Halloween Princesses

Other than my mannish arm/hand that ended up being the focal point of this photo, I thought we all looked pretty good here on the set of High School Musical a la Melaleuca. Every year Melaleuca decorates the building and lets the kids come trick-or-treating. It's a big deal, and each department has a different theme. The sales department chose High School Musical as their theme this year, and Mac landed the role of Ryan. They even learned songs and dances to perform for the big day, and I captured some of it on camera. It was a hoot! Plus, they won the Best Overall Award for their decorations and performances, so they get to enjoy a pizza party here soon. We couldn't have pulled off his costume, though, without our friend Kim, who was so so kind to sew the Es on Mac's hat and letterman's sweater. I'm hopelessly inept at sewing and all things crafty, as most of my friends know, so I was extremely grateful for the help. The girls got a lot of candy, and I'm still helping them eat it a week later. Here are some more pictures of them in their Old Navy costumes.

On Halloween, we drove to Boise and went trick or treating with my brother Mike and his wife, Brandi, my sister Jenny, her husband, Woodson, and their two kids, Matthew and Nicole, and my sister Aimee. My parents were there too. My siblings and I were running a race the next morning, so that is why we were all together in Boise. We took the kids to my uncle Gordon's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. The neighborhood was very festive and enthusiastic about Halloween. One house had a haunted porch for older kids to go through, and one neighbor was dressed as a 70's dj with a sound system playing outside. He was offering drinks for all the adults who came by. I think it might have been an alcohol drink, so we didn't try any, but we thought it was nice of him anyway. Another neighbor told us that last year, they had 500 kids come trick-or-treating. Wow! Last year, I think we had ONE trick-or-treater come to our house. The weather was great - so warm! The kids didn't even have to wear coats. Kate kept saying, "Okay, this is the last house." I guess she just wanted to go home and get started on the candy.

Applesauce, Peaches, & Squash, Oh My!

Aren't they pretty? I'm very proud of these lovelies, the result of my first attempt at canning. (These aren't all of the jars I canned - the rest are in my pantry and food storage. These ones are just the lucky few that got to pose for the picture.) The pink stuff on the left is applesauce - my girls love that it's pink. And it tastes great. Thanks, Penny, for teaching me to can! I'd like to say that I'm now a canning fool, but until I get all my own equipment, I'll still be kind of slow to do this on my own. But, as luck might have it, I think Mac is going to get me canning equipment for Christmas. We will just have to cross our fingers and see. I'm really excited about the applesauce. Not just because it's pink, but because I picked the apples myself, for free. It was actually kind of a scary experience. I was dangerously perched atop a VERY tall ladder to get at the best apples, the lower ones having been picked already. I kept having the scene from Pollyana flash in my mind - you know, the one where her hand is reaching for that perfect apple, and suddenly she's screaming and falling, and later we find out she's paralyzed! Well, that scene kept coming to mind as well as the grief my poor husband and girls would experience at losing me if I were to fall, because don't we all at times like to imagine what would happen and how our loved ones would react if we were to pass on unexpectedly and tragically? And believe me, if I had fallen, I would have died. The ladder was THAT tall. Happily, I survived and lived to make this wonderful applesauce, along with some apple butter that isn't pictured, but I didn't bother to can that, I just froze it. Now, you're probably thinking I forgot about the squash part of my title. No, it's coming. Check out this photo:

My friend Kim was kind enough to share with me a spaghetti squash from her garden. I had never had spaghetti squash before, but I was excited to try. So I cooked it according to her instructions, scraped out one half of the squash, tossed it with butter and parmesan, and sat down to scarf almost all of it down. We had enough for leftovers, well, enough for me to have leftovers, the next day. And then I was thinking about what I should do with the other half I had left, so I decided to make baby food with it. I scraped out all the flesh, tossed it in my blender, added a smidgon of water, and presto - I had this perfect, store-bought-looking puree perfect for Lilly. I half-filled old baby food jars I had saved and popped them in the freezer. Since then, I've done carrots (also donated from a friend's lovely garden), and I plan on using some of my lovely canned peaches and applesauce as well. I love all the money I'm saving, so if any of you are wondering what to do with all your leftover winter squash and vegetables, now you know that you can make baby food with it.

While I'm on the topic of squash, I have to pass on a recipe for you. I made this dish the other night, and I thought it was so exotic and decadent. If you like squash, you've gotta try it out. I've only recently discovered that I like squash, since I never had it while I was growing up. (Don't worry mom, I forgive you!) But it is spectacular! I feel the same way about zucchini and sweet potatoes, food I never had the privilege of sampling as a child but now couldn't live without. Here's an awesome zucchini recipe if you're tired of making zucchini bread all the time.

Well, I've finally exhausted my thoughts on squash and canning. Who would've thought my longest post so far would be about food, and NOT my children or family? Well, if you know me, it's probably not that much of a surprise.

Lilly is 6 months old!

Lilly is in the 97th percentile for height, and 75th percentile for weight. She just got her first tooth poking through on Sunday, and I'm very happy to have her sleeping through the night again.

I love Halloween!

Ever since I had kids, Halloween has become my favorite holiday. Sure, there's nothing significant and meaningful about it, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, but it sure is fun! I love seeing my kids' faces light up when they receive a ton of candy and realize they can eat as much as they want. Halloween has become much more than just a one-day affair. It's more of a week-long blitz, starting with Monday. For FHE, we made sugar cookies in the shape of ghosts and pumpkins and frosted them. On Tuesday, Kate gets to dress up in her costume for dance class, and they have a little party with cookies and punch. On Wednesay, Kate gets to dress up in costume again for her preschool Halloween party. Then on Thursday, all the kids get to go trick-or-treating at Melaleuca. Later that night, they get to go to the neighborhood trunk-or-treat and carnival at the church. Then, finally, on Friday, it's officially Halloween and the real trick-or-treating can begin. Here are some pictures of our family pumpkin carving night and of the t-shirts I made with some friends. Yes, we tie-dyed the shirts ourselves and painted on the pumpkin faces!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Hubby Tag

You can thank Katy Paskett for the following!

1. Where did you meet?
At a stake dance at the Wilkenson Ctr at BYU. I introduced myself, and he got my phone number, but he never did ask me to dance.

2. How long did you date before you were married?
We got engaged a year after our first date. Our engagement lasted 5 months.

3. How long have you been married?
6 years and 4 months.

What does he do that surprises you?
He likes to surprise me with romantic mood lighting by lighting fragrant candles throughout the house.

5. What is your favorite feature of his?
I love his broad shoulders and long arms - great for giving hugs!

6. What is your favorite quality of his?
He's very patient and thoughtful. He never wants anyone to feel badly.

7. Does he have a nickname for you?
Sometimes he shortens my name and calls me "Ju."

8. Does he have a favorite color?
Yellow.

9. What is his favorite food?
He loves the Italian nachos at Carinos. He really likes my homemade pizza: he sometimes eats so much of it that he makes himself sick.

10. What is his favorite sport?
Baseball.

11. When was your first kiss?
I can't remember which number of date it was, but I think we'd been going out for a couple of months. I was wearing this striped sweater that I still have, which he loves. It was on the doorstep of my apartment in Liberty Square, and I was totally surprised by it. I didn't see it coming. (It was also his first kiss EVER - no lie!)

12. Favorite thing to do as a couple?
We like to get on the internet and watch the TV show Bones and Pushing Daisies on the laptop in our bed.

13. Do you have any children?
Three beautiful daughters.

14. Does he have a hidden talent?
When he decides he wants to cook something, which isn't that often, it always turns out really good. He's also really good at reading instruction manuals and figuring out how things work.

15. How old is he?
29.

16. Who said I love you first?
I did.

17. What's his favorite music?
His taste in music is eclectic, to say the least. He loves broadway musicals, Peter Cetera, Air Supply, and Lionel Richie.

18. What do you admire most about him?
I admire his ambition to succeed and advance at work, but I also admire how supportive he is of me in my hobbies and endeavors.

19. Do you think that he will read this?
Probably not, at least not for a long while. I said last night to him, "You know, you can always post stuff on our blog too." And he replied, "I know, it's just the last thing on my mind right now."

Okay, now here's the fun part . . . I tag Aimee, Jenny, Lindsey, Alicia, and Cassie. (Since you're all family, you can't stay mad for long, right?)

Pictures of Lilly

My sister Aimee asked that I post some recent pictures of Lilly, so here are a few. She's just starting to eat ceral, and she's really cute about it. She's growing so fast.

Since Kate turned four, I've been wondering where the time went. I recently looked at an old video of her, and I feel like it was a different life completely when I had this little helmet-wearing baby. Now look at her, a little smartie-pants who loves dance class and preschool and Zac Efron! (My girls are High School Musical fans.) Plus I have two other little kiddos. Here are all three of them being cheesy for the camera. Lilly doesn't quite know what to do with all the attention. She really isn't sitting up up that well on her own, so this was one of our "practice" sessions with the boppy pillow.

Kate's 4th Birthday

Kate turned four years old yesterday. Wow! I made her this lamb cake, which was a big hit to look at but not so much to eat - who wants to eat all those marshamallows? This is what it was supposed to look like. The day was a pretty good one. She was excited all day, and I tried really hard to make the day special for her by not getting mad at her and letting her do whatever she wanted. By the time birthday dinner rolled around, she couldn't wait for her presents. After we ate, Mac set up the video camera and we started singing happy birthday. As soon as we started singing, this funny look came over Kate, like she was getting overwhelmed by the attention and starting to shut down. She's gotten this look many times before: at Easter Egg hunts, her first day of dance class, etc. But it's always been when we're with a lot of other people, when she clearly isn't comfortable. So it was strange to see this look come over her when it was just us, the family, singing to her. After we were done singing, she wouldn't blow out the candles, and it took a lot of coaxing to get her to finally do it. Then, as she was opening her first present, she wouldn't look at it while she slowly took the wrapping paper off. We kept saying, "Look, look - some of the present is going to fall if you don't look at what you're doing." But she refused to look and would only stare at us with that strange look. She didn't even act excited about the gift, even though normally she would be ecstatic at the thought of watching High School Musical. Finally, she started to loosen up and get back to normal after a couple of presents, and then she had a blast playing with everything. She was so caught up in playing with her new toys that she didn't even eat any of her cake. I was afraid they didn't like it, but the girls ate a lot of it today.

Overall, yesterday was a really good day for Kate. She's a funny girl, but she enjoyed herself a lot. Today she was getting excited just talking about her 5th birthday!