The Best Ever Pumpkin Bread

I thought I would share one of my favorite fall recipes: Pumpkin Bread! Seriously I love living on the East Coast at this time of year. It is breathtaking!! The weather is perfect and sunny and the colors are amazing! It's the perfect time of year for Pumpkin Bread. When I make this it is gone so fast! I made some tonight and my kids ate almost a whole loaf!
The Perfect Pumpkin Bread
3 1/2 cups Flour
1 cup Oil
4 Eggs
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2/3 cup Water
2 cups canned Pumpkin
1 tsp Nutmeg
3 cups Sugar
mini chocolate chips are optional (unless you are making this for my husband)

Mix all the ingredients together in mixer. Place in two well greased bread pans and bake at 350 for one hour. This really is a great recipe! It is always delicious!

Brianna not practicing her piano so well!

I was upstairs changing some laundry and I went back down to check on the piano practicing and this is what I found!! Ben loves the piano! He is always going up to it and standing and playing the keys. I usually have to occupy him when she practices because he will not leave her alone!

Why I am not a good blogger anymore!

Well I thought I should explain why my blogs have been few and far in between lately! I have been homeschooling Brianna this year. Wow, it keeps me very busy. We have good days and bad days but all in all it is going well. We are doing a cyber school so they provide all the curriculum. She also has regular sessions with a teacher one on one and group time with other third graders. We do about 3 or 4 hours a day. She is much happier now. I can't believe the difference in her. I really enjoy her company. She is also such a good little student. It is really exciting to watch her learn a concept. She is so smart! Since she has a little more free time she has gotten much better at playing the piano (she practices better now) and she also joined a traveling homeschooling theatre. They learn plays and then perform them at schools and nursing homes. In the current play she is Gretel. She really enjoys that. She has also been cooking and sewing and really loves this. Last week she sewed a purse all by herself. Her favorite part of homeschooling is the school store. When she is working hard she gets tokens and then redeems them once a week at the school store! This has worked well for little Brian too! Next year I am thinking of putting her and Brian in a Charter school but we will see! I never thought I would be the kind of mom to do homeschooling but we knew it was best for her this year. This is a pic of her doing her work. She loves to have food when she is working!

Ben loves Corn!

Oh this little Ben is so fun lately! He is all smiles! He has such a sweet and tender personality and we all love that about him. He is kind of a stinker when it comes to eating. He thinks it is really fun to throw his food!!!! You know how much I love this!! Today Brian and I took him with us to Chilis for lunch and he was doing it there. He made such a mess. He watches it fall and then laughs! We had to leave a big tip!!!

Ben on a RAMPAGE!

Oh this little Ben is so funny lately. His little personality is just bursting! He is soooo busy. The other day I was upstairs for maybe 5 minutes and I came down to this little mess. He is such a sweet baby. I love how sensitive he is. We have to be really careful when we say no to him because he will burst into tears. He also gets embarrased really easy. He has been doing this since he was like 6 months old. It's like he doesn't like attention (what a difference compared to Brian and Brianna)! The funny thing is just the last few weeks Brian jr has calmed down a lot. He will sit and color or watch a cartoon. This week he started putting his own shoes on and buckling his own car seat. It's so nice that he is getting out of that demanding stage....but it seems that Ben is just moving right into his place! Such is the life of a mother, I guess!

Jennifer Garrison comes for a visit!

It was so fun to have Jennifer come from NYC to visit me. She took the train in on a Friday and stayed through Sundaywe had a ball! Jennifer worked for me for, well forever! She is the best. She was my office manager and is just super sharp! One of the worst days of my life was when she left for BYU (Brian left the same day for 3 months of out of state rotations during med school). ANYWAY, it was so fun to spend time with her. We went to see the Amish and of course went to Chocolate World and enjoyed watching conference together. The kids loved her being here. They were always hanging all over her, especially Brian (which was always her fave)! She convinced me to do facebook (she is super computer saavy) so that's next on my to do list!

Keith is now a missionary!

My cute brother Keith with my sister in law Heather and niece Chloe!
All the ladies (cousins, moms, nieces, sisters, aunts) talking after the dinner. We could talk for days. It's the best! I miss these times!
Dad and Jenna on his Harley! He is totally obsessed. Next time I've got to go for a ride with him.

Two weekends ago my parents flew me out to Arizona for Keith's farewell. I am so glad that I went. It was kind of a last minute thing. My Dad was upset that I wasn't going to be there and told my mom to get me a ticket!! Hooray for me! I was thrilled. It was so great because Brian was super supportive of me going. He was like "yeah you should be there." He was such a trooper with these kids. They had a great time with Dad. They especially loved eating all the fast food. I have smartened up after 10 years of marriage...I didn't even prepare meals because I knew they would head for the fast food anyway. He even cleaned the house really well before I got home. It was funny though...the night before I got back we were on the phone and he was a little bugged and tired from the whole day with the kids. He said he had just spent two hours cleaning up the house, and the kids didn't help at all and it will probably just get messed up tommorow. He totally sounded like the typical housewife and mother! When I got home he said "hon, I could never do what you do all day." It felt so great to hear him say that! Well and we all know I could DEFINANTLY not do what he does all day (boy would that be scary)! Anyway, it was a great visit. I felt like a kid all over again. On Saturday morning I slept in and then woke up to breakfast at the table with Mom, Dad, Jenna and Keith. I didn't even help cook it! It was so fun to see all the extended family that came to support Keith! Keith was amazing in his talk. He has such an awesome testimony and I know he is going to be the best missionary. What a huge sacrifice this is!! He is such a great example. We are praying for him every night!