birthday week.

At our house, we don't just celebrate birth days.
We celebrate all week long.

Not that we do extra special, out-of-the-ordinary things for a whole week;
we just make all the ordinary things a little more special:

Of course, we did celebrate a little more on Micah's REAL birthday. We got a sitter and went out for birthday dinner, where the restaurant happened to be hosting Karaoke Night.

I talked Micah into a little birthday karaoke, and (no surprise) he blew everybody away with his rendition of One Republic's "Apologize."
I'm kicking myself for forgetting the camera.

Then we topped off the night with some chocolate-chip ice cream brownie cupcakes (seriously, can you pack any more good stuff into one dessert?)

Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the whole world!!!

It's HERE!!!

Did you see it?

you can never have too many cookies...

I've had a lot of people ask me about the pumpkin spice cookie recipe, so here's a little clarification:

I love these cookies so much that I usually make a double batch. I get the 29-ounce can of Libby's pumpkin (not the pie filling!), and two spice cake mixes (just the dry mix, don't add the ingredients from the back of the box) and two bags of chocolate chips.

Warning: this makes TONS of cookies; share with your neighbors!

This method also works well, because 16-oz. cans of pumpkin can be hard to come by this time of year. If you're set on a smaller batch, I usually find the little cans at Smith's.

Also note that pumpkin amounts are subjective. If you like pumpkin-y cookies, throw in a little more. The less you use, the more cake-like the cookies turn out.

If you make them as often as I do, you'll find the perfect ratio. Really, it's an art.

Enjoy!

And then it was Autumn

Last Tuesday, we were using the Air Conditioning. Last Wednesday, we turned on the heat. It seems like Fall showed up overnight this year, but I don't mind so much. It's actually made me feel rather festive.

Beginning about mid summer, I start counting down the days to October so I can make my favorite cookies in the world.

I want to hug whoever invented pumpkin spice cookies.

1 16-ounce can pumpkin
1 package spice cake mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1 bag chocolate chips

Stir together all ingredients and drop in one-inch balls on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 17 minutes.

This year, I had a little helper in the kitchen.


October also brings General Conference: a worldwide meeting of our Church that happens twice a year, and a chance for all thirteen million-plus members to be taught by our beloved Prophet and leaders. The two-day conference is broadcast on television, but we had the chance to go to Salt Lake City and attend the Sunday afternoon session. What an incredible blessing to sit in the beautiful Conference Center (21 thousand seats filled to capacity, and people still begging for tickets outside the doors) and to hear our leaders bear powerful testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and how we can better follow His example. It was wonderful!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Girls Night Out

Just another perk of Conference weekend.

While the men attend the General Priesthood Session on Saturday night, we girls do a little partying...

This year my mom, my little sister Lindsay, Maddi and I went to Gardiner Village for their October Festival.

Food, music, little boutiques galore, costumes, and crafts and treats for the kids.

If you've never been to Gardiner Village the first weekend in October, I very much recommend it.

It made me want to own a boutique someday.
And we discovered that Madison loves balloons.

Hooray for Girls' Night.

Shoes.

I really love shoes.

My mom used to call me "Imelda," after Imelda Marcos- 1980's First Lady of the Phillipines, known to have owned over two thousand pairs. (She was also recently dubbed one of Newsweek's "Greediest People of all Time," so perhaps I should curb my fetish just a bit...)

I'll probably never have thousands of shoes (sadly), but I have discovered a new love:

baby shoes.

Tiny, adorable, itty bitty baby shoes.

A few weeks ago I discovered the most beautiful little pair of boots I have ever seen, and (lucky me!) the pattern to sew them. So I bought the pattern and made some for Madison.
And then made some more.
And then got a little carried away.


And although I would love to have a pair of boots to match every single one of my daughter's outfits, I thought it would be a little more practical to try to sell them. I've rented a booth in a Fall Farmers' Market near my parent's house a few weeks from now, so we'll see what the baby shoe market is like and if I can bring in a little extra grocery money (we can all use a little extra grocery money these days!).

If nothing else, it brings together an old love of shoes and a new-found passion for designing/ creating that brings me a sense of satisfaction and purpose I haven't felt in a while. Maybe it's silly to find so much meaning in shoes. But maybe it's important to have something outside of my daily routine that I love to do and will maybe give someone else a little joy, too.

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf