Halloweens Past

Last trip to the Cabin

We went to the cabin up Fairview Canyon last weekend...the last trip in the mountains for the year. It was great to be there even though it was rainy and cold. It was fun to be in the cabin with the fire going, all cozy and listening to conference. The leaves were beautiful I just wish we could have seen them with the sun shining. Some of the Aspens were even red! We did see our first snowfall while we were driving home and we all sang "let it snow" to celebrate :-) Our camera didn't capture the vividness of these colors, but here's an idea of how pretty it was!

Wizard Stew in Jack-O-Lantern Bowls

I saw this recipe on KSL and thought it looked fun to try with the kids!

Wizard Stew in Jack-0-Lantern Bowls

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon garg-oyle (vegetable oil)
1 cup ghost rocks, more or less to taste (pearl onions)
1 1/2 pounds dragon beef (stew meat)
2 cups goblin coins (carrot slices)
3 cups sorcerer’s stones (potatoes chunks)
1/2 pound fresh toadstools (mushrooms)
2 green broomsticks (stalks of celery)
4 cups crystal elixir (water)
4 enchantment cubes (bouillon cubes)
1/2 teaspoon disappearing powder (garlic salt)
2 packages (7/8 oz.) brown dust (gravy mix)
1/2 cup witches’ grass (shredded carrots)
1 cup green ghoul spots (frozen peas, thawed)
ghost sand and midnight specks (salt & pepper) to taste
8 small sugar pumpkins (about 12-15” circumference)

Method:
Heat the garg-oyle (oil) in heavy cauldron (saucepan or Dutch oven). Peel ghost rocks (pearl onions). Add dragon beef (stew meat) and ghost rocks to cauldron, cook until browned.
Add goblin coins (peeled and sliced carrots); bite-size sorcerer’s stones (potatoes); and cleaned toadstools (mushrooms) to the cauldron. Clean and chop broomstick into bite-size pieces. Add broomsticks, elixir (water), enchantment cubes (bouillon) and disappearing powder (garlic salt) to cauldron. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until ingredients are tender.
Prepare jack-o-lantern bowls (see below).

Stir brown dust (gravy mix) into 3/4-cup cold elixir (water). Add a little hot juice from the cauldron to the elixir and brown dust, mix well and stir into cauldron. Stir gently and bring to a boil. Add more elixir or brown dust as needed to suit taste preferences. Stir in witches’ grass (shredded carrots) and ghoul spots (thawed frozen peas); add ghost sand and midnight dust to taste (salt and pepper), bring back to a boil. Serve in jack-o-lantern bowls with crusty wart sticks (cheesy bread sticks) and brown milk (chocolate milk).

Jack-O-Lantern Bowls: Cut tops off pumpkins, scoop out seeds and fiber from inside and off the lid. Place in shallow baking dish, cover and bake at 3500 F for 30-50 minutes or until fleshy inside is tender, but not soft (if pumpkins are too soft they will collapse.) If only cooking 1 or 2 bowls, clean as above, place top back on pumpkin and microwave 10-15 minutes. Serves 8.

8+ months old

Ammon is now almost 8 1/2 months old and his little personality just shines. He is such a happy little guy! He has four teeth now and has learned to scoot around on his bum. I'm hoping we're still a ways from crawling (they're so much easier when they hold still!). He has all of us wrapped around his little finger!
Josh loves to do his reading time with his little brother. so cute!

Inside the House

Well I've been waiting and waiting to take pictures until everything was done...but then I realized that might be a really long time! We still have to hang some blinds, paint in most rooms, do a tile backsplash in the kitchen, and of course there is still decorating to do. BUT, here is a look at a few rooms. Some of these pictures don't do the rooms justice but oh well!

This is the entrance to the office / music room

piano on other side of computer desk
downstairs family room...bigger than it looks!
Master bath...also bigger than it looks
Master bedroom. btw I love my roman shades! They can go down from the top or up at the bottom or anywhere in-between. They are so cool!
Hallway bathroom
Ammon will have a train room...the picture is actually a puzzle put together and framed by Grandpa Horton

Living Room...including one of the cutest little boys!

The top portion of the deck. There's a bbq to the left and stairs that go down to the left, then the lower deck is much larger but also much messier at the moment so sorry, no pic yet
Each closet has built-in shelves which are so wonderful! Maybe I shouldn't have picked Josh's to take a picture of because it could be tidier, but oh well!
Josh will have a pirate room
The girls will have a ballerina room. We definitely need some pink walls here!

Dining Room & the maple floor mark installed

Kitchen...the glass on the cabinets looks weird in the pic but the glass is beaded and really pretty. I love my pendant lights.
Another look at the kitchen. We will add some paint and a tile backsplash to add some more color. Another favorite thing is that the cabinets have self-closing hinges.
And another look. The door under the sign goes through to the mud/locker room & laundry.
Last shot of the kitchen. Gotta love all that cupboard space!
Well folks, there you have it! If you'd rather see it in person just give me a call...I might even fix you dinner!

Updates

So we both got callings in our new ward a few weeks ago...they sure didn't waste any time! Mark is the Young Men's President. That's the calling he left in our last ward so he must not be done with that one yet. I am choir director! That's also the calling I left behind so it just goes to show what Jonah learned that hard way, you can't run away from your job! (Not like we were trying, but you know...) I had my first choir practice yesterday and we had a good turnout so it's going to be fun.

I am also going to be in charge of a monthly cooking club as a R.S. enrichment activity, and I am super excited. Those of you with favorite cooking or recipe websites send them to me so I can get lots of new ideas...I will do it here at my house so I'm excited.

We both had to speak in church yesterday too...glad that's over. Our ward is awesome and we are getting to know people really fast...we sure feel welcome. This is definitely the right place for us to be.

I started ballet again...wahoo! It's been 16 months since I quit when I became too pregnant to continue. Well, I actually broke my toe last week the night before I was supposed to go back to ballet class, and I was so mad! But, I iced it, taped it, and went to class anyway. It was so good to go back and I was glad that most of the skills came right back to me. And I got one of my neighbors to go with me which makes it even more fun. I'm looking forward to getting toned up again...boy was I stiff after class! By the way don't ask me how I broke my toe.

I am also going to be teaching piano again. I will start off with just two or three students and see how that goes. I'm looking forward to it. This is also canning season...I've already done 26 quarts of whole tomatoes and will start on tomato juice tomorrow. Yet to do peaches, pears, applesauce, grape juice, etc.



Our cars are actually able to park in the garage now! Mark worked so hard to get the garage organized last weekend so we don't have redneck cars in the driveway anymore. Well, we still have a bunch of boxes on the side of the house we are trying to get rid of (a little in the garbage each week) so we are a little redneck but it's getting better!


Things inside the house are coming along nicely. I hung all the roman shades in the upstairs windows by myself last week! I felt very accomplished :-) We've got some things on the walls and decor here and there...still plenty to do but it feels more homey now. Some day I'll take pictures.


The girls started a dance class last week and they are so cute! They are both doing tap, ballet, and jazz and I just love watching them. These pictures are of Ella's first class ever. She listened so carefully and was actually a real natural. She is the one with the ribbons around her bun. Look at her great pose!



Josh will be starting 2nd grade basketball next week. Josh and Holly are both enjoying school and I can't believe it's already one month down! Ammon gave me my first sleep all the way through the night last night!!! I actually woke up around 6:00 a.m. wondering if he was okay, and couldn't believe it when I realized his big accomplishment. He is working on his two top teeth right now but is still such a good baby.

We went to the Utah State Fair Monday night...Dad Horton came along (this is a tradition for us) and we had a great time. My favorite part was the Home Arts exhibit...I think my goal will be to enter something in the fair next year... I can do something homemaker-ish and Mark can enter his giant pumpkin!

Well I guess that's plenty for now. Even if nobody reads this it's for my own benefit since it keeps track of things for my journal. Anyone know how to download a blog for a backup copy?

Here the girls are hanging out on the deck...still needs some finishing touches but is fun to kick back on!

I'm a few decades late!

You Belong in 1958

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

For Preparing Gospel lessons:

So Mark and I have to speak in Church Sunday...no surprise, being new in the ward. I've been working on my talk (on Service if you have any great stories to contribute) and I've been searching lds.org for material but not really finding what I was looking for. Anyway, I finally had inspiration and I remembered about this BYU website I haven't used for a long time but it is so cool...I would try to describe it but the web site has it's own description that is much better:

"This index links from scriptures to the general conference talks and Journal of Discourses speeches that cite those scriptures. So, for example, suppose you want to know who has cited 1 Ne. 3:7 in general conference; click on the Book of Mormon link at the left and scroll down to 1 Ne. 3; there you'll find the answer. Who has quoted Matt. 5:48? Use the New Testament index to find out. We have indexed the scriptures cited by speakers in LDS General Conference between 1942 and the present, and those cited by speakers recorded in the Journal of Discourses between 1839 and 1886. You can sort the citation index by scripture (the default), by speaker, or by date of citation."

What a great tool! Now I'm off to finish my talk and I'm sure I'll have better success. Here is the website:

BYU Scriptural Index

Enjoy!

August All at Once

Finally I found my camera & can post pictures of everything we've been up to!!! Get ready...there's a bunch!

At the classic car show Dress-ups are always a big hit
swimming party with friends


Let's go camping!
Emily found time between unpacking boxes to make bread
Josh's first day of Second Grade

Guy Smiley

Holly's first day of Kindergarten!

Playing in the mud in the front yard...


View of the house...everything's done but the yard

Camera...missing in action

Well, we are searching for our camera. We last had in on Monday (Holly's first day of Kindergarten). But with more unpacking & a camping trip since then we hope it is only misplaced & not lost. Anyway, without more pictures to post, I will finally get around to this...

TAGGED (AGAIN)

1. What is your/his name? Mark & Emily Bishop
2. Who eats more? I'm sure I do...especially since I'm still nursing. He probably eats more at mealtime, but I'm a big grazer so overall I probably win.
3. Who said I love you first? He did and I had no problem saying it right back!
4. Who is taller? He is by about six inches
5. Who is smarter? He has a Master's degree so he did more school but I definitely have some smarts too :-)
6. Who is more sensitive? It probably depends on the day. He is really in tune so I look up to him for that.
7. Who does the laundry? Me...always...although I hate ironing and will often bribe him to do that portion
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do
9. Who pays the bills? I do...well he earns the money but I'm definitely the financial manager of the family.
10. Who cooks more? Me...I love to cook! He makes lunch a lot for the kids when he is home tho.
11. What meals do you cook together? When we go camping or to the cabin it is a joint effort, usually.
12. Who is more stubborn? It depends on the issue. We can both hold our own!
13. Who is first to admit when they are wrong? Mark is so humble and good at asking for forgiveness and I am more prone to the silent treatment so he definitely wins this one.
14. Who has more siblings? He does (odelst of 8, I'm baby of 6)
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I think we are a great team so I guess we share the pants.
16. What do you like to do together? Camping, games, projects,
17. Who eats more sweets? He does more pigging out when it comes to treats, but I'm more constant so probably me. Plus I do the shopping and know where to hide them!
18. Guilty pleasures? Chips and salsa or dark chocolate
19. How did you meet? we met at a FHE in a BYU ward...got engaged 3 weeks later (nice statistic, huh?)
20. Who asked who out first? I asked Mark to go to Sundance Theater with me
21. Who kissed who first? It takes two to kiss, right? It was a joint effort but since he's taller he has to bend his head down so I guess he did
22. Who proposed? He did the official proposal up at his family's cabin - a scavenger hunt including the ring, roses and a cooler full of chips and salsa (he knows my weakness!)
23. What is your/his best feature? He would say my eyes and I would say his eyes
24. What is your/his best quality? His integrity...

Whew! I'm not tagging anyone but if you feel like doing it go for it!