The Life of a Fall Pumpkin

I love all things pumpkin! I love their color and many shapes. I love to decorate with them and can't wait to have a real house with a real front door where I can do a big Martha Stewart-esk fall display. And...I love to eat all things pumpkin. And at the first HINT of cooler weather I bust out the best pumpkin bread recipe (Sarah McKenna's mother's recipe) which has become a staple in our house, and I could easily finish off a pumpkin pie by myself. 

A week or so before Halloween Owen and I were at the Children's Museum and he was in the grocery area "buying food for dinner". He brought over a plastic pumpkin. I said, "Oh this is great, should we use it to make a yummy pumpkin pie?" He said very matter-of-fact "You don't eat pumpkins."(He had only ever seen me use canned pumpkin while baking.) I then realized that my child had no idea that pumpkins are first and foremost a food. So I took it on as a challenge to teach Owen all the ways we can enjoy pumpkins through the fall from decorations to food. Here is the journey of our Halloween pumpkin. Owen took part in every aspect of its life (except the picking, we got it at a downtown Halloween activity). 

All done. It was yummy, but not quite as good as my sister in law Arwen's. I prefer canned pumpkin pie to fresh, but she's mastered the homemade pumpkin pie.

This pumpkin provided double the amount of pumpkin I needed for the pie so I just froze it. Just last week I was craving some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and didn't have any more canned pumpkin in the house. So I dug out the rest of the frozen pumpkin and "winged it". The muffins turned out ok, little different texture, but still yummy! At the end of this adventure, Owen learned that pumpkins do in fact produce food. It was a good Mommy moment to teach him a life lesson. 

Back in Action

So I'm back from the dead.....kind of felt like that after all the holiday hoopla. It was really a wonderful holiday season and we had so many wonderful adventures and projects going on, but this blog got severely neglected. I have been "gently" reminded by several friends that I need to update this and Facebook with new pictures of Owen, my huge pregnant belly, and the family. I personally feel like Facebook is a place where you present your best side and your "public" best. Not all of my "friends" care that Owen did finger painting, is now fully potty trained, and I don't want to show "the world" my huge belly. Therefore I'm going to leave those such fun stories for the people who care enough about our little family to check this blog. So these next few posts will be a bit of a "catch up" for the last 2 months. Enjoy! 

Finger paint or Indian War Paint

Owen had his first experience working with finger paint the other night. He was very hesitant, probably because he didn't believe I was ACTUALLY going to LET him use his fingers. I'm sure he thought it was a trick. But once I showed him what to do it didn't take long for him to get covered in paint while making a masterpiece! He LOVED it, can you tell?

Halloween

For the last 3 months Owen has been asking me to give him a blue mo-hog (aka:Mohawk). I've been able to put it off by telling him he could have one for Halloween. Well....I had to make good on my promise and did so happily. He was a STAR in his blue mohog. I had 4 strangers stop us and ask to take his picture on Halloween night. There were plenty of Superman's out there, but none with cool blue hair. And it was all his idea! (Yes he was Superman last year too, but when you add a blue mohawk it suddenly becomes a whole different kind of costume!)

Ryan's dream job is to work at 7-11. That is a legit old school uniform that was given to him by the manager when in high school he made driving 20 miles to the closest 7-11"cool".

Going to protect the rowdy cowboys of the Historic Stockyards.

I found this craft online and think they turned out pretty cute. They are made out of brown paper lunch bags stuffed with news papers then divided by rubberbands. We made these as the center pieces for the Halloween party at my church. 

A Trip Back "home"! (aka: St. Louis)

Two weeks ago Ryan had to take a "continuing education" kind of course in St. Louis.  Shortly after we found out we would be moving to Ft. Worth last year we also found out that Ryan would be expected to attend this course. So we've been planning on going back to St. Louis for a visit for over a year. My personal transition to Ft. Worth was a bit rough, so this trip has been a bright spot for me to focus on for quite some time.

Our visit was AWESOME! We were able to see many of our favorite people, eat at our favorite restaurants, visit our favorite places as a family (The Botanical Garden's Kids' Area, The Zoo, The Central West End to walk among the multi-million $ homes, The Hill, parks, etc.) AND....we were there for the first 2 games of the World Series. We were not able to go in St. Louis but you could feel the electric energy in the air, and that was awesome!

My wonderful old co-workers.

Owen playing in the market at the Botanical Gardens.

 My brave boy climbing up the rope ladder to the Tree House. 

 Fall Leaf Fun!

 Fall is my favorite season and I used to do this all the time as a kid, and maybe... sometimes as an adult. Doing this is like a "release of kid joy to me"! 

 

We got to see our "little brother" Shevon and his mother Paula. They are like family to us, so to be able to see them on this trip was wonderful!

Magic House

 Look at the sincere concern on his face for this baby. He's a doctor in the making. 

Lexi, Tor, Ann, and Owen. (Notice the hands and face of another random child just under Owen's bum on the right side.)

Bath time fun with Lexi! 

Stories with Tori!

More Leaves with Lexi!

     

One of my favorite dessert places in St. Louis is called the Cupcakery. This is a boy after my own heart. 

Running off to the alter

It was such a wonderful visit with our dear friends. It felt so good to go back to St. Louis, to where things were normal, comfortable, conversations were beyond the "get to know you" kind, and it truly felt like Fall. We lived there for 5 years. For our family, it really felt like we were going home! 

It's a......

The one day we were in town between trips to Colorado and St. Louis (next post) we were able to find out the gender of our baby. We are happy to announce that in March we will be welcoming into our family a baby 

GIRL!!!

We are thrilled. Owen was not surprised when I confirmed what he's been saying for months. We are excited for the frills and glitter to flow, but we are trying to control ourselves at this point. My dear friend from St. Louis gave us these darling little socks to wet our appetite for the little girl that will be gracing us with her presence soon. 

Crazy October!

It has been a CRAZY month for our family. We have been all over the map this month and have some great news to share. We started the month with a job interview in Denver with Kaiser Permanente. The interview went great, we were able to see some dear friends from St. Louis, I got to visit Colorado Springs where I served my mission 5 years ago, and we fell in love with Denver. Not even a week later Ryan got a call from the chairman of the department who said "we will cancel all other interviews if you will accept the job!" What a blessing. So, next August we will be putting down roots in Denver, Colorado. This is very exciting for our family, but definitely came with PLENTY of tears and heartache for me. I was so looking forward to going back to the East Coast and being close to my family again. But ultimately, we feel like this is where God is leading us and wants us to be. You can't go wrong with that, huh?!?! Ryan will be working 40 hours a week/4 days a week. This is the least amount he's worked in 12 years. We are so ecstatic to have Ryan around so much and to have a "normal" family life together. All the pain will eventually be worth it!

Here are some pictures of our trip out west.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Littleton Historic Museum