Halloween 2012! Pumpkins, Skeleton Babies, and Trunk-Or-Treat

Our Halloween Festivities this past year...

FHE with the Romneys
... carving pumpkins and watching the last presidential debate! Oh, and a batch of the most amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese frosting, fresh out of the oven!

Matt and Hilary created beautiful poke-a-dot and scary face pumpkins and Bryce and I worked on one together. We designed an adorable jack-o'-lantern face... but that was not all. Bryce wanted to add some sort of shadow casting design on the back. He carved our initials SBA perfectly on the back so when it was lit it cast a perfect shadow of our initials. It was extra impressive because he had to carve it backwards so that the shadow was the right direction. So impressive!

 The finished products! ...

This is a link to the recipe I discovered from a friend in our ward... my absolute favorite cookies now!

Pumpkin! Chocolate Chip!! Cookies!!!: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-iii/

you could use milk chocolate chips and add a little pumpkin pie spice for fun!

Don't forget the Cream Cheese Frosting: http://www.danamadeit.com/2010/11/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Making our Halloween Costumes!!!
...a family of skeletons.

It's not everyday that you're pregnant on Halloween. I was determined to find a creative way to incorporate my little bump into a cool costume this year. A friends in our ward had mentioned that she had used this idea to make a skeleton shirt when she was expecting. I loved the idea and was impressed with how it turned out.

First we had to trace a pattern on to freezer paper (amazing stuff!). Then cut it out (cutting out the space where we were going to paint).

At times it was a little painstaking cutting out all the little details... but so fun to work on together and definitely worth it.

 Then we ironed on our freezer paper stencils in just the right spot on the shirts.

 And then we used fabric paint to cover it in the first coat.

After some drying time and a few more coats of fabric paint we were excited to try out the finished products! 

Our family of skeletons! 

Baton Rouge 2nd Ward Annual Trunk-Or-Treat! 
We were so excited to model our homemade costumes at our ward trunk-or-treat!

We loved passing out candy (to our only trick-or-treaters this year) from our "trunk"/truck at the ward party.  Bryce even got some sweet decorations for the back of the truck.

My handsome skeleton husband helping with the "piggy toss". Baton Rouge LDS Temple in the background. 

BONUS! 
We had so much fun Bryce wanted to make more shirts... his own creation!
I'll just let the pictures tell the story...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

And this is how it's done in Louisiana... A Real Shrimp Boil & Bass Pro Shop Hot Date

Temple Worker Social... A REAL LOUISIANA SHRIMP BOIL 

Bryce and I were invited to the Annual Temple Worker Social. After our shift working in the temple on Saturday morning we went across the parking lot to the Stake Center were they had everything set up and ready for a REAL SHRIMP BOIL! There were about 4 long serving tables lined up and covered with heavy duty plastic. There was also plastic on the floor running along both sides of the long serving tables. Bryce was asked to help bring it in (they had it boiling in the biggest pots I've ever seen, just outside the church) and pour it out. I guess transitionally they use craw-fish and it is called a craw-fish boil. They boil them all in a HUGE pot with potatoes, carrots, onion, whole entire garlic, corn on the cob, etc. 

The giant shrimp come frozen in a box. 

They get dumped in the huge pot. 

There they boil (and turn orange). 

 When it's all cooked it gets dumped out on the serving table. 

 A Real Live Famous Shrimp Boil! 

 Bryce got in on the action! 

While I enjoyed some of the other food at the social, I didn't/couldn't eat any of the giant shrimp... I just could get over that their eyes were staring right back at me! But Bryce ate his portion like a true Louisianan! 

Our date night to Bass Pro Shop 

total cost: $0.50

total fun: high

For anyone who has never been this place is somewhat comparable to "Cabelas". It's a store, but full of so much fun! My favorite part is that it is all so typical LOUISIANA! 

We enjoyed seeing the Giant fish in the pond and giant aquarium. 

This raccoon lives in the shack on stilts over the water. 

Apparently this turtle is over 200 years old! I wish he would have moved so we could see a little more action... but still pretty impressive. 

We paid 50 cents and got 25 shots. Bryce was impressed with Sheree's good shot (but he had already had a taste of that up at Bear Lake... so he knew he married a good shot). 

And Bryce hit every single shot! When you hit the targets the animals or critters or doors/windows move and make noise. Lots of fun! 

They had a fudge shop where we were content and satisfied with just the free samples. We tried pumpkin pie fudge and pralines and caramel.... it was extremely sweet. 

We ended our fun date night by coming home and watching a movie on the projector while cuddling on the couch. It was a hit! 

HAPPY 6 MONTHS!

October 6, 2012 marks 6 months since Bryce and I were married on April 6, 2012. 

It was a beautiful Saturday Conference morning and we celebrated with the food that most reminds us of our wedding day.... crepes! (Although, these crepes were lacking the amazing cream and hot fudge that was served at our reception). Bryce got breakfast in bed for this special occasions (really I made him get back in bed so I could bring him his fancy plate of crepes in bed). We really celebrated 2 days because the day before Bryce made me a delicious surprise breakfast. A lot of great things have happened in 6 months and we know there will be many more to come! 

We're Having A BABY!!!

If you haven't seen this awesome commercial it is a must-see! It will give you the clue to know the gender of our first little baby!

We were anxious to get back from Tennessee so we could go to our 20 week full-anatomy ultrasound appointment on Monday morning. 

Everything looked great and healthy and after reading the ultrasound measurements the doctor said "you have a very long baby!" haha I wonder where he gets it from!? 

This is our precious little boy at 20 weeks 5 days! Isn't his profile adorable!?! It was the most incredible experience to see all of the perfect little body parts (that at this point are all developed) including hands, feet, toes, fingers, nose, ears, eyes, heart, etc. What a miracle!

And this is me with the baby "bump" a few days before the appointment.

Tennessee Get-Away

Bryce was able to participate in some certification class for work that were offered in Pickwick, TN (about an eight hour drive). I didn't want to be home alone for a whole week so I came along for the ride. We loved our time together in the car and enjoyed a beautiful hotel stay in the beautiful town of Pickwick. It was right along the Tennessee River and we enjoyed exploring the area. The sunset on the river was amazing and Bryce really impressed me with his rock-skipping talent. We got to eat out every night and just enjoy being together away from home. After a week, Bryce came back having completed 2 certification courses and learning everything he would want to know about air conditioning units and cooling.

The Aftermath of Hurricane Isaac

It was truly AmAzInG to see first-hand some of the destruction from Hurricane Isaac. 

Cruisin'

We were given an extremely generous cash gift at our wedding to spend on ourselves for our honeymoon but decided to put that toward a cruise…. A few months ago we booked a 5 day cruise with Adam and Julia leaving out of New Orleans. Our plan was to pick up Adam and Julia at the New Orleans airport, park the car at a nearby gated church, and have a friend drop us all off at the port but when the day to board the ship arrived we learned that Adam and Julia’s connecting flight in Houston had been delayed 2 hours. Bryce and I ended up boarding the ship without them and just praying that they would arrive before the ship set sail. We planned out different scenarios in preparation of them being left behind. (How we could get them into our apt. etc  so at least they would have a place to stay) Luckily that didn’t need to happen because they made it on with four minutes to spare! The cruise would have been a totally different experience without them and we were so grateful they made it!

We were surprised how long it took us to get out of the Mississippi River but realized the next morning it was obvious we were not in tranquil river waters but in the raging hurricane waters. It was a pretty rocky ride.

There were so many things about the cruise that made it so memorable.

 Dancing with the Cast – the first day we happened to be in the theater when they invited everyone up to learn ballroom dances. Before we knew it they started selecting two people for each dance and Bryce was selected for the Tango and I was selected for the Samba. They had an audience choice and I guess we beat out the runners-up. They told us we would have a few practices and then perform in the show the last night on the ship. We learned new routines and they decked us out with costumes for the night of the show but it turned out the night of the show, the ship was so rocky that they canceled the dancing part of the show. Bummer! We came out and bowed in the finale with the rest of the cast but of course felt silly since we didn’t even get to do our part of the show.

Eating ALL the time – we enjoyed formal meals and 24hour food on the ship. We sat at a dinner table with some cool southern women (former college friends who were reunited after like 30 years) and another old couple. The church came up a few times and it was fun conversation. It was fun to taste each other’s food and order anything and everything on the menu including multiple desserts.

 Day at Progresso, Mexico – We decided to forgo paying Carnival for an expensive shore excursion, but rather found our own transportation (taxi) for a fraction of the cost. We adventured out to see some Mayan ruins called Zibilchaltun and swam in a Ceynote (Spanish for sink hole). The Ceynote was full of fish you could reach out and touch. The water was cool/fresh from an underground river that went as deep as 130 ft. After that we enjoyed cheap massages on the beach, eating a taco, and chatting in Spanish with the natives.

Day at Cozumel, Mexico – My favorite! I loved the crystal clear water and we loved our private beach and snorkeling all day. It was Bryce’s first time snorkeling and I was so excited for him to have a good experience. The only problem was that the sunscreen we used was not so good and he got toasted on his back. We saw so many BEAUTIFUL and unique fish. As we were about to head in I felt really sick and before I knew it I was throwing up in the ocean while snorkeling. So memorable and so nasty!

I felt like a real pregnant/throwing up woman as I experienced throwing up in my hand (before I could reach the bathroom), over the railing of the cruise ship, while snorkeling in the ocean, and on many other occasions. I’m convinced that it was purely sea sickness and bad reactions to the meds I was taking because I hadn’t thrown up for weeks before the cruise and haven’t thrown up since.