Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy, Happy Halloween!

We love HALLOWEEN!  Jaycee and I went to the YMCA in the morning for a preschool/toddler party and trick or treating.  Jaycee had a rough time waking up to get dressed and there on time, so it resulted in her being really shy all morning.  It was such a fun time for her and was excited she got to do something fun on halloween day....NOT LIKE SHE NEEDED MORE CANDY! 

The first person gave her a pack of Oreo's...although she was too scared to go get them from him

When she saw this buzz costume she asked me "Mom, where's Woody?"  I laughed.  She also like the ppl dressed up at The Cat in the Hat, and Thing 1 & Thing 2.

After the trick or treating we had snacks and played.  Green frosting on a cupcake is a bad idea.  She still is such a cutie even with green all over.  Oh, and she loves to smile for the camera now so she made me keep taking pictures of her green face.
 

 On the way home we stopped at the store to get a few things for dinner, and grabbed lunch.  We were excited to take daddy lunch and eat in his office.  We got naps in the afternoon, a few other things done and then headed out for yet MORE CANDY!  



 Jaycee was so polite and would say thank you at every door.  She also had to tell everyone that her wings didn't fit with her coat on.  We let her check out all her candy when we got home and I told her she could have something....she chose her play dough to play with.  What 2 year old does that! 
 Dinner for the night!  Mummy hot dogs, chips, orange jello and drinks in our fun cups. 

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Sat-ur-day is a Special Day

Saturday came and went WAY TOO FAST!  We had such a busy day until the fun began.  We're expected to get hit with a lot of snow, so we had some winterizing to do outside.  Last night the weather was bitter cold and windy.  As a result we had leaves everywhere!  We raked and cleaned up outside until about one.  Then we headed to a neighbor's house to help with wood.  Out here in Maine a lot of people use wood to heat their homes, especially with how expensive heating oil is.  (Right now it's $3.39/gal and usually 100 gallons last about 1 month in the winter...do the math!!!!)  Needless to say, there's a lot of wood service projects which require stacking, splitting, moving, etc.  Jaycee and I just did little pieces and stacked while Craig did the heavy pieces.  Jaycee was such a good helper!  By the time we got home, cleaned up and a quick nap...it was time....TRUNK-OR-TREAT!!!!  The branch did have games & activities for 1 1/2 hour before the dinner for all the kids, but we didn't make it because Jaycee fell asleep.  We did enjoy the potluck finger food dinner & trick-or-treating.  Jaycee was so excited to wear her fairy costume...especially her wings...and quickly understood that she's getting lots of candy.  It was so fun to actually take my own child trick or treating and to see how excited she was.  She was such a good listener and didn't eat any candy until the end when she asked for a piece.  We really lucked out on such a good daughter. 





Friday Nights

We had a weekend full of fun, so why not start early on Friday. 

Jaycee and I started the fun day/night by picking out pumpkins and then making pumpkin squares.  Jaycee loves to help me cook.  We ordered pizza for dinner at a local pizza place and it was actually really good and cheap.  Mmmmm....I love pizza!  When Jaycee decided to finally wake up, she was so excited to do her pumpkin so we did.  She had fun cutting, cleaning them out, and helped tell me what she wanted her pumpkin to look like.  She was so proud.  Jaycee insisted on us taking them outside to light them.  We then had our dessert we made earlier and ended the night watching "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events".  It was a fun movie to set the halloween spirit and to end the night.  Love Friday nights! 

I finally updated a pic of me.  Feelin large full of baby at 33 weeks...
 Cleaning out her pumpkin she picked out

 Mommy and Jaycee havin fun with pumpkins....ooowy and gooey
 Hi Craig!
 Finished product!  Daddy's and Jaycee's on top, mine on bottom

DEENvine!

 Made these Friday night for dessert...DELICIOUS!  Perfect for the season... Thank you Paula Deen!

Recipe:

Ingredients

Bars:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 15-ounce can pumpkin
  • 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

  • 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

*The only thing I did diff was I cooked them for 40 min NOT 30 min, and only did half the recipe for the icing. 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

FHE

Last night for home evening Craig read The Proclamation to the World.  Reading it last night brought such power to how important the family unit is.  It's crazy that it was came out in Sept of 1995, 16 years BEFORE we'd face such turmoil in our world.  Gordon B. Hinkley truly was truly inspired. 
I liked how the last sentence states: "We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of of society."

We ended our lesson by playing a little game.  It was pretty much how well you know your spouse.  Even after 4 1/2 years of marriage, we didn't get 100 percent on the game.  Although I did learn that Craig's fav food is pasta with alfredo sauce NOT ice cream, his biggest dream is to go on a mission with me, he only wants 3 kids (that's always going to be a debate), one of the best things he likes about me is that I make him laugh (I can be pretty silly he he), his fav quote/saying is G2G (thanks Don Parker ha ha), and if he were to associate me with a cartoon character it'd be Betty Boop (I'll take that!)  It was fun to get to know each other better. 

I love Monday nights!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Decorating cookies around Halloween time is one of our traditions that we love doing.  We decided to do them Sat night so that Jaycee could take them to her "friends" at church tomorrow.  She loves her nursery friends.  Jaycee did so good at helping and had even more fun decorating & eating the frosting. 






Next week we get to carve pumpkins and trunk or treating!  Love Halloween!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Leaves are falling all around-on the rooftops, on the ground...



 "There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on 
the feelings, as now in October." 
-  Nathaniel Hawthorne

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Visit to Maine

We were so excited to have Craig's parents come visit us in Maine!  They don't do the best flying, let alone across the country, so we were very grateful that they would come to see us.  They flew into Manchester so we took advantage of being so close to Sharon, VT and rented a hotel for the night.  I wish we had the time to drive them up 5 extra hours to Palmyra, NY but we didn't want the whole week to be all driving.  It was nice to visit Sharon again and to see the beautiful country.  On the way home that day we took a different way that crossed into the "white mountains" of NH and into Maine.  IT WAS GORGEOUS!  The leaves were perfect and all the colors popped out.  It was a long day of driving though and we were all ready to get home.  

We spent Fri just relaxing since we all were tired from driving and they never really got the chance to rest from their flight.  We took them to good ol Walmart and bought a couple things for dinner and a movie.  We made them our most favorite pizza and made a tomato/mushroom one too.  It was so tasty! 

Saturday we spend the day shopping down in Freeport and walking around the stores.  We wanted to take them to Portland also the same day since it was about 20 min away.  We unfortunately times it wrong and ended up at "Portland Headlight" right as they closed.  On the coast in Portland there's about 5 different lighthouses so we found another one on the GPS and drove to it.  The night was perfect.  The moon was shining perfectly over the ocean and we were able to walk out over the rocky coast because of the low tide.  While we were there we were all smelling the smell of seafood.  We had to go get some.  It was a little lobstah shak right next to the ocean where you could even sit outside.  We all got a little bit to eat and HAD to get clam chowdah.  Nothing can compare to New England Chowdah.  It was a little thin, but the flavor was to die for!  We ended the night driving back home and Craig stopping for a caffeine fix.  ha ha.

Sunday was the typical Sunday.  We went to church and enjoyed the fast and testimony meeting.  I was so excited because Sis Hatch came back to visit.  She got transferred here right when we moved and stayed for about 6 months.  Her and I became very close and she was practically a sister to me.  She was the person I was praying for to come into my life at the time I needed someone.  We only got to visit for a tiny bit between classes, but later that night I had planned a potluck for the branch so we got more time to catch up.  I sure miss her!  I was a little bummed Craig's parents didn't come with us, but I understand them not wanting to. 

Monday Craig had to work in the morning and go to a meeting so we didn't get going until later in the day.  Phyllis really wanted to go to the coast and also wanted to get the full "Maine experience" so we took them up to Bar Harbor and dinner was....LOSTAH!  The coast again was perfect and the tide was really low so we were able to walk out to an island.   We then went to Stewman's for dinner-which was so so good!  Larry & I got Maine shrimp, Craig got fish & chips (which in Maine the fish mostly is Haddock), and Phyllis got her lobstah.  Oh and we ordered chowdah which was even better than the other night.  I'll def be craving that!  It was funny because when the lostah came out, Phyllis looked at it in wonder of how to even eat it.  We were laughing.  The waitress had to come over and help her out.  For dessert Craig and I shared blueberry pie-which is also a big thing here in Maine.  So it was the perfect Maine Experience.  We drove home listening to Monday night football (Lions vs Bears)....we don't need to talk about the game though :(

Since we had been on the go and driving so much we spent the next 2 days in town talking, going for walks, taking Jaycee and Izzy to the park, and mostly just enjoying each others' time.  We made some yummy dinners for them and watched a couple movies and mostly had fun seeing Jaycee with her gramma and grampa.  She sure loves them and talking to them. 

The time had come to say good-bye.  :(   We were sad the time had passed so quickly.  On the way to the airport we wanted to take them back to the Portland Headlight to get some pics but the weather didn't cooperate.  We got there but being the on coast it was so windy and a mixture of rain made us cold and wet.  But they did get a picture.  We had a bite to eat and then finished up our drive.  The week just went by so fast and without them here it's been so quite.  Jaycee seemed to deal with them leaving okay...I was a little nervous she'd be really sad.  I'm glad that she got the one-on-one time and she got to know them better.  She even told me the other day she wants to go on the airplane too and go to gramma's house.  We're really hoping next year comes quick and we'll get to drive back and be closer to family so we can see them all more often.  Thank you mom & dad for visiting us and hope you can make it back to visit again! 

Jaycee playing at the Joseph Smith Memorial
 Best Buds-They were standing on the exact spot where the Smith home used to be 
 Going for a walk.  She loved holding their hands

 The "cellar" to where the Mack home used to be
 A bridge that was used to cross the river in the town

Playing in Freeport at LL Bean.  She loved looking at all the fish
 And she thought is was pretty funny that she could see us through the water
 The Maine coast

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

? May Parker

Only 74 days to go until my due date!  CAN...NOT...WAIT!

I have an u/s today and I get to see her again...yahoo!