Happy Halloween!!!!

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween - hopefully keeping things fun and not spooky and scary! We have decided to stay home to see the trick-or-treaters tonight since this will be our first Halloween in our house. We had to do something festive, so this is what we came up with! (I think mine turned out pretty cute, and Sam's is slightly scary, but he did a good job on his pirate!)

I also wanted to share some (not so good) photos of little pumpkin cakes that I made this week for my women's bible study and co-workers! I think they turned out pretty cute and are SO easy!!

Last, I mentioned awhile back that I had one more fall dessert recipe that I wanted to share. I have now tried a few of the recipes, so I'll have to let you know my thoughts! This one sounds pretty yummy to me!

Chocolate Chip- Pumpkin Spice Bars

BATTER:
1 ¾ cups pure pumpkin puree
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole- wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ cup mini- chocolate chips

FROSTING:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 Tbs butter, softened
2 tsp milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
½ cup mini- chocolate chips (for topping)

1 Prepare batter: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10x15-inch baking pan with nonstick spray.
2 In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs and sugars until combined.
3 In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves. Toss in mini chocolate chips and stir to combine. Add dry ingredients to the wet and stir until moistened.
4 Pour batter into prepared pan coated with nonstick spray. Bake until the center springs back when lightly pressed in the center- about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and place on wire rack to cool completely.
5 Prepare frosting: In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla. Slowly add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix until smooth. Frost bars and sprinkle with additional mini chocolate chips.

Yield: About 42 bars

*recipe and photo came from Recipe Girl!

Enjoy!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to a wonderful man - a man that is loving, caring, funny, joyful, disciplined, a hard worker, strong, passionate, would do anything for his friends and family, and has a huge heart - my Dad! Dad I hope that you have a great day today. We wish we could be there to help you celebrate! We love you very much!

These are a few of Sammy's favorite things....

I was tagged awhile back by Magen to make a list of Sam's favorite things. Since I did this awhile back for me, I thought it would be fun to do for Sam also!!!

In no particular order, Sam's favorite things:

Computers/electronics - Obviously Sam is very interested and maybe even highly loves computers/electronics! I mean, he is a computer nerd for a living (if anyone takes offense to that comment, he will say it himself) Being a computer nerd is not at all bad though and he is very handy to have around when things won't work! He often names his electronics. For example his apple computer is named Mrs. Mac (after a teach from our elementary school) and our GPS is named Natalia (I think he said this is from a Bond movie). Anyone that knows Sam at all knows his love for computers/electronics, so I will leave it at that. (They also know not to give it to him to work on because before they know it he will have it taken apart in a million pieces!!)

ME - Need I say more??? Just kidding!!! I would have to say though that since he married me and is stuck with me for the REST OF HIS LIFE, that he is obviously pretty fond of me!!! I love him more than words could even express!

God - My man loves the Lord and strives to live his life for him daily. It is so wonderful to have a husband who loves the Lord with all his heart!

Sports - What guy doesn't love sports??? I have to say though that where Sam is a bit different is that he isn't as obsessed with watching every single game (praise the Lord for me on that one!). Don't get me wrong we watch plenty of sports & ESPN and he is way into fantasy sports, but he would rather be playing sports than watching it. Obviously he loves baseball. Although he hasn't played a real competitive game since college, it still runs through his blood! Every time spring rolls around he is calling his baseball buddies asking them if they can "feel" the season beginning. WEIRDO!!! Since he doesn't have baseball he has come to grips with playing softball. He plays in a few leagues pretty much all year round. I will take a moment to brag that at his last tournament he was MVP of the tournament and he often gets the game ball at his regular season games! He would never be the one to tell you those things, but this is my time to brag on my husband a bit! He also highly enjoys playing golf, tennis, and basketball.

Desserts - This man LOVES desserts! Its sad because he eats pretty healthy (well most of the time), but when it comes to desserts DO NOT GET IN HIS WAY!!! I guess he's pretty lucky since I love to bake - wait maybe that makes him unlucky!!! Anyways, the real sad part about his love for sweets is Little Debby snacks - Zebra cakes to be exact. I think she might be his second love! He wanted to have a Little Debby cake at our wedding! Now that I think about it, I should have just let him because it would have truly been Sam! I am a mean wife though and never buy these for him - no processed food in my house!!!

Friends and Family - Sam has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know. His love for his friends and family run very deep. He would do anything for his friends and family members! Some people think Sam is shy, but get him around those he loves and the true Sam comes out!! We have more fun with our friends and families!

It's pretty sad that the last picture I have with all his buddies is from our wedding! (He is going to be sad after me saying that!)

The Sessler fam (minus Sarah...sorry Sarah) Did I mention also how much Sam loves his grandparents???

Beatles - Sam loves the Beatles. He knows every song, all their history, has tons of memorabilia, and all the movies and Cd's. We even put a Beatles song in our wedding ceremony!!

Hunting/Fishing - Nature is where Sam feels "in his element". Honestly if he did not have to work and did not live in the city, I think he could be outside doing one of these things all day long. When we go on vacation to the mountains I hardly ever see him because he can stay out there forever trying to get something! I think it is a great thing that Sam and his dad have together. I would say when they are hunting and fishing is when they get their true bonding time. The memories with his dad on these trips will be something that Sam will cherish forever!

Coffee - Last, is coffee. Morning, night, middle of the afternoon, hot, cold, dark, cream, sugar he'll drink it! I am not sure how he drinks so much coffee, but it seems to get him through his days! His favorite is to drink it right before going to bed! If I did that, I would be up for the entire night!!! He is not picky about his coffee either. It does not have to be Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts (of which he loves both), just give the guy some coffee!!!

Well those are just a few of Sam's favorite things. I am sure there are many more that I am just not thinking about, but hopefully you know Sam just a bit better than before after reading this!

S.T.U.D.Y.I.N.G!!!

What's been going on with us lately...oh yes, that's right - S.T.U.D.Y.I.N.G!!! I feel like we are back in college. We come home every night, eat, go workout if we haven't already that day, and then stay up until midnight (or for Sam later) studying!!! This past weekend I had an all weekend class and now this whole we Sam has "boot camp". Really that is what they call it. Basically think of it as Sam would say as "computer nerd boot camp". I really wish I knew the right terminology, but basically he is trying to get a pretty tough certification for his field. I believe this course is through Microsoft. What I do know is that the boot camp is Monday-Monday 8am-8pm (or later) every day!! During the course of the week he will take 4 tests. With each test that he passes he will get a certification, then at the end if he passes all 4 tests, then he gets the big daddy of certifications (again, not sure of the terminology...Sam help me out here!). The good news is the he is one test down, and only three more to go. The even better news is that he passed the first one, and only has three more to go. The bad news is the he has a cold!!! We are drinking the vitamin C energy drinks like crazy at our house; this is not the time for either of us to get sick!!! That is honestly our life as of now, so if I am not posting anything interesting, it is because I am sparing you the details of our studying. If I went much further I would begin to teach you what I am learning and you probably don't want that - just a hunch!

We did get to have some fun this past weekend. Our good friends Jennifer and Jacob came to town to celebrate Jennifer's birthday and to shop for her new job! We got to hang out at night, so that was quite the release from studying! It was so great to see them, and I was really glad that we got to celebrate Jennifer's birthday together! Sam and Jacob also got to play a round of golf on a BEAUTIFUL fall day (mind you I was holed up in a classroom at a study course ALL DAY!). I did not catch too many pictures, but here are a few!

DO NOT ENTER

I mentioned on my last post that we decided to have our kitchen cabinets painted. Based on the poll that I put up when we very first moved in, the majority decided that we should paint our cabinets white. Well many months later we are actually getting around to this. In the mean time we have no access to our kitchen, and everything that belongs in the kitchen is all over the house. The painters said they would be done today, but I still can't put anything in the cabinets until tomorrow to allow them to fully dry. I sure hope I don't go insane before then!!! Last night I had to study at our kitchen table which is currently in the hallway! I need normalcy, I am too much of a structured person for this!! I don't see how people do major renovations - richard and jennifer I have so much more respect for what yall had to endure during your remodel!!!

I thought I would share a few pictures of what things look like currently. Sam said we should just invite the neighbors over for our haunted house while all the plastic is up!

Family Time

My mom came to visit this past weekend and we had such a good time visiting. Usually when our parents come to visit we pack so much into the weekend that we feel like we don't really get to "see" them. This weekend was the complete opposite! All weekend Richard, Jennifer, my mom, and I just hung out and spent some quality time together. We didn't really do anything too exciting, but it was such a great weekend! With all my studying, non-exciting, restful weekends are the best. Then add family to that, and it just doesn't get any better. The only bad part was that Sam was out of town all of last week and didn't get to spend time with us except for about two hours on Sunday before my mom left. As you can tell from the picture below, it seems as though he was having plenty of fun in Orlando!! It was for work, but it seems as though he got to have some fun with Mickey and friends!!! Let me just say that I am SO happy to have him safe at home! (I love this picture; I think I am going to frame it and put it on my desk!)

I also promised that I would post more fun fall desserts. I have a few more, but only have time to post one right now! A lady in my women's bible study group brought this a few weeks ago for us to snack on and I loved it! I then mentioned it to my mom, and she made it for her bible study last week and got great reviews also! I hope at least one person tries this because I promise, it will not be a let down. I might also mention that this recipe makes a lot, so you might consider cutting it in half.

Pumpkin Dip

1 can pumpkin (the smaller can)

2 8 oz cream cheese - softened

4 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon

Simply mix all the ingredients together and you're done! Serve with ginger snaps. It was also recommended that you serve the dip in a small carved out pumpkin, but if you don't have that much time on your hands just throw it all in a bowl!

Also I wanted to mention that our house is currently in shambles because we finally decided to paint the kitchen cabinets! We decided to bring in the professionals though, so we just get to kick back and wait for the results! It looks like we are having a garage sale throughout our house because we had to clean out everything in the kitchen to allow them to do their thing. Hopefully we are happy with the outcome and that this was all worth it. I'll post pictures soon! I am SO excited!

Sammy's Workbench

Ok, so I am not a master carpenter like me father, but I am pretty proud of this little guy even if it is the easiest home project you could do.....makes the garage a lot cleaner that's for sure. I need to add an overhead work light.

Thank you RyRy for the sign donations back in the dormitory days. I've held on to them b/c they carry some meaning. "No Pepper" is from one of our playoff games in high school in Midland. We played Pepper anyway...and Ryan took their sign..that'll learn 'em. Bad Ryan. It has all of our homie's signatures on it from our baseball team of 2001 as well. It's pretty cool to Sammy. "No Baseball Allowed" hung at Gene Howe Park, where we grew up, and were countless homerun derbys took place. Lots of memories. Showed that sign who's boss too. That'll learn 'em.


"Oh Geeeene Hooooowe Schooooool we hoooooonooooor youuuuuuuu..."

I can sing that whole song by the way...no big deal. Oh and The "Gene Howe School Just Say No to Drugs" song too.

Innocent Victim

So I killed my poor Innocent vacuum and did not even know I was doing anything wrong besides trying to keep my house clean! Well I actually fried the motor! Who knew that you were suppose to replace your filters every 6 months and your belt frequently!!! Who knew that the vacuum did not come with a side filter and that the stuff in there was just packaging!!! They did not teach this stuff to me in high school or college. I think we need to bring Home-Ec classes back!

Needless to say I learned a lot the day I took my vacuum, which would not even turn on, to the "doctor"! I was so sad though because each time I was vacuuming to make my house clean for us to live in, my vacuum was screaming for fresh air and finally just gave up!

So who is good at taking care of their vacuums and thinks theirs (I don't think that is proper usage) is the best one out there. We are in the market for a good vacuum! I don't want a bagless this time because the vacuum "doctor" informed me that the plastic can not fully sill, which in turn lets the bacteria and whatnot back into the air and into your lungs! YIKES!!! I would love to hear suggestions, and I promise to follow all the rules that the "doctor" taught me so that this vacuum will last me longer than 2 1/2 years!!!

Cuppy Cakes!!!

We threw a baby shower after church this past Sunday for a couple in our young adults class. It was so much fun spending time with everyone, eating lunch, and praying over baby Safran! I decided that I would make a few different cupcakes that would hopefully appeal to everyone. They each turned out to be very yummy and I had a lot of fun decorating them! My final decision was Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting, Banana-Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream frosting, and Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate frosting! I think I tried a bite of each, and would probably have to say that my favorite was the banana cupcake although it was a hard choice!

Lemon Cupcakes

Banana Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Polls are Now Closed!!

Well the voting is over, and it is official that everyone agrees with me in that Sam should not keep the mustache! I have to say that I was very surprised by the 20 people who voted for him to keep it. I have a very sneaky suspicion that those weren't 20 different people, but it is not of importance because 61 people said that it had to go!!! I can report that the mustache is gone and my normal Sam is back! The bad news is the night that Sam shaved off the mustache and got a hair cut (yes we cut Sam's hair at home), the vacuum broke!! The darn thing won't even turn it. It is going to the doctor this week, but in the mean time I might go crazy just using a broom and my trusty swiffer! Anyways, thanks to all who came out to the polls!

Next, I can officially say that fall is here. It by no means feels or looks like fall her in the DFW area, but none the less, it is here! And since it is here, that means it is time for fall recipes!! Pumpkin to be exact. These things seem to be popping up everywhere and I am falling for them all. Now, I must confess that I have not made one of them of the recipes that I am going to share. I have had the opportunity to try one of them, but I have high hopes that they will all be delicious! I wanted to go ahead and share them though because I wanted you all to be able to take some new fall desserts to your dinners with friends, bible studies, work, or just to bring fall into your home! Let me know if you try one, and let me know how they turned out! I plan to share a few today and a few later this week! I hope you enjoy!!

Quick Pumpkin Pudding - This sounds so easy!!!

1 (6 oz.) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk (1-1/2 cups)
1 (15 oz.) can pure pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Whipped cream for topping

Beat pudding mix and evaporated milk according to package directions in a large bowl; refrigerate for 5 min. Add pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice; mix well. Spoon into dessert dishes. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or until ready to serve. Top with whipped cream.

Makes 8 servings

NOTE: I honestly have no idea where I found this recipe. I wish I could give credit where credit was due, but I can't. The picture that I have printed out was really cute though. They served each portion in glass mugs or glass serving dishes.

Chocolate-Pumpkin Brownies

PUMPKIN BATTER:
1 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1 Tbs all-purpose flour

CHOCOLATE BATTER:
5½ ounces best-quality semisweet- chocolate, finely chopped
1¼ sticks (5 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 13x9-inch baking dish.
2. Prepare pumpkin batter: In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter with cream cheese until smooth. Beat in sugar, scraping bowl occasionally. Bet in egg, then add pumpkin puree, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger. Stir in flour.
3. Prepare chocolate batter: Combine semisweet chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Set bowl over saucepan with 1-inch of simmering water and stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, combine eggs with sugar, vanilla and salt. Beat at low speed until light and fluffy- about 4 minutes. Using a large rubber spatula, fold in melted chocolate. Sift flour over the batter and fold it in just until combined.
4. Spread chocolate batter evenly in prepared pan. Using a Tablespoon, drop dollops of the pumpkin batter all over the top. Using the back of a butter knife, swirl the pumpkin batter slightly into the chocolate.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes (starting checking on brownies at 30 minutes to see if they're done- a toothpick inserted into center should come out clean).
6. Let brownies cool completely before cutting.

Yield: 24 brownies

Find recipe and picture online here!

I really want to go home and make these now, but I guess I'll just have to wait until I have an occasion to make them!