Pumpkin Carving

For FHE on Monday we carved some pumpkins...so here's some of our beautiful creations!

Check out this little guy and his pumpkin with the matching "chompers".

What a week!

You know it's a slow newsweek here when I post pictures of Starr taking out her hair braids from Mexico...not to say my house wasn't exciting last week, we had a week of parent-teacher conferences, half-days of school, basketball games and practices, scout campout, a 50's style daddy-daughter Activity Days event, a well baby check-up for Josh (who is weighing in at 22 lbs), and RS Super Saturday. (That was fun--mainly because it was for me!) I also picked up apples from my fruit lady on Friday, so now I have 40 lbs of apples sitting in my kitchen I need to figure out what to do with. So far we've had apple crisp, apple cake, apples and carmel, and I'll probably end up drying some apples today if I can dig out my house from the weekend. (Are your mondays like that, also?) Anyway, any other suggestions of what to do with all of these apples would be welcome.






And Starr at her first basketball game... so much for an undefeated team, I think they lost 6-34 (ouch!) But she looked adorable! Unfortunately, Jeff's team also lost their first game (better luck next Saturday).

Mexico!

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Well, we survived Mexico once again this year. No children were kidnapped, no adults taken to jail, just a great vacation. And a recap for those of you who don't know....every year during fall break, a huge number of families, mainly from our ward (this year there were over 20 families), head down to Rocky Point, Mexico for about 4 days and camp near the beach. A few, however, opt out and stay at the beautiful resorts, but we have a blast hanging out with everyone camping. On the way home, the family came up with 10 reasons why we love going to Mexico so much:

10. The water is so nice -- warm, perfect for swimming. Steve and the kids love to go snorkling in it because the waves aren't very rough.

9. The weather is usually very nice -- highs in the 80's and low in the 60's. Perfect for sleeping in a tent -- not too hot, not too cold.

8. Oooh la la...those fresh hot tortillas sold about everywhere....need I say more?

7. Seashells...they are EVERYWHERE!! In California, we're excited to find a broken remnant of a shell, but the beach is full of them in Mexico!

6. It's only a 4 hour drive from Mesa!!! (That would be 2 1/2 disney movies in kids time.)

5. The girls always look forward to getting their hair braided -- and I love not having to fix it everyday. In fact, even when we return from Mexico, their hair looks good in the braids for at least another 2 weeks.

4. The shopping -- stocking up on vanilla, cheap designer goods, fun sunglasses, jewelry...they have it all!

3. Steve enjoys being able to speak to everyone in Spanish...and believe me, he uses it all the time there - and loves it.

2. The beaches -- we go beach hopping--each day finding a new place to play. So much fun to make sand sculptures, play flag football, play in the sand, shoot off fireworks, and for Jeff, blow up fish they had caught earlier in the day with fireworks with the other teenagers when no parents were around....hummm.....

1. Camping with friends -- it's the best not having to be the ones to entertain the kids. They always seemed to have a friend or two at their side.

This n' That

Not much new is going on at the Hartman home. We enjoyed our "layed back" weekend watching General Conference -- as I get older, it's become something I look forward to even more. The kids are on fall break this year....why, do you ask do we have fall break? I have NO idea. Isn't it something they have in farming communities so the families can all harvest the crops together. Anyway, my kids are out of school all week and we're busy getting ready to leave for Mexico on Wednesday. It's the highlight of the year for the kids -- and a fun tradition we started last year. As a side note, I'll share this with you...today our mischevious child....I'm sure you can all guess which one, without our knowledge, was calling 911 and hanging up. I'm sure you can guess what happened. Yep, she received a visit from Officer Debbie (or whatever her name is) who gave her a little talking to. Actually, she was a very young officer (early 20's) who was trying to be stern but all of the kids were watching and she kept getting sidetracked by them and kept commenting how cute they were. They probably should have sent and old sern man who couldn't be swayed by cute innocent children -- that would have really scared her! Anyway, lets hope she learned her lesson.

Shootin' those Hoops!

I have to give you a quick report regarding Starr playing basketball this season. She went for her first practice last night and was absolutely MORTIFIED to learn she is the only girl on her team ... not to mention a foot taller than ALL the boys. If this were to happen in another 5 years, I think she would be in heaven, but as a 9 year old, she's already wondering how she's going to survive. Oh, the drama!!!

As a bonus, here's a quick recipe I received during the days I was doing Weight Watchers -- I love these, very low calorie, high fiber, and satisfies that sweet tooth.

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

1 Box of chocolate cake mix (or any type)
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1/4 cup water

Mix all ingredients together well, Place into 18 cupcake tins. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until done.