Snow flies early

...this year. Usually we don't see it at our house until after Halloween. What does SnOw mean at our house? The kids know all too well, and won't let Mom and Dad forget it...
Hot chocolate and marshmallows.....
Building a measly little snowman. Cute though, with Peanut M&M eyes and buttons and a baby carrot nose. Too bad I didn't get a pic of the finished product.
Eating fresh fallen snow....nature's own sno-cone!!
Making Caramel Apples!!! We haven't ever done this before, but it might be a new tradition at our house. The kids had a great time and nobody got burned. Always a plus!
Bet you wish you were here this weekend!

We are Jack-o-lanterns

...boo...boo...BOO!

My kids love Halloween. In fact, it is Gunnar's favorite holiday. As soon as it's October, it's all about decorating the house, costume decisions, and the anticipation of it all. SO far, Savannah is going to be a tiger....convenient, since that was what her dance recital costume was this year. We just have to warm it up a bit with some black pants and long sleeve shirt. Gunnar WAS going to be a mummy, but has now decided he wants to be a ninja. I think the sword turned the tide on that one. Sydney is going to be Fifi, the poodle. I found the cutest costume at Old Navy for $15. Totally soft and will keep her so warm. Love that place. Not sure if I'll dress up this year. We'll see.

What are you and your's going to be?

Snake egg?

...not quite. Gunnar and his best bud were playing in the sandbox today. Gunnar came running in and said they had found an egg in the sand. I quickly went to check it out. They had it dug up and in a pail filled with sand and water. It was about 3 inches long and 2 inches across and oval in shape. It was slimy. It was smelly. It was gross.
I poked at it with a stick and it felt kind of leathery. It had a greyish thing poking out one end like it was starting to hatch. Yuck. Had I been more brave, I would've dissected it. However, I just chucked in in the trash and then proceeded to have the boys disinfect their hands, then I cleaned the toys they had the grotesque thing in.
I thought tonight that I'd look up snake eggs and see if that could've been what it was. It does resemble them, but after a bit of poking around I found this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_impudicus

I think this is indeed what we had going on. It makes sense because it says that this type of fungus grows near rotting wood...check.....and in moist garden areas....check. Also called a stink horn. I dug around to make sure there were no more. I found 1 smaller one attached to the wooden frame of the sandbox. Grossest thing ever.

Fall colors

I love this time of year! The crispness, the colors, the anticipation of the holidays. This weekend we went on a drive of the Aspen Loop and ended up at Sundance. The colors were spectacular! It was an overcast day, threatening to rain, but still gorgeous sweeps of mountains covered in contrasting colors. Thought I'd share. Check out the red Aspens! I haven't seen any that vibrant before.

Gunnar's 1/2 Birthday Party?

My kids had never been to the circus before. Is that a crime? Maybe. It is kinda pricey, and I wasn't sure they'd sit through the whole thing. The last thing I want to do on a Saturday is chase my toddler down concrete stairs and hope she doesn't bif it. That being said, we decided this was the year to brave it. It ends up that the event fell on Gunnar's 1/2 birthday, and so he thought the reason we were going was to celebrate. While that's all well and good, I didn't want to set the precedent of 2 birthday partys every year!! It's enough work on the real day!

It was great to see all the animals, the feats of strength, the guys on stilts, the cirque de soleil type stuff. They even had guy riding a motorcycle on a steel wire, with a tumbling girl underneath on a bar. They went in a complete circle a few times, crazy. And then the steel cage in the shape of a ball, they stuck 7 guys on motorcycles in there. There has to be some trick to it, but I couldn't figure out how none of them colided with the others. I didn't even think they would all fit in there! It was nuts. The kids loved the clowns of course and all the silliness and slap-stick humor. It was a great time.

We went to the 11am show, and by the time we got home the kids were all OUT. I think they were so overstimulated from all that went on. It was loud and exciting! I hope they'll have good memories of it all though.

Chores Galore

My current project is coming up with a chore schedule for our family. Really this is something that I should have developed years ago, and Chris keeps asking me to do. I think the reason I haven't up to now is that with a baby it is really hard to know which day you'll be able to mop the kitchen floor, or clean the bathrooms, etc. Fear of failure maybe. I have always gotten by on doing it when it has been bugging me and I just can't take it anymore. Although this approach has been somewhat effective, I think a more proactive tack might be more appealing....and maybe the chores would take less time? Anyway, since all of you are, I'm sure, more organized than I am, I would love it if you would share your chore calendars with me. It would make this seemingly daunting task a bit easier to handle, I hope.

This is the list I have so far....I just need to choose what days I need to do what and plunk it down into a calendar.

-floors, mop and vacuum (1x week)
-bathroom toilets and sinks (1x week)

-laundry (2x week)

-dishes and kitchen clean up (daily)

-change linens (1x week)

-dust furniture (1x week)

-yard work, mow (1x week)

-ironing (1x week)

-water plants (1x week)

-deep clean kitchen (1x week)

-deep clean carpet spots (1-2x month)

-clean fish bowl (1x month)

*kids chores*

-make your bed (daily)

-take a bath (2x week)

-empty garbages (2x week)

-take dirty clothes to laundry room/

put away their folded clothes (2x week)

-toy pick up & straighten room (2x week or as needed)

I need to coincide toy pick up, maybe the day before vacuuming. Bathing the same day that sheets get changed, etc....so I want to play around with it a bit.

Maybe if we have some special task, I'll just add it to the calendar that month. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I can always adjust as things come along.

Let me know what you think, any suggestions are MORE than welcome.

Tis the Season

...for scrumptious pumpkin cookies!! The kids had a talent show in Primary the Sunday before last and Savannah chose to showcase her talent of baking. Really, it was the talent of helping Mom bake, but whatever works. Anyhoo, we dug up this recipe that I found last year. Wow, is it good. We used semi-sweet chocolate chips and no nuts (for a crowd, allergies and whatnot) but they still turned out stupendous! The secret is the cloves, it makes the cookie nice and "spicy"! I made it last year to the letter and they were equally yummy. I had lots of requests for the recipe and thought I should just post it here so all those I love can try it out. It IS baking season after all!! Enjoy.

Macadamia Nut White Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Vanilla chips and crunchy macadamia nuts make a supremely rich cookie; pumpkin adds a luscious moistness to these year-round favorites.
Estimated Times:Preparation - 20 min Cooking - 11 min Cooling Time - 15 min cooling Yields - 4 dozen

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (12-ounce package) White Morsels
2/3 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts, toasted

Directions:PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease baking sheets.COMBINE flour, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until blended. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. DROP by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets; flatten slightly with back of spoon or greased bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar.BAKE for 11 to 14 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.