Three Fun with Fall Snacks

Nathan was in charge of taking the snack for preschool, and we wanted to do something that would be both a fun thing to take and fun to make together beforehand. The two snacks we did were from a favorite website of ours for holiday ideas:

www.familyfun.com

"Spider Pretzels"

Made using: Ritz crackers, stick pretzels, raisins, and peanut butter (there are allergies to nuts in Nathan's class so we used chocolate icing). Turned out to be easy and quite cute.


"Cheese Fingers"

Made using: string cheese, green peppers, and cream cheese.
(When Greg heard the instructions for these included wearing rubber gloves or baggies on your hands to "keep the cheese smudge-free"...and that each finger required at least five carefully little carved knuckles...this was the ultimate test of a good man's patience! These were significantly more tedious than the spiders--but still ended up being a lot of fun to make.)



Halloween Cut-out Cookies:

I found a new recipe I quite liked this go around. It's from a blog I've tried several things on and liked: Kidman's Kitchen. Click under cookies on her sidebar. Although we initially really liked the softness of these...they haven't disappeared as fast as I'd expected. If anyone else has a great recipe that is soft...but sturdy enough for little hands...I'm interested!

We went cookie delivering (the ding and run kind) with our boys for the first time. I'd forgotten what an adventure it can be--especially for a 4 year-old boy!

My Husband's New Blog

I got surprised today when my husband told me he's decided to start his own blog! But, I'm really excited for him and his idea! Please check out the following link. (He'd love to add to his "followers" collection.) You can expect...and hopefully contribute to...good stuff to come.

living-lds.blogspot.com

(You can also find the link under "Greg" on my "Family".)

"Super" Cool!

In Nathan's preschool, each child gets a turn to bring home "Dudley" the dog for a day. They're job is to give him "experiences" and then write them in a little "journal" notebook that then gets read in class. (Thanks to my sister, Carol, who's children have done something similar before, we had a vision for something a little more exciting to add than one more "trip to the park" for Dudley.) We decided to make him a Halloween costume to facilitate his future "trick-or-treating" experiences--and Nathan one to match!

Does it get more lovable or manly than this "Super Dudley" and "Super Nathan"?!!

Exciting News!

Playing Catch-Up

It feels like it's been a while since I last posted! Here are a few random updates...

While Greg was chaperoning at a youth stake dance recently, I was getting Nathan and Joshua ready for bed and got the feeling something wasn't right. I got up to lock the doors, and saw several emergency vehicles outside our front door. There turned out to be a fire in the apartments/town homes that are directly across the street from us...part of our complex! What started out to be one fire truck and a couple police cars turned into many fire trucks, a blocked off road, and a major undertaking! We watched them go from spraying with one hose into a first floor fire...clear to cutting a hole in the second-story roof and spraying water in from the extended ladder of a fire truck. It was quite something to watch it unfold with front-row seats on our doorstep. That night as it was happening, I guessed maybe 2 or 3 apartments were severely damaged. We read in the newspaper the next morning that 8 apartments were severely damaged and 16 total with varying degrees of damage. We feel so blessed to be safe an "unaffected"...but it surely has made us reevaluate and focus again on our level of emergency preparedness! (We obviously don't feel like the pictures do it justice!)


Just had to include a post of my flowers to show my mom! We've started pulling out some of our plants as the freeze-warnings here begin. It's just been so fun to have planted four little tiny "impatiens" plants and have them turn into this abundance. (Especially when I've tried them in Utah and ended up with just some little shrivels.) I think next year I'm going to plant these everywhere!

"Kiss the Bride"

We just got emailed some really nice pictures from Greg's sister, Chelsea's wedding in June. I'll try to post more later, but for now here's one of my very favorites.

A Few Random Things

Well, I'm having a hard time "sealing the deal" on making this a private blog...so in the meantime...here are a few random things from our weekend.


We had quite some rainstorms this weekend. Gives new meaning to the word "downpour" for me. You can see it totally flooded our little yard...and everything drained right into our window well. We found some water leaking into the basement...but between a lot of towels and Greg bailing out the window well every few hours...we made it through without damage! (Hopefully the maintenance men will be here in the next day or two to help do some "prevention" before another storm like that!)

Our "back patio" submerged.

The sidewalk going out to our car--you can see the grass is swimming.

We have been looking for quite a while for a "new" dining room table. We've been to Goodwill, looked on craigslist, etc. But, just haven't gotten anything yet. On Sunday it was announced in Relief Society that someone was needing to get rid of a dining table and chairs. By Sunday night it was at our home!!! It's really quite nice. Six chairs and two leaves to extend it. We're so excited to get a little "upgrade"...and feel blessed it was FREE!

I walked into Nathan and Josh's room yesterday and thought..."What is that new dresser scarf?"

When taking a closer look here's what I found.

Nathan knows that "Big Blue" is a pretty important thing in our family...so when he found it on his Teddy Bear's t-shirt he knew it would make a great decoration. It's nice to know we've passed on the "Aggie blood" to the next generation. Can you tell a boy has been very careful doing this just right?

A Private Blog

Hi everyone! I think I'm on the verge of making this a private blog. Please post your email address under comments so I can send you an invite!

First Day of School--For All of Us!

We all woke up this morning so excited! Almost as soon as Nathan opened his eyes...he said..."I am SOOO lucky! I get to go to school today!" (May he continue to feel those "lucky" feelings for the next 18++ years!)

Joshua and Nathan both got up, had breakfast, got dressed (Nathan with his "rainbowish" shirt), and even had their hair slicked (Nathan put extra water on his hair because he knows extra slick="extra handsome"). We took pictures and made it to the car so early in the morning...we had to invent one errand, one walk down the sidewalk, and one random drive in the car just to kill time until it was time.

You wouldn't have known which boy was going to school, until one got out at a friend's house and one continued on with me to preschool orientation. Both were equally excited at the idea...both carried around a backpack all morning...both needed to have their "first day of school picture" taken. (Thank goodness both had fun places to go!)

Nathan had a great time in the new classroom and is really excited to go back Thursday for the real thing.

I decided a celebration was in order...I took us to McDonald's to feast on the dollar menu. (I can't decide who is celebrating this new chapter in our lives more--Nathan or me!) But, my favorite part was that Nathan kept saying, "I'm so glad that we could celebrate my birthday...oh...I mean my first day of school today." (I think it's a good sign if you keep mistaking the day for your birthday right?!)

It's just so fun to have a boy with sparkly eyes about being kind of grown up. And, it's such a relief for me to know that I'm not the only one in his life that's going to create enriching moments for him in the days to come. Hurray for preschool!

My growing-up boy!

Our Ruggedly-Handsome Cowboy!

Nathan got invited to his friend Morgen's (a girl) "pony" birthday party. At first he was quite concerned because he knew "ponies" were for girls. But we reminded him that cowboys ride ponies...and that seemed to ease the worry.

He and Greg went to the party...held at some local stables...and had a great time!

This is my other favorite picture. This is a boy running back to tell his dad all about it!