Halloween Party

We all went to a Halloween party at our church Saturday night. It was really fun to get the girls dressed up. They were so excited. Joe and I even dressed up, although we threw our costumes together last minute.

Our little ladybug and our "butterfly ballerina"

The bug family: butterfly, fly, ladybug, spider (in case you're wondering, that's a fly swatter on Joe's head--most people didn't get it :). It doesn't look like it, but the girls were having a good time.

Playing some games

This is a good shot of the wings

Daddy and Natalie

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

Last week, we took a trip out to a local pumpkin patch with some friends. The girls and I had a lot fun. We even got to go on a little train ride, although I didn't get any pictures of the train.

Beautiful Lizzie

This was my favorite area at the place. It was a big grassy area surrounded by trees with golden leaves falling down constantly.

Everyone had fun climbing the big tower of hay bales.Big brave Natalie standing on the top. I was getting nervous but she lived. :)

Natalie and her friend Lucy running into the maze.

The kids all loved finding this caterpillar.

Elizabeth was in heaven picking a whole bouquet of wild flowers and making wishes on the "wishies" as we call them. (I don't know the real name--maybe someone can educate me :)

Getting pulled along in the rusty wagon

All the kids together, minus a few that came later and some little babies

Enjoying a pumpkin cookie among the pumpkins

Giving Mommy the obligatory cheesy smile

Princess Mania and Fall Fun

Wow, I've been on a blogging roll lately...

At a family gathering over Conference weekend, my girls received the gift of a lifetime: their older cousin Hannah gave them all of her old princess dresses/costumes.

This is them within minutes of arriving home:

The looks on their faces say it all. Thank you Hannah (and Katie) for the wonderful gift!

We made these little guys yesterday.
I thought they turned out pretty cute. It was easy and fun. I always feel crafty when I whip out my glue gun. :)

Also, I'll record a funny thing that just happened as I was putting the girls to bed. I was singing "Love at Home" to them when all of the sudden, Elizabeth says, "There's no love in this house!"

Luckily she was kidding and proceeded to say that she loved Daddy, Mommy and Natalie.

That kid cracks me up.

Tried and True Recipes

I thought this was a fun and useful tag from my friend Katy. Please do it, too, so I can have new recipes!

Dinner recipe:
We love this recipe because (1) it's a family recipe, (2) it's delicious and my whole family loves it, (3) I get tired of eating chicken and beef all of the time, and (4) it's really easy to make and I always have the ingredients on hand.

Barbecued Pork Chops
4-6 pork loin chops (I like center-cut bone in, but you can use any kind)
1/2 onion, sliced into rings (white or yellow)
3/4 c. ketchup
1/2 c. water
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Mix all except pork and onions in a medium saucepan over med-low heat and simmer. Lay chops in a 13x9 pan and top with sliced onions. Pour sauce over the top and cover pan with foil. Cook at 200-250 for 5-6 hours. It can be cooked faster (say like 300 for 2ish hours) but the meat is more tender when it is cooked slower. Serve over rice using the extra drippings from the pan, too.

Fall/Festive recipe:
I found this recipe in a slow cooker cook book a few years ago and have made it many times since then. If you are a roast and mashed potatoes family, try this recipe. I am a gravy fanatic and the cinnamon makes this gravy and meat taste so yummy.

Spiced Beef Brisket
1 3 1/2 - 4 lb fresh beef brisket (I usually get beef chuck roasts)
2 c. water
1/4 c. ketchup
1 env. onion soup mix
2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. pepper
extra water and flour for the gravy

Place beef in a slow cooker, cutting to fit if necessary. In a bowl combine ingredients and then pour over brisket. Cook on low heat for 10-11 hours or on high heat for 5-5 1/2 hours (my crockpot cooks a lot faster than this so you may have to watch it).

To make the gravy, save the drippings from the brisket and skim fat. Pour into a saucepan on med-low heat. I put some flour and water in a jar or tupperware container and shake until it's mixed and forms a thick liquid. Pour this slowly into the saucepan while whisking to prevent lumps. Then, I usually add some of the water from the boiled potatoes (for some extra flavor) to thin the gravy back to the right consistency. This paragraph probably doesn't make sense. I only know how to make gravy from watching my mom and I obviously can't explain it well. :)

Les Miserables

I just finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and I absolutely loved it. Sure it was long and there were times when I wanted to take a break and read something else but I persevered and I'm glad I did. It really is true that because of all of the background information and detailed character description, by the end of the book you feel like you really know the characters. I love reading classics because so many of them have such moral messages. I love books that are uplifting, hopeful, powerfully written, and that also keep you interested. There were so many excellent quotes in this book and I wanted to write down some of my favorites.

"Have no fear of robbers or murderers. Such dangers are without, and are but petty. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murderers. The great dangers are within us. What matters it what threatens our heads or our purses? Let us think only of what threatens our souls." (Fantine, Book 1, Ch. 7)

"Mothers' arms are made of tenderness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein." (Fantine, Book 4, Ch. 1)

"The child opened its large blue eyes, like its mother's, and saw--what? Nothing, everything, with that serious and sometimes severe air of little children, which is one of the mysteries of their shining innocence before our shadowy virtues. One would say that they felt themselves to be angels, and knew us to be humans." (Fantine, Book 4, Ch. 1)

"Love partakes of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it, it is a divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a point of fire which is within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can limit and which nothing can extinguish. We feel it burn even in the marrow of our bones, and we see it radiate even to the depths of the sky." (Saint-Denis, Book 5, Ch. 4)

I loved this next one, due to my own incredibly short courtship with Joe (*Cough*...six weeks).

"There is a God for these drunkards who are called lovers. Blind, Marius had followed the route which he would have chosen had he seen clearly. Love had bandaged his eyes, to lead him where? To Paradise." (Jean Valjean, Book 7, Ch. 2)

"We are never done with conscience...It is bottomless, being God. We cast into this pit the labour of our whole life, we cast in our fortune, we cast in our riches, we cast in our success, we cast in our liberty or our country, we cast in our well-being, we cast in our peace of mind, we cast in our happiness. More! more! more! Empty the vase! turn out the urn! We must at last cast in our heart." (Jean Valjean, Book 6, Ch. 4)

"The book which the reader has now before his eyes is, from one end to the other, in its whole and in its details, whatever may be the intermissions, the exceptions, or the defaults, the march from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end." (Jean Valjean, Book 1, Ch. 20)

Read this book if you haven't already! Now, I really want to see the show again. Someday...

Funny Sayings

(I keep editing this post because I think of new things they say)

Well, I didn't want to leave a negative post up for long and I've been meaning to record some of the things my kids say that I love so here goes:

Elizabeth (She is at the stage where I am clinging to words that she says incorrectly since she is already speaking too well; I seriously get mad at Joe when he tries to correct certain things she says)

-"Tangerang": This is her made up word that she uses all the time. It's mostly when I ask her what something is that she has drawn.
-"Especially": I love how she uses this word. She'll uses it all the time, saying things like "Especially, I love my dad", or "Especially, my sister is playing with her dolly".
-"Dance-stein Bears": This is how she pronounces "Berenstain".
-"I really love you, Mommy": enough said.
-"I never saw that before": She always says this about things she likes even though most of them time she has seen it before.
-"Remember yesterday when....": This is her preface to any memory she has from her past, whether it was actually yesterday or 2 years ago.
-"Smarshmallow": Her prounciation of "marshmallow". It makes me smile.
-"Vair-vy": This is phasing out a little bit but this is how she says "very". The extra v is subtle but it's there. I actually started saying it that way, too, after she did and now I have a hard time stopping.
-"Thumb-toe": This is her name for her big toe. :)

Natalie

-"Cry-neen" (crying): She loves to bring me her doll and say in a sad, quiet voice, "Oh, baby cry-neen". Then she gives her doll loves until the baby is happy. It's so cute.
-"See you later", "Be safe": She loves to say this to Daddy when he leaves in the morning.
-"Nope": Elizabeth loves to play "I Spy" so we play it frequently. When it's Natalie's turn she picks a color and then says "nope" to pretty much everything we guess. It's really funny.
-"I did it!": I love to see her proud of something she's done and announcing this.
-"Hold you-me!": "Hold you" has turned into this which is even cuter. You can't help but pick her up.
-"Go get it": Natalie will ask where someone is like Daddy or Lizzie and when I tell her she'll say this, meaning, let's go get that person.
-"I sorry, Mama": She says this whenever I injure myself somehow and she won't stop saying it until I say "I'm OK, Natalie".

Also, we had this funny exchange at lunchtime a couple days ago:

Natalie: I poopy!
Me: Yeah, I smell it.
Lizzie: I smell it, too.
Natalie: I smell it, three!

Beware: Political Post

So we just watched most of the debate tonight and I must say I am frustrated. I really love political debate but I feel like I'm wading through so much garbage just to figure out what the stances of the candidates actually are. Even then you wonder if they are just saying anything to get votes or actually being honest. I really don't like the commentary after the debate. What is the point of bringing out Mitt Romney and Hilary Clinton to talk about the debate? Would either one of them ever admit that the candidate from their party performed anything other than flawlessly? Of course not! So why bother with their biased opinions? I didn't mind the focus group of undecided voters NBC had to talk about the debate but of course they only gave them enough time for a few one-liners and there was no actual discussion. Anyway, without going into my personal political views, these are some beefs I have with both parties:

-Why is 75% of the debate "this is how my opponent feels on this issue according to this out-of-context quote from them that I have memorized"? It's fine to cite your opponent's voting record and point out areas of disagreement with their stance but I really wish they would just focus on what they plan to do and how they feel on an issue. Why can't they just speak for themselves?
-Why is Sarah Palin labeled inexperienced but Barack Obama is innovative, and non-establishment?
-If I hear McCain say "without pre-conditions" (in reference to Obama's diplomacy strategy) one more time, I may scream. It's semantics, John!
-Can Hilary Clinton get anymore arrogant? She said tonight, essentially, that the Democrats fix the economy and Republicans mess everything up. Oh please. Way to reach across the aisle, Hilary!
-Can we never be rid of this "I'm perfectly right and you're dead wrong" mentality in politics? Is no one unbiased and humble enough to actually figure out what works and what doesn't when it comes to health care, education, the economy, etc.?

I could go on and on. Sorry for the rant. Although I do enjoy the excitement of a presidential election, especially the debates, I will be really glad when it's November 5th....

More Prop. 8

I just wanted to let everyone know about a blog my sister started with some arguments in favor of Proposition 8. She's an excellent writer so please visit it if you're interested. There's a link to her site, called "Why Prop. 8 Matters" under my family links. Only a couple of weeks left until the vote!

New Stuff

You may have noticed that after a year of blogging, I have finally changed my background. Every time I'd think about doing it I'd either get lazy or I'd think self-importantly, "The background of my blog isn't important; it's the content that matters!" Anyway, I do like my new background and it was surprisingly easy to do. Let's just hope I don't still have a fall background in April. :)

We've been sick for the last week so not much has happened although I do want to post some random pictures I had on my camera.

I found Natalie on the piano dressed like this the other day. She was wearing her fairy skirt, Lizzie's old sun hat and was playing while singing, "La-di-da-di-da". That's her friend Aliyah in the background wondering what on earth is going on, probably.

She's a born performer!

We went to a farmer's market a couple weeks ago and Elizabeth begged me to buy some radishes. She has been noticing radishes in various books and other places and kept talking about how we needed to buy some. So, I consented since they were 40 cents and we bought a bunch of them. She wanted to eat them that very day for lunch. I tried to persuade her to eat them with some salad dressing or something but she wouldn't hear of it.

Here's my little rabbit

She made it through about half of the radishes pictured until she decided that radishes are "a little bit yucky and spicy". I tried to tell her that they were better eaten with other things but she was done at that point. So now we have a bunch of radishes that I keep forgetting to put in a salad so we can get rid of them.

This picture says it all: Go Cougars!!

Another funny thing that Elizabeth's been doing lately is occasionally writing her name backwards. I guess when a child doesn't have a firm understanding of always writing left to right, letters are pretty reversible to them. It's kind of amazing to watch because she just proceeds to write her name without even thinking about it, completely backwards. If I tried to do that it would take me quite a bit of thought. Sometimes, she'll start going left to right until she hits the end of the page and then finish right to left below it. I've been trying to get a good picture of that but she always draws over it too quickly. Hopefully this is normal. Here are some samples of Htebazile's work.

This is her name out of dominoes, backwards