Pumpkin Pie!

Last year I had the pleasure of learning how to make homemade pumpkin pie (crust and all!) from my wonderful Aunt Donna! She walked me through the whole process and we had a great time! I think we made about 20 pies last year! It was crazy! And although I was in the midst of it, I didn't really feel like I made them.

Well, this year my mother-in-law called and asked if I would be in charge of anything pumpkin. I could make pies or cookies or whatever I wanted, but it had to be pumpkin. I jumped on the opportunity! I wanted to show off my "baking skills" with some homemade pumpkin pie!

So last night I got to work! I was really nervous because my oven is pretty temperamental and doesn't like to cook things thoroughly. It has a tendency to burn the top and leave the bottom "raw". Not good for cookies or pies! But I wanted to try it myself!

So I messed with it a bit and first made a couple of pumpkin rolls. They turned out beautifully! And if the pies failed at least I'd have some yummy pumpkin rolls.

Well guess what?? My pies turned out perfect! I made an extra one so that Shawn could try it out first. (I'd hate to bring a nasty pie to Thanksgiving dinner!) I am so happy! So now I have pies for Thanksgiving at the in-laws and pies for the day after at my parents!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Thanksgiving is always a good time to remember what you have to be thankful for. Traditionally, my family sits around the table and one by one list something that we are thankful for. This usually turns into a tear-fest. And every year I realize how I have taken for granted the blessings in my life. Especially, the people who are dearest to me.

So I guess this is my way of saying, "Thank you! I love you! And I am so grateful to have you in my life."

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pretties

My sweet little CC girl is very much into "pretties"! She is always decorating herself with different necklaces and bracelets. She even wants hats and crowns. Anything that makes her look "pretty"! It is so cute! And I love to hear her say "pretties" in her pretty little voice! I just want to eat her!




Here she is sporting her new bracelet earrings!

And of course, here is her cheesy little "camera" grin!

What happens when...

Justin is on a new kick. Multiple times a day he asks the same question. "What happens when you swallow _______ ?" You can fill in the blank with anything. And I mean ANYTHING! It is the weirdest thing. It ranges from dirt to fuzz off of a blanket. Or a bead from a necklace. Name it and he has probably asked.

I am uncertain how to respond any more. It is getting very annoying. Mostly because I don't want him to eat anything that isn't food. I didn't realize that was a difficult concept.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Twilight

I wrote my thoughts about the movie and the experience on my OCD page, but I wanted to share with you some of the pics. Most of our pics are on my digital camera so I can't transfer them here, but here are a few from my phone.

Here are my red eyes. Sadly, you can't really see the make-up but it was pretty cool! I caught people secretly taking pictures of me. So I was flattered that it looked so good!


And here are the pics from Hot Topic. LOL

Holiday Spirit

I know it's a little bit early, but I just can't contain it any longer!

I am so excited for the holidays! I absolutely love this time of year!
I love seeing all of the pretty lights on the roof tops as I drive down the street! I love listening to the ding dong of the bells in the music! And I absolutely positively love the smells of the goodies baking in the kitchen! I love it almost as much as I love to taste it!

So in honor of the season, I am dressing up my blog a bit early! If the stores can do it...so can I!!

Love ya and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

What a great weekend!

We had a lot of fun this weekend! And the kids were very excited because they were able to play with all of their cousins!

Saturday, Jenn and I took our kids to see High School Musical 3! It was a lot of fun! It was over the top cheesy with tons of cool dancing...exactly what you expect from HSM. (My favorite part was The Boys Are Back! So cute!)

After that we came back to my place to play and was soon joined by Hailee and Tyler who were spending the night. So my house was packed with jumping, screaming, playing kids. It was great! At one point we were listening to my HSM CD (courtesy of Jenn) and everyone was dancing. Darrien has some killer moves! I pulled out my phone and got a few of them. The quality is rough and it is really dark, but I think you get the idea.



PS- The "spotlight" is courtesy of Justin. LOL

Justin wants a hair cut

The other day I was talking with Justin and I commented on how long his hair is getting. And for those that know me, (which better be all of you or I'm going to have to delete this blog again. hehe) you know that I do not cut his hair. I shave it. It's easy and he actually looks really cute with a little fuzzy head!

His dad said we'll shave it after his birthday pictures. I would prefer to do it before, but I agreed and commented that you can really see the pretty red in his hair when it gets longer. And that was the end of the conversation.

Later that evening Justin tells me he wants me to shave his head. I told him I will do it after his pictures. He gets persistent. He wants it shaved now.

I can't do it right now. I am in the middle of dinner and chores. So I try to make a deal with him to do it this weekend.

He starts crying.

"What's the matter, Baby?"
"I don't want red hair."

That broke my heart! I love his hair! I replayed the conversation from earlier back in my head and I do not believe I had put a negative connotation on his red hair. I think it is a beautiful color! Infact, I am quite jealous of it!

I still didn't have time to shave it right then and there. I tried explaining to him how wonderful his hair is and how much I love it. But that wasn't working. I was telling him all of the amazing colors that are in his hair! He's got a little bit of red, and gold, and brown...
He starts calming down at brown.
"My hair is brown?"

That was the key! "Yes, Buddy."

And then he was ok.

The next day I was making some cream cheese pies for work (yum yum) and the kids were all too anxious to help me clean the bowls! Of course they got cream cheese and pudding all over their faces and in their hair. We cleaned up the best we could.

Well, apparently we missed a spot. Justin had some cream cheese that had dried in his hair. He comes running to me screaming about how he just wants to shave his head! I finally got him to just jump in the shower and we washed it all out of his hair, but I just don't understand why he's so sensitive about his hair all of the sudden!

So I think we are definitely going to shave it this weekend. There is no point in making him suffer even if I don't agree with his reasoning.

My first Twilight T-Shirt

I wanted to play around with making some fun shirts for my Twilight premiere. Since I've never done this before, I decided to make a test shirt first. And instead of wasting it, I would just give it to Katie. She was very excited about that!

So here it is...













I definitely need to work on getting the letters aligned. And I do not like the "L"s at all. Or the "I"s for that matter. They both look the same but one is smaller than the other and they both look like "J"s to me. But I think you get the idea.

And here is the back.













Fun, huh??

Bet On It!

So my kids and I have finally been introduced to High School Musical!

With all of the hype about the 3rd one, Katie talks about it all of the time. I assume because her friends are talking about it at school because we've never seen it.

I watched the first one a couple weekends ago at Jenn's. I thought it was pretty hokey and cheesy, but ok. So we borrowed the 2nd one to watch at home.

I finally got around to putting that in the other night. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it! It was the same cheesiness as the first, but I couldn't help get hooked into the songs.

And now my kids are huge HSM fans! Even Justin loves it! He makes me play "Bet on it" over and over again while he sings and dances around the room! It is so cute! I wish he'd let me video him! It is a riot!

And I caught Katie doing the same thing the other day. She stuck it in and was copying the dancing for "What time is it" when I saw her close the curtain over the sliding glass door because she noticed her Daddy was outside mowing the lawn. Apparently, she didn't want an audience.

It was too cute!

So...are we going to go see HSM3!?!
Bet on it!!