Book Recommendation

Well, I finished reading this book in the middle of our vacations that we took this summer. You know my love for Stephenie Meyers books. I had to blog about it! So here is what I think, but don't read any further if you don't want any spoilers.
Well, I really liked it, but I know that lots of people didn't. The 2nd half of the book prepares you for this giant battle that is gonna take place. You spend long amounts of time reading about all these different vampires and all their special powers, that come to help out the Cullens against the Volturi. But here is the kicker.................

The battle never takes place. I still liked it, but I was totally ready for the Volturi to get what was coming to them and for the funny Roman vampires to take their place as the peace-keepers. Maybe this will come into play in her next Twilight series book (although this is her last book from Bella's view)

Stephenie Meyer had a couple of interesting things on her site. She had a book recommendation. She said that she just couldn't put this down. So I thought, "What the Heck" and picked up my copy. I am still working on another book and haven't gotten to this one yet, but hopefully I will get to soon!

She also had the NEW movie trailer you can view it HERE. This one make me sooo excited to see the movie. GNO for sure!!!

Our Family Pix!

I have been asked who took our picture of my blog header. Sonja took our family pictures this year. She is super talented and such a neat person! We had a lot of fun walking around and posing. Here is some of Sonja's genius!

Sonja took these pics of Jon and me and I love them, but there was a sunspot of Jon, so she invited us to her studio to take some of the 2 of us.

I told Jon that these would be the ones that we show at our 50th wedding anniversary.

My Brainiac!

Jack went to the Dr. yesterday for his 1 year check-up. The Dr. told me that his head was in the 99% -tile for head size. (99% of kids heads are smaller than Jack's) Wow! I mean, I knew his head was big before he was born when the poor guy's head had a different due date than his body, but wow! I tried to put a sweater on him for church on Sunday. It was one that both Nolan and Bridger wore. But when I tried to get it over Jack's noggin, he was crying as I tugged and tugged. I finally did- but I think I was hurting him and I stretched out the sweater. The Dr. said he would measure his head again when he was 15 months, and said not to worry yet, but it could be due to something serious. I don't think that I am really worried at all. My kids are healthy (and obviously solid!) and Jack- Jack's big head holds that gi-normas, beautiful , smart and adorable brain of his. I Love kissing everyinch of that cute nogin and I am glad that it is not the tiniest bit smaller!

(Jonny said, "Poor Jack, is that why you keep falling and bumping your head? Cuz it is so big that you can't hold it up?!?!)

The Great Pumpkin Mis-hap of '08!

So I have been doing a lot of blog stalking lately. Trying to get lovely fall ideas. (I just haven't been enjoying my favorite season as much this year.) I came across THIS blog. I don't know who she is, but she has some great ideas, including THIS recipe for Zesty Pumpkin Soup. So I decided to make this soup for my dinner group tonight. I have been so excited to make it and went out sat. and bought all the ingredients. At 4pm, I started cooking the onions and soon after added all the spices. I could tell that it was going to be good with the earthy seasonings that I was adding from the recipe. One of the last items to add was the canned pumpkin. I quickly opened the lid and as I was dumping it in, I noticed a scent of cinnamon. I always associate cinnamon with pumpkin, so I thought, "Oh, I have never noticed that cinn. is in canned pumpkin. It wasn't until I was dumping the 2nd can that I noticed that the sugar and cinnamon wasn't really "going" with the other spices. I looked at the can again and noticed I bought PUMPKIN PIE MIX. Not canned pumpkin. (Are ya' kiddin' me?!?!- Who was in charge of designing labels on these babies?)The soup was supposed to be creamy and this was like broth. (Really watered down) I made a quick run to the store and was able to deliver dinner just a little late. But the end result was very, very good. It was a good recipe and we served it with Rhodes rolls that I made into bread sticks and rolled in melted butter and then, herbs, garlic powder and Parm. cheese. (I am soooo making those again!)

So if this recipe DOES entice you, please READ the labels when you are buying your can of pumpkin!

What are your worst mis-haps in the kitchen???

Kid Funny!

Out of our 4 kids, one of them is bound to say something cute.
The kids wanted Ramen Noodles after church today. The older two were goofing around slurping them up and making a big splashy mess as noodles do when you suck them up really fast. Bridger was in a really mellow mood while he was eating his noodles. At one point, he sat back and said, "Mom, that noodle peed on me!" So true, Bridgie, so true!

In other news, Thank You Grandma Sharon for the Halloween Care Package! The kids went crazy and ate tons of candy (most of it they snuck) and already are wearing their new clothes!Hope you had a Great Weekend!

My Halloween Treat!

Have you seen my JACK- o- lantern?

He lights up my nights (and days), he's sweeter than candy and he will never go rotten inside!

No whip cream for this punkin' pie-! He's sweet enough already!

Just Brilliant!

Our good friends, The Norrs tell us a story about a family they knew back east that had 10 kids. When asked the story of their success in raising these kids the couple says, "Well, after number 5 you either get organized or you die." Organizational death seemed to have been headed in our direction, but I took a class through Kennewick Community Education and learned some amazing tips.

In our cabinet, Jon has always had these canvas totes for his t-shirts....

But they always looked like this.

Thanks to my class, they now look like this! Wow! I can see every shirt! And now Jon doesn't just wear the ones on the top! (and yes, my Jonny like a lot of t-shirts!)

But perhaps the biggest change was in out closet. I am embarrassed to show that my shelves looked like this.

But after purchasing some baskets for support....

Ahh! Much better!
The teacher in the class even convinced me to Alphabeticalitize my spices. I wasn't sure at first if I could keep it up- but after seeing the final result, I am soooo excited to try to keep this lookin' good! (I don't have a b4 pic, but believe me- you don't want to see it anyway!)
This magazine also has great tips!!!

(Just picked my copy up at Walmart!!!)

(Note to self: Buy a label maker!)

My First Tutorial

I just learned this and had people ask me how these were made. I have seen other tutorials...so here goes!

First, Make a batch of cupcakes. (I used my new favorite... Butter Pecan from a mix).

Then take a bag of white choc. chips and melt them in the microwave. (I did about 1/3 of a bag at a time) Be careful not to burn them.

Then cover a baking sheet with wax paper. Using the back of your spoon, start to shape the head and arms of you ghost.

Then spread the w. chocolate on down to make the bottom of your ghost.Add 2 chocolate sprinkles for eyes. And put them in the fridge to harden.
Meanwhile, frost your cupcakes with orange frosting (I cheated and used some out of a can and added yellow and red food coloring). Add spinkles of your desire. Then slice your cupcakes right down the middle. (you may only want to slice it just in the middle so that the edges are still in tact depending on how wide your ghosts are.Peel your ghosts off of the waxed paper.

Slide your ghosts in the slot.

Ta Da!!! Give away as gifts or let your kids inhale!

Boo-tiful Day!

Whew! I can remember my Grandma Ann telling me that her mom used to say that as you get older the days get shorter. I swear they do. When I was young, the 12 hours that I was awake for, seemed like a lifetime. I am usually surprised how much I DON'T get done in one day. But today was good. Some things that made this day good were:

* Realizing that this is Bridger's 1st full week of preschool. (going everyday as he was only going 2 days before)

* My Big Scientist Guy came home from a weekend business trip at 2pm today and didn't go into work!

* Carli and I seemed to giggle and get along so well today! (There is a mother/daughter bond forming between us and I love it!)

* Feeling Accomplished. Shopped for and made dinner for our dinner group (including these cute ghost cupcakes that were the inspiration for this blog!) and even did some laundry.

* Being Content! My Lil' Family is cute and I love them so much!

Hope Your day was Bootiful too!

Cheese, It's Friday!

Nolan and I took a date one night last spring and we were talking and decided that it would be great to start a Cheese Friday, where we try a different cheese every friday. I told him it would be funny to see Dad every fri. and say, "Cheese Dad, it's Friday!"

So we got the ol' Raclette oven out (if you don't know what a raclette oven is, click HERE) and decided to try our cheese melted on french bread, crackers and over lil' smokies. Hansen's cherry vanilla soda accompanied the meal (even though I discovered I didn't much care for that soda).Nolan really wanted to try goat milk cheddar. Carli and I picked out garlic and dill medium cheddar and I bought a Gruyere' which I knew that we liked (just in case we didn't like the other 2). Carli and Jon cut the cheese ("who cut the cheese?"- one of Nolan's jokes)
And we had a great time trying something new and getting a little cultured at the same time!

(Do you like my family and their "Cheesy" grins?!?!-

and the cheese jokes were on for the whole meal)

The nest Friday we tried 3 new cheeses. I wanted to try the blueberry faye so much (the kids sure didn't) but they put it in the cart for me to try since I couln't stop talking about it. And it turned out that I didn't care for it all that much. It tasted like a cheesecake without the sugar. But the Beemster was one of my favorites melted and the Jarlsberg was pretty mild.
Then, the friday after that we decided to try a dish that we had in Amsterdam. Dutch Pancakes with Ementaler cheese and ham. I brought back 2 dutch pancake mixes when we went to Holland, the only prob. was that the directions were in Dutch- duh! But we managed to make it anyway!


The next few fridays after that we had pizza (that has cheese on it, right?!?) It is expensive to try new cheeses every week, not to mention it is hard to eat tons of cheese every week. But every once in awhile, I will have to pick up the kids from school and say, Cheese Kids, It's Friday!!!

Yearbook Photos

I found a fun little site, HERE. You can make photos of yourself in a different decade. Here are some examples.

1960s

1970s

1980s

I even did one of Jon just for fun!!!

1970s

(I love the comb- over bangs!)