Fall 2008

I love the leaves, weather, harvest and pictures taken in the Fall.

Owen in our backyard. We had plenty of leaves for playing in.

Dallin Paul & Owen-Dallin helped us rake a bunch up one day after school.
Of course there was a hot dog involved in the service :).

Grandma Huff & Owen slicing up apples for pie filling.

Owen & Ava in our backyard.

Ava crawling in the leaves. If you look close you can see that she had been eating & spitting out some leaves too.

Ava & Madalyn

Owen & Michael doing some big jobs.

Good Stuff

Pandora Radio- Raffi station. Gives surprisingly much more than kid songs.

Pumpkin's & Halloween

Halloween was nice and low key. Owen got a surprising amount of candy as we only went around our street and a couple other houses. I love that trick or treating gives us the excuse to go visit our neighbors.

Ava was a ladybug.

Owen was batman.

The Great Pumpkin Walk-

Patrick, Dallin Paul & Owen.

These stick your face in board things are cute but one of the times we were there a little girl got stuck in one- bet she'll never forget that.

I love Owen's face for this one.

It's hard to tell but this display is a little pumpkin waterfall.

We're back

Don't you love when you say "we" when you really don't mean "we" at all. Like at our house when "we" make creme brulee I love to say it when really I had no part in it at all. Well that's how this blog works too only this time Matthew has no part in it. But either way, we're back because we got our computer fixed on Apple's tab even though our warranty had expired. Thank you Apple.

I have lots of pictures that I want to catch up on over the next little bit but here's a couple to start-

I went to check on Owen the other night and turn off his light. When I got downstairs he was asleep and as I was reaching to turn off his lamp I saw his socks on his hands. Funny kid.

Zucchini Soup

So, our computer is broken again. Yes, conveniently about 1 month after the warranty ran out it decided it was tired of completely booting up so instead it just gets stuck on this pretty blue screen. Thus the lack of posting even though our camera is full of fun pictures and we even took a little family trip all the way to Salt Lake City. So, hopefully soon we'll get it fixed so I can post pictures again as I'm not very good at posting my deep thoughts or maybe I'm just not good at having deep thoughts.

I do want to post my most very favorite soup recipe. This pretty much is the only soup I make other than the occasional chicken noodle cause when I feel like soup, this one hits the spot so well. I've even heard it is worthy of marriage, so anyways, with out further delay, here it is-

Zucchini Soup

Sautee until tender:

-2 medium zucchini chopped (I use 1 green & 1 yellow zucchini)

-1 medium onion

-2 Tblsp. Parsley

-1 tsp. dried basil

-1/3 cup butter

Stir in:

-1/3 cup flour

-1 tsp. salt

-¼ tsp. pepper

Stir in:

-3 cups water

-3 chicken bouillon cubes

-1 tsp. lemon juice

Bring to boil 2 minutes

Add:

-1 can tomatoes

-1 can evaporated milk

-1 pkg. corn or 1 can drained

Reduce heat. Simmer 5 minutes

Just before serving, Add:

-¼ sup parmesan cheese

-2 cups shredded cheddar

Also, here's a link to the story of Matthew's cousin that went to the hospital to deliver her baby but found out after she delivered one that she was having twins. Anyways, it is a fun. crazy read.

Family Vacation 2008

We have a goal to take a family vacation each year. We have been good at keeping the goal even though we don't get to far away from home- we went to Salt Lake for our trip again this year. It's actually really great. We were going to go a little farther from home all the way to Boise but decided the less driving to Salt Lake would be nice. Here's a picture recap of what we did-

Thursday- we went to Hogle Zoo. We love the zoo. Ava was happy to hang out and do whatever we were doing. Owen loved the binoculars our whole trip. My personal favorite was the penguins. They make me laugh.

Train Ride.

Gotta get a lion picture.

Happy Ava.

Carousel- Owen riding his savorite (favorite) eagle.

Friday-

Swimming at our hotel.

Aquarium-

The aquarium trip took a lot less time than we thought it would because of it's size and the fact that about half of the museum is all about the native fish of Utah, aka trout and more trout but Owen loved seeing the Nemo fish, sharks and jelly fish.

Temple Square- While Ava took a nap in our car- Owen & I walked around Temple Square.


Conference Center Waterfall.

Relaxing in our hotel room. Take a vacation, fun hotel room & our night owl Owen and Owen is a happy boy late into the night. He loved the all day long party. This picture was taken at about 10:30 at night and he had a lot more in him.

Saturday-

Swimming at our hotel again.

Owen was a hard core traveler and wanted to look the part.

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum- Me & the kids had so much fun at the museum. Owen just ran from place to place.


Owen loved the treehouse.



Matthew missed out on the fun at the museum because he was purchasing...

Yes, we are spoiled.

Last Days of Summer

In our backyard-

An appropriate time for Owen to push Ava :).

Owen helped pick some carrots from our garden.

At the River-

Ava's first time touching and playing in sand. She was pretty fascinated.

Roses from my Dad's rose garden- (His Garden reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons when I was little- Rose Petal Do you remember with the little girl that cries and her tear drop falls on the rose, oh I loved that show. When I found that one on youtube it brought up a few others that were favorites that I haven't thought about for a long time- Lady Lovely Locks & Get Along Gang)

Treat

I asked Owen what kind of treat we should make the other day and he said, "Something chocolatey with M&M's on top." I couldn't argue with that :).

From Our Garden-

Here's what we picked from our garden the other day. I thought it was so pretty I had to take a picture.

Signing Time

Today Ava got excited about something and was moving her arms up & down- when Owen saw her do this he looked at me all excited and said "Mom look Ava doin' Signing Time!"

Adventures-

Last week Matt went to China for work- while he was off working, we had our own adventures-

Owen wanted to go with Dad in his suitcase.

On Monday we went to Toph & Emily Ann's house for a few days. Owen had a blast hanging out with his cousins.


We went to see Steven & Elizabeth's cute new house and then some more cousin play time. Owen still talks about your big & little Buzz Lightyears.
Henry & Owen-

Ava & George-

and of course some treehouse fun-

We came home Wednesday afternoon in time for Ava to see the dr. cause I guess she thought she needed to follow the rule that somebody needs to get hurt or sick while one of the parents are out of town. Turns out- she's a real trooper and had ear infections & a sinus infection.
On Friday I forgot to bring my camera but we had a fun day in P-town. First I got to meet up with Brinna, Callie, Sydney & all their cute kids at the park. It was so fun to catch up & hang out. It had been a long time. Then we went to Becca & Mike's apartment to play. Owen & Michael had fun together and Ava didn't mind Madalyn sprinkling her apple juice all over her head that we didn't notice until she was dripping wet :). We had a yummy dinner out at the river before we came home. Matthew came home Saturday around lunch time. Thanks to everyone that helped make our week so much fun.