Coastin' along

I made coasters yesterday. They're marble with some cutie scrapbook paper decoupaged on. I thought they turned out pretty well!

An aerial view...

A random shot of me and Andrew. He loves the strings on my hoodies.

The table all set for dinner with the missionaries. It looked so nice and autumn-y, but of course I couldn't capture that with my camera.

Our house looks ready for fall!

I went to Hobby Lobby and took advantage of their awesome deals on flower stems to arrange the fall bouquet for the table. The best part? You can re-use it year after year!! :)

And also, a day late- Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you!!! {And yes, I did call her. I was a good girl. Just late on my blog. :) }

Breakfast Buddies

The missionaries are coming over for dinner tonight, so I made Brownie Bottom Cheesecake Bars. We've never had them before, but excited to try them! :) We had some leftover strawberries so I just sliced some up to top it and make it pretty.

Who doesn't love Mondays? I do, cause Mike came up with a great idea. We switch off making breakfast for each other every other Monday. The other person gets to sleep in until the breakfast is ready (around 7:30 or 8) and then we all eat together. That's why I look like a total mess. :) Today was the first one and Mike made crepes. YUM! It's especially nice because every other day (including Saturday) he's gone by 7 am so we don't see him until at least 6:30 at night. Yay for Breakfast Buddies! Yay for my sweet husband! He's so fantastic.....

Feelin' Sappy

Have you ever been totally and completely amazed? Everytime I look at this sweet face, I am blown away. I don't know why I was so blessed to have such an amazing son. But I tell you this, I will spend every day for the rest of my life feeling a deep gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven who has allowed this special little guy into my life.

1st meal of October

I know it looks a little funny- pictures of food never quite turn out right. This is a recipe we got from our friends, the Cannons. It's Tomato Dill Soup. It is soooooo good and perfect for the first day of October as it is ORANGE! :) Here's the recipe if you want it. It is totally delicious, and so easy to make.

Tomato Dill Soup

Saute 1 thinly sliced onion and 1 minced clove garlic in 2 tsp vegetable or olive oil and 1 tsp butter until tender. Add 3 large tomatoes, blended (or use 1- 28 oz can canned tomatoes. Don't use the juice but save it for later- This is what I used. It was way easier. All I did was stick those puppies in there and mash them up with the spoon.), a pinch of salt, and pepper to taste. (I used more salt as that's a lot of tomatoes.) Cook over medium high heat for 2 minutes or until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in 1 6-oz can tomato paste. In small bowl, combine 1/4 c flour and 1/2 c. water. Stir until smooth. Stir into pan. Add 2-3 cups sour cream (depending on your tastes) along with dill and onion powder to taste. Cook over low heat until heated through. Don't boil. (I accidently let it boil so had to add water to make it thinner. I wish I hadn't thrown out the tomato juice from the can so I could have used it, but the water worked great also.)

I also somehow managed to burn the tips of my fingers. No fingerprints for me, baby. Enjoy General Conference this weekend!!!

Menus and More

Inspired by friend Jennifer, I recently decided it was time to take menu planning into my daily routine. I made it up for the whole month, with the idea that it can be changed, but at least then it's done. It's hard to think of something new for each night... Since Michael brings his lunch each day and I eat lunch here, we figured what we had for dinner the previous night would become lunch for the next day. Also, I knew I'd be more inspired to follow the menu if I made it cute - note the Halloween theme.

Here's an up-close shot. I tried to include sides, although sometimes they look a little wonky. We went grocery shopping last night together (which was super nice) and bought only what we'll need for the week. It saved a lot of money, and since the food sounds really great, we were less tempted to buy junk.

This is definitely my favorite part of the menu. The bat turned out so cute!!

In other news, this is how I caught Andrew sleeping in his bouncy seat yesterday. Sooo comfortable. And no, his neck wasn't broken.

This is our front door. I just thought it looked pretty autumn-y. Yay fall!

My to do list yesterday. Note that the only thing marked off is "Get Dressed" and that the kid is lying naked on the ground. This was at 12:30... Oy vey. Most of that is done now, thankfully.

My feet look REALLY weird in this one. This was bedtime on Sunday.

An exceptionally cute smile from Andrew. Not a great shot, but he's such a happy little bugger.

I looked down and he and Grover were basically in the same position so I had to grab a shot. And yes, he's wearing undies. Those puppies are our prize possession.

Kool-Aid Kevin

Have you seen the Office? I love that show more than I should. Kevin is stinking hilarious - especially when he made his "Kool-Aid Man" face. I laughed for 10 minutes straight. No lie.
So, this is a stupid post, but hey....at least it's not about Andrew, eh? :)

A Little Glimpse

Here's a glimpse into our evening last night.

Exactly.

Except that milk was involved, so it was healthy.

Right?

All in the jeans

Seriously. Could he be any cuter?

Squashed and Stretched

This was the best lunch. I don't know when yellow squash started tasting so good, but...it does.

How did this onsie get so out of shape, you may ask?

How indeed.

Cause Daddy was in charge. That's why. Gotta love that funky outfit. :) And that fun daddy!

(Note the massive wet spot on the front of his onsie. Drool-machine strikes again!)

Fat Lip

Andrew was sleeping on my lap and I looked down and saw....

This. Fat little lips.

Halloween for a baby

I need a costume for Andrew for Halloween. I'm thinking a monster would be freaking awesome! I don't want to buy one, though which could cause a problem since I don't really sew... We have a sock monkey costume but I don't think it's going to fit... We also have a skeleton onsie... Help.

Beautiful food

We had a couple of people over for a Labor Day barbeque. I don't know what happened, but we ended up with SO much food. I mean, it was ridiculous. You'd pick something up and by the time you were finished with it, there was no spot for it anymore. It was the black-hole of foods. It was delicious, and I was really digging the beautiful colors!

We bought the biggest watermelon ever. Seriously, I cut up half of it, and it filled 2 big bowls and a large platter. Sheesh!

An amazingly fuzzy picture of our friends Natalie and Quentin. We had them over for our barbeque. Andrew loves those two. Everytime he sees Quentin, he smiles. We think they're pretty fun, too. :)

Salmon and corn on the grill.

Brat burgers, hot dogs, and amazing chicken. I just did a spice rub on it and let it sit for an hour before we grilled it and it was sooooooooo delicious! I call the burned hot dog!! I love my meat "hockey-puck style."

Tomatoes and cucumbers drizzled with a touch of Italian dressing. It would have looked better, but I was running out of time. I love the colors, though.

Grapes and strawberries. Mmmmmmm......

3 months

Figuring out he can turn in circles in his Johnny Jump-up now.

Rolling over! :)

Adoring his cousin Zach

Asleep in his swing. He wouldn't straighten up and had such an indention when he woke up!

"Woah. What are those things?!" He's slowly discovering that he has a body. :)

Probably the cutest daddy-baby shot we have! I love this picture!!!

Me and the cute little Jellybean

Please call off the papirazzi

Could he look any cuter in jeans?

Cute boys!!! I love those guys!

Creepy crawlies

I think I know what Bob Barker's #1 fear is.

Can you imagine? He dies and all of the sudden he hears...

BOB BARKER - COME ON DOWN!

I thought of that Sunday morning and it cracked me up. Ahem. Anyway, on to the post.

Today I was taking pictures of little Andy during his tummy time. I was thinking how great he was doing at holding himself up when all of the sudden I was realizing that he had flipped over on his back. He's like a trained dog! He can roll over! He looked quite as surprised as I did, then got a huge smile on his face. I cheered him on and he almost got back onto his tummy. I helped him out and there he went again! I was so proud of that little cutie. He then got a determined look on his face, saw his stuffed lamb, and got up on his little knees and army crawled toward it!!!! Now granted, this wasn't across the room or anything, but maybe a few inches. Still, I was totally impressed. Then he gave up and put his face in the blanket and kicked himself forward while dragging his face along, crying. Ah well, he is a baby after all! Pictures to come next post!

Primary Panic

Yesterday we had a combined 5th Sunday lesson in the chapel. Andrew started freaking out in the beginning of the meeting and I was actually in the mother's lounge for the whole meeting. I left just about as the Primary was let loose. They made a mad dash for the Relief Society room. When I turned the corner so I could see them, I saw a pretty good sized group of kids looking around confused. One little 5 year old girl (or so) turns to the group and says (much like Chicken Little), "The mommies are GONE!" with tears in her eyes. This sets off the other kids. I hurried over to avoid the possible freak-out session and explain where their mothers were. Kidnapped by aliens, of course.
It was hilarious.
In other news, I am REALLY digging The Princess Bride and totally recommend it! If you love the movie, you'll LOVE the book. But you don't have to take MY word on it.

Da duh duh!

Part 2

Taking a bath. He looks sooooo cute in that robe!

Another one. Diaper shot!

Using the bulb as a chew toy.... don't judge me.

Poor little sick-guy. I pretty much let him do anything he wanted...

such as watching the Dick Van Dyke show. I believe my exact words were, "This is against everything I wanted for you."

Notice that Michael isn't in any of these shots? Michael started law school this week, so he's been studying at school all week. See you in 3 years, honey. :)