Trick or Treat!

  Happy Halloween!!

This was Ryder's second Halloween and first time trick or treating.  He didn't really understand what we were doing, but he definitely caught on pretty quick that everytime we went to a door, they gave him free candy!  He liked that a lot.  It wasn't that cold at all, and we went around our neighborhood for about an hour.  It was so much fun.  It made me feel like a kid again!  I think next year will be even better because he will definitely understand more what to do.

 Blue fuzzy monster

 

Ryder was anxious to get outside

He was so mad that we were trying to take pictures!

As soon as we got outside, he was HAPPY!

 He was so cute walking along.  Kevin joined us after taking these pictures.

 I made his first candy bag for him.  I made it out of an old pair of pants!

This is all of Ryder's candy.  He got quite the stash for a one year old, not to mention a bunch of full size candy bars!  He's definitely going to be sharing almost all of it with me and Kevin.  There's no way I'm letting him have all that sugar.  Plus, I have to share his candy now before he is old enough to realize it!

Halloween Party

We had our annual Halloween party on Saturday the 29th this year.  It's was sort of a 50's theme.  I have so much fun planning this every year.  I start in August!  I LOVE Halloween!  Christmas is still my favorite holiday, but Halloween is very close behind it!  It is always so fun to have our families come and hang out and I'm glad they come, even if just to humor me :)  We missed a bunch of people this year, hopefully they can come next time!

 

I had a lot of fun making Halloween crafts this year.  This picture shows some of the crafts/decorations I made.  I made scratch off tickets for everyone to see how much extra candy they won for their treat bags.  I was able to find a bunch of "vintage" candy, so it was cool to have that.

 This shows some of the other decor for the party

 

Of course we had some yummy treats.  We had some chicken pot pie dinner, salad, fruits and veggies, popcorn, and lots of sweets!  There were cake balls made by Jeannine, apple cider, mini caramel apples, whoopie pies, and cupcakes.  The cupcakes were my favorite!  They were browned butter pumpkin cake with salted caramel frosting. 

 And we couldn't have a Halloween party without some awesome costumes!  Since the party was 1950's themed, some people followed that theme, but you certainly didn't have to. Chad and Jeannine went all out for their costumes as Batwoman and the Joker and I loved it!  Ryder was pretty freaked out by both of them, but especially Grandpa!  If you are wondering what my dad was dressed as, he was a "black eye" haha!

I sure do love doing this party every year, but it's a ton of work and by the time it comes and goes, I'm pretty glad it over :)

Happy Birthday to My Hubby!

Happy Birthday to my eternal sweetheart!  Kevin turned 26 today!  It was a  low key birthday this year since I was feeling under the weather.  I made him breakfast in bed, German pancakes, our favorite.  Then he got to open some presents which included a gift certificate to an online tie store, 2 movie tickets, a shirt that made for him, and a new laptop!  We went and got noodles and company for dinner and Jamba Juice as a treat.  Then we came home and had cupcakes and watched a movie on his new laptop.  I love you so much and couldn't think of a better soul mate to have!

 The shirt I made for Kevin.  I think it turned out pretty good.  We went to the store today, and some random guy we don't know came up to Kevin and said, "Hey man, nice shirt!"  How many times do guys compliment a guy they don't know?  Also, a lady ringing Kevin up at the store told Kevin she thought his shirt was cool. So that made me and Kevin pretty happy :)

The cupcakes I made for Kevin were a recipe I let him pick out from Pinterest.  They are called Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes.  They actually have brownie batter in the middle of the cupcake batter.  Also, the frosting was my favorite chocolate frosting I have ever had.  It has 5 cubes of butter in it, need I say more? I love cupcakes, seriously love all things sugar, and these cupcakes nearly put me in a chocolate coma...  they are extremely rich!  I could only finish half.  Here's the link to the recipe: 

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-recipes/brownie-batter-chocolate-fudge-cupcakes.html

Cute little Bum

Ryder got quite the stomach bug this week, and he was pretty miserable!  One night we were up all night because he was had diarrhea every half hour or so.  It was so sad and I was crying right along with him because I hate feeling so helpless.  There wasn't anything I could do to stop it.  All I could do was rock him and tell him I love him (and change his diaper a million times...)  I caught whatever he had but I didn't get it nearly as bad.  Just a little nausea.  He is doing much better and I'm so thankful!  Toward the end of the week, he was getting better, but his poor little rear end was pretty sore from the week, so I let him run around without his diaper on to "air him out".  He thought it was pretty awesome!  At one point he climbed up on the piano bench and started playing on the piano.  It was too cute not to take some pictures! 

Beautiful Autumn Day!

The other morning, I went outside to get the mail, and this is what I saw...

The pictures don't do it justice.  It was breathtaking though! The mountains so colorful, the sun shining through the clouds... What a beautiful world we live in!

Fun Weekend

This past weekend was really fun.  Kevin was on Fall Break from school and also didn't have to work, so we got to have a three day weekend with him! 

Ryder helping Kevin fix the entertainment center

The weather lately has been absolutely gorgeous!  We have been seeing a ton of color on the mountains since all the leaves are changing colors.  We decided to go for a drive up the canyon.  It was so beautiful!  The leaves were so vibrant, especially the higher up we got.  A little lower down the canyon, we stopped and went for a little walk.  Ryder LOVES everything about being outdoors, so he was in heaven. 

There was this ramp with just a slight slope, and Ryder loved running down...

 

and going back up...

and running down again. He did that about 30 times.

That evening, we went down to Orem to spend some time with my family and to see my Grandma and Grandpa Stibal who came to visit from Idaho.  It was really fun to see them, especially since they didn't get to see Ryder last time they were down.  He was still in the hospital.

Without planning it, all the cousins were wearing stripes.  How cute!

On Saturday, we woke up early and went to the downtown farmer's market.  I love farmer's market and the one in downtown Salt Lake is my favorite.  It's so fun just to walk around, even if you don't buy anything.  It was perfect weather.  We got some ciabatta bread, Italian herb bread, garden fresh salsa, corn salsa, cinnamon honey butter (SO GOOD), some homemade fresh mozzarella cheese, a basket of pears, and some tomatoes.  It was all so yummy!

Saturday night we went down to Orem again.  We went out to eat at Cafe Rio with my family, my Grandma and Grandpa Stibal, my aunt Shauna, and my cousin Lindy and her husband Mike.  It was a lot of fun. 

Grandma and Grandpa Stibal with the great grand kids.  We sure love and miss them!