Happy Halloween!

 I think The husby and are are just going to order a pizza, watch a movie, and take it easy tonight since we did so much during the halloween weekend. 

The picture is of me and my sister dressed as indians when I was two. Here's a little Halloween playlist I made. I hope every one has a great halloween! xo -Liz

Life this week (according to cellphone pictures) #14

This week was so great. We had a lot of fun stuff to do this weekend with all the halloween parties, harvest festival, and so on. I can't wait to share all our costume pictures! I hope you had a great week too! xo -Liz

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1. Waiting for David to get off the phone

2. Temptation

3. Watching Shuan the Sheep

4. Making a sock monkey applique 

5. Watching Netflix

6. A pile of vintage clothes

7. Red & Blues 

8. Enjoying our Halloween weekend 

Carving and Painting

We had such a blast decorating or pumpkins. Since the little bear can't carve, like us, he painted his little pumpkin and he did SO well! Right when I set him down he knew exactly what to do with his paint brush(I think it's from watching mama so much). He defiantly enjoyed finally being able to play in paints! It was such a fun time. xo -Liz

How We Met V.3

This version of how we met is from the lovely Brenna. I'm so glad that she took the time to write their cute story! She writes here own blog HERE.

Our story starts out about 8 years ago (at age 13). I had just gotten home from a long trip to Hawaii and the very next morning my friend asked me if I could help her babysit a big group of kids. I said yes and her mom brought us to the Martinez residence. They were having a big meeting for a homeschool group so I was watching all of the kids, including Chases little sisters and brother. I remember them being super nice, but later on in the day Chase comes out of his "cave" and joins us. I thought he was a good looking guy, but I was not impressed at all especially from the fact that he flipped off me and my friend (silly middle school boys!)

I saw Chase off and on for the next couple years at various homeschool activities. When we were 15 we both joined the same writing class. I remember being so impressed with how much he matured and how nice he was. After the writing class was over I got a job with the tobacco enforcement by being a undercover minor. One day after the cop picked me up to start working, he said he hired someone new and that we were going to pick him up on our way out. I started getting really nervous the closer we got to Chase's house and just about froze when we pulled up to his door. We were able to work with each other quite a bit and since we went to different towns it meant a LOT of time in the car. 

He ended up inviting me to his youth group nights and we started constantly messaging each other on the good ol' Myspace. (sentimental me still has all of our conversations saved). It's probably the only way he could get me to talk to him cause I was so shy. He quickly became one of my best friends. Some people would say that's too young for a relationship (which I would probably agree with most of the time), but I'm really glad we were so young because we got to experience all of the "growing up" stuff together like getting our drivers license, graduating, getting our first real jobs, and so on… 

We didn't start going out until about a year later and after graduation we started talking about getting married sometime in the distant future. Little did we know we would be married that same year. One night he took me to a "Movies Under The Stars" night up on glade park and then took me on a night hike afterwards. I was so worried about my parents getting mad about me getting home so late so I kept begging him to take me home and I finally just stood up and started walking towards the car and he yelled "wait, wait, wait! …will you marry me?…" I was really embarrassed that I had started walking away, but of coarse I said yes. We were married 3 months later. 

It's weird because we are still just a couple of kids and we recently celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We are still growing up, but we get to experience it together and one day we will grow old and experience THAT together.

-Brenna

From Scratch

This colder weather is the best time to heat up some yummy tomato soup and maybe cook some grilled cheese! Here is an awesome tomato soup recipe we made from scratch. And what better way to use all your garden tomatoes before they freeze! This is a make ahead and freeze recipe so you can pull it out whenever you want some. We also added some roasted red peppers. SOOO good!!! enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Soup
Prep: 30 min. Cook: 30 min. Yield: 6 servings(1 1/2 qt.)

Ingredients:
15 large tomatoes (5 lbs.), seeded and quartered
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. spoons canola oil, divided
8 garlic cloves minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups water
1 tsp, salt
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, optional
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
fresh basil leaves, optional

1. Place tomatoes in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Combine 1/4 cup oil and garlic; drizzle over tomatos. Toss to coat. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. Remove and discard skins.
2. Meanwhile in a Dutch oven saute onion in remaining oil until tender. Add the tomatoes, water, salt, and pepper flakes, if desired. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until flavors are blended. Cool slightly.
3. In a blender process soup in batches until smooth. Stir in cream; heat through. Cool; transfer to freezer containers. Cover and freeze for up to 3 months.
To use frozen soup: Thaw in the refrigerator over night. Place in a large sauce pan; heat through. Garnish with basil if desired.

Pumpkin Carving Favorites

Carving pumpkins is one of the many fun things about this season. Here are a few of my favorite pumpkin carving ideas. xo -Liz

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Pumpkin Hunting

It's hunting season, pumpkin hunting season for us anyway. This last weekend we went down to the pumpkin patch. The kids had so much fun looking around, petting animals, and helping with the pumpkins (the little bear once even tried to pick up a pumpkin that was about his own weight). It's the best thing in the world to do stuff and see it in a whole different way with a kid around!

Life this week (according to cellphone pictures) #13

Sorry for all the baby pics this week! The last few days have been SO busy so I hope today to catch up on everything. What amazing weather we've had here this week! The sunsets are amazing and the temperatures are perfect! Yesterday we took advantage of the sweet mister being off for most of the day and had a picnic then threw around a Frisbee until my arm felt like it was going to fall off. After that he talked to me about the amazingness of Tim Tebow. I'm STILL working on a painting, from last week, in my free time. My son points at in and makes a dog noise so at least HE recognizes it as What it's supposed to be.
I hope you had a great week and are enjoying the weather! xo -Liz

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1. Beard-no-more
2. Socks
3. Snack time
4. Keeping warm
5. Hippie Dave
6. Enjoying lunch
7. Something my great great grandma made
8. Lunch @ the park
9. Wolf face painting