All tHinGs AuTuMN

something about this autumn air makes me so festive! i {LOVE} it. even with the SNOW we managed to have tons of fall fun! i'll share some of our favorites....

bowen, grandma and i took a drive out to uncle mike's farm to gather up some pumpkins!

later, bowen helped me make the porch festive! he loved it, and even stopped for a moment to do "head, shoulders, knees and toes!" his favorite dance. and what's more festive than dancing on the porch? not much!

bowen needed to make sure that it's trick or treat ready!

next, TREATS! havyn and i made some yummy yet SCARY halloween cookies while bowen was sleeping. (i have found these kinds of activities are much more acheivable while the little guy is snoozin'!)

havyn was much more into eating than decorating....but what do you expect placing a two year old in front of sugar heaven? i must admit, i am VERY proud of that spider web cookie!!

this one you have to try! it was to DYE for, the picture does not do it any justice!

Bread Bowl Artichoke Dip

• 2 sourdough bread rounds (i got mine at crumb brothers)
• 4oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 can artichoke hearts in water
• 1 1.4 oz envelope vegtable soup mix
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• 1 lemon
• 1 container sour cream (8 oz)
• grated fresh parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450. slice off top of one bread round to make a lid. set lid aside. Carefully remove center of bread to form a 41/2 inch wide and 2 inch deep well for dip. slice center of first and entire second bread round into 1-in cubes. Place bread bowl on center of stone (i used my pampered shef pizza stone....a cookie sheet would work too!) arrange bread cubes around bowl; spray with vegtable oil.


in bowl, whisk cream cheese until smooth using a wisk. add milk to cream cheese; whisk until smooth. Chop artichokes adn add to cream and milk along with, soup mix and garlic. mix well with scraper and microwave on HIGH 5-7 minutes or until hot. (do not let boil) Juice lemon to measure 2 tbsp juice. stir juice and sour cream into hot artichoke mixture; pour into bread bowl.



sprinkle parmesan cheese over bread bowl and bread cubes. lean lid against bread bowl. bake 13-15 minutes or until bread cubes and top of dip are golden brown. remove and serve immediately. ENJOY!


on saturday we went to Chris and Holly's for lunch. YUM! after we ate, we all took a go at carmeled apples!


my first carmel apple EVER! i think it turned out pretty good!! carmel, chocolate, and nuts = mmmmm! Holly, being the sweetheat that she is, let everyone else go before her....and much to her sadness, when it was her turn the carmal had already hardened in the bowl. and thus, the result....

check out bowen in this pic....so funny!

regardless of the hard,messy, sticky carmal; these things were dang GOOD!

and last but not least:

because of the little snow storm that decided to drop by, bowen got to wear his cute church coat on sunday! the plan was that he wouldn't need a coat in October, and so yes...it was a little big! but he was still so cute. i'm thinking of calling up J.Crew to see if they need models!!