The Charons

Things that made me smile this week: 1. Two kiddies sitting on a wall. 2. Riley drawing trucks on my grocery list. Love my life!

I finally finished putting up the Halloween decorations, I know, jut in time to take them down in a week, but you know what they say. Better late than never! The Banner we made at Super Saturday, the Wreath is just a metal wreath form from Michael's, and LOTS of stripes of black fabric. Add some googly eyes and you are done! The bats are just paper, bent in half and stapled to the wall, (don't tell David!). Easy, easy!!

...Princess "bigbottom" that is. Keagan before Conference talked Maddy into taking up the "rear" of her blanket, literally. The giggles that were coming out of these two girls will never be forgotten. Love.

You start with the jars. I love the look of the short fat ones :) Then you get all of these ingredients out to make some mouth watering crunchy apple dip. (Keep scrolling down for the recipe). Then you get the biggest apples you can find, these were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive, like $2.97 a lb expensive. Anyways... I am sure any, cheaper apple will do. Voile'! Aren't they cute. I included a gift tag with a gift card inside! Here is the Crunchy Apple Dip Recipe: 1- 8oz block of cream cheese 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract (I know it's not the in picture, I forgot.) 1/4 cup + some Heath Bar Brick o bits. I can ONLY find these at Walmart, of all places. Mix everything EXCEPT the Brick o bits until creamy. Add the bits and hand stir. I piped them into the jars so I wouldn't get the tops all sloppy. (those short, fat jars deserve better than that). I added some extra Brick o bits to the top to make it look cuter. The recipe made enough for 4 jars. no more, no less. Ok I confess, I licked the beaters, but I wasn't about to take the time to spatula them clean, duh!

Since here in AZ we are still supporting 100+ degree days (don't get me started) we decided to sweat it out and play in our backyard for a bit. My kids have enjoyed hours of fun on our playhouse/swing set. If you are ever out in our neck of the woods stop on by, we would love the company!

I made a new decoration to go with our Halloween stuff. It was actually not as bad as what I would have thought. Here's a step by step: 1. Go dig out three paints that resemble candy corn colors, and a black for the polka dots. 2. Cut burlap into banner size, cut them bigger than what you want the finished product, believe me, you will thank me later. 3. Paint the burlap, the edges will become frayed, don't worry about it, because hopefully you followed step 2. 4. using he end of a new pencil, stamp your dots all over the place. 5. go back and re-cut your burlap to the size you want. 6. fold down the top and zig-zag stitch onto some twine. 7. Put it up in your house and the envy of ALL your friends, um, ya, you're right, that last part probably won't happen :). Here's a bonus picture of our front yard... I just love the orange lights. Sorry neighbors!

Some old jars + Winco candy bulk bins = One awesome way to get kids to listen during conference :) Every time the kids hear the word on a specific jar they get to take one of the candies. I can't tell you how well this worked last year, I was amazed at how well the kids actually listened. Hope your conference weekend is filled with cinnamon rolls, relaxing and spiritual uplifting :)

One of the many blessings we enjoy every day is our backyard. I can't tell you enough what a blessing this house has been for our family, and the backyard has provided us with endless nights of laughs and fun. We had a family work day last week and we pruned all the fruit trees and David mowed and trimmed the yard. Keagan was under the weather so she stayed in and organized the DVD cabinet (a girl after my own heart :). We are now getting into cooler temps (fingers crossed) so plan on seeing many more posts about this great space!

In the minute that my Mom was here visiting we managed to make a handful of new pillows for my very boring couch. Well, actually she was here a little over 24 hours, but 7 of those were for sleeping :). Mom, thanks for making the trip, loved having you, please come back again, but stay longer next time, ok. :)