a nervous breakdown, made right
i have only tried to make recipes from magazines twice now. both times, they were variations of a pumpkin cake. craig and i love anything pumpkin. last year i attempted some intricate pumpkin cake with a honey-buttercream frosting. it was honestly the grossest thing i have ever tasted in my life. the taste still haunts me to this day. this year, i took a chance on a chocolate pumpkin cake with cream cheese/cinnamon frosting with a chocolate glaze. i didnt even get to the glaze part. the cake stuck to the pan horribly, and the frosting turned out to be an ugly brown color (was supposed to be orange....) needless to say, this last attempt at pumpkin cuisine drove me nuts. i was crying uncontrollably and even accidentally hit my brother. (i blame this behavior entirely on my present status of being with child) the only redeeming thing about this last recipe was that the cake (the part i could scrape away from the pan) was super yummy. so, this weekend i made the chocolate pumpkin batter again. this time, i decided i would make cupcakes. and i just used my standard buttercream frosting. they turned out great! with the added pumpkin, they are the moistest (sorry shanna) little things ever. yay! my baking ego is restored.

next time i make these, i am going to try difference halloween shapes. probably pumpkins, bats, skulls, and witch faces. have no fear, i will document those too. but i have found my new favorite frosting accoutrement....... paste food coloring.

craig and tucker, enjoying the treats...... only after i had taken enough pictures of the untouched cupcakes.

are you kidding me?
i dont want to hear about it. it is what it is. i love my kitty, and i want to talk about him. i just cannot get enough of louis's face in this picture. or how some part of him (here, it is his paw) must be touching some part of me in order to sleep soundly (not kidding, this is always the case)

mini high school reunion. more like mini high school people-watch.
so last weekend, i went to an auction that raises money for scholarships in Cory O'Brien's name. Cory( pictured above, on the left) was a good friend in high school and the boyfriend of my best friend, Kirsten. tragically, cory died on August 16th, 2004 from acute interstitial pneumonia. each year, family, friends, and people in the community get together for a golf tournament and auction to raise money for a graduating high school student that will attend WSU. i finally went this year, and had a great time.

this is kirsten and her momma. doesnt her mom look so great? there were so many people there that i havent seen in a long time. it was so fun to catch up!

ummm. so i was a wittle over-dressed. i asked kirsten what she was planning on wearing to the thing, and she laughed and said "i never plan that kinda stuff". so i just wore this new dress of mine, figuring i would fit right in at the Country Club. well, lets just put it this way, everyone else had just finished a rigorous game of golf in the 90 degree heat. pretty sure i was the only one in heels and gold lame. (not lame gold but la-may)

so, as alluded to in the title of this blog, there were a lot of people there from high school. let me just say right now, that i have some issues. one of them being, i have a hard time going up to people (even (kinda especially) if i know them) and starting up conversations. i have no idea why, i guess i just dread the always awkward "goodbyes" (like let's say that the conversation has come to its end..... what excuse do you use to walk away?). so i avoid the situations all together. anyway, boring tangent, but it does explain why i said "people watching". because for the most part i just peeked around the ballroom, looking at people i recognized. except for clayton. clayton is an all around good time (as evidenced in the picture above). i have no phobia of awkward conversation with him. however, when he asked me what my husband was doing these days, and i said "oh, he's in UW dental school" clayton said under his breath "figures". what is that all about?

louis, doing his thang
sometimes grandpa gets a kick out of letting louis outside (louis is STRICTLY an indoor kitty, though he might tell you otherwise). so last week, we couldnt find louis anywhere..... finally we found the little rodent under the backyard porch. he had no intentions of leaving his hovel. finally, tucker scared him out of it. fyi, in the foreground are bits of smashed up apple that my dad is growing in our yard (he is growing whole apples, not bits of them). he is SO proud of them apples.

we were all enjoying the byu football game last weekend, when craig decided he wanted a beverage..... he found a surprise on top of the fridge.

post script. i was up in the attic, going through old books, when i came upon a treasure! my mom and me, in our first photo shoot! so of course, i had to stick it on the fridge for all to see.

this is baby's rocking chair. and when i say baby, it might be kinda confusing because who knows if i am talking about the baby in my tummy, or the baby already perched on the chair. either way, it fits. i got this at an antique shop near my work. i still need to find cushions for it, but it was a great steal, and its (what else?) SHABBY CHIC.

craig and whitney play "animal association" at the fair

last week, craig and i enjoyed one of the last days of summer at the monroe fair. we go to fair 75% for the food and 25% for the animals. we love it! the pictures above are from last year (on the left) and this year (right). we went in the same exact crap photo booth and the same exact

nice-old-carnie man helped us. what can i say? we smiths love our classy traditions.

so this year, i felt especailly connected to the fair animals...... this big guy made me feel a little better about my expanding waistband!

craig absolutely LOVED how this dwarf goat was up in the kiddie treehouse. he couldnt get enough.

this pretty much sums up how i have been feeling.

easily, the best movie we have seen in a long time
so when i saw the previews for this movie i was only slightly interested. i think they totally messed up on the advertising with this one. so, we didnt end up seeing it until last weekend. it turned out to be one of the greatest movies ever. it was one of those movies where like halfway through i noticed my mouth was hurting because i had been smiling too much. when we walked out of the theater i thought "they dont make movies like that anymore." my brother (who has seen it twice now) and my dad say that it reminded them of princess bride. and rotten tomatoes said the same thing. i, however, didnt make that connection. i mean, sure it is a fairy tale that kinda pokes fun at itself, and it is definitely irreverent at times, but thats about it as far as comparisons go. it was just a great love story that was quirky and incredibly fun. i loved, loved, loved it. also, to help plead my case, craig loved it too. at one point he was laughing out loud! go see it.

ok, so i couldnt wait one more day to bring up HALLOWEEN.

this past weekend, i made my first "halloween 2007" purchase. i got these amazing light-up tree branches from illuminations. i love them. but that purchase just opened up a whole other can of worms. now, i am in full halloween mode. halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. i just love autumn time in general. but halloween is special to me because it is all about having fun and being creative. the picture above, is of my cubicle at work last year. delivery men didnt really appreciate the fence (it would blow down if you so much as looked at it).

this is my super cute cousin, dani. her and her husband were velma and shaggy from scooby-doo. this picture was taken in the "waiting area" for those who dared to go in the haunted house below. we had so much fun putting together that spook alley, and we are already planning this year's. (we might even have a chainsaw make an appearance....)

holy crap. this makes me miss my brother. those eyes, that hair, that paris-hilton-like pose! loves it. i saw a hat similar to the one i am wearing in a little boutique, and it was $50.00. so i made my own. craig and louis didnt especailly love the black glitter that mysteriously got caked into the carpet as a result of my little craft....

gary (the kid on the right) is a good family friend. craig and him make a fine couple.

every year, my family has a huge donut party. we make the donuts from scratch and serve them with apple cider. it is seriously the greatest tradition ever. last year was our first time combining the donut party with a spook alley. this is my mom and brother in the kitchen, selling their souls to make those donuts rise. (the cold, wet cabin wasnt the best place for yeast.)

we must have done something right last year, because it didnt rain. gotta love seattle.

this was my little gingerbread (really, graham cracker) haunted house. the ghosts are meringue. i brought it to our ward cake walk, and secretly wanted no one to take it so that i could being it back home.

this was my other contribution to the ward halloween party.

louis gets so bored with all his photo shoots. his beauty is effortless. my friend said that this picture could be on the cover of the "cat anthropologie" catalog (if there was such a thing). i dont tell him such things, his head is pretty big already.

louis lobster. this picture gets me every time. i asked him last night if he wanted to be a lobster again this year, and i swear he flipped me off. no respect.

this is louis on his first halloween. he looks so little. can you believe he carved that pumpkin so well? especially with his paw-fur getting in the way? it was a mess.

smith family pumpkins, 2005. i could spot craig's handy work from a mile away..... (the one on the left, for those of you who arent married to the guy) i thought guys stopped making cartoons like that in seventh grade. i guess not.