Pumpkin Time!

This year I made Trevor carve pumpkins with me. I hate the yucky stuff you have to pull out, but that really doesn't ever stop me from wanting to carve a pumpkin each year. It is one of my favorite fall activities. I don't know if that is something that should fade as we get older, but it really hasn't for me. I really believe a lot of that has to do with my mom because she made each holiday so much fun, and so I get like a little kid around holidays. I love everything that comes with them, it's just that now I am the one putting in all the work. No more just sitting back and enjoying, but I am okay with that.

Although this year carving pumpkins wasn't as fun as always, due to the mumbling slash semi-growling husband that I was having him do it with a pattern and not on his own.....I think, no scratch that carving pumpkins will ALWAYS make me think of Trevor proposing to me. He carved will you marry me in a pumpkin two years ago on October 6th.

Like I said these weren't done freehand this year, but we didn't do any carving last year, and I have never been one to do anything remotely artistic freehand. My mom always bought us patterns, and that has worked out great. Trevor's pumpkin is the one with the spider on it. He complained about making one than hurry and finished long before I did. That is generally how we work though. (he finishes dinner and waits for slow methodical me) I can't wait to have kids to carve pumpkins with. I love driving by people houses that have like 5 different pumpkins out.

Happy Halloween everybody!

I Love Food Network

As many of you know, I am the pickiest eater ever! Which is really quite the opposite of what my title means. One of my favorite things to watch is the food network channel! I love the smell of food, and the way food looks but I don't like the way a lot of it tastes. One of the other things I like to do, is scour the internet for recipes. I usually won't try many of them because of the picky-ness, but I like to look anyway. There are only two things that I am willing to try almost always and that is any kind of bread, or any kind of sweets.

My mom has a great sugar cookie recipe, but for some reason I can never make the icing turn out very good, and I found this recipe last friday. Sunday I tried it out and it was SOOOO good (that is, if you like orange flavored stuff)! I highly recommend this recipe for your cookies, cupcakes, or cake. It's great. The only thing I did different was add a little more orange juice than it calls for.

Orange Cream-Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick), softened
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon orange food coloring

Directions:
Make the frosting: Blend the cream cheese, butter, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla in a large bowl, using an electric mixer set at medium speed, until smooth. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and creamy about 3 more minutes. Add the food coloring and gently stir until the color is uniform. Chill the frosting until ready to ice the cupcakes or cake.

Nutritional Information
1 serving: Calories 256; Carbohydrates 41g; Cholesterol 31mg; Fat 10g; Sodium 57mg

This is so, so, so good!

The Small Things in Life

One of my favorite things is the sunsets in Arizona. I don't think they get much prettier anywhere else. One day as I was driving by our rain-made lake I saw such a nice site. I love our new lake all the time, but it was particularly nice this day. I don't think in my whole life I have ever stopped to actually watch a sunset, because I didn't realize how fast they change. I stood on the side of the road trying to get the best picture possible, and it changed between each shot. This one is my favorite.

Not much else is going on in our busy lives right now. Wake-up, work, come home, eat dinner, sleep, and then start all over again the next day. If anything else comes up to change our daily pace, I'll post, but until then you get to look at what I see everyday!

My little Buddy!

I just love my cousin, Julie's baby. She is one of my favorite people in the whole world! Sometimes when I see her and she grins I like to think that next to her mom and dad I am her favorite person. I know that this isn't true, but she is just so dang good that it makes me think it's 'cause she just simply likes me so much. In reality, she just really is that great of a baby. I can only hope that we someday have a girl that is as sweet as little miss Kaitlyn.

If you have been on Julie's blog lately you have already seen a bunch of the pictures of her that we took just playing around the day. Eventually we are going to try and take the time to take some really good pictures of her with my nice camera and in better lighting and everything.

This other picture were taken on the first day that Kaitlyn ever got in her crib! Julie and Butch had just moved into their house and her crib was finally set up with her cute bedding and everything. Of course she was wide awake and we just played peek-a-boo, but she loved it!

Coronado Island

One of my favorite places we went besides the beach on our vacation was Coronado Island. We didn't stop or do anything there, but it was a pretty cool place. To get to the Island you have to go across the Coronado bridge. It is a two mile bridge with a 200 foot clearance for even the biggest ships to go under. It is crazy.

Part of the reason that I liked this island so much, was because of how pretty it was! As we drove all over the place in San Diego we took in a lot of sites, and looked at a lot of homes. Although there was a lot of pretty things, we were amazed at how run down a lot of the places are. San Diego is beautiful...but not everywhere. It is a lot different than you expect if you have never been there.

The homes and yards of the people on Coronado Island were so different. They actually had a yard to start with. Everywhere you went we saw a lot of military too, because there are bases like right there. A lot of the yards had big bushes of hydrangeas that I loved!

The last and probably coolest thing there was the Hotel del Coronado. We saw this huge building, but didn't really know what it was. We figured it was a hotel, but it wasn't until we got home from our trip that I looked it up on the internet and found out about it. It is a hotel built over 115 years ago, and still standing. I took this picture while driving by but it just doesn't do it justice! It covers 33 acres of beach front property, has boutiques, restaurants, and an ice skating rink...not to mention a couple of haunted rooms! U.S. presidents, a King, Marilyn Monroe, and Thomas Edison are just a few of the famous people that have stayed here! It is so crazy. Next time we are in San Diego (if there is ever a next time) this hotel is definetly a place I would like to check out better. If you want to get a better picture of it check out their website: http://www.hoteldel.com/ . It is worth looking at, if you like history like I do!