Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!

I've always wanted to have a Halloween party at my house and finally pulled it off this year! This was an "adult only" costume party! Fabulous Carin made AMAZING invites and the ball started rolling! I had soooo much fun decorating my house with all the spooky Halloween decorations I could find. Martha helped my out A LOT!!!! Her Halloween issue gave me tons of inspiration. I had help from Kristen with a fog machine on the front step, skulls, skeletons...and a great play list with fun Halloween songs! I absolutely loved making "Devilish Eggs", "Poison Apples", "I-Scream Sandwiches" (I found more in the freezer after the party and was really excited to have a treat today!) "Eyeball Ice Water" and "Lady's Fingers"! This is my holiday and I lived it up! Yes Christmas is really fun to decorate for and there is a special warmth to that holiday but Halloween is crazy and exciting and dressing up is always a treat. So, the day of the party I had two wonderful friends take my children...ALL day!!! If they hadn't I think I would have been sooo stressed!!!! I can't thank you ENOUGH! Kelly came home from work early and set up a projector and movie screen so we could watch Frankenstein all night. He was a HUGE help!!! We had fun ALONE, cooking, decorating, and listening to and laughing to Frankenstein all afternoon! I loved dressing up, doing our makeup and then the anticipation of our friends arrival! We had a fun group with creative costumes that I couldn't stop starring at! Everyone brought yummy appetizers, soups, breads...we ate WELL! We had "Blood Punch" and "Mold Cider" to drink and lots of goodies! The guys had a donut eating contest which was hilarious! Scott won, beating Loren by a second! Costume awards went as follows: Scariest-Loren! Funniest-Scott! Best Costume-Erika and Shane! It was hard to choose the best award because honestly, they were all so very GOOD! So my dear friends, thank you, THANK you for making this party so much FUN and UNFORGETTABLE! I love you all and had a blast as your host!!! So...start thinking about next year's costumes!!!!! P.S., while vacuuming later, I found black feathers (Erika) and platinum blond hair balls (Loren). I had to laugh!

Anthopologie for less...does that catch your attention?

I saw the cover of Anthropologie magazine a month ago and loved the outfit as usual. It is rare that I don't love the clothes from this store! Well in my shopping trips to various places, I was able to copy this outfit for A LOT less! Anthropologie totals $794.00 for the outfit. My price? $189.00!!!! The boots were on sale at Nordstrom for $129.00. My blouse was found at (shockingly) Forever 21 for $18.00. The riding pants and gray cardigan were found at TJ Maxx! I love this outfit and more than that I LOVE the great deals I found! It takes more work but Kelly loves me for it! It also makes me feel like Tyra Banks-dress for less!

Some of my favorite Halloween children's books:

"Humbug Witch" by Lorna Balian

"My Monster Mama Loves Me So" by Laura Leuck



"Which Witch is Which" by Judi Barrett



"Would You Rather" (not officially a Halloween book but has some kind of scary scenarios) by John Burningham



"The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams



What are your favorites?



Happy Reading!!!

thank ya, thank ya very much!

I couldn't resist giving you my Halloween costume preview when I saw this little guy in his costume for the first time!!! Noah was "supposed" to be Elvis but wimped out at the last minute (after the wig was purchased). So, I paid Sam $3.oo to be Elvis and he agreed (easy bribery). So now Noah is being a Nerd and I must say, his costume is perfect for him. Little Elvis couldn't be cuter so we are all happy! Now Sam is practicing his moves. One of the kid's favorite songs, which stems back to days living in CA, is "Hound Dog". Noah and Bailey would dance around to this song over and over again. Needless to say, we are excited to bring out the Elvis tunes and warm up!

Girl's weekend in Utah

Remember how I went to CA for a get away with my friend Jennefer this year? Well she came here this time and we had a wonderful weekend together! Jennefer is my shopping buddy. She will be brutally honest with me when it comes to her opinion on whether or not something is worth purchasing! I LOVE that about her! So we shopped all the fun stores in Salt Lake City, ate out at some favorite places, saw "Love Happens" which was really good, got massages at Breathe, went on a photo walk around Federal Heights/Harvard area for Fall shots and gorgeous home gaulking (thus the pictures above), ate lots off Ghirardelli chocolate, went to Carluccis for some pastries, talked ALOT, and had some serious laughs! (Waiter, Jennefer's hair, almost crashing)I love Jennefer and admire her for so many reasons. I am blessed to have her as a friend. And though we live far apart, we are still close and still share in each other's lives. Thank you for coming Jennefer!

Corn-Bellies, Apple picking, Cider making, weekend!

Wow, we celebrated fall in a big way this weekend! We were busy, busy, busy, running to and fro to squeeze it all in. Friday Bailey had a Halloween costume party at her cousin's house, Me and the boys picked apples at my brother's house to get ready for cider making, and we met Kelly for Corn-Bellies down at Thanksgiving Point! Corn-Bellies was hands down the funnest pumpkin patch experience thus far! It had a great corn maze, bouncing "pillows", a huge slide area, spook cave, princess dress up area, foot long corn dogs, hot cocoa, pumpkins to buy etc. etc.... After our busy day, I got up at the crack of dawn to drive up to Ogden with the kids to make cider at my sister's house! So let me give you the cider history. It all started with a cider press purchased in the 50's by my grandfather. Since I was walking we have been making cider with this press. It was stored at my uncle's house (who lived over the hill from us) and so every fall, we'd pick apples from the orchards on the ranch and go make a gazillion gallons of this lovely juice. It is messy, sticky, cold "fun" but the result is so worth all the work! We freeze it and then slush it up with Ginger ale for a special Sunday meal! This was just part of my life growing up in the country. Well, my dad asked for the press when they moved to Utah and the family handed it over. We are now graced with this fine machine and still pumping out loads of cider every year! To make it even more worth our while, my sister Erika makes the most delectable pumpkin cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa for everyone! My mom brought homemade fruit Kuchens too! This was a wonderful fall celebration! All the men worked the press while the women sorted and washed the apples. The boys helped haul away the pressed apple remains in wheel barrows. Oh how I love working with my family, how I love each of them and how splendid a season to gather with them!