How ‘bout them apples?

This month has been kinda crazy for us. Between putting together Halloween costumes and having something going on with family almost every weekend, we haven’t had too much time to spend as just the three of us. But yesterday we had time to do just that. And it was so nice!

We made our first trip over to Larriland Farms. It’s a really neat pick-your-own place. It was so cool! Apples are in season, so that was mainly what we went to pick. We got the little man alllll bundled up (it was in the low 50s and windy!) and we were on a mission to pick granny smith apples.
“Nathan! Look at ALLLLL the apples!!”
There were so many apples! We were really impressed by the abundance. There was no scavenging for apples, they were all over the place!

We ended up with about 9lbs of apples. Don’t worry. We had grand plans for those apples.

Since they were right across from the apple orchards, we decided to check out the broccoli crops and came away with two HUGE heads of broccoli.

Too fun! We also drove about a mile north to the pumpkins and picked out pumpkins for Nathan’s first Halloween ;) (though I don’t think we have any idea how we are going to decorate them. John says he’ll leave that up to me and my dear friend Pinterest. ha!)
Seriously, is he not the cutest ever?!

We had some very tasty broccoli with dinner that night and for our date night we made…(drum roll)…

 

CARAMEL APPLES!

 

Told you we had grand plans.

 

(Okay, so even after making a bunch, we still had like 10 apples leftover…but they are pretty tasty on their own!)

We used THIS recipe and it. was. amazing. I may have had horrible flashbacks of when I burned my face with lava hot caramel back when I was a pastry intern. But I got through it burn free!

We got everything set up while the caramel was cooling to the perfect dipping temperature.
We had lots of yummy toppings! I was particularly excited about the toffee bits. John was particularly excited about the crushed Oreos.
We had to work pretty quickly once the caramel came to temperature. It got really thick there at the end and it took a while for all the excess to come off. But we ended up with some leftover to dip apple slices in. Guess what all my snacks are going to be. Here they are, all dipped and yummy! (Sorry for the bad lighting…nighttime…artificial lighting…ick…)
Getting our chocolate drizzles ready!
One of John’s apples had a minor problem with the white chocolate not sticking to the Oreo crumbs… ;) It still tasted good though.
Don’t they just look delicious?! So long Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! We don’t need you anymore! ;)
Yum!

We so have to do this again…

Halloween 2013: It’s a Jolly Holiday

So I know I already put the pictures up on facebook, but our costumes need to be immortalized on the blog as well ;) And I’ll tell you how I made them too!

We actually decided on our costumes last month, which is a good thing, because I’m not gonna lie, these were a lot of work, and my progress came in spurts with a crazy napper little man.

Nathan was the cutest penguin EVER (if not the most excited…) and I used the tutorial found HERE and resized it to fit my 5 1/2 month old (hers was for her 9 month old). It was super easy and relatively quick to put together. I managed to get it done in a day – but that was because my in-laws were visiting and Grandma could keep the little man occupied while I sewed! ;) Thanks again Grandma!

John’s Bert costume was also pretty easy. John went and found a khaki colored suit jacket at the thrift store for like $8 or something and I painted the stripes on. I just used painters and masking tape to get the stripes (relatively) straight. His bow tie was made using the tutorial HERE (can you tell I love her stuff?!) and we just folded up the leftover fabric for the pocket square (though I don’t think Bert has a pocket square in the movie…I just thought it looked nice). His cane was put together by my father-in-law when they were in town. I had purchased an old umbrella at the thrift store, because it had a sweet curve-shaped handle. My father-in-law detached the handle from the umbrella (he sawed it off), bought a dowel with a similar thickness, and attached the two using a peg and wood glue. John stained it later and it ended up being pretty close to the color of the handle. John wore a white button up shirt under the jacket and some white pants. I also scored some white shoes at the thrift store to complete the look. I love our thrift store!

Bert is also supposed to have a hat. I ordered a sweet boater’s hat at the beginning of the month and on the 2nd I got an email telling me it had been shipped. It did not come in time. Our party was on the 23rd. The month is almost over. I’m highly annoyed. I ordered my hat at the same time, and it was shipping from Hong Kong and I got it within the week. Not pleased, my friends. Not pleased. Okay. Rant over.

Okay, my costume. It is not actually a dress. I was not ready to conquer the world of dress making with my crazy little man robbing me of long stretches of time, and I’m not that skilled a seamstress, so the ‘dress’ is in parts. My inspiration came from HERE (surprised? Aren’t they so cute?!). I sewed the skirt with two layers each of costume satin and chiffon to make it nice and full and I just finished the top with a really wide elastic. I also used her tutorial for the cummerbund. Piping is tricky. The ‘bodice’ is just a dress shirt – from the thrift store –  that I dressed up. It was actually huge on me (there was no where for me to try it on before I bought it) and so I had to take in the sides. Then it fit perfectly! I took off the original sleeves and made smaller lace ones that fit the smaller arm holes (they got smaller once I took in the side seams). Then I added ruffles and lace to the front! I ordered a white wide brimmed hat off amazon and wrapped tulle around the base and and added my little chin-tie thing. I made some flowers with leftover red satin from my cummerbund and put those on one side. My parasol was actually another old umbrella from the thrift store that I remade using the tutorial HERE. I also got the tutorial on my boot covers there too. Whew! And that was it!

I’m really, really pleased with the way it all turned out. We got lots of rave reviews at our ward’s trunk or treat!

So is it bad that I already know what I want to do for next year? ;)

An October Update

So I suppose I should be blogging more than just monthly pictures of Nathan. But it turns out that I really only just have more pictures of the little man.

You don’t mind, do you? ;)

We had General Conference earlier this month – and it was wonderful, as usual. It was Nathan’s first General Conference and will probably be the ONLY Conference for many, many, many years that he will sit so quietly and be so attentive.
His stuffed dinosaur joined us.
Is this not the sweetest picture you’ve ever seen?
He was fascinated by those people speaking from that box over there…

And per tradition, we had conference waffles (as opposed to normal Sunday waffles) topped with ice cream and fruit. YUM. I love tradition.

And we’ve had lots of adventures in the world of eating rice cereal. Like a dinner date with dinosaur.
He likes to use the rice cereal as a face mask. Helps with the complexion, he says.
“Tastes good too!”
Rice Cereal: The latest and greatest in baby hair styling products. (His Baby GQ face)

He has developed a keen interest in his board books and insists upon holding them (when not trapped in his baby straight jacket woombie) He loves being read to as well. But it is difficult when he gets to turn the pages…

I have also finally finished our Halloween costumes for this year!! (Random side note: I feel like the most common question I have gotten most recently from people without kids is “what is the best thing about having a baby?” Does anyone else feel like it is impossible to quantify the ‘best’ thing about it?! There is SO MUCH to having a baby good and crazy that I find it really hard to answer that question. So now I just say ‘planning the family Halloween costumes’ ;)

I’ve already mentioned on facebook that we are going to be Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday and while I already have some pictures of all of us, you only get a sneak peek for now of our little penguin – who is thoroughly unimpressed ;)

And besides the big event of moving the little man from his swing to crib (nighttime is actually going really well – naptime, not so much. I’m going crazy) that’s pretty much it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

5 Months!

I can hardly believe another month has passed. Time is just flying by!

And of course, the ever popular outtakes ;)

“Seriously, Mom? The pictures? Again?”
“How about if I did the ‘cute head-cocked-to-the-side thing’? Would they put me in Parenting Magazine then?”
“Hey! There’s someone over there!”
“No, really! Did you see that?! Is that Prince George?!?”
“That was not Prince George. I was all excited there for a minute. Now I’m not.”
  “Look deep into my eyes. No. Deeper. You wiiiillllll give me ice creeeeaaaam…”
“First, I will orchestrate a hostile takeover of all major diaper companies, merge them under my multi-national conglomerate…”
“And then, I will RULE THE WORLD!! Mwa ha ha ha haaaa!…”
“Oh, what? No! I was not diabolically scheming! I don’t know what you are talking about…”
“One does not simply eat rice cereal without wearing it”
“And now, the tubas! 2, 3, 4. And crescendoooooo…”
“It’s YOU again! My arch nemesis-”
“-I mean…I love you number!”
“I love you SO much I could just eat…”
“Now I remember you saying they weren’t edible last month…You coulda reminded me…”
The dinosaur: A little man’s best friend ;)
Love you little man!