Fall = Pumpkins = Lots of yummy food and fun!

I looooove anything pumpkin flavored. Who can resist a good pumpkin cookie or a nice slice of pumpkin bread!? Someone was giving away neck pumpkins at church the other day and said they worked well for baking. I had never actually cooked a pumpkin and baked with it before. I always bought pumpkin in a can. I decided to try it and planned to make a chocolate pumpkin cake out of it.
These days Owen loves to pretend to cook. He pulls out all of our pots and pans and spoons and just goes to town "cooking". If you ask him what he is cooking he with either say "apples" or "eggs". I let him pull a chair up to the counter and help me with the cake. He had the best time. We just might have sampled slightly too much batter. :)
The cake turned out really good. I got the recipe off of allrecipes.com I am sort of obsessed with this website now. It has the best recipes and tons of reviews from people that have tried them. Yum!!

Wordless Wednesday

Latest Happenings......

The month of September has flown by! It is hard to believe summer is over and fall is underway. We started the month by taking a trip to Pittsburgh to visit my (Brynne's) family. It was such a fun time. Owen loved spending time with his Mimi, Pap Pap, Aunt Brit, Great Aunt Ellen and my cousins Tori and Ashley. Pap Pap bought Owen his first power tool set and he still plays with his tools constantly!! I am thankful for this new toy. :) O also got to take a slow ride around the yard on Pap Pap's quad. I am not sure who was more excited about this....Owen or Pap Pap?





The second weekend in September we traveled to Allentown, PA for Brian's first Marathon! I was SO proud of him. He trained so hard over the summer and did a GREAT job! We were joined by Bri's parents, his brother Chris and Chris' fiance Sarah. It was fun to cheer Brian on and hang out with family.

Later in the month Grandpa McHugh came for visitnwhile Grandma was in TX visiting Brian's brother and his wife. We went to a fall festival at a local farm. Owen had a great time going on a hay ride, feeding the animals and running around outside.

We were also visited by Grandma McHugh and Aunt Megan at different times during the month. It was fun to have them here! What a great way to end the summer and head into Fall!!

Let's Go PSU!!!!!

We didn't actually get to watch the Penn State game today but we had fun wearing our gear! Our kids are destined to be Penn State fans..........

Yogurt :)

This is what happens when we let O "feed" himself his yogurt.........some days it is cleaner than others. Sometimes he gets tired of the spoon and just digs in with his hands. :)

Our Summer

What better way to communicate just how quickly this summer has flown by than to make one quick blog post for the whole thing? Think about it: we spent so much time anticipating all the things we were going to do this summer, and before we knew it, we'd done them all. So here they are presented in what feels like the same amount of time as they actually took place. (Mar, even though I just made this up, is it a convincing enough reason for why we haven't posted anything since Mother's Day?)

Summer officially kicked off by watching the US squeak out a tie against England in the World Cup with Cousin K, Uncle Tim and Uncle Chris.









We traveled to NJ for the 17th annual MIT, and Aunt Kathryn's high school graduation. Though we didn't get any pictures of the actual basketball tournament or the actual graduation, we do have lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.


We extended our trip a little bit by visiting Brynne's Uncle Pat, Aunt Zane, and cousins Chris, Tim and Courtney in Connecticut.


I spent the month of July on campus at West Chester University starting a Master Degree program, but we did manage two camping trips: one in our friends Jeremy and Allison's backyard with Owen and their kids, and the other just Brynne and I at Rickett's Glen State Park to celebrate our 6th anniversary.



The summer culminated in over 2 weeks at the beginning of August in Kure Beach, NC. We spent the first week with Pap Pap, Grammy, Aunt Megan, Aunt Brittany, and our friends Molly and Kaitlyn. To celebrate Molly and I turning 30 and Aunt Brittany turning 16, Brynne organized our own version of "Minute To Win It."



The second week, Jeremy and Allison and their kids joined us. One of the highlights from our week together was a trip to the Fort Fisher Aquarium.