The Paint Job

So you remember this sneak peak photo from my last post?:

Here's the reveal:






We really like it. It's added some nice warmth to the room and makes us excited to find some other nooks we can paint!

Things we've been up to:

We have lots of white walls in our house. But painting them is hard because the walls in one room lead to another with no breaks and that leads downstairs, etc....there are not many good stopping points. But we have this little window nook in our living room that we decided to spice up a little bit. I loved it on the paint chip, but when it first went on, it kind of freaked me out. But Jason finished it up when I was gone at a birthday party for the afternoon, and when I came back, it was SO awesome, I love it. It really warms up the living room. I haven't taken any after shots yet, but when I do, I'll put them up.

My friend Bethany had made some really cute little creations out of rocks, acorns, dried up moss, and googly eyes. Hers were way cuter and much more "natural" looking, but the kids had fun painting the rocks and giving them some character....they make me smile. Googly eyes make anything funny.

Grandma Patti (Jason's mom) came to visit last week, and I didn't get any pictures of her.....Patti, you'll have to email me some if you can! Patti is a really great cook and she roasted some sugar pumpkins and we made pumpkin puree for some pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, very delicious and so fun to use fresh pumpkin.

We went to the aquarium in Monterey, I just love that place. There's always something new to see each time, and there are so many amazingly crazy creatures out there. My favorite part is the Jellyfish.

We went to the beach on Saturday. It was perfect weather and I can still feel my sore muscles from playing frisbee for a long time. It was a great day! Gotta love Livi's get-up...the sunglasses that look like ski goggles, the crazy hair and the undies. :-)

Livi loves to take pictures....this is one she took of us the other night. She does pretty well!

Gingerbread Pumpkin Pancakes

I wanted to repost this recipe, because it makes for such a delicious autumn breakfast.

This is one of our favorite recipes. We got it from Trader Joe's on a day that they were sampling these and they are so good! They make a great breakfast, but they are also good if you make extras and put them in the fridge and then pop them in the toaster for a snack. It makes about 22ish thick, hearty pancakes, but you can easily halve the recipe. Enjoy!

Beat together 2/3 cup brown sugar and 4 eggs
Add 1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter, melted
Mix together.
Then add 3 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
pinch salt
pinch nutmeg

Cook on your griddle and have a great breakfast!

Halloween 2008

Carson dressed up as Robin Hood this year, and Livi was a Super Baby (Dora's little sister). Livi was really excited to dress up, but wasn't very happy when we were out with our friends last night. She kept saying she was tired and cried a lot....so we didn't get very many good pictures of her outfit, but she had fun wearing her costume. Carson had a great time dressing up and trick-or-treating!

This was when we got home and Livi's "diaper" had been taken off and Carson's face is covered with all the chocolate he ate in the car on the way home. :-) It was a Happy Halloween and we always have fun being with our friends for this night.