Pumpkin carving!

The Munchkins fist pumpkin carving!
He started out pretty good, sitting in his Bumboo and watching all the action. After a while though he started to get a little cranky, so we put him down for a quick nap and he woke up as our happy little boy again. Hubby and I haven't carved pumpkins together since we were dating! We had a great time, even though he wouldn't let me peek at his until he was totally finished. I have to say, I was impressed with the end result!

And then with the lights off. OoooOoooo

Christmas gifts for Baby?

Shopping for a baby is ridiculous! Getting some big expensive gift is silly, he'll only be 5 1/2 months old. At the same time, I still want to get him something he'll love.

So far I've decided to get something we were already planning on buying. He'll be the perfect age for an exersaucer, so that's going to be his 'big' gift for the year. It was either that, or the high chair, but the high chair is no fun. I really wish he'd be able to remember these early years, because everyone else is so stinkin' excited for his first Christmas.

I went to Costco this morning and bought a 4 pack of stockings. We plan on having one more little one, so this way we'll have a matching set of stockings for the whole family. There's a place in the mall that does embroidery, so I'll take them there and get our names put on them. It's just barely the end of October, and I'm getting so excited for Christmas. Maybe I'm seeing it through the eyes of a child all over again. I do have a rule in my house, no decorating until December 1st. If I do it too soon, I get sick of all the music and extra 'clutter' around the house. It will be interesting to figure out where to put everything in the new house.

Shoot, what about stocking stuffers for the Munchkin? He's not old enough for candy and other treats Hubby's family puts in the stockings (my family does socks, underwear, toothpaste etc.) Anybody have any ideas for little things to put in the Munchkins stocking?

One of them.

I've turned into one of those moms. You know, with the ridiculous schedule for everything. Especially meals, that's what started this whole thing. I've been struggling with coming up with things to make for dinner that don't either take forever to make, or we haven't made a bazillion times already this month.

I typed out everything I make from frozen pizza to roast beef dinner and the list is pretty long! Why is it that when I have to start cooking something, none of these 30 items come to mind? That's where the list is going to come in. Now at the beginning of every week I sit down at the computer and scroll through that magical list and decide what to have for every meal that week. Then I make a shopping list and get the groceries for those meals I have planned for. So far (1 Week in) it's been going great!

I'm still afraid that I'm going to get tired of my list, so I've become a member of one of those recipe sites, and I get a recipe of the day. If it's good, I save the recipe and add it to The List. The first new recipe we're going to try:
Broccoli, Ham and Cheese Quiche! I read about it on another bloggers' site, and it sounded pretty good. I'll let you know how it turns out.

What to do for Halloween

I'm curious to know what other people with babies are doing for Halloween. We live in an area with a lot of kids, so giving out candy will be lots of fun! But what about when it's bed time for the Munchkin? We could just turn out the light and hope the little goblins and ghosts stop ringing the the doorbell.

We're also thinking about taking the Munchkin to 'trick or treat' and Nana and Grandpop's house. Maybe we could just stick around there and put him to sleep until the door bells have stopped ringing. Somebody needs to see how cute he is in his costume.

I'm looking forward to the day after Halloween. That's when all the candy goes on sale ;)

Solo Shopping

The Munchkin is in high demand! Being the first grand-baby, everyone wants their own time with our little man, and I don't mind at all. I had a bunch of errands to run the other day, and as much as he's an easy baby, I hate having to haul him in and out of the car and stroller. So I had a genius idea! I called Nana to see if she wouldn't mind if I dropped the munchkin off for an hour or so while I went grocery shopping and ran errands. She was more than happy to snuggle him for a while, and ended up having a lovely little photo shoot ( now we know where Cool Auntie gets it from :P).

I was amazed at how much faster it was to go shopping solo. I hadn't even realized it was taking me longer to do things. At least now I know how to get it done all at once and speedy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, what a crazy weekend. We spent Sunday with Hubby's family. It was great, and fairly low-key. We spent Monday with my family, and it was CRAZY! Everyone wants a piece of The Munchkin, which I think is adorable, but it gets a little stressful after a while. We got up and had a little time to ourselves before we had to take off. Then it was my mom's side of the family for lunch and snuggle the baby time so it was a 45 minute drive to get to Grandmas'. A bunch of the family was out of town or had other commitments so it wasn't too hectic. The Munchkin was great for the first hour or so, but then a switch flipped and he was DONE. Take me home. We went and snuggled in 'the kids room' (my Grandma has always had a bedroom for us kids), and he calmed down and decided to be human again.

Mid afternoon we headed out to my Aunts' for dinner with my Dads' side of the family. It was another 45 minutes in the car and The Munchkin had a great snooze. This is where it gets a little nutty. I have 3 cousins on that side of the family, my sister and I are the youngest by at least 5 years. Two of those cousins have two kids each, and the third is preggo. There were small people everywhere. The twins are almost 3, so they are into everything. The little girl wanted to touch The Munchkin, squish his cheeks, give him kisses, hold his hand. My poor mother was having a minor heart attack. She's a little more 'protective' than I am. I figure that if it bothers him, he'll let us know pretty quickly. Which he did after a few minuted of being smothered by little fingers. All 4 of the other kids are talking now, so there was no shortage of noise. I'm not surprised, but impressed that The Munchkin was able to have an hour and a half long nap in the midst of everything while taking turns snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa.

My Aunt got all the kids little pumpkins according to their size and tried to get them all together in a picture. It was a gong show, but still pretty cute. My preggo cousin is due in January, so I can only imagine how crazy this will be next holiday season. I didn't get any pictures, but everyone else did. Hopefully they will be passed on soon and I will post them!

Baking Success!!

I love to bake, and most importantly I love to try new things when I bake. Every Christmas is an experiment in all things sweet... and sometimes salty. Some things intimidate me though. Like baked cheesecake. I'm down with the no-bake kind, they always turn out amazing, but the kind you have to bake taunt me by threatening to crack! The other big one that scares me is meringue. I make lemon pies and tarts on a regular basis, but I often 'forget' to put the meringue on. I know it's not difficult, but I'm always afraid I won't get the peaks stiff enough, or that if I DO get them to stand up they will burn.

Today I took my fist step toward facing that fear. I made Lemon Meringue Pie! And it looks good!