World of Dance

Paul is taking Humanities this semester. There are several events that he has to attend and write papers about. The first one was World of Dance. We were planning in making a date night out of it. We called his parents to see if they could watch the kids and they were busy. When Paul told them what we were trying to do they said they had four tickets for the show that they couldn't use. They gave them all to us and it ended up being a family event. The kids were totally excited to go. I love that they love these sorts of things.

The performance had ballet, folk, contemporary, and ballroom numbers. Some were great some were slow and some numbers were just...crazy. One of the ballroom numbers used blow-up dolls and Razor scooters. I never, ever thought my kids would learn about blow-up dolls at BYU. It lasted about an hour and a half.

It ended with a group number to Glee's version of Safety Dance. We all loved that number. When we got close to the car the kids said "I feel like jumping and dancing!" I grabbed my camera and said let's do it! We had a ton of fun getting action shots.

People walking by were looking at us like we were nuts but we were having fun and didn't care.

Ready, set,

Jump!

Paul and I will get to go to the Utah Symphony, the Museum of Art, Romeo and Juliet and a foreign film this semester. I am loving Humanities!

School Carnival

Friday night was the fundraising carnival held by Andrew's school. (It still hurts to type that. I will always think of it as their school. At times I forget Emma isn't there any more. Sad.) 

Friday was a bad day for me. I didn't feel real well (feminine issues) I had gone to lunch with Paul that afternoon. When I got home there was a message from Andrew that he had forgotten his lunch. No son, I never made you a lunch. I went into a panic. When Andrew doesn't eat bad things happen. I started to make him a lunch to take to the school but my bread was all frozen. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off full of mommy guilt. I decided to just go and get him from school. I went and checked him out, brought him home and fed him. I felt so dang bad then he reminded me that he didn't have breakfast either. I wanted to cry. 

Once he ate all was right in the world and it was time to go to the school to play. It was hot but we still had a good turn-out. I forgot my camera so all of these pictures were taken with my phone. 

I hung out with Maggie at the Watering Hole where we sold soda's and popcorn. Andrew got his hair colored and he also played with water balloons, launched rockets, and broke a board at the Karate booth. Emma even got in on the action. All week she had said she didn't want to go back because she was in Jr. High now. Once she started seeing her friends there she changed her tune. She even got to go home with one friend for a late night. I think she's glad she went. 

There were a ton of other activities but I didn't get around to check them all out. Both kids had fun and I think the carnival was a fundraising success. 

Is it Halloween Yet?

All the stores are setting up their Halloween displays and I just keep getting more and more excited. The kids' costumes have been chosen. We are doing the Angel and Devil/Demon thing this year. The kids wanted to wear that last year but then we switched when my pirate costume didn't fit me. (Grumble grumble) We are still trying to convince Paul that he wants to dress up. So far he has not been convinced.

I still need to get some white sparkly make-up for Emma and horns and make-up for Andrew (If he will let me put make-up on him this year) but otherwise we are set. I am glad to have the costumes figured out.

Maggie and I were talking about costumes and she told me that she had bought Olivia a gypsy costume. A day or two later I put on a necklace that is brass with a lot of circles that dangle off of it. It makes a lot of noise and reminds me of a gypsy. I thought, hey I could do that rather inexpensively. So I went online and found my inspiration. It will be a dross between these two costumes.

I asked Maggie if she minded me taking her idea. She looked at me like I was crazy and said she didn't mind at all. I was so relieved.

I am using a peasant shirt I already have (I can't do an off the shoulder thing at Andrew's school), a long skirt I've had for years, jewelry I already have and boots I already have. Last Friday I went and bought some fabric that I will tie around my waist. I am set. It will be nice to not have a wig or giant headpiece this year. Also my make-up with be pretty normal. It will be heavy but I shouldn't have to use any of the nasty, sticky Halloween make-up.

I'm so excited that I even digi-scrapped a page from last years pictures. I used and altered a 2 Many Photos template from Janet Phillips and the kit is Bewitching by Kristin Cronin-Barrow.
 

What we did last week...

Last Sunday, the 12th, we had a regional conference. Paul and I went to the broadcast while the kids stayed home. It was nice to have a break from the norm. Everyone in our area was invited to attend. (Just making note of this for my own records.)

That evening we were invited to Paul's sister's home to celebrate Nancy's birthday. We got to have a nice family dinner followed by birthday cookie (that Nancy made for herself!)

It was funny, my sister-in-law had a bag of candles but no 7 so we had "math candles". You had to add up the last two numbers to get her age.

Here are the girls making a plus sign between the numbers.

Grandma didn't want to crush the cookies so we didn't put the candles in it. 

After we had our cookie and Tillamook ice cream (YUM!!!) the kids played with photo-booth. They were howling with laughter and making a ton of noise. Grandma Fern was wondering what was going on they brought the laptop over to show her. They even morphed grandma! It was fun watching the generations marvel over technology together. 

I think this will be a memory that my kids will keep of their great-grandma forever. 

September 13th was a tough day for baby girl. They watched movies about 9/11 in English class. 

I don't know if it was because the tragedy of 9/11 is something that we talk about as a family because her dad lived in New York as a kid or if it was just hormones but it really effected her. 

Her emotions got the better of her and she started crying. She was the only one and felt very self-conscious about it. I think it's sweet. It shows she can grasp the seriousness of those tragic events. It shows that she gets it, but for her it was just embarrassing. 

Emma gets home almost an hour before Andrew. I have really enjoyed my time alone with her after school. I get to listen to her tell me about her day. When she told me what happened she started crying again. I felt so bad for her. 

She's been wanting to do something different with her hair for years and I had been warming up to the idea. I even had some NON-PERMANENT dye that we had bought but I was too scared to use. I thought it would be a good time to use it. So we colored her hair. It came out a little darker and a little redder but nothing overly dramatic. 

That night I tried another new recipe. A fellow blogger and a friend that I grew up with, Sally, posted this recipe a while ago. In the comments I said it sounded like something I would enjoy and my family probably wouldn't. I was right. Paul ate it but the kids didn't. We had enough sides with rice, beans and guacamole that no one starved but I doubt I will be making them again. It's sad that my family is so picky. If you like Bajio food or even the sweeter mole' you may like these. They have that sweet twang.

Here is the recipe as taken straight from Sally's blog. 

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 Tbs. Honey
5 Tbs. Lime Juice
1 Tbs. Chili Powder
½ tsp. Garlic Powder


1 lb. Chicken (cooked & shredded)
8-10 Flour Tortillas
1 lb. Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded
16 oz. Green Enchilada Sauce
1 Cup Heavy Cream

Mix the first 4 ingredients and toss with shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least ½ hour, ( I toss mine in a zip lock in the morning and let it sit in the refrigerator all day). Pour about ½ cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Fill four tortillas with chicken and cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on the top of enchiladas. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

  

Guacamole is a family favorite these days. I'm getting pretty dang good at making it. 

We've had some pretty sunsets last week. These were taken on the 14th. 

It amazing how colors change minute to minute.

Andrew has a new obsession, silly bands. He has spent a ton of his allowance on these things. Whatever! 

This past week the leaves really started to change on the mountains. This was the 15th. We got some HOT weather (low 90's for the last several days) and it looks like they are already withering away. We are going to try our family pictures Monday night. Wish us luck. I'm crossing my fingers that there are still leaves in the canyon. I wish this time could last longer.

Wednesday night we drove to Provo. The leaves were even more vibrant down there. 

This is a map of where we will be spending a bunch of time next summer. 

City Deals was doing an awesome deal on the Pass of all Passes. We can go to Seven Peaks, both Trafalga's, Owlz games and Flash games for the next year as much as we want until Nov. 2011. Be prepared to see lots of mini-golf pictures in the next year. 

 

On the way home I asked if we could stop by the temple. The sun was setting and everything had a warm golden glow. I am not happy with most of these though. I felt rushed since Andrew and Paul were waiting in the car. I couldn't really walk around to check angles and stuff. I had never been on these temple grounds before so I just took the "safe" shots. Straight on, snooze, boring. That's me though. I'm very comfortably in the box. The flowers were amazing. I would love to go back and try again but I don't think I will have another chance with the leaves this year. 

Thursday night we did nothing and Friday and Saturday nights will get their own posts. I have to go help  with dinner. 

Picture Day ~ One Down, One to Go

There is so much hate out there for school pictures. I find them charming. They have been around since the beginning of time. I love the tradition of them. I love the plain pose and the boring background. Every year I hear parents that say they won't pay for school pictures, they'll just take their own. The new style of candid, bright, casual, outdoor photography is great too but I will never give up the school photos. I really truly love them.

Normally we have pretty good luck but there was the one year when this happened.

That was her second grade photo. I opened the envelope containing all the photos and almost cried. It was scary. It was like I was eye to eye with an angry dog. 

 

I asked what she was thinking and she didn't have an answer. I mean she was seven. That picture was like a sticky booger. We couldn't get rid of it. It was on every report card. It was in the 2nd grade yearbook. Heck she even made me a Christmas ornament with that photo glued onto it. For the record I'm pretty sure that ornament is no longer in our collection. 

Ever since then she has had lovely school photos. (Thank goodness) I have two frames in my living room where I proudly display the kids photos.

I'm happy to say that this years picture turned out pretty well. I will be pleased to hang it on my wall and I won't mind looking at it for the next year. 

  

So here you go grandmas, this is what you'll be getting soon. 

Andrew's picture are taken the first week of October. Cross your fingers that he will smile well, that eyes will be opened and that I won't be able to count each and every tooth in his mouth. 

Emma just saw this post and said "you're so mean!!!" 

Another Memory Card Dump and some Randomness

Here are some random shots. I think it's a bit worrisome how many are about food. I have hurt my shoulder so beside the occasional walk I'm not exercising either. Bad combination. Really bad. 

To be honest this is from a month or so ago. The kids and I were heading down the hill and we saw this in one of the churches parking lots. We've seen him a few times LOL! Pretty clever if you ask me. I do hope he's on his lunch though. 

I am slightly obsessed with sweet potato fries from Purple Turtle. At first I was like "that's just wrong" but then they grew on me. Even Emma eats them. 

This past week the weather was really fall like. I made soup twice. This is the Southwest Soup 

and the other night it was potato leek soup. I got the Southwest Soup recipe from my SIL. Over the years I have tweaked it a bit. I hope she doesn't mind. 

Here is the original recipe if you are interested.

Southwest Soup

16 ounces tomato sauce

2 cans (14 ounces) chicken broth

1 large tomato diced

1 large green pepper diced

1 large purple onion diced

1/4 teaspoon thyme

Dash of Tabasco sauce

2 tablespoons dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper

Combine all ingredients and simmer 20 minutes. Serve over crushed tortilla chips and top with grated cheese. 

My Substitutions- I like to boil two chicken breasts while the vegetables are simmering then shred the cooked chicken into the soup. I have also added black beans, corn and used avocado as a topping. 

I know I have posted this before but I think that was on the other blog. This is like a heart-attack in a blow. I love to eat it with a crusty sourdough bread. YUM! 

It was so nice to have cooler weather and to eat soup again. We are starting to see leaves change on the mountains. I love fall! 

On September 1st Kneaders started selling pumpkin bread again. I think we have had three loaves so far, maybe four. Who's counting?

I took this last night. I am pretty sure that is Venus. I loved the sliver of moon too. I was too worried I would miss the moment if I went and got my tri-pod so these are dark and a little fuzzy.  

What good is a cat if you can't dress him up? Poor Marius. 

I don't want to brag or anything but look what came out of our garden today. It was so excited for all of us to get enough corn for a meal.

I'm a proud momma.

It didn't take us long to put the squash and corn to good use. We ate it tonight with beef kabobs.

It was really really good!

I'm still obsessing over Tillamook. 

When we were in Oregon last fall we drove to Tillamook and got to experience their ice cream. Oh my heavenly goodness. It was so smooth and creamy. I have been following Tillamook on Facebook and there were several people pleading for the ice cream to come to Utah. Someone posted that you can find it at WinCo. 

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!?! 

How did I not know this? We went today and sure enough they carry it. I literally did a happy dance in the isle. Andrew said "mom, did you just dance a little?" "Yes son, I sure did." Tonight I had a dainty little cup of Tillamook Mudslide. It was as good as I remembered it.

Last weekend in Roy at the Loaf Love Tour they gave us a lot of $1 off coupons for cheese. The cheese was on a ridiculously good sale at Macey's this week. I used my coupons and got all this cheese. Luckily we have a long time before it expires. 

Isn't it lovely?

Can you believe it has been almost a year since we were at Disneyland? I am so ready to go back. The kids are so ready. Paul? Not so ready. I know this is a really bad/busy time of year and that helps ease the pain but knowing that we have no plans to go back at all makes it hard. 

Andrew even got emotional when he saw these pictures. 

Last but not least, it's football season again. We did not get BYU tickets this year. Their schedule was bad and last year it was just too much with the kids. It was too long of a day, it was too many weekends, the weather was too extreme, you get the idea. They (mostly Andrew) got bored, they got cold, they wanted tons of treats, tons of snacks (you can't bring anything in, legally) and a lot of times they were just plain 'ol annoying. 

We just didn't want to deal with it all again but now that the season is upon us we are really missing it, especially these.

Last year we sat next to this guy. We knew we were in the right place if we could see "Extreme Comb-Over Dude"

We will miss all the great fans. We made friends with Megan (On the left) She borrowed my Snuggie when it was cold. It was the least I could do. She was always really great with the kids. We are now Facebook friends. 

Of course there are some things we won't miss. We were lucky enough to sit next to this last year. Emma leaned over to me and said "mom, aren't those for sex?" Bwahahahaha! Try keeping your eight year old boys eyes off of that! 

Today the Cougars got beat, bad. Hopefully things will look up next week. Hopefully we (As in Paul and I) can scrounge up a couple of tickets for a game.