Halloween

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile, I broke my camera :( and forgot that I had some pics ready to post from before. Then everything got crazy with the holidays. But I'm finally back and Tony got me a new camera as an early Christmas present!

On October 28th we went to a great Halloween party at Breck's house. There was cookie decorating,

bingo,

pin the spider on the web,

and find the rubber eyeball in the "guts"!

It was so much fun and all the little preschool aged neighborhood kids looked SO CUTE in their costumes!

Christian couldn't leave without climbing the mountain of LoveSac and showing off the mini pumpkin that he got to take home as a favor.

I had the preschool kids make these ghosts, but Faith wanted to make one with the leftover materials and added the cute fangs, mean eyebrows, and word bubble.

That evening, we carved our pumpkins.

Christian got a hold of my camera and took this picture with it inside his pumpkin!

He also had to get a close up of pumpkin guts.

The next morning, Buddy was still a bit sleepy and cuddled with his kitty while I was at the computer.
Faith looked cute for the last school day before Halloween:

On Halloween night, we had a special dinner of green worms, blood sauce & eyeballs! Faith also made some great "bone" breadsticks.

Here are Christian's monster and Faith's haunted house jack-o-lanterns. Buddy drew his entirely by himself and I carefully carved exactly what he drew. Faith planned, drew and carved hers by herself! She got the idea from a Martha Stewart special. Didn't they both come out awesome?!!!

Mine is supposed to be a goblin.

Here are the cuties all ready to trick-or-treat.

Tony took them around our neighborhood while I handed out candy at the house this year. Then I joined them and we went around the patio homes neighborhood which is also in our ward. We headed over to Braeggers' for the traditional homemade chili and then to my parents' to show off the kids. Christian was asleep by the time we got our last stop in and he just snoozed on the couch.

Here's Faith with my mom:

and a close up of the cool eye makeup I did for her. We had a great Halloween!

The next day was Faith's birthday, so after church we made cupcakes to take around to the families. She wanted them to look like hamsters, so here was my prototype-

She got to open the gifts from us,

then we went over to my mom & dad's.

Hey, Christian! Always keepin' it classy, bro!

Faith's hamsters, unlike mine, had cute cheeks. We loaded up one with 8 candles

and she got some help blowing them out.

At Tony's mom & dad's, Tammy went all out as usual.

To go with Faith's Halloween costume, I had broken out my ancient sewing machine to make a lacy edged petticoat.

Now she loves to wear that thing over black leggings and with her new boots!

While out running errands, Christians second favorite stop (after "Old MacDonalds") is the bread store! We stopped by Great Harvest this day and had a brownie with our free peice of bread.

Here is Christian's art project that he made entirely on his own: back

and front. Love the glued on candy wrappers and envelope!

He made this picture for me on the computer and figured out how to make it print. He was asking me how to spell my name, and I was telling him the letters and describing what those letters look like. I didn't show him and he doesn't know his letters yet, so I had no idea any of them would be recognizable.

He got one that looks like a backward E,

a fairly decent M,

and a great Y!

Hopefully now that I've started, I can get through November and December in a hurry to catch up!

Happy New Year!

We're alive! Just busy with Christmas activities and our lives, but soon to be back blogging away. We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and filled it with charity, love and fun! I didn't even get Christmas cards out, so here it is:


















We want all of our family and friends, far and near, to know how much you mean to us. We hope and pray for the very best things to happen in your lives and look forward to a great year ahead! Love, the Braeggers.

Best. Stuffing. Ever.

Mom's Stuffing

2 loaves of bread, cubed and dried all day & night
1 ½ large white onions, diced
1 pt. Chicken broth
½ lb. Butter, melted
½ c. celery, diced
2 c. craisins
2 c. pecans, roughly chopped
½ T. salt
1 T. sage
2 t. poultry seasoning
½ t. pepper
2 lbs. Sausage, browned and drained
2 eggs

Put half of the onions in a blender and blend with the eggs and most of the broth. Mix this and rest of ingredients, add rest of broth if it needs to be more moist. Stuff turkey. Put remainder in covered casserole dish and bake with the turkey for the last hour.

I know I've offered some lists of hot vampires before, but I came across this one and all I can add is--AMEN! Except they need to swap #2 & #12, for sure. I've been kind of addicted to "Vampire Diaries" lately.
It's not a tremendously wonderful show, but there is one main reason that I like it--Ian Somerhalder:

'Nuff said :)

middle of October

On October 14th Christian and I went to Great Harvest so I could sign up for them to sponsor our PTA. Both my kids love the "bread store"!
We stopped by to play at lunch recess again, even though we were too full to eat lunch with Faith.

That evening, Faith had an African drum recital which the Salt Lake Tribune did a story about.

She did a great job! Check out this video:

On the 15th, we went to the Bun Basket Bakery to pick up a gift certificate that they were so generous to gift the PTA. Buddy couldn't leave without some cookies, especially this Frankenstein one.

When we got home, we collected our mail in a WalMart bag, and then Dusty decided to stick his head through the handle. Don't worry, we rescued him!

Christian got a Halloween card from his aunt Tammy, but then couldn't resist peeking in Faith's envelope, too. "I can see the numbers!" he shouted (he meant the letters of the writing). When he opened his card from grandma & pa Braegger and found that it held two dollars, he excitedly told me, "I got dollars--two in a row!"

That night Tammy & Lana took us to Black Island Farms for our second visit. Zach couldn't make it because he was in some kind of gun class. Who schedules classes that take up precious evenings in October???!!? Only December would be a worse time! Here, Buddy's putting animal food in a little cup contraption that you can send up to the goat that likes to be king of the mountain.

When Christian got tired of the teeter-totter, grandma filled in. I wonder if she could walk the next day? ;)

Grandma even bought the kids light sabers. What a fun night!

On the 17th the kids and I went to Faith's soccer game and then helped Joy & Jordan move for a bit. Tony had been invited by my dad to a Weber State football. I teased them that if I wasn't busy, I would have made them matching wrist corsages and get pictures since they were going to homecoming together! After moving, mom took us & Joy's family to Arctic Circle for dinner. Here, Buddy's just showing how much he loves to play at the Circle.

On the 20th it was "Wild Hair Day-because we're WILD about being healthy" in connection to red ribbon week where they talk about saying no to drugs and alcohol. I braided sparkly pipe cleaners into her ponytail and she looked really cute.

On October 23rd we had a Halloween party with our friends. Ann came with her kids, but Natalie had a sick little girl and had to miss out :(

We made white chocolate ghost suckers,

tissue paper pumpkins,

and gak! This was the hit of the party. They loved mixing it in the bags

and they loved playing with it even more.

Gross!

Even baby Bronwyn couldn't resist the goopiness.

That night Faith & Buddy went to the Dinosaur Park with Tammy and had a sleepover at Braegger's. Tony and I went to Ruby River and then the Haunted Hollow with the Jewel's and the Johnson's. It was so fun to have a night out with friends!

The next day, we went to Gardner Village with Tammy, Lana & Zach. The kids were so excited to do the pony ride!

Christian insisted on riding the biggest one, so Zach kindly waited for the next round.

Buddy had stayed up too late at the sleepover the night before and kept throwing fits.

We promised him something, and he perked up just for this picture!

Tammy bought us a delicious lunch, she even got the fried green tomatoes and fried avacado appetizer that I love! Face painting was a hit, as always.

We had a fun time until Buddy got so ornery that we had to head for home.

Get working on a Thanksgiving craft!

While searching for crafts to post on my preschool's blog, I came across a site called Tampon Crafts--for any time of the month. How awesome is that? Here's a turkey centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table :D Enjoy!