Halloween

Sorry for the shadow. I'm still trying to figure out lighting.

She's a gingerbread cookie if you can't tell.

This face just says it all, doesn't it? "For the second day in a row, I'm stuffed back into this thing?!?"

Liam was the chef/baker.

The chef in his kitchen, a birthday present.

Annie Get Your Gun

I've been meaning to post some of the pictures for Annie for a while (and have been hearing about the lack thereof from my sister) but I was waiting until the pictures from the professional photographer had come back. Well, turns out that I would have had to pay for those, so here are the amateur ones from me:

The English dancers surrounding Queen Victoria. The woman who plays QV was a huge crack up.

Russian Folkdancers. Don't those boys looks so pleased to be there?

Italian dancers. The girl second from the right was the sweetest girl ever. She dances with Utah Regional Ballet which was the company attached to the school I used to dance at.

Square dancers. Their ages ranged from 8-11 and there were 16 of them, so it was impossible to get a picture of them all together.

These were some of the costumes that I did. I also had to sew entire ball gowns, but I don't have any pictures of those.

Nutter Butter Ghosts

These are the only thing about Halloween that I look forward to. I used to make them with my mom.

1 Pkg Nutter Butter cookies
2 12 oz pkgs white or vanilla chocolate (one package of cookies uses about 1 1/2 bags, so if you're doubling the recipe, you really only need three)
Couple tbsps shortening
1 pkg mini chocolate chips (Hardly any of these are used, so if you're multiplying the recipe, 1 pkg will be plenty)

Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Melt the white chocolate chips with shortening until smooth. With a fork, dip the nutter butter cookies into white chocolate, completely covering the cookie. Tap to get air bubbles out. Set on prepared cookie sheet and arrange the mini chocolate chips into a "face". Refrigerate until coating is hard, about 15 minutes.

Kielbasa Chowder

4-6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 14 oz can beef broth
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 pound kielbasa sausage, sliced into the 1/2 inch pieces
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can corn, drained
pepper

In a large pot over medium heat, combine potatoes, onion, celery, beef broth, chicken broth, and milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, brown kielbasa sausage in a skillet. Stir in sausage, condensed soup, and corn and continue to simmer until heated through and slightly thickened. Season with pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Justin and I think this would be really good in a soup bowl with a little grated cheddar cheese over the top.

Clothing Explosion

Before I got kid locks on the dressers, Liam used to pull all the clothes out of his and Alana's drawers. While I was trying to clean up one time, Liam decided to play with Alana:

Peek-a-boo!

Wait-what just happened?

Cardboard swordfight

I had some cardboard tubes left from wrapping Christmas presents for my nieces. Liam predictably grabbed one. Justin decided that fair is fair and got one for Alana. (Ignore the wreck on the floor, with kids there is inevitably clutter)

Alana was more interested in eating the tube.

The many (funny) faces of Alana