happy hearts

I love the holiday season. I love that it starts off with Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday but I love the Christmas season. I love the trees, the lights and the music. It just makes my heart happy.

My sweet girl waiting for her Thanksgiving dinner.

 Our Thanksgiving craft. I love how many different ways there are to decorate a styrofoam cone.

 Trotting out to find our Christmas tree....

Our Tree.  ahhh happiness.  I love the magical ambiance a christmas tree brings. I'm so excited for this Christmas season!!!

Another Yum

For the pampered chef party I made a little treat to eat with the food our Chef made us. I picked a recipe that kinda went against my rules. It calls for Oatmeal Cookie Mix. I hate it when recipes call for pre-made things that I could make myself for a lot less-just tell me what I need.  So I spent $2.50 on a stupid cookie mix...doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up.

To me, this dessert was pretty good but it wasn't like melt-in-my-mouth-can't get enough-WOW! But the girls at the party seemed to like it and wanted the receipe. So here it is, thanks to Betty Crocker!

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Cookie Base

1	pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1/2	cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2	cup finely chopped pecans
1/2	cup cold butter or margarine

Filling

2	packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1	cup sugar
1	cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2	tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2	tablespoons whipping cream
2	eggs

Toppings

1/3	cup chocolate topping
1/3	cup caramel topping

	Print these coupons...
	About Concordance™

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix, crushed cookies and pecans. Cut in butter, using pastry blender or fork, until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add remaining filling ingredients; beat until well blended. Pour over warm cookie base. Sprinkle with reserved topping.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is set. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.
4. Before serving, drizzle with chocolate and caramel toppings. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Ideas, I'm feeling crafty

Every Thanksgiving at my parent's house, the girls work on a craft. So I've been searching blogs for some great ideas. Here are a few of my favorites for thanksgiving and a few that I want to do on my own.

I think this idea is so cute by Somewhat Simple and I really want to capture my daughter's profile because I just can't get enough of it. It's just soo adorable.  I'm not sure I'll do the glitter part but I think it'll look great anyway.

Holiday Clips from Somewhat Simple. These will be cute, as she suggests, to be used with a string to make a garland of your Christmas cards you receive.

Acorn Wreath- A friend pointed this one out from MADE. I'm not sure about using acorns for a couple of reasons 1) the acorns around here have tops and the ones she uses do not, and 2) apparently, there are maggot-y type of bugs that live in them that began to come out. yuck.  Others have used lima beans or red beans.  She then spray painted through out the year.

Or a cranberry wreath from Martha Stewart

Crayon Cozy from Creative Crate will be fun to have in a few more months...although I'm not sure I'm ready to give her crayons...maybe another year or so. :)

Peppermint Trees from BHG. Also saw this done with buttons-cute but more expensive and I can't seem to find the link for it.

Personalized Candles from the Idea Room

I better get to work...Christmas is just around the corner. :)
AND if you have any craft ideas let me know or good blogs, I'd love to take a look!

Chef'n it up!

Hey guys! I'm having a pampered chef party tomorrow night (Thursday, November 4) at 7:00. Come if you want some free food you don't even have to buy anything. Just call me if you want to come. If you don't want to come and just want to order some pampered chef products you can do it online. Just enter my name for the host and you can click on the button at the top right to shop online.

In only actually own one pampered chef product so far but I LOVE IT! The baking stone is amazing. I have the rectangle stone and it makes the BEST cookies. It cooks them evenly so there are no burned bottoms. Not to mention it is so easy to clean.

Anyway. thought I'd share.

Sweet little Halloween

Hey! Hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend. Halloween is much more fun with kids, isn't it? I know it will only get better as Bekah gets older.  Here she is trunk or treating.

This year I have developed a few pet peeves about trick or treating. If you're old enough to go trick or treating by yourself then you're too old, in my opinion. However, if you are teenager taking a younger sibling then I'm okay with it. But if you're a group of teenagers, take a hike. I obviously don't have the guts to say no but I think I'll just be handing out a lame tiny piece of candy to them. 

The other pet peeve is that kids are just reaching into the candy bowl and grabbing the candy. And maybe that's just how everyone else does it but I grew up with them handing that candy to you or dropping it in your bag.  I find myself fighting a pessimistic view that kids are growing up greedy and without manners.

ANYWAY, we also went to get a pumpkin at a nearby, free, kinda lame pumpkin patch. But it got the job done, we got a pumpkin and got some cute pictures. Sadly, we never got around to carving it.

Mr. Pumpkin Head...I guess that was Victory's  costume. :)

As promised, that if my family ended up having their Halloween party, I'd share a picture of my costume.

1950's Housewife

 I'm happy to report that I did pretty well in the donut eating contest this year.  I came in second, after my brother. Victory, well, he didn't do so well I think my three year old niece beat him. He claims the contest was rigged. hmmm.  

That was our sweet little Halloween week.