A new thing we do

I'd like to start this blog entry with a scene from Anchorman.

Waiter at Tino's: May I take your order?
Ron Burgundy: Yes, I am going to have three fingers of Glenlivet with a little bit of pepper, and, uh, some cheese.
Waiter at Tino's: Very good.
Veronica Corningstone: Uh, I'll take a Manhattan, and kick the vermouth in the side with a pair of steel-toed boots.
Waiter at Tino's: Certainly.
Ron Burgundy: Thank you, Scott.
[to Veronica]
Ron Burgundy: Wow. Quite a drink order.
Veronica Corningstone: Oh, well, when in Rome.
[chuckles]
Ron Burgundy: Yes? Please, go on.
Veronica Corningstone: Uh, do as the Romans do?
[after Ron's blank look]
Veronica Corningstone: It's an old expression.
Ron Burgundy: Oh! I've never heard of it. It's wonderful, though.

It is wonderful, and that's what we're calling Fort Collins now, Rome.

Friday evening we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat. It was quite the party. With amazing decor we went from a huge pot luck dinner, to games to trunking and treating (although we didn't make it past the games). Asher was INSANE! We couldn't control the little (I wish I could call him cowardly) lion. Everyone is just so welcoming and nice we visited with several people but haven't found our kindred spirits yet.





Saturday Chris and I finished putting away boxes and making ourselves more at home. It's such a relief and I wish I had a before picture cause this room was a mess. I still need to change the curtains and put up my antique hat collection but we're feeling much more settled. These are our new bookshelves and couch I found on craigslist. Both are in perfect condition.



In downtown Ft. Collins they had a dog parade, Howlsoween. But cleaning up the house took so long we got there and only saw a couple dogs and no festival. A little disappointing but we walked around and went in some fun shops. On our way home we were going to stop a sprouts cause I was wanting a nice fresh salad and I knew they had preseasoned meat we could just throw on the grill. Well, Spouts was out of the way and Whole Foods was on our way home. Since all the food shows (Top Chef, Next Food Network Star) shop there I was super excited to see what it was like since we didn't have one in Mesa. Ummm, it's expensive, and they have everything and everything looked and smelled amazing. So when in Rome! We found ground salmon burgers with feta and spinach, freshly made salsa, perfect avocados, heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella balls and a bunch of other random yummy food. But here's our dinner and it was totally worth the trip to Rome.

And just for those who are curious of the origin of the saying, here you go!

When St. Augustine arrived in Milan, he observed that the Church did not fast on Saturday as did the Church at Rome. He consulted St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who replied: "When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the Church where you are." The comment was changed to "When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done" by Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy. Eventually it became "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

A locked door and a little boy

Lately, Asher and Cecily have discovered some fun game to play in her room that involves yelling and jumping. As long as they are having fun, not fighting and not riping the lovely flower wallpaper off the wall I'm cool with whatever they're doing. Well, yesterday around 4:45pm Cecily came and told me that she locked the door with Asher inside. Oh ok, I didn't even know her door had a lock. Jocelyn then comes down and says "Mom, you just need to get a knife" as I'm climbing the stairs Cecily is freaking out and looking for any key to stick in the door to get her little bro out!
Turns out the girls room is the only doorknob in the house that has a key lock. I call Chris and let him know what's going on and I have no ideas how to get Ash out but he's not able to come home till 6pm so I thought, "well, he's in a room with a couple toys and he can't get into anything or get hurt. He'll be fine." And he was, I heard him start to cry a bit so I sent Joc to talk to him through the door which he liked. Chris got home early and after scratching the idea of climbing up the second story window to see if it's unlocked he went with drilling a hole in the key slot.



{It was a joyful reunion}

Estes Park

We had a fun weekend together as a family. Saturday we took a mini-trip up to Estes Park (don't ask me how to pronounce it cause of course I say it wrong) The town has little shops all down the main street and then if you keep going there are camp sites and great views. We learned that it's a hard concept for the kids to grasp to walk around a store just to look and don't buy anything. Looking around in the quirky shops became zero fun and fast. But every other store is a chocolate/candy/ice cream store so we stopped and got some candy apples and toffee. We then went and ate our lunch by the lake and park.








We're really enjoying it up here. Homesickness is starting to kick in.
Our ward is SUPER awesome. Very warm and friendly people, walking down the hall 3 people will stop us and introduce themselves and say "Welcome to the ward!" and it's just great. We made it up in time for the girls to get parts in the ward's primary program which made me happy because we moved the weekend of Solomon wards and I thought the girls wouldn't get to be in one this year. Cecily did great sitting with her teachers and singing. She even remembered most of her line. And Jocelyn did great with her line as well. We're scoping out some new friends and hoping to make them real at the trunk or treat this weekend.
Chris is loving his new team and new(old) boss. Things are just really great right now, as long as you don't ask us about our houses in Mesa. (Super huge giant sad/frustrated face) We have faith that everything will work out, we just need to have a lot of patience.

Oh! And on Friday our new niece was born! (and on her Daddy's birthday too!) It's ok to admit she's perfect.

Pumpkin Muffins

My friend on facebook posted pictures and recipe of her Pumpkin Muffins and they looked so dang good I decided I needed to make my own. Now let me tell you, these muffins are so good you'll eat them all in one night so double the heck out of the recipe so you can at least have some for breakfast too.

1 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnimon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin (if doubling recipe just dump the whole can in)
1/4 cup melted butter.

Sprinkle sugar on top before you stick them in the oven or be awesome like my friend and drizzle cream cheese frosting over them when they come out of the oven.

Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

ps: Just in case you want to compare with my friend's recipe here it is.

1 box of Spice cake mix
1 can of pumpkin pie filling
1/4 cup milk
1 egg

Mix all ingredients and scoop into 24 muffin cups. Bake in oven preheated to 350* for 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I add about 1 cup of chocolate chips to make them extra yummy. This time I also added a drizzle of reduced fat cream cheese frosting for some added yumminess!

Doggone dog!

Valentine decided to go on an adventure all by herself. We think she dug a small hole under the fence and squeezed through leaving Xena behind to search the neighborhood. I came home from shopping and noticed she was gone when I went to let the dogs in. I went driving through the neighborhood and found two other wandering dogs but not V. Chris came home for an hour and drove around looking for her and then I put the signs up. The next day Chris found her at the humane society down the street and instead of paying the $85 to get her out we paid $110 to get her spayed and chipped. Like Chris said on his facebook status "Lost my puppy on Monday. Found her at the pound, so got her fixed and chipped. She'll think twice about sneaking out again."

Fresh snow

We went and saw "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" last night (cute but don't bring an 18 month old) and when we got out of the movie it was snowing hardcore. Chris pulled the car up to the front for us and we loaded up. And even though the snow was coming down pretty hard and everyone else was running Cecily still took the time to try to catch a snowflake.
The whole way home Chris and I kept yelling "WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?!" and laughing. I was hoping to have a bit more of adjustment time before having to do the snow-thing but I'm running with it.
Chris played with the kids in the snow last night and they woke up 7am sharp ready to go out for some more. It took longer to get Asher in his get-up than it did for him to decide to come in (I need to find him little baby gloves). Jocelyn lasted 30 minutes and Cecily lasted a good hour, even playing by herself for most of it.




Chris took some photos last night but he must not have put them on my computer cause I can't find them. He left early this morning to Mesa and I'm missing him hardcore already.

PUMPKINS!

Well, now that the week is half over how about I tell you about the awesome weekend we had?

Since we haven't really the chance to make friends yet this was our first weekend in a LONG time where we spent every moment together as a family. Usually we have a wedding, or photo shoot or a date or party or something but being alone in our own state we spent the weekend together and it was fabulous!

Friday Chris came home from work with two movies Monsters vs. Aliens and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (not so great and actually pretty disappointing) and we went and bought some ice cream and made our own milk shakes.

Saturday I did some garage and thrift store shopping because I am gathering as much snow clothes and boots as possible for winter visitors. AND it's supposed to snow tomorrow (Thursday) and I'm freaked out of my mind. (I have NEVER EVER EVER driven in the snow! It's supposed to snow all weekend too and Chris will be in AZ and I'll be here with my 3 kiddos.) Then after an amazing nap and an attempt to watch Conference we went and found the coolest pumpkin patch ever! We got to walk through the field and pick from different colored and shaped pumpkins and squash. Then Chris took the girls through a corn maze.

{Ash went CRAZY for the little petting zoo and taught all the little baby friends to climb up the fence.}

{Message from Jocelyn "My Nana has these!}

{The craziest looking chicken I have ever seen!}

Sunday was spent still trying to figure out how to watch conference (streaming it wasn't working and we couldn't get it on the TV), naps and actually watching conference. I think we missed some awesome stuff from what everyone is chatting about but we actually do a good job of reading the talks.

So that was our first weekend in a nutshell. Hopefully I survive the weekend and my first time at our new ward all by my mommy self.

New House Vid Tour

Its like you are here in person.

Cheer bear

You all know that Cecily is a super fan of Care Bears. It's tons of fun to take her thrift store shopping and have her scavenge for a vintage stuffed bear. When she does find one that she doesn't already have she dances and sings her little heart out begging for this bear. While we were in New York Bethany bought her Good Luck Bear and after just arriving here she found Laugh A Lot Bear. Both joyous moments of her life she will probably remember.
Well, yesterday we were on a tour of Jocelyn's new school. And we were waiting to go inside a room when I noticed through a tiny window of a closed office door a small Cheer Bear. Thinking Cecily would get excited I pointed it out to her and she did get excited but then instantly turned to tears cause she wanted it and I told her no. Then she noticed this person had TWO bears and she begins crying harder, "BUT THEY HAVE TWOooooo!" She cried the rest of the tour and in the car on our way to the store.
Then while in the car Chris and I are trying to reason with her, "Cecily, how would you feel if someone took your care bears? You would be sad." I hear her say "I wouldn't!" Then I turn around and she's holding her mouth with both hands holding in huge sobs. I teared up myself cause she was so pitiful!