Halloweenies

I hope everyone had a fantasticly spooky Halloween. It's a little crazy that we're already gearing toward Thanksgiving and Christmas but I thought I'd take a look back on the past couple of weeks and relish in a few things October.
Brandon's mom sent us a wonderful fall care package filled with all sorts of goodies including a knitted baby blanket for Bean and caramel chews and green apples to make caramel apples. I had never made caramel apples but it was a ton of fun and they turned out delicious -- though Brandon did get a minor burn picking out a piece of plastic from the melted caramel. Ouch! I suggest mixing and matching different kinds of apples to find your favorite combination. I used three Granny Smith apples and two Fuji. I preferred the Fuji but Brandon is a Granny Smith man. Here are a few pictures from our caramel apple making. I followed the recipe on the back of the bag of Kraft caramels and they turned out perfectly. I'm thinking of coming up with a recipe for salted caramel apples. Yum.

We also spent a few days in October getting a bit artsy and painting pumpkins. Our first time around we went ahead and let Jackson get crazy finger painting the large pumpkin that Laura, Brandon's awesome step-mom, gifted to Jackson. (We have some pretty great ladies in our family.) With some encouragement and a little help, Jackson painted his pumpkin and then I glittered it. It looked magical on our front porch.

Sadly though, I forgot I needed to spray that bad boy with lacquer and its beautiful paint job was washed away during a particularly rainy weekend AND our pumpkin ended up getting rain rot very quickly afterward. We had to pitch him. (Moment of silence.) But, a few days later my mom came to visit us and brought with her two more pumpkins! What luck!! We got a little more creative with these and added painters tape to create neat-o designs.

This time, Jackson was not at all interested in painting and kept trying to escape from the sunroom to play in the backyard. He settled for some time on the swing, reluctantly, while Brandon and I took turns painting our pumpkins. The larger one got a "P" for Pitzer and our handprints on the reverse side and Brandon designed a face for little bit, after which I "tie-dyed" him.

Brandon's handprint :

My handprint:

Jackson's handprint? (I'm telling you, he was NOT into it!) :

To keep them from the same fate as our first pumpkin, Brandon sprayed them both with lacquer. We were really happy with the results and loved how they looked on our front porch with the nifty wreath I made following an inspirational post on Pinterest.

The larger pumpkin and wreath are still up on our front stoop but next week we'll start transitioning decor into Christmas mode. I don't think I've ever been this excited to decorate in ma' life. Pinterest has helped me gather and organize so many great ideas -- it's really easy to feel inspired after a few minutes on their site. Currently resisting addiction. I've also found a few really sweet themes for Bean's nursery. Speaking of Bean... We find out tomorrow if we're having a boy bean or a girl bean!! Ah!! Right now, I feel like we're having another boy but I guess we shall see. I'm getting ridiculously excited. I'm also getting antsy for Thanksgiving next week. We're heading to Colleyville for the holiday and spending the week with family. I get to see a few of my girlfriends and their little ones which is always so fun too. I'm looking forward to getting in the kitchen, catching up with family and eating unnecessary amounts of cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes and anything else I can get my (not yet swollen) hands on. Hello, I'm pregnant!! This is going to be the best Thanksgiving ever!! Oh, and we have two -- TWO -- Thanksgiving dinners to attend next week. Who lucked out? This girl. Jackson was too young to partake in the yummy spread at our house last year so I can't wait to see his reaction to all of the different foods. I'll be sure to take some pictures.
What are your plans for the upcoming holiday? Any recipes your looking forward to trying? I have a few up my sleeve and I can't wait to share!
Happy living.