It's Simple

I love November. I love the cool weather, the new smells, the warm colors, and the simplicity of the season. Even Thanksgiving Day itself is a simple day (unless you are hosting this year's feast!). For Halloween, my decor is over-the-top and pretty much all over the place. It is nice to look around our newly bare home.


Every time I look at my kitchen table I smile and breathe a little sigh of relief. Relief that I still have a few more weeks before the crazy, but fun, month of December rolls around. My table holds the real fallen leaves from our trip to Sedona a couple of weeks ago. The kids love to see their leaf collections as part of our tablescape. I was inspired by the Pottery Barn magazine to slip some photos of the kids playing in the leaves into one of the jars. I love how pomegranites can be used for Fall and Winter decor items. I wrapped a branch with gold berries around the smaller jar. It's simple, just as it should be!

Our Gratitude Tree

For FHE we read The Gratitude List. It's about a little girl who makes a list of all the small things that she is thankful for. By making this list she realizes just how blessed she is. We turned our fun Halloween tree into our Gratitude Tree. Each night we write and draw a picture on a small card that says "I am thankful for". The kids look forward to it and help remind me to do it before we go to bed. They are very thoughtful about what they will write about each night and even plan throughout the day. It is a fun thing that hopefully will become a new tradition for our family. Come Thanksgiving our Gratitude Tree will be overflowing with all of our small blessings. I am planning to make a small book to look through even after the season is over.

Some of the things we are thankful for: Lily, the thoughtful one, is thankful for her eyes so she can read and our home. Lucy is thankful for playing outside. Who isn't this time of year? We are all happier now that most of our days are spent exploring the backyard. Hudson is thankful for tree branches (I think he drew the picture first and decided it looked like tree branches) and Batman. The other night I drew a picture of a bed and wrote that I was thankful for bedtime. The kids just could not believe it. I don't think they realized it was their bedtime I was thankful for that night!

Spicy Tortilla Soup

It's November, so it's time to break out our favorite soup recipes that we put on hold during the hot summer. Even if it's still in the 80's here in Arizona, it's plenty cool enough!

This recipe is one of my husband's favorites. It has a slight kick to it, but still kid-friendly.

Spicy Tortilla Soup

2 T. olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
32 oz. chicken broth
14 oz. mexican style tomatoes (Rotel is the best)
4 oz. fire roasted green chilies
1 t. cumin (add more if you like it more spicy)
1 t. chili powder
1 t. sugar
1 T. lime juice
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
diced avocado
sour cream
freshly cut cilantro
4 oz shredded monterey jack cheese (or cheddar)
1 cup corn tortilla chips, crushed

In a 6 quart pot combine onion, garlic, and olive oil and saute for 5 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and puree. Stir mixture. Add crushed corn tortilla chips. Stir well, cover and simmer about 30 minutes. If liquid cooks down too much, add water.

When ready to serve, put cheese, cilantro, sour cream, avocado and a handful of broken chips in bowl before serving soup.

Recipe from Katherine Fields

"Tutu" Cute!

A couple of months ago I asked Liberty what she wanted to be for Halloween. She thought about it for a second, and then replied, "A kitty-cat!" (That's what she was last year.) I told her, "Well, you can be a cat, or you can pick something different than last year, like a princess or ballerina..." She laughed and said, "Princesses don't belong to Halloween!!!" She thought costumes had to be typical Halloween objects, like black cats, ghosts, etc. A few weeks later I bought her some butterfly wings at the dollar store to play dress-up with. That was when she decided she wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween. One cute, pink, sparkly tutu later, she became a "dancing butterfly." Making a tutu is easy. I bought a few rolls of tule at Hobby Lobby already cut in 6- inch widths. I then cut approx. 24 inch pieces and folded them in half. I got a strip of elastic wide enough for Liberty's waist and tied knots with the tule around it. I did two tones of pink for a little contrast. For her antennae I curled pipe cleaners with a pencil and hand-sewed the pon-pons on top. I wrapped the end of the pipe cleaners onto a headband, and they stayed really well. I found the perfect sparkly pink shoes at Target. My mom had some ladybug wings from the dollar store, so Hadley got to be the cute ladybug. I used red tule for her tutu, and tied knots around ribbon instead of elastic. I've found it's easier to put tutu on babies when you just have to tie the ribbon in the back. I hand-sewed on big black pon-pons under the first layer of tule for the spots. I liked that they were subtle spots. I did the same thing as with Liberty's for her antennae, but put it on a baby headband. Hadley's to-die-for red shoes I found at Old Navy. It was nearly impossible to get a decent picture with an (almost) 1-year-old and (almost) 3-year-old.

Happy Halloween

This year we all did some handmade costumes. It made it even that more fun! Hudson was set on Spiderman with "big muscles" since about July so that one I bought. The other three I made! Lily's Dorothy dress was actually the first pattern I have ever followed. It was a little tricky so I am glad I had back up from a pro (thanks Mom!). We will see if I am brave enough to make the girls' Christmas dresses as I am planning. I added a cute blue tulle slip underneath to make it fluffy. It may be hard to see in the picture. Lucy's first choice this year was a Power Ranger. Usually I let my kids be whatever they want since they plan for it all year long. We compromised with a pirate (I got to choose the costume, she got a shiny new sword and hook.) I think it was a good deal. My favorite part of her costume was the corset. It is a ribbon with pirate print sewed onto a black strip of fabric. The loops to loop the ribbon through was some heavy thread. Graham's costume was made from Lucy's extra fabric. I traced some of his pants and added a little extra all the way around. They fit him perfectly. I will definitely make his some more. For his shirt I cut a pirate shape out of fabric that I ironed on to Heat and Bond. Then I stitched around it. It felt good when the costumes were all finished! It takes extra time but it was definitely worth when I saw how cute they looked!