Many Halloweens

Having Halloween on Monday night means the partying started as early as Friday for us!!

My Work Party:
Our work Halloween party was on Friday 11/28.  It took lots of planning but it was the best one yet I thought.  We did decorating of the cubes/offices for kids to trick or treat at, a Halloween costume contest and lots of candy for sure.  David came and we both dressed up together (instead of me going along with the HR group, I just didn't feel like pretending to be buds I guess) and he and I went around and then finished my work for the day.  It was exhausting though that's for sure!

Tanya my cube buddy (our paralegal) was the Mad Hatter Johnny Depp version!

This was our HR conference room trick or treat area...

And us... we're the Where's Waldo and Wenda pair!!  Awe :)

And we found another one of us!

Carnival Downtown:
After my work party we headed downtown to visit Holly's school Halloween carnival.  We run around with the kids and try to help out where she wants us.  Then after we clean up and get to take home lots of candy.  Ah.  I was so exhausted from my work party though that I was barely there.  It was fun seeing the little siblings though.  Forgot the camera...

Our House Halloween Party:
After the carnival we came home and started getting ready for our Halloween party!  This year we decided to host our own Halloween party!  Actually our first party as "marrieds" so it was quite different from the normal roommate parties I had planned many of.  David did the sugar cookies while I started the cake for cake eyeballs.  We passed out for the night and then Saturday was the day of our home Halloween party.  We took all Saturday to get ready too.  I had planned lots of fun food and then also we would have games, music and a craft or so.  Kinda funny cuz in my past life parties were all about meeting people, so instead we had all ages at our party and wanted to keep them busy :)

 Isn't he just cute?!?!

 Here's my eyeballs...

 String Cheese and Green Pepper witch fingers...

 Cakeballs with frosting and a chocolate chip - so fun, lots of work though

 Mummy Hotdogs...

 Mummy Pizzas made by Shayla - who totally helped out a bunch, yay!

 Apple slice monsters with slivered almonds as teeth and then marshmallows for the eyes

 The rootbeer brewing...

 The craft - wood coffins to be painted and decorated

 And sugar cookie decorating too!

 Marlena & Tyrone and their cute new son!

 Megan & Jon & cute Elliot!

 Us & Shayla - she has the best costumes!

 Our nephew Super Sam, awe...

 More pics..

 Awe...the nerds...

 Jon, Melissa & Tiffany!

Our home decorations, at least the ones we did take pictures of...

Actual Halloween Trick or Treating:

Then finally came real Halloween!  I was pretty exhausted from Halloween at this point.  But also very excited to take the siblings around their home.  So David & I took them all around and then had dinner at the Clark's.  It was nice weather so that was just perfect.

Halloween this year was perfect!  We were able to check off most all of what we wanted to do and fit in lots of family and friends time too.  It will be nice to have a real home someday and have real parties where we can invite more and then decorate all around our home inside and out... we're excited even though it could be years down the road.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Carving Skills

We have mad pumpkin skills....  don't we?!?!

And the pumpkin seeds were A M A Z I N G :)

Pumpkin Picking

We just LOVE October.  I can't believe it's almost over :(  For the 3rd year in a row we picked pumpkins with the whole Clark family!  It was perfect weather and very fun to watch the kids choose their pumpkins.  We got our pumpkins on Oct 15th and just carved them this week (Oct 26th) and post will be up soon on that one.

The whole gang!

What ya got cookin??

I think I've posted food before, but hey, we do eat everyday right???  Here are a few things we've been cooking lately...

• Stuffed zucchini - This was a great recipe thanks to pinterest!  Especially since they are easily found and we had tons this summer...  This recipe has fresh diced tomatoes, garlic, onion, red potatoes and cheese all stuffed into the zucchini.  Yum!  We loved it.

• Zucchini bread - okay so we made enough of this to run out of sugar and flour, guess that was a lot!  I even did some freezing so we'll have some for later when the weather gets cool.  (Yeah cool... I'm totally in denial still)
• Steak & Potatoes - one of my favorite meals always.  But this time we used a grilling pan and it turned out very good still :)

• Cake Balls!!! - I don't have pictures, sadly, but our dear friend Shayla came and gave some good demonstrations.  We're excited for more "Cooking with Shayla" soon.
• Cookie Monster Cupcakes for our nephew Sam's 2nd birthday - he loves cookie monster so this was a hit!!!  Took me awhile to find those large white chips, but now I have a yearning to learn how to bake and frost it.  Yum!  Not going to help my figure....

So fun!! I'm getting good huh? I bought some frosting tips last weekend too so that's up next :)

Freezing Football

My dad and brother-in-law Justin flew into town for a quick trip to see the U of U vs. ASU football game on Oct 8th!  What a fun idea!!  So we joined them on their adventure.  They came a day early so we all could spend time together with grandma... somehow I missed those pictures though, sad.  We took grandma around the mall until she was "pooped" and wanted to go home, what a first!  I guess we wore her out.  We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse while watching the D-backs game on the screen.

We met up the next day and took the UTA Trax downtown to the Rice-Eccles Stadium.  It was my first time on the train as well as for our visitors!  Although, David takes it everyday.  It was a good idea so we didn't have to worry about the traffic (the ride back home was very scrunched but, it worked).

The game was FREEZING!!  So, the week before was like 80 degrees outside (I was in shorts) and now this week it hit down below freezing and highs of 40's in the daytime!  Weather is sketchy here but we were hoping the news was right (sunny) - which it wasn't.  I wasn't as prepared as I should be but it has been years since I was at a stadium.  It sprinkled on and off the whole game but we survived with hot dogs and hot chocolate!  We only had 2 official seats (and two standing) but we were lucky to have seats together most of the time.  I rooted for both teams, partial to the U for my hubby and to ASU for my childhood.  I think we all were just happy to be there.  ASU won and we quickly went back, grabbed grandma and headed out to dinner again.

It was a great weekend!  And very nice to have visitors come and spend time with us.  Let's do it again soon!!!

Blog Book!

I finally printed my very first BLOG BOOK!  And it came in the mail two weekends ago and I've been having fun looking over those first posts back in 2009.  It was the easiest thing ever so I think we'll be doing it again this way.  It basically just spits out the blog into a book format with small pictures throughout as they were posted.  Sweet!!  What a way to journal :)

This first book is just for my entries from 2009 - 2010 until marriage.  "My Journey So Far..." Blog Book.  I'm excited to keep doing these throughout the years.  I could have done a lot more in-depth book and format each page, etc, but this book looks pretty similar to the blog and I'm good with that.

Peanut Butter

So I have a confession.... I have absolutely LOVED peanut butter all my life.  I even scoop out a spoonful and just eat it right off the spoon if I can't ignore the craving.  The other day I realized how much peanut butter I've really been eating and it's made me sick!!

• Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Puffs - I've been eating these every day since January 2010.
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches - I've had this for lunch for the last 8-10 years (give a few days here and there for bagels or tuna or something...)
• Peanut Butter & Honey in a tortilla - When I get hungry in-between dinner and bed I usually bust out this as a little snack!

If I eat the above almost every day that's like 3 meals - - - I'm getting way too much peanut butter!!!  And besides the above I also love peanut butter cookies, desserts, granola bars or even pb ice cream!!

Well, now I'm not eating any peanut butter.  I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier!  I feel sick every time I think of eating any of these snacks.  And I can't believe I'm sharing this with the world.  Doesn't it just make you feel a bit rolly?  Here's to a new peanut butter "free" me - a little healthier too.  Not sure how long this will last but I'm sure my insides are happy.

NOTE: I do eat fruits and veggies and take a daily vitamin so don't worry about my eating habits too much :)