Yay! Another year has come...

 It's time again for TSO's concert! This will be year 3 for us and we are so excited.
And it's such a great way to start off the holiday season! We only have 3 more days to wait.

Take a listen , I think you'll like it!

1st attempt...

Last year I had bought some small pie pumpkins for us to decorate. My thought had been that after Halloween was over I would scrub off the paint and cook it to make my own pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. Well...that didn't happen. So I bought some more pumpkins this year. They didn't get painted, but I did make my first attempt at a pumpkin pie today.

Here's the pumpkin pieces after they were baked in the oven. 

There was a sticker on the bottom of the pumpkin with pie directions, so I followed those.

It was pretty easy too.

The pie sure looks good. It baked really well and making it was a lot easier then anticipated. I did use a ready made pie crust. I've mentioned before that I haven't mastered pastry making and wanted to make this easy. (Maybe next time I'll try making my crust too?)

I have tried a piece of the pie and it's not bad...but needs a little more seasoning with my next attempt for Thanksgiving I think.

 I'll let you know how that one turns out.

Here's another of my easy recipes, just in time for Thanksgiving...another recipe from my childhood.

Easy Stuffing 

3 tbsp chopped onion

1/4 c. butter

4 c. cubed bread

1/2 tsp ground sage

2 to 4 tbsp or chicken broth

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1 1/2 c. celery

Cook onion in butter until soft. Combine with bread and seasonings. Toss with enough broth to moisten.  Bake at 350 degrees.

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How I like to make this recipe: We like onion around here, so I actually use more onion, usually about a 1/2 cup and I don't use as much celery. When cooking the onions in butter I add the celery to cook it a little bit too. For the bread, I usually used a combination of both white and wheat breads. I have never cooked this inside of a turkey so I'm not sure how it would work. I like my stuffing a little toasty/crunchy but not too dried out, so I put it in a casserole to bake. Oh...and I'm not sure about the baking time. The recipe I've written down doesn't have a time. I just keep an eye on it and when it looks done to me I pull it out, about 20-30 minutes if I remember right from the last time I made it.

So if you need an easy stuffing recipe for this year. Maybe you'll give it a try! If you have any questions, let me know!

Hungry??

Here's another easy recipe for you. This is also another recipe that I grew up with and is now a favorite of the Hepworth's.

Spanish Rice

1/2 lb hamburger

1/4 c. chopped onion

1/4 c. chopped green pepper

1 can tomato soup

1 c. uncooked rice

2-3 cups tomato juice

dash chili sauce

dash worchester sauce

salt and pepper

Brown hamburger and onion. Add pepper, soup, juice and spices (I don't use the chili sauce, I just shake in a little chili powder). Add rice. Stir all together. Bring to a boil cover and simmer until done. (I stir occasionally throughout cooking and add more juices if you notice it needs it. I usually start with the 2 cups and add from there.) Done in about 45 minutes.

Great served with tortillas and grated cheese. Enjoy!!

Here are some pics of the kids enjoying theirs...

1st Christmas project...started!

So I have officially started sewing for Christmas. I do have a few projects that I want to get done before December, so I am starting them now in the hopes that I can finish them on time. Here are the fabrics that I have chosen for my advent calender...

 And with all of them laid out, ready to be sewn...

I have started putting the numbers on them. It's turning out really cute so far. It will be sashed in white. I'll hopefully be posting more pics soon! 

Something fun...

I decided that since I was done with Halloween costumes, and before I started my Christmas sewing that I wanted to take the time to sew something for myself. Something that I could enjoy sewing and using. So this week I sewed up this...

and I LOVE it. It's the first time I've taken a charm pack to make something.

A charm pack is a set of 5 x 5 inch squares that you can find at most quilting stores when a new line of fabric comes out. Each fabric square is a different fabric. I used a little over half of my charm pack to make this table runner so I still have some more pretty fabrics to play with from the set.

I used the instructions here. I of course did not do a quilt, but loved the idea and actually ran across another person who made a table runner and thought it was a great idea.

I still have some work to do on it. Haven't decided how to quilt it and I've got to find some fabric I want to use to bind it, but I will have it done in time for Thanksgiving.

I will be starting on all things Christmas next. I have a few Christmas stockings to make, I am going to finish the Christmas table runner that I started last year and an advent calendar that I want finished before December. And of course in two weeks I have the Festive Friday I'll be helping with.

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So if you can't find me, come see if I'm burried under a pile of fabric. That's probably where I'll be for the next little while.

Still having Halloween fun? Yep we are!

We hit the after Halloween sales and got some really great stuff for Halloween next year. And although Halloween is over for some people, it seems Halloween isn't quite over at the Hepworth house.

I was able to find a Batman costume on clearance and he can now be found at my house...

Who knew Batman had a light saber, wore Spiderman shoes and rides on the back of daddy!

He won't be able to wear it for a really long time, but will definitely be putting good use to it until he can't wear it anymore. 

And Audrey has found a new friend...

Can't figure out why she liked it so much, but she spent quite a while dragging him around and playing with him. 

Not sure why Nathan was looking so sad. I think he may have wanted to play with Audrey's new friend. I think it's a cute picture.

Finally some time with Mr. Bones...

And don't think Audrey didn't get something fun out the our after Halloween shopping (beside her new boyfriend). Got her a little crown and wand. And of course here she is sitting by her new friend again! LOL!!

I now think it is officially time to move on to another holiday. Gonna be putting away Halloween and welcoming in Thanksgiving. Of course I will still be brainstorming and thinking up what I'll be dressing the kids up as next year.

Lotsa Halloween Fun!!!

We had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. Here's some of the fun that we were able to capture...

On Wednesday night made some mummy cupcakes for Nathan's class at daycare.

They were fun to make and turned out cute too if I do say so myself. You can find instructions for making these all over the web.

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Friday I had the day off and so we went to the daycare to see the other kids and hang out for a little while.

Here's Audrey with one of her teachers. Carmen...

And Nathan with his teacher Rose...

The kids then went on a parade...

Then we went back to the daycare and got a picture with Nathan's class. It was fun to see the variety of costumes. There were 2 Woody's other then that all the costumes were different...

And finally it was time for lunch...yummy pizza!

 

After lunch we headed over to my work to do some trick or treating (sorry no pics). Everyone loved seeing the kids in their costumes and the kids LOVED getting candy from people. At first Audrey would take one piece of candy from people and was good, then she starting going back for more then one from people. She sure caught on really quick with the whole getting candy thing. We made out for sure!

The kids had so much fun that we didn't even make it home and both of them were asleep.

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In the evening we headed over to the church for our wards Trunk or Treat and Chili cook-off (again no pics). While getting ready to head over and decorating the trunk for the trunk or treat I actually set a fire in the kitchen...not intentionally either. I had put all the candy we were taking to had out in a big cauldron we have and to keep it out of the hands of the kids had set it up on the stove, well when I put it up there I accidentally turned the burner.

I had gone outside for a minute and when I came back in smelled something burning. I had set a kitchen towel and the kids daycare halloween buckets on fire. That's what I get for being in a hurry.

We had fun eating yummy chili and checking out the backs of the neighbors cars as the kids went Trunk or Treating.

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On Saturday night it was time to go trick or treating around the neighborhood.

First we took some pictures of the kids.

Mommy's living dolls, Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann...

I love how the costumes turned out (I got the last completed Thursday night) and by the time all was said and done Nathan actually seemed to like being dressed up as Raggedy Andy.

We then headed over to trick or treat over at Grandma Jan's. Then came back to our neighborhood and visited some friends. This is the first year that Chris has gone with us trick or treating, usually he's at home handing out candy. We had lots of fun and were glad that the weather was so nice too!

After trick or treating we headed back home for tamales and chili and handing out candy.

Nathan seemed to alsmot have more fun handing out candy then everything else combined. Everytime the doorbell would ring he would yell "Only me do it, only me do it, not you!" as he ran down the stairs to open the door and hand out the candy. If he recognized a costume he would shout it out, especially Iron Man. Then would politely say "Your welcome" with every peice of candy he'd put in the kids bags.

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We had such a fun time for Halloween this year. My mom, Grandma Johnson, even came for a visit. This is the first year she's spent Halloween with us. Of course we even found time to head to the fabric store. My sister, Aunt GiGi, even came over and spent some time with us.

We had a great Halloween, we hope you did too!!