We have been eating these all weekend and guys – they are great. Which is something of a miracle considering that Nathan and I basically just made up the recipe on our own (something I’ve never done before!).

They taste good without the vanilla glaze but they taste fabulous with it. And since they are semi-healthy to start off with, I figure a little icing never hurt anyone. 😉

Enjoy!! 🙂

Pumpkin Muffins
 – makes 18 small/medium muffins or 12 large muffins –

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of allspice
1 (15oz) can of pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix everything together. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before adding glaze.

Vanilla glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk (may need a little more or a little less depending on consistency)

Mix together. When thick enough to coat but thin enough to pour, dunk tops of muffins in glaze and let set.

🙂

And just because they are two big loves… 😉

Happy fall!! 🙂

Yay! It’s Friday!!

I had so much fun with my Friday Five that I decided to do it again today. 😉


1. Fall.

 Not that it looks like this at my house in New Mexico, but I absolutely, positively, 100 percent LOVE this time of year. The decorations, the weather, the sweaters, the football, the pumpkin candles, the soups, the hot coffee on cold mornings, the lattes… you name it, I love it.


2. Snuggly sleepy boys.

He’s perfect.


3. ACFW Conference

I’m dying of jealousy that I am not there. NEXT YEAR. God willing. 😉


4. Pumpkin muffins

I’ll post the recipe Monday. But it officially smells like fall in my house!

5. Book club time!!!

image

So excited for this!! Okay – so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking – though, granted, it’s usually at 1AM or 5AM when I’m up with Parker, so this may not make much sense. 😉 We will have to try it this month and then work out the kinks for November!

First things first: Here is the book I chose:

Let Them Eat Cake by Sandra Byrd!!!

The official “about the book”:

Lexi Stuart is at a critical crossroads. She’s done with college but
still living at home, ready to launch a career but unable to find a
job, and solidly stalled between boyfriends.

When a lighthearted conversation in French with the manager of her
favorite bakery turns into a job offer, Lexi accepts. But the actual
glamour is minimal: the pay is less than generous, her co-workers are
skeptical, her bank account remains vertically-challenged, and her
parents are perpetually disappointed. Her only comfort comes from the
flirtatious baker she has her eye–but even may not be who he seems to
be!

So when a handsome young executive dashes into the bakery to pick up
his high profile company’s special order for an important meeting–an
order Lexi has flubbed–she loses her compulsion to please. Something
inside Lexi clicks. Laissez la révolution commencer! Let the revolution begin!

Instead of trying to fulfill everyone else’s expectations for her
life, Lexi embarks on an adventure in trusting herself and God with her
future–très bon! 

Five reasons why this book is great:
– It’s such a fun book to snuggle up with next to a warm dessert. 🙂 Perfect for fall!
– It’s hilarious. Lexi’s character is adorable.
– It’s the first in a three book series, so if you love Lexi and her friends (and I know you will!), there is lots more to love!
– It’s right now listed for $3.99 on Kindle – or for free if you have Kindle Unlimited! Totally doable for most of us. 🙂
– AND (my favorite part) the amazing Sandra Byrd has agreed to do a little interview once we’re done reading it and she’s even been so generous to offer a little giveaway! She’s wonderful!

So, here’s what I’m thinking. If you would like to join us in the book club, you need to have the book and have read it by October 24th. I’ll have some discussion questions for us and on that day, we’ll do a little live blogging day and we can all discuss it in the comments! Then, I’ll let Sandra take over and tell us her thoughts on the following Monday and we’ll have our giveaway.

Let me know if you have questions!! I’m so excited for our VERY informal but hopefully very fun book club!!

A few things that have been making me smile lately…

1. New tricks

Little Parker Bear is on the move!! He rolls all over the room now. ALL over. We spend a good part of the day racing to clean up Nathan’s tiny toys before he gets to them. Parker is following in his brother’s footsteps though – his favorite thing to do is roll to the TV cabinet and kick or hit the DVD player. 😉

I looked at him yesterday and he’d been rolling so much, he had rug burn on his face. 🙁 Poor kid! He tries so hard to keep up with big brother.

2. Zoo days

We had a fantastic day at the zoo with our dear friends Jamie, Joel and Julia!! Love them so much.

3. Soccer games

He scored two goals last game and was the proudest kid you’ve ever seen. Love this picture of him, Coach Dad and Gammy. 🙂

4. First time playing at the park

He appeared to be a fan. 😉

5. Creative ideas

I told Nathan to go wash his hands the other day because he had just eaten some super juicy pear slices. He said, “Well, Mom. I was thinking maybe I could just not wash my hands and I could just eat and eat with my hands and get them all covered in sticky stuff so that then I could just stick to the wall like Spider-Man.”


6. Post-nap giggles

Sweet giggles from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

I adore this boy.

7. Book clubs

I decided on a book!! Tune in tomorrow for the big reveal and how we are going to do this little club. 😉

Have a great Thursday!!

Seriously. I do not know how this is possible.

SIX MONTHS.

He turned six months old on the 16th!! This boy is just such a delight! He is so over the top smiley, so funny, so loud, so goofy and so so so loves to be included in everything we are doing. He adores his big brother and his brother adores him. Love that they are still such buddies!! He gets extra happy when Jon gets home from work and kicks and kicks until Jon picks him up. But he’s still a MAJOR Mama’s boy and it’s just totally unacceptable for me to be anywhere else except in the same room and holding him. 😉

His well-child appointment isn’t until next week, but if I had to guess, I’d say he weighs about eighteen pounds. He’s GIGANTIC. He’s such a chub and I just love every single roll.

He has the funniest little laugh and he screeches like a baby pterodactyl about 85% of the day. When he’s not screeching, he’s busy yelling, “NUH NUH NUH” at us all day long. He LOVES to be held and he’s never happier than when he’s being carried everywhere. The Ergo has saved my arms a lot lately. 😉

A new trick from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Parker learned so many new tricks this month! He can now sit by himself, he rolls over from his back to his tummy (and does it all night long and then gets stuck in the corner of his crib. We haven’t been getting a lot of sleep here lately), he sticks his tongue out and he can pretend he’s chewing gum. He gets SO proud of himself whenever he learns something new. It’s about the cutest thing.

He also started eating solid foods this month! He’s eating oatmeal, pears and sweet potatoes. I’m hoping to start avocado and green beans this coming week. His little tummy seemed to be not feeling good yesterday so I’m waiting a few days to try more food. He loves to eat his food though. I think he feels very big. 🙂

He’s just the cutest, sweetest, funniest, snuggliest little six month old I know and I just adore him.

It’s gotten very cool here lately – especially in the mornings and evenings – and it’s been SO nice! We’ve had a lot of rain too which just makes it so wonderful to stay home, drink coffee and stay in our jammies. Love it.

 Nathan had his second soccer game last weekend (it was freezing that morning!) and did fantastic. Like really fantastic. Jon and I were so impressed! He ran after the ball and got in front of people and guarded his goal. At one point, he even stole the ball from someone. He did his best and we were so proud of him!!

Love this sweet boy and his wonderful daddy. 🙂

This is one of my favorite times of the day. We get the boys in bed, change into our comfy clothes and Jon and I then snuggle up on the couch with dessert and watch whatever show we are currently in the middle of. Love this time with him. And I love lemon bars. 😉

Then on Sunday, we went to the State Fair with Gammy and Pops! We had the best time!

Nathan got to pet a kangaroo that had a little joey in her pouch! So amazing!!

And in his favorite, favorite part – he got to ride a real, live horse for the first time. We surprised him with a ride and he was flying high the rest of the day. 😉

My Parker Bear was totally happy to just be carried around the whole day. 😉

We love the State Fair!

This is a typical position for this child. I’m convinced that postpartum hair loss is 30% hormones and 70% being the edible leash for this boy.

The rain looked like it was going to hold off before dinner one night after Jon got home so we walked down to the neighborhood park to play a family baseball game. So fun.

Parker got to ride in the big kid seat on the stroller for the first time. He spent most of the walk holding on. Ha! Then it started raining and we had to run all the way home in the rain. Oh well. We needed showers anyway. 😉

At
the risk of being a little corny and having too much alliteration, I’ve
got five fun things this Friday! (And a kid who is just being super
goofy right now.) 🙂

1. Book Club

We’ve
thrown this idea around a LOT and now I’m officially ready to commit!
Who is up for a VERY informal book club on here? The way I’m thinking it
will work is one day a month, we will discuss via the comments a book
we picked on the previous month. I think it will be a fun way to
discover some new authors you may not have read and meet some friends on
here! I have a couple of books in mind but I wanted to hear your
thoughts first – what are some books you would recommend for this?? 🙂

2. Writing practice.

Parker “has a really hard name”. 😉 Love this.

3. Sweet potatoes.

😉

4. Bible study.

This
little stud was being super loud during Bible study yesterday so we
relocated out to the foyer so we weren’t a major distraction. Love my
baby pterodactyl. And Nathan talked the rest of the day about his class.
Love how excited he is.


5. Brothers.

The weirdness is contagious. 😉

 Some gave all.

Freedom is never free. Join me in praying for our country, won’t you?

One sweet baby boy…

Plus a few smiles…

Plus some yummy oatmeal…

Plus an anxious brother…

Plus a messy face…

Equals a happy, full-tummy for this big boy. Can’t believe we are already this old!!

We have had a counting and letters EXPLOSION over here this last month.

Someone can now count unassisted to 40 (pretty good, considering two months ago he couldn’t make it to 15 without getting distracted!), he can spell his name and my name and he wants to name every letter he ever sees EVER (shopping takes me approximately 487 times longer than normal because we spell or count everything).

He came running in with this while I was making my bed. Love my big boy.

And speaking of big boys, this kid… Guys. I waited and waited and waited for Nathan to develop some chunk as a baby and he never did. I adore Parker’s rolls. ADORE. I squeeze those thighs and kiss those cheeks a hundred million times a day. It’s kind of amazing he still has cheeks for how much they get kissed. (And yes!! He is now sitting unassisted for at least a couple of minutes by himself. KILLING ME how quickly he is growing up.)

First time riding together in the cart at Costco. I believe this is some sort of Rite of Sibling Passage here in the USA.

Nathan had his very first soccer game on Saturday.

Oh my. This kid inherited way too much of his mama’s genes. At one point, he had most of his team and a lot of the other team all trying to help him catch a grasshopper. It paused the game for several minutes. At another point, he and a kid on his team just sat down on the grass and started talking and at yet another point, he was curled up in a cannonball position telling the ref that he could just be the ball.

It was entertaining, to say the least. 😉 Ha! Hoping for some focus to develop over the season. He’s the youngest on his team (though definitely not the smallest) so I know he’ll mature over the year.

Love this shot of Jon taking advantage of Nathan’s turn to sit out a quarter to teach him more about the game. 😉 At the end of the day, he had SO much fun and he has been asking all week when we get to go back for his next game. And that’s what is important. 😉

Chewing some gum from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Parker’s new trick. We were dying. And yes – these boys giggle together ALL THE TIME. It might be my most favorite thing ever. 🙂

Finally, we were at the grocery store yesterday and I looked back and saw this while I was unloading the cart and had a MAJOR flashback to this moment approximately three and a half years ago:

Oh these boys. Sweet, smiley, goofy, and super curious. They are definitely brothers.

These past few weeks have been full of writing, playing, park time, soaking up the last of summer and very much getting excited about fall!

These two just love each other. So blessed by this! I pray that they love each other their entire lives every night when we tuck them in. 🙂

Nathan went on a run with me for the first time and did pretty good. He got a piggy back ride home though. I was wishing it was me getting the ride home. 😉

First day of Cubbies!! Yay for our fun fall activities starting!

We had a torrential downpour here while we were out getting groceries and Nathan was being so good to avoid all the puddles. I watched him trying to get into the car and just decided, this is ridiculous. So, I told him to run as fast as he could and go make the biggest splash in the biggest puddle. He LOVED it. He didn’t stop talking about that the entire week. Everyone else in the parking lot just gave me weird looks but it was totally worth their condemnation. 😉

We had our first soccer practice!! This is Nathan’s first organized sport so I’m curious how it’s going to go. 😉

He had a HUGE smile for most of the practice time. 🙂

I cannot get enough of this face. Parker slept and ate and then played on a blanket – he did so well!

Tired boy! And someone was VERY excited to see his big brother after his two-hour practice was over!!

Sweaty mess. 😉 We had to immediately drive to Sonic for slushes so he didn’t melt into a little blue puddle. 😉

We’ve spent a good chunk of time lately moving my parents into their new house. This was the first time off the fun new pool slide. Yay!

Nothing better than ice cream dates at the smelly zoo with our favorite girls. 🙂

This guy is big enough to semi-sit in the cart by himself. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??

My sister came by and brought this with her – first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season! Lots of happy dancing in my house on this day. 😉

We took our last nap in the swaddle…

And our first one in his new Zippy. 🙂

It was Superhero night at CFA last Saturday, so Jon and I missed our first opening home game for the Lobos in YEARS and took the boys there instead.

Needless to say, it was very fun. 😉 And our Lobos didn’t do so hot, so it was for the best.

Yesterday, we went to Gammy and Pops’ house to celebrate Pops’ birthday and Labor Day with some swimming, hamburgers and chocolate pie.

It was a good day. 🙂