The Deadliest Catch

Okay so these pictures are in reverse order but I'm too tired to switch them. Here is Baby George aka Miles and Logan. Logan thinks every monkey is George or maybe he just thinks anything that looks like a monkey is called George. He loves to play with his cousin, give him kisses, hold him and also step on him. Sorry Miles.

Here are my two of my favorite dinner buddies, Sookie Stackhouse and Jared. Sorry Jared couldn't come up with a creative name. If you couldn't tell from the earlier picture, Logan was a shark. Tad and I were fishermen. Sorry Tad this was the best picture I could find.

At our ward trunk or treat we had a chili cookoff and Brittany won the Judge's Choice Award. I had her chili and it was very yummy. Different from your regular chili, it was a sweet chili and it had bacon. Yum. I made sure I had Brittany's chili because I honestly had nightmares about this chili cookoff (just think Wendy's chili with the finger in it).

Earlier in the day we had a party with the cloggers. Check out how cute Baby C is. He is only 4 months and he has so much hair like his big sister did. In case you didn't know this is Logan's future brother-in-law and he was Elvis for Halloween.

So that was our Halloween. It was super fun and I didn't really get many good photos so this will have to do. Oh, we did go to this house above Davis Blvd. that was all decked out. It was really cool and next year I'll have to post the address because it was awesome.

Park Leaves

The park right by our house has the best trees that drop their leaves all within a week and usually in early October. I noticed Fall was about 2 weeks late this year, I'm thinking that's because of all the rain in June that those leaves held on a little longer. Yes, I'm a dork and keep track of exactly when leaves fall and other gardening things that occur.

Well Logan had been shut in too long so we went down and played in the leaves. No the leaves on our big trees don't usually fall till late November-early December. Uggh. Not sure what Logan's doing in this first picture. I'm betting he just got done picking his nose or something.

He's such a funny guy right now. His vocabulary is growing every day. I just laugh because you never know what is going to come out of that mouth.

Also someone commented that I got good photos of him at the pumpkin patch. I didn't really. 90% of them are of his back side because he's always running away, I just happened to get two that were somewhat of his face. You have to be very very quick.

I love that these trees just drop all their leaves all at once so there is just tons and tons of leaves everywhere.

Uncle and Aunt Photos

My Uncle and Aunt came down from Idaho to go to Lagoon and get some updated photos for their adoption profile. No pressure or anything since it's only the photo that birth parents look at when making the initial selection process. Yikes. So we went to the park behind Lagoon to take photos and we kept thinking the rain would let up. Nope, it just dumped the entire time. Tad was great and came with me so he could hold the umbrella and then hurry and take it away while I'd take a shot then hand it back.

It was fun to visit with them and I just hope they get a baby real soon.

Surprise Brek!

Saturday we had a surprise pampering party for Brek. She's expecting her 3rd boy. I knew that Brek hasn't been enjoying being pregnant so much (who does?), so we planned a fun day for her.

Well I'm not a spa type person so I couldn't figure out what to do. Brittany was in charge of planning the menu since her food is always amazing. She made her taco soup. I made preggatinis. For the recipe go here.

Everyone was teasing me because everything I do right now comes from a blog. It's totally true. Part of the reason I wanted to do this shower was so I could do some decorations. Right now I'm totally into pennant garlands and tissue paper pom poms. Right now if you look at any party/wedding blogs you'll find them there.

So for these ideas I'll just give you links to two of my favorite blogs that I check daily.

Style Me Pretty

Hostess with the Mostess

Then I threw together these gift bags that I saw on Flickr from one of my favorite scrapbookers, Tara Anderson. She seriously does the most amazing paper flowers ever. Here is a link to her adorable gift bags or check out her blog for more amazing ideas - the pink couch.We also did glitter toes. No I'm not going to give you a shot of feet, that's gross. This idea I first got from Aisha. Then I saw instructions posted on one of my favorite blogs that I began checking out for YW stuff but now read every day just because the writer is so creative. So for instructions on glitter toes go here. Oh and I so wasn't going to post this picture but it's the only one I have of people. Don't hate. We also made Heather Bailey Fabric Flowers. I read her site all the time but I found out from her site she was on Studio 5 and that is where I took her fabric flower tutorial. So there you go, those are all the details for the shower, I'm not creative at all I just look at too many blogs.

Now I have to go because I need to get back to my Mr. Darcy.

Lucky Pumpkins

Well I now feel safe talking about this. The day that we left for Florida, I was checking my usual blogs and when I got to my favorite Utah blog, Your Heart Out. I noticed I had won their drawing. Now this isn't just a little prize, this is a spot at Spark Event. My favorite scrapbooker will be there, Elizabeth Kartchner. I'm so excited because there is no way I could have afforded to go. I'm so excited. They finally contacted me this week so now I feel safe to talk about it.

Since I can't post without a picture here are some photos from our recent trip to the pumpkin patch. We went up to Pack Farms. Logan went around saying pumpkin (said in your most hillbilly voice). Thank you Elmo for teaching him to say it like that.

Beach Photos

While we were in Florida I had the opportunity to take pictures of Teisha's family. I'm posting these in case there is one person out there who didn't see them on Teisha's site.

There is a photographer that I follow who takes amazing beach photos. After taking these photos I'm almost convinced that it's impossible to take bad pictures at the beach. I loved how all of their photos turned out. It might just be the subjects because I've taken lots of photos of A&A and they just don't take bad photos. How perfect was this background, a boat on the side, lifeguard station and lone palm tree. Loved the pier in the background for Aidan's photos. I even liked some photos that we were in so maybe it is just the beach location that gives you great pictures.

Greek Souvlaki

I'm sure I've said this on here before but I could eat a Greek salad for lunch every day if I had to. I love them. Here is a photo of the one from Crown Burger. It's so good and I probably

have it at least once a week.

Another place that has really good Greek is Greek Souvlaki No. 1. This is just half of their Chicken Souvlaki Plate. Aisha and I like to go there and then split the plate.

So I've been trying to find the perfect souvlaki recipe so I can just pack my own salad (that and I also have a brick of 2 1/2 lbs. of feta in my fridge). So here is a recipe I found that was really good. I found it here - I just modified it because most recipes call for less olive oil.

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Marinade:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 T red wine vinegar

1 T finely minced garlic (or garlic puree from a jar)

1 T dried oregano

1 tsp. dried thyme

Trim all visible fat from chicken breasts. Then cut chicken breasts into strips. Combine all marinade ingredients and place in either a ziplock bag or airtight container. Add chicken to marinade. Make sure all chicken gets coated with marinade and store in the fridge for at least 8 hours.

Remove chicken from marinade and thread onto skewers (we were really lazy and just cooked them directly on the grill). Then eat. If you want more detailed instructions check the link I posted above.