We went pumpkin hunting today! Lana's very first pumpkin! We got 2 bigger ones for us and a really small one for Lana. I don't think I am going to go through the effort to carve that one....just a magic marker will do. I put her in an outfit that was way to big for her. So, she looks a bit fluffy in it.


I was trying to think of October Halloween traditions we could do as a family. Of course, there is the jack-o-lantern carving. Maybe we could do pudding paintings as well. Dan and I did that for our first Halloween. You have a piece of poster board, you pour some pudding on it and paint a picture in the pudding with your finger. Then you let it dry. If anyone has some good traditions... tell me!
On Friday we went out to eat at Simply Thai. It's a new favorite of ours. Dan, for some odd reason, really craves their phad thai. This is really weird for him because it has very little meat and alot of veggies. Dan freaks out usually if there is not meat in what I am making.

Saturday was a fun day. Our friends Sam and Brent took us out to lunch at Famous Daves. MMMMMM! Barbeque! We are so happy to have them for friends! haha I just wrote that and realized how that sounded. To clarify, we are not only happy to have them for friends because they bought us lunch :) but because we enjoy hanging out with them. They are defintly a pull for us to stay in Seattle.

After that we went to a Saints Unified Voice Choir performance directed by Gladys Knight! We were so excited. Dan woke up early that day to help set up 1200 chairs at our stake center. Only 4 people showed up to help! The man that travels around with the chior as thier "foreman" was there to help. After they had finished Dan asked him what time we should show up to get decent seats. He then told Dan he would give his people our name and we could go through the stake president's entrance and get VIP seating. AWESOME! They had a VIP room for us to wait in with orderves and everything! We got to sit really close.




When we got in there they tried to tell us it would be too loud for us to have Lana up front but we sat close anyway. It really wasn't too loud. She was just fine and behaved great through the whole thing. Gladys Knight has an AMAZING voice! It felt so weird to be clapping in the chapel. Ha-ha...our stake president told the audience to bring down house! Never done that before. They said they had permission from Salt Lake though so I guess it was okay. Supposedly, they tracked 88 baptisms starting from this performance in California. It was really great. I gotta tell you though...gospel style music is not my thing. I like things more simple and pure.

We got a HD camcorder on Sat! We have been meaning to get one since Lana was born but have been slackers about it. We decided it was necessary now that Lana is doing more than just laying thier and looking around.


We only had Sacrament Meeting on Sunday becuase of the Gladys Knight thing still going on. I will confess I was a teensy bit excited to have more of a day. ah, I'm so bad. We have church in the middle of the day so, it feels like the whole day is gone.

I told Chelsea I would post the Tomato Soup I made on Friday. It is sooooooo good. It's a great comfort soup. It is very different from your normal tomato soup. I got it off the internet under the title Nordstrom Cafe Tomato Basil Soup. I used to always go to the cafe on my lunch and get thier grilled cheese sandwich with some of that yummy soup. That is one thing I definitely miss about working there.

Nordstrom Cafe Tomato Basil Soup
1/6 cup olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 TBS. dried basil
1 28 oz cans whole Italian style tomatoes in puree
16 oz low sodium chicken broth (6 cups)
1 cup heavy cream
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 TBS thinly sliced basil leaves

In a 6 to 8 quart saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the carrots, onion and dried basil, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the tomatoes, including the puree and the broth, and bring to just a boil. Reduce the hear to low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes to blend the flavors.

Remove from the heat. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade. Return the pureed soup to the saucepan, add the cream and place over medium heat. Warm until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into a warmed soup tureen or individual bowls, garnish with the basil leaves and serve immediately.

I didn't use any fresh basil because I couldn't find any and it was still really good. But, I'm sure it would be better fresh. Make sure you use enough salt. Mine was really bland at first because I'm very timid with salt. (I tend to overdo it accidentally) Dan put some more salt in and all the sudden it was amazing. I feel good about eating this because it has great veggies!