My New York Trip

This is a cheater post... I've just copied the html from my sisters blog (with her permission of course) onto this one for the sake of time and energy, neither I have right now... so this is my girls trip to NYC the first weekend in Nov. from my sisters perspective.  It was so much fun!!   ....you can see what a much cooler blogger my sis is than me... if only she would always blog for me... what do you thing Ang... ??

11.3.2010

My sisters and mom decided to come out for a long weekend WITHOUT KIDS! My sister Sarah got in a day before Katie and my mom. I met her at the subway, she dropped her bags at my place and we set out to take pictures of TriBeCa and SoHo. It was fun to both have our cameras and be shooting together.

11.4.2010
The next day Sarah and I hung out and waited for my mom and Katie to get in. It was a really rainy day, ALL DAY, so flights were delayed. Chad ended up picking up Katie and my mom taxied in later.

11.5.2010
The next morning I took them to Clinton St. Baking Co. for breakfast. After some eggs benedict, blue pancakes, banana and walnut french toast and pancakes we headed to SoHo to shop and shop and shop. Who knew that someone out there loved shopping more than me...Sarah! She can literally shop until she drops except she never dropped. It was a fun morning.

We found this really cool store in SoHo, All Saints Co. The clothes were cool but the vintage sewing machines that lined the store were amazing. It was impossible not to take tons of pictures of them even though we got in trouble. After shopping in SoHo we headed for a late lunch at the Shake Shack. It was fun and a little cold.

We headed home after shopping more on 5th Ave. and decided we were in for the night. We hung out with the kids and made koloaches after they were in bed. If you've never had a koloache you don't know what you're missing. Sweet bread wrapped around sausage and cheese baked and warm. So good. I haven't ever made them so my sisters and mom were giving me a lesson. I still think I need another lesson before I can make them on my own.

11.6.2010
We woke up this morning and headed to the Brooklyn Flea Market. It was a lot of fun and the one thing Sarah wanted to do while she was here. We shopped around for almost 3 or 4 hours and after finding some treasures headed back home frozen.

Katie and I were ready to be home and dethaw but Sarah and my mom wanted to go look at a couple more stores so they headed back out again while Katie helped me put a lock on the kids door to keep them in their room when we put them to bed. No judgement. You might think it's cruel but I think it's necessary.

After they got back from shopping and the lock was installed (it took 2 hours) we headed to Suteishi downtown for dinner. It was the one place Katie wanted to go while she was here. I guess you can't get good sushi in west Texas.

11.7.2010
We went to church. After dropping the kids off at nursery we skipped Sunday School and hung out in Chad's office, talked and watched an episode of Modern Family. Then it was time to get Katie and my mom a cab to the airport. Sarah and I came home, took the kids to Pier 25 and then she had to head to the airport too. Such a fun but short weekend. Can't wait till Christmas when we can all see each other again.

Halloween Party

The kids were devastated earlier this month when we realized that Halloween was on Sunday and we talked about how we probably wouldn't go trick or treating on the sabbath. (There is a ward Trunk or Treat the night before that they will get plenty of candy) So it's not like they were going to totally miss out. But I still had pity on them and we decided to plan a Halloween Party so they could have their friends over. Because, hey, who doesn't love a Halloween Party, right? And honestly, call me crazy, but I started getting excited about all the fun possibilities of fun food and games, etc. Ok, I admit I did go a little crazy, but my kids were so excited and so sweet and grateful about it, it made it all worth the effort.

Here were the invites:

Our friend has DJ equipment that he was so nice to loan us for the sound for the movie, and a fog machine for our make shift cemetery, and Eric brought home the projector from work. ...We were set for an outdoor scary movie.

the guys setting up...

Our little make shift cemetery... Taylor made this headstone on the right. We had a smoke machine behind it to puff out smoke to try and make it 'spooky'

Our garden has a few lingering plants... so where we pulled out our watermelon and cantaloupe we put little headstones that we made from cardboard, and the little ones we found at the dollar store.

the food table... On the menu: Frito Chili Pie, Ghoulish Drinks, I think I forgot to take a picture of these. (I found these labels that go over the 2 liter soda labels that say, "Vampire's Blood" etc, etc.) We had cupcakes, buttered popcorn and candy corn popcorn, and lots of candy.

I made candy corn popcorn and put individual servings in the Halloween treat bags so they could grab and go. I found the recipe at my sister in laws AMAZING blog: The Swanky Pear. She has TONS of other great recipes. You take popcorn and lay it out on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and drizzle melted candy corn over it. It's bright orange and very festive. Here is the recipe. I added semi sweet chocolate chips to the mix too so it had a little dark splash of color and added sweetness.

the patio table... I loved this tutorial that taught how to make the paper spider webs that I used under the votive candles and also put them on the votive so the light glowed through the spider web. You can find that here.

I loved this idea I found on the family fun website. I took milk jugs and cut out the back and stuffed them with a bunch of Christmas lights. I put them in the back flower bed for light and decor but they would be a great sidewalk border for Halloween night.

they looked really neat once it got totally dark. They were so bright, the kids loved them.

I took my empty #10 cans from food storage we'd gone through and covered them with paper bags and made a little Halloween label on photo shop and they were, "guess what your feeling" jars... We had Frankenstein's Fingers (sausages, that I bent like fingers and secured them bent with toothpicks) Monkey Brains (cooked egg noodles drenched in oil, so they didn't clump) and Witches Eyeballs ( frozen grapes). The tops were cut up trash bags with slits for their little hands to reach through without seeing whats inside.

The candy jars, so the kids could make their own candy bags to snack on during the movie.

I found these cute cupcake toppers and wraps at Micheal's and loved them.

The backyard entrance. Everyone came in through the back gate: Which was great because there were lots of kids and we were able to keep all the "fun" and mess outside. :)

The kids all decked out in their costumes. Brent-Batman, Taylor and Peyton- punk rockers. :) I made them matching applique rocker shirts. Taylor loves to have Peyton as her mini me. I've got to embrace it now, because I'm sure in a few years she'll feel differently.

Our friends, the Ellis kids. - Such cute costumes

Part of the party! The kids were so excited

Bobbing for apples... I cheated and kept the stems on the apples, so the kids got the hang of grabbing the stems with their teeth, saving their Halloween makeup from melting off their face.

Maddie
Jill getting read to make her move..

Conner, licking his lips, getting ready to dive...

Brent caught one!

Kaitlyn got one too!

Jonas, contemplating his game plan..

We had a relay race where the kids had to wrap a team mate up with the white fabric strips like a mummy and then run around the trampoline and back and then unwrap them and do it to another team-mate. The games were fun, but there were so many kids, it was a little chaotic.

Because they just didn't have ENOUGH sugar just yet, about half way through the movie we served forked eyeballs! There's just so many fun halloween things, I had to squeeze in just one more... I found this idea at the family fun website too. It calls for white chocolate to dip the donut holes in, but I burned the white chocolate as I was trying to multi-task the morning of, so I resorted to the extra white frosting that I hadn't dyed green yet. It worked.

I had a few of these ghosts, hanging from the trees. I don't remember where I found the idea, but you take a glow stick and put it inside a white balloon and then blow up the balloon and cover it with a THIN white sheet or fabric, and draw a Ghost's face on it. When it's dark, it glows. After the party was all cleaned up and I was finally going to bed in the wee hours of the morning.. I looked out in the backyard and saw this glowing thing in the tree. It kind of spooked me at first, forgetting how I put it there. Might be a fun thing to do for Halloween night.

We played the Disney movie "Halloween Town" on the projector screen and the kids all sat on blankets and ate their treats. Some of them would jump on the tramp or watch the movie from the tramp.

It was so much fun!

My Handsome Cyclist

Eric has really taken off as a cyclist. We love to ride together, but I know I'm not as challenging as a workout buddy as some of his other "guy" friends. He now has a light, so he rides in the morning - early like 5:30am, YIKES.. He's so dedicated! In the beginning of October he participated in the Road Texas Championship Series in Killeen Texas, around the Ft. Hood Army base. It was a 33 mile race, and Eric did great. It was his first cyclying race and he proved to be a fast learner of drafting, and manuvering around wrecks. The guy right in front of him at one point totally fell and took down like 20 other guys with him , and Eric managed to get around the wreck and not fall. The kids both had football games, and soccer games, so I had to stay back and support them. But Brad, Eric's dad was so sweet and drove up from Houston to cheer him on and support him. THANKS POPPIE! Eric's parents are always sooo supportive. He took these great pictures of Eric. - Doesn't Eric look great?!

Brent's first day of school

(Click on the page and it will enlarge) ... In a effort to do more scrap booking... because someday this blog will be a great book... i hope.

Brent started his school the Wed. after Labor Day. We had a count down for him, because

Taylor had already been in school for 2 weeks. He is in class with many of his friends: Corbin,

Kaitlyn, Marshall, just to name a few. His teacher is awesome. She loves bugs! and she also has

alot of tattoos. Which is funny, because on Fridays if the kids are good she will open her "tattoo parlor." (these are removable of course) She is so fun and really great with the kids. Brent is

so happy! He is so excited for school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Triathlon... a family thing now :)

So after I bought my first cycling bike, Eric got his... we've been cycling together and it's the best! We get a sitter and go for long rides on our date night. Eric really loves cycling and he runs too, but the swimming part he didn't like very much. So after a few coaching sessions from me, he was swimming with better technique and it was easier for him. So I convinced him to do a triathlon with me. And they even had a "Little Buggy Tri" for kids, so Taylor was old enough to do it. She rocked it! There were 200 kids there and in her age group 7-10, she placed 20th! And she is on the younger end of the group. She loved it and wants to do another one. Eric did great and placed 4th in the Clydesdale division! He did so great! And I was excited to improve my time again. This race was a 300 meter swim, 15 mile bike and a 5K run, and I missed the third place metal in my age group by 20 seconds. Bummer! If only I didn't drop my water bottle on the bike course and had to stop and get it so I wasn't penalized. Oh well, it was fun and I was able to better my run time too. It was so fun to do it as a family.

Eric and I at the finish

The group from Abilene that all came out to Plano to do the tri. The Hill's, the Ellis' and the Rigby's. It was fun to have a group all cheering each other on.

Taylor had her race first, starting at 7am and then the adult Tri, started at 8:30. It was a little more exhausting trying to help everyone set up and be prepared instead of just worrying about myself, but hey that's motherhood, right.. even in triathlons I guess.

Check It Out!

It was fun to make Taylor's baptism special. This is the video montage that I put together, and we played during the brunch afterwards. The song it "What Heaven Sees In You." I just love this song. It's about the three white dresses that you wear in your life...

Click on the link, and it'll take you to our mobile me account and you can see it. :) It's about 4 minutes. :)

http://gallery.me.com/ekgillis#100153

Taylor's Baptism

Taylor's Baptism day was very special. Full of family and friends that were there to support her and her decision to be baptized.

Taylor with Eric's parents, "Mimmie and Poppie"

If you look closely at Taylor's earrings... they are these beautiful pave diamond earrings that Aunt Angie sent her to wear on her special day. They were the earrings that Angie wore on her wedding day! She sent them to her with a special card that told her that she wore these earrings when she made promises to Heavenly Father on her wedding day. And now Taylor can wear them on her special baptism day when she makes promises to Heavenly Father. Now Taylor can pass them back to her cousin Kate when she gets baptized.

The sign in table. Everyone took a piece of the 8x8 card stock with a picture of Tay on it and wrote her a note. I have this great stack of notes for her ready to slip into her album for her baptism. Thanks Angie for the idea. :)

I was so glad my mom could be there.

Cake table- prior to the juice and water containers on it.

food table...

a little more of the food table...

the cake

The family shot. I can't believe how blessed we were to have so much family there! My mom, Eric's parents, All of Eric's siblings (Summer, Ben, Curt, Whitney, and Brandon), Eric's Uncle Matt and Aunt Dottie, and three of there kids, Jennie and her husband Phil, Leah and Mike, and Garrett.

Lisa Crawford and Heather Ellis, great ladies and friends in our ward.

Peyton, stuffing her cheeks with muffin. :)

Bishop and his family and Sis. Thomas, our primary president. They were all so sweet to come and support Taylor.

Taylor with her friends.

Kolaches are Taylor's favorite!

I didn't have time to get a good shot of the food table. We had a little brunch after the baptism with Kolaches and muffins. I'm so glad we over baked. My mom made 3 dozen Kolaches, and I made 6 dozen Kolaches and 6 dozen muffins- Blueberry, Apricot Walnut, and Lemon Poppieseed. And then we had fruit too. But everyone ate everything! Which I was so happy about! :) Someone spotted Brent with 5 Kolaches, he took a bite out of each one and said "my tummy says it's full." No wonder... they were all eaten! My rude child was leading the pack of kids eating... Oh well. :)

It was Mimmie's Birthday the day before, so we celebrated her birthday after the baptism at our house.

Aunt Summer made these amazing cupcakes. Not only are they beautiful with fondant decor on top, but they were so delicious! Chocolate Fudge Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting. Yum Yum!