Vapors

"Don’t shed another tear over a chopped onion. Sturdy plastic goggles feature comfortable foam seal that protects eyes from onion vapors; with anti-fog lenses for maximum clarity. One size fits most. " From Sur La Table

I saw these goggles when I was out shopping the other day and it reminded me of a story. About 5 years I had to chop tons and tons of onions for some food for a party. I wasn't feeling up to it, so I cajoled a certain someone to do the dirty work for me. I left this person to the task and when I came back to check on the progress he/she was wearing swim goggles and rubber gloves to block the "onion vapors" and keep the smell from being on the hands all day. I had a good laugh about that one. This would be the perfect present for this person. I've always wondered how those tv food show hosts get through chopping onions without tears. I've tried every trick I've ever heard- sticking out my tongue, holding a pencil in my mouth, breathing only through my mouth, chilling the onions first. Nothing works for me. I've shed many a tear over my onions.

Funny Hannah

The other day I was drying Hannah off after her shower and I pointed out that she had wrinkly fingers. She stretched out her hands and said "Mama, do you want some of my wrinkly?" No thanks, I've got enough of my own.


We took Hannah to a park downtown last weekend and she had a lot of fun playing in the leaves. It's a good thing that we got out to the park before the snowstorm hit a few days later.

If you want to make Hannah happy, just take her to a bookstore. She loves this one- Tattered Cover. She'd spend all day there if she could. Almost everyday she asks to go to Tattered Cover or Barnes and Noble, by name.

Here she is decorating her very own Christmas tree.

At the Children's Museum she loves to play in this boat. I caught her putting this fish in with her and saying "Seatbelt so you can be safe. Seatbelt so I can be safe." And she did the motions to buckle them both in. Good job safety girl.

And what did you have?

Our Thanksgiving feast this year turned out pretty well. With some help from my in-laws (thanks Lanny for gutting the turkey) we had quite a spread:

On the menu:

Perfect Roast Turkey (a la Barefoot Contessa) recipe here

Butter, Lemon Zest, and fresh Thyme gravy made from the drippings

Smoked Turkey Gravy (a la Tyler Florence) recipe here

Herbs de Provence stuffing from a La Brea bakery mix

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (another Ina Garten) recipe here

Spinach Salad, Dedra's recipe

Yams, Lanny's recipe

Buttery Bundt Rolls, my mom's recipe (pictured below)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce, recipe here

and for dessert, Pumpkin Cheesecake- recipe here

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Hannah and I flew back to California for a visit with friends. Besides enjoying an afternoon out with my friends and seeing "Twilight" here are some other things we did:

watching The Little Mermaid

Hanging out with friends at Megan's house

Hannah and Sabrina

Watching the surfers on the pier

I missed the ocean!

Weekend Update

We drove up to Fort Collins yesterday to see BYU play Colorado State- we eeked out a win. Lately Hannah has really been into football- probably because we now have cable and we watch all of the BYU games and Ryan loves to play NCAA football on his Xbox. So she has had a lot of it since we moved to Denver. She gets really excited about Cosmo, the BYU mascot, so we had to get a picture with him at the game. She wanted to show him her bear that she calls "Cosmo"- you can see he's holding it in the picture.

Football is so fun! It wasn't too crowded where we were sitting so Hannah enjoying being able to run around and stomp on the benches. She started to cry the first time there was a touchdown because everyone was yelling so loud, but after that everything was fine.

What a devilish little look, like she's thinking "It's mine, it's all mine!"

Waving her glow stick. She kept saying "Hocus Pocus, I'm waving the bats away!"

On a Halloween treasure hunt at a friends house

Happy Halloween!

I'm a butterfly!

Hannah had a great time trick-or-treating. It's the fastest I've ever seen her walk! When she'd get the candy she'd say "The next house" and start off on her way. After about 45 minutes she said "That's enough"- probably because I told her she couldn't eat any of the candy until we got home!

Around town

This past weekend we got out of the city and headed up towards the mountains to see what we could find. We went and explored around Red Rocks (you can see downtown Denver in the background) and managed to get Hannah to ride in the backpack. It would be great to see a concert here because the surroundings are amazing! I got winded in the first 15 minutes of carrying Hannah because I'm not used to the elevation or carrying around 25+ pounds on my back!

Hannah spying on a buffalo herd

Cowboy Ryan

Hannie Oakley

We had to take shelter in a teepee because it was so windy

Buffalo Bill Cody's gravesite

Yum

I made this for dinner last night. Ryan and I both agree that you can't go wrong with a Barefoot Contessa recipe. It's funny because he'll ask what's for dinner and I'll say that I'm making one of her recipes and he'll ask "does it have heavy cream and butter in it?" Inevitably, my answer is yes. That's why her recipes are so good! This one had cream, garlic, lemon, and lots of tasty vegetables.

**A sidenote- while Hannah and I were at the zoo today we went to see the elephant demonstration. It's in a building that doesn't have very good ventilation and when we got in there Hannah immediately said "It's stinky. Let's get out of here." I tried to persuade to watch them give the giant elephants a bath, but she kept covering her nose and complaining.

Our Weekend(s)

Ryan went on a hiking trip to Canyonlands and Arches with a friend. That left Hannah and I to have a girls weekend. It started off with pitching the tent in the living room (we didn't have our furniture yet so there was plenty of room) and watching Sleeping Beauty.

Hannah touched a snake at the zoo (I think that she was more excited about the sanitizer she got after touching it!)

A trail at the Botanic Gardens

Beautiful fall weather