Pumkin Patch

This year Tiffany and family invited us to go to the pumpkin patch with them. This was the first time for Charlie and second for us. We were excited to go and hang out with all of them. So, the night before I decided to baked some pumpkin treats for all of us to enjoy after the pumpkin patch. This was a very easy recipe to follow and very yummy, so I wanted to share it to whoever reads this:

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Ingredients
Cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
For cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease or line four baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large mixer bowl on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and vanilla extract; beat until smooth. Stir in flour mixture until combined. Drop by heaping measuring teaspoons onto prepared baking sheets. (A total of 72 cookies are needed for the recipe.)
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until springy to the touch. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
For cream cheese filling: Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl on medium speed until fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Spread a heaping teaspoon of filling onto flat side of one cookie; top with flat side of second cookie to make a sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. Store in covered container in refrigerator.

I decided to add some food coloring to the cream cheese filling just to make it look a little bit more fun. I found orange and black food coloring at Michael's the other day, so I got inspired by the month of October and did half of the filling black and the other half orange. I forgot to take a picture of them, but they turned out super cute and delicious. We'll definitely be making more of these!!! Oh! and here are some pictures of our day : )

Fall is back

I used to dislike pumkins but everytime fall season is here that smell is back and I learned to love it. Trees are changing colors, leaves are falling down and I love looking out of my window and seeing the beauty of this season and the place I now call home.

Celebrating with the ones we love

Nils' aunts, Anita and Birgit, also had their birthdays this past September, so we planned a dinner with Tiffany and family to celebrate with them. It was such a lovely evening, we caught up on each other's lives, ate, laughed and had an amazing time. Nils suggested I made one of our favorite meals that we only share with people we love, our famous linguine dish. Unfortunatly I forgot to not make it spicy for the kids, so they were drinking lots of water!! But, besides that hiccup, we all enjoyed the meal and the company. We even had cake and a conference call with Sharon and Kurt, and sang Happy Birthday.

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."
Desmond Tutu

Lion King 3D

Nils and I took our nieces on a special date to watch the Lion King movie in 3D!

We were all excited to hang out, but of course we wanted to make this day extra special for them. Lion King is one of my favorite movies and I wanted them to love it as much as I do. So, Nils and I took them to the Disney store and got them stuffed animals. Liv picked Nala and Ella chose baby Simba, and since they were buy one get one free, we bought Pumba for Beckett and big Simba for me :).

After getting excited about their new toys, we headed to the movie theater to watch the movie. It was a different experience to watch it on the theater, it was just amazing. We had so much fun with the girls, we love them and love our dates with them : )

After the movie, we went to eat some burgers at Five Guys and brought them back to our place to play with Charlie for a little bit. We all had such a great day!

The big 25

So, I turned 25 this year, and thanks to my wonderful husband, friends and family, I had a wonderful day. My day started by opening gifts (one of my favorite things to do). Then, Nils made some delicious breakfast that we enjoyed together. Then, I took off to the mall for some very deserved shopping : ) and relaxed all day getting a mani/pedi and answering phone calls from my loved ones. Tiffany and the kids came over to surprise me and take me out to get some ice cream with them. They made my day!

After ice cream, my hot date picked me up and we went to Cafe Juanita, a very cute little restaurant with the best italian food in town. Nils always wanted to take me there, but couldn't find a "good excuse" to go, so turning 25 was the excuse, and I'm so glad we had our dinner there. There was something magical about that night, spending my big birthday with the man I love was definitely more than I ever wanted, it was perfect!

A day with Beckett

Nils and I took Beckett on a "date" last saturday. When we arrived at his house to pick him up, he had his back up on and he was ready to go. We took him to the dog park to play with Charlie. We had so much fun hanging out with him that day. After running around at the park, we took him to eat a hot dog. He was such a happy boy. We love our Beckett and are so happy to live close to him and be able to take him out and play.

Labor Day Weekend

Nils and I got invited to join the Sundelins from Duvall to go to Port Angeles over labor day weekend. We got there saturday around noon, and met up with them at the Hurrican Ridge for a hike. We hiked for a couple of miles and got to enjoy a pretty view from this national park.

This was the first time Nils and I went on a hike together and after this trip, we are definitety doing it again. Nils decided to wear a white t-shirt, which I thought it was a bad idea since we were going with the kids and I knew that he was going to end up playing around with them. Well, Miss Ella got tired of walking, so Nils offered to give her a piggy back ride, and his shirt... well ... got a little dirty. It was funny to look back and see them talking and talking about who knows what! Of course I snap a couple of pictures of those two:

Beckett had a sweet ride, so he didn't get tired at all, and Liv is such a big girl now, she didn't need help from anybody and walked all the way to the top and back with us. After the hike we went back to our hotels to take showers and changed clothes. Later, we met up for dinner at this very old looking italian restaurant, where the pizza was actually pretty good. The next day, we met up in the morning to have some breakfast, where Liv gave me a picture she draw of me, that made me laugh:
After breakfast, we went to Crescent Lake for a small hike. Nils and I loved this place, the lake was super clean, and the hike was much easier than the one from the day before. It was nice to go away for the weekend and experience this kind of vacation, where all you have around is nature and the people you love. We had such a great time with the Sundelins, and we are so happy they invited us to go with them.

After the hike, they went back home to Duvall, while Nils and I decided to stay one more day. We went to watch a movie that night "Conan" at this very small movie theater. The whole town was very small and it didn't seeing like there was a lot of stuff to do. We walked around downtown, and for some reason all of the stores where close and it felt like we were in a ghost town, because nobody else was around. When Nils and I first arrived in Port Angeles, we were in such a rush to meet up with The Sundelins that we didn't notice that this small town was all about Twilight, in fact our hotel was only a block away from "Bella's Restaurant", and most of the stores had something related to the movie. It was kind of funny how we ended up in a town where Twilight is everywhere, when for the past (who knows how many years) I've been avoiding it. So, at the end I decided to buy the book, and I will read it (one day), but I still refuse to watch the movie. Our last day, we decided to go to Sequim, to a drive through safari and we had so much fun. There were some bears that were in disney movies, and so they did tricks in order to get food, it was pretty cool.
After the safari, we took the ferry back home and picked up our little Charlie. We had so much fun on this trip, and we are so excited to start going and explore nature again.