It's fun having a kid around Halloween time. It's even better when they start to understand the holiday a bit better. I think Halloween may be Miles' favorite holiday. :) He inherited my sweet tooth and he got a kick out of everyone just giving away free candy!! All he had to do was say "treat" and "thank you" and they just gave it to him!! Many times after he had the candy in hand and had said his dutiful thank yous, he would walk away laughing like a crazed person. He absolutely hated being in his costume. Good thing I got it for .50 last year at Wal-Mart after Halloween. He was a monkey. Although without his hat, everyone mistook him for a lion. Whatever. We got one of him smiling, but the rest of the time he was in it he was crying, as featured in the other picture. Oh, and see that amazing trick-or-treat bag? Yeah, I made it. I even appliqued stuff and everything.


I tried to make the day special for us with a out of the ordinary breakfast of cinnamon roll pancakes with homemade buttermilk syrup. I found the recipe on "The Idea Room". They didn't look ANYTHING like the pictures, but they tasted mighty good. We also had our ward friends Mike and Maryanne and their son James over for dinner before the trunk-or-treat. Last year we made sloppy joes and made it look like pumpkin brains as we scooped the joes out of the top of a pumpkin head. This year, Richie decided to make the pumpkin look like he was "losing his lunch" so to speak.


Today for the actual Halloween I tried my hand at my very first pumpkin roll. Heaven on a pan I tell you. Good thing we shared and didn't bring home any left-overs or I'd eat it all up! I must be the only one around this house with a high enough sugar tolerance. Miles had some "fun" diapers and an accompanying rash over the weekend and now Richie's feeling on the down side. It's a life-long effort to build up a tolerance to sugar like I have, but if I can do it anybody can! It makes the holidays so much more bearable. :)

Drumroll please....

I was so sick and tired of my hair!! It's pretty much been the same since my sophomore year in high school, with a few short lengths in between. The final straw was when I was in line at Arctic Circle while Richie and Miles were in the play area and the girl next to me asked me if I was in high school! I told her no, but before I had a chance to explain she then apologized and assumed I must have been in college. I chuckled and said, "No, I'm finished with that too. My husband and son are in there." I probably should have taken this as a compliment, but it only fueled the fire to chop my hair. Not that cutting my hair will automatically make me look more sophisticated, but maybe if I stopped wearing band T-shirts and flip flops it would do the trick. Regardless, here's the new cut. I had a few more drastic options, but I gave the lady some pictures, told her my concerns and that I trusted her, and away she went. This is what she came up with. She made it sound like it's so easy to do, like I wanted, but we'll just have to see about that.... The pictures don't do it justice in my opinion. I really like the way it turned out. I'm just wondering if I should have gone more drastic while I had the guts because the cut is still pretty simple and I'll still be tempted to style it the same easy ways.


And since I figured this would be the best my hair would look for a while since a pro did it, I should give in and take some belly shots. Haven't been as excited this time around to document my growing tummy, but now I have at least one. I still feel like I look fat rather than pregnant sometimes, but for the most part, it's obvious I'm pregnant. We find out the gender next Wednesday!! Can't hardly stand waiting!

"The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing"

Dancing has been on the back, back, back burner lately. With Richie's new job and class, there is no way to fit dancing in on a regular basis. It was hard enough before just trying to get a sitter etc. But this Saturday The Woodside held a workshop weekend with guest instructors and a live band dance that night so we made extra sure we could go. We looked forward to it all month and it was fantastic. Of course we couldn't go to the workshops all day, but the dance was so much fun. I forget how quickly you get sore dancing when you're pregnant! I'm still feeling the repercussions of my actions there, but it was so worth it. I didn't even mind not dancing every dance, or not being able to dance the really fast ones, it was just fun to dance with Richie. I'm so glad I married my best friend. We have so much fun together and it was nice to remember that on Saturday by just spending some time with just the two of us.


On Monday I'm sure LDS families everywhere celebrated FHE by carving pumpkins. We were no different. Although we were a little weak this year since Richie was writing a story for the paper and trying to carve with Miles was more difficult than expected, we only did one pumpkin. So really, it was just me doing pumpkin carving, but then again, I kind of enjoy that stuff. I found a free template on Family Fun's website. I'd never used a template before that I can remember. What a fantastic idea!! It was so much easier. I call it my spider motif pumpkin. I used the template all the way around.

Today I.....

Woke up at an alarmingly late 8:30!

Felt like I was in my first trimester all over again, decided today would be a movie day

Put on some sweats, got Miles, got frustrated when he refused breakfast and all he wanted was to watch Tarzan.

Gave in, fed him bits of toast while we watched Tarzan for the one millionth time

Put my tennis shoes on, and laid on the ground waiting for Miles to come near enough to me that I could grab him and put his on.

Caught him. Strapped him in the bike trailer.

Rode "around the block" to visit sister Virgin. Was disappointed to find she wasn't there. Instead, Miles was entertained by the neighbors roosters, chickens, dogs and cats. Not to mention the number of cows we passed while riding.

Thought to myself, "I kind of like the smell of manure. Wait a second...what??" Decided it was just the style of living and the areas of the country where you smell cow manure that I like.

Got ambitious, made an effort to be a good mom and pulled out the cookie tray, layered it with corn meal and traced shapes with Miles.

He loved it for 2 minutes. Next activity.

Got even more ambitious and pulled out finger paints for the very first time. Loved it even more. Lasted 4 minutes.

I wanted to keep finger painting, but wanted Miles to have nap time even more, so I stuffed some lunch down the kid and laid him down. Breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't fight it and actually looked tired. Shouted Hallelujah when he fell asleep without a bink at naptime.

Read some scriptures etc, read some Mockingjay. Felt guilty that I read Mockingjay longer than the scriptures.

Went to the bathroom again. 99th time of the day and counting.

Did some office work for the storage units, then began painting. (The owners have "hired" us to paint the entire front area so that's where all of our free time has been going lately)

Squished myself into a corner between a toilet and a wall to try and tape off some floorboards and thought, "That is not going to be fun to paint."

Miles wakes up, we take Richie some food at work, we go to Wal-Mart and buy toilet paper and drano since Richie tells me that something may very well have crawled into our pipes and died in the bathroom because it smells so bad. You'll just have to trust me, it really does smell that bad.

Score a clearance Elmo potty book that has sound buttons for $2 and the least girly looking baby doll for $4 so that Miles can start getting used to the idea.

He immediately takes it, smothers it in root beer sucker kisses and points out facial features.

I grin like an idiot and think I have the best root beer sucker covered child in the world.

Come home, let Miles watch a movie, clean up the house so it appears to Richie as if its been like this all day. He's never fooled.

Heat up some left overs, let Miles play bubbles in the sink while I read more Mockingjay. Dang book controlling my life. Richie leaves for seminary classes and I sigh inwardly.

Don't feel like doing anything super fun. Takes too much energy. Play some toys with Miles, do some dishes.

Miles discovers the potty book and falls in love. When I ask him if he wants to go potty, he lights up and runs for the potty. (He hasn't liked it much these days, so I'm shocked and think I may have just spent the best $2 of my life.)

Bath time. Yes! Read more mockingjay. Miles wants to sing. I sing every song from nursery that he knows including the chorus to follow the prophet 23 times. When I say that song is all done he's very distraught and asks for another one. I can't understand him, but he's being very specific. I'm frustrated, he's frustrated, bad situation. Distract him with a towel.

Out of the bathtub, into pajamas, brush teeth, scriptures, (which he actually sits for since I'm reading it to the baby) put him down, don't give him a bink, listen to him cry himself to sleep again as I blog.

Now what to do....Painting or Mockingjay????

"Howdy Neighbor!"

Our friends Mike and Megan that were going to be gone for a while ended up being back sooner than they thought! Hooray! We had dinner on Saturday complete with a delicious fall treat. I thought I'd share the recipe because it's full of all things yummy and therefore terrible for you. I saw a fun idea in a magazine and thought we'd try it out this time around. We cut the tops off the apples, used a melon baller to scoop out the insides of the apple and filled the insides with carmel! That way everyone has their own little bowl of carmel and can double dip all they want! We decided it probably cancels out some of the calories from the carmel since it's inside an apple. Right? You can dip all sorts of things, but that night we dipped apples, bananas, angel food cake and pretzels.


Carmel Recipe:
1/2 C butter
2 C brown sugar
1 Can sweetened condensed milk
1 C light corn syrup
1 t vanilla
*mix together in sauce pan until mixture is almost boiling. Remove from heat and dip away!

See Rach Sew!

Sew Rach, Sew!
Sewing does not come naturally to me, so every small accomplishment is celebrated! And I'm going to celebrate these 2 things on the blog!

Mr./Mrs. Potato Head
I saw this idea on Make it and Love it a while back. When I tried to find it again, it had been removed for copyright issues, so I kind of winged this one. I looked at a picture online of an actual Mr. Potato Head, cut out all the pieces, let them sit in the laundry room for 3-4 weeks (always an important step), got up enough motivation to finish, cut out the batting, sewed it all, then added velcro. There is a pouch on the back that's supposed to hold all the pieces, but it's way too small. It's just made out of cheap felt and I hand stitched most of it since it was easier that way. I figured the entire project cost me less than $8. Not bad for a Christmas present eh? I realized I could go overboard on this project and make all sorts of Mr. Potato Head versions. Like a doctor, a nerd, a teacher etc.... But for now, I'll just stick with Mr. and Mrs.







Bike Trailer Neck Cover Thingys
I also saw this on Make it an Love it. Whenever we take Miles in the bike trailer he comes home with welts on his neck from the straps rubbing. Ta-Da! Solution. I made 2 sets for when we have another one riding with Miles in there. I had some left over fabric from a blanket my mom made Miles, left over velcro and batting from Mr. Potato head. All I had to buy was some bias tape. I've decided that whatever the directions say for how long it should take, I need to triple that, and then it will be about accurate. My versions NEVER turn out like the professionals do, but then I guess that's why they are pros and I am still learning.

What a Lovely Saturday

After all of our chores were done, appointments were kept, naps taken the three of us decided to try something new! We went to a straw maze out in...Archer?? I'm still not keen on some Idaho territory, but it's the one over by Big Juds for all you local folk. Yes it was over-priced, no Miles didn't really understand it, but it was sure something fun. When we got in Richie told me to lead so we'd get our moneys worth.:) Jab to my lack of a sense of direction. It was actually a very good maze and we went through twice to really make it worth it. It was a perfect fall activity and I'd never been to one before.




We are good parents, I promise.


This is us being scared in the straw maze. Then we asked ourselves how Bear Grylls would handle the situation and formulated a plan.

On the way back we saw a really cool old church, at least that's what it looked like. Then we went through the drive thru at G's dairy and got Idaho's finest Huckleberry shake. Miles wanted a sip so I held it for him. He didn't let go of it till we got home. He had finished almost 1/4 of the shake in about 4 minutes. No wonder he didn't want dinner.

Then to really top the night off we all watched "Icabod Crane" together. It was Miles' first time and I was surprised how calm he was even at the scary parts. This is a must watch every Halloween season.

Conference Weekend

We were just going to have a regular old weekend up here in Idaho. On Friday night Richie was up in Ashton covering a FB game and I was working around the house since Miles was asleep, when I got a knock on the door. That is highly irregular considering where we live. Most people get lost or very confused when I try to tell them where we live. I opened the door and saw Jeffrey! I couldn't process it for a few seconds and then I realized Richie's family was really up here! They were exercising their spontaneous muscles and came up on a whim. It made the weekend so much more fun! They got us even more set up with emergency essentials and helped me make salsa to can with their very own tomatoes, onions and peppers from their garden! We made 14 quarts of salsa and a few extra jars of diced tomatoes. Wahoo! Richie actually had someone to go to priesthood session with, Miles was in heaven with a dog to play with (or around, depending on how scared he decided to be) and I was in heaven with so many helping hands for Miles.

I can't deny it any longer...

It really is fall! I've been trying to squeeze every last drop out of summer possible, but the leaves are changing colors, the temperatures are lower and there is that crispness in the air. Not that I was dreading fall or anything. Quite the opposite, fall is my favorite time of year. However, fall means that winter is just right around the corner and last winter about killed my soul...so... Anyway, I got anxious the other day and decided to put up fall decor. I designated all nap time for the occasion and was sorely disappointed when my mounds of fall decor added up to a mere box and scantily filled a shelf. Boo. So I waited a few days more and then added the Halloween stuff too. I felt like I was jumping the gun, but it adds much richness and it's always fun to mix things up a bit. I still don't have a ton of decor, but guess what? We don't have a ton of apartment either so it works well. Some personal favorites this year include the off color pumpkins from our garden (I may do something special with the ones out front...we'll see) and the advent calendar my sister-in-law made me last Christmas. I can finally use it! It's for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas too!





In other news, how about a book review? I just finished reading "The Undaunted" by Gerald Lund. In a nutshell, it was everything I expected from Brother Lund. Inspiring pioneer story (although a bit too detailed in places for my taste), a character's inner struggle with the gospel, and a love story, in which he thinks he has tricked you, but I knew from the very beginning who David was going to fall for. Can't fool me Gerald. And yes, it was typical, but his typical is always entertaining to me. It was a page turner and I felt like I flew through it. Maybe a part of my keen interest in the book was because it was about 'my peeps' down in southern Utah. Maybe not St. George peeps necessarily, but all the talk of red rock, heat and sand made me feel proud to have some of that red dirt in my blood. I would definitely recommend it!

HAPPY CONFERENCE WEEKEND! How are you 'celebrating'? I'm making some stews and soups to freeze for later. I've heard you can freeze almost any soup! I never feel like cooking anymore, so I've got a feeling they'll come in handy.