Diet of Worms and Pumpkin Pie Crunch

Maddie and I have had some fun cooking together for our CSUN Reformation party tonight. Here are some of the fallish recipes we've made...

Diet of Worms

Since we celebrate the Reformation during this time of year, I thought it would be fun to make a Diet of Worms dessert. It's pretty simple! We made 2 boxes of chocolate pudding.

Then ate a couple Oreos.

Next, we took off the Oreo icing and crushed up the Oreos into fine cookie crumbs.

After that we mixed up some fresh whipping cream.

Then we layered the pudding, whipping cream, and cookie crumbs. The cookie crumbs on top look like dirt, and then we just decorated the top with gummy worms. Maddie had a blast making this one!

Next, we made a more adult-friendly dessert...Pumpkin Pie Crunch

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 pan.

*Combine 16 oz. pumpkin, 12 oz. evaporated milk, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 c. sugar, 4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, and 1 tsp. salt.

*Pour into prepared pan.

*Sprinkle with one package of golden cake mix evenly over the top of the pumpkin mixture.

*Top with 1 c. chopped pecans.

*Drizzle top with 1 c. melted butter.

*Bake for 50-55 mins or until golden brown.

*Cool completely and serve with whipped topping.

*Refrigerate leftovers.

Enjoy!!

Reformation party pictures will be coming soon...keep your eyes out for a really cute ladybug :)

A Couple Fun Outings...

We had a great morning at the Grove with Drew and Sarah on Saturday! Maddie just loves being with them. When we left, she asked for "more Drew and Sarah" almost the whole ride home!

I just think Pottery Barn Kids has the cutest (overpriced) stuff! Can you believe this?! So stinking cute.

Today Mimi, Maddie, and I went to Underwood Farms for a little outing. We had so much fun climbing on trains, and....

climbing the hay tower, and

driving the tractor, and

(I think Maddie would like working on a farm)

riding a horse (can't get enough of these), and then Maddie was...

my sleepy little pumpkin!

Silly faces!

Here's the big pumpkin we picked out to carve with Daddy.

Pumpkin Patch

Jesse, Maddie, and I headed up to Lombardi's Ranch last Saturday for a quick trip before dinner at the Smith's house. There were so many pumpkins to choose from!

Maddie had to climb the big pumpkin. She also climbed the hay tower (I think you can see it in the background).

Then she rode Larry. This was definitely the highlight! Madison LOVES horses.

She loved petting his "soft hair".

That night Joshua and Madison had a ton of fun horsing around after dinner!

Here's the pumpkin Maddie picked out! She was so excited to get 2 other ones for Josh and Gracie.

Funny Things Maddie Says...

Maddie has been saying such cute things lately, and I just don't want to forget them! Here are some of them...

*A few days after reading Madison the story of Goliath, we were doing laundry in the apartment laundry room when a tall tattooed guy with a mo hawk walked in to do his laundry. Maddie loudly said, "Mommy, it's Goliath!" (She repeated this over and over :). The guy just laughed...not sure if he was familiar with the Bible story of Goliath. Hmmm....

*When she wants to do something on her own (which is just about everything), she says, "I obey Mommy". I love it that she knows that she needs to obey me, but she's just using it to get her way!

*Every once and a while she just starts counting to 10 or singing "Jesus Loves Me" or the "ABC's". I love hearing her sweet little voice!

*When we were outside splashing in puddles the other day, she asked the puddle, "Do you want tea or hot chocolate?" (since it was cold). Then she wanted to give the puddle a hug goodnight when it was time to go in.

*She loves her little Story Bible, and looks at it all the time. She often asks for, "the happy daddy story" (She's referring to the story of the prodigal son. The book shows a picture of the dad running to meet and forgive his son). By the way, In my emotional pregnancy state, this made me tear up....hee hee!

"Big Girl Bed"

We have finally moved Maddie to a toddler bed, or as she calls it, "my big girl bed". She absolutely loves it! We found the cutest bedding at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and the toddler bed was a great deal found on Craigslist. We also recently bought the shelving organizer from Target. Now that we are getting ready for baby #2, we've had to be creative in making room for our soon to be new little blessing. Madison's changing table is now in our room, and that's where the little infant pack n play will go as well.

Here she is waking up from nap time! When she wakes up she calls for me, and waits in bed- she hasn't wondered out of her room yet (its only been 4 days though)!

Loving on dog.

This is how I found her when I checked on her the other night! So funny. Jesse moved her back the right way. Then last night Jesse and I heard a thump around 2am, and then some crying. She had fallen out of the bed- good thing it's close to the ground! She went right back to sleep after we put her back in bed. I guess she's a wiggle worm when she sleeps!

Joshy and Gracie!

Here's the three munchkins...Maddie, Gracie, and Joshua. Madison loves playing with the Smith kids...and I love talking with Janet. So, it works out well for everyone :)

The kids had so much fun running around on the tracks at Griffith Park.

We had a private ride on the train.

The conductor asked us where we wanted to go, and Josh said, "To the rain forest!"

It began to rain pretty good, so we came back to our house for a picnic lunch. Joshua shared his cotton candy with Madison. Janet and I enjoyed talking over a huge cup of hot chocolate!

For better pictures look at Janet's here!

Santa Barbara Vacation!!!

We just had the most wonderful time away as a family! This summer was so busy, that we never had a little get away just the three of us, so we thought we'd take our last chance at it before we become a family of four :)

Day 1...

We drove up to Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon. On our way, we stopped for dinner. As you can see, we had leftovers for lunch the next day!

This restaurant is so fun because you eat outside and there's a huge sandbox for kids to play in.

Day 2...

Here's Maddie jumping off the steps of the house we rented. It was so amazing to stay in a HOUSE! I loved having a washer and dryer along with a yard!!

We took right off for the beach Monday morning...it was a hot day (in the 100's).

As we played in the sand, a bunch of dolphins swam by.

That night we went to Palazzio's for dinner...one of my favorite places to eat in Santa Barbara. Jesse wrote down all of the baby names we have thought of on the table cloth...we still can't pick one!

Day 3...

In the morning we went to a playground on a beach where Maddie played. Then we walked through the State Street Farmers Market and ate some yummy peaches.

That evening we walked all up and down State Street and watched the train zoom by..Maddie and Daddy have a love for trains!

Beautiful sunset.

Day 4...

The next day we drove to Solvang for the morning.

Here's Madison sporting the new backpack she picked out.

After some shopping, we had lunch in the park.

That evening we grilled steak for dinner. We enjoyed just hanging out together in the backyard and hunting spiders down.

Before the night was over, we took a walk to the best ice cream place in Santa Barbara...McConnells.

Day 5...

We woke up and walked down to the Daily Grind for some delicious muffins and a blueberry breakfast shake.

Then we headed to the beach one last time to play in the waves.

Our little girl loves exploring!

Watching the waves with Daddy. She really is a Daddy's girl. The whole time we were away she wanted Daddy to read her stories before bedtime.

We drove through Ojai on the way home and stopped at Boccali's. This is one of our favorite pizza places.

I'm so thankful to the Lord for giving us this sweet time away as a family. We loved every minute of it!