Mysterious Indeed.

After a whopping thirty minutes of trick or treaters, our porch light mysteriously and very curiously failed to illuminate. One would think that this might slow down the grove of candy getters, but it's amazing how many people will walk up to a darkened house in pursuit of high fructose corn syrup. Here I was hoping to chow down on the good candy when the doorbell started ringing and ringing, so I did what any other good American would do- I took out my favorite candy and let them have as many Smarties as their hearts desired.

And now here is the boy, who turns out isn't really a fan of Halloween- or at least not yet. I'm sure if I had been a nice mama and let him try his first candy we might have gotten a few smiles out of him.

My super talented sis-in-law, Heather made this costume. Both my nephew and niece have both worn, so we were excited to continue the tradition.

In other news, it's been a big week for Henry. He not only discovered how to lift the toilet seat, but also that unrolling toilet paper is just about the most fun one can have- second only to splashing in the toilet water when your responsible adult is distracted.

Henry meets the snow.

Why is Dad over there in the house all nice and warm and I'm out here in the cold?!

It appears that I am not the only one who isn't a huge fan of the snow. Poor kid had so many layers on that once he fell over he couldn't get back up. It's going to be one long winter, baby boy!

Isn't anyone going to pick me up????

I suppose this isn't actually Henry's first encounter with the snow. There was that freak snowstorm in Eugene last March, but he was only three months old and we thought it would have been too cruel to actually put him in it. Seven months later and somehow I didn't find it so mean...

They call this a pumpkin patch.

I have always loved the pumpkin patch. I remember the first time Jake and I went to a pumpkin patch together and I discovered that growing up he picked his pumpkins from a bin at Safeway. Say what! Apparently I had never considered that people didn't go to the pumpkin patch every year to get their pumpkins. They didn't slog through the mud in search for the perfect orange pumpkin that they would later destroy with their sub-par carving skills. And did they not drink apple cider and go on hay rides with their class every October?! 

Eugene had great pumpkin patches and last year when we went while I was pregnant with Henry, I couldn't help but imagine what this year would be like. Henry would love it! Or at least I would pretend that Henry's stoic face was him, in fact, loving every last bit of the pumpkin patch.

Then we moved to Wyoming and I thought my pumpkin patch dreams were about to be destroyed. But fear not, for while this was a very different pumpkin patch experience and I guess you can't technically call someone buying a bunch of pumpkins and putting them out in their yard for you to purchase, a pumpkin patch, we'll take it!

Patch probably should have been in quotation marks.

And here it is, folks.

I spy with my little eye, a pumpkin or two.                        

Here's the boy at his first ever pumpkin "patch"? Yard? I'm not sure what to call it.

If we had taken a picture a few moments later, it would show Henry eating poo of some sort. Awesome.

I'll take this one, Mom!

And the obligatory, shove your sweet child's face in a wooden cutout photo.

You want me to do what?

And now that prized pumpkin is sitting on our side steps covered in snow.

Homemade Yogurt

One of the many, many things I miss about living in Eugene is the availability of good yogurt. I know, it's a weird thing to miss, but we are a yogurt eating family and when my only options suddenly became nasty fat free or full of sugar choices, I started to get a little twitchy. Especially when Henry started eyeballing the good old yogurt. So, I decided to make my own and it was so completely and ridiculously easy. If you have a crockpot it can be so completely and ridiculously easy for you too. After a lot of googling I ended up following this recipe found on moneysavingmom.com
Homemade Yogurt in the Crock Pot Recipe

• 1/2 gallon milk (Whole milk will make the yogurt thicker, but any milk will work.)
• 1/2 cup plain unflavored yogurt (Any kind with live active cultures will work. Be sure to save a half cup of this batch of homemade yogurt to use as a starter next time!)
  

Pour the half gallon of milk into your crock pot and turn it on low. Cook it for 2 hours and 45 minutes (set the timer to remember to turn it off!

After 2 hours and 45 minutes, turn the crock pot off and let it sit down 3 hours.

Spoon a small amount of the milk into a small bowl and add the half cup of yogurt to it. Mix together thoroughly.

Dump this mixture back into the milk in the crock pot and mix it around well.

Put the lid back on your crock pot and wrap the crock pot with a large beach towel or blanket (make sure the crock pot is unplugged and turned off!). Yes, I know, it sounds a little ridiculous to wrap a crock pot with a beach towel, but I did some research online and it seems that the experts recommend this step as it helps keep the heat in the crock pot and allows it to cool more slowly.

Let the beach-towel-wrapped crock pot sit for 8-12 hours (or overnight). After 8-12 hours, it should be thickened.

Spoon yogurt into jars or plastic containers and refrigerate a few hours before eating.

This will keep for one to two weeks in the refrigerator. Be sure to save a half cup to use as a starter for your next batch of homemade yogurt.

Jake was super excited about taking this photo.

After testing it out ourselves with blueberries and a wee bit of granola we deemed it acceptable for the little man. I may have told Jake after he had eaten some that I wanted to make sure we didn't throw up before giving it to the baby. He was pleased.

And now you too can make your own yogurt. And your own laundry soap. Next up, I'm going for mozzarella cheese.

Pass me a spoon...

I could eat up these two sweethearts in no time.

Any guesses on who was the tormentor and who was the tormented during cousin Koen's weeklong visit?

Decrepit Downtown.

A couple of weekends ago, we took Henry to the rundown old downtown of our tiny little town. It was the perfect spot for a photo-shoot of our little man. And while it may have only been in the low 40's and I had to kick many a broken beer bottles from my chubby man's reach, it was quite a success. Here are a few of our favorites.

 Mr. Henry James looking quite dashing at ten months old.

Knock knock?

Lookin' good my man, lookin' real good.

Rugrats Look-a-like?

This afternoon while Henry was busily winning hearts at our local library, someone very excitedly exclaimed, "Your baby is so cute! He looks just like Tommy." I did what any other mother would do who doesn't have a clue what this lady was talking about...I  gave her one of those half smiles where you don't show any teeth and was about to be on my merry way when she followed up with, "You know, Tommy from Rugrats?! He looks just like him!" This time I did not give her a closed mouth smile but tried my best not to furrow my brow as we walked away. Now I may not have seen Rugrats in two decades but I was pretty sure that I didn't want my baby to look like this Tommy Pickles character.

So you tell me....does Henry look like Tommy?

Sir Henry James

Sir Tommy Pickles

Yikes, I do suppose they both have giant heads, no hair and a bit of a manic smile. Oh dear, my baby does look like Tommy!

Salt Lake City

Growing up I never had a real desire to go to Salt Lake City. In fact, I don't think I ever thought of the good old Salt Lake. Then I moved to Wyoming. Land of no Target and no Starbucks and all of a sudden my dreams were filled with images of SLC. This past weekend in honor of Henry's upcoming ten month birthday (which was today, hooray!) we packed our bags and set off for the land of civilization. And while to my horror I did not even step foot in my beloved Target it was a weekend full of caffeine, traffic lights and treats galore.

When you are used to watching sports on your 15" laptop, this is like Heaven.

Why hello lovely maple vanilla deliciousness.

That whole "everything in moderation" mantra totally went out the window on this trip.

Henry makes sure Diane knows to keep her distance....

Yahoo, college bestie Diane is working in Salt Lake for the week and knows how to lead one into a diabetic coma quite nicely.

A box of maybe the most delightful cookies on the planet.

That's my boy...reaching for the cookies while the adults are busy taking a picture. Takes after his mama.

Do you see the H-man's cute little fingers by my straw?

Looking at this picture makes my mouth water.

Twenty more years big guy.

Upon getting back home, one little boy was a little upset that not everything we purchased was for him.