Happy Halloween!

 Henry is obsessed with Halloween.

 I am very happy this day has finally come so we can move on to other things. He has wanted to be a werewolf for months after hours of watching Alvin and the Werewolf on netflix. Luckily werewolf costumes are super easy to throw together and I had a lot of fun coming up with outfits for my Werewolf and Son. In our quest for family themes, I was the gypsy from Wolfman.

 We had a lot of fun at our ward trunk or treat. There was a yummy soup, chili and salad bar, cookie decorating, coloring and a costume parade.

 Henry loves being on the stage. He was more than happy to sneak through the curtains and rawr on at the crowd before his turn. Doesn't he look so old? Its crazy.

 Halloween morning we had ghost pancakes with chocolate chips! Of course someone didn't want to eat any of it. Sigh. Henry sucks at eating these days.

 For our costumes we lucked out and found his shirt, jeans and my skirt at a thrift store for $3 total. $4 of fur completed the look with clearance glow in the dark fangs. I love cheap costumes since its only for one day. I ripped the hole in his jeans and sewed in his furry knee, fur cuffs and chest hair were simple to sew in. For his shoes, I molded the fur to his shoe and then sewed them into his pants. An elastic band at the back helps hold them in place.

 Henry loved doing the hair and makeup. He thought the hairspray tickled and he wanted to "help" apply his furry makeup. I just used my own brown eye shadows and liners to make his hairy face.

 Roar!

Can't wait to trick or treat tonight and hear about Henry's preschool party. And eat lots of candy.

being awesome

So this is my 1000th post. Didn't even know I was that close. Wow. I kind of can't believe its been almost 7 years and 1000 posts. That's a lot of my ramblings out there in the world wide web. 

I read my email first thing in the morning. At 6:00 am as I am mentally awakening to go to seminary, I check all my social media and gmail. It helps my brain to start functioning. The other day I was happy to see an email from my friend Andrea who recently moved to Washington. Among the fun updates of her life she mentioned that she had recently recommited to being awesome. It put a smile on my face and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I hope she doesn't mind but I made a free printable quoting her wise words and spirited pursuit. You can download it here.

In thinking about this I have come to the following conclusions. Everyone is awesome. I am awesome but how much effort am I really putting into being my best. There is a balance in life. Sometimes I am super awesome at doing one thing while others get neglected. I am awesome at creating balanced and varied meals but I have been wearing the same over-sized cardigan everyday for the past week. I am awesome at going to the gym but my house cleaning is meh. I am awesome at being a mom but I haven't put on makeup or done my hair in days.

So today I am going to recommit to being awesome. I'm going to find something I have been neglecting and be AWESOME. Thanks Andrea for inspiring me to always be improving. 

how are you going to be awesome today?

bexcaliber: deck the halls

I know Halloween is this week but you can start thinking about christmas decorations now, right? My new line is done and available in the shop.

Find all my holiday pillow covers here. 

bexcaliber: room boards, follow the yellow brick road

Emerald is Pantone's color of the year and since the announcement I have seen all sorts of beautiful green things popping up. How awesome would it be to have a delicious green couch?

I love this one from IKEA. And while it is trendy now, I could see it wearing well and being usable for years. I thought building a room around emerald would be a fun challenge and it was made easy with crisp black and white accents. A natural wooden table warms things up and a few colorful pieces add variety. The abacus print can be the jumping off point to lots of other color additions. A warm rust would work in the fall and then brighter yellows for spring. And how cool could this work at Christmas time?

Follow the yellow brick road...

Emerald Couch / Green Mirror / Golden Feather Pillow / White and grey armchair / Abstract Drawing / Diamond Curtains / Black Frame / Emerald Floral Pillow Cover / Black Rug / Library Table / Abacus Print / Yellow Lamp

eaten: cinnamon apple chimichangas

When you come home with a peck of apples, desserts will have to be made. We picked a variety of apples; some for eating and some for baking. A pie was made, what next?

I had Steve choose between an apple crisp or these apple chimichangas for dessert on Sunday and he chose the chimichangas. Since there are only two of us (Henry was asleep when this went down), I halved the recipe and made two biggish burritos with large flour tortillas instead of the little ones they used in the recipe. They reminded me of a quick and easy fried pie.

The filling turned out delicious, gooey and sweet and with just the right glaze to apple ratio. I thought it was unnecessary to have the filling cool. That was Steve's only complaint is that he wished they had been warmer. Once you're frying the tortillas, it really goes fast and they don't stay in the pan long enough to rewarm the filling. But overall we devoured them with ice cream.

Cinnamon Apple Chimichangas

Recipe and Picture from JCocina

Ingredients

For the Apple Pie Filling

• 4 baking apples, peeled and chopped (I used a mix of granny smith and rome apples)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice

For the Chimichangas

• 8-10 small tortillas
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs. cinnamon
• Oil for frying

Instructions

For the Apple Pie Filling

Combine the water, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for approximately 3 minutes, or until the mixture becomes very thick.

Add the chopped apples and reduce to a simmer. Allow the apple mixture to simmer until the apples become just tender (approximately 10 minutes). Allow the mixture to cool.

For the Chimichangas

Mix cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside. Spoon apple pie filling across the bottom 1/3 of the tortilla.

Roll in both sides of the tortilla before rolling up the bottom of the tortilla over the filling, and then continue to roll the tortilla up like a burrito.

Meanwhile, heat a small skillet with 1/2 an inch of oil. Once oil is hot, fry the chimichangas on all sides until the tortilla turns golden brown. (approximately 30 seconds on each side) Remove the chimichangas to a paper towel-lined plate and allow to drain briefly. Immediately roll the warm chimichanga in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat and serve.

Pumpkin Patch

 Monday had us venturing out for our annual pumpkin patch tradition. We go to the Winterville Baptist Church because it is the perfect sized patch with pumpkins on pallets. Its also close to our home and great to support local churches.

 To say Henry loved it would be an understatement. He was filled with so much excitement he hardly stopped to breathe, hence all the blurry action shots. But Henry does love pumpkins and had lots of fun running around and choosing two little ones to take home.

 I love strange and bumpy ones. If we had lots of extra money and a huge porch, I would cover it with all the oddballs. Henry calls these ones "broken" pumpkins.

 We had $2 cash so Henry got to choose two tiny ones or one small one. Here are the two tiny ones he chose. We went to walmart too and bought big ones because they were on sale. His tiny ones came with a sticker sheet of faces which he proudly put on his pumpkins before bed. He also woke up in the night to "look at his pumpkins" which is what he told me. Yikes.

 Here is Henry as we've gone to this pumpkin patch each year. Sometimes I don't feel like he is really getting that much bigger and then I see him next to where he was last year and he looks so grown up. And I can't get over his sweet little baby cheeks from years past!

Love this crazy kid!

Henry the (failed) Magician

Last week we laid low as Henry was sick on Tuesday and stayed home from preschool on Wednesday too. He had a quick 24 hour bug and then was back to his usual chatty self. I hate when he is sick but it was kind of a nice break for him to sleep on the couch all day and only rouse every few hours to ask about playing Super Mario and then falling back to sleep.

Thursday had him back at preschool and he lucked out to see a magician that was visiting that day. A ten year old boy put on an amateur magic show for the kids. Henry didn't have much to tell me about it and couldn't remember any of the tricks, he just thought it was fun.

Fast forward to dinner time. We had hawaiian haystacks and Henry was struggling to eat. Steve and I were done and Henry was still at the table slowly picking at his food. We have been talking a lot about him being a big boy lately, he no longer sits in a booster seat, but he has to earn it by actually eating his food.

I was finishing putting away leftovers when he mentioned he put something in his nose. I assumed it was rice. I told him not to put anything in his nose and then he suddenly started screaming hysterically. Turns out he put a chow mein noodle in his nose and was trying to get it out but was really just shoving it deeper inside.

I ran to get tweezers while Steve wrangled him to the couch. The tweezers really freaked him out so Steve had to hold down his arms while I fished the noodle out. Luckily it all came out in one clean pull and we were able to calm him down. While I was holding him on the couch, I asked him why he had stuck the noodle in his nose.

Between his sobs he explained, "Because I wanted to put it in my nose and have it come out my ear like the magician." Not only was he upset and hurt but he was disappointed that his trick had failed. He was so sincere and innocent, I felt bad at how hard I laughed. Steve was less amused, more horrified. There is no way his teachers could have known he would try to do a trick at home.

We have since had some interesting chats about magic and how it is not real. He has promised to not put anything up his nose ever again. And we have successfully survived our first "nose incident."