I'm no Martha Stewart...

... but I do visit her website frequently for some awesome recipes. This year I am hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. By Wednesday all of my siblings will officially live in the same town! Avree's family is moving here on Wednesday-- (I am so thrilled about this, it is too good to be true! Avree's husband got a job at the CPA firm where Mitch works just recently)--and my brothers are here for school. Anyway, since we are all here, my parents are coming to us. Of course, my mom will be making the pies, homemade rolls, and funding the whole event, but I did get to decide the menu and do all the shopping. So I turned to my trusty friend Martha for some yummy ideas for side dishes and some tips on how one goes about cooking a turkey (I was a little ambitious and bought a 21-pounder). Anyway, Martha didn't fail me. Here is one of the side dishes I will attempt on Thursday:


Here is the link to the recipe: Roasted Vegetables

So no one in my family likes yams (including me), but Mitch does. I found this awesome recipe in place of mashed up yams with marshmallows or brown sugar or whatever the heck people usually put on those things that make them look like orange puke. Anyway, here's the recipe. Doesn't it look yummy? I even bought shallots for the first time! Happy happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm just wondering...

When making comments on others' blogs, do the rest of you struggle with those scrambled letters you have to type in before you can comment? I seriously have an impairment when it comes to this process. I have been known to try 5 times before I was actually able to make my comment, and it is pretty standard that I'll have to try at least twice. It shouldn't be this difficult, and yet, every stinkin' time I mess it up!

P.S. I know, I know-- I have this on my own blog (I got some weird spam-like comments so I had to add the feature).

P.P.S. And I'm posting a few pictures of Marin just to "cuten" up this post!

Drumroll please....

.... AND, it's another girl! We just found out today that we are having another little girl. For some reason, both Mitch and I kind of expected another girl-- although we would have been thrilled either way. The 4-D ultrasounds are so amazing. Now I will have 2 girls who are 3 years apart, just like Avree and I-- and since Avree is my best friend, I'm excited for Marin's new little best friend to arrive!

October fun

I must admit, I am a little sad to see October go. I really have enjoyed the Fall season since I've moved to Logan (almost 8 years ago!), because in St. George where I grew up, there's just really not much of a Fall. I enjoy the crispness of the air and the amazing fall colors on the trees. Now that it's November, it means the cold and snow are coming soon and I have to say, winters here are a trial for me. They're just so LONG... well anyway, here are some cute pictures taken of Marin over the past few weeks. Goodbye October!

This is our family's attempt at pumpkin carving. I know, we should go pro. I'm the one who carved the retarded "Boo" pumpkin. I truly expected the middle of the letters "B", and "O" to float magically inside the hole I carved out. No such luck.


This is Marin as a ladybug and Spencer (Avree's little guy) as a hotdog. I apologize the picture's a little fuzzy, but it's the only one Marin is even attempting to smile. Spencer kept trying to touch Marin's hair and face during the pictures and she kept swatting him away and getting mad.


Doesn't she just look thrilled for trick-or-treating? I couldn't get her to smile in these pictures either. She really did LOVE trick-or-treating though. At one point in the night she said to Avree, "People just keep giving me lots of candy!"


We had a little Halloween party with our friends. We ate pumpkin-shaped pizza from Papa Murphys and caramel apples (made by me, not pictured because I don't generally take pictures of food, and because they looked disgusting. They did taste really good though). Here is a picture of the kids. This was the best picture I got! I am in desperate need of a new camera with a faster shutter speed! Lately all of my pictures have been blurry like this! But we had to document the cute costumes Scott and Allie were wearing!