Guest Bedroom Makeover

Our trip over Labor Day weekend to Fort Bragg inspired me to redo our guest room and bathroom in a Fort Bragg vintage chic style. We have shells from our trip, sand dollars, and "soon to come" framed pictures to put up on the walls. Here is the transformation so far! The first two pictures are of before.

After:

Monster Trucks!!!!!!!

For the past 3 or 4 years my father-in-law has taken whatever grand kids live close to Monster trucks! Finally we were able to go! We were so excited, especially Lils and Ebay. They were talking about it all week and when it came time to go they were ecstatic. Garndpa had plenty of "plug ears" to go around and the funnel cakes and candy bars were in abundance. The show started with a funny redneck announcer in a blue mechanic jumper and fake mullet telling us about the drivers as the monster trucks game barreling in the stadium! Oh man! The look of E's face when those trucks came in! I want to bottle that up forever. We each picked our favorite trucks. All of the kids loved Bigfoot! My fav was Jurrasic Attack! After 2 + hours of races- all of the kids were asleep by then- the REAL show started. Free style! The monster trucks went out one at a time and had 3 minutes to run over stuff, get sweet air, and make huge circle donuts. It was pretty amazing! Though I don't think anyone in the stands enjoyed it as much as my father-in-law, who was just giddy and crazy! Loved it! And, by the way, look at the first picture- could Dave and E look any more alike???!

Soccer picts

So, I'm trying to do cool stuff with Photoshop. Here's Lils team at their first soccer game. What do you think?

Sick Baby

(She's spitting out an apple in that picture, I thought it showed her grumpy sick 'tude well!) Lil Rose has had a fever over 100 for the past three days. Usually I like the excuse to lay low, stay home, watch movies, or cuddle with the sick child I love. Rose is another story! She won't watch movies yet, she's whiny, she's not cuddling and she wants to be held constantly. Not too fun around here. Plus she had me up over 2 hours last night rocking her.... which I enjoyed for most of that time. I love rocking babies and hearing their sweet little sleeping breathes. I know I won't have the chance to hold my sweet little baby too much longer before she's too big to hold and rock in the rocking chair. She gets bigger every day! So I enjoyed it, until the third time I tried to lay her down and she screamed again! I think I'll get her ears checked. Here are some new pictures of my sweetie, it's nice to remember the "before she was sick" Rose.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup

Every Spring General Conference, Dave and I have homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and every Fall General Conference I make pumpkin pancakes! We had a good recipe our first 6 years of marriage until we moved to Chapel Hill. Our friends, the Harmon's, introduced us to the best, most delicious, and scrumptious pumpkin pancakes ever. You MUST make it with the cider syrup. (I always use apple juice because that's what we have on hand and it is great.) These are divine, easy to make, and perfect for fall.

Pumpkin Pancakes:

2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk

Syrup:
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
2 cup apple cider or juice
2 Tbs lemon juice

Pancakes: Beat the eggs and stir in pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda and salt. Then add baking powder, oil, and flour. Stir in milk until desired consistency. (It should be thinner than you think. These pancakes are so good when they're thin and sand-dollar sized.)

Syrup: Mix well and boil one minute.

Soccer babe!

So Lils had her first official game on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous because it was overcast and a little drizzly. I was just glad it wasn't 94 like it was supposed to be! We spent the morning yard sale-ing and Costco-ing. Played a little Mario Kart during Rose's nap and after lazing away the day, rushed out to soccer! It was the only planned thing we had, and we were late to it! We got to the game right as it's starting. Lils went in as a sub and scored the first goal! Another girl had kicked it all the way down, passed it off to Lils and she ran it in! It was pretty fantastic living our dreams through Lil! :) Ha ha! We were very proud. The game was pretty intense. I was so glad when Lils wasn't in so I could reax for a few minutes. The girls did great, but lost with an end score of 4 to 1. They couldn't care less as there were plenty of m&m covered rice krispie treats and Capri Suns for all.

Fort Bragg

So far the past few weeks...

Lils started soccer

Lils and E have adjusted to sharing a room... sort of! Here they are asleep in the doorway!

Their room

Lils started first grade,

We spent Labor Day weekend camping at a beautiful coastal campsite at Ft. Bragg. Dave's family went every Labor Day weekend growing up with his family and a bunch of family's from his ward. The whole campsite was full of Orovillians! It was great! We went to Glass Beach, Sand Dollar Beach, walked along a gorgeous lake, roasted marshmallows, ate navajo tacos and peach cobbler from the dutch oven. mmmm. It was wonderful and the kids just had a blast! They swam in the freezing water, played chicken with the waves, rode their bikes all around the camp, ate dirt, found shells, and had an adventure. It was great to be there with their cousins who are the same age. They had a constant buddy to play with! Here are a few of the pictures, in no particular order!

... oh and Ebay had his first day of Joy School today!