(11-14) 2 Months

(P.S. Scroll down to see more posts from today.)

(11-13 ) Shiner

 And this is what the black eye looked like a few days later. Kind of cool, and kind of awful. The bloody part worried me, and I made Adam go see the optometrist. He said everything was fine and the blood was just from a couple of burst blood vessels. Ewww.

(11-10) Martial Arts

 On the tenth Anicka, Adam and my sister Crystal (who just recently joined Adam's martial arts class) had a belt testing ceremony and they all advanced a belt level and got to break a board.

 And, in case you didn't notice, Adam got a black eye during the sparring portion of his test. It was some pretty intense sparring. I wish I had been able to video tape it, but at the time I was nursing Alexa and couldn't get the camera out in time.

(11-6) Alexa's Blessing Day

(11-2) Mission call

 I am tired of trying to catch up on this project, so I'm just uploading the most important things.

 On November 2nd my youngest brother was called to serve a mission in Lansing, Michigan. He'll be gone for two years, doing the Lord's work.
This day was full of rollercoaster emotions for everyone. Jesse will be such a spectacular missionary, and we will all miss him so much.

Nice kicks

 I was looking through old pictures (working on a Christmas project) and I found these. They were taken a little over a year ago, and I always meant to blog about them. Better late than never, I guess.

One day I bought some cheap canvas shoes for Anicka from Family Dollar with the intention of drawing all over them. But the second I pulled out the shoes and the markers Anicka popped over and asked "Can I color on them, too?"
She was so excited by the idea of coloring her own shoes that I just turned the whole project over to her. Her shoes turned out pretty great, don't you think?

Little brother wanted to get in on the picture taking action

Sadly, these shoes no longer fit her, but for a long time they were her favorite. I think we need to do this again soon.

(10-31) Halloween night

 My family really loves Halloween. My mom still dresses up every year, and I love it. Adam pretty much only dresses up because I make him. This year I was too stressed to think of anything very original, so we just dressed like punks.

 I helped my sister make an awesome 'Robin Sparkles' jacket, though. (Any HIMYM fans out there?)

 I made Alexa a super cute penguin costume, loosely based on THIS one from Make it and Love it. I simplified it and took a lot of shortcuts, and probably spent about an hour on it. I need to get a better picture of Alexa in her costume before I pack it up with the Halloween stuff. (yeah, our costume stuff is still in a pile in my bedroom. Don't judge.)

 And this is the Halloween 'wreath' for our front door, inspired by Dana's. The glue ghosts were made by Anicka a couple years ago. We thought they made a nice addition.

(10-30) Jack-O-lanterns

(10-29) Trunk -or- treating in Leeds

Anicka has her crazy face on.

What do you think of the trunk-or-treat tradition? Is this just a Utah thing? I think it's kind of lame compared to the excitement of running door to door through the neighborhood. But it seems like every year there are fewer and fewer trick or treaters out on Halloween night. Everyone does a trunk-or-treat over the weekend, instead.


I made Ryker's vest using THIS tutorial from Dana. Super easy. It seriously took me about 15 minutes. I really wanted to paint his face like this image that I saw on pinterest:

source

But, alas, you can't force a 3 year old.

(10-28)

(10-27) Dress up

Anicka loves to help dress Alexa. (Don't worry, I supervise to make sure no little arms or legs get twisted.) Alexa is just like a baby doll, except for the fact that she wiggles a lot more than most dolls.  Anicka was particularly pleased with herself for picking out this outfit.

(10-26) Broccoli Cheese soup

I am sooooo not a food photographer, but I had to post about this delicious soup.
I love Broccoli Cheese soup, and this was the first time I've made it myself. I used THIS recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe (great blog, btw). I chose her recipe because it didn't have velveeta or canned condensed soup in the ingredient list. Mel has a recipe for bread bowls on her site as well, but I just used some dough that I had sitting in my fridge from my last batch of artisan bread. SO. GOOD.

(10-25)