Hmmm...who cares about titles

I'm getting a little nervous for Thanksgiving. This is my first year hosting...dun dun dun. There is just so much hype put on the turkey that I can't help but try to cover all my bases to make sure my turkey is good. I spent 30 min massaging salt into the dead bird this morning (to start my brining), every time I open the fridge I give it a positive little pep talk ("You're doing so good in that little brine...keep up the good work")...perhaps I should play it classical music. If it turns out crappy....not my fault. It was just a bad bird. (I'll have to apologize to it for that one tomorrow). I am also really excited for Thanksgiving though. The meal plan looks delicious and yes, I'm shaking it up a bit. No one in attendance is a big fan of pumpkin pie...so I'm cutting it. Also, I've traded apple crisp for apple pie at the majority vote of my guests. Why not eat what we want, right? There were a few other creative directions I wanted to explore but got vetoed...and apparently I'm the only one that loves green bean casserole (that one will never be cut). I'm sure I'll have pictures later of the beautiful event.

I saw Twilight today. I know I may lose friends over this but 1) I'm kind of over the books and 2) I hate ruining my beautiful imagination pictures with what some director feels I should think. So I didn't want to see it. But I did, because I had to...that I knew. There were a few scenes I LOVED and I thought my imagination had underachieved by so much. But there were parts I hated. Cedric Diggory (as he will forever be known to me) grew on me as Edward. Although I got tired of his crazy eyes. I thought Bella was pretty good. The depth wasn't there though and I think someone who hadn't read the books would be lost or at least missing so much. I felt like the director/producers didn't have enough time to make the movie or they just called it good enough because they knew no matter what all the fans would go see it. I say - go see it, but don't expect your life to be changed. Will I see the sequel? I really can't say...but yes. (Office quote again for those of you always confused at my random quotes) - here's the video for enlightenment.



Carson is working on a few new things. His two new words are shoes (sues) and snack (nack with a really really soft k sound at the end). I don't know when kids start to count but it's one of his favorite games right now. He'll line up his toys and say a gibberish sounds as he points to each one. He then celebrates by throwing them all on the ground. Here's a video of him counting and doing a few animal sounds. I only asked him four animals and then I couldn't think of anymore animals. But he's got 7 or 8 now. Kitty is my favorite. You can't quite hear it in the video but he does it all soft, like he's really trying to sound like a cat. Enjoy...

Give me some candy you will

So Halloween was a blast. Carson was Yoda (hence the blog title). Karl saw the costume and really wanted it for Carson. So then I found a Darth Vader candy bucket thingy and a cheap light saber (gotta love Walmart). We added the scarf belt because even after I tacked his sleeves, the holes were too big and he kept taking his arms out.

We planned on taking Carson Trick or Treating, but deep down inside I thought it would be 5 minutes of us chasing him around and stopping him from eating rocks and then we'd give up and go home. AMAZINGLY...it went really well. He was a little nervous about the whole situation at first, but with a lot of coaxing and his older cousin Kenzie to watch, he started to love it. He realized that if he put out his hand they would give him candy. Then he would slowly and carefully put the candy in his bucket. We ended up being out there for an hour! He would do a little happy dance after he got the candy. By the end, his bucket was so heavy that he couldn't carry it anymore. Here is our little Yoda showing off his light saber skills.

And him carrying his little Darth Vader bucket...

Last house - he was pooped and needed a little break. This is in the middle of some one's driveway...

This is the after Halloween candy pic - one Three Musketeers

Here's a video of him demonstrating his new found favorite activity. You can see his smile as he walks away.

Halloween in AZ is definitely different than in Washington. First of all, it's not freezing. I can remember it snowing as we were Trick or Treating. The problem every year was "how do I work a winter coat into my costume?" In AZ...I was sweating...at 7:00 pm (crazy). I can also remember people yelling at you to get off their lawns...no one yells at you to get off their rocks.

I really think Halloween is fun and it always makes me reminisce. My mom would make, or help us make, our costumes every year. There was only one year in my entire childhood where my mom let me "buy" a costume. Some might think this was sad as a kid...but we loved it! Halloween became this creative project. We'd pick what we wanted to be and then brainstorm how to put the parts together. I think my sister Jackie was most creative - for example: one year she was grapes. Purple sweat pants and sweat shirt, then we blew up 50 purple balloons and attached them to her all over. Anyway, we bought Carson's costume this year. I felt like I was cheating. It was pretty hard for me to do. But maybe when he's older and Halloween means a little bit more I'll start the creative Halloween projects.

In regular life - we aren't up to much. We are redecorating our house. We painted all last weekend. We started Sat at 8:30 pm and just kept going thinking we could finish. At 4:30 am we decided to go to bed and finish the next day. Day time is always slower though cause Carson is running around and him plus wet paint doesn't equal a fun time. So we worked here and there during the day and then went strong once he went to bed. At 9 pm Sunday, we had finished! But our house was a disaster. So we saved the clean up for Monday. I finally ordered curtains for our downstairs...yes we've lived here 2 1/2 years and never had curtains. We might be put together soon. I'll post a before and after pic once it's all put together.