pump(kin)ed up kicks

if you can't tell, fall is my favorite time of year.  the weather is beautiful, so this morning phelan and i took a little ride to the local pumpkin patch.  i had to wake her up when we got there, so she was sleepy for a little while, but she warmed right up to those pumpkins!

we do the monster mash

oooohhhhhh, spooky!  nothing says halloween like a delicious, death-by-chocolate graveyard cake!  it's one of my favorite parts of halloween!  i was so excited to have phelan's help this year.

we actually used brownie mix for the "ground."  on top of that was whipped cream mixed with chocolate pudding (the powder).  on top of that was a layer of crushed up oreos.  we used ghost peeps (gross), milano cookies, gummy worms, and candy corn pumpkins for decoration.  we have SO many sweets left over from making this cake!  i'm going to be huge by thanksgiving!

here are some photos of the experience...

ummmmmm, yum!

are you ready for some football?

happy monday!  even though our weekend was too short, as always, it was a good one.  phelan had some friends over to watch football yesterday.  koko, lisa, emmanuel, grace-anne, bertha, esther, and isaiah were here to watch tebow's start against miami!

grace-anne is getting so big!  it was so much fun to see her new facial expressions.  soooooo sweet and so pretty!

and... she can support herself in the bumbo!!!  atta girl!

isaiah is also growing up.  too bad he doesn't like having his picture taken...

grace-anne and phelan continue to bond...

thanks, you guys for coming over!

oh, and the broncos won!  woohoo!

knee deep in the water somewhere...

what an adventure we had last weekend!  phelan is becoming quite the little traveler.  kathie was nice enough to invite us on her trip to lake havasu.  she went friday through wednesday, while parker, phelan and i joined her just for the weekend.

we had a suite, which was more like a 1 bedroom, that worked out great!  one great thing about the trip (i thought) was the distance from home.  it was a 4 hour drive.  it was really nice to have our own car, carseat, etc.  we didn't bring the pack and play, but the resort had one that we borrowed.  we should have thought of that the first night... we tried to make phelan a bed on the floor, but she scoots around now and kept bonking her head on the wall or scooting until she was halfway under the bed.  not much sleep that night.

saturday morning phelan was up and at 'em, ready to explore, so we went for a walk.  the lake was beautiful with the sun coming up.

fact #1 that i did not know about lake havasu -- they have the real london bridge!  to learn more, go here: http://www.golakehavasu.com/activities/more_to_do/london_bridge.aspx

it was pretty cool!

we went on a sunset boat tour saturday night -- definitely the highlight of the trip.  i should have taken a picture of the boat (named "serenity now").  captain kenny designed it himself.  there were 6 seats, with theater seating, so that everyone had a good view.  the seats were comfy and they rotated.  kathie and i sat in the last row, while parker and phelan got to be co-captains!  they sat by kenny and his first mate, janene. 

phelan loved it and watched kenny talk to the whole time!  parker liked his seat because he got to ask kenny and janene all kinds of questions about the lake, the river, the boat, etc.

we started out of the english village, toward the lake, through the "party alley."  this was not a busy time of year, but we heard from the locals that this area gets pretty crazy!  thousands and thousands of people!  our ride was very chill though!

once we got out onto the lake, the views were endless.  it was absolutely beautiful.

(cupcake mountain, for kaci and jen!)  this made phelan hungry, so she had a snack...

we saw some beautiful scenery...

some wildlife...

and a gorgeous sunset...

it was a great experience.  a few more of my favorite pictures :

we highly recommend captain kenny's tour if you visit lake havasu.  http://sunsethavasuboattours.com/index.htm

our sunset tour got parker itching for some more boat time, so we decided to rent a boat for a few hours on sunday.  there was a minor glitch involving some sea grass and the water valve on the boat... it was nice to be out on the water though!  after that we went back to the hotel to swim.  the water at home has been too cold, so phelan had been missing her swimming lessons!  she picked up right where she left off and LOVED it!

thank you, koko...

and thank you havasu, we'll be back!

i like to eat eat eat epples and benenes...

(and pears, carrots, and sweet potatoes)

i honestly cannot believe that phelan is old enough to eat real food now!!!  we are just starting out, but so far she is doing great.  since i have time during the day, i decided to try making our own baby food.  it was so much fun!  here is a summary of the first meal i made for phelan... (as always she was a fabulous help!)

step 1: get all of our stuff together.  we didn't have a steamer, so i bought one at target.  i also got 2 ice cube trays (more on that later).  we decided on pears, carrots, and sweet potatoes for our first go around... yum!

step 2:  peeled, chopped, and steamed the fruits and veggies separately.  it took about 20 minutes for the potato and carrots to soften, and about 10 for the pears.

step 3:  puree the goodies!  i used our handy dandy magic bullet, which worked like a dream.

(note: this is about when i lost phelan...)

step 4:  make everything freezer-ready.  i read that baby food stays good in the refrigerator for 2 days, and in the freezer for 2 months.  because we are supposed to start with one food at a time for a couple of days, i decided to freeze the sweet potatoes and carrots.  i scooped the mush into the ice cube trays, labeled them with tape, and stuck them in the freezer.

step 5:  after they were in the freezer overnight, i popped the food cubes out of the trays (i had to use a butter knife, but it was easy) and into their new home -- tupperware!

i read that the best way to thaw the food is to put it in the fridge overnight.  then i guess we'll zap it for a few seconds before we feed her?  i doubt she'll eat it cold.  i can almost guarantee that after a few weeks, we will go simply from the freezer to the microwave!

this was a fun project!  i'm hoping to do it once a week and just keep the freezer stocked.  after it was all said and done, we had the least amount of pears, so that's what i decided to keep in the fridge and give her for the next few days.  the jury is still out as to whether or not she likes them... i couldn't post a video for some reason, so here's a picture!  thanks for reading!