Must I REALLY make pumpkin pie?

I am hosting a small T-day consisting of our family, my parents and my brother Brent and his wife Sam at our house this Thanksgiving.

I have a dilemma.

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, but can make killer pies. I personally love pecan and lemon merigue.

Must I REALLY make a third pie?

I am hosting T-day and will be buying most of the dinner ingredients. We will be cleaning our house for our visitors. I will be sweating cooking dinner. I will mostly be the one with the stress of having the "perfect" thanksgiving dinner.

Don't get me wrong, I love to cook and am really excited to be hosting!

But really-DO I HAVE to make a pumpkin pie since it's my house and I finally get to call the shots? Please weigh in....

p.s. I have a pumpkin dessert that is super yummy I would happily make on Black Friday to suffice the pumpkin lovers around here and I even like it OR I would even make pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving dessert too. Anything BUT pumpkin pie...blech....

but really weigh in....you know how I feel, but just wondering if it CAN be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. I really would rather not...

Update on Meeting the Pioneer Woman

Well I didn't meet her and didn't see the movie either. I got to see her speak and answer questions and then waited an hour before I gave up meeting her. If you bought your book at the bookstore you were assigned a letter. Mine was "M" and they took an hour to get through A. I left my book there with how I wanted her to sign it and will pick it up today or tomorrow. She did promise she would sign everyone's book.

Fun, but way more people were there than I expected. The guy at the checkout counter said there were 900 people in SLC and I'm sure there were at least 500 in Tempe. I'm getting sick with what the kids have so I just couldn't wait any longer since I didn't feel well anyways. Insane!

Meeting the Pioneer Woman

I am going with a friend to meet the blogger and newest Cookbook author Ree Drummond. She has a great site http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ that has amazing recipes that are pretty simple and you can follow step by step. She just launched her first cookbook and is doing a book signing in Tempe tonight. Can't wait to meet her!


Hoping to also go see the Michael Jackson movie afterwards.

Halloween 2009

We had lots of fun tricks-or-treats this year. Thursday we went to Jordan's annual Intel cubicle trick or treating fun. High reward for low amount of work. Matthew didn't miss a cubicle.

Friday we went with Kari and her kids to their trunk-or-treating as Garrin had to work and Matthew had a great time with Maggie. He LOVED checking out all the different trunks that were dressed up.

Saturday we had our annual party at the Hammond's with pumpkin bread bowls, soups, and our homemade doughnuts (3rd year in a row). Always a good time.

We have way too much candy in this household and it's always calling my name! Yes, we are using it to bribe Matthew to do the things or eat the good food that we need him to. I think soon it will be relegated to the trash. I was inspired by my friend EmmaLee and hopefully will be making all of our costumes next year.


Matthew loved his dragon costume!



Isabelle was a pumpkin princess? I bought a shirt, made a black and orange tutu, made a bow and found some cute orange/black tights.


The whole clan at Intel.


Isabelle's tutu was driving her nuts. The great thing is she can reuse in a few years as I made it so it can get bigger.


James the Hamburger. I really want that costume! EmmaLee is so talented.


Brynlee the Ladybug. Cute!


My fav-Buddy the Elf. EmmaLee's sister Amy made his coat. Amazing! And..it's his real hair!


Of course Blake a was a pizza. I think it was a bit heavy by the end.


Cruella de Vil.

Poor Matthew's "hat" kept sliding down in his face.

In-n-Out afterwards-yum!

In timeout at the Hammond Party. He was so wound up and doing naughty things.

EmmaLee & Ray as pieces of the game Settlers of Catan.

I found a last minute costume at Target and then made this headpiece to go with it. I'm a Medieval Wench? Who knows, and the costume was NOT comfortable!

I did have a different idea for me & Jordan but at the last minute he didn't want to do it so we both scrambled for costumes.

Jordan found a shirt at Goodwill and was a mechanic. Nice going for pulling it together the day of.

EmmaLee's nephew in a Link costume hand knitted by EmmaLee's mom-their whole family is so talented!

Hammond Clan

U2

We went and saw them last night. It had been 12 years since we saw them last in Vegas when we were engaged.

A-Maze-ing.

Their stage was so cool and their screens were beyond anything I've seen. They could move up and down and get longer or shorter.

They sang classics and newer ones from their last few albums.

We discovered we are now part of an older concert going crowd-errghhh...

Going with friends to concerts is always a good time and lots of laughs.

Ate some pretty good BBQ for dinner.

Traffic to the concert was terrible-took us an hour and a half. The bright side was we got free parking AND a great exit spot so getting out of there wasn't too painful.

I have concluded that U2 (which rumor has it will be doing this) should agree to rights with Guitar Hero so that the younger generation gets hooked too! I would buy that game in a minute.

Our babysitter took great care of Isabelle and Matthew and they were so cute sleeping when we got home at 1:30 am. I am grateful for her everyday and her willingness to help us with our kids.

I took some pics with my phone so trying to get those to add to this post.

IsaBelly

I just thought I'd do a quick update on cutie patootie Isabelle who celebrated her sixth month birthday on the 10th. She's just so cute! We've taken to calling her IsaBelly around here and she's been squeeling a ton so Matthew thinks she's hilarious.

Who would believe that she's gone in six short months from this



and this



to this


and this

and this!

I went to her official six month check-up today and she weighs in at a whopping 16 pds 4 oz and 25 1/2 inches. I'm just hoping once she starts crawling that her weight gain can slow down so she can last in her car seat for 6 more months. Matthew is almost out of his and will be ready to move into a booster seat when she is 1 and then we can move her into his carseat.

This is what she's been up to lately:

-Is super grabby and wants anything within her reach.

-Is rolly polly ollie. Rolls everywhere and can push her body around in circles with her toes.

-Loves tags!

-Is starting to push up on her toes when on her tummy-good first signs of wanting to get moving.

-Loves homemade squash and sweet potatoes puree. We're trying zucchini starting on Monday.

-Just got introduced to the Little Einstein activity center and is loving it. We used it with Matthew and it recently got a good cleaning and looks good as new.

-Wakes up way too early for her mom-most mornings she's up between 5-6. Jordan has been great about switching mornings to let me sleep in a little. This usually makes for a very long day and I'm beat and ready for bed after the kidlets get to sleep. I do have to say that her cute smile in the mornings always makes my day start out great!

-Great napper, takes about 3 naps during the day. Usually 2 long ones and 1 short one.

-Loves music and especially when I sing to her.

-Loves, loves, loves her brother and dad. Although she likes cuddling with her mom when she's tired-always!

-Has the funniest laugh. It's more like funny breathing rather than laughing out loud. We can tell when she's giggling though.

-Doesn't care for baths. Will tolerate them but doesn't love them like Matthew did at this age. I'm hoping she'll grow out of her dislike for water.

-Smiles ALL the time - at everyone and is willing to be held by anyone!

We absolutely adore our munchkin even though she makes our lives more complicated now that there are 2 rather than 1 chillins to take care of. She's such a great baby and only really gets upset when she's hungry, tired, or has to take a bath. She may be our last so we are really trying to savor her sweet moments and she'll be back talking before we know it!

Sneak Peeks and Visitors

I bought a dragon costume at Pottery Barn 2 years ago for 80% off and have been waiting to use it for Halloween. We tried it on the other day to make sure it fit. Matthew is so excited! Here's a sneak peek of Matthew w/just the hat on.





Wouldn't let me take a pic of him in his hat smiling.


Isabelle was being cute so I took some pictures. She is rolling back and forth all over the place and is doing really good on tummy time. We are working on sitting up.

She is just so beautiful!

She loves to eat her hands.

and loves her big brother.

My sister Laura and niece Taelor came into town to visit on Wednesday. We had tons of fun hanging out, playing the Wii-boom blox and guitar hero 5, eating out, going to Penzey's and the zoo. All in all a fab time and we were sad to see them go. Matthew latched onto Taelor and wanted her to sit by him in the car, play with him, wanted to wake her up and kept telling us we needed to go on the plane with them too when they left today. She was #1 on his list this weekend. I'm so glad they came to visit.

Isabelle is so fun right now!

They had such a great time together!