Happy Halloween

Using "the force"

"Flying"

"Cheeeeeeese!!!"

Mr. Incredible and Dash

Hope you have an "Incredible" Halloween!!!

Imaginative Play

Owen has really started to use his imagination when he plays with his toys and it is SO cute!  He especially loves his puppy that he got for his birthday.  The other day I was just watching Owen and he was having a conversation with his puppy.  It was like this:

"Puppy.... down."  (lays puppy down on changing table)
"[gibberish]...poop." (takes a wipe and starts wiping the puppy)
"Puppy....I-per(diaper)." (takes a diaper and tries to put it on the puppy)
"[gibberish] Nummies? Okay!" (takes puppy off of table and brings puppy to his high chair )
"Puppy...[gibberish]... Blankey? Okay!" (takes puppy out of high chair and puts him on the couch, then puts his blanket over the top of him.)

THEN he gives him a hug and a kiss!

Melt my heart......

Check these out...

So I just finished a NEW design for my Busy Mats and I had to share a link because I am SUPER excited with how they turned out!

http://mybusybook.blogspot.com/2010/10/drum-roll-please.html

Come One, Come All

I will be selling my delicious 

homemade strawberry jam

and

Busy Books for Busy Bodies!

See you there!!

Super Cute

As many of you may know, my little hobby Busy Books for Busy Bodies is going to be featured at a little boutique in a few weeks.  I am trying to get everything ready and although it's a lot of work, it is SO much fun!  I just had to share a few pictures of things that I've been working on.

This is a "Noah's Ark" activity mat, one of a few different themes I'm working on.

These are the fabrics I just got to make carrying cases for the activity mats.  I am completely IN LOVE with these fabrics - especially the pirate and alien prints!  It's so hard to find cute fabrics for boys PERIOD, but especially ones that aren't too baby-ish.  I just might have to make Owen another blanket out of one of them cause they are so darn cute.

I can't wait to get everything finalized and ready to make their debut!  :)

First Comes Love...

Then Comes Marriage!

 Last weekend my sister Julie got engaged!  Yay!!!

It was a truly magical proposal.

Mark (my future brother-in-law) got some MAJOR hook-ups at Disneyland.

The Story:

Last Saturday was Mark's birthday, so the two of them planned to spend the day at Disneyland.  

What Julie didn't know was that Mark had made arrangements with the Engagement Coordinator of Disneyland! 

Um.... I didn't even know they HAD that!!  That just makes me love Disneyland even more!

So the plan was that at 7:30 p.m. they would forgo the line of the Storybook Land ride and go straight to the EXIT.  They would also get a boat all to themselves (except for the tour guide). 

To avoid suspicion from Julie, Mark told her that one of his clients worked at Disney (which is true) and had graciously offered to let them skip the line for one of the smaller rides and also get their own boat in honor of his birthday (not as true).  

Something else that Julie didn't know was that my whole family was HIDING near the teacups waiting for them to get on the ride so that we could be waiting for them after the proposal.

This was taken just moments before they got on the boat... Sorry it's so blurry, but this was the best I could get.  Mark is wearing a blue shirt and he has his arm around Julie, which you can sort of see.

So.... they finally boarded the boat.

We quickly ran around to the exit of the ride to wait for the happy couple.  The cast members were AWESOME and gave us these super cute wedding cake bubbles to blow when they got off of the ride.  

I don't have ALL of the details, but here's the short version of how Mark actually popped the question. 

They had just gone under a bridge in which the tour guide instructed them to make a wish.  Then the boat stopped in front of Cinderella's castle and the tour guide asked Julie if she made a wish.  

She then said, "Well, you never know... sometimes wishes come true."

And then he pulled out the ring...

Then we saw their boat come around the corner and the tour guide ringing a bell and yelling,

"Just engaged!!!"

As if that weren't enough, a cast member led our entire group of 10 people 

(all the while ringing a bell and yelling, "Julie and Mark just got engaged!!!!") 

through Fantasyland over to the Peter Pan ride, in which we all got to board through the EXIT!  

A re-enactment in front of the ride

It was an AMAZING night and we couldn't be more excited for Julie and Mark!!

Guilt-Free Fall Treat

Okay... You MUST try this.  

Like, right NOW.  

I am currently eating my second muffin and it is to DIE for.  

The chocolate chips are still all melty from the oven.  

Mmmmmm...

Photo Courtesy of ourbestbites.com where I found the recipe

No Guilt Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Here's what you need:

1 can pumpkin (29 oz.)
2 Duncan Hines Spice Cake mixes
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz.) (optional)

Mix all ingredients together.  Scoop out into muffin pan (don't forget your muffin liners!).  Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Yields about 2 dozen muffins.

These are SUPER moist and delicious!  I know that without the chocolate chips they are only 1 Weight Watcher's point (so I'm assuming that they're pretty healthy and guilt-free).  AND the fact that the recipe uses pumpkin instead of oil and eggs makes a HUGE difference in the health factor.  

With the chocolate chips I don't know how many points they are because I'm not doing Weight Watchers... but they can't be THAT much worse for you... right?

I mean, semi-sweet chocolate is considered dark chocolate, right?

And nowadays everyone says dark chocolate is filled with anti-oxidants, so it's , um, good for you... Right?

 I am going to choose to believe all those news reports about how good dark chocolate is for you.

Now go and enjoy a (practically) guilt-free treat!

Sidenote:  Apparently there was a shortage of canned pumpkin last year.  Something happened to the pumpkin crop and so canned pumpkin was scarce.  The cashier at the grocery store was surprised to see me purchasing canned pumpkin.  She said, "Oh, is it back now?  We haven't had that for a year now!"  She also said that because of the pumpkin shortage, when they DID have any in stock, people would buy ALL of it at one time and hoard it because they didn't want to be without it for the holidays.

For all those who were pumpkin-less last year, have no fear: it's back!  And I don't think there will be a shortage this year.  Whew!