all over the world.

This weekend we are all snuggled up in our home to watch General Conference.  This is literally one of my most favorite and cherished weekends of the whole year.  We get to hear from the our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the apostles and other church leaders.  We gain so much peace and understanding from their words.

So far my favorite talks have centered around families and properly using the gift of time that our Heavenly Father has given us.  Man...that's a hard one.

We opened up the doors and windows and let the cool breeze whip in to the room.  The curtains were blowing in the wind and we could hear the leaves rustling outside.  Evaleigh must have been enjoying the conference too because she was dancing on my bladder.

We have been feasting all day on chicken casseroles, green beans, apple dip, pumpkin soup with cinnamon croutons, squash casserole, homemade bread, and peanut butter cookies.

It has been glorious and I can't wait for more tomorrow.

you can watch a really incredible session (here)

pumpkin soup with cinnamon croutons recipe found (here)

you can watch tomorrow's last two sessions from 12-2 and 4-6 (here)

Happy October!!!

I am a Cougar

twenty three is sweet.

John Murphy turned 23 yesterday.  

I turned 23 back in October. 

So, yes it's true... 

I AM A COUGAR.

I may only be 3 weeks and 6 days older than Mr. Murphy, but its still makes me older. (and I secretly like the way that makes me feel.)

John wanted good food and a jam session for his birthday, so I pulled some strings and made it happen.

The requested Birthday Menu:

Pumpkin Soup (recipe here)

Grilled Paninis

and

Better Than Sex Cake

Our guests and lovely friends who came (plus Julius who showed up fashionably late):

Although John liked his birthday cake, he says it didn't live up to its name. :) DUH. (I'm allowed to say this because we are married! YIPEE!)

After dinner we all went to the living room to create some tunes.  John had some special new toys to play with.  For his birthday I got him a set of 7 harmonicas and a head piece so he can play guitar and harmonica at the same time.  WHOA.  He is going to be a one man band.  

I am convinced he will get so good and then leave me to go on tour around the country.   

He looks quite good in his get-up.  I can't decide though if he looks like he has been in a really bad car accident or if he has the coveted nerdy head gear for braces.  Any way, he makes it look good.  He was in heaven last night messing around with different sounds and improving on the harmonicas.

Belen just wanted to play with our mustaches.

I'm so glad he was born.  I can't believe how sweet life is right now.  What a lucky lady I am to have such a full life.  We can't wait to see what the age of 23 has in store for both of us.  I feel its going to be a great year. 

 Happy Birthday to the man of my dreams.

Hey, it's ok.

I am here to tell you that if you have a bad day it's ok to go home and make a batch of homemade chocolate icing and eat it.  Really, because bad days happen and we all need a little something to help us over the hump.

I am giving you all the permission you will ever need. So, go ahead.

Do you want my recipe?  Its the best.

2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 stick unsalted butter (I believe in unsalted butter)

1 block cream cheese

However much Hershey's Cocoa you'd like (about 1/4 cup)

Some people may call this justification but I call it therapy.

Here is a little back story before I spill my guts about yesterday.  All throughout college I have been a babysitter.  I am a great babysitter.  I love children, I think they are the breath of life.  They say the funniest things and when they run as hard and as fast and crash in to you its one of the best feelings ever.  When they put their little hands on your face and talk to you, you feel so respected and loved.  Someday I can't wait to be a mommy with John.

So, yesterday I was babysitting two kids.  They are 3 and 5.  In order to protect those involved I will not disclose the genders and names of these kids.  I was doing my job picking them up from school and as soon as I got the one kid the kid flipped out and told me "I'm going to be mean to you and I don't want to be your friend anymore.  I'm going to put you in jail"  OUCH.  So, I tried to talk to the kid to see what happened at school.  Then things escalated (I'll spare ALL of the HORRIBLE details) and lets just say I ended up being spit on twice, hit, and scratched.  I called the parents immediately because I had never dealt with anything like that before, ever.  It made me so sad.

On the way home from work I called my mother crying.  I felt like the worst babysitter in the world and all of the sudden so very incapable of doing something that I have always been good at.  But I know I handled that very sensitive and difficult situation the best that I could.  It was so scary and I tried to control it the best I knew how.

So, when I got home I let out my frustrations and sadness on some cooking.  Being in the kitchen is my therapy.  Cooking makes me feel so calm and I know it is something that I am good at, and at that point I really needed to feel confident about something.

I made:

Creamy and Sweet Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

Here is what you'll need:

3 tablespoons brown sugar

15 oz can pumpkin puree

2 cans chicken broth, 14 ½ oz each

1 cup chopped onion

5 tablespoons softened butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

whole wheat bread loaf (bread cut into cubes)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 tablespoon white pepper

1/4 tablespoon white sugar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of melted butter.  Dip bread cubes in the mixture and place on baking sheet with buttered side up and bake for about 8 minutes or until the bread is toasted.

Sauté the onion in the rest of the butter in a saucepan until tender, then add half the chicken broth. Stir the mixture well, bring it to a boil, then cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Process the broth in a food processor or a blender until it is smooth, then put it back in the saucepan and add the other can of broth, the salt, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, white pepper, pumpkin puree, and black pepper.

Stir the mixture well and bring it to a boil.

Cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let the pumpkin soup simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring it occasionally.

Stir in the cream and warm it throughout without boiling.

Ladle the soup into 6 serving bowls and top each one with some yummy cinnamon croutons.

On another note:

You have until Monday October 25th to enter our GIVEAWAY!  We are giving away A CUSTOM MADE GUITAR STRING RING and 4 ANTHROPOLOGIE LATTE BOWLS

(enter here)