Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Where I live, school started for most people today. My husband goes back to school next Wednesday. So not looking forward to it. But graduation isn't too far away (hopefully April!) so I have to be excited! 

Whenever school starts back up, I am ready for fall to come. Ready for the crisp air, pumpkin foods, fall smells, colorful leaves, all the decorations and holidays.. Its my favorite time of year. Seeing that school started today then, I wanted to share a delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie recipe! 

So, I cracked open this cookbook. This, my friends, is the McClarkies cookbook. Compiled with recipes from the 11 children in my family and my mom. My mom and dad made these for all the kids one year for Christmas. 

I will share with you the secret EASY super delicious moist cookies. 

Here is what you will need: 

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (or margarine) 

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups flour

1 12 oz. bag chocolate chips

Mix the ingredients in order. I like to cream my egg, butter, and sugar before I put anything else in. It makes the cookies fluffier and softer.

After you cream the first ingredients, go ahead and put the rest in except for the flour. Mix it all together again like in the first picture. Then, add your flour at the end. 

It should look like this, and taste freaking delicious.. Someday I will prob die from salmonella.... 

Add your chocolate chips in. As many as you want. Lots. 

Set the oven for 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet, plop on the cookie dough, and cook for 14 minutes. 

Yum. Yum, yum!!! They are the easiest cookies. I love the taste... so harvest-y! 

Hope you enjoy!

Sewing adventures

I've always wanted to be a master sewer. But I totally am not. I have been teaching myself and pretty much all I can do is sew straight lines! I've taken a liking to making burp cloths. I have a client (hair client) that makes BEAUTIFUL blankets (SewSara) and when she has scraps, we trade! I cut her pretty little hairs and she gives me her pretty little fabrics. I am always amazed at the beautiful prints I find. For real. Here's a few burp cloths I have made recently: 

who doesnt love cherries?!

I am ready to up my sewing skills. I need to start making new things. This is on my short list to do and learn: 

We need this nap mat. Not just want. Need. Haha. It looks like it wouldn't be too hard. 

 Curtains! We dont have any curtains in our front room and I would love to add some to give the room some color. These look super easy. 

And... leggings! Seriously, Im loving all the baby leggings I have been seeing. But $25 a pair? I think i'd rather make them. So I think this one is at the top of my list. 

What's on your sewing short list? Comment below or on my instagram using #sewingshortlist. To check out the tutorials for these cute projects, look on my pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/gillianmohlman/things-to-attempt-to-sew/

O"fish"ally ONE

My baby turned one on July 25th! I seriously cannot believe how fast this last year has gone by. He is the perfect baby. Really. He is almost always happy. Such a chill baby and easy to please! 

Being that my budget is very limited, I tried to do something small and easy and cheap! I loved all the under the sea themes on pinterest but I just could not afford to do everything I wanted to do. So this was what I came up with- "Mckay is oFISHally one!" 

I set up some tables outside of my apartment and invited a few close friends and all of our family. We had so many people come and we are so appreciative of all of you! 

For the food, I just did snacks. I got all my buckets for a dollar each at Target. The scrapbook paper under the buckets is from Pebbles In My Pocket in Orem, UT. Here is what was in the buckets:

1- 'sun'chips

2-goldfish

3-swedish fish

4- 'fish bait" (gummy worms)

5-'beach balls" (m&m's)

6. "floaties" (life savers). 

We also had cut up fruit- peaches, strawberries, and apricots. (I totally forgot to put out all my cut veggies.. grrr). I then cut up mozzarella cheese to be 'shark teeth". We had water for 'ocean water" and juice. 

Mckay's cake was my favorite thing about his party. My sister in law Jen is a master cake maker. Seriously. She has made some of the cutest and most beautiful cakes I have EVER seen. I wanted something super simple and small for him to use as a 'smash' cake. I also wanted it to resemble some sort of water/waves. So she came up with this! Fondant ruffles around it to make it look like waves. And you know what- it tasted freaking good. If you need her to make you a cake, email me and I will pass her number on. 

Here is a closeup of the cake. She even made the cute banner! Little fishy cut outs were cut by me on my silhouette, and the scrapbook paper under the cake is from Pebbles in my Pocket in Orem, UT. 

 I also made a happy birthday banner! (Thanks Kamryn for helping me string it through!) I made that with my silhouette too with the paper being from Pebbles in my Pocket as well. 

He loved all the attention, loves, and yummy vanilla cake! We had water balloons and a little pool set up for the kids. I think he had a great time with all the people who came. 

So- lesson learned: you can still throw a cute party without loads of money. This was definitely a party on a budget but I am so happy with how it turned out! The most important thing to us were the people there, not the things or the way it looked. (although those things were fun too.)

Happy One Year Birthday little man, mommy loves you!