Boo!

Trick or Treater: "Yes! Reese's Pieces! You're the only house that has these!"

Success.




Happy Halloween!

Baby Pictures!

Baby Hutson was working it at his/her 20 week check up. We got to see our huge baby (14 oz thank you very much) on the ultrasound wiggling around and having a jolly good time. Meriahna came with Johnny and me and was absolutely inthralled with the whole thing.



Here's Baby Hutson's tiny little face over there on the right, lying sideways. His/her right hand is pulled up next to his/her face.

In this picture the nurse made an especially big deal that the baby was praying. See the little hands pulled up next to each other sideways on the right side of the middle? When telling Sydney about the ultrasound later, Meriahna said, "Oh my gosh, Syd, it was so cute! The baby was kneeling and praying; Rachel and Johnny taught it well."

Here's the side view of the baby.  I had no idea that we would be able to see through the baby's skin to the bones.  Very good for Halloween.  But you can see its little spine all along the top with its little knees tucked in on the left and the head down on the right. The whole time we were watching it, the baby kept sticking its little skinny butt up in the air; so adorable. (We didn't want to find out the sex, but even the nurse said that she couldn't tell because the baby had modestly crossed its legs the whole time.  Good job, baby.)

Upon looking at this picture, Meriahna's reaction was, "Wow! That is so cute!"

Sydney's reaction was, "It looks like a horse."

Can't please them all.

The Candy Man Can

One thing that I have always wanted to make and never have is caramel.  Yesterday, I found this great recipe for Spiced Apple Cider Caramels at the Not So Humble Pie blog.  I had most of the ingredients, so I decided to make them.

It was so easy!  Definitely time consuming, but not hard or expensive at all.  The only thing I changed was using part apple cider and part Trader Joe's cranberry cider, only because they had run out of the regular kind.  

The only problem with the recipe is that it made 82 pieces of caramel...even Johnny can't manage all of that. So if you live near me, some of these might be coming your way!  And just a reminder to everyone that Christmas Music Day is only 6 days away, so it's a good thing we've started practicing our holiday recipes.

P.S. Pictured in the background of this last picture is one of the pages from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook.  I highly recommend it if you're looking for a really good cupcake cookbook.

Trick or Treat!

After our grown up brunch this Sunday with Sarah, Emma, and Katie from high school,  Johnny and I decided to carve our pumpkins for Halloween!  I'm especially excited for Halloween this year because in Philadelphia, no one really comes to your door because it's dangerous and blah blah blah.  Here, I'm hoping to have lots of little trick or treating neighbors.

Johnny did an excellent job of carving his tall and skinny pumpkin.  He had an interesting technique.  He would scoop and scoop and scoop and then turn the pumpkin upside down and bang on it to get all the stuff out.  It seemed to be very effective.

So come trick or treat at our house!  Next year there will be three little pumpkins sitting on the porch.  And by the way, the little pumpkin on the right is the same size as 20 week old Baby Hutson is! Cantaloupe sized.

Happy Halloween!

Baby Hutson's Room

Now that the living room is underway, I'm starting to figure out what I'm going to do in Baby Hutson's room.  You might remember it as looking like this:

The walls are going to be some kind of light, non-pastelish green by Sherwin Williams  But the thing that I am most concerned about right now is my plan for decorating.  I want to have illustrations from nine different children's books framed and hung on the wall in a three frame by three frame square.  My plan is to either cut the illustrations out and frame them (which I have done before) or attempt to make high quality color copies of them and then frame them...that way they could all be the same size and I don't have to ruin nine books.  So if you have experience doing that, let me know.

Here are the book options that I have so far:

Curious George by H.A. Ray

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by Judith Viorst

 Babar by Jean de Brunhoff 

(I have this one in French from Paris.)

 Corduroy by Don Freeman

 Flotsam by David Wiesner

 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

 If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

 Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

 Olivia by Ian Falconer

 The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

 Miss Nelson is Missing! by James Marshall

 Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

These books are compiled from books that I enjoyed as a kid, books that I've enjoyed while babysitting more recently, and also books that I became acquainted with in Children's Literature at Wheaton.  Am I missing any?  Do you have favorites?  I have to narrow it down to nine.  Help!

Productivity Is My Middle Name

I love days that I can be productive, especially living in a halfway finished house.  After getting some more sanding and priming done in the living room, I decided to do a few crafts that I found on Pinterest.



Here is my cute little pumpkin made out of a collection of Oscar Wilde's works.  I guess I never will read The Portrait of Dorian Grey.

Here's a reminder board made out of a frame that I've been meaning to do something with for about two years.  Click on my Pinterest link on the left to see the instructions from these super creative ladies.

And finally, we have a decision to make, folks.  I have chosen to use a blue for our living room.  Here are two options.  The one on the left and the one in the corner on the top are the same color, and the other two are a darker version of the first.  I'm starting to think the darker one is too dark, but I hate pastels, and I don't want the light one to be too pastel.  The trim will be white.  Thoughts?

Homecoming

Homecoming 2011!  Johnny and I had the pleasure of getting Mitchell to Homecoming because my dad was out of town and my mom was sick.  We were supposed to go pick up his date and then go take both of them to the house where pictures would be held for their group.  So Johnny and I drove Mitchell up to his date's door, and he walked inside, corsage in hand. Then a few minutes later, he walked back outside, corsage and now post it note in hand and no date.  My initial thought was, "Oh no! My little brother has been stood up; let's kill her!"  But apparently she was just down the street at her friend's house, and we were supposed to be pick her up there.  Murder averted. 

Mitchell and Austin went in the same group, and it appears that they had a lot of fun.

So old!  And by so old I mean me because I didn't get to go to the dance.  Heartbreaking.