Cinnamon makes me happy

I'm a big, BIG fan of cinnamon. Provided I had a free week and a huge stash of cinnamon sticks, I'd totally make myself some undergarments and possibly a dress.

A few weeks ago Whole Foods whipped out the old cinnamon scented pine cone. Pine cones are neato and all, but I can't help but wonder who came up with the idea of adding scents to them. Pine smells pretty nice. Why mess with a good thing? I stumped google by asking for the history of scented pine cones. If there are any scholars out there with this knowledge, do share. But I digress.

Walking into the store, you're slapped silly by the fabulousness that is cinnamon. I've always been able to resist the urge to buy the $5.00 pine cones. Until the other day. Ava really, really (because she can't just really) wanted some. So, I totally gave in. She thought I was the best mom ever. And we were both happy.

Guess what? Cinnamon not only smells dreamy (which boosts brain activity), it's bursting with other healthy goodness as well such as anti-microbial qualities, controlling blood sugar and possibly sleepiness if consumed in excess (totally need to try that!).

Eight years and counting

Eight years ago yesterday, Wade and I realized that our marriage license was about to expire. That impending deadline lit a bigger fire under our bums than our five year relationship and my six month pregnant belly. We felt married and didn't really care about the legality of it so much, so we'd kind of put it off.

We had two great friends on call. Seriously. They were ready for that call saying we were finally ready to do it. I looked at the calendar and realized the next day was the day - 11/11/00. Only two numbers - and binary at that - for Wade to remember. I frantically called Tie The Knot Wedding Chapel. Thankfully the lovely lady was able to squeeze us in. Nestled between a 7-11 and slot car racing store complete with barred windows, it couldn't have been more romantic.

Seeing as it was eight years ago, we didn't have a digital camera. And scanning those photos hasn't quite made it to the top of my to do list. It's a real shame too, because there are some doozies.

We'll just pretend this was our wedding photo since it's about that old. You can tell because I look like I'd slept in the last seven years.

And all these years later.

By popular demand

Okay, so maybe not. Just thought I'd post a picture of Luke since he's been left out.

For those of you paying attention, this was the top half of his Halloween costume. This poor shirt has been loved hard and washed many times. His little boy belly sticks out from under it, but he refuses to let it be replaced by something that fits.

Belle saw this and asked where Luke's lips went.

What's up with the tooth fairy?

Ava recently lost tooth numero ocho. She'd been working really, really hard on that tooth and convinced Wade (I don't partake in tooth removal) to give it one last go as she was getting in bed. It made a gut wrenching pop as Wade ripped it from her mouth. Despite the blood (this was one of the bloodiest on record), she was beyond stoked about the tooth fairy coming. I'm assuming that the tooth fairy was somewhat unprepared as the call to take Ava's tooth to fairy land came right at bedtime.


Ava really, really, really wanted the Halloween Kitty from Build-a-Bear. Since it was one of those limited time dealies, we bought it for her and she was earning money toward buying it from us.

Because she got the call so late and had no cash to speak of, the tooth fairy did a bit of bartering. She took all the money Ava had earned and gave her the Halloween Kitty. Imagine Ava's confusion and anger when she woke up the next morning and saw that the tooth fairy had stolen her money.

Trick or treat, smell my feet

I love Halloween. I think family themed costumes are the bomb. We had a couple ideas (my fave was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) that never came to fruition. Instead we ended up with a hodge podge of cute. Belle recycled the Princess Belle costume from last year. Ava created her own Sonic the Hedgehog outfit and ended up with a rash from her make up job. Luke was supposed to be a cow, but ended up a centaur-esque being with the body of a small child wearing a Mr. Happy shirt from the waist up and that of a cow from the waist down.

This was really the first year Luke sorta had a clue. At the very first house we were able to trick a lady into giving us some candy. Upon receipt of said candy, Luke tried to feed it to the lady's electronic dancing cat. So we tried again. And again. After five-ish houses Luke was done. Try as we might, we couldn't get him to get us more candy. Because we're really smart, we didn't realize until we were almost home and saw a few wrappers fly over the edge of the stroller that Luke was staying in the stroller to munch on his candy.

In keeping with tradition, here's the lovely photo I got. Luke was hiding behind the couch being all pissy because I wanted him to wear the cow hoodie. Princess Jasmine graced us with her presence for the occasion.

We like to spread all the booty out and do a photo shoot before we gobble it up. Unfortunately, we didn't get to that point. I thought about posting a photo of the booty most of the booty ended up inside. But after checking out the photos Belle took of my ass, I decided against it.

Try this at home - Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake

Since happening upon the King Arthur Blog (which might've been mentioned a time or two before), I've become a junkie. This week I made the Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake. If you click on the link, you're going to see a pretty piece of cake. Though I see many, many people post photos of every step and possibly even the resulting yummy-ness, I can't. It already takes me at least twice as long as it should since I typically have to referee five to seven arguments, put some kind of toy and/or kid in time out and deal with issues surrounding the hunger and thirst of youngsters. So, my friends (I say that because you probably are my friends and I'm not running for President), below you'll see how much we liked this recipe.

Final verdict? It was good. You should make it.

Words of wisdom? Make sure to have LOTS (as in every single one in your house) of clean bowls ready for measuring all your ingredients. And add 1-2 ounces more water to the topping than the recipe calls for.

I'm still here

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I always have intentions of getting some blogs together and scheduling the posts, but somehow it doesn't happen. This past weekend we got to hang out with Grandma Hutt (Nebraska), Aunt Judy and Uncle Bob (Colorado). They usually make it to our area annually. They like to pretend it's the distance, but we know it takes them an entire year to build up the courage to deal with us again. As always, we had a blast.

We celebrated my thirty-onederfulest birthday (Sept 23 - and for those of you that like to say I'm allllll the way over the hill, I want you to know that I'm at the bottom of that hill, haven't even begun the ascent yet thankyouverymuch) and Wade's thirty-second (Oct 7) at Woodland Park. For my actual birthday, Wade made me some butterscotch finger cakes, which were almost ready to eat upon my return from my lovely pedicure (thanks Fox!). Talk about delish. Ava requested them for her birthday cake.

With the weather cooling off (except for today - 80s, get out of here!) I've been in a baking mood. Not being Jewish, I hadn't heard of challah. Since the recipe popped up on KA Baker's Banter, I decided to give it a try. If you like your girlish figure, don't even look. Good stuff. Really good. In fact, I'd make some right now, but I'm working on some Puffs. So far, pretty easy. As if that's not enough, Wade's getting some overnight cinnamon rolls (which you've all made, right?) for his birthday breakfast.

This weekend we went on a shoe hunt for the wee ones. And here's an idea, "shoe store" owners. Why not stock your shoe store so the descriptive word "shoe" is applicable. Huh? Why didn't anyone think of that? The "customer service" at Dick's lives up to the store name. And Stride Rite. Oh, don't even get me started. The employees act like they've been held hostage in the back and force fed the squished crackers that never seem to get cleaned up. Ava ended up getting a pair of New Balance from there partially because they were the only pair of 13.5s in the ENTIRE MALL. How is that possible? They were the first pair to catch my eye (and it was the first store on our long, long journey), not only because they were on clearance, but because they were cute. So, over an hour and several miles later we trooped back to get them. At the half way back point, I reminded Ava that I was going to be more than annoyed if she decided not to get them since we had to pass our exit to get back there.

Belle got a pair today. Guess what size she needs? 13.5. Crazy. She seems to have inherited my skis. Poor kid. Luke is still running around barefoot because there are no 9.5 wides out there. NB has the cutest Sesame Street shoes (my fave is Cookie Monster) out right now. For whatever reason, the powers that be over at NB decided that kids with wide feet shouldn't get the pleasure of wearing the cutest shoes ever and only made them in medium width. Hmmpff.

Don't forget to call and harass Wade tomorrow!