halloween slacker

on friday, the kids and i all dressed up and went to our ward's "trunk or treat" activity. alan was out of town so getting myself and 3 kids there, all in costume, was quite a feat. however, my super-mom powers failed me miserably when i realized i had left the camera at home. :(

and there were some awesome photo-ops!

alexander's robot costume won 1 of 2 coveted prizes in the kid's costume category.

hadley lit up every time someone called her "snow white".

ruby looked adorable sleeping in her witchy-poo costume, complete with hat.

and i won 1 of 2 coveted prizes in the adult costume category. (uh, that's adult as in "grown-up", not as in "adult" ;) )

i had already taken off some of my jewerly and was about to lose the eyebrows when i decided i should snap a couple halloween self-portraits since i do it every year and will not be dressing up this friday. (so pathetic, i know)

i went as frieda kahlo

the real deal

lil me

and the mugshot.

updates and pics of the kids after halloween!

taggeed by my SIS

10 years ago I was:
1. childless
2. living in the tiniest one bedroom apartment
3. blissfully happy
4. up for a late night (any time) outing to Bill & Nada's
5. super skinny

5 things on today's to do list:
1. wash all my sheets and duvet cover (ruby spit up)
2. take out the garbage
3. bathe 3 children
4. crochet a hat for ruby
5. eat yummy chicken tikka masala

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. pay off both my houses
2. share the money with a certain sis and brother
3. go to disneyland
4. go on a dream vacay to london, paris, and rome
5. save some for a rainy day

5 places I have lived:
1. salem
2. provo
3. salt lake city
4. springville
5. new freaking jersey

5 places I have worked:
1. sno shack
2. Nu Skin
3. Churchill Jr. High
4. DSW advertising
5. Franklin Covey

(added by me for seasonal flair)
5 things I have been for halloween:
1. some kind of a cat or something ;)
2. magenta
3. cleopatra
4. sally
5. frieda

i tag alan, marina, , aubrey, lori, marisa, and all my girls from P2. :)

ruby o' rama

ruby has been growing (mostly wider) and learning important life skills like smiling.

she has a sweet hammock tub. i wish i had a sweet hammock tub. so does my dad. i don't think they come in king size.

this pic looks weird sideways, which is how it was taken, but even weirder upright.

i LOVE this photo...the stripey blankey...the lone didi (pacifier)...the calm sleeping baby with the wavey little hand...

another conundrum as to which way the photo should go.

grandpa and ruby both looking sleepy. grandpa worked a lot while he was here. ruby pooped and ate a lot. all of those things are exhausting.

another cutie with her grampie shot.
polka-dotty princess. shout out to jenn for the cute jammies! thanks jenn! (she looks extra cute and funny in this outfit with her round blue didi in her mouth. it adds another little turquoise circle to the mix)

gotta love the big baby stretch.
ruby's first attempt at a bottle (just in case we are lucky enough to ever go on a date, which i doubt) -- she doesn't care about the receptacle...as long as it's filled with the good stuff! (another shout out to jenn -- thanks jenn!) oh, just an fyi, she downed the whole bottle in about 5 minutes flat.

great shot of fat rolls. count them if you can.

happy bathtime baby.

and again.

smooches to all of you!

Baby Blessing

in our church, it is customary to give the baby a name and a blessing in a semi-formal ordinance. it is usually held in the church building, but can be held elsewhere if you make prior arrangements, which we did. ruby was blessed at home on october, 5th surrounded by friends from our ward family and we were fortunate enough to have my parents be able to come as well.

ruby was happy to be the center of attention on her special day.

super happy.
most of the time.

she is wearing a vintage christening dress. :) my mother made it for me when i was a baby. she is also wearing a tiny gold ring that has been worn by me and all of my siblings and nieces and nephews. family tradition and all that. we were outside so we tied a ribbon on the ring to secure it on her finger, just in case. truth be told, her lil finger was so fat, i had a hard time getting the lil ring off. :)
another cute pic.
with proud grandparents. it was bright. everyone was squinty. :)

new family photo. and everyone looks pretty darn good. it was, overall, a lovely day. friends came from near and far. none of them got photographed for some odd reason. but we still love them anyway. i think the reason was that i was too busy stuffing my face with all the good food my mom made to snap any pics.

now for some fun:

i have no idea why this photo was taken, or what is going on exactly, but there seems to be a lot of backstory happening.
ditto. i don't know if i'm giving the thumbs up or using another finger to try to get something off her face. i just thought it was funny.

Fall into Autumn

wow...it's been too long! a lot has been happening this fall and we've been busy:
adjusting to having a new baby
having houseguests
decorating for halloween
developing some bad habits
cooking yummy fall food
growing fatter (ruby)
exploring
not blogging

so, to kick of this official welcome to fall blog, i give you the first ever photos of our house (at least the outside) -- we realized there hadn't been one taken! i also realized it's kinda hard to get a good picture of the outside of the house.


picture from the driveway. look at all the fall lovelies.

front of the house. yeah, we know it needs a paint job...buttery yellow, perhaps? anyone have suggestions? we're open to ideas.

fall is when i start to love cooking again. here are a few of my favorite things in a cozy lil corner of my retro kitchen (left to right): baking supplies in canisters, tomatoes and tomatillos, acorn squash, red onions, butternut squash, kitchenaid, groovy old recipe box, red crockpot full of cafe rio barbacoa pork deliciousness, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in jar. (oh, and a toaster.)

you're all invited for dinner anytime.

in my intro, i mentioned bad habits...namely that the two older kids keep coming into mom and dad's room EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (at least they did...it's getting a bit better -- knock on wood). here they both "couldn't sleep" and "weren't tired" so we directed them to our bed -- hadley first and xan about 15 minutes later. 5 minutes after that, we found this. both were subsequently transferred to their own sleeping quarters.

one of the best parts of october is halloween! the kids always beg for me to get out the decorations and then lose interest in helping after about 10 minutes. here are the results when done properly by an adult.

mantle. i love the dead flower arrangement and the spooky guy carrying a candle. i need a spooky picture to hang up, though. this one's not cutting it. but i do like the pile o' skulls. everyone needs a pile o' skulls.

little haunted house vignette that gets rearranged by busy little hands all day long. hadley made the moon and xan gathered all those great twigs for me.

i'm so excited to do seasonal displays in my corner china hutch! shelley gave me the cute plates.

turquoise table with cute dancing skeletons and 5 little pumpkins sitting in a line. these were a fun project to make...cut up a cardboard egg carton and glue the halves together then paint and add little leaves.
this fall ruby's cheeks have been getting fatter and fatter like a lil chipmunk storing walnuts in there. you can see in this picture that they are actually so heavy, she can't remain upright.

uh, this picture somehow got separated from the other halloween decor pics:

my desk. i like the bat lamp. it might be my favorite little halloween touch.

alan had a project or twenty going on this fall too. here are our new nightstands, shown BEFORE and AFTER. tres' chic, no? now if we can get around to the dresser our room will look like a grownup room. :) these are our first matching nightstands. 12 years later. nice.

the kids got all geared up to go "exploring" at sayen gardens with grandma and grandpa.
hadley's pink hat doubles as a "safari" hat and a "tea party" hat. nice!

spot the difference in this photo. you know, you just can't go exploring without rainboots, a hat, binoculars, and a bug box.
close(r) up of fall lovelies on front porch. also separated from halloween decor pics, but i'm too lazy to fix it. :)

that sums up our fall report, stay tuned for ruby-o-rama!