Our New Game

Max, Berkleigh and Merrick learned how to play hopscotch today...it was so funny to watch them!

Pumpkin Cookies!

So, I read my friend Dawn's blog and got a way easy recipe. Since I had a lonely 15 oz of pumpkin left in the fridge, I decided Max and I would make some cookies today. So good, but of course we knew they would be: they have pumpkin in them!

Dumping ingredients...

Max Stirring

Max tasting...

And after all that tasting, Milk was a must!

Now This is More Like It!

October 9, 2008

No...don't be fooled, this was not an accidental picture of nothing. I felt inspired to take a picture of a much-welcomed cloudy sky...It was my favorite thing today! It's been hot...not AZ hot, but hot. I'm sooooo glad to not be in Arizona anymore for the sheer fact that I no longer have to deal with the too hot outside, and the too cold inside. Woo hoo! But, nevertheless, it's been 80, or 85, for the last little while here, and I guess it's the fact that we don't have AC, but it's been hot. Anyways, soooo today was a fabulous day! I'm grateful for a cloudy sky, sweatshirts, having to put a blanket over my legs while I was sitting outside, and for Max asking me to put a sweatshirt on him while he was playing. These are words I've never heard him say before! ha.
We had such a fun day for no reason at all. We started out with a walk down at the beach with 3 of our friends. We hit JoAnn's for some last minute supplies, then after lunch, Max took his nap-a-roo and mommy sewed and chatted with some friends that live across from us. After Max's nap, we watched a fun little movie, and played outside in the overcast-ness with Berkleigh and Merrick, Max's two new friends and Kristy, Jen and Kim, Mommy's new friends, until an amazing dinner of Chicken Parmesan was delivered to our door in lieu of our newly established dinner co-op. Angels sang as we ate, because it was soooo good, more playing outside, a trip to the Grocery store because they were having a dang good sale, home to read books, take a tubby(we miss you, Rylee) AND now, as Max is now sleeping in his bed, I am slowly sipping on the long-awaited nice cup of Hazelnut Hot Chocolate. Happy Autumn!
I hope everyone's day was as good as mine, for absolutely no reason.

New Purse

I finally finished my new Autumn Purse...Had to hang up my favorite purse for the season, because it was just a little too springy/summery for this fabulous time of year. So, I finally finished her, and her inner pockets are my favorite thing. Hooray for projects being checked off your list. Next items on the agenda are finish quilting my mom and dad's Umbrella Quilt to keep them from the weather up in Seattle and my Pumpkins Gone Wild Table runner, their both coming along famously. Get excited for Pictures that are sure to follow! Happy Autumn!

Batting Practice

Max is getting to be quite the little slugger. He must get his mad baseball skills from me. (autie, ha ha). Anyways, sorry this if from my cell phone, but I thought it was pretty fun...max likes to watch it. Watch out MLB, here I come!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

I found this recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes on the internet. They were soooo good, I thought I'd share. We made them for the first day of Autumn. woo hoo!

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp Brown Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Ground Allspice

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 Cups Milk

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree

1 Egg

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp Vinegar

Directions:

In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

I made these into waffles, and it worked out great, too... They smell so amazing when their cooking and have just the right amount of sweet to make them perfect. I love this time of year!

Allan Jophes... hee hee

This is a picture that's hanging above my kitchen table... It's my dad eating corn flakes. Isn't he cute!?!

Today is my dad's birthday, and I just wanted to make sure that he knows what a great dad he is. I look up to him in so many ways, and I'm so grateful to have him as my dad. Happy Birthday, Dad, I love you!

I wish we could be with you to celebrate!!!

Finished Projects

We've been project-ing! I finished the curtains I wanted to make for Max's room, and jeff hung up the curtain rod...I think they look so cute, and it's waaaay darker at naptime which is fabulous! And...I have this addiction with Halloween, so here's the latest Halloween decoration. My wreath of death. So fun! Don't be alarmed, it's closer than you think!

Killer Playground

Our friends Jen and Tyson showed us this freaking awesome park the other day, and we've gone back so many times I can't count. There is the slide of death here, and Max can't get enough of going down it! We thought we'd post some pictures.
Look how steep the stinkin' thing gets...it's awesome!That's Max, fresh out of the death tunnel...he loves it! So fun!

ApRiL 8

Get excited!
Jeff and I went to my first Dr's appt. today. My doctor is wonderful, and I'm really excited because my due date is like a month sooner than I thought it would be. woo hoo! So, April 8th is the day, mark your calendars! I'm 11 weeks and counting, and unfortunately already have to start wearing maternity clothes (death). whatever

Which Disney Princess are you?

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

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Our Petite Palace

Here are some pictures of our new place. It's starting to feel more like home...haven't broken out my sewing machine yet, but I hope I start feeling more up to it soon...I've been feeling a little better, but still soooooooooooo tired. ahhh. I remember that! Anyways, here's where we live. This is one side of max's room...
and here is max posing by his toys on the opposite side of the room...not as cute, but very organized...I love it!
This is our living room, standing at the front door and looking in...
This is where we decided to put our computer...our massive desk takes up a lot of space, but it's awesome, and now we can actually hear the TV when we watch our movies. So, this is still standing at the front door, looking left. Erin and Jer should be proud...we get absolutely no tv-- we're twins!
And, finally...this is still standing at the front door, looking right...our dining room slash aundry room (grrr) slash kitchen. We fit and that's all that matters.

Yeah, so that's our house, I know you were all dying to see! haa haa.

see me!

Playing Catsup

Well, I have to play catch up because I haven't posted anything on here for sooooo long, sorry! So here's some things that we've done since we moved to Cali... Max, Daddy and I went to the beach. Max likes the dirt--not the sand--the dirt. He's not interested in going near the water yet, which is great...I can just sit there and let him bury our feet in the sand and life is good. The weather is so freaking nice! Our windows are open constantly, the door would be, too, but then the flies get in, and we haven't bought a fly swatter yet. Maybe next time we go to big lots, that'll be our big purchase!
Daddy loves to go to the beach...he coaxed Max towards the water...Max is good to just dig in the dirt.
We visited the Newport Beach Temple to see Moroni up there on the top tootin' his horn. When you ask Max what the guy up there is doing, he promptly sticks is finger up his nose and says dooo-dooo-dooooo! (mom sticks her thumb to her mouth to form a trumpet--same thing) It's a pretty temple! Can't wait to go inside.
We saw a bunny at the Temple!!! That was the highlight for Max. He scared him away, don't worry. :)
And...Happy Birthday to Daddy! Jeff turned twenty-seven on the Tenth...Old Man-ski! I made him his favorite cupcakes...which make me want to puke...white cake with sick-nast crisco frosting. I've never made the vile stuff before, but Jeff said it was fantastic. We celebrated his bday the night before at a fun new Yogurt place called yogurtland. Holy good. If any of you come to visit us...or I guess come to California and don't visit us...shame on you, you have to go to Yogurtland. ahhhh!

We have met some fun people, so we're excited about living here. Come over and visit us!!!

Bye Bye to Friends

We had a sad last couple of days saying goodbye to our friends. Who knew that I'd grow to call Arizona my home. We have so many good friends back in both Maricopa and up in 'town.' That was the hardest part of me moving to California...I'm stinking going to miss my friends! I cried a little, but had to buck up, because this really is the best choice for our family right now. So long to all of our good friends that we will miss so much (of course not all are shown here). We'll miss you guys!!!

These pics are of Max saying bye bye to Rylee and Reece and to baby Bryce. Max still talks about you guys!

Positive!!!

Get Excited!!!!

Girls Day

A little out of sequence, but I just got this picture from when we had a girls day in Utah. My grandma, Sister, Brandy, Sister-in-Law, Katie, Sister Erin, me and my Mom. I'm so thankful to have such an awesome family and to have such amazing women to look up to!

he's 2!

Max is officially 2, and he can say it! So fun! He woke up in the morning to a large room filled with balloons...his favorite. He chose to have waffles for breakfast, and after breakfast, he opened a few presents...his favorites including a new handy manny doll that talks and a bubble machine. woo hoo! Anyway, we can't believe that 2 years has gone by, time flies! We are so blessed to have such a sweet little boy in our family. We're grateful you were born, Maxer!

Utah

We just got back from a family reunion trip to utah. We had so much fun!!! We got to spend time with our cousins that we never get to see from the Ellsworth side of the family, and see Mar Mar and Paw Paw and Boo Boo. We stayed up at a cabin that my Aunt owns in the Brighton ski resort. It was so fun to be up in the mountains and see the stuff that we never get to see in AZ. We saw a moose and Porcupine, went hiking, did the Park City Alpine slides--max laughed the whole way down, got our family pictures taken, did kids crafts everyday...it went too fast! Mar mar and Paw Paw(Autie's mom and dad) set up a scavenger hunt for all the kids on a nature walk...that's what this picture is of. We looked for conifers, pine cones, flowers, squirrels, stumps, etc. It was a fun activity for Max and all his cousins. This is one of the kids crafts that we did: decorating cupcakes...max had a ball with it, I think all the other kids did, too.
We hiked up to Lake Mary...yep, Jeff hiked, and he was awesome!!! This is us up at the lake.
Anyway, we had so much fun in utah, we even got to see Jeff's brother and sister-in-law for a few days, which was so fun, too! Can't wait for the next time I get to see my family all together...it doesn't happen very often!!! I love my family!

We're Moving!!!

Jeff got a new job as the Area Scout for Southern California and Hawaii for the Diamondbacks. Woo hoo! Congrats Jeffer, he's worked so hard ever since we got married to keep himself in 'the game' he deserves every bit that this job has to offer! He starts September 1st, which is coming up fast. We left Max with Grandma and Grandpa Mousser for a couple of days and Jeff and I came over to California to check on some apartments that we'd found. It looks like we're going to move to Huntington Beach. We found a cute little 2 bedroom apartment, we are excited about Huntington, excited about our ward (My great aunt Bette is actually in the ward that we'll be moving to). So it looks like we'll be coming home and packing packing packing. So fun...anyone can come visit...but you'll have to sleep on the couch, there's not much room, but it's super close to the beach, and there seems to be a lot of fun things to do! Get excited, here comes Team Mousser!