Halloween 2008

What do you get when you put together:

Harry Potter

A warrior wizard

a Jedi night

and the Incredible Jack Jack?

Cavities!!!

Hope you had a GREAT Halloween!

(Who can't resist this funny little video! Part of the reason we named our son!)

Harry Potter at Preschool?

Yes indeed there is a Hogarts Preschool in the Tri-city area (who knew?)Bridger got to wear his Halloween costume to preschool today. It was fun to walk in and see all the kids dressed up!
We will get more pix tonight!

I Forgot 'bout This One!

Sonja came over today and reminded me about this recipe that I made like crazy last year. I got it out of my Kraft Foods Magazine that comes throughout the year! Ever since she mentioned it today I have been wanting it since! I have some baking in the oven as I sit and type this. So here it is for Sonja and anybody else!

Layered Pumpkin Loaf

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 egg whites, divided
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
2-1/2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
Make It

PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened. Set aside. Beat Neufchatel cheese, remaining 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the remaining egg white with wire whisk until well blended.
SPOON half of the pumpkin batter into prepared pan; spoon Neufchatel cheese mixture evenly over the batter. Cover with remaining pumpkin batter.
BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

How to Store Bread : Wrap cooled bread in foil or plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator up to 4 days.
(Terra's Note: You may not want to put all of the pumpkin mixture in the pan.- cuz it might get too full!)

So Sew!

Somehow I got talked into making my older 2 kids costumes for Halloween. I am NOT a seamstress, but it went okay. (Also added touches to Bridger's and Jack's) The big news now is... THEY ARE DONE! I am putting the finishing touches on Carli's costume tonight! Whew!

Now let the fun begin!!!

(They do look very cute in their costumes!)

Book Recommendation

Couldn't put it down!
(Even learned how to fold laundry and read at the same time!)

Our New Look!

Who is that SMOKIN' couple?

The Ashton's Halloween party was a blast!

We got to pose on a Harley

Jon sported this Awesome vest!

(Oh! I think there was a theme here!)

Jon had a "WICKED" time playin' Rock Star on a Wii!

Thanks Deb that was fun!

(Did I mention that my pants were GENUINE PLeather?!?!)

Deb's Halloween Bash!

Every Year our friend, Debbie, has a Halloween party with a theme. One year the theme was "Cavemen". Another year it was "Lifestyles of the rich and famous."Last year the theme was "Opposites." (Jon was a lumberjack and I was a tree-hugger). It is a lot of fun every year and a chance to have fun and see how others interpreted the theme. Then we have a good laugh, eat food and play super fun games! This year the theme is............

Bikers

(not bicyclists- but down and dirty motorcycle riders)

What will you dress up as for Halloween???

P.S. Deb. S.- I am so excited to see your black leather maternity pants! Rock on, Woman!!!

Stinkin' Funny!

Some gals and I were talkin' and told me about this. I just had to see it for myself and thought that I would post it here for all to enjoy!

The Other Woman!!!

"You Love Hunting More Than Me!!!" is something I would say when we first got married. Why was I so jealous? Well- My husband never cleared his days just to spend with me, he never got soooooo excited just to be with me and he never went out and bought expensive gadgets to share with me! (not that I ever wanted a rifle made out of Kevlar, but it was the principle of the whole thing...right?!?)
Throughout the years I have learned that Jon needs his hunting just like I need my time out in my favorite store. About Sept. every year he just stands by a window and looks outside. The "itch" for hunting starts. I am better with my jealousy now and it is almost non-existent. Almost. I get a few nights now to watch all my chick-flicks and have time at night by myself. But the best part is when he brings Elk home. Now that we don't live in Montana anymore, elk is scarce. It has probably been a good 5 or 6 years since we have had our plethora of elk meat. But now I am going to enjoy ever last morsel and NEVER take advantage of having elk meat again. My fav. dish to make with Elk meat......is spaghetti!

Jon's Hunting Story.

I know Jon would like his super excitin' huntin' story displayed for all of the husband of bloggers, but of course he won't blog- so it has to be told by his wife's version (an account of what he told me).

Jon took his Dad, Paul with him and they went to New Mexico. (You'll have to ask Jon all about how he drew out for tags down there). He had about 5 days to hunt, but was able to spot a elk (with the help of a guide) in the first 2 hrs of hunting. He watched the elk for about an hour and then had a good shot.

When they went up to the elk then noticed a bump on the outside of his skin but didn't think much of it. Later when they were cutting it open, Jon's guide hit something hard with his knife.


It turned out to be an arrow. It must have been shot during bow season last year or the year before, but was hit in the wrong spot and didn't die. The area healed completely over.
And to make a long story short, I now get to find a spot for this in my house!

(Not the guide, Just the rack!)

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!)