The Long Awaited Pumpkin Post!!

I just opened this post to blog about pumpkin of course when I looked over in the playroom to find some little one year old grinning with a very orange grin! I have not the slightest clue where he found an orange piece of chalk but if I had to guess the tongue sticking along with the yucky face looks as if it didn't tastse so good. duhh little man- Mommy could have told you that ;) Why do littles have such the urge to eat ev.ery.thing????

I honestly can't say that I wait all Summer for Fall to indulge in the pumpkin spice flavor of just about everything! When I get that pumpkin kind of feeling I make it ;) Thank goodness for that canned pumpkin goodness! I know that I am posting this cookie recipe in September and it is now acceptable but Stella and I totally made this during the mid heat streak in August!! These are by far one of my FAVORITE pumpkin recipes. They are the softest, pillowiest-i don't think that is even a word- pumpkin cookie...i'm drooling over here just thinking about them. And an added bonus- only one bowl needed! There is no mixing the dry ingredients separate from the wet ingredients. I seriously have soo many pumpkin cookie recipes to try on my Pumpkin Everything board on Pinterest but when I go to make the new recipe I always feel they won't be as good as this recipe and end up making this trustworthy cookie!

Preheat to 350.

Cream 1/2 cup of butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.

Add 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 cup pureed pumpkin-NOT pie filling. Combine until smooth.

Add 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Mix well.

Add in an 8 oz bag of semi sweet chocolate chips- I always do the mini chips :)

Drop by rounded Tbsps onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Just until lightly browned.

Let cool slightly!

STUFF YO FACE!

A few of our other pumpkin MUST TRY recipes for this Fall:

These Pumpkin Pop Tarts

Frozen Pumpkin Soft Serve

Flourless Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Pumpkin Poppers

These Great Pumpkin Cookies

Banana Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

Pretty ambitious, I know! But Lord knows we have all of the eggs to make all of this baking with!!! We have eggs coming out of our ears!! 

We also tried the Pumpkin Spice flavored Cheerios....total WIN! 

Cheers to the official Pumpkin Season!

It's Fri-YAY!

making//  Our dinner menu this week: bourbon marinaded chicken breast on the barbie with corn on the cob and homemade sweet potato fries- totally right up the kids alley!! Anything paired with corn on the cob is... Also, homemade sloppy joes with lots of veggies, taco pizza, and a large pot of spaghetti sauce for the win!  And lots and lots of eggs!!

drinking//  La Criox- lots and lots of La Croix. Two favorite flavors at the moment are Blackberry Cucumber and Cherry Lime.  I have also been loving an afternoon iced coffee more than ever these days! 

reading//

watching// my babies sleep. Such a sleep stalker these days...so sweet to watch.

eating// i will be eating pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!! I guess you can say that I am ready for Fall and everything Pumpkin :) The butter is softening now!! 

smelling//  The Salted Caramel candle that is currently burning. 

enjoying//  moments like these. 

loving// This picture. This moment lasted a good fifteen minutes. They love each other, they really really love each other!!

hoping//  that this little blogging streak that I am on continues. My energy level these days is slim to none! 

needing// a haircut soooo bad!! 

wearing// Totally ordered the kiddies their matching Halloween jammies! We will be wearing those bad boys as soon as they arrive :) Love a pair of new jammies. And for me? Whatever fits these days...jean shorts and lots of loose tanks and tees. 

bookmarking// So many new pumpkin recipes to try. 

and looking forward to//  some birthday planning for my gal who is turning THREE!! We are leaning towards an Under the Sea theme! 

Cheers to Fri-YAY!

Motherhood.

Motherhood. Some days I feel like they will break me, make me feel like the biggest failure and I need a re-do, STAT! Other days are a dream. A slice of Heaven on Earth. This was one of those days. This was one of those moments. A moment I once dreamed about. Laughing, pure joy with my babies right at my feet. My little family full of pure love and happiness. My house filled with that sweet laughter not only coming from the littles, but Rick and I also. These are the kinds of moments I never ever want to forget. This little clip was from last night after we finished eating dinner and I began to clean up the mess. Dinner clean up is so much better with loud music playing in the background. It doesn't take long for these two to get their groove on once the beats start bumpin'. Ricky was trying so hard to dance hands free, smiling so proud of himself as Rick and I couldn't hold back our laughter. Stella was shaking her butt, checking herself out in the oven door window. Rick and I dropped everything and savored this sweet moment. We watched and laughed. These are the moments that I live for. These are the kinds of moments that I have dreamed about. This is our reality. This is our slice of Heaven on Earth.

Our Weekend Getaway

The kids loved the beach! Our quick weekend getaway consisted of a few firsts for our little ones. First time bare foot walking in the sand, first time seeing and feeling the ocean, first time collecting seashells, first time walking the boardwalk, first time not only sleeping away from home but sleeping at the beach house, first time making legit sand castles, first time chasing seagulls, and first and hopefully last time licking the sand shovel like an ice cream cone. 

I am going to just throw this out there: I probably couldn't do an entire week at the beach with two little ones. Unless it was all the beer and wine included. I mean first off, you might as well just rent a Uhaul for all the shit you need just to walk down to the beach and set up for the day a few hours. And apparently in some sort of crazy way a sand shovel must resemble an ice cream cone because Ricky just couldn't get enough. I mean tongue out ice cream cone lick after lick. Not sure how many times I wiped sand off of his little face. The kid will be chewing and crapping out sand for weeks! And even when you are packing up to head home, it feels like you are bringing an entire beach full of sand home with you. But, even when you are home and settled there is that part of you that misses the sound of the ocean waves crashing, that evening sunset and that relaxing feeling of just sitting on the patio watching the million ice cream trucks drive by. By relaxing I mean short sits at a time- like a minute tops- between chasing after two little ones. :)

I was so excited that the kiddies finally got to experience the Wildwood vacay that I used to experience every single year when I was young. I have so many great memories of our family heading down to the shore for the week at the end of each Summer. 

Ricky's First Birthday: Project Complete

Okay for the record this is what happens when I try to blog while the two crazies are up...

and the best part was him yelling "no no!" at me while I was vacuuming them up, all while trying to race the vacuum and shove as many as he could in his mouth before they were sucked up with the hose. 

Now onto Ricky's birthday party....

I was so happy with the way the construction theme turned out. After looking on pinterest for so many nights and collecting lots of good ideas, everything came together! His invitations I found on Etsy and I fell in love with them. The simplicity was my favorite part. 

I always get so lost in the party and then kick myself in the ass later for not taking pictures of everything or enough pictures of the party in general. I did make sure to get a picture of the cake...because it was made by yours truly :) Totally made a three layer chocolate cake with fudge icing and the dirt was just Oreo's ground up in the food processor.... We did get a few vanilla cupcakes with the food that we ordered just in case any of the crew weren't feeling the chocolate. 

The table was set with a black table cloth and caution tape along with a crew hardhat at each place setting. I also served the construction themed snacks out of either dump trucks or hard hats. The little cones on the table were actually kids drinking cups with straws. They were the cutest and we placed a bunch at the 'Crew Punch' station. 

A few of our construction themed snacks were 'LOGS' pretzel sticks, 'LUMBER' vanilla wafer cookies, 'CREW CRUNCHIES' doritos, 'PEBBLES' reeses pieces, 'WRECKING BALLS' baked cheese puff balls, 'WET PAINT' which were were rice krispie treats dipped in yellow chocolate. 

Our Thank You's were yellow sand shovels with a scoop of pebbles reeses pieces. We labeled them with a sticker that said 'I Dig You'. 

For our food table which I failed to take a picture of consisted of a couple large assorted hoagie platters that were labeled PREBUILT SANDWICHES. We served them with a nice garden salad, potato salad, macaroni salad and some good old fried chicken. Our black utensils were individually wrapped in a yellow napkin each accompanied with a small label that said DIG IN! I had all the wrapped utensils sitting in Ricky's orange Home Depot tool box since they were our tools for the day! Stella was such a big help! While Ricky napped one afternoon she sat with me and helped me wrap the utensils. 

I also did a quick chalkboard all about Ricky and his milestones at one year old. So crazy but as I was cleaning the basement for Ricky's party I actually erased the chalkboard that I had made for Stella's first birthday. 

And for the smash cake we decided to go the vanilla cupcake route. Ricky didn't mind and ate it like a pro! 

All in all the party theme was so cute and so much fun! I still cannot believe my little man is one year old! 

Another Year Married

This guy is like coming home. And coming up for air. Looking across the room in the middle of our crazy, I know I would choose him everyday, all day and twice on Saturdays. Here is to another year married! 

Going on fifteen years together. Married four years. Created this beautiful little family. We are creating memories everyday in our little piece of this world- we like to call it our sanctuary. 

So happy that I get to do life with you. 

Ricky Turns One.

Our sweet little Ricky. One year ago yesterday you came into our lives when we needed you the most. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect little boy. I can't believe that your first year of life has gone by this quickly. It has been the fastest yet best year of our lives so far! You seriously rock our worlds on the daily. You are funny, determined, sweet, and the biggest Momma's boy!! and i love it :) You love to clean toys up by putting them into bins and buckets, live for crawling laps around the house and pulling yourself up on anything and everything and your love for the dog bowls run deep. But, our love for you Ricky runs much deeper. We are so thankful for you each and everyday. Your smiles seriously light up a room- and those soft dimples- a serious obsession of mine. You are slowly growing into your baby rolls...oh please make them stay! and we just can't get enough of your wet open mouth kisses. You are learning things so fast now and want so bad to keep up with Stella. I am so excited to see you become a big brother to the little babe growing in my tummy. We love you so so much. Ricky, you will always and forever be my little miracle baby. 

Love,

Momma

and for the record....you demolished that cupcake- the whole damn thing. You ate it like a pro- one handed and all! 

(a full 12 month update coming next week following his 12 month doctor appointment)