Halloween at Christmas-time

 

Yep, I'm posting about Halloween two weeks before Christmas.  I do have a good excuse though…a new computer…a Mac.  Totally different format and no Windows Live Writer…ughh…the mac blog writers are horrible.  Otherwise, I'm loving my new iMac, but I digress.

This year was probably one of the best Halloweens I've ever had.  The older boys were out with friends so it was just J, me and V.  First we walked around our little cul de sac.

She didn't know how to say "trick or treat" so she said, "trickies!!!" instead.  It was so cute!

After trick or treating around the hood we went down to the Church for the annual trunk or treat.

I LOVE that we Mormons get all excited for Halloween and dress up our cars, our kids, and ourselves.  So much fun. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have a carnival this year as Halloween was on a Monday.  But, we were able to have the trunk or treat.  J had so much fun cruising from car to car asking for her trickies.

 

And, there were lots of other girls, both older and younger dressed up like Minnie Mouse too!

After the trunk or treat I got to go to our neighbor's house for hot chocolate and scones while my wonderful hubby got miss J showered and ready for bed.  Oh my goodness, does Deb make some good fried dough with honey butter! Yum!

We had so much fun this Halloween with our little sweetheart.  She is starting to understand the concept of the holidays.  I know she'll be excited about trick or treating next year but it won't be the same because she'll be a veteran at it.  I know I'm a goofball but those "first times", when you know your baby finally realizes what is going on, are the most precious to me.  I can't wait for Christmas!

Totally behind

Oh my, I’m so behind on posts.  I have lots of stuff to share but just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet.  I think I’m going to combine 2 posts in one.  First:   Bates Nut Farm.  Yes, I know ya’ll are sick of posting about Bates but c’mon – look how cute…

 

 

I made both the kids’s outfits (except J’s shirt).  Cute huh?  And, so much fun to do.

Of course we had to go on the hayride…

 

And get ice cream…

We had a great day! 

I guess I’ll make Halloween another post… eventually  :P

Fall weather inspiration

 

I love fall.  It is my absolute favorite time of the year.  I love the cool weather, the upcoming holidays, and the shorter days.  When that first day of fall weather hits I start thinking about making homemade bread, canning, pumpkin pies, and using the fireplace.  This year, the canning bug hit.  Two years ago I made about 20 jars of plum jam but this year I wanted to use fruit from my garden.

My good friend Theresa, who moved away a few years ago, was quite the avid farmer/gardener and a totally awesome do-it-yourselfer.  Before she left, she gave me two of her grape vines.  I planted them back along my fence line but didn’t do much else with them.  We had some serious problems with irrigation and I never saw the vines grow.  I assume I had killed them.  This year, after some serious backyard renovation and irrigation repair, the vines started growing like weeds.  I couldn’t believe they were still alive!  We had so many grapes – I didn’t know what to do with them all.  Enter – fall weather and canning.  This is what we picked just the other day:

 

And this is what we got in the end:

Yummy homemade grape jelly.  How awesome is that?!?

Embroidery

 

My sewing machine is so awesome.  I love embroidery but don’t have the talent to do it (or the patience).  My machine will transfer a computer picture to any cloth surface.  I wanted to make something special for Julia’s 2nd birthday coming up.  So I made this:

Last year, I was at a meeting for YW and a woman was speaking about her daughter.  As she was talking, she displayed a picture of her little girl, about 1 or 2 years old, sitting next to an embroidered pillow that said, “I am a Child of God.”  I thought it was the most awesome picture I had ever seen.  It was really grainy and old but the message of how precious this little girl was, not only to her parents, but her Heavenly Father, just warmed my heart.  I knew I wanted to do the same thing for Julia.  I actually made this pillow last year but J was not old enough to understand it’s meaning.  She may not understand it this year, but I want to give it to her and take a few pictures because I want her to know now, and in the years to come, how truly precious she is.

Drum Roll…

 

 

Can you freakin’ believe it?!?

A little bit of heaven

 

I think I slept weird the other night because I woke up in the morning with a horrible back ache.  I shouldn’t say “ache” but pain.  More like I pulled a muscle while I was sleeping (pathetic, I know).  I had Cade throw his nasty, bony elbows in my back in hopes of working the kink out to no avail.

I have super strong jets in my spa so I decided to go out tonight and keep my back on those jets until the kink or my skin was gone.  I stuck my foot in the pool – just to see where the temp was at….90 degrees folks.  Heaven!  I decided to swim some laps.  I think the pulled muscle while sleeping finally convinced me some exercise was in order.  How I could refuse 90 degree pool water at 10 p.m?!?  Needless to say, the spa took like 5 minutes to heat up so I swam laps until I got tired (not long) and then sat in the jacuzzi.  It was so awesome!  I felt amazing when I got out.  Seriously, it was like heaven.  The best night I’ve had in a while.  =)

I’ve been busy

 

Besides growing a little human being, I’ve been super busy.  Since having a little girl, I’ve decided to re-kindle my love for sewing.  I have made the most amazing stuff.  Last year for Christmas I made several gifts for the kids as well as an awesome advent calendar.  As I’ve been sewing more and more, I’m finding that my sewing skill is getting much better.  I’ve been able to successfully put in zippers! I used to avoid all patterns with zippers and buttonholes because I heard they were super hard.  But, I’ve done it and am really proud of how much better I’m getting.

I’m going to be teaching a class to the YW about sewing.  I have this super easy pattern for skirts.  In fact, check out the tutorial from MADE if you’re interested:  HERE.  I swear, that girl is SO talented.  Needless to say, I poach all sorts of ideas from her website.  She always has tons of ideas and they are very easy.  As I was saying, I will be teaching the girls how to make these skirts and I am really excited.  It never ceases to amaze me what you can make with a little thread and fabric.  I feel so creative when I sew.  I hope I can impart some of my excitement to the girls.  Not to mention the savings.  I can bust out one of those skirts for probably $7 and it would be way cuter than something you could buy. Anyway, I hope they learn how important it can be to have these types of skills whether its sewing or something else.  Here are a couple of things I’ve made for Julia.  I’ve sewn a lot more but only took pictures of a few outfits.