Happy Halloween part 2

Witches Night Out

During our last year of law school, my friend Kelly threw the most adorable Halloween party called "Witches Night Out" complete with food, games, food, decorated witches hats, and more food! We had such a fun time, I decided to throw my own this year and it turned out great!

I made chili and had hot apple cider and everyone else brought sweets and other yummy dishes to share...everything was wonderful!

Not exactly the "sexy witch" that most women dress up as on Halloween, but hey! I am 8 months pregnant!

Michelle, Krista, and Meaghan

Lynn, Marsha, Joan, and Kate

Heather, Michelle, Jene, Jen, Samantha, Krista, and Shannon

Shannon, Heather, Jen, Samantha, Michelle, Kaitey, and Jene

The winners!

Heather won BOTH the "Which Witch is Which?" trivia game and the "Most Creative Hat" award while Samantha took away the "Most Glamorous Hat" award

All the fun tights!!

Happy Halloween part 1

Carving Pumpkins

This year Karen and Mike invited us over for some intense pumpkin carving (along with a fabulous dinner) and Kevin decided that he had had enough triangle eyed, toothy grinned jack-o-lantern faces and decided to do a fancy-stencil-takes-all-night-pumpkin. It turned out AWESOME!! I kept teasing him for attempting a "4 out of 4 pumpkin" challenge rating pumpkin design on his first try, but he did great and didn't even need any toothpicks to fix anything!

Kevin, Mike, and Mike's friend Bruce carving away

With his finished pumpkin

Kevin was really worried that his pumpkin would be damaged if it bumped in to anything on the ride home so he decided to buckle it in.

Yeah, I think he'll be a good dad!

Texas State Fair

I love corn dogs. And where do you get the best corn dogs? The fair! To this pregnant woman, there is NOTHING better than a fresh fried "corny" dog shared with her husband while people watching :)

Needless to say, we had a great time at the fair yesterday. I got my corny dog, Kevin won "Junior" a stuffed killer whale to go in his beachy themed bedroom, and we got to see lots of weird looking cows!

Kevin in front of the huge ferris wheel that stays up all year long

(sorry it is so washed out!)

So this is a Brahman cow. They were originally bred from several different Indian (as in from India) breeds and are named after the sacred cow of Hinduism. I think they are really weird looking - like a cross between a cow and a camel and something that has lots of extra skin hanging down (maybe a rooster?). I liked this one the best though because he has the number "666" seared into his behind. He's a sacred, devil cow! But seriously, what farmer thought that would be a good number?

We also got to watch a cow milking demonstration. We were hoping they would talk about the business of dairy farming and milk production, etc, but they only talked about the nutritional value of milk...boring! Poor Bessy is milked 4 times a day in front of a crowd just so some dairy rep can tell us something we already know - milk is good for you.

One of the things I was really looking forward to at the fair were all the pigs...but all we saw were empty pig pens. We finally came across this guy (a boar) and so I took a picture. Where did all the pigs go? I was very disappointed :(

Well, next year we'll have a little one to take to the fair. I hope he likes it as much as we (I) do!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Friday was Kevin's birthday and we celebrated all day! We started out sleeping in and then lazily grabbing some yummy donuts and kolaches before heading into Kevin's office for an hour while he finished up some work. We then enjoyed lunch at one of our favorite Uptown places - State and Allen - and then grabbed Kevin's new golf clubs (his birthday present from me and my parents) and headed to the local driving range.

Kevin with his new clubs

The plan was for Kevin to hit some balls at the range and then play 9 holes (I was just along for the ride), but the BlackBerry had a different plan and we had to go home so Kevin could work for a bit.

Oh well...he lives to golf another day!

That night we had some of our friends over for a little kid style pizza party complete with cake, ice cream, and games. After gorging ourselves on pizza and cheesesticks, we busted out the guitar hero and then played a few rounds of mafia. It was so much fun!

Kevin had requested German chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting, so that is exactly what he got!

Okay, so notice how I am NOT the one lighting the candles? Well, earlier in the evening I had started a *minor* fire in the kitchen (who knew that putting pizza in the oven to keep warm could start a fire?) and Kevin didn't quite trust me to do the honors, so thankfully our friend Matt Hansen was able to light them for me!

Can you guess how old Kevin is?

That's right - 29! I put on 29 candles in the shape of the numbers 2-9 and he was still able to blow them out in one breath. Even more upsetting was the fact that I had put trick candles on there and he was able to blow them out too...only one re-lit. I was so sad! I was looking forward to the trick candles relighting and Kevin having to blow them out several times, but I guess they don't work as well on adults as they do on children. I have distinct memories of being at birthday parties as a child and having the trick candles relight and relight until they had to give up and dump them in water...ah, those were the good old days!

The Sharp clan spent the night so we could party into the wee hours and Dylan was being quite the charmer before bed. How can you resist such a cutie? I am so excited for our little guy to meet and be good friends with Dylan :)

I hope you had a good birthday, sweetie! I love you!

Hello 25 Weeks!

I am now 25 weeks...life is great :)

And I am only going to get bigger!

Eureka...again

Mark and Cody at Sequoia Park

Visiting the Victorian Town of Ferndale (this is where they filmed the movie The Majestic)

The coolest cemetery ever in Ferndale

Grandma saying goodbye from her house for the last time :(

Eureka!

It was so much fun to relive some of our favorite childhood memories while were in Eureka...and lucky for you, you get to walk down memory lane with me!

Eating at Porter Street BBQ

Eureka isn't really known for its restaurants, but several years ago we found this little BBQ place that makes the best tri-tip sandwiches and we had to go there one last time!

Me, my brother Kevin, and his wife Jessica

Me and my brother Mark

After the Trees of Mystery, we decided to do something I've always wanted to do - eat at the Samoa Cookhouse. It is a really yummy family style restaurant that used to feed the loggers after a long day of work.

Mark and Mitch acting like the tough loggers in the picture behind them

My nephew Cody playing with the logging memorabilia in the restaurant

Couldn't resist this picture!

Lots of cool antiques!

It is tradition to take a picture with the fisherman whenever you come to Eureka!

The Carson Mansion

Funny story: So, the Carson Mansion was built by William Carson, a lumber baron, in 1884 and is known today as the most beautiful and famous Victorian home in the US. Well, the home is now owned by a private gentleman's business club and now goes by the name of the organization that owns it: the Ingomar Club. So, when we were deciding what things we wanted to see in Eureka, Stacie, my sister, declared that she wanted to see The Brothel. Needless to say we were all very confused and asked her what she was talking about to which she replied, "you know, the brothel, the gentleman's club." Knowing of only one building that could possibly meet that description, I asked her if she meant the Carson Mansion. After quite a laugh we explained that is wasn't THAT kind of gentleman's club!

Just south of Eureka is the tiny town of Loletta...and they have a cheese factory with FREE SAMPLES! If you go early enough in the morning, you can watch them making the cheese, but we were content just to eat lots of yummy cheese.

Kevin and Jess getting their fill!

We love cheese!