I am Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving 2009.

Caramel Apple FAIL!

I thought it was brave of my good friend Laura to blog about her foodie fail: managing to mess up Macaroni and cheese! But then, she totally redeemed herself and made an amazing looking turkey.

So, I thought I would tough it out, and attempt to make Caramel Apples for Jack’s teachers using Hope Studio’s guidelines. She is either a food witch or way to crafty, because mine look like the ugly step-children of hers!

My fails:

#1: Each caramel was individually wrapped and a pain in the arse to unwrap! Plus, I had 6 big apples that required 2 bags of caramels. Really?!?
#2: I managed to burn off a few layers of skin whilst “testing the temperature” of the caramel…good to know: IT’S HOT!
#3: I am not a pretty dipper! Apparently, it’s like an art form or something!
#4: I didn’t grease my wax paper well enough, and that damn caramel is sticky! (Refer to #2 in which the caramel successfully removed layers of my skin!)
#5: My white chocolate didn’t melt well. I managed to burn the first batch, and the second batch was not as smooth as my chocolate, which made it look all jabberwocky! UGH!

Can I get an “E” for effort?!?! Hopefully, my Thanksgiving cooking will be more successful: sweet potatoes, the best 7 layer salad ever (seriously, this is like all I eat on Thanksgiving!), and a secret dessert that I’m not telling my mom and sister about so I’ll talk about it more next week! ;)

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Our Saturday...

Our Saturday was full! Full like a bag of wet leaves. An appropriate analogy seeing as the better part of our Saturday consisted of blowing, raking, funneling, stuffing, bagging, dragging, hauling, all of the leaves from our yard.

Here's Jim looking misleadingly happy...actually, scratch that...he probably was happy because it was the last bag!

Luckily, it was an awesome day outside…and I always complain that Jim and I never spend any quality time together…well, we got it. :)

35, count 'em...THIRTY-FIVE bags of leaves!

And I felt it necessary to demonstrate what a dirty job this was. My hands were (and possibly still are) stained orange, along with my shirt, and the look was complete with dirt under the fingernails. (I'm sure Carey will think it's gross that I showed this, but whatever, Care!)


Oh, and our biggest tree, has barely begun to drop leaves, so we will have a bunch more to come. (Check back for the sequel!)

jack and elmo

Wish I was here...

Christmas Photo Shoot...

I can't believe that Christmas is going to be here before we know it! I'm trying to get things done ahead of time to avoid stress, which includes our family Christmas cards!

So this weekend we had an appointment at the Picture People, and the result...a complete FAIL! Jack cried the entire time we were there, so needless-to-say, we did not take family pictures!

But if I'm looking for an upside, it's that we got to have a photo-shoot day at home, and Jack loved every minute of it. He's my handsome little model who loves hims chocolate milk and Big Bird!

Photo-Op

While visiting the playground on an unseasonably-warm Fall day, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take some pictures.

I felt the results perfectly illustrate why I take pictures the way I do. I SNAP-SNAP-SNAP in a rapid-fire succession while doing anything to draw Jack’s attention to the camera. (most people Jim is highly annoyed by this!) BUT, this is why I take roughly 100 pictures on any given day; because if I take 100, chances are at least 1 will be a perfect, smiley keeper! That's a 1% chance people...

But, the “outtakes”, well, their gems in their own right…

Here's Jack demonstrating his new "Funny Face"! Oh I just love it, but he thinks he's supposed to do this whenever he's in front of a camera now....uh oh!

Ahhhhhhhh!

fall...

Picture day success!

We got Jack's first "school" pictures back and they are awesome! I love, love, love them! Remember that morning was a rough one, but this is just perfect!


I was so proud of him when I saw how perfectly they turned out and when Jack saw them, all he could say is, "What's that?!" over and over again as he pointed to his pirate sweater on every picture! :)

Mustache-Montage!

For Halloween, Jim and I were co-pilots...and to keep his part authentic, Jim grew a mustache! I felt it only appropriate to document the 1.5 days of "the 'stache" with plenty of pictures.


Without further ado, I give you... Jim's Mustache-Montage!



(During the "growing out" phase...he rocked the beard for a good week and a half!)


Hmmm, this looks like Jim's model pose that he SO loves to do!

It was fun (funny) while it lasted, but it was gone the first chance he could get...now I'll just have to think of more costumes that involve mustaches in the future for 3 reasons:

#1: I personally like the "growing out" phase.

#2: I think his 'stache is hilarious, and somewhat creepy.

#3: I like to watch him be uncomfortable and slightly embarassed in public.

Love you! 24~15

Tub Time!

Jack and Ava finally got to play in the tub together (Jack was a little intimidated by the massive tub at Grandpa's on our last attempt)! And of course, I took plenty of pictures to use as embarrassment for years to come...but c'mon: they're too cute!

They "cooked" soup...

And made silly faces...

And had fun playing together...

Just look at their happy faces!

The best part was when I told Jack to give Ava a kiss...her face is priceless!