Candy Corn Hot Chocolate

While we were in Los Angeles last weekend, my mother and sister in law and I made some Candy Corn Hot Chocolate on a stick using this recipe. We bagged and tagged them up, and took them to our neighbors and church friends. They're easy to make, and even easier to eat- you just add hot milk!  This gives such a different and yummy flavor, because it's white hot chocolate. SO YUMMY! 

I can't wait to use this idea for Christmas and make Peppermint Hot Chocolate on a stick.

On Your Home Based Mom, she has these tags that you can just print out ready to go. I don't think these have to be just for Halloween, I think you can still make these until mid November! So, get goin. ;)

Halloween Lift

Two years ago, we went on our first date married with the now McGrath's. We attended the Halloween Lift Ride up at Sundance, and we had a blast listening to the new T Swift album, and snacking on Pumpkin Bars. This year, in honor of Taylor, we decided to do the exact same thing. They've sure amped it up this year, it was so fun! When you first walk to the Ski lift, there's corn hole, and some pumpkin bowling, so of course the boys had to participate!

We reenacted our photo from those two years ago, except this year, that scarecrow was fake. We punched him to make sure, because last time I was sitting on a mans lap and had no idea!!

If you're looking for a fun fall activity, take the Sundance lift! The Halloween edition will be over soon, but it's such a fun evening out all bundled up.

We had a good time with our friends, reminiscing on the olden days! But, we think these days are even better!

The Best Pumpkin Bars You Will Ever Taste

Today calls for another fall recipe: Pumpkin Bars. These are the absolute bombest. And, don't forget about that amazing, addictive cream cheese frosting! MMM!

Pumpkin Bars

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 eggs

1 and 2/3 cups sugar

1 cup oil (I use coconut)

1 can (15oz) pumpkin 

Frosting:

1 8oz. package of cream cheese 

1/3 cup softened butter

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 Tbsp milk

sprinkled ground cinnamon

Directions:

In your mixer, combine eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. 

Add the dry ingredients, gradually. Mix well.

Spread batter in a greased 15x10x1 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Once your bars are cooled, cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.  Mix on high speed until smooth creamy. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on frosting, or leave bare. I think they look cuter with cinnamon! 

 

Dish up those suckers, and make sure you have people to share them with, or I promise you will eat the whole pan!

Utah's Fall

The past couple months I have really been enjoying this beautiful Utah fall. The colors are so rich, and the weather has been amazing. Mark my words, this has been the best one yet.

When I moved to Provo after I graduated, I wasn't a big fan of Utah. Even when I got married, Tanner and I weren't fans either! It's only been this last year that we've really fallen in love with Utah. Coming from Az, where all it has is beautiful desert sunsets, and great December weather, I never even knew what "fall" was. It makes me extra grateful for the time I've had to enjoy this fall. I know it sounds crazy, but it feels like such a great "send off" to wherever we may live for Dental School. Who knows, we could stay in Utah, but I'm so grateful it's been so beautiful, and that I've really gotten to enjoy Utah, just in case we sadly get to leave it.

The past 2 weekends I have been home alone while Tanner has been traveling for interviews. I've gone on some beautiful nature walks and runs (one time at the Provo river by myself at dusk-never doing that again), and I LOVE taking pictures of the colors!! I'm seriously obsessed. 

When Tanner saw this picture, he asked if I had made those circles myself haha. It does look kind of fake!

Saturday I decided to drag a friend along this time, and luckily, both husbands were out of town, so we literally spent all day together. It was one of the funnest Saturdays-we both said that!

We hiked the Y, made a Costco run, ate an early lunch at Kneaders, I visited her at work, and then crazy enough, the boys were on the same flight home! So we stopped at City Creek, grocery shopped at Harmon's, then finally got to see our men. It was such a good day!

I'm thankful for the time Tanner and I have been able to have apart-crazy I know-but it's made our relationship stronger, and there's no better feeling than when you get to see your loved one after missing them! I'm also very grateful those last 2 weekend are over, because these next 2 weekends, I get to be his travel buddy! Eek! I've been waiting for this week for too long! 

I've been wanting to make some cookies & cream cookies for a while now, and I thought what better time than for my husband's intramural football game! I then had the great idea to use orange halloween Oreos to have some orange chunks as well. Sadly, the orange mixed in, and they ended up looking pretty pink, but the color didn't matter, they were so yummy! 

Grab your ingredients & preheat your oven to 350:

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 package Cookies n'Creme pudding mix

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

10 Oreos, chopped

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

I got home pretty late, and needed to start making the cookies quick! I'm sure I'm not the only person this has happened to... so, open up the wrappers, and cut into chunks-they'll get soft in no time!

Cream together butter and sugars.

Stir in the pudding mix.

Add eggs and vanilla to cream mixture.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt into mixture.

Crunch up some Oreos (10-14) and add, along with the white chocolate chips.

Look at the pretty colors! I'm so sad it got so mixed in.

Bake for 7-9 minutes.

Happy weekend baking!

Fall Craft: Painted Punkins

I don't really love Halloween, but I sure as heck love fall. And, I love pumpkins. That's basically all I decorate with, and I love it! I decided I wanted to do a craft for our porch that I could keep forever, and take wherever we live next fall (eek!). All of our supplies were purchased at Joann's, and I used Martha Stewart brand paint. The big pumpkin is actually an artificial carvable pumpkin (50% off!)...((did you know they made those?)), and the two smaller pumpkins were paper mache, and those were 60% off. Don't forget to download their app for their coupons-I was able to get 50% off of paint! Small price, but it adds up! 

The only difficult part of this craft were the grooves on the pumpkins. They're groooovy little suckers, and my chevron pumpkin was supposed to have more stripes, but it was so hard to have those lines straight. I was bummed at first, but now I'm super happy with the result! I ended up hot glueing the pumpkins to each other so that they won't blow away, and now they're super sturdy. I loved having the black, white, and gold color scheme, because I feel like I can keep them past Halloween as well? But, I also thought a bright orange, purple, silver, even with some hot pink would be so cute.

This was a pretty easy weekend craft, and I'm happy with how they turned out! And, the best part is Tanner helped me pick out the supplies, and helped paint! It was super fun to do it together. 

Make sure you keep the tape on until the paint on is completely dry!

These paper mache pumpkins would be even cute plain like this!

We decided to keep this one white and just throw a bow on it. Of course we had to have all of the stems be gold though! :)

The final result: I love them!

Happy fall! 

Our Conference Weekend

This past weekend we were able to have Tanners little brother, my oldest sister and her family, my parents, and our friend, Marissa in town. It was the weekend for the 184th LDS General Conference in SLC, and they came up for that. We ate way too good, went to the sad, sad football game, and enjoyed our company. We love when we have visitors!!

My sisters' family got to Provo Thursday evening, and after a stop at Sodalicious and my house, they met me up at City Creek and waited for Tanners class to be over so we could grab a bite to eat.

The girls loved the outdoor mall, and the fact that their favorite aunt let them throw pennies in the creek! :)

The next morning, I had a sales rally at work, and it was superhero themed. I came as Captain America, and if you look closely, you might be creeped out by my mask.

That evening we went to Station 22 on Center Street with Tanners family, and it was so much fun. The city of Provo is so great at having free activities for us poor college kids. For the last couple months, they've had a rooftop concert every first Friday of the month. This last concert was really big, so what did they do? They closed Center Street and made it a full blown party. Although we didn't get to stay for the concert, the atmosphere was so fun!

We had to wait for a couple minutes for a table, and I loved enjoying the cool fall air, the leaves falling, and looking at the new temple being built!

We then headed to the game, and weren't prepared for the embarrassing loss that was about to happen... maybe next time. At least we walked away with some free shirts and sunnies! :)

LOL at the photo bomber.

This picture isn't that bad, but taken from this angle the other pictures made us all have midget legs, it was so funny! We aren't very midgety..

Saturday morning we woke up early and drove to SLC for the morning session of General Conference with my family. My mom watched little Laney girl so that the oldest two could go to the conference center with their parents! She had a big pink box full of cinnamon rolls on her lap, and she was the best little sharer with her sweet-toothed aunt.

car ride selfies

After having my best friend serving a mission at the Visitors Center for the last 18 months, I usually know where to spot her during conference. We had no such luck that morning, and I was SO bummed. I was hopeful she was sitting in the conference center as well (since her mission is almost done, and it would be her last time) but I wasn't quite sure. Thank goodness I literally ran into her walking out. It was meant to be! She goes home October 29th, and I can't wait for her to get back to Utah come January! We've been in the same state, but obviously it's been so different, and I can't wait to party again.

she's so pretty, and i love her.

Sunday morning we went to another session of conference with my parents, and then we packed up and took them to the airport. It was a great weekend with them, and I'm glad we got to see everyone again for another weekend, because we won't see my family until Christmas! 

We got back to Provo in time to watch the next session of conference, and then we had an outdoor dinner for our birthday girl, Marissa! 

i'm such a rockstar

Sunday night she got to bunk up at our house, and it was just like old times! 

We wish you would come live in UT, Riss! 

I feel so blessed and spiritually uplifted after this weekend. If you didn't catch conference, or would like to watch, I'd invite you to please go here. I promise you will feel enlightened!  

I'd love to hear what your favorite talk was!