The Birthday Boys

Birthdays are the best. This week, we celebrated Christian and my brother James' birthdays. James' birthday was on the 5th and Christian's on the 7th, so we got the whole family together and had a combined party on election night. Stephie Lynne and I wanted to do something special for our guys so this is what we came up with! James and Christian both love Mtn. Dew so they were pretty happy to each go home with a case + of their favorite drink.

Not only did the guys get an awesome dinner and a pretty sweet Mtn. Dew tower, but Stephie Lynne and I each made our husbands a special dessert. James requested a homemade cherry pie. Steph executed it beautifully and man was it delicious! I surprised Christian with my first ever attempt at a homemade ice cream cake. It was chocolate fudge cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream in the middle. I'm not going to lie, ice cream cakes are tricky...hence the lopsided mound in the picture below. Oh well :) At least it tasted good.

 Chase thought both desserts were "dee-wish-uuus" too :)

The party was great. It's always fun to get together with the Purcell clan. And even though the election didn't go as we hoped, at least we had some tasty treats to help us drown our disappointment.

Christian and I also celebrated on his actual birthday, just the two of us. Here he is modeling his new Superman shirt. He's the cutest.

And the party isn't over yet! This weekend, we're heading to South Jordan to celebrate with Christian's family. Here's to a week-long birthday celebration! Happy 23rd Christian :)

October Part II

Wow! I can't believe October has come and gone. Our last couple of weeks were just as busy and just as fun as the beginning of the month. Last Saturday, we once again headed up to Sojo and got together with the fam for some more birthdays. This time, we sang for Michael and Father Dearest.  We spent the day working in the yard and then enjoyed a delicious dinner and Mom's famous cinnamon rolls for dessert. Going home is pretty much the best. 

And then of course, yesterday we celebrated Halloween! We had so much fun. Yesterday was probably one of the best days ever. Seriously. Stephie Lynne and I cooked, baked, planned, and put together an awesome little party. (We must be spending a lot of time together...because we both ended up wearing silver headbands, striped shirts, and boots. Great minds think alike!)

We started early that morning on the food. Pretty soon though, the girls got hungry, so Chase man jumped into the role of big brother and fed his little sisters so we could keep cooking. 

Mom, Dad, Michael, Steph, and GGma Palmer drove down and joined us for a eerily delicious meal. We dined on sweet bbq ribs, loaded mashed potatoes, and Harry Potter inspired Butter Beer, with roasted garlic pumpkin seeds, guacamole, and lots of veggies to snack on as well.

Aaaaand of course, it wouldn't be a Stephie Lynne/Stacie get together without cupcakes :) These little beauties are dark chocolate cats on french vanilla cakes.

After we had all stuffed ourselves silly, it was time for some trick-or-treating! James and Stephie grabbed their little ones, slapped on those costumes, and then we all sat back and ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed. 

Blakeley and Ashtyn make the cutest little farm animals I've ever seen. And then of course there's Chase! Weeks and weeks ago, when his mommy and daddy asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, he responded, "A BIG spiky cactus!" He was pretty adamant about it, and come on, it's pretty hilarious, so Stephie Lynne went to work on creating a suitable outfit. And here is the masterpiece! It was pretty much the cutest thing ever to see a little cactus running around the streets of Provo :)

Trick-or-treating was great. The night was beautiful and warm, and people kept cracking up when little cactus man would bang on their door and exclaim, "Tricky Treack!" Also, since Chase is the only grandkid old enough to actually go trick-or-treating, he had quite a little entourage of family escorting him from door to door. (Nine adults to be exact.)

 Pretty sure Halloween will be Chase's favorite holiday from here on out.

We ended the night by eating the left over Kit-Kats and Almond Joys from the Halloween bucket and watching "Jaws." Nothing quite says Halloween like Spielberg.

I'm sad to see October over -- it really was such an awesome month filled with so many great parties and events. Sigh. Good thing we have two more birthdays next week to help me get over it.

October Part I

This is by far the busiest, craziest, (and best!) month of the year for our family. We have five birthdays in my immediate family alone, plus there is Halloween, and all the other awesome fall festivities.

Yeah, we kind of go M.I.A. in October. You pretty much won't see us unless you're family. We're that busy. Here's what we've been up to:

Celebrating my/Stephie Lynne's birthday and going to see Steph perform in "Into the Woods." 
My birthday is the 11th and Stephie Lynne's is the 15th, so we usually combine parties and have one big celebration at home base with the fam. This year, we ate delicious french dip sandwiches and fresh apple crisp -- the perfect fall meal. After presents and singing, we decided to take a trip to Gardner Village. We wanted to see the witches and cute decorations, but mostly Stephie Lynne and I wanted fudge :) The only downside was the weather. It was drizzly and a bit chilly. Hence, exactly one photo from the entire night. Oh well. Chase is cute when begging for candy.

That weekend we were also able to go see my amazingly talented sister perform in "Into the Woods" in Salt Lake. She has been in about a billion productions and it is always a blast to go see her in her element. For those of you not familiar with the play, it is basically all of the fairy tales mashed up into one thought provoking, lesson teaching, witty, musical. It was a lot of fun. Especially when you're related to the star of the show.


Enjoying the beautiful fall weather with Chase.
I get to play with Chase-man every day and it is pretty much my favorite thing. This particular day, we spent a lot of time playing in the leaves. He had me laughing and laughing at all his hilarious poses.

Things calmed down a little after that as we picked some dandelions (or dan-dee-yii-yahs as Chase calls them) and pondered the meaning of life.

Hosting a Pre-Halloween party with Court and Ariel.
Getting together with our little cousins Courtney and Ariel and having some sort of spooky themed party is sort of a tradition for Steph and I. We eat creepy treats, tell terrible tales, get spooky manicures, and make awesomely magical crafts. This time around, our DIY project was Harry Potter wands.

You take regular, old chopsticks, build them up with a lot of hot glue, and then roll them in beads and things to add texture. Once everything is nice and dry, you paint them. This project was a ton of fun and they turned out pretty cool!

Celebrated Chase turning three!
My favorite little nephew turned three years old on the 22nd. His mom, Stephie Lynne, asked Chase what kind of party he wanted and without hesitation he said, "the balloon house." Chase LOVES the movie "UP" and has seen it about a billion times.

Stephie Lynne and I made him this awesome cake and he absolutely loved it!

Not only did Chase get a balloon house made out of cupcakes, but he also got the real deal! He about died when he saw grandma's creation.

For our present, Christian and I made Chase a hinges and latches board. We bought a wooden board, spray painted it Chases's favorite color, then screwed in all sorts of hardware. It's like the ultimate little boy puzzle :)

Aaaaaand of course, I can't leave you without a couple pictures of the girls, because I mean, look at them. They are precious.

Well, there you have it. October Part I. Now just Halloween and two more birthdays to go!

While the men are away...

While the men went to the Priesthood session of General Conference, Stephie Lynne, my mom, and I were left at home with the kiddos. Fortunately, we had planned ahead and decided to make the most of the night. Not only did Steph make some delicious pumpkin cupcakes, but we got a little crafty as well.

Ta-da! Check out these adorable baby headbands! We found the idea on Pinterest (of course) and decided to go for it. There are tons of adorable combinations. We used felt, ribbon, buttons, and all sorts of cutesy things. This is what we came up with.

And of course we had to try them on our little models :)