The Pumpkin Patch

We went on a little adventure with Uncle Jordan and Taylor to find Marlowe's first pumpkin while they were in town to visit. The weather was not very cooperative for most of the weekend, so when the sun finally came out on Sunday we headed to the pumpkin patch. As you can see from the photos below, Miss M was in the middle of a nap when we arrived. She was a bit perplexed to wake up to a field of bright orange pumpkins and the bright sun in her eyes. Overall though it was a lovely way to spend some time enjoying the fall weather. It was also nice to take out my "real camera" and take some photographs. It was a bit of a challenge with the direct sunlight (as you can see by our extreme squinting at times, haha)

Well the babe has awoken from her nap. 

-B

Happy Late Birthday Dear Husband

I was still slacking on the blogging when this handsome guy's birthday rolled around a few weeks ago. So I thought I would share this wonderful cliche of a kissing photo here in honor of the big two-five milestone. I can't wait to spend the next three quarters of a century together. I also can't wait to witness you being an amazing father to our baby girl. We are going to be two spoiled ladies, her and I.



And to prove that I only forgot to blog about his birthday, and not the actual celebrating part.... I share with you my mom's instagram photo of our third dinner out that week for his birthday.

I love you Benjamin.

Transition to Winter

This past weekend was spent at my family's cabin. It was time to take the dock out for the season. We pushed it back as far as we could this year, and as you will see below...we missed the snow by only one day. It seemed a fitting transition, to wake up the next morning to a snow covered world. There are few better places to be than at the cabin when it returns to winter. Days are filled with hot coffee, afternoon naps, boardgames, fresh apple doughnuts, and never getting out of your sweatpants. I am grateful for days like that. 

On a side note, one of the things I have missed most about blogging is the photography. It became normal for me to leave my camera at home these past few months. I'm not entirely sure why this became my habit. Laziness perhaps.... or too much time spent on the computer without adding in uploading photos. Well no matter the cause, I am happy to once again lug my camera around on a daily basis. 

Saturday Morning (Dock Out Day)

morning frost

pumpkin spice latte (made with my sister)

Sunday Morning (snow!)

Trumpeter swans flying off 

Luckily I packed my boots for the weekend

my husband on our winter walk (sometimes we like to walk next to each other, ha)

Thanks for stopping by...

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

These cookies are a perfect addition to coffee. I like normal molasses cookies just fine, but when you add the slight pumpkin flavor to them something wonderful happens. The pumpkin is not overpowering at all, for those that claim to dislike pumpkin it may be hard to even pick up on it without knowing. What I like best about adding the pumpkin is that it makes for very moist and fluffy cookies. Perfect for breakfast, after dinner, before bed...etc.

makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 Tbs butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Directions
1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and pepper.
2. In your mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Next, add the brown sugar, molasses, and pumpkin puree and beat for about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear. If flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, mix the last of the dry ingredients by hand to avoid over beating. You will have a very soft dough.
3. Take your dough and divide it into two pieces and place each piece in plastic wrap. Now place these in the fridge for about an hour, or the freezer for 30 minutes. This will allow the dough to be much easier to handle.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or use a silicone baking sheet.
5. Put the sugar in a small bowl. Working with one packet of dough at a time, divide it into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. Don't work with the dough too much to get it into balls because it will only get harder to roll. Make a quick ball and roll it in sugar.Roll the balls in the sugar and use a the bottom of a glass to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. 

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12-14 minutes, or until the top feels set to the touch. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

This recipe was found at My Baking Addiction.

Felt Flower Wreath

Look what I made...

Remember the felt I mentioned earlier...? 

Well here is the result:

I was originally inspired to make this from pinterest....and then my sister made one. All of this spurred me to create one of my own (and it helps me rationalize my addiction to pinterest). Oh and if you notice the strands of hot glue on my wreath...ignore them. I was too eager to photograph my project and didn't notice them until now. This entire project was very easy and probably only took an hour max. I included the link to create the flowers below. I simply hot glued everything on the wreath to finish it off. Simple enough.

The original idea for how to create the felt flowers can be found by clicking here.

I am off to the cabin to spend the weekend with my family. It is also the official "dock/boat lift out party"...fun fun ;)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Home from Camping

It was a little hard to come back to reality after this weekend. We left Friday afternoon for Crow Wing State Park after shoving our hatchback with a cooler,tent,sleeping bags, and other random camping gear. What made this packing a little more interesting is that my bike also had to fit. We made it work, well Ben made it work...but off we went with a bike tire poking up between our heads in the front seats. After working up a sweat with our creative packing I convinced Ben we should probably stop at our local Starbucks to get a cool refreshment. One iced passion tea later and I was a happy traveler.

We only had to drive around 2.5 hours to get to our destination, and during this time we heard a few radio weather reports of the low being 32 degrees that night. This report seemed much more likely when we stepped out of our car to make a camping reservation and discovered we were no longer warm enough in only our t-shirts. 

The chill setting in was a great motivator in setting up our two tents. We gave the boys the smaller tent, and then claimed the larger tent for us three girls.... conveniently this was the only one big enough for an air mattress. Funny how that worked out. After the tents were set up, starting a fire became our next priority. My friend Bekah is an expert fire starter just in case you were wondering. 

Around 11pm or so we realized that the fire was no longer enough to keep us warm so we headed to our tents and sleeping bags. I think I slept in about 3 layers of clothing and a sleeping bag with another blanket on top. It took awhile to warm up but eventually the conversations dwindled and we fell asleep. Basically we left room to breathe, but other than that we were buried head to toe in blankets. 

The next morning the boys woke up around seven and had coffee ready for us by the time we crawled out of our sleeping bags. I guess it is hard to sleep in when you wake up on the cold ground....who would have guessed?

In the picture above you will see everyone smiling as Ellie pours our coffee. It looks incredibly cheesy, but I swear we truly were that happy for our hot cup of coffee. It ended up being a gorgeous day, filled with hiking for the girls and mountain biking for the guys. Thankfully the next night was a good ten degrees warmer. I love Fall camping. Okay enough words-here are more photos.

...

Do you want to know something rather interesting...?

Here I am loving Autumn and tomorrow it is supposed to hit 90 degrees. 

One last chance for shorts perhaps.