A Traveling Circus

Halloween is my favorite holiday for several reason, but the biggest reason is it seems to be the great equalizer of the holiday realm. With a little thrift and imagination you can be whoever you'd like to be, and go out and get a sack full of candy just like everyone else. Halloween, for me, is a holiday about simply having fun, with no other pretense. Its a little spooky, a little magical, and very exciting. I always have such a great time brainstorming up costumes and piecing them together.

A few months back I started getting really stressed at the thought of this Halloween. It was Echo's first, and I wanted so badly to make her costume, but it just didn't seem feasible. I am used to throwing odds and ends together, but how could I do that for a baby?! The very last thing I have in my life right now is spare time, and just thinking about making the ideas I had in my head a reality had me sweating bullets. I can barely sew, y'all. And days spent pouring piece by piece at a thrift store seem to be put on pause for the moment, so I said you know what! I'm buying a costume! It's not worth it! And I found a very cute little strawberry number on Amazon. Now don't ask me why because it's not pride - I have no beef with store bought costumes  - Jared's muscles are courtesy of Target sale rack! but I could not let this costume thing rest. Some people show their love through flowers, or baked goods, or back scratches. I show mine through a hot glue gun, safety pins and strong family theming. I wanted this, gosh darnit. So after a bit more brainstorming and google image searching, I shelved my original plans for something simple- a clown. That was just a quick jump to bearded lady and strong man,and thus the Alexander Family Circus was born.

Raising this child has been a group project since the start, and her costume was just the same. Aunt Lacey spotted the tutu, my grammie helped me sew it down to size and put darts in the collar, and Aunt Danielle helped pick out all the trim and that glorious tulle puff - a puff she kept on her head the whole night mind you! And so my Halloween wish came true. 

Coincidentally our good friends the Hill's happened to be  the parents of a Lion Tamer and his Lioness this Halloween, and the whole troupe of us had a great time trick-or-treating. 

Pumpy-umpy-umpkin and an Echo Update

From the dawn of time and throughout history, parents have placed their cherubic young on a pile of gourds and saw that it was good.

Love that one above, surveying her pumpkin kingdom. What is a pumpkin patch for if not baby photoshoots?  My parents, Aunt Paula, and cousins Ashlyn, Ethan, Candice, Parker and Ben all met at the patch for seasonal fun. So many beautiful blue eyed babies in this family.

 Not so sure about these little pumpkin things.

Hey I kinda like this guy!

Does anyone remember this song? It was a meme that caught fire in my high school before a meme was a meme...and I myself had it as my myspace song~~.

Echo is 8 months old. She's crawling like a big girl, pulling up and taking tip toe steps. She likes to grab things and hold them with both her hands and her feet. She is extremely daring, and usually has some kind of battle wound because of it. She  has no fear of strangers, LOVES saying Dada. Her smiles are infectious and huge, completely lighting up her face. Love love love this sweet little girl

AWKWARD AND AWESOME: LOVE VINCENT AND FRIDA

AWKWARD

A bad cold that just won't quit. I can only really breathe if I sit cross-legged on the floor, a boon to the Bradley Method but horrible when your feet fall asleep 10 minutes in. Side note, I was googling the term "tailor sitting" and found this hilarious piece of clip art. I feel you, sister. Although that is more of a butterfly...

via 

Anyway, at this point, every time I sneeze and don't immediately pee my pants I feel a certain sense of victory.

Every one of my meals yesterday was different forms of pasta. I am so sorry, little baby.

AWESOME

We rallied and pulled together some pretty sweet Halloween costumes!

And- Jared won the church chili cook-off!

Not to brag, but that crockpot was scraped clean, y'all! We originally started with my dear Pioneer Woman's recipe, and have perfected it to Alexander taste. We usually always double this recipe because the soup just gets better the day after, and freezes/thaws like a dream, but the below would easily feed 6 people. We will definitely be stock piling this before Baby Alexander's arrival. I highly recommend serving with tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream. Avocado and lime if you fancy.

Jared's Blue Ribbon Chicken Chili

1 whole rotisserie chicken
olive oil
3 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup diced onion
3 minced garlic cloves
2 cans Rotel
32 oz chicken broth
3 tblspoons tomato paste
1 can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
3 tblspoons corn meal + 1/4 cup warm water

Mix together your spices. Shred your chicken and mix in about 1/2 your spices, set aside. 

Heat oil and sauté onion, garlic and the rest of your spices until onions are translucent. Add chicken, scrape the bottom of the pan and stir to combine.

Add chicken broth, rotel, tomato paste, and beans. Stir to combine. 

In a separate dish, mix corn meal and warm water together until dissolved- no clumps! Mix this slurry into the pot until all is combined.  Bring pot to a boil, then drop to a simmer for 45 minutes uncovered. Dip it low, then bring it up slow, pop pop pop that thang....sorry I digress. 

Add corn, taste for seasoning. 

At this point you are good to eat it! However, if you can rest this stuff in the pot on the lowest setting for awhile and let all the flavors marry, that would be great too!

THIS IS HALLOWEEN

This year Jared got to pick the costumes. I couldn't begrudge him-- it's been my choice for years. We had been talking about being Marty McFly and Doc Brown for many a year, and this seemed the perfect time to do it.

Last year I showed up to work as Mary Poppins....This year I showed up at 6 am with my working cap on, but I will eat a Mellowcreme pumpkin and it will still be Halloween in my heart.

Some of our greatest hits through the years.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday! Please don't come at me with arguments of Christmas, because that's like THE holiday, you know? There's Christmas and then there's everything else, including your birthday. This year has been pretty festive so far, though we dd have one major gaff. Our Jack-O-Lantern is terrible, y'all. We tried for Spock and ended up with Mangled Gourd. Oh well. Before we carved it up, we introduced Rory to the pumpkin. She went nuts trying to bite it and drag it off. Who knew?

The Weekender: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This weekend was jam packed. Saturday we got up and headed to the beach to watch the air show....for five hours. Rest assured there was a hat on my head and sunscreen galore so I didn't get burned. We had a great time. It was so relaxing to just lay out on the beach and watch the planes go by. When it got too hot we'd stick our feet in the water, but you couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

That night Jared and I had to chaperone a dance, so we got to debut this years Halloween costumes! I'm swooning over how they turned out, and we spent less then 20 bucks on the whole caboodle.

I gotta give props to the old bird, when he does something, he does it all the way. He was very meticulous about his soot placement. We stepped in time to Gangnam Style, Jared slow danced with his broom, good times and late night pumpkin Blizzards were had....

And then disaster struck. I'd been having back pains all week, and after dancing around like a maniac in four inch heels I was not in a good way. By the time we got home my back muscles were super tight and I looked more like the Bird Woman then Mary Poppins.

Hobbling around like a goblin, I went to ready the roast for Sunday dinner. It wasn't there. I checked the bag 3-4 times, hunted around my fridge-gone. We were having the missionaries over and I had literally nothing else to fix so there was only one thing to do. WalMart. We went to one, closed (how?!) we went to another and then this happened.

 

Yes my friends if you spotted a Mormon chick with really rosey cheeks riding a rascal in WalMart late late in the evening, it was me.   Suffice to say, by the time we got home I could barely move but the roast was got and we made it home. All in a days work.