taking Art and Guitar this year. You are amazing in Art. You love to draw! I often find you sitting on the floor by the couch sketching out a new drawing. Usually you draw people, which I’m in awe over. I could never draw people when I was younger. So far you are doing good in Guitar too. I can’t wait to hear you play a song. You’re also starting Seminary and I’m excited to see your testimony grow. 

I ♥ U 2 So Much! I love to see how much you're growing up. I pray you keep wanting to do what's right and be good.

Clothing Today

Looking at starting a 30 day photo challenge today.  The first one on the list is to take a picture of the outfit you wear. So I promptly took a picture of the outfit I wore today.

Okay, can I just tell you how surprised I was to see how much I didn’t like it. I thought, are you kidding me? that's how I look?  LOL  I thought my clothes looked better than that!  Goofy Girl your outfit stinks today!!

Now I’m thinking I might take a picture of myself every morning before I head out the door. So I can approve my outfit or change it to make it look better.

Carpet for Sale

Okay so last weekend I listed an inversion table through KSL Classifieds. We started getting calls on it around Thursday and ended up selling it on Saturday. A pretty typical scenario if you ask me. Thought I'd do that again with carpet remnants this time. Thought we'd follow about the same timeline again and have it sold this weekend. That is not what happened. I guess Jeff priced the carpet to SELL.  We had a call almost within 5 minutes of listing it. He asked a few questions and told me he'd come and get it in the morning around 7:30 am. Well, there you go. The carpet is sold, I thought. That was super easy.

We had dinner downstairs and watched a show with the boys. Then we went for a little drive. By the time we'd come home, we'd missed about 4 calls. I was going through the messages when the phone rang again. It was about the carpet add. This guy asked several questions and then told me he would be by tomorrow after work to get it. I should have left it at that, but I didn't. I told him we already had someone interested and he was coming to get it in the morning. He sounded disappointed and tried to get me to hold it for him instead. I told him no, we usually just handle these things first come first serve. He sounded disappointed and the call was over.

We didn't want to call anyone else back until after tomorrow ~ this was pretty CRAZY!! However, about half an hour later that guy called back - he was like well if you do it first come first serve then I'm going to be the first one there tomorrow.  So can I come about 7:00am. I thought oh dear what did I do?  I felt bad at that point because that other guy was planning on coming around 7:30 am. I decided to call him and give him a heads up. It ended up that he was really serious about the carpet and decided he'd better come tonight. Mind you it was 9:30pm at this point. I can't believe how Crazy people get over a great deal. We told him we'd prefer not to do business on Sunday. He said he'd just come pay for it and pick it up in the morning.

We agreed to that suggestion and BOOM just like that! The carpet was SOLD!! Pretty funny!

Framed Arrow for Sale

Quite some time ago I asked Jeff to make this for me. He made several and wanted to sell them. Ummm that never happened. But, we have had a lot of nice comments on it when people see it hanging in the house. I decided to try again.  I'm planning on listing these babies on KSL and see what happens.

The thought of selling them makes me smile Ü