Kayla's 2nd Birthday!!!

A friend of mine has a small bouncy-house that fits in her living room. She says it is a great way for the kids to burn off energy during the winter when the weather is yucky. She invited us over one day for a play date and the kids had a great time.
She agreed to let us borrow the bouncy-house for Kayla's birthday party and it was a huge hit. Afterward we had brownie cupcakes and opened presents.


A great dress-up outfit from Grandma!Thanks to Kayla's wonderful friends who shared this special day with her. And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for fun presents, we wish you could have been here. Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

Happy Halloween: First Year Trick-or-Treating

Kayla was finally old enough this year to enjoy Halloween. Here is a video of Kayla helping Mommy sing a fun Halloween song.

This was Kayla's first year really trick-or-treating, so Mommy and Daddy were very excited. Kayla's costume was inspired by our recent trip to Hawaii. She was not very happy about wearing it. We tried to explain to her that we were going to knock on people's doors and that they would give her candy, but they would only give her candy if she was wearing a costume. Finally through tears we headed out the door. It didn't take long for Kayla to get into it and pretty soon she was very happy marching up doorsteps and holding open her bag.
We had so many trick-or-treaters at our house that we ran out of candy! We gave some of Kayla's candy away, but made sure to keep all the good stuff. In the days after Halloween Kayla would ask for "orange candy" (orange is her favorite color). So I would find orange Skittles or gobstoppers and give them to her.

We had a great time carving our pumpkins.

Daddy's pumpkin:Mommy's Pumpkin:Kayla's Pumpkin (she had a little help from Daddy):

Hawaii

Grandma and Grandpa are currently spending a year in Hawaii doing work with BYU Hawaii. When Kayla heard, she insisted that we go visit. Just as the weather was turning cold and rainy here in Seattle, we hopped a plane to enjoy the tropical humidity of Oahu's north shore.

Grandpa welcomed us at the airport with a traditional lei greeting. Grandma actually made the Hawaiian shirt Seth is wearing in the picture below.That first afternoon Kayla enjoyed picking flowers and collecting golf balls in the condo's back yard.During the week we visited Pearl Harbor......the Waikiki Aquarium......and enjoyed the beautiful Hawaiian landscape.Mostly we enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.Kayla learned to hula dance from a pro.


One of the big highlights of the week was visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center. It has 8 villages each representing different Polynesian Islands with cultural shows and activities.

We learned how to start fire in Samoa......throw spears in Tonga......hula dance in Tahiti...
...get tatoos in Fiji......watch a haka dance (Kayla's favorite)...

...fish off a pier with coconut bread as bait...
...watch a canoe pageant......pose with a Fijian dancer......and have dinner at a real luau.It was all followed up by an amazing night show with dances from each island.

Because we were there in October, we also got to ride the Haunted Lagoon canoe ride. Grandpa took Kayla to home to bed so she missed out on that one, but it was very fun. The scariest part is that as you are riding along suddenly a ghoul (one of the people working there) will just pop out of the water right next to you! Very scary.

We had a wonderful time and are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting us. Most of all, Kayla got to know her Poppy and Tootsie a little better.

Just Call Me Martha Stewart

Lately, I really haven't enjoyed cooking. Probably you moms can relate, but 5 o'clock rolls around and I grumpily lumber over to the cupboard to see what I can throw together. I think it has something to do with being a mom and having to cook everyday. I use to really enjoy cooking. I think college was the first time I really had to cook for myself. I enjoyed leafing through my cookbooks finding delicious healthy dinners I would like to make.

So where has the enjoyment gone?

I realized that I've fallen into a bit of a rut lately. I have my handful of go-to dinners that I always have the supplies on hand and I can throw together in 30 minutes or less. But it's been a while since I tried anything new.

So I decided to push myself and try some recipes I've never tried before. And lately, I've actually been really excited when it comes time to start dinner! It's fun to mix new ingredients, maybe buy something at the grocery store I've never bought before. Like just this week I bought hoisin sauce. Hoisin sauce comes up a lot in Asian recipes, but I tend to skip over those ones because I don't want to buy this new thing. Well, now I have it and I don't have to skip over those recipes anymore. More new things to try.

One recent dinner that I am particularly proud of you can see below:This is Lettuce Wraps with homemade Asian Dipping Sauce and it was awesome! I found this in the appetizer section of one of my cookbooks and thought it would cover the bases for a good meal.

Now understand that I don't take personal credit for these meals. I'm not one of those people who can open up my cupboard and whip up something amazing with whatever I happen to find. I need a recipe.

While I enjoy cooking, I've never been much of a baker. Not only have I tried new dinner recipes, but some new baking recipes as well. They asked a few ladies to bring a homemade pie to a church activity and I thought, well why not? So I signed up. I've never made a pie before. I've seen my mother make pies hundreds of times at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I've never done it myself. I made an apple pie and I am quite proud of how it turned out:It wasn't perfect, but it was yummy. My biggest problem with it was that as the apples baked down the crust stayed up making a dome shape so that when you cut into it the top was hollow. Does that make sense? If any of you experienced pie makers have any tips to fix that, I would appreciate it.

Also, believe it or not, I've never made sugar cookies. I've frosted sugar cookies hundreds of times, but again my mom always made them and the frosting. So I made sugar cookies for the first time! I made an orange glaze frosting that I used on everything except the cats. For the cats I made a chocolate glaze frosting. It was yummy! Maybe next year Kayla will be big enough to help me frost them.