Wonderlandiful Cookies

I had another cookie job last week before the holiday craziness set in – cookies from Wonderland!

The school’s fall play was Alice in Wonderland, so I made these cookies for opening night, inspired by this cookie set.I think the pocket watches were my favorite :)
Followed by the Queen of Hearts

I think I’m ready for a tea party now, aren’t you?

18 Months!

You guys. Nathan is 18 months. It’s so weird to think about sometimes. Today is his first official day of nursery, where I’m going to spend the first half with him…and then leave him on his own for the second half. I’m actually kind of sad about it. I think I’ll be kinda lonely in Relief Society! We’ve been visiting for the just the first half for the last couple of weeks and he actually really likes it. As soon as we go in there he leaves me to go play with toys, but after a little while searches the room for me and sometimes needs to sit on my lap. So we’ll see how it goes today! Wish us luck!

*Has become quite the climber. Our apartment went from completely childproof to not childproof at all. He climbs on the couch. He climbs on the side tables. He climbs onto the dining chairs and onto the table. He climbs on his box of diapers in his room. He climbs on the rocker. Counters that used to hold things he couldn’t/shouldn’t have are now easily accessible. Nothing is safe.

*He mainly climbs to get to the light switches. I think he loves the feeling of controlling what all our lights and lamps do.

*I’m sort of his ‘home base’. When he gets hurt (like from all that climbing, we’ve fallen from chairs several times now…) or is sad or overwhelmed, he usually needs to come and sit on my lap for a few seconds before he’s ready to go play again. I think it’s sweet. :)

*He used to only sit still for stories before it was time for a nap or bedtime. Now he will bring me a book, I’ll read it to him (and he stays for the whole thing!) and as soon as that one is finished, he goes and gets another. And another, and another! I love it! I love that he loves his books and that he wants to be read to. We’ve spent upwards of 30 mins at a time just reading stories together. It’s awesome.

*Has been introduced to Oreo’s, M&M’s and Thin Mints. And loves them all. Thank you Daddy for broadening his culinary horizons. At least I can bribe him to be quiet with M&M’s now. He loved getting all those M&M’s at the Halloween activities this year.

*We’ve added more signs to his vocabulary. We’ve finally gotten him to say Thank You and he can tell us when he needs a diaper change. Though sometimes he just tells us that for fun. And sometimes when he really does need a diaper change, he gives us the sign and then runs away. We made up a sign for him to use when he wants us to turn some music on (which is always) and it involves waving his arms around – like he’s conducting the choir, hee hee. John also taught him the sign for bird, and now he makes the sign every time he sees one when we’re outside! How cool is that?!

He hates gates. He’s come to terms with the one blocking our bedroom but the one blocking the kitchen? His mortal enemy. I have to lock it when I’m cooking on the front burners because he can reach them now, or when I’m loading the dishwasher (ooh! knives!) or I really just need him out of the way. Hates it. Loathes it. Wants to destroy it.

*When we are at the table having dinner, he likes to blow on everyone’s food. To cool it down for us, you know.

*He loves stickers. I found him a slightly-used sticker book at a consignment sale last month and he loves it. Every time I pull it out he needs at least 5 or 6 stickers to put all over his shirt and face. He also likes to peel off the vinyl design off my coral dresser and put those pieces on his face too. Post it notes are also super fun.

* He holds almost all electronics to his ear like a phone. He must really want to get a hold of Nana or Grandma. “Get me outta here! Your kids are going crazy!”

*Is just so full of energy and keeps us on our toes! Love you Little Man!

They’ll Make You Want to Let It Go

So I had a semi-last-minute cookie request for last week over Halloween weekend, but I was really excited to do them because the theme was Frozen! I have been wanting to do Frozen cookies, but didn’t really have a good reason to make any…until last weekend :)

We had some sparkly crowns, snowflakes with the number 4 for the birthday girl and of course, some Olafs.
I’ve mentioned before, but doing characters is so intimidating because they have to be recognizable! I kept putting off doing his face, but then I finally had to just take the plunge. But I’m really happy with the way my Olafs turned out.

And because my Mom and sister like to piggy-pack on orders whenever they can, Jennifer asked for some Frozen cookie for her birthday (it had been earlier last week) and my mom said I should enter the dessert contest at their ward Trunk-or-Treat. So I did. Why not, right?

So a fun platter for Jennifer (and I finally got to use this adorable new alphabet cutter set that I got in September but haven’t had a chance to use yet!)

And a platter for the ward activity
The Anna dresses were my favorite!

I should have won first place at the dessert contest, but they were completely gone before the judges came by!! ;) Oh well. I had a really fun time making these cookies!

Halloween 2014

I knew by the end of Halloween last year what we were going to be this year.

Tangled! Me as Rapunzel, John as Flynn, and Nathan as Pascal!!

Oh yeah. I was so stinkin’ excited. Good thing I knew so far in advance because I was able to get allllll my stuff on sale and it took me a good 3 weeks to get just my dress done (mostly because I totally messed it up and had to hide it for a week or so to avoid scrapping it altogether). But I am really happy with how they all turned out. And we got really good use out of them this year since we went to 2 Trunk-or-Treats and trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

You gotta love that smolder! I am guessing there was some practicing happening when I wasn’t around…
You’ll notice that Flynn got a haircut between these two pictures ;)For all of the costumes, I took inspiration and pattern ideas from HERE, obviously altered to fit our different sizes. I was able to follow the directions for the Flynn vest and the Pascal costume pretty much step by step but since a grown woman is shaped differently from a little girl in some pretty significant ways, I kind of had to wing it with my dress. I used some pattern pieces from a few dress patterns that I already had and then altered those for the sweetheart neckline, the poofy sleeves, and the lace-up front. I’d love to tell you that I’m completely brilliant and it turned out perfectly the first time, but I think I ended up fixing the bodice like 3 times. The first time I couldn’t actually get it on! I swear I did the math several times! Oops.  Then the sleeves were cutting off the circulation in my arms. Oops. But I finally pulled it together and while it’s still not the best fit, it totally served its purpose and I’m still pretty happy with it.

But my favorite was my little Pascal!
He loved his costume too. I think because it was so soft. I usually left it in a corner of his room and he’s always go grab it and bring it to me and try to put it on. He was a really good sport about the hat too.
AND he won Best Baby costume at our ward’s Trunk-or-Treat!
See? Smolder practice.
I didn’t know if Nathan would really go trick-or-treating at our ward activity, but I made him his own little bag out of some extra orange felt I had (You can’t see it but the other side has a pumpkin face on it) because I knew he’d see all the other kids’ bags and want one for himself. Once he’d actually tasted M&M’s for the first time did he realize what all these strangers were trying to give him. Then he was all over it!
I had a last minute cookie order Halloween weekend in VA (more on that to come) so we went to stay with Nana and Papa for the weekend and got to go to their Trunk-or-Treat activity. And Nathan won Cutest Costume there! My mom was an Oompa Loompa with my dad as Willy Wonka, and my sister dressed up as Wendy from Peter Pan.
Jennifer gave him a bag of M&M’s…
…And then he wanted alllll of her candy! ;)
And he kept stealing Wonka’s candy man staff. Sneaky Pascal…

Little Man got quite the haul this year in candy! Good thing he likes to share! ;) Now I have to figure out what we’re doing next year! Any ideas?

Apple Picking!

So we went apple picking at Larriland Farms again this year and it was so fun, especially now that Nathan is so much bigger. We went a couple of weeks ago and the weather was gorgeous (And I would have posted sooner, but my laptop died a week or so ago!! It was only 2 years old!! So sad. But now I have a new one. So good to be back!). And we picked lots of yummy apples!

Nathan loved it. His job was to put our picked apples into our bag.

Then he decided he wanted to try and eat one. We found him a nice little one that would fit in his hand. He gnawed on it for a minute or two…then threw it on the ground. Oh well.
My slightly lame attempt at a shadow selfie. ;)
John started throwing Nathan into the air at one point so I went into the next row to try to catch him airborne. I’m bummed my lens focused on the leaves, but I guess we’ll have to try again another time.

After apples we stopped at the barn for some fudge – Yum! – and then we headed for the pumpkin patch. We didn’t buy a pumpkin this year, since last year’s pumpkin sat out in front of our door and rotted away. And I didn’t really think we’d have time to decorate one this year. And Nathan doesn’t really care yet ;)

The leaves were really turning colors then – it was so pretty out there!
Nathan mostly tried to roll pumpkins down the hill.
Then I wanted a picture of me and my Little Man at the pumpkin patch like last year. Can you believe this picture is from a year ago?!
And look at us now! Where does the time go?! He is just getting so big!
I love how enthusiastic he is in this one…
After Nathan was in bed John and I had our annual caramel apple making date. We made a bunch for ourselves (which were eaten way too quickly ;) and then we gave the rest away. I even packaged them all pretty this year. Don’t they look so nice?

So fun and soooo tasty! Can’t wait for next year!