holiday queen bee market

 

it's that time of year again! the holiday queen bee market will be this weekend and i am so excited for it. we get the special treat of having a mindy gledhill concert as well, yay! if you want to buy a ticket for the market or get on the waitlist for the concert go here. i will be posting a list of goodies that i want to get at the market and some new things i will have at my table. stay tuned

i hope to see some of you there.

also, if you're looking for a fun skirt this shabby apple skirt is 25% off with the promo code: Day3

happy half birthday to isla may

3 days ago our little isla turned 6 months. i can't even express how much we loving having this little girl in our house. we all thing she's pretty much the coolest. we went to her 6 month check-up today and she:

weighs in at 15 lb 4 oz (25-50%) 

measures 27 in long (75-90%)

she wasn't a big fan of the physical. for the next appointment i will try to avoid nap time...

this month isla:

grew 2 teeth

tried rice cereal carrots and bananas

still is showing little interest in being mobile

she likes to sit in her high chair

her sitting up is getting super good and she can sit without help for a little bit (like 5 seconds...)

she's quite the talker

she's very observant and loves watching people

she love being held and cuddled, but who doesn't?

her favorite toys are her rag dolls, rattles and squeeky giraffe

penelope is her bff, she LOVES miss p

her hair is fair and her eyes are greenish, but i suspect that they might not stay that way

she's a sweet and mellow little lady, but she definitely lets us know if she doesn't dig what we're doing

happy half birthday to you, isla may!

leaves

a month or so ago p and i collected fall colored leaves. we pressed them in a book and finally got around to hanging them in our window! in the sparks house christmas decor doesn't go up until after thanksgiving. SO, we thought we would try to make our house a little more festive for thanksgiving. it was a fun little project. we were able to take about the changing seasons and discuss the different colored leaves we see at fall time. here in SD the trees are still full of red and orange leaves and so it still feels like fall and we are loving it!

 collecting the leaves and pressing them

we put them in wax paper pouches and hung them in the window.

i am thankful: vol 1

1: a caring and supportive husband

2: two beautiful and healthy girls

3: our apartment. it's small, but it's home and i am so grateful for it.

4:the internet and all the good it can be used to do.

5: bryan's job

6: the library and all its services

7: Jesus Christ, my savior

happy november

hey i know i'm a few days late, but i want you to know that i am TOTALLY stoked that it is november. i love november. i think i love every month in some way, but november holds special excitement for me. a change in the weather, open season on all things holiday, food...what's not to love??!

i thought i would share a couple of trick or treating pictures as a farewell to october. i know i showed you the girls in costume last week, but i think they're just too cute to not post.

for dinner i made this chili, we had veggies and apple cider. for dessert i made halloween-ish brownie trifles. it was all yum! 

 

 p insisted on pushing isla...until she decided speed was her game and then she let me push.

 awe!
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! XOXO!

isla's first tooth and a rattle

first line of business: isla may has a tooth...GASP! i am a little sad, because it means my baby is growing up and all that awful and terrible shtuff. she hadn't been been napping or sleeping great and she was being a little fussier than normal. i didn't even suspect teething! she's 3 months younger than p was when she grew teeth. anyway, i was letting her chew my finger a week or so ago and i felt tooth. she's been much better now that i'm aware and able to treat her gums and give Ibuprophen when she gets super fussy.

in other news: i made some giraffe baby rattles for isla and to give to baby due next month. i really like them and so does the babe. i was going to save them for christmas, but isla gets so excited by things that jingle and crinkle and make sounds in general, i could not withhold them...

the pattern is from lotta jansdotter's simple sewing for baby. to make the rattle mechanism i used bead storage containers and jingle bells from the craft store.

my magical friends

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

look a little blury? i wasn't wearing my glasses when i took this picture and i was SUUUPer sure i nailed it. ha ha!

here are my girlies in their halloween costumes. penelope is a fairy princess and isla is a gnome. on their costumes i made:

isla's hat, skirt, collar, shoes (inherited from p) AND penelope's wings, crown, wand, skirt and leaf belt/wand holder thing. aren't they cute! i will probably post more pictures of them from tonight's festivities tomorrow. we are having dinner with family & friends and then trick or treating. i think it will be great...if i can screw my head on right and get everything done.

i hope you all have a fantastic halloween!

pumpkins!

we skipped the pumpkin patch this year. it almost happened a few times, but the universe, it seems, did not want us to enjoy the pumpkin patch this year. i picked up a few pumpkins super cheap and we got the opportunity to put our mark on them for family night. penelope and i painted ours and bryandid a rad carving... sans the emptying out of the pumpkin, because we're lazy like that. i doubt i will let my kids wield a knife before they are 24, i got my first set of stitches whilst carving a pumpkin and i don't think i would relax enough to let my kids try it any time soon. they turned out cute. penelope drew a smiley face on hers, but because bryan and i weren't done, she kept on going and eventually covered up the smiley face. 

 can you see the smile on the pumpkin?

 this is how our youngest entertained herself. rabid? no, just like spit bubbles.

 hard at work

 and here they are. 

CLOSE UPS:

 penelope's lovely creation

 this one is mine. it was largely done while nursing isla, so....it was really a combined effort.

and bryan wins the aggressive pumpkin award. grr.

weekend eats: pioneer woman carrot cake

for my parents' birthdays (on the 15th and the 25th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) i decided to make them a cake while they were in town. my mom said that they would go for a carrot cake or a chocolate cake...i knew that the unselfish thing for me to do would be to make a carrot cake. i generally have the opinion that it's not worth the calories if it's not chocolate...i've been trying to branch out though. this cake was super tasty. it was nice and moist and the frosting was also a win with the pecans. yum. i made it in a 9"x13" cake pan and i decided i would 3/4th the frosting next time around. i also added some nutmeg. here's the recipe:

sigrid's carrot cake (from the pioneer woman)

Ingredients

• FOR CAKE:
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 4 whole Eggs
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground nutmeg* (this is my addition)
• 2 cups Grated Carrots
• _____
• For Icing
• 1 stick Regular Butter, Softened
• 1 package (8 Oz) Cream Cheese
• 1 pound Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1 cup Pecans, Chopped Finely

Preparation Instructions

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix together the sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. In another bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda,(nutmeg) and cinnamon. Add to first mixture and combine. Then add carrots and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured (Baker’s Joyed) pan (bundt, sheet cake, 9 x 13 pyrex) and bake at 350F until done, 25 (sheet cake) to 50 (Bundt pan) minutes, depending on the pan you use.
Cool completely.
Icing:
In larger bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla and blend, then mix in the nuts. Spread on cooled carrot cake.
Eat. Faint. Repeat as needed.

i also made this soup. it was super good and it was a perfect fall lunch paired with these sliders.

oh hi!
i hope you all had a fabulous weekend. we sure did. my parents and little seester were in town while my dad went to a shrink's conference in la jolla. we went to the zoo and to the pacific ocean...you know, cuz' we live 5 min away. jealous? a spot we really like to go is the torrey pines glider port. it has a nice little deli and you can just sit and look out at the beauty that is the pacific. you also get to watch hang gliders and paragliders take off and float around. it's magical. i didn't get any pictures of these events, because i forgot my camera's memory card... like a champ.

ANYWAY, we had good food and a lot of fun. justin and anna came down to play too. it was just a big party.  one thing i miss about living in UT is being so close to family. family is important to me and i just miss being a short drive away from either my family or bryan's.

WAIT, did i say i didn't have any pictures? HA! punked! here are some from a little trip we took to the playground: