Fall is for Pumpkin treats!

So life has been really busy being life! I feel tired ALL the time; and especially this week while they are replacing every roof on our row of town homes!! It is so loud and annoying and today they started at 7:30 am! Is that even legal?! I vote NO! But what does my pregnant mommy vote count haha. I have so much to get done in ICAA and I always feel like I'm a mile behind in my primary duties (so much to update/email/record being a secretary!) And when I'm not busy with that or my little girl I'm probably hunting for a bag of doritos or a bathroom because apparently my bladder is now the size of a peanut or something, cuz I go all the time. More joys of pregnancy :) But in 2 weeks, Oct 18th, we will get to do our halfway ultrasound! Wahoo! Hopefully get to find out boy or girl, I'm guessing girl, and Jesse is guessing boy so we'll see who wins. Not that there will be a disappointed party by any means but its just exciting to be expanding our little family! And of course we want to make sure everything is alright, I mean I have so many crazy dreams (they keep me up at night sometimes) that I can feel a bit paranoid about possibly having a monkey or conjoined puppies (yeah weird dreams..).

ANYWAY I am so excited fall is here! Well its more summer with leaves on the ground this week but at least it cools off at night, I'll take it! I have been wanting pumpkin things since the leaves started changing so last night I made pumpkin bread! 1st time EVER I've done cookies before with pumpkin and a cake mix, way easy but it always feels really nice to make something from scratch! At least I think so :) AND it was SUPER easy! and turned out fantastic, Maia even gobbled some up.

Pumpkin Bread:

2/3 C. Shortening
4 eggs
2/3 C Water
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 2/3 C Sugar
1 can (15-16oz) Pumpkin (NOT pie filling!)
3 1/3 C flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. each Cinnamon & Cloves (except I had no cloves so I used Nutmeg and it turned out great!)
8oz Chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Grease/Spray with Pam 2 loaf pans.
3. Mix Shortening and Sugar in large bowl 
4. Once combined add eggs ( I actually found they combined a bit better once I added the eggs) and pumpkin and water. * If mixing by hand as I did wait until the pumpkin is incorporated to the rest of the mix before adding the water to avoid splashing*
5. Blend in Flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder cinnamon and cloves (or nutmeg works too ) ( I added these in small batches of dry ingredients since I was again mixing by hand)
6. Once batter is well combined stir in chocolate chips (or even nuts if you like that sorta thing :) )
7. Pour into loaf pans, bake 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean(ish)
8. Wait about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven, then remove from loaf pan; wait until it cools to serve (believe me its hard to wait!)

okay so I did NOT take this picture but the only difference between our two recipes is mine came from a ward cookbook this one was online and has whole wheat flour (which I did not have on hand)

I loved it :) in fact I think I shall go an try another slice right now, it's even better the next day!

Fall photos are being taken next week! And then Jesse's birthday, and then finals and then our trip to Colorado with our Anniversary and bringing my mom back to Iowa with us...I LOVE OCTOBER!