Pumpkin Muffin Bites

I was looking for a fall muffin recipe

earlier this week on pinterest and I

guess I can't get pumpkin off my brain!

I chose this pin:

{mini pumpkin bites}

 

This is very similar to my Pumpkin Bar Recipe

with only a couple of changes. 

 

 

 

Little Sis is starting to be such a big helper in the kitchen! 

I love it :)

{combine sugar and oil, beat on medium speed}

{add eggs one at a time followed by the pumpkin puree. 

Mix together then add the dry ingredients}

 



{find really cute Fall or Halloween

liners and fill them up about 3/4 of the way}

{Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes}

 

{Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting}

 

This recipe made a ton of mini muffins so I brought some to BSF, some to our neighbors and a full gallon size ziploc baggie into the freezer for another day.

 

Happy Mini Muffin Baking

 

Pumpkin Muffin Bites
Ingredients:2 cups sugar
1 cup oil (or 1 cup applesauce)
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flourDirections:Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray mini-muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and oil on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time and add pumpkin until well combined.
With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients and blend for 1 minute. Fill each muffin cup with 2 tsp of batter. Bake for 10-12 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in pumpkin bite comes out clean. Cool bites in pan for 8 minutes, turn onto wire rack to cool completely. Frost with cream cheese frosting.Cream Cheese Frosting:4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar to butter mix and pour in milk to create desired consistency. Add in vanilla and beat frosting at medium speed until light and fluffy. Spread or pipe onto pumpkin muffins.

 

DIY Chalkboard Canisters

I'm a big fan of all the chalkboard canister

sets that are for sale everywhere lately, but

not a big fan of the high prices!

I found these three canisters at my local Home Goods. 

The two large ones were $4 each and the small one was $3. 

Total Cost=$11

I went to Staples and bought a package of Martha Stewart's

Home and office chalkboard labels, I had been looking for a reason to buy some :)

Pack of 6=$5.99

When I got home I realized that I should have measured the canisters before buying the labels but, I improvised because I really loved these cute labels!

Put the label on and make a crease where you need to trim off the excess. 

This is how they turned out, they are so cute on my counters!

 No more ugly plastic containers sitting in my pantry. 

Total project:

$17.00

A lot less than a set in the big fancy stores ;)

Free Books for Military Kids

 

This  weekend our family went to the area's

first event hosted by Florida Blue Star Families program. 

 

Wondering what Blue Star Families is all about? 

 

"Blue Star Families is run by military families and for military families. At our core, we are a member-driven group with representatives located at or near 70 bases around the world. To help support this amazing community, we have a dynamic National Leadership team made of spouses and other family members of active duty, national guardsmen, reservists and veterans serving in all branches of our military all around the country.  Our BSF chapters and chapter directors are the heart of our organization. They get together for friendship and support, but they also connect to help fellow military families and/or the larger community AND to get cool stuff for their units or bases with the help of our national BSF programs and partnerships."

According to the website "Books on Bases is a program created by Blue Star Families in conjunction with Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) to positively impact the lives of military children through the power of reading. With the generosity of partners such as K.I.D.S. and BAE Systems, Blue Star Families donates books to military children, base libraries, Department of Defense schools, and military-impacted public schools."

 

 

 

 

 

 

{this was the book for 2 and under, Little Sis was at

home napping so we picked one up for her and she LOVES it!}

 

Not only were they giving away FREE books, they were GREAT quality books!

 

They also donated a great basket filled with books to the local

library that the event was held at!

 

Here are a couple of the local Coast Guard

spouses who happily served our military community! 

{Little Sis making a Thank You letter

for the "Operation Appreciation" Mailbox}

 

 

 

{Big Sis and her picture}

 

 

Blue Star Families has several other programs that include:

 

Blue Star Museums-free admission to museums

Operation Appreciation-writing thank you letters to military and their families

Mil-Kidz Club:for all military children to enjoy free and fun activities

 

What an awesome way to lift up our military families and come together to show support!  We were really blessed to have received these beautiful books, our girls haven't wanted to put them down since this weekend. 

 

Thank you to Blue Star Families and the local

women who helped make this event possible!

 

 

Blue Star Families plans to distribute 10,000 books to military children over the next year. If you'd like to bring Books on Bases to your military community, email books@bluestarfam.org.

 

 

 

 

 

BSF {Bible Study Fellowship}

While we were in flight school a friend told me about a great bible study available in the area.  I took Little Sis with me to the information meeting, who was still an infant at the time, and found out that they didn't have room for her in their program.  It sounded like a great study but it just wasn't going to work out at the time. 

 

The program was BSF {Bible Study Fellowship}

BSF is an international bible study that is located in 38 different nations and has over 200,000 class members.  There are over 800 classes in the United States so there may be one wherever we move to next! They all study the same book or section in the bible at the same time, so if we move during the year I can probably pick right up where I left off.  

{That is definitely a great thing for us moving military families!}

 

This year is the study on the book of Genesis.  How appropriate is it that I'm starting my first ever in-depth bible study on the "beginning" of it all?! 

 

They offer classes during the day and evenings.  Little Sis and I are going to the day classes where they offer a preschool program for infants up to age six.  They will be learning Bible truths through Bible stories, verses and hymns: play time, snack time, quiet time and activities to go along with each lesson. 

 

I am so excited that Little Sis is going to be learning all these things at a young age, she is at a very impressionable age to teach her all about Jesus and how he loves her!  Speaking of which, I have to tell you that when we left BSF the other day she was sitting in her carseat and started to sing "Yes Jesus loves ME!" and then she said "Mommy, Jesus loves you too!".  That had to be one of the sweetest things ever!!

She sang herself to sleep yesterday at nap time with her new "bible" song, as she calls it :)

 

 

Here are a few pictures from our first BSF class

{all ready to go!  carrying Mommy's bible}

{We start out in the sanctuary where we sing a couple of hymns and have announcements.  Then we move into our small group to discuss last weeks notes from our study time at home and some fellowship.  That is followed by a message about next weeks study.}

{We decided to hit up one of our favorites for lunch}

A special thank you to my new sweet friend from church for inviting me to BSF.  I had completely forgotten about it since the first time I had been introduced to it!  I'm so excited to learn more and have a closer relationship with my Lord!

Fluffy Freezer Pancakes

When I make breakfast on a Saturday morning I like to make extra for the freezer so the girls have some homemade yumminess to choose from during the week.  They are not big fans of cereal. 

,

I used to buy the box of pancake mix, but my Mom started telling me how easy it was to make them from scratch and she is right! 

Yes Mom, I admitted you are right! LOL!!

 

I would love to share the recipe that we follow out of one of my favorite cookbooks, "The Taste of Home Cookbook".

 

Fluffy Pancakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar (I use either white or brown sometimes)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

{I triple the recipe and stick the leftovers, after they cool off, into a big ziploc baggie}

In a small bowl add the dry ingredients, and in a large bowl mix the wet. 

Stir the wet into the dry just until moistened. 

 

Let your little helper stir, but be sure to not over stir the batter. 

I pour the batter onto the griddle with a 1/4 measuring cup so they are all the same size. 

Cook until slightly browned. 

Serve with a side of fresh strawberries or some

 bacon, because Daddy loves to have meat with his!

 

I'm linking up here:

 

 

 

 

Make time to date!

My husband and I have been married for nine years but have known each other since we were fifteen!  We've known each other for more than half of our lives.  We had a lot of fun dating in high school, we loved doing anything as long as we were together.  Isn't that how young love goes?

We were so in love, we even had

pictures made together in high school.

Junior Prom

Fast Forward to 2012, we are more than double the age we were in the previous pictures, have three daughters, made a major career change and moved five times in the past four years!  We've been through a lot of ups, downs and trials but God has brought us through each and every one of them and continues to bless our family. 

{celebrating our ninth anniversary}

 

We went on our first family vacation this summer since going through flight school for the past two years.  We were staying with family so thankfully we were able to enjoy a couple of dates while we were there!  Here we are taking a walk on the beach that we would four wheel drive on during our high school years. 

We enjoyed an afternoon taking a horse carriage tour and snacking on some yumminess from a local cupcake store!

With my husbands work schedule being pretty demanding in this season of life we haven't gone on many dates lately.  This is something that we really need to make room for in our busy lives.  We don't have any family nearby, so we don't have the luxury of having built in babysitters, but we have found a babysitter from our church.   We get his work schedule usually a month in advance so I'm going to make it a priority to look at the calendar and get more dates scheduled! 

Our last date I kept our restaurant a surprise, I picked out a local buffalo wing restaurant, because we both love wings.  Early in the week I texted him a choice of activites we could go do after dinner. {Movie, bowling or ice skating}  We both grew up ice skating so he chose that and we had so much fun.  We were definitely one of the youngest couples in there but it was so fun to skate around holding my loves hand to keep me warm.  I am not kidding when I say that I felt 15 all over again! 

We all need to go out and do things that we use to enjoy during our dating years, sure its fun to go to a nice restaurant with a great view but I will take a fun date over that anytime! Who says you even have to leave the house to have a date night! 

We get busy with our family and work and forget to make our marriage a priority. I would love to plan for a date night for each month and look forward to having some more fun times to share with my husband.

If you need some help coming up with some fun dates, I've found some really great date ideas on pinterest.

Check out my pinterest board

titled "For my Love", by clicking on my button below.

Check out one of my favorite

blogs here for some fun date ideas!

I also have found some

really creative date night ideas here:

I'm linking up today here:

Burlap Fall Wreath

The first official day of Fall is next Saturday, September 22nd. 

I made my first wreath this spring after seeing so many great ideas on pinterest.  Today I took apart our spring wreath and transformed it for fall. 

This was my inspiration. 

I wanted to re-use my already burlap wrapped

wreath to save as much money as possible. 

{source}

I spent less than $5 at A.C. Moore and bought

some fall colored felt and decorations.

To make the flowers you cut a square piece of felt into a squigly strip and hot glue it together.  You can check out her blog above for a more detailed tutorial. 

I think this is a good start to some fall decor. 

How do you decorate for fall?