Pumpkin Cheesecake Shortbread Bars

Here come the pumpkin recipes!  I'm not such a big fan of fall, but I do love me some pumpkin!  I made these for a party recently and may or may not have consumed all the leftovers myself very quickly!  So amazing!

Adapted from All Recipes
Ingredients:
• 1 package pound cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 2 T butter
• 4 t pumpkin pie spice (will be separated in half for 2 different parts)
• 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 14 oz. can of condensed milk
• 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, 1 egg, butter, and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice.  The mixture will be crumbly and that's perfect.  Press onto the bottom of a 9x13 pan coated with non-stick cooking spray.

2. In another large bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, condensed milk, 2 eggs, pumpkin puree, the rest of the pumpkin pie spice, and salt.  The original recipe suggests using a mixer, but it worked just fine to use my husband instead!

3. Pour liquid mixture over the crust.  Sprinkle pecans on the top.

4. Bake for 35 minutes or until set.  Store in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

Toddler Spider Handprint Halloween Craft

It's been too long since we've done a fun craft with Connor.  As I started getting ready for Halloween, I came across this idea for spider handprints and I thought he'd really like it.  He's really into spiders right now, so this fit perfect with the holiday!

As usual, we do a lot of our painting in the bathtub so we can clean up easily.  Daddy helped paint his hands black with acrylic craft paint.

I held his hands down for each handprint.

A couple days later, once the paint was dry, Connor used glue to add some googly eyes to the spider.

I added some cute "Happy Halloween" messages, a date, and his name to each one.

I love how each one is a little different and has its own character!

Cranberry Banana Pumpkin Bread

I love baking bread. It's so easy, you can pretty much put whatever you want in it, and it always turns out yummy! Here's one of the new breads that I really liked...

Adapted from here

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 banana

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, pumpkin, cranberries, egg, vanilla, and banana in another bowl until smooth. Stir in dry mixture.

Pour batter into 9x5 bread pan.

Bake for about 1 hour or until cooked throughout.

Let cool and enjoy!

Baby Taggie Stuffed Football

Every Sunday, Connor and his Daddy watch football. Sunday is Mommy's resting & shopping day! Anyway, I always say that he needs a little football outfit for Sundays, but all his football-themed clothing is still too big. So I made him a little football toy...that's also too big! He'll grown into it : )

I followed the pattern from The Train to Crazy with a few changes of my own. I had this thick white woven strips leftover from the belt I made. I reinforced the ends so they wouldn't fray.

I cut 7 inch pieces of ribbon for the taggies.

Then I pinned everything together and sewed the taggies on.

Using the fabric pattern from the link above, I cut my football-shaped fabric and put everything together.

With the right sides in, I sewed the football together and left an opening for stuffing.

I also added a few small jingle bells inside the stuffing to add some noise for the baby.

After stuffing the football, I hand-stitched the small opening closed.

Here he is showing off his new football! (Not too excited that day, but oh well...)

And since we're in Bears territory, I also made a Chicago Bears football.

Lowfat & Easy Pumpkin Cake

I can't miss out on all the pumpkin goodness this year! I made a few minutes to squeeze in a couple fun pumpkin treats including this semi-healthy & sweet pumpkin cake.

Adapted from here

Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t pumpkin pie spice
• powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9x9 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine butter, brown sugar and eggs in a large bowl.

Add in applesauce and pumpkin puree.

Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice and then stir into the liquid mixture.

Pour into baking pan and bake for about 25 minutes.

Let cake cool and then top with powdered sugar.

Hubby warmed it and topped it with butter and I ate mine plain with some cold milk. Both ways were delicious!

Halloween Footprint Card

I've been looking for some fun crafts to do with Connor (getting him started early!) and this was the perfect project for us!

I had some old black cards & envelopes I've been saving since I was in high school. (Hello, pack rat!) Finger paint doesn't come in white, but I used some acrylic paint that washes off really easily.

Planning for a mess, I did this on the bathroom counter with a plastic bag under the baby. On the other side of the sink was his bath tub so I could drop him right in after we finished. For itty bitty babies, I'd suggest painting the bottom of their foot and bringing the paper up to their foot while they lay flat. It worked a lot better than holding them up and trying to stamp their foot on the paper.

I used a black marker to draw eyes on the ghosts and a silver marker to write on the cards.

On the inside of each card, I put a photo of Connor in his pumpkin hat that I made. (I was planning on putting a photo of him in his costume, but he wasn't in the mood to pose for pictures that day.)

Each one is a little different & I wish I could have kept them all. I sent them out to some family & friends and everyone loves them!

Baby Pumpkin Hat

Isn't he adorable?

Connor is doing great and growing so fast! But he's still pretty small and it's hard to find cute Halloween stuff that's small enough. I absolutely love little baby hats, so I couldn't resist making him a little pumpkin hat for the fall.
I found a couple hats that I know fit him to use as a template.
I used the width of the green striped hat and traced around it on the orange knit fabric. If you don't have a hat, the bottom brim was 6.75 inches wide (that includes a .25" seam allowance) and that's probably around a newborn size.
I drew the hat shape on the fabric, stitched around the edge, and left a small opening at the top for the leaves. To make sure the hat fit correctly, I tried it on the baby and adjusted the top to fit snugly around his head.
To finish the bottom edge, I just folded the fabric up and sewed around.
For the leaves at the top, I used some stiff felt and freehand drew three leaf shapes.
I arranged them so they overlapped slightly and stitched them together across the bottom.
With right sides of the hat in, I placed the leaves on the inside and stitched the opening closed. Then when I turned the hat right sides out, the leaves would stick out at the top.
I had no idea how easy it would be to make these!

My little sleepy pumpkin : )

Pumpkin Favorites

I have a confession.

I don't like fall.

I get sad that summer is ending and fall makes me think of cold & snow coming quickly. But the one thing I DO like about fall is pumpkin! You can never get enough pumpkin! From crafts, to pumpkin costumes, to pumpkin spice lattes...they're the only thing I love about fall!

In honor of my love of anything pumpkin, here's some of my favorite crafts and recipes. Scroll down to the bottom of my blog and click on pumpkin to see all my pumpkin-related posts.

Burlap Pumpkins

And more pumpkins...


Pumpkin Fluff

Pumpkin Cornbread

Pumpkin Spice Yogurt

Pumpkin Pecan Bread