I caught martha disease.

We had a little Halloween party on the weekend. And I caught Martha Stewart disease. I went a little overboard with the decorating of my tables and food, complete with little tags for each food item with silly Halloween style names. But I love Halloween! Here are some pictures so you can see what a big dork I am. Some of the food we had: witches brew soup (taco soup), bones (bread sticks with knots in the ends), mummy fingers (pigs in a blanket), and bat wings ( BBQ chicken wings).

Eye balls, compliments of the Martha Stewart Halloween spectacular I happened to see one night while switching through channels. Radishes and olives. They looked cooler in real life.
Severed hand punch, also looked cooler in read life.
Roman caught a little of the Martha disease too - he wanted to help decorate and put the little pumpkins up on the canisters all by himself. He was so proud of himself and kept admiring them all night.
The good stuff! Halloween popcorn from Kernels. Love this stuff. Mini chocolate cupcakes and spider cupcakes. Sugar cookies. Caramel apples. And tiger ice cream.
Here is a closeup of the caramel apples.
And the sugar cookies. I love the Wilton color flow icing mix. Fun to decorate with, but it doesn't taste as good as butter cream icing.
See, I told you I caught Martha Stewart disease. Don't worry it was short lived, I am back to living in my pajamas in a messy house and eating leftovers for dinner.

And because I love Halloween I guess I can add one more picture. I can't believe I am going to put up a picture of my seven week post baby haven't gotten on the treadmill yet can't stop eating Halloween candy legs in tight red spandex. But here you go. Our family Halloween costume. Roman had the pjs - they are a few sizes too small now, but we squished him in them anyway. My husband is the best husband in the whole entire world for getting into red tights and stuffing his belly for me! Thanks Brad!

bake to baking

I was about to say earlier this month, but it was actually last month - where does time go? I made a new york key cheesecake with key lime sour cream topping for my sisters birthday. I love any excuse to use my shinny red springform pan! I know the whipped cream little dots look a bit silly, I was in a hurry. But it was very yummy if I do say so myself.
And speaking of cheesecake, here is a recipe I would love to try. Strawberry cheesecake.

For Canadian Thanksgiving I made 2 pumpkin cheesecakes. One for each family dinner. I have to thank my aunt Shannon for this recipe. In our family it is known as pumpkin dessert - but for those who have no idea what pumpkin desert is, pumpkin cheesecake is the best way to describe it. Brad hates pumpkin anything so I made him his favorite, banana cream pie. I don't absolutely love pumpkin, but fall isn't fall without pumpkin dessert.
The other day I mixed up a big batch of sugar cookies and today I cut them out and baked them. Sugar cookies are my all time favorite. They are waiting in the freezer until Halloween gets closer and they can get decorated. So no pictures yet, but I will share the recipe. Got this one from Lindsay and it has become my number one sugar cookies recipe. It is very yummy. And it makes a pretty small batch - but you can easily double it too. Just make sure you don't cook them too long. Nothing is worse than a burnt sugar cookie!

Bake @350 F for 6-8 minutes. I do 6 min in my oven.
2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp milk
1 3/4 cups flour

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg, beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add along with milk.
Chill one hour. Roll and cut. Bake. Enjoy.

I just add everything but flour in my kitchen aid and mix it. Then when Roman hears it and comes running to help there is only the flour left to add. He still gets to help, but less mess for me. And the cookies turn out just fine.

Way back in the spring a friend of mine was watching Martha Stewart and was introduced to this little gem of a blog. Bakerella. Gem. Does anyone remember watching Jem and her Hologram band? Okay, back to the topic at hand... Bakerella and her super cool cupcake pops.
So Jen and I made some. With vanilla cake and icing. Turned out not too bad. But I would seriously love to learn how Bakerella gets hers to look so good and so smooth. Then I tried to make some myself with the only cake mix I had on hand. Cherry chip. Disgusting. So I gave up and just coveted that Bakerella coud make hers taste so good. But then October came around. And I thought little orange pumpkin pops would be so cute. Then I saw Bakerella's Halloween pops. And I was exctied. Then I remebered my huge failure. And I said no way. But then my sis in law Rhonda and her sis in law Lindsay made some. Chocolate with cream cheese icing. And apparently they were pretty dang good. So perphaps I can be tempted to try again. We will see. In the meantime check Bakerella out, make your own cupcake pops and tell me what you think, and what worked and what didn't! She has some dang good cupcake recipes on her blog too.

I'll leave you with one last cake.
Here is the diaper cake I made for my cousin's wife's shower and their cute little girl Brihanna. I think that is how they spell it. She was born the same day as Finn. Who by the way is 6 weeks tomorrow!
He was weighed and measured today. 23 1/2 inches long and 11 lbs 10 oz. So basically he grew 2 1/2 inches and gained 4 lbs. Which doesn't seem like a lot to me. But I have retired all his 0-3 month pjs. We think he is longer than Roman was at the same age. Yippie for me and my gigantic children. If I walk with a hunch back when I am old it will be from lugging my children around. But they are so cute so Iguess it will be worth it!

thankful for...

Thankful for a healthy baby boy. Thankful his cold is finally gone. Thankful he is taking a great nap right now!
Thankful these little brothers love each other so much already. Roman likes to share his toys with Finn while I am not looking.
Thankful for the priesthood in my home. For an amazing husband who honors me, his kids, and his priesthood. And for being able to have my amazing husband bless this cute baby boy.
We blessed Finn a little over a week ago. (I'm a little slow at getting a post up!)
Thankful for fun family times at the zoo. And fun times shopping with Val and Kate instead of Brad and Roman - much more fun to go with the girls!
Of course I wasn't thinking and didn't get pictures of Roman with his cousins at the zoo. The cousins he is so excited to see all the time. We are thankful for them too. And great aunts and uncles for out kids. Here is Brad and Finn and uncle Bryan and Jonas. Jonas was born 2 weeks before Finn. Their sister Rhonda had Eli about 2 months before. And brother Bob will add the fourth boy this year around Christmas time. I am sure these 4 little guys will be driving us crazy in a few years when the family is all together!
Thankful my great husband didn't get mad at me when I dropped the camera at the zoo and broke the lens. Thankful he is buying me a new lens.

Thankful for great friends. Friends who even though we don't see each other hardly at all anymore are still great friends. Like Andrea. She is one of the most generous, genuine, happy people I know. And I am not just saying that because she sent me the most adorable baby gift for Finn! But that brings me to my next thankful, thankful that if you look hard you can find adorable clothes for little boys among the piles and piles of cute girl clothes out there. Like these cute boots and hat, with matching pants and shirt that I got in the mail yesterday from Andrea.
(Silly to add a thankful for baby clothes I know, but I just love baby clothes!)

Thankful for General Conference. To hear such inspired men teach us. Thankful for our prophet. Thankful the talks can be found on the internet and in the Ensign - a must have with Roman running around the house yelling and banging toys during every session.

Thankful that I am finally doing one thing right! There have been a few talks over the last few conferences about focusing on your children, leaving the housework and just enjoying them. I am glad to say this has always been the way I do things. But my mom may say it is because I am lazy! Still at least I am on the right track somewhere.

Thankful that blogger lets me save posts so I can come back to them since I started this post on Monday and am finally done it on Thursday!