halloween 2010

We spent Halloween weekend eating lots of white chicken chili and sipping hot cider {which made the house smell so cozy}. And of course it wouldn't be Halloween at our house without a Harry Potter movie marathon in full swing for a day or two.

Olivia was the cutest White Rabbit ever {thanks Julie!} to go along with Nina, the cutest Alice in Wonderland. Hannah loved her mime costume so much that she wants to do it again next year. Thanks to Aunt Hailey for sponsoring that one! Ben was the best looking little G.I. Joe, complete with camoflauge make-up and plastic binoculars.

My brother Trevor and my sis-in-law Tatum hosted the 6th Annual Haugen Halloween Party, a good time as always. Last year he started a tradition of making a short film to show at the party, and here's this year's film. Haha!

The icing on the cake was that Clay and I won the costume contest this year! I was so excited because I put so much time and thought into it, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It was fun being Mary Poppins for a night, and Clayton was the cutest Burt The Chimney Sweep ever. He came in saying in his best chimney sweep accent, "Good evening, governor!" Too bad he couldn't show off his sidewalk chalk drawing abilities, it would've been so perfect!

I made his broom using snippets of Christmas garland which I duct taped around a pipe, then spray painted it black. I found my hat at TJMaxx, then hot-glued the daisies onto it. I already had the scarf, and Hailey let me borrow her coat and lacy-collared blouse {which she was embarassed to admit she owned}, and I picked up my skirt and Clayton's jacket at the D.I. A little black hair spray for me and some charcoal for Clay finished it off just right, dontcha think?

So yeah, we won an awesome gold plastic skeleton statue {yes! haha!}, movie tickets, and the cash that people put into the witch cauldron.

{I already can't wait for next year's party...we've got a pretty good idea for it.}

Nina drew this a couple days ago on a giant piece of paper. It's about as wide as she is tall. When she was done coloring it, she asked me how to spell "I'm not giving this to anybody." I think it's because she usually gives all her drawings away and writes who it's to and "from Nina" on each one. But this one is obviously a keeper.

simple ghosties

Here are a couple of our Halloween traditions...white chocolate ghosts, and these ghosts I made years ago out of white tissue paper and cheesecloth. I have a few of them floating around the house, and a group of them hanging over the front steps to welcome trick-or-treaters. Two super easy and inexpensive projects!

p.s. I can't wait to show you our costumes this year!

look who's two months old already

How is it that the last two months with this little guy have flown by, yet the two months of pregnancy before that seemed to have dragged on forever?

Will smiles and laughs now and it is the cutest thing ever. He weighed in yesterday at 11 lbs. 4 oz. so he is putting on at least a little chub now! Still up every 3 or 4 hours at night. I'm a tired scatterbrain but I've survived this before {I keep telling myself that!}.

pumpkin patch

Check out Nina's whopper of a goose egg on her forehead...she fell on her face down the concrete steps in my parents' garage, poor girl!

Some pictures from our annual pumpkin patch outing. It was tricky getting pictures this time around with the Baby Bjorn and the camera on the front of me! Josh {Clayton's brother} and McCall, and Katie {Clayton's sister} and Aaron and my cute nieces Emma and Chloe met us there. It was fun for the kids to hunt for the perfect pumpkins with their cousins. But poor little Will screamed almost the entire time!

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

I can't believe I haven't posted these before. You have to make these for Halloween weekend! Everyone will love you for it.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

{I usually double or triple this recipe because as it is, it only makes about a dozen or so, and I could eat that many all by myself!}

1 c. canned pumpkin

1 c. white sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 egg

1 Tbs. Vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. milk

2 c. flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1 or 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (depending on how chocolatey you want them)

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, dissolve the teaspoon of baking soda in the milk, then add to pumpkin mixture. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Add to pumpkin mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Drop by spoonful on greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 or 11 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Let cool completely before removing from pan. They taste best cold from the refrigerator with a glass of milk if you ask me!

erika and j

I kept busy in the fall doing photo shoots for my family...here is my pretty sister Erika and my dashing brother-in-law J.J., and their adorable kids. It's easy to get good pictures when everyone looks so good to begin with! Thanks again for asking me to do your pictures guys!

the bridge project

There's a little canyon up behind my parents' house where my dad built a bridge last summer. It allows access for hikers and mountain bikers over the river there. In the fall he cleans it up, scraping the mud out of every crack, in an effort to preserve the bridge for as long as possible.

For school, Ben was assigned to participate in a service project. He decided he wanted to help Grandpa clean up the bridge. He worked so hard, digging dirt out of tiny crevices and sweeping everything away. I love that he was able to spend that time with Grandpa.

Ben earned 100% on the service project and presentation poster. His teacher, Mrs. Lindsey, was really impressed. She wrote on the side of the grading sheet, "How fun that you were able to work on this with your grandpa!"

the apple orchard and other stories

This past Friday while the kids were off track, I promised to take them to pick apples at the orchard, and miraculously we made it out the door that day before noon. Yay! The orchard was pretty picked over, but they still had fun running through the trees and smacking apples down with sticks.

Like I said, the kids were all off track so it was all 5 of them with me...I was a little nervous about going to Costco afterward, but we were so close it didn't make any sense to drive home and back again. So, to Costco we went. The kids were so excited, it was funny! They hadn't been to Costco for years because I always go while they are in school. They skipped from sample to sample, which was great because then I didn't need to worry about feeding them lunch! Then, we were so close to Target, I decided to get them some new pants for the colder weather too. Wow! I can't believe we did it all in one day. I really was kind of proud of myself for getting all that done with all 5 kids, haha! Thank goodness the kids were good and the baby slept through it all. So that was the good part of my weekend...

That night I was so tired I was determined to go to bed early for once. Haha, yeah right!

The baby decided to stay up until about 2 am, then Nina was scared and came in at some point, then Olivia woke up crying really early, around 6:45. Thank goodness one of the kids got her up for me. But then around 7:00 Nina had a screaming poop wiping dilemma so I had to get up for that wonderful occasion. I went back to bed, only to be awoken a half hour later by the kids telling me that "Olivia has poop on her hand." UGGGH! Then of course the baby woke up. It's all kind of a blur. At least I think that's how everything went!

run for your lives! it's the smoothie monster!

...and the pioneer lady with a mustache?

I know...what in the..?

I was on the floor laughing so hard when I was snapping these pictures of Olivia, then Hannah came in like that with her hair all ugly and a Mr. Potato head mustache! Tears streaming down and I couldn't talk from laughing. Oh my goodness...

cun i, hold 'im?

This was Olivia's first official sentence. She loves to hold her baby brother. Last week just out of nowhere she started talking like crazy. It seems like she's saying dozens of new words everyday, piecing them together into little sentences. It's the cutest thing!

My favorite is that she always says thank you. But she says it like this:

"Deek oo Mom you weckum!"

{Thank you, Mom, you're welcome!}

It's as if the whole sentence is one giant word, with my usual response of "you're welcome" conveniently attached, so now I don't even have to say it anymore, haha!

goldilocks and the three bears

Look at this lovely little treasure we found at the library. The classic story, retold by Lauren Child {you know, the Charlie and Lola lady}, and illustrated with these adorable photographs. I think I like this book because of all the tiny details in the pictures. Look at those tiny spotted mushrooms, and those tiny red shoes on Baby Bear! What a fun project this must've been. I'm hoping Santa slips a copy of this book into his sleigh for us this Christmas.

pear upside down cake

Okay, so I'm really not a big cake fan. I consider myself to be more of a brownie/chocolate chip cookie kind of girl. But, let me tell you, I would choose this cake over brownies any day of the week. This has been a fall favorite at my house for the last 12 years, since I first found the recipe {in the newspaper!}.

You just have to try it! It's best topped with a soft little cloud of whipped cream, in my opinion.

Pear Upside Down Cake

1/3 c. butter, melted

1 c. brown sugar

3-4 c. sliced pears (fresh or canned)

2 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

2 eggs

1 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Pour the melted butter into a 9x13 baking dish, making sure that the sides get buttered as well. Sprinkle with the brown sugar.
2. Arrange the pears over the brown sugar, fitting tightly together. Set dish aside.
3. Sift the flour with the baking powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until light. Stir in the flour mixture. Add the cream and milk, mixing well.
5. Carefully pour the batter into the prepared pan, being careful not to move the pears.
6. Bake in preheated oven 40 minutes or until cake tests done.
7. Remove cake from oven and let cool for five minutes before turning out onto a serving plate. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

eleven? already?

But wait! That's not fair! Didn't I just take these pictures...last week?

I'm about a week late posting this, but it's true. Ben is eleven. I am his mom. So therefore you can deduct that I am OLD.

I love this boy so much...we have so much fun just hanging out in the kitchen, laughing about dumb stuff. He's such a good little friend. I can't believe how much he helps me out (when he's in the mood!). Like yesterday he helped me load up a dresser into the van to take to my sister, then he babysat Olivia while I took it to her. Sometimes he just comes up from behind and gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He's such a sweet kid. And I'm so happy I get to be his mom.

I can't believe how fast the last 11 years have gone. I can't think about it too much or it makes me a little sad. In 11 more years he will be almost the age I was when he was born! Yikes! See? I just can't think about it.

So for now I am just grateful that even though he's eleven, he is still a kid. He still loves candy and Legos and video games.

{Then again, so does Clayton.}

We just had a low-key birthday this year. It was a beautiful, HOT day for September 30th. Spent some time at the park with little cousins, went to IKEA with the family to pick up a new dresser for his newly decorated room {finally!}, made his favorite Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, and ate banana splits together while watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Funniest movie I've seen in a while by the way!

Happy birthday Ben, we love you.