Things to do in Fall

Remember this post with our list of "Fall Assignments"?

Well I think Dalin and I have been pretty successful so far and we still have over a month to go until fall is over. Did you know that the first day of winter this year is December 21st? What the heck! In my book, as soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's basically winter and I don't leave my house except for food haha. Anyway, here's our success so far (and some photos to prove it!):


1. Bake an apple pie. Bonus: Do it with apples we picked ourselves. Done and done. 

Pre-crust. Loved these apples for this pie. See recipe below!

Finished product to be eaten with vanilla ice cream! Recipe found here!

2. Eat a candy apple. Not done yet...but we did eat an apple pie one from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! It's too hard to find a candy apple place anywhere!

3. Find some fresh apple cider and also some hot apple cider.

No this isn't mine...I wish mine had looked this good. But it sure tasted good.

4. Watch some corny Halloween movies. I watched the Addams' Family and Hocus Pocus which are both corny Halloween classics. 

5. Go to a Halloween party. We went last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before) and even won the costume contest like we'd meant to. The theme was board games and video games. Were we surprised that our Call of Duty costumes won? A little. Especially because we spent very little on putting them together! Thank you, Savers and Dollar Store...

6. Decorate for Halloween and then for Thanksgiving. 

I painted these signs the first fall we were married

Pretty fall leaves my mom sent from New Hampshire

I painted this that same year!

This is actually from Halloween past but I haven't taken pics of this year's yet!

Homemade (double-sided!) "Give Thanks" banner. So glad I made this! (I'll have to take a pic of the "Trick or Treat" side!)

7. Find a place to serve people on Thanksgiving. Still need to see if this is a possibility! It is one of my favorite memories from spending Thanksgiving with my family.

8. Own at Fantasy Football. Check! No but seriously, thank goodness for Drew Brees and Calvin Johnson. My goal is to at least come in second. It is just really important that I beat Dalin's team this week and Layton's when we go against each other again. Then I'll have a chance!!!

9. Go through a corn maze or on a hay ride. I'm not sure why I gave myself two options here, but I did go on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, so success! It was really fun with all my wonderful in-laws. 

This was after, but I like the picture better. I don't have any of me looking at the camera while on the hay ride which is kind of lame...

I love how serious all of their faces are--including Maddox!

10. See more of our family! We loved visiting Boise to celebrate Halloween (plus all the married couples played Kick the Can and Capture the Flag until late at night, which was tons of fun--and also happened to be my idea ;). Also, my mom is coming to visit for ten days this Friday! I'm so happy! Plus Dalin's family may come down again in a weekend or two and then we'll be heading back to Boise for Thanksgiving! Yes! 

11. Roast pumpkin seeds. Did this while in Boise after Shaina and Dalin carved their pumpkins. I tried a new technique for cooking them and I liked how they came out much better! Briefly, here's what we did: 

We set the oven at 400 degrees. After rinsing the seeds in a strainer, we boiled them, then let them simmer for ten minutes on the stove. (We put a Tbsp of salt in the water to boil but it didn't help much). After, we drained the seeds, then spread them out on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil. Once the seeds were spread in the oil, we sprinkled *well* with salt (we had to salt them four times for it to be enough). Then we stuck it in the oven for 20-25 minutes. We checked them a number of times--you want some of the seeds to be turning a light brown. You can take them out at twenty minutes, test one, then put them back if the texture isn't right. That's what we did. They were soooo dang good after. Everyone wanted some. I don't know if/why boiling makes a difference, but it sure seemed to!

12. Go to the Farmer's Market as much as possible. Got my favorite kettle corn from the Yodeling Moose people almost every week! Well worth it! 

13. Make more blackberry smoothies. I guess we need to hang out with Layton and Shaina more! 

14. Make squash. Real squash. Thanksgiving is a month away!

15. Read and watch Harry Potter. Watched the movies with Tenley and Dalin, and I've been reading book two with Tenley when I get the chance. She loves it of course ;)

16. Drink Butterbeer. ...Not yet :/

17. Visit Provo Canyon. We did go fishing there the last time the family was here but we missed the leaves changing. 

18. Paint pumpkins. Haven't done this year's yet...we just kept our little ones this time around. I hate how the big ones rot and ooze pumpkin slime.

19. Make fried dough or scones. I forgot about this, but it still sounds delicious!

20. Take lots of photos. Obviously, I have done so. I love recording Tenley's life!

Optimizing October

It took me a good five minutes to find a good "o" verb for this post title.

Dalin and I are off to a great start celebrating autumn.

Things we have done so far:

We bought some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at Macey's...

Which were so good, we bought some pumpkin chocolate chip bread at Harvest Bread Co. 

We stopped by Allred's Orchard and got a bag of apples for me to make an apple pie for General Conference with.

We bought chocolate frogs (Harry Potter style) to share (word to the wise--don't buy them--they're gross.)

I drank a gallon of apple cider. Seriously. Just me. Hey, I've got to feed a baby.

We bought some peanut butter chocolate fudge. 

(Why are these all about food??...)

We watched all the Harry Potter movies (except the first...we lent it out and never got it back).

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Tenley and started on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

We stopped by Bath & BodyWorks and smelled every single new pumpkin candle scent for fall. (This is one of Dalin's favorite things to do...)

We bought four awesome new fall hand soaps from Bath & BodyWorks (or, as we like to call it, Bed, Bath, & BodyWorks). They are so awesome that I have all four out by our kitchen sink. I couldn't choose just one. The ones we bought are New England Autumn Bouquet, Apsen Autumn Day, Fresh-Picked Heirloom Pear, and Montana Mountain Air. They are all great!

I decorated the apartment for fall and Halloween a few weeks ago! (I might have been early, but fall is so fleeting :/)
Dalin brought me home some lovely orange (very fallish) roses randomly one night (randomly is my favorite way to get them :)

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I think we've been off to a great start! In two weeks, we head to Boise for a Halloween party at Dalin's parents' house, where we plan to win the costume contest (haha, well we'll see...it's going to be hard with baby Tenley). While there, we would like to visit a pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins like we do in New Hampshire...not out of a box at the grocery store (something about that just feels like a rip-off to me). I'm sure we'll do many other fun fall things along the way. 

What have you done so far for fall?
Any suggestions for things for us to try?

Fall Assignments

I've always loved fall, but my love for the season grew significantly the first fall after I graduated high school when I worked at a local farm stand called Beans & Greens in Gilford, New Hampshire. I will admit I did not love that job while I was there (it was a lot of hard work) but looking back, it was a really fun job to have for a season. The store was a giant old barn on lots of land where we sold fresh procured honey, jams, milk (the chocolate milk was so freaking fresh and good!), baked goods, green beans, tomatoes, corn, apples, fresh berries, and a zillion other vegetables.

While working there I got to help decorate for Halloween, paint pumpkins to be sold in store (I painted things like Snoopy and Woodstock, funny faces, a haunted house, etc.), paint children's faces (and make some sweet tips I might add), organize a children's pumpkin maze, have a jack-o-lantern carving contest, give tours to elementary school children and lead them through a hay maze, decorate with fall flowers (zinnias, chrysanthemums, and others), tie my own pumpkin-hangers with hemp, work the haunted corn maze at night, and many other things. I also acquired a love for country music while working there...that probably had something to do with the same country soundtrack being played on repeat for the entire season. So basically while working there I participated in, what I would label, the epitome of fun fall activities, so I feel like I really know what a fun autumn season can be like.

Fall in New England is locked in a three-way tie with summer and spring for my favorite time of year for (what I feel are) obvious reasons. One less obvious reason maybe is that I think the fall is romantic. Maybe it's just me, but being with your sweetheart in the cool and colorful fall-time has something about it that just makes me feel capricious and adventurous and even more in love with my husband. I think for me it's the fresh start of new school year (even when I'm taking a break this semester) and feeling like Dalin is my hot boyfriend that I get to spend my afternoons with after work and classes. It's even better now (if possible) having a sweet daughter that we get to share our new experiences and adventures with!

Anyway, since fall is mostly about school starting, here are some assignments I've made for myself so that I can get an A+ in fall.

1. Bake an apple pie. Bonus: Do it with apples we picked ourselves. My absolute favorite type of apples apparently don't exist out here in Utah (as I've tried every freaking type at the store,) but two falls ago I had my mom send me a dozen or so of them--fresh-picked at an orchard in New Hampshire--and I plan on begging her to do the same thing this fall. So maybe I'll use those for my pie.

2. Eat a candy apple. This might be a little harder than it seems. I can never find places that sell candy apples, which I much prefer over caramel apples (call me crazy, but I am not a big caramel fan unless it is very fresh). I might just have to make one myself.

3. Find some fresh apple cider and also some hot apple cider. Two of my favorite things in the fall. Sold all over the place in New Hampshire, but there has to be some sold out here somewhere and I will find it.

4. Do something not involving apples...just kidding haha, I just noticed the last three were all about that and thought I should change it up.

4. Watch some corny Halloween movies. I love Halloween. I know it's kind of a creepy, pointless holiday, but I love the things that come with it (aka trick-or-treating, Halloween parties, pumpkin carving, etc.).

5. Go to a Halloween party. Check. We're going to one in Boise in October. Maybe I should revise this to say "Win a prize from the costume contest." We did two years ago and it really got us motivated to make that a regular thing. Our dear sister Cassie and her husband Shay stole the prize from us last year, but never again ;).

6. Decorate for Halloween and then for Thanksgiving. I have decorations (many are crafts from years past) stored away and normally I'm good at getting them out because I get bored when our apartment looks the same month after month, but when I was pregnant that was not a priority (with the exception of Christmas and Easter).

7. Find a place to serve people on Thanksgiving. This is a tradition in my family that I haven't participated in the last two years because I haven't been with my family, but I always loved going to the community center and serving Thanksgiving lunch to the elderly. It made me feel happy inside and extra grateful for my family and health. It also made Thanksgiving dinner later taste even better ;)

8. Own at Fantasy Football. Do I care about football? No. Do I even watch the games? Not really. But I am competitive and I want to beat my sister, Shaina and her husband, Layton in particular. Not sure why I chose to target them, but they both like football and I think it would be satisfying to beat them ;)

9. Go through a corn maze or on a hay ride. I don't know where they have those out here, but there has to be one or the other somewhere and I really want to go. Even if it means Dalin and I have to drive outside our Provo/Orem bubble.

10. See more of our family! I want to visit with Dalin's family as much as possible this fall and I want to try to get my family to come visit me at some point before or around the holidays. I miss them too much otherwise. A year is way too long to go without seeing my dad, mom, or brothers.

11. Roast pumpkin seeds. Love this tradition. Maybe I'll try a new recipe this year. I could try to make them taste like kettle corn or something!

12. Go to the Farmer's Market as much as possible. It's on Thursdays and not only do they sell the best kettle corn (mentioned above) but the produce is fresh and delicious. And I like supporting farmers.

13. Make more blackberry smoothies. This means I need to see more of my brother-in-law, Layton because he makes AMAZING ones. With fresh blackberries. So does his mom. I'm seriously obsessed with them and crave them daily.

14. Make squash. Real squash. My mom tells me it's easy to do year after year, but year after year I fail to make it because I get nervous it won't come out right. But this year, I'm doing it.

15. Read and watch Harry Potter. Definitely a fall activity. And it makes me feel happy and like a teenager again.

16. Drink Butterbeer. I've never had it, but anything Harry Potter is fallish to me, and maybe I can find a recipe if I can't find a place that makes it. Someday Dalin, Tenley, and I will go to Universal Studios and have some in Harry Potter World.

17. Visit Provo Canyon. I want to be outside and take a hike or have a picnic. I just want to smell the fall air and teach my daughter to love nature. Hopefully we will get to see something of the leaves changing color (maybe we'll take another drive through Nebo Loop) and I can pretend I'm home in New England ;)

18. Paint pumpkins. Carving is fun, but it makes such a huge mess once the pumpkin gets old and leaks all over the place.

19. Make fried dough or scones. Warm bread dough and cookie dough are always so comforting. Maybe I'll even make some Mexican buñuelos for Halloween, too.

20. Take lots of photos. I pretty much do this anyway, but now I need to record it for Tenley's sake. So she can look back and see how much we loved her and all the fun things we did as a family.

Do you have other fun fall ideas? 
What are your absolute favorite three things to do in the fall? I want to make this the best fall of our life thus far so don't hesitate to share something you've loved from falls past!

Busy, busy, as a bee

How am I supposed to do everything?

This week--and really this month--is just ridiculous.  I don't really care for November other than Thanksgiving and the increased Christmas music in our home.  When I think of November, I mostly think of the increased cold, the color ice blue, and wind.  Not altogether pleasant thoughts.  If it wasn't for Thanksgiving, this month would be hopeless.

As you may or may not know, I work for King Henry Apartments.  I am the office assistant manager and I mostly handle the cash, checks, and planning big monthly activities for the complex.  While planning and attending the activities can be fun, the setting up and preparation can be a challenge and a hassle.  Especially mixed with attending school full-time...

But somehow I manage (thank you, Michael Scott) and it always works itself out somehow.

Tomorrow King Henry and UVU are hosting a Halloween activity!  We have 648 residents here at King Henry (give or take since we have a few spots still open) but we are assuming (and well, hoping) that only about 200 come to carve and paint pumpkins, decorate cookies, and make caramel apples.  It is going to be sweet though (literally, ha ha), and I am excited to participate myself.

Then, the very next day on Halloween, we are hosting a Roller Skating Costume Party at the Classic Skating and Fun Center.  There will be many more people at this activity--there always are.  It will be fun to see everyone in their costumes and showing off their skating skills, but let me just announce now that I will definitely be sitting this one out.  For lots of reasons, but mostly because roller skating is dangerous...maybe not to everyone, but for me, with my terrible lack of balance, it is definitely not happening.  Also, dressing up is questionable, too as I've already dressed up twice this year.

For Trunk or Treat on Saturday, we wore Harry Potter costumes (always a favorite ;). I was a Ravenclaw student, and Dalin was Dumbledore. He wore a wig, a beard, his real glasses and his real bathrobe.  It was hilarious and so awesome.  I made our wands using an idea I got on Pinterest.  Success! Other than the fact that I seared my wrist with a hot-glue gun.  I am definitely going to have a scar. (Hey! Like Harry Potter!)

After the business of Halloween, rent will be due at King Henry which means tons of money and tons of annoying late payments.  Hopefully it will go smoothly...(it never does).

Let's just say, I am anxious for Thanksgiving, the end of this semester, my mom coming to visit, and Christmas.  Can't we just skip all this stuff in between?

Hope everyone is having a great week and that everyone (especially my family in friends in New Hampshire and the east) is safe and protected!  I've been saying lots of prayers for all of you!

<3

Did we even have October??

What. Just. Happened. 

October, how are you already over? There are 5 days left of the month! And I love October...so very much. I love every connotation associated with October--especially the burst of color that takes place around us in nature. This is true in most places, but no place more apparently than in New England. The maple trees there just ooze colors that seem unnatural. Driving through my neighborhood in New Hampshire during the fall is like being in Candy Land. There are pink trees! It is gorgeous. 

I get oh-so-excited for Fall clothes. I love wearing jeans and boots and scarves and sweaters and hats and leg warmers and clogs and tights and everything else.

I also love Halloween! My family was never extremely into it, but we did trick-or-treat and carve pumpkins, and my brothers and I dressed up. Dalin's family on the other hand, hosts an annual adult Halloween party and the two times I have gone have been a blast. 

Last year, we owned everyone with our creative and somewhat creepy costumes as entertainer stick people. Can you imagine these stick people creepily walking toward you down the street?? By the way, those are axes in our hands. Also, I wish we had a picture of our bums because we attached two circles to them haha. We won a soft orange blanket with little ghosts on it, and a black ghost throw pillow. Cute right? 

Guess which one is me, hahah....

This year, the theme for the Halloween party was nursery rhymes or fairy tales. Dalin and I chose an obscure fairy tale and dressed as an ogre and his maiden daughter. We literally put this costume together twenty minutes before the party. Pretty decent for such poor planning. 

 

This weekend, we had planned to go up to Boise for a quick trip with Shaina and Layton, but what with our crazy schedules tomorrow and Sunday, it just wasn't going to work out.  Dalin is Sunday School President and had to teach on Sunday, I'm the Primary President and need to help out with practicing for the Primary Presentation coming up in November, we have planned a walk to the temple to take pictures with the children's families, we both need to be present at Ward Counsel on Sunday morning, and we both need to do our home/visiting teaching.  Not only this, but we have a Trunk-or-Treat activity tomorrow night!  Clearly, the timing was just unfortunate. 

Still, October is just magical.  And let's just say, there will be even more magic over the next two months...

;)

getting into the swing of things :)

well it certainly has been a while since i have made a post for this blog!

but i think my excuse is fairly valid seeing as it was just over a month ago that i married Dalin Gunnell for time and eternity in the Boston Temple. sometimes i can hardly believe that we're married. but it definitely has started to sink in now that we have settled into our apartment at Wymount, and now that Dalin is working his two jobs and nearly always is at one of them or at school. being home alone STINKS. i have had two job interviews and have applied to several places but so far nothing is definite. i spend most of my day getting the apartment clean, running silly errands (like getting groceries and whatnot), and writing thank-you notes for all of the generous gifts we received for our wedding. thankfully i have finished the notes from my side...and i am nearly done with those from Dalin's. 

but enough about my uninteresting schedule.

it is officially AUTUMN!!!!!! it's too bad the weather is not reflecting this. it's much too hot every day. i'm truthfully fed up with the 80's. i want to be able to wear sweaters and fall coats! not shorts. i am also anxious because this will be my first autumn without the dramatic color-change of the beautiful trees of New England. below are some pictures that i took a few years ago back in New Hampshire. how could anyone not love the trees when they look like this?

soon, i'll be adding pictures of my autumn decorations. once i've collected some... ;) 

Happy Autumn!