Trunk-or-Treating

Our ward had trunk-er treating tonight. The kids have been so excited all week. I think that we are going to count this as our trick-or-treating this year. They both got so much candy!! They had it in the gym since we live in too-cold Idaho.

In church, the primary president told all of the kids she wanted them to go find her at the party and show her their costumes. The minute we walked in the door, Bria scanned the room saying "Where is the president? I need to find the president!"

Max is so funny! I guess I forget that he is getting older and more independent. I thought I would have to guide him to the candy and show him how to open his bag, but he was running circles around the room way ahead of me. I had to try to slow him down so he wouldn't get too far ahead. At the end of the night, he had twice as much candy as Bria because he would go two or three people ahead and then get pulled back to stay by Bria....in turn hitting the two or three people again.

Pumpkin Carving

We tried to do this delayed shutter speed thing with the camera and take pictures of the kids in the dark with their glowing pumpkins. The problem with Max is he has absolutely no ability to hold still! They only had to hold still for maybe 5 seconds, and I don't think he even made it 1! Finally, after about 50 tries, we just took it in the light. Oh, well. At least the picture turned out cute! Bria did great! Here is her picture with the delayed shutter speed.

Bria was so excited about her cat pumpkin. I think if she could choose, she would be reborn as a kitten!

(we get weird reflections off our kitchen table sometimes, but the kids look cute!)

I really love fall. I think it might be one of my favorite times of year. The days are cooler, but still warm. The leaves change colors. It is just beautiful. Well, anyway, I do know that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. YEAH!! Halloween is almost here!

Pumpkin pancakes with apple cider syrup

I found this recipe a couple of months ago. It is so yummy!!! Bria calls them pumpkin pie pancakes because they taste so good!


First start with the Hot Apple Cider syrup:

3/4 C apple cider or apple juice
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C corn syrup
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon

You put all of it in a pan and simmer on low. I usually let it simmer until I'm just about done with the pancakes and then let it cool off for a few minutes


Pumpkin Pancakes:

Separate 2 eggs
Set aside the egg whites.

Add to the egg yolks

1 C milk
1/2 C pumpkin
2 Tbsp veggie oil

Mix well, then add:

1 C flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

After it is all mixed, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the pancake batter...This makes them very fluffy.

Then, just cook on a griddle.

Max's Silly Nap

Max is so silly. He is just starting to learn how to use his imagination. It is so funny some of the things he thinks of. Yesterday, I went down to check on the kids. They were supposed to be watching a movie, but it was so quiet. They never really do sit and watch movies...we have very active children. At first I didn't see Max and I slightly panicked wondering where he went when I realized that he was there all along. He made a little bed for himself out of the laundry basket. He was actually watching a movie, but when I decided to take a picture, he decided to close his eyes. I think he was teasing me, but he didn't want to open them back up. Silly kid!!

Melting Eyes and Reverence Tent

Bria woke up this morning, yawned, and said that her eyes were melting. Melting?, I said. Yes, mom, they are melting. See all the water coming out? Oh, I see!



Last night we read an article in the friend called the Reverence Tent. It is about a family making a tent to watch general conference the same way the Nephites watched King Benjamin speak from the tower in their tents. Bria couldn't even sleep last night with dreams of her own reverence tent. (I wish we would have found that article before General Conference.) First thing this morning, she got up, built her reverence tent/fort and asked me to help her write a sign to post on it...that way everyone will know to be reverent while inside the tent. I wonder if she knows what reverence means.....

Finally!!

Finally!! We got our blog up and going. I have wanted for months to get a blog going for our family, but it has never seemed to reach the top of our priority list! If I had realized how easy it is, then I probably would have just gotten it done. But, anyway, we are excited to be able to share pictures and updates from our little family. This is probably the perfect time to start since we just took new family pictures yesterday.

Our pictures turned out so good! Obviously we used our family picture for the blog header.

And then there is our darling Bria: She looked so cute yesterday. We only try to curl her hair about 2 times a year because it never seems to stay curled. But, at least we got this one on camera!

We can't forget about Max. He was very tired by the time we got the the picture taking and we didn't know if he could make it through. But, when we told him to say "cheese" that seemed to work. He said "cheese" "cheese" "cheese"...... for as long as we needed him to sit there. I must say, I realize now why photographers have kids say that. I really does make your mouth smile!

We took this candid picture of our kids on the swing. The sun was in there eyes. We took 10 pictures on the swing and this is the only one that both kids were actually looking at the camera.

All in all it was a pretty successful day. We didn't get hundreds of photos that we would have if we hired a professional, but it doesn't matter because the few we got turned out great! Now we just have to get prints for our walls.....