Best Vegetable Ever

As we walked up to D-man's school with an armful of these fall veggies (teacher requested for an activity) we could see the kids eyes get as big as saucers and hear their excited whispers of, "Pumpkins!"

What other vegetable gets such a hallowed reaction?

We enjoy pumpkins so much that last Spring we planted our first garden. All pumpkins. 3 different kind of seeds. 15 square feet in Grandpa's backyard. A few months later we had this beautiful full vine with lots of blossoms on it. Our anticipation grew exponentially as the vines began to take over the side yard.

Fast forward to October. My dad brought the entire harvest from our pumpkin garden to our house on one of his weekly visits.

The white one is smaller than my fist. At least our one orange pumpkin has an interesting shape and a cool stem!

Do you know how hard it is to pay attention to General Conference* on TV at home when you're a kid? This year I had a plan, a knitting plan. Dedan loved making this cute little faux harvest guy on a loom. Emma used needles and started her own scarf (it's not finished yet). Something to do with their hands really helped my kids sit still. Probably the most peaceful Conference weekend we've had. Dedan was so proud of his crafty skills he took it to school and shared it with his class. Confidence building vegetable craft!

Come October who doesn't love pumpkin treats?....other than my husband, I mean. I found a couple of recipes for my Have To Try This file here and here. But my Chocolate Chip pumpkin bread is a must have in our house. I like you so I'll share my recipe.

2/3 c Butter flavored Crisco

2 2/3 c sugar

4 eggs

1 lb pumpkin, canned or freshly cooked (here's how)

2/3 c water

Mix it well!

Add:

3 1/3 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground cloves

Mix it up!

With a spoon stir in:

1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

Divide into 2 greased bread pans. Bake @ 350 degrees for 70 minutes. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow Nash & I are headed for the pumpkin patch with our buddies. A whole activity planned around pumpkins! I haven't even mentioned jack-o-lanterns or my mom's famous Dinner In A Pumpkin....

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*that's Mormon for our bi-annual broadcast from church leadership in SLC. 4 different sessions. 2 hours each.

3 Projects & A Baptism

Project 1

This week Har and Papa had to rip up 30% of the kitchen counter tiles because ants were living in the broken grout {Gross}. Of course they had to re-lay said tiles once the problem was fixed. Papa stayed up all night Friday to finish in time for all our Saturday afternoon guests. Thanks, Papa!!!

Project 2

Dedan got a K-Nex toy for his birthday from Grandpa Santa - similar to legos but way more parts plus this one has a motor. Har & I took turns helping him over a couple of days but it got finished in time to be the moving centerpiece at his party on Saturday.

Project 3

This was the first knitting piece I finished (I'm still working on a cabled scarf for myself): a white & silver tie for Dedan to wear on his baptism day. There were many late night knitting sessions in order to finish it in time, but my handsome boy was worth every minute of it.

DEDAN'S BAPTISM!

My fantastic 8-year old chose to get baptized. The sentence alone brings tears to my eyes. Partly, because several times during the weeks before his baptism I gave him an out "If you 'hate' church then you shouldn't get baptized", "You know, bud, this is your choice", "The Bishop wants to interview you for baptism. Would you like to go talk to him?" Maybe that sounds strange to my fellow church members, but I needed Dedan to know he wasn't doing this to please me or Har, but he was doing it for himself. We had a talk about what it means to get baptized, what it means to receive the Holy Ghost, and how important those decisions are. My boy decided for himself.

See his proud parents (Har & I aren't normally ones to be all matchy, but we dressed separately and Dedan even picked out Har's shamrock tie. At least it isn't super obvious,right?).

The day was a whirlwind of wonderful. The morning was spent in preparation for the after party (is was quite a party). Our Vista guests arrived early (good traffic - yippee!), so we all got to the stake center in plenty of time (because I padded the time frame when speaking to those in my immediate household), took some pictures, and staked out our seats.

They ask the families to participate (of course) for the services, but I refused to speak since I could barely choke out the words to my talk when Emma was baptized 4 years ago. Emma stepped up and volunteered to sing When I Am Baptized. She called her two BFFs, Caitlyn & Amber, and asked them to sing with her. They did a beautiful job of representing our family. Here's my handsome, freshly baptized boy with his super amazing handmade tie standing in front of his own illustration of his baptism which he drew earlier this year.

I {heart} Dedan.

Congratulations, son!