Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time on our visit to the pumpkin patch.  Owen really wanted to ride a horse and Lexie really wanted to ride the "choo choo" so that's what we did. :-)

 

Pumpkin Patch

Before Halloween, Owen's Pre-K class took a trip to the pumpkin patch and we made it a family affair!  I wish I'd dressed Lexie a little cuter because these are the only pumpkin patch pictures I got of her this year. Oh, well!  You can see that she is wearing red shoes. These are shoes that Rick found at a consignment store. They were okay, but kind of worn out. In the Halloween post, you can see how I painted these shoes green for her costume! That's why she is wearing green shoes with red soles in the pictures.  Anyway...

 

Holding hands. Melts my heart. Every. Time.

Even though Lexie is totally closing her eyes, I love how Owen is being so sweet with Charlie.

 

 I love how this one shows Owen's crazy energy and Lexie's calm, go-with-the-flow demeanor.

So sweet.

 

 

And here's our own little pumpkin.

 

 

Happy Halloween!

Our Iron Man and Pumpkin had a great time trick-or-treating!

The Cheap Way

A few weeks ago, Lexie fell down a few steps outside and got this little beauty.  Poor baby.

 

We were feeling pretty sad about it until I noticed something.  Lexie has a little cyst on the left side of her forehead. Her doctor said it would either go away on its own or she could have it surgically removed when she got older.  You can see it in the picture below.  It's the little shadow above her left eye. It looked like she had a little extra bone there or something. I just figured that as she got older, her hair would probably cover it.

 

Anyway, so after her bruise healed, I notice that her cyst is completely gone!!! She must have fallen right on it!!  This is what she looks like now:

 

So there you have it. The cheap way to get rid of a cyst.

Happy Birthday

to me!!

 

My boys made me this beautiful birthday banner. :)  I got to have the whole morning to myself to do whatever I wanted. It was heavenly.  That night my mom watched the kids and Rick and I went out to dinner at Walt's Warf in Seal Beach. Then we walked around on Main Street and got a delicious cookie dough brownie for dessert. We were going to go to a movie, too, but having kids makes us tired so we called it a night.  We're getting old. :)  It's funny how as you get older, your idea of a good birthday drastically changes. It was a wonderful day spent with my little family and it couldn't have been better.

Primary Program

Owen participated in his first Primary Program at church!  He looked so handsome on his big day!  Sitting up in the choir loft away from Mom and Dad was too intimidating, so Mommy sat with Owen the during the whole program. We rehearsed his speaking part many times at home ("I came to earth and received a body.")  He had it memorized and was ready to go!  However, when it came time to speak into the microphone with about a hundred people watching him, it was a little too overwhelming.  Owen was so brave, though, walking up to the microphone and standing up to face all those people. Way to go, O!!

 

Owen was a great singer and his favorite song from the program is one called, "Gesthemane."   It is a really beautiful song and I can see why it's his favorite. Good job, Owen! One Primary program down, eleven to go! We are very proud of you!

New 'Do

I love it.

Announcement

We are moving to Carlsbad, CA in November!

Rick got accepted into the RN program at MiraCosta College and will be starting school in January.  Rick and I drove down to Carlsbad over the weekend to check out some places to live, and we fell in love with a condo.  It will be an upgrade from where we are now and we are very excited about it!  We looooove the Carlsbad area and feel so blessed to live there!



We are very excited about all of the new adventures we will be having, but sad to leave our home. We have lived here for most of our lives and we have so many wonderful memories here. Most of all, we will be sad to leave our families and friends.  However, now you ALL have an excuse to come out to Carlsbad!

And I'm sure in no time, we'll be able to give you the grand tour of this place, which Owen is very excited about.

 

It's not Disneyland, but it will have to do. :)

Happy Halloween

Using "the force"

"Flying"

"Cheeeeeeese!!!"

Mr. Incredible and Dash

Hope you have an "Incredible" Halloween!!!

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!