Favorite Fridays

I'm always looking for yummy, easy, fast recipes to add to my collection...aren't you?

We ended up with a BUNCH of Utah Peaches this year (Soooo juicy and delicious!)

We (and when I say we, I actually do mean WE. As in Craig and Myself...isn't that awesome! Mr. Hall scores major points with me for helping out in the kitchen:)) bottled a bunch, ate a bunch fresh (with cream and sugar..YUM), and froze the other bunch. I am normally NOT a fan of any kind of fruit pie, cobbler, and anything of the sort. But, I'm here to say, I am a changed woman.

I found this spectacular peach cobbler recipe, and the best part...It is SOOO easy!

It's awesome for the times I have company coming over, and just changed a ripe diaper with super power strength oder, and I need to cover it up FAST (not that we have ever done that of course).

I just whip this baby together and pop it in the oven. by the time they come my home smells heavenly, and if they stick around, they even get to leave with a tasty treat in their belly.

So, here it is:

Easy Peach Cobbler

serves 10 (I half it)

1/2 C. unsalted butter

1 C. all purpose flour

2 C. sugar, divided

1Tbs. baking powder

pinch of salt

1 C. milk

4 C. peaches

1 Tbs. lemon juice

Ground cinnamon or nutmeg

1. Melt butter in a 9x13 baking dish

2. combine flour. 1 C. sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moist. Pour batter over butter (do not stir)

3. Bring remaining 1 C. sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir), sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg.

4. Bake @375 for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. serve cobbler warm or cold with ice cream or whipped cream.

*note: instead of doing step 3, I use a bag of my frozen peaches. I just spread them out over the batter, and sprinkle the cinnamon on top

I hope you get a chance to make something yummy this weekend, and get to eat it with great company:)

Pumpkin Patch

 We have this fun little pumpkin patch in town called Swore Farms, and it's a must every year!  They change it up each year, so I never know what exactly we are going to find, but it's always loads of fun. This year they had a couple different versions of  the "corn maze", and the the real thing. Carter was a school, and Craig was at work, so it was just me, Benson and Layla....and Layla's entire preschool:)

On another note, we took family pictures here 2 years ago, and they turned out super cute!

 They had a bunch of these cute little picture areas set up all around, and who can resist smashing their face in a little hole?

 This is Laylas' Preschool teacher "Mrs. Jen". She is also my first Cousin.

 In this picture you can see the "tape maze" (I don't know what it's really called) behind the kids. This one was the funniest, because the kids would just run right under the tape. Layla made it through in record time and said, "Wow, that was SO easy!" haha. One advantage of being short!

 The Start

 I bought these adorable rain boots for Layla at a yard sale, but I was thinking we would wait a year or so until they actually fit her....she didn't like that idea. They are about 3 sized too big, and slush around with each step she takes, but she still feels the love for them...go figure.



Ok, so my camera has started doing this thing randomly where the pictures turn out like this (see above picture). It's like the shutter isn't closing all the way...or something, I don't know, but it's annoying.

Also, Benson's face in this picture kind of has a devilish look, don't ya think?

(there I go, leaving a question at the end of my post again:) )

ps. is again spelled wrong? I don't know how else to spell it, but the spell checker is having a fit!

Autumn

Have I ever mentioned that I love fall? I used to be more of a summer person, but each year I gain a deeper appreciation for Fall. The crisp  in the air that calls us to bring out our sweaters and scarves, and the sweet aroma that drifts around us as we pick apples from the tree. I love finding the prettiest leaves, and and baking fall treats to warm our tummies. But, my favorite thing about fall is...the color scheme.
 My home was designed to host fall decor!
The kids felt like we didn't have enough decorations, so they made some new ones of their own:) See if you can find them.

 Do you see this amazing wreath? My Dad gave it to me for my birthday. I should have taken a close up of it for you, because it has about 30 different flowers, weeds, feathers, fruits, and veggies, it's gorgeous.

 I included this picture because it shows our cute brick chimney:) one of my personal favorites.

 We replaced our windows last year, so I made this fun little guy from one of the old basement windows.

 In my giant clothes pin, we placed one of our "fall place mats" that I did the tutorial on for a "favorite Friday" a couple weeks ago. we obviously make them rectangular usually, but we did this one square to use more as a decoration kind of thing;)

I placed some fake apples in a black spider web bowl (on my left in the picture), and Layla tried to eat one of them. They are very realistic after all:), so I told the kids not to eat the green apples in the bowl, because they were poisoned. Carter added that the witch from sleeping beauty snuck in and poisoned them, haha. So now they tease me and say "Mom, I'm going to eat this yummy apple", and I say "NOOOOO, not the POISONED Apple!", and save them from that horrible fate.

What are some of your favorite things about Autumn?

(leaving a question at the end of my post is my sneaky little way of encouraging you to leave a little comment...just so ya know;))

Favorite Friday (early)

Every Fall, as a Child, Mom would take us for a hike in the mountains. We each had a bag to keep  our treasures in. We were on the hunt...for the most beautiful leaves. After we were all satisfied that we had found the most beautiful leaves on the planet, we eagerly went home, and carefully used them to create our own "Fall Place mat". To this day, I still have some of my favorites from years past, and have continued this fun tradition with my own crew.

 Craig was trying to take a picture of us from our reflection on the dirty mini vans' window:) I love how you can see Benson yelling at us from inside the car, haha.

 Gosh, isn't this just breathtaking! I love it.

 Carter spotted a water snake with his awesome eye spying eyes, so Craig tried to catch it. Sadly, (said with sarcasm) the little guys got away. Too bad;)

 Craig gave Baby B a wild berry to try out. Did he like it?...not so much.

 I kind of feel in love with this picture of Carter and Layla Lou

 If you want to make your very own "fall place mat", here is what you do.

You need:

Leaves

thin flowers

pictures

contact paper

Cut 2 pieces of your Contact paper to the size you would like your mat to be. Carefully, and artistically, arrange your leaves, flowers, and pictures on the sticky side of  1 piece of contact paper. When you are happy with the way it looks, place the other piece of contact paper (sticky side down) over your masterpiece.

So easy. So fun. so do it:)

moments

One pumpkin carving kit... $3.99
HUGE pumpkin from the pumpkin patch... $12.00







Moments like this... priceless

the patch

We have the cutest little pumpkin patch here called Swore Farms. They have a Little corn maze for the kids with agricultural questions, and you have to choose an answer to decide which way to go. they also let the kids feet the farm animals, have a tractor ride, make a bird feeder, and best of all, pick their own pumpkin. This has become a new family tradition for us the past couple of years. You know me and my traditions...love them.

Fall Time Fun At My HoUsE

I LOVE to decorate my house for Fall time! The colors are so natural and lovely, it's simply irresistible...as a great musician once put it.

Growing up, my Family had a tradition of making place mats using the most colorful Autumn leaves we would find, and I always loved it. This fun tradition has carried over to my little family. The Craigser and I loaded the kids, four wheelers, and the In Laws up, and we all went for the most BEAUTIFUL Autumn ride EVER! Is was simply magical! The leaves were the most vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges I have ever seen. I love my Mom and Dad in law, so it was wonderful to have them there for that amazing afternoon. When we got home we assembled our new place mats for the year, and I decided to add the photograph element this year. It's fun to see the kids as they climb up my tall kitchen chairs to find where their place mat will be. They each actually put the leaves and pictures on themselves...and then, of course, I moved them around when they weren't looking. wink, wink.

Another night we made about 30 caramel, and while chocolate apples. The apples were all off our tree out back, so they were extra wonderful:)
We made a TON because I wanted to take them around for ALL the primary workers in my awesome ward. We had our program (as previously noted), and they did a great job of keeping the kids focused, so they deserved a reward of their own. I packaged them all cute in these little Chinese foodish take out boxes. cute, cute.

Lay love REALLY enjoyed her apple. She worked on it for about 2 hours...seriously! Such a mess!