halloween-ie

Happy Halloween

School Parade


Flamingo Girl

Eliza the Prom Queen


Posing Prettily

She DOES have Flamingo legs...

LOOOOOOONG & Skinny


Waiting for the rain to stop so she can GOOOOOOO!!!!

Geez Mom! Do I have to smile for MORE pictures?


Wet hair from a rainy start to the night.


Pumpkins shining on the steps.
Look closely...can you see what Josh
carved in his?

Oh that boy and his sense of humor!

A night filled with lots of treats and no tricks!

You may think that Olivia is my favorite child,
since she is in the most pictures, but that
is not the case.

This is what happens when you're children grow up!

They all go out with friends and leave the youngest
home to go with Dad.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (We're done! In Utah
"Halloween" was on Saturday this year...not sure
what I'll do if anyone comes tonight. I don't
have any candy left. I suppose I could "borrow"
some from my kids stash right?)

death by cheesecake, no seriously we mean it...DEATH!

As luck would have it Josh got asked to the
"Monster Mash" dance. The only thing is
his "date" got even LUCKIER. Her family
decided to go the Hawaii the same weekend
as the dance. I mean, really? Is it even
a choice? Josh or Hawaii?? I love my son,
but I think even I would choose Hawaii
over him.

No offense.

So, I was asked to help heal his wounded

heart (which was really not feeling very

wounded) along with all his friends who

did not have the fortune of being asked

in the first place.

I was facebooked and emailed with a very

interesting Paula Deen "Deep Fried

Cheesecake" recipe. I thought "what the

heck?" I can make this, never have, but

willing to try. The boys were giddy with

joy. Or maybe they were giddy with

the prospect of the combination of sugar

and fat? Either way, I was game!

I started my morning on Friday making
a homemade graham cracker crust and
homemade cheesecake. Easy enough.

And done...my cheesecake cracked--which

I know means something--but it was going

to be cut up and deep friend so who cares?

To deep fry a cheesecake, start with

the "cake".

Then lay it on an eggroll size wonton
square. (They are the 6" square
size ones)











Top with chocolate chips-the boys
choose "milk" over "semi-sweet".
Personally, had I been eating, I
would've picked the "semi-sweet".

Roll up and line them up--let them

patiently wait for the grease to heat

to the right temperature.

After deep frying them, dump them

in a bowl of powdered sugar, you know,

to make them even MORE unhealthy.

Top with whipped cream and

chocolate sauce...what are a few

more calories at this point, right?

And eat. and eat. and eat.

Mitchell single handedly put away

6 of these bad boys. Josh and Conner

were ready to throw up after 2.

And Tanner (who came late) held

steady at 2 as well. With tears in their

eyes (of pain & misery at all that artery

clogging goodness) they assured me

if this was their "last meal" it was worth

their death.


Add a gallon of milk to survive.

I cannot report on how these tasted, I'm
not eating treats, remember? Do I feel sad
I missed out? Not really. I am not a huge
fan of "deep fried" anything. And of
course, I mostly live to bring joy to others.

(ahem, sarcasm noted.)

The boys had us frying "Ho-Ho's" and
"Reeses Peanut Butter Cups" in
Egg Roll wrappers by the end of

the night. Heaven help us! (them, mostly!)

I asked Josh if anyone threw up (Mitchell!)
but he assured me they were all fine.

In fact, SO FINE, that the next night they

went to Mitchell's house so HIS mom (who

felt sorry none of them went to the dance)

made them a batch of home-made

donuts.

Some how I get the feeling these boys

made out like bandits--what do you

think?

just steer clear

I have PMS. (should i announce that on here?)
Well, I do, it's true. So live with it!



It is ALSO Halloween week. It seems to be lasting ALL
WEEK this year too.



I am also NOT eating chocolate/candy/treats this year.
AT ALL.



And "OUR" primary program is on Sunday.


The one we wrote, slaved over, practiced, and sang songs for til our
Primary Teachers threatened to quit. Forever. Who can blame them?


Sunday also happens to be Halloween.



Or if you live in Utah, it happens to be
"the day after" Halloween (trick or treating.)

90 something kids will be trying to sit reverently on Sunday

...the day AFTER Halloween...

...candy and sugar racing through their veins.




Uh-huh! Who's idea was this anyway?? (I have no one

to blame but myself.)



Dear Lord. Help Me. Amen.



And my family has been wondering what's wrong with me.



Just.



Steer.



Clear.

*and pretty please have a extra super large ginormous

Dt. Dr. Pepper on pebble ice waiting in the fridge for me

at 2:01 P.M. that day.

And an extra strength Tylenol or three.

Thank you very much!

And possible proof my son is not as crazy as he looks in all NYC pictures!

Scary Josh...

See a little start of his smile....?

Cutest smile EVER!


Blowing out birthday candles...


And done! Hope all your wishes come true!
(Oh wait! They did, you got a really great trip to NYC!) ;O)

Happy 17th Birthday!!!

who's the (cake) boss. Part 2

We admit it, we are kind of annoying. Since we didn't
spot any "celeb's" while we were INSIDE Carlos Bakery
--kyle once again suggested we go one step beyond.
He has watched enough "Cake Boss" shows to
know that SOME of the action happens
in the back alleyway. Well, a lot of action.


He said, "Let's just go walk around back and see if
anyone happens to be outside."


Well, sure enough there were a few guys out back.

We simply stated, "Yup! We are annoying tourists and
we know it--will you please let us get a picture with you?"

They said OK. So a picture was snapped really fast
and we were on our way, and they loaded up the van
to make a delivery.

I honestly do not know the name of these two guys--
but they are on the show. They were a little grumpier
than Randy, but who can blame them?

We WERE annoying!

We thanked them profusely and went away to eat
our treats.

Thanks Cake Boss guys for a photo op!

Sadly, they were the last "famous" people we saw on our
trip.

NYC: Day 3, Who's the (Cake) Boss?

Day Three in NYC started out with breakfast at FLUFFY's CAFE.
In honor of OUR "fluffy" (Olivia). Just a little diner with a quick
breakfast and some hot chocolate to warm us up. We actually
had to stop and buy Grace a sweatshirt because she was
FREEEEZING! (Thank goodness for H&M again!)


Just a pretty picture inside the shop next door to Fluffy's.
They had the canoli stacked high--they were GORGEOUS
looking. (never did taste one)


And what does one do when visiting NYC? Well, hop
the PATH to Hoboken, NJ for a morning adventure, that's what!
I think we were on a reality TV show quest this trip. We
decided on a quick adventure over to the New Jersey side
of the East (Hudsen? I'm not sure which one) River.

To visit none other than Carlos Bakery of TLC's "Cake Boss".
A short train ride under the river....
(which made me a little crazy if I thought about it for
too long...I mean come on! UNDER.THE.RIVER?)...
and we were in Hoboken baby! Home of Carlos Bakery.

A quick walk about 2 blocks from the station and we
were on Carlos Bakery Way, looking at the line to get into
the bakery. It was really cloudy, windy and cold--so we
were told we only had a 1/2 hour wait. Which was pretty
great considering we had heard of wait times of 2 hours or more.


Carlos Bakery and the line to get in.



They received their morning delivery while we were
waiting. Eggs, shortening and more eggs. Lots of eggs.



Josh doing his uni-bomber impersonation again. Seriously,
the whole trip he had that hood up and did only weird
faces for pictures.



Inside the bakery it was pretty crazy and crowded. You had
to make up your mind fast and order. It ALL looked so great.



Josh holding our spoils.



The view of Manhattan from the New Jersey side.
It seriously is an amazing view of the city.


The ferry stop--you can cross either UNDER or OVER the water
from NYC to NJ. We opted for the cheaper version while I thought
UN claustrophobic thoughts. Under the water, we are NOT
under the water....you could actually feel your ears pop when you
went from under land to under liquid.


Adoration on Grace's part anyway.



Seriously Josh is a well adjusted child--I am using ALL
of these pictures for black mail someday!!!


Looking back toward the city, see the Empire State bldg?



The PATH train we took from NYC to NJ and back again.
I have to say this may have been the emptiest subway/train
I have EVER been in NYC. Although I think at commuter time
7 am or 6 pm--it would PROBABLY be PACKED with people.




After we returned from NJ, we walked the shops along
5th Ave. Apple, F.A.O. Schwartz, The Trump Tower (you
could go up in this and look out at the city on the various
levels of balconies), 30 Rock (I really wanted to meet Tina Fey)
No, really I did!



We sat outside 30 Rock for a while and people watched.
I ran into the American Girl store here to buy Fluffy her
NYC American Girl Doll T shirt (for her doll, not her).

We walked and walked some more and stopped close to
Times Square (again--do all paths lead to Times Square?)
to eat at Johns Pizza. It was SUCH a great place. The pizza
was some of the best we have EVER eaten and the
atmosphere was great too. It was like stepping out of NYC
for a minute into the big roomy yummy place.






BEST.PIZZA.EVER.


I can't believe we at the whole thing. Like I said before
though we ate only breakfast and dinner the whole trip
and we were STARVING after all that walking!



They DELIVER!!! Do you see that? Do you think
they deliver to Holladay, Utah?

What we did 100 times a day...used the subway turn-
stiles to swipe our Metro Card to get on the subway.



In a city of people who only seem to wear black, we teased
Grace about her choice of sweatshirt color(s). Needless
to say, she was NEVER hard to find in a crowd for the
rest of our trip.



Each night we got off the 1 Train and had to walk across
Columbia campus--it is a really pretty college campus. The
one thing I said I missed about suburban life was on nights
like this when we were REALLY really tired, we couldn't just
climb into our car/van/suv and drive home to our house.
We always had to walk to a train/bus and then walk from
the subway stop home.