Happy Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween everyone!
I started the day out by going to Darth's kindergarten Halloween parade, aw.

Then, I tried to dress Cookie up in her costume and needless to say, it did not go well. This was the longest I could keep her in her costume and she kept lunging at me and trying to get me so I just took her out of it.

Then, time for my own costumes! We dressed up as ringmasters this year, sort of a Greatest Show type thing.

 Not too shabby! I took the fellas trick or treating for my first time and we just had a great (chilly!) night overall.
Hope y'all had a good holiday!

Glasses Time

A week or so ago, Darth came to his folks and told them that he needed glasses. When I heard this, we were all skeptical, but we decided to bring him to the eye doctor just in case. Shockingly (its not a shock! His parents both have glasses) he also needs glasses!

He looks too grown up! I hate it! 

But what a cutie! I love him! 

Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me!

Y'all. I don't know if anyone has listened to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast, but it is a dang delight. It's an NPR news quiz and so much fun. I found out a month or so ago that they were coming to Salt Lake City to record a live podcast and I was like, heck yeah! So I snagged some tickets and away we go! We had dinner up in SLC of course, at the Lion House, which was my first time there! It was so dang delicious! Then onto the show!

 Stage, pre-comedians

 Now the gang's all here!

My friend PJ is the one who introduced me to the show, so we went as a full gang.

Y'all, it was wonderful and I loved it! I hope they come again and I will get to see them again!

Christmas Card Time

Time for Christmas card makin', and here's mine! It's super simple, but it fits the template, and I'm okay with the simplicity!

Miscellaneous Fellas

I hung out with the fellas for a bit and got some great pics of them. Except Gecko...I never seem to get of him lately!

 This giant hat is the dang best on him.

In this outfit, with the necklace and hair, he sort of looks like those douchey guys whose name is Chad. My douche nephew Chad.

Portraits Drawn

The other day on Twitter, I was made aware of an account in which a gal was selling portraits that she draws for a little extra cash. I thought they were cool, so I went ahead and ordered a few, one of me and Husband and one of all the niblings. They arrived today, and I just love them so much!

So dang cute! Can't wait to get them framed!

Banana Nutella Bread

I had a bunch of leftover bananas, so I looked for a banana bread recipe this morning that's a little different than the usual ones. I found one for a banana Nutella bread, and made it today! Here it is: 

4 large ripe bananas

1 Cup Butter, softened

2 Eggs

2 Cups of Sugar

4 Cups of Flour

½ tsp. Salt

½ Cup Warm Water

2 tsp. baking soda

1 Cup Nutella

1 Cup Chocolate Chips 

Peel and mash the bananas. then cream butter, sugar and eggs. Add flour and salt to the creamed mixture. Mix well. After you add these two ingredients the mix will turn into soft crumbs. Dissolve baking soda in warm water and add to mixture. Blend in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips. Pour half of the mixture into two separate bread pans.

In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the Nutella for 10 to 15 seconds or until it is thick but easy to pour. Pour ¼ cup of Nutella length down the middle of the dough and use the tip of a knife to make a design with the Nutella. 

 Fill the pans with the remaining dough and repeat the Nutella step.

Bake at 350º for 50 minutes to an hour, or whenever an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Now, of course I forgot to get a pic of the finished product before we cut into it! This is the best I can do: 

IT IS SO DANG GOOD! I totally recommend this. 

Just a couple of bros

I babysat the fellas this morning and got some good pics of them. Gecko was refusing to take part in any pics (he's in this phase right now where, as soon as he comes to my house, he's so grumpy and bratty, he refuses to do anything and he drives me bananas!) So I set up Epifanio to get a pic, and Darth just looooves to get pics too, so he was happy to jump in.

 Look at this joker in this tiny cute sweater

Just loves getting in for a cuddle.

Cornbelly's Time

Today for a youth activity, we went to Cornbelly's. I had never been before, this was my first time. It's not too bad a place. It seems like it's more made for smaller kids, so I bet if you had kids under 10 it would be a rocking good time for them, but for adults I was just sort of meh about the whole thing. We did the corn maze, ate some yummy food, and then of course I forgot to get any pictures. I snagged a pic of some of us on the way out, that's really the best I could do apparently!

Still a good time, but I do want to take the fellas here, I bet they would love it.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Guys, the magical time of year has come around again, the first of my Thanksgivings. This year I made a couple of new pies - peach pie (with peaches from my own tree!) and an apple pie, with the apples I mentioned before, that I bought from one of my young women. They ended up actually working out!

 Peach!

Apple!

We had a lot of delicious food, and I just love the opportunity to have two thanksgivings!

Cookie Time

Y'all, it's been a minute since I blogged of the great Cookie, so here's some recent photos to smile over.

What a best doggo she is.

School Photo Time

GUYS!!
Darth has had his first school pictures in his kindergarten career and I love them so much

Is he not the best thing you've ever seen?
I just love them so much.

Face Mask Time

Last night, it was time for a little self care, so I was putting on a face mask. I asked Husband if he wanted to participate, and he did! So we put on our masks and then relaxed and let them work.

Y'all, I suggest any face mask, it's just great to feel like your skin is glowing and clean.

Cupcake Time!

I've been making a lot of cupcakes lately, I have a business opportunity I'm trying to get happen, so I've been practicing and tweaking, etc. Finally this week is the big taste-test, to see if it's a possibility. I worked all day on these cupcakes, and then when I finally got them into their containers, I was just so excited, they look so cute!

Fingers crossed that it all works out!

Apple Butter Time

One of my YW is selling boxes of apples right now, to finance a service trip for herself. To be helpful, I bought one. But y'all, a box of apples is a lot of apples. A lot. And so, I had to find some ways to use up apples before they all went bad. And so, to the internet! And I found a recipe for apple butter and it is delicious! And it has no sugar added, so you can feel better about eating it all. Let's dive in.
5 lbs apples (people say to get a variety, but honestly, my box had just one kind, golden delicious maybe? So I just did that)
1/4 cup water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp lemon juice

Chop up the apples, getting rid of the cores. I just used this handy dandy tool:

and then I chopped up the apples from there, leaving the skin on. Then I put them all in my crock pot, and added the water, just to keep everything from sticking anywhere, plus the water sort of helps it all steam a bit. 

Then I just put it on low heat and let it cook for like, 6 hours, stirring it every like, half hour or hour or so, just to keep it all moving. So then, after around 6 hours, it's pretty mushy. So I smashed it down a bit with my spoon and then turned off the crockpot, for about an hour, let it all cool. Then I blended the stuff in the crockpot with my immersion blender, just until it's pretty silky smooth. 

Then, add in some cinnamon sticks! I said two earlier, but I threw in three, why not? Then I pushed them in a little bit, to let them really soak in. 

 So then, I let it cook - uncovered this time, for about another hour and a half, maybe two hours, until you reach your desired thickness. Don't know what you desire? I didn't either! I just went until it looked good and had a good color. Then, stir in the last ingredients, the cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice.
Then, put them into jars! Mine fit into 6 8-oz jars. I didn't seal them (I don't know how to seal them or how to can or anything, that's why) and they look good!

Now I'm just going to give all of these away and that's a great gift!

I hope you make this and love it, because I think it's so tasty and cinnamony. 

A great question I get is, what do you put apple butter on? I use toast. I put it on like, any bread-type item, toast, cornbread, etc. The first time I ever had apple butter was in this delicious Amish restaurant in Florida, and I just loved it. So now I'm glad to make some here! 

Puppy Dog Eyes

Tonight, I went to my SIL's house to watch the women's session of conference, and then we were having our usual nerd night fun. I brought some Taco Bell for dinner, and we ate as we watched.
My small niece Ken was right at my feet, trying to get my food and trying to appeal with some puppy dog eyes

Come on, who wouldn't give this baby all of their food? Nobody.

Babysitting

I babysat Epifanio today just by his lonesome while the fellas were in school. We had a great time.

 I made sure he stayed hydrated.

 He really enjoyed watching My Little Pony (wide-eyed with his hand near his junk area is his go-to pose)

Getting his diaper changed is literally his favorite thing in the world. He just loves being a nudist baby.