Advice?

Alright, anyone who quilts and wants to give me some advice, now is the time.  I think I know why the edges puckered, but please correct me if I'm wrong.  The lady who I got the tutorial from said that she quilted the top to the batting before she attached the back, but I wanted the quilted look on the back too.  I think that there wasn't anywhere for the fabric to go so it puckered up at the edges.  I know I need to work on getting a more even look too to the edges.  That one end is pretty bad!  But I like it anyways.  I love the colors!  It feels all fallish:)

This was the little girls this morning.  I forget what they were playing, but they were funny.  Please take note of all aspects of Pnut's outfit, including the blue glove on her left hand:)

A Suggestion!

The girls and I had pancakes for supper tonight.  We added pumpkin pie spice to our recipe, and it was very yummy.  I added 1 t but would probably do a little more last time.  The cinnamon came through the strongest.  I can't find the pancake recipe on here, or I would link to it:)

Pumpkin Cookies

After making the dessert last Monday, I still had some pumpkin leftover that we needed to use.  We were going to make oatmeal cookies Friday, but Pnut asked if we could find a recipe for pumpkin cookies instead.  I really like the texture of these, nice and chewy and soft.  This recipe makes about 36.

1/2 lb butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 c pumpkin puree
1 c rolled oats
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c raisins, optional
2 1/2 c flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, and pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, mix together everything else.  Stir into pumpkin mixture.  Drop cookies onto tray.  Bake 12-15 minutes. 

I sprayed my cookie sheet this time because it said to use parchment paper.  They came off nicely without crumbling.  Cookies are one of my favorite things to make with the girls because there is so much to put in and nothing fancy usually has to be done to them! 

November Calender

My sister did something like this two years ago, and I thought I would make one with the girls this year:

I numbered each leaf, and in the morning, we will move the day to the bottom until all of the leaves have fallen off of the tree.  I'm thinking that maybe we will do the opposite in December.  We can make a Christmas tree and then put a new ball on the tree each day with the date on it.  This helps the girls keep track fo the days and hopefully helps with numbers too.  The trick will be keeping the leaves from being pulled off early! 

We had a very productive day yesterday!  I took all of their summer clothes out of their dressers, and we were able to move Pilly's clothes over to Pnut's dresser.  They each have a drawer for their things and share a drawer for pajamas.  Then we put the baby's 0-3 months and 3-6 months clothes away in Pilly's dresser.  There is not much in their!  My MIL is giving us a shower this Saturday so hopefully after that we will have a few things.  If babies didn't poop through their clothes so often, we wouldn't even need that much!  The clothes are so tiny!  The girls were fascinated by them while we put them away.  I also washed the car seat and boppy pillow cover.  We need to set up the pack-n-play in our room, but I don't think we will do that until right before we go to the hospital.  No use tempting anyone to crawl inside.  I also would like to make a nursing cover, but I need to go to JoAnn's to get the fabric to do it.  I'm thankful we still had most of our stuff!

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Cake

4 eggs
1 2/3 c sugar
 1 c oil
16 oz can pumpkin
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 t soda
6-8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 c butter, softened
1 t vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

In mixer bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until light and fluffy.  I don't actually know what that means, mine was just well combined!  Stir together flour, powder, cinnamon, salt, and soda.  Add to pumpkin mix and combine thoroughly.
Spread batter in greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool completely, helps to put in freezer if you need it to happen fast.
Cream together cream cheese and butter.  Stir in vanilla.  Add 10x sugar, a little at a time, beat until smooth.  Spread on cooled cake.

The recipe says that it is supposed to be bars, but I definitely think it is pretty much a cake.  The taste was good and really reminded me of a pumpkin roll without the work of rolling it!  I cut the recipe in half, which was pretty simple, and didn't end up with too many leftovers.  A lovely fall treat!

Hot Chocolate and Blackberry Cheesecake Pots

Red Velvet Hot Chocolate
4 c whole milk
1 dash water
3/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 t red food coloring paste
1 c heavy whipping cream
1 T sugar
1 t cream cheese

Whip cream and sugar for 2-3 minutes.  Just before it peaks, add cream cheese and whisk for 2 minutes.  Taste and add more cream cheese to taste.  Do not overwhip or you will get butter!

In a medium saucepan, heat milk over medium.  Add a splash of water and choc. chips, constantly stirring gently.  When almost melted, add red paste.  When choc chips totally melted, pour into mugs and top with whipped cream.

NOTES:  The cream cheese is a little tricky.  The person who originally posted this recipe said to be careful about it because it can end up tasting really tart if you add too much so I was a little hesitant.  This stuff is so good!  I love real hot chocolate instead of that powdered junk!

Blackberry Cheesecake Pots

1/4 c haevy whipping cream
8 oz cream cheese
1 t vanilla
4 oz blackberries

Whip the cream.  Add cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.  Beat with paddle attachment until smooth.  Add half the blackberries and beat until just crushed. 
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Top with remaining berries.

NOTES:  This only made 3 for me, not 4 like it was supposed to.  And they weren't especially big portions or anything so I'm not sure what the trick is.  I added all of the blackberries but enough to put just 2 or 3 on top of the individual servings so I think mine had a little more blackberry than the author's.  These were really yummy and an easy version of cheesecake!

Princesses and Pumpkins

This weekend, the girls did something I have never done before...they went trick-or-treating.  They had a fun time, and we limited how many houses they wen to so we don't have too much candy.  I'm honestly not thrilled about trick-or-treating.  The origins just aren't good.  But, I think Joel has really good memories of it when he was growing up and wants that for the girls too. 

Pnut did amazingly well with talking to people.  Pilly wasn't quite as into that, and she was very scared of everything that was the least bit spooky.  I don't blame her!

We also finally got to paint their pumpkins this weekend.  We had to get different paint because their finger paint would not have shown up at all. 

Pilly ended up painting the whole way around her pumpkin.  It is quite colorful.  Pnut made one side spotted and put a face on the other side.  They were so funny because they took it so seriously!