more than one way to skin a cat...

where did that saying come from? who wants to skin a cat? really?

i digress...

we have REALLY wide stairs at the bottom and there is nothing that blake loves more than to cruise over there and start going up them with avery yelling, "he's going up the stairs, he's going up the stairs..." i have her trained well to be the alarm.

there is no gate in my imagination or at a store that will fit these stairs, that i have discovered yet, so today i decided we would make do with what we had....

good thing the gigantic bench has more than one purpose!

i am not deluded enough to think that this will keep him out indefinitely but perhaps it will for today...and today is enough for now:)

Etsy...

so...i am opening an etsy...right now there are only slings listed (amelia, that's for you!) but over the next few days i hope to list more items and get everything on there by the end of this next week...whew! and i made a button! see it over there on the right? it's cute and you too can have one for your blog! yahoo! grab it if you wanna!

halloween!

here we are in our Seuss glory this year..it was a lot of fun to do and the kids loved having blue hair like the "things"


we had a great halloween this year, especially celebrating blake's birthday with family! we had some yummy food, we dressed up and he got to open presents! what's better than that!



aunt elise drew "seuss" themed drawings on the kids' faces (one fish, two fish, red fish,blue fish, green eggs and ham etc.)


we had lots of yummy food...most of which i didn't get a picture of before it got eaten...we baked dinner in a pumpkin (inside is a rice/mushroom/ground beef mixture...very tasty!). we also had "mummy dogs" hot dogs wrapped in cut up crescent rolls like a mummy and baked, "devil" eggs, slivered snakes (green beans), slug sections (sections of baked sweet potatoes) and i labeled all the food with halloween font signs...lots of fun!


opening presents!

nana kara!



our table got dressed up as well! yahoo for halloween!

Blaker's Birthday!!!

happy birthday to our halloween baby! full halloween pictures later...but this one's just for our monster baby!


what a nice boy blake is and always has been! he is such a joy, he is smiley and he laughs a lot...he sleeps real well and love his big sister and big brother! he is currently fascinated with stairs, he can up really fast, but doesn't know how to get down...he has 6 teeth and is moving toward a 12 month size...he's never worn shoes, he cruises the furniture, he likes to drink out of cups, he likes to play with his shape sorters...he was a very cute Thing 3 (even though that doesn't really exist in the Seuss world) and today at the doctor he weighed 19 lbs and 11 oz and was 29.5 inches long. that puts him #1 for weight for wilson babies at a year old...ethan was 19lbs and 8oz...so he only beat him out by a bit:) we just love him tons and having a halloween birthday is tons of fun...at least for mom! look for more pictures of our halloween celebration soon!!!


happy birthday my lovey baby, i can't believe how fast this year has gone! here's to the next one and many more!

floors:

here is the floor, before



and here they are after!




awhile ago i mentioned that i made a coconut cream pie and it turned out really well...so here's the recipe for that in case anyone wants to make one for the holidays, i thought it was delicious and it passed the wilson test...they love pie so that's saying something!

Coconut Cream Pie

(i think i got the basic recipe from All Recipes and then changed things according to the comments people left)

1 can coconut milk (like 15 oz or something) add half and half to get 3 C of liquid
3 eggs
3/4 C white sugar
1/2 cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 C flaked coconut, toasted
1 tsp. coconut extract
2 (9 in) pie shells (deep dish)
cream for the top...see recipe below

in a medium saucepan, combine half and half, coconut milk, eggs, sugar, flour and salt. bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. remove from heat, and stir in 3/4 c. coconut flakes and coconut extract. (i let it cook a little longer to make sure it was as thick as i wanted it to be) bake pie shells as directed...when they are cool, pour custard mixture into pie shells. chill 2-4 hours or until firm
make the cream

1 C. heavy cream (i think i used the rest of my half and half since i didn't want to buy heavy cream and it worked fine)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2T. confectioner's sugar

in a large bowl, whip cream (or half and half) until stiff peaks are just about to form... beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. make sure not to over beat or the cream will become lumpy and butter-like.

TIP: before making this, chill bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes...works really well!

spread on pies and enjoy! top cream with a little more toasted coconut!

to toast coconut: spread on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring it up occasionally

love it..

**love my screen door, open in the mornings and when making dinner and at night...love it!
**love, extra LOVE this cooler weather...
**LOVE Halloween, and black and orange and that my baby has a Halloween birthday so i can have an extra fun time planning the party!
**love that i only have a few loose ends for costumes to wrap up...
**love that the tile replacement is finally DONE! yahoo! i'll take pictures tomorrow in the daylight so you can see it...it's pretty!

goings on...

we usually have such busy days that after we get the kids to bed i feel like there are probably things i could do...but i'm not gonna. is that bad? i just feel like lounging for an hour or so and going to bed! i still get things done at night, that is prime time for me to sew and do some cleaning normally, finish up laundry, actually talk to kendall you know...but man, i am just run down lately!

on a different note, those that have been to my house may have noticed the slight crack in our tiles in the entryway (total sarcasm, the crack may as well be the grand canyon, people)...well next time you come over, it will be gone! yahoo! the guy who owns our house assured us that it would be fixed before we had our baby (blake) well, now it's almost blake's first birthday (tear, sniff!) and it's finally getting done, but i am not complaining, i am just glad little man doesn't have to hurt himself on the broken tiles!

today i did some covert operations on our toys...we had to move all the toys out of the toy closet downstairs in preparation for the tile guy to come and tear up all the tile, so while we were taking all the toys out of there, i took the opportunity to quickly go through them and take out things that were knick knacks or never played with etc. i also ventured into the kids' rooms and did the same. and i bet they'll never notice! do you do this too? i did it while they were playing around me, too! just goes to show, sometimes it's better to do stuff in plain sight than try to hide it!

3 bags to take to Savers!

we are starting to get into more clothing that ethan wore that blake can now wear...and it is SO cute! i don't know...something about knowing it's a hand-me-down actually makes it cuter to me. and blake in long pajamas is just really cute to me anyway. because he hasn't worn them since he was a baby baby...it's just been too hot in AZ for that! but here's a flash back.....


here's ethan when we still lived in UT...i just love these pjs!

and here's blake tonight...avery wanted to get in on the picture action but i caught her touching her nose...not picking...just touching:)



the boys still definitely look like brothers to me...but i feel like blake is starting to diverge some and become his own man....what do you think?

picnic...

the kids wanted to have a picnic outside the other day...blake got in on the action too:)


and trying to get blake to cooperate to help me take pictures of the smallest trick or treat bags was challenging to say the least.


needless to say, we didn't get a satisfactory picture with him in it!