Halloween Fun.... two weeks later.

I'm a little behind posting about our Halloween fun, but better late than never, right?

The day before Halloween we held our traditional family Halloween party, which consists of costumes, crafts, and food. Of course food. Every year for... I don't know how long... we get together as a family with our children and spend a few hours having fun together. All the kids come in their costume, each of us brings a food item that's Halloween themed, and we plan a fun Halloween craft.

Typically we carve pumpkins but this year we decided to paint pots. We used clay flower pots and painted them with orange, yellow and white strips to look like candy corn or with green and black to look like Frankenstein or, if your just a little girl like Katie, you paint them however you want.

After you paint the strips, you then use black paint for cute faces and then glue on a wooden button nose for the candy corn pots or use two wooden buttons on the sides for the Frankenstein.

This year was kind of a small gathering with just my family, minus Todd and Spencer, and Kayce's family. Thanks to Kayce for hosting this fun time at her house!

Here's Tori and Evan working away on their pots. Tori was a darling bumble bee this year; unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of her in her costume... I'm really slacking as a picture taker this year. Evan didn't wear a costume this year, he's to old and just to cool for things like that.





















Here's my sweet sister Kayce helping with the painting. Kayce is just amazing.





















I'm not sure if Tori's to thrilled about getting her picture taken. What do you think?

















Surprisingly, Evan wasn't to cool to get into our painting project. It was fun to see him working away among all the cute little girls.















See Evan working with the cute little girls? That's Emily posing for the picture, wearing half of her princess costume, and Tabitha had already taken off her costume.















I wish I had taken some photos of the finished pots. They were all really cute. It was great fun!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Have I shared with you my secret Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe? It's delicious. I have no idea where I got the recipe; it's something I've used for many years. Great for dipping eggrolls and wantons and also yummy for sweet and sour meatballs.

Give it try!














1 Tbsp. oil
1 cup pineapple juice
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. ketchup
1/2 cup pineapple tidbits

Boil oil and pineapple juice first. Mix together cornstarch and water then add to oil and pineapple juice. Mix soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, ketchup and add to previous ingredients. Cook until sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Add pineapple tidbits if desired. Freezes well.

Leaves and Pumpkins and Seeds

Monday was a beautiful day, a nice warm day before the cold blew in. Seriously cold and lots of wind and even snow. Yikes! Too early for snow.

Back to the beautiful day on Monday.

Tori went out early in the afternoon and did some leave raking, such a good girl. She was in such a good, helpful mood she even let me snap a few photos of her. Such a gorgeous young lady.


































Later that night we decided it was time to do some pumpkin carving. We had some awesome pumpkins to carve; pumpkins straight from my Dad's garden. He grew some gigantic pumpkins this year and was so kind to share them with us.

One pumpkin was so heavy it took big, strong Todd to carry it up to our kitchen. None of us could lift this huge thing. Evan decided he was up to the task of carving this monster pumpkin. It was tough for him with the thick pumpkin shell but he did a great job!



















































Tori took on a pumpkin that was a little smaller in size and used her artistic ability to carve a cut Kitty-Kat.
































The best thing of all, after all that pumpkin carving, are the yummy pumpkin seeds. We look forward to our homemade roasted, salted, spiced pumpkin seeds every Halloween. Todd makes them and has a secret recipe. These seeds were gone an hour after they came out of the oven. Yum!

Cascade Springs

Our family has been trying to take a trip up Provo Canyon to Cascade Springs since the beginning of October to look at the beautiful fall leaves.... wait, I take that back. I should say.... I have been planning this outing.... the kids wanted nothing to do with it. Getting out into the open, fresh, beautiful fall air is not something these teenagers of mine like to do. Oh no, they would much rather stay plugged in, as in, watching tv or playing video games or talking on the phone.

Well, this Mom finally got her way on Friday. I knew we had missed the beautiful changing of the leaves to gorgeous fall colors and, most likely, all the leaves had fallen at the high altitude but that just didn't matter.... we were going to enjoy our beautiful mountains.

Our drive up Provo Canyon was amazing. The leaves were breathtaking. Once we drove up through the canyon, past Sundance and looked back down the canyon, I just had to stop the car and take some pictures. I was hoping to get pictures with the family.... but this is what I got....














Even Todd was having none of it. That's ok.... I still love them all. It was such a beautiful day, I just couldn't stay mad. Here's the first shot of the mountains.














After that, I gave the camera to Evan and told him to start taking pictures as we drove up the canyon to Cascade Springs.












































Beautiful pictures, right? So, once we arrived at Cascade Springs, which by the way, if you've never been, you've got to go. I threatened the kids with their lives if they didn't let me at least get one picture of them together. Here's the shot they where kind enough to give me. Can you see Tori's face?















I just love these kids. I missed Spencer so much during our little outing. Why do they have to grow up so quickly?




















Around this time, Evan starts to get into the family togetherness thing and is willing to smile for the camera..... not so much Tori.











































We managed to get a picture of us all together enjoying the beautiful scenery. Again, do you see my sweet Tori? Big sigh.... how did my parents survive having seven daughters?




















My sweet husband is the only thing that keeps me sane.































































What a handsome young man.





















Alright my little girl.... It's time to go home.

Why I Love Utah

This was the view from our backyard yesterday around 5:30pm.



























We live in a beautiful state, lovely little city, and have a gorgeous location for our home. Life is good.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I have a favorite homemade Chicken Noodle Soup recipe that is yummy and perfect for this time of year, with the weather is turning cold. It's a definite comfort type food and.... It's delicious!

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

6 cups water
2 chicken breasts
1 Tblsp chicken bouillon or base
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cups egg noodles
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cold water

Bring water to a boil in large pot. Add chicken, bouillon or base, and stir until dissolved. Cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until chicken is fully cooked. Remove chicken and cut in small pieces. Add carrots, celery and onion to broth. Cover and cook until tender. Add noodles and cook for 10 minutes or until noodles are tender. Mix cream of chicken soup, evaporated milk and spices together and slowly stir into broth mixture. Whisk flour and cold water together stirring until smooth. Stir flour mixture into soup and cook until thickened.

Great with homemade corn bread. Enjoy!

Old Photos

I love old photos of the family. My Aunt has been scanning old photos of the family for the last few years and I appreciate each and every one. It makes me appreciate my heritage, and I'm not talking about my ancestors from way back when, I'm talking about my parents and their parents.

For instance, this is a photo of my Mom talking with one of her grandfathers while six of her children (eventually there will be eight of us) are posing for the picture. I appreciate this picture for many reasons, one is simply because we are holding still and posing for a picture while my Mother is not. How many, many times in recent years has she expressed her frustration that her children won't let her take pictures













I also appreciate this picture because it reminds me of the one time I got to meet my great-grandfather, who lived in Nogales, AZ, if my memory is correct. Lastly, I appreciate this picture because of cute little Rebecca and the cans she is holding to her ears..... such a Rebecca Joan thing to do.


Here's another great photo; this one is of my Dad and his parents. I love this photo because I can see, not only the face of my brother in this young picture of my Dad, but also the face of my two sons. It's so amazing to see the resemblance of our children to their grandparents through old photos. My grandfather's smile has carried through to Evan and Tori. I can see their smile in his face.





















Here's a photo that's really not so old. It was taken in 2006 during a family reunion in California. We don't have all of my siblings in the picture, we're missing Rebecca and Nan, but it's the most recent picture with the majority of siblings and their children.

We've really got to work harder to get another picture with all the siblings and their children.

When I look at this photo I can't help but think of how far we've come from the humble beginnings of my parents, to a crazy home life with eight children, to our own individual families. My Mother is the daughter of a dairy farmer in Gilbert, AZ and my Father is the son of a firefighter in Sierra Madre CA. Together they provided a stable home for eight crazy children, seven of them being daughters.














Our lovely parents provided us with a stable, loving home; a home that allowed us to be creative while finding ways to entertain ourselves. Life wasn't always perfect but I appreciate the sacrifice of my parents and I really appreciate the memories I have from growing up at home. Memories that could fill a book and keep you laughing.

Just the memories of the variety of pets we had at home, just those memories alone could fill a book. Pets ranging from the typical cat (always there was a cat), dogs, turtle, rabbit, chickens, birds, mice, and hamsters.

For instance, the memory of the chicken roosting on the bumper of the family station wagon while we were driving through the city of Orem. It's true... I don't lie. Mom was driving with me and Alison as passengers. People kept honking at us and we honestly were confused; confused up until we pulled into the driveway and our neighbor walked over to point out the chicken roosting on the bumper. True story.

My brother was raising chickens as part of his Boy Scout Eagle Project. These chickens occasionally escaped the coop and wandered the yard and this one decided to take a nap on the car bumper. That's just the tip of the iceberg that is the Clawson Family pets!