Captain?

For those of you who grew up watching Sesame Street, you may have seen this lovely character - Captain Vegetable.

For those of you who watch Monk, you may know this guy - Captain Stottlemeyer.

Yes. It is he - Captain Vegetable.

I contend they are basically the same person.

Am I the only one who thinks they sound and look a lot alike?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmjLqddPqZQ

See the above link for the Captain Vegetable song (for those of you poor souls who managed to grow up in this cruel world without our noble hero.) I couldn't find any clips of Stottlemeyer, but you can go to www.hulu.com and watch him there.

Seriously. I'd pay good money to hear that actor sing that song.

Jeepers Creepers

What's creepy you may be asking? How about this old ad? Great googily moogily.

Anyone else have an imagination that runs wild every once in awhile? I HATE being home alone for that very reason. (And cause I like Mike a lot.) I also hate when my cell phone will turn on for no reason at all. No call coming in, no text, nothing. C-R-E-E-P-Y. But it's really not. I think I just need to turn on some more lights. Sheesh. It's only 2:45 p.m.

Can anyone say "chicken baby"?

Pre-Halloween

We've had a little pre-Halloween fun lately. A family from the ward threw a Halloween party last Saturday that was pretty neat. She had all kinds of food and decorations, and tons of little kids dressed up. So, we had to dress Andrew up, of course. He was a teddy bear. This was taken at the Bells right before we all headed over. Note the adorable little tail.

The best part of this outfit was that it cost a total of 50 cents. I made the hat and scarf, and bought a teddy bear at Goodwill and cut off an arm (for the tail - I just rolled it up and sewed it into a ball) and the two feet (for the ears). Easy, and OH so cute. Seriously. Who could resist this kid? I can't wait to dress him up on Friday and then again on Saturday. :)

We had the Bells over on Thursday for chicken nachos (which were awesome - just bought some nacho cheese, cooked up some chicken with taco seasoning, and added other nacho-ish type stuff. Yum.) and pumpkin carving! This is Michael's pumpkin. It pretty much cracked us up.

Here's a shot of us all doing our pumpkins. If Quentin looks less than enthused, that's probably because we think he got carpal tunnel syndrome from cutting out his pumpkin. :) It took a while to do, but turned out great!

Here are our pumpkins. From left to right: Mike, Karen, Natalie, and Quentin.

I made the little pumpkin to go inside Mike's. :) My pumpkin is an Andrew pumpkin. It's kind of remarkable how much it looks like him, honestly. Natalie's is obviously a witch, and it looks awesome! The creepy one is Quentin's. Pretty intricate!

All of us with our awesome pumpkins!!!

Happy Early Halloween!!! :)

Activity Days

I was called as the Activity Days leader at church which is basically a group for 8-11 year old girls. Last night, we thought up some attributes we admire in others, and decided on one we would focus on this week. I brought some scrapbook paper and we made "At-tree-butes." Corny, I know, but they loved it.

Working on their trees.

A finished product.

The group.

Here are some quotes from the evening. Little girls are a crack-up.

"Your wish has been observed......and come true."

"This one looks like a Tinkerbell house!"

"The way to remember my name is to think of At Least, then change the at to El and there you go." (Her name is Elise.)

"If I were over 13, I would go over there and tell those boys to be quiet."

"I'm going to be very optomistic. Even though at school there's a boy that, unfortunately, I think is flirting with me."

So funny.

Sweet Pea

I know you were all dying to know what the boy was eating this week. I must appease his fans. It's sweet peas! He gave me a "Hey! What the crud is this stuff? I KNOW it's not bananas..." look after the first bite, but seems to really like them now.

When at all possible, I want to make his baby food, but I wasn't feeling up to it this week, so I bought a jar of peas. The only ingredients were: peas and water. Yippee! And no additives or preservatives, so that's a bonus as well.

This is his hat for Halloween. We were driving along and as we got home, we saw that it had gotten over his eyes. And yet he STILL didn't fuss. Gotta love that kid.

I think this is his 'What the heck" face.

66

Only 66 days until Christmas!

Woohoo!!

This Kid's Gone Bananas

Andrew has started eating bananas. He. Loves. Them. As soon as he sees me pick one up, his eyes light up, and his arms start flailing.

He's a mess, but we love him.

This picture was ridiculous. It just made me laugh. He looks like he's been drinking some fermented banana juice or something.

Here's why he gets so messy. He is good about getting the banana in his mouth, but bad at not pulling some out with his little hands....

He's started smiling with his tongue out like that. Even with a bib and face full of a nasty spit/banana mixutre, he's adorable.

What can I say? The kid's just sweet. And when did he start looking like a big kid?

Don't wanna

I don't feel like doing anything. Had those days? And Andrew's decided that 15 minute naps should be sufficient. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

World's Biggest Fan

Yesterday was Quentin's birthday. If you don't know it already, Quentin is one of Andrew's favorite people of all time. Conveniently, his wife Natalie is also one of his favorites, so a night at the Bells is always an exciting experience for him. I made him a onsie that says, "The Quentin Bell Fan Club." He's the president. :)

Happy Birthday, Quentin!!!

Here's a picture of our buddies. We're so glad to have them, even if Butters eyes look slightly scary in this picture. Notice that Andrew is with the Bells. :)

A Smash

A Graveyard Smash, in fact. Inspired by Jeanette's JibJab Halloween hilarity, I decided to make my own. And yes, I did laugh really hard. And yes, Andrew did cry. Oopsie. Anyway, check it out. I put Aaron in there since he can't be here (mission) and was going to add Dustan as well (mission) but that picture of Sierra was too hilarious. And HOW CUTE does Andrew look?

Click Here.

Rice, Rice Baby

In our newest news, Andrew is now eating rice cereal! (No, that's not the box it comes in anymore. That would be cool, though...) He thinks it's the greatest thing since birth. His first "meal" was on Wednesday night.

The baby's reaction to his first few bites of solid food. (He was so excited, he lost a limb, apparently. His new name is Lil Brudder, the one legged dog.)

Waiting for me to give him some more. He cries between bites.

Looking nasty as all babies eating food do. And yet, adorable at the same time.

Bananas are next. :)

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.