fun in the leaves

Most of the leaves have fallen off our maple tree in the front... so we decided to have a little fun in the leaves before we raked them up! How do you like the leaf in my hair??? new fashion statement maybe???

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

the recipe for the ganache is simple... it is 1 pint of heavy whipping cream and a little more than a bag of chocolate chips. When i looked up recipe's online they vary quite a bit.. some adding butter some adding honey.. some a pinch of salt... but this one is simple. Just heat up the whipping cream on the stove on LOW heat until it barely boils.. just barely. Then you pour it over the chocolate chips that are in a metal bowl and stir until it looks all chocolatey and lovely. Some recipes say you need to use the chocolate that is like 70 percent cacao ... but i just used semi sweet chips. try it it's yummy!! You can also just make a half batch if you prefer it makes quite a bit! Once it is totally cool you can also spread it like frosting!

Chocolate Ganache

I made this chocolate ganache frosting.... doesn't it look divine?? Desiree made the chocolate cake from scratch... Yummy chocolatey deliciousness!!!

Buster and Hannah's new pillows

I sewed some new pillows for Buster and Hannah... and they love them. I really don't like to sew and the lines are not very straight, but as long as they work..... I bought the material to make them the pillows as a cute thing for Christmas...but once i made them i wanted them to have them today. So here they are ... enjoying their early Christmas presents!!

A few more fall fotos...

Well we got some more fall pic.. but this time John was home. With John's lack of schedule, it's always a challenge to gets pics when he's home and when the weather is cooperating. But we did it~!!!! Voila!!!

Fall photos

i love fall photos... the colors are just gorgeous. Here are a few we took. Lindzi was not being very cooperative so we did our best. Click on the pics to enlarge them so you can see them better...

Trunk or treat party!

We had a great time at the trunk or treat party at our ward building. My friend Wendy and her kids came and my sister Brenda and her family came as well. John even made it to the party!! We were of course crayons and the crayon box.... we got quite a few compliments on our costumes.


Brooklyn was at a birthday party and missed the family picture.. but she got there later.

Wendy was a hippie, Lexis was a fairy, Sydney was the red queen and Thad was Slash from guns and roses.




mason enjoying the table...


There was a dessert contest and i got "best in ward" category. This is a pic of a kitty litter dessert.... ewwwww.... how can you even eat that????

Desi participated in the enchanted forest.... it was a shrek theme and she was one of the three little pigs.

Halloween/trunk or treat cake

here is my latest cake.... a halloween cake for the ward trunk or treat party! I think it turned out great! I was inspired by this cake... http://thecruetset.blogspot.com/2009/10/ta-da.html ... Obviously I changed it up a little... I didn't do the house because i didn't have gum paste to make the fondant stiffer so it would hold up. Plus i actually have never worked with gum paste yet... so i opted to do a cute spider and i am happy with how it turned out! We'll see what everyone else thinks of it at the trunk or treat!! keep reading for the corn maze post.....

cornmazin' fun!

Lindzi and Sydney on the animal train.


We went to the cornmaze on Thursday and had a blast! We played on all the fun rides and slides and then did the Edward cornmaze... We followed the map and didn't get lost!! My friend, Wendy and her kids came along too - we had a great time!


Me and Desi and Brooklyn at the top of the slide.


Brooklyn on the animal train



posin with the pumpkins!







Wendy and the llama





Lindzi going down the slide head first!!

Spooky Scary... no really really frightening!!

Being October and all, one might expect to see quite a few frightening things... spiders and such..... but one never expects to see this ......













Yep... look closely.. it's a BLACK WIDOW!!!! And yes it is on the bottom of Lindzi's shoe!!! And yes SHE KILLED IT BY HERSELF!!!! This is how it went down. I was about ten feet away from here working on the Halloween costumes and she was right by the garage door. The next thing she says is "Bug, Bug!" so i say "Oh do you see a bug?" without looking and assuming it was an ant or something. Then I do walk over to look and see a big spider move for just a fraction of a second.. i dont even get a good look at it because right then she STEPS on it!! I truly did not know till i looked at it on the bottom of her shoe that is was a black widow!!!! So scary! I think it must have come in from the garage somehow, since it was next to the garage door. A few years ago i found and caught one in the garage.. so i know they have been out there before. Yikes.. i guess we really need to clean out that garage!!!


Doesn't that spider just look horribly wrong on the bottom of a cutesy little rainbows and butterfly shoe??

Halloween costumes...

I have been working on our Halloween costumes on and off this week and last week.... can you guess what we are going to be????

Fun with cousins