Happy Halloween

so this is gonna be brief 'cause i haven't really been feeling well lately, but i figured it might be good to get my halloween pics up before thanksgiving and christmas get here ; )


So Old Navy had a super big sale on their halloween costumes. i went to get a dragon costume for jude and something else for emma, but emma saw the dragon costume and that was the end of the discussion. I LOVED the fact she wanted to be a dragon for halloween : )




Jude got the next best thing... : )


SOOOOOO this is how emma takes care of her baby. I see a great baby sitter in the making. (P.S. I'd been wanting to get emma a toy kitchen but they're pretty pricey, and then one day as i was leaving for walking group, what should be out by the dumpster but this lovely toy kitchen. After walking group it was still there so emma and i lugged it home and i washed it. that's not gross is it? Waste not want not : )






mmmm tasty ; )


so i've decided to start a tradition of making ghoulish meals the day before and day of halloween. Here's what i made friday night... both meals came from kraftfoods.com

Ghouls-in-the-Graveyard

2 pkg. (7-1/4 oz. each) KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

1 pkg. (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1 pkg. (16 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Wieners, cut crosswise in half

1 tsp. yellow mustard
HEAT oven to 350ºF.
PREPARE Dinners in large saucepan as directed on package. Stir in mozzarella and eggs. SPOON into foil-lined 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Stand wieners, in 4 rows of 5 wieners each, in Dinner mixture for the ghouls.
BAKE 20 min.; cool 5 min. Add small dabs of mustard to wieners for the ghouls' eyes.

pumpkin carving




She was so proud of her pumpkin, she didn't want to go to bed




making a pudding graveyard for Jodi's Halloween party


1 pk Oreo cookies
2 pk Chocolate INSTANT pudding
3 cups Cool whip
4 oz Rectangular white cookies
Topping:
Cool Whip
Licorice
Candied corn

Directions

Place cookies in zip-lock bag and crush using a rolling pin
. Make pudding as directed and let stand for 5 minutes
. Stir in the cool whip, and 1/2 the cookies.
Spoon mixture into a 13"x9" baking dish.
Sprinkle with the remaining cookies.
Refrigerate 1 hour.
Decorate using rectangular cookies as tombstones, etc.
Use cool whip to make ghost-shaped blobs on the top, create swirls of *ghosts* on top, use pieces of black licorice for the eyes.
Place the candied corn around the top.

Being a cool russian spy with kyle and suzi at jodi's halloween party


Spaghetti and "Oozing Eyeballs"
2 lb. ground beef

1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1 cup water

2 eggs

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce, divided

4 sticks KRAFT STRING-UMS String Cheese, cut into quarters

4 pitted large black olives, cut into 4 slices each

1 pkg. (1 lb.) spaghetti

HEAT oven to 375ºF.
MIX meat, stuffing mix, water, eggs and 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce. Shape into 16 (2-inch) meatballs. Insert 1 cheese piece into top of each meatball, with end of cheese piece just showing at top. Place on baking sheet. Top each with olive slice to resemble eyeball.
BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until meatballs are done (160ºF). Meanwhile, cook spaghetti and heat remaining spaghetti sauce as directed on package and jar.
DRAIN spaghetti. Serve topped with meatballs and sauce.

Halloween 2009
Some friends gave us the idea of having "The Office" themed halloween and so i was the NBC peacock and brad was Mose Schrute (Dwight's odd cousin)


Emma with some of her friends Cody and Ellie


This was our church's halloween party and the kids trick or treated at the classrooms. A couple in our ward went all out and decorated not only their door but the whole room. it was a lot of fun and went perfect with emma's costume


not quite sure why this photo won't turn but this was jude at the party


Wanted to post jude's halloween outfit. Thanks Rhea for the shirt and Ashley for the socks!

GO, GO, GO!

so apparently emma is slightly afraid of flying kites, but her friend Codi has no problem with it. fun was then had by all.


tummy time


YAY!!! Becky was great enough to do my first 5k with me in years. thanks becky!! It felt so good to be running again : )


...yeah... the hills sucked... but becky is like super woman and didn't break a sweat ; P


and we finish : )


Jude did a great job during the run... and he and emma both won pumpkins for their troubles.


When emma saw me uploading these she pointed at jude and said, "Christmas!" need i say more?




yeah, we're back to potty training again. I'm working myself up to this hardcore potty training in 3 days routine... not really looking forward to it...


They play so well together ; )


he looks like grandpa ashley in this one.


wrestling... emma always wins


Jude 3 mos


So Becky was so kind as to teach me how to make bread (which was SUPER yummy--let's hope i can replicate it again) and she held a fussy jude for me for a couple of min and he totally passed out. i thought it was pretty funny




there's a park here where there's a little farm next to it with sheep, goats, pigs, and llamas. There's a video of emma feeding the llama at the end. The pig's grunts kind of freaked her out.


Emma insisted on wearing a halloween shirt that was meant for jude


I was making lunch one day when i came out to find emma sitting on her couch "reading" her Gideons bible that was so kindly given to us. i thought it was pretty cute. The other night Brad told emma she could only choose one book to read since it was past her bedtime. after looking over her books she chose the Gideons bible. Brad laughed and could only reply, "Touche."


So Old Navy's halloween costumes went on sale for super cheap and so i got a couple for the kids. Well, this is supposed to be jude's (size 0-6mos) but emma insisted on trying it on. pretty funny, no?


WSU has a falconry club and they hosted a "raptor safari" this past saturday. We got to see a lot of BEAUTIFUL birds up close and emma loved it. I forgot to take picks till the end when emma was getting tired. so i didn't get the best pics.







some fun chatter with jude with a guest appearance by emma



Soooooooooo it's true what they say about how kids imitate what they see...there's been a lot of angels baseball going on in our house.



my little couch potatoes



emma meets the llama

Happy (belated) Birthday!!!!!

Yeah... this blog entry took FOREVER. that's what i get for procrastination... true ashley style ; )


HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY BRADLEY!!!! that's right he's an old man now ; )


Emma stole some of Brad's thunder and so brad wanted me to make cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. Look how excited he is.


emma... being emma...


So for emma's birthday i tried to recreate jamba juice which is her favorite. This came from a WIC cookbook and it was goOoOOooOooOd and EASY to make too. Here is the recipe:

Fruit & Juice breakfast shake

1 ripe med banana, peeled
1 (6oz) can pineapple juice
1/2 cup low fat plain or vanilla yogurt
1 cup strawberries, rinsed and stems removed

Break banana into small pieces and put in blender with pinapple juice, yogurt and strawberries. Secure lid and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.
(i found refrigerating the juice and strawberries made it better. you can also use frozen strawberries, which gives it a stronger strawberry flavor).


The officially 2 year old birthday girl! thanks gma and gpa newbold for the present!


She loves the book she got!


So here's some of my beautiful walking group! I love these girls! We do about a 3 mile walk every morning through the brutal hills of pullman. i took some pics to give you an idea.


There's a mini hill before this beast hill #1


hill#2


hill#3


hill #4


and there's a mini hill before this last beast hill #5
this last killer hill is forever long. these pictures really don't do these hills justice
Thanks ladies for the butt shots ; ) you're troopers!


afterwards we let the kids play at the apartment playground. for emma's birthday we brought cupcakes and sang happy birthday.


the aftermath : )


Ava cracked me up!


still emma's birthday, and she got to choose her afternoon snack. Notice the change in clothing, a birthday shirt from her birthday package.


yeah... she didn't want to share : (


So gma and gpa newbold heard about emma getting into trouble by stealing my chapstick and eating it... so they sent her her own. She's good about not eating it, but she's very much into the layering it on like her aunt rheanna ;)


(last change of clothing ; ) ) and so ends the birthday with pizza (her choice), cupcake, and ice cream. We love our "spirited" child and can't imagine life with out our little fireball. She continues to amaze us with how smart she is. she's really talking up a storm these days. Some recent things that made us laugh: "Jude, go time out!" - as jude sits there doing nothing; "phew, emma's poopy"- what she says after running around... she's mimicking me saying "i'm pooped;" "mom! come find emma's bed! Emma sick! Emma need medicine!"- one last try at getting out of going to sleep 45 min after daddy had put her to bed; "Mom (pointing finger at me), be nice!"- after i told her to get her hands out of the trash can; "Jude, pumpkin head!" and "Jude! Wake up buddy boy!"- what she says when she goes in to wake him up. We know there are more, but we can't think of any at the moment. She cracks us up. Oh and she's a BIG fan of the Ting Tings and can sing along whenever we have them on.


(Sooooo we don't mean to offend anyone, but brad and i stumbled across this 3 mos photo of emma and couldn't help but laugh. Little did we know how prophetic this photo would be.... note what the bib says and the finger she's displaying on pup pup.... we're just sayin....)


So i tried to find Jude a doll for his 2 month photo he could grow with but apparently they don't sell big stuffed animals out here... so the pup pup tradition continues : ) now, which one's jude and which one's emma.... hmmm....


hanging out


first time i did buns in emma's hair, and she kept running to the mirror to look at her "balls"


she insisted on getting dressed up after nap time. it amazes us how well she can walk in heels


once again caught playing indiana jones with jude


playing with the wsu cougar


playing in emma's crib


how jude REALLY feels about his sister when she's not looking


Par-tay in emma's crib! HOLLA!!!


Our happy lil boy. we all just love him SO much! he has been such a good baby and tolerates emma sooo well... like when she purposefully screams to make him jump so she can have a good laugh...


our newest find in our storage unit


Apple, plum and pear picking last saturday! SO much fun!






So this is what happened shortly after we opened a letter from Gma Ashley in which she sent kung fu panda stickers. It's her favorite movie.

All in all we are really loving washington. We have made some friends with some wonderful people and truly feel at home here. We miss you family, come visit soon! : )

(Videos to follow)