Pumpkin Cookies

With Autumn, come certain foods that just are downright delicious and often made in our house. One of these comfort foods is my favorite cookie--Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Today I took my preschool class on a field trip to one of the local pumpkin patches in Greenbluff--Walter's Fruit Ranch. For the snack, I needed a slew of cookies to feed approximately 30+ people. (Because who can eat only one cookie?) Besides being the best pumpkin cookie--hands down--this recipe makes A LOT of cookies. And as always, they turned out fabulous and everyone enjoyed more than one--just as predicted.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1--29oz can packed pumpkin

3 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cup oil

3 eggs

3 tsp vanilla

3 tsp cinnamon

6 tsp baking powder

3 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 cups flour (I substitute 1 cup for whole wheat flour)

1 package milk chocolate chips

(1 c. chopped nuts--optional)

(1/2 tsp nutmeg--optional)

Mix the wet ingredients together with the sugar. Mix the flour with the salt and baking agents and slowly add to the wet pumpkin mixture. Mix thoroughly--dough will be loose, so don't be alarmed. Add the chocolate chips. Drop by the teaspoon onto a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. (I use convection bake to save baking time. I also get about 24 cookies per sheet). Plan on about 6 sheets of cookies. If there's too many for you--cut the recipe in half or make the whole lot and freeze half of them for instant cookies throughout the next couple of months.

Pumpkin is high in Vitamin A and anti-oxidants. I tell myself this as a form of justification for the crazy number of them that I eat. And if they are healthy for you--who needs guilt, right? That prompted the whole wheat flour additive, but it's not required if you only have white flour :) Share them with a friend or neighbor, and be prepared to share the recipe--because they are yummy!!

Baptism Day for Nathan, Cameron, and Braden

This has been a fabulous weekend for our family. All three of my sons were baptized by their father on Saturday, October 17, 2010. We believe that baptism is like a symbolic "gate" that is necessary to go through as a means of returning back to live with our Heavenly Father. Christ was the perfect example of this necessary ordinance when, even as a perfect man, He entered the waters of Jordan to be baptized of John. One of the declarations of our faith is: "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, repentance; third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."







Baptism has been a constant topic of discussion in our household for the last three years. For personal reasons that I won't go into here, Nathan and Cameron were not baptized at the age of eight. But all three of these boys have a great testimony and knowledge of their Savior. They are enthusiastic, and willing to be obedient and faithful to the covenants they made in the waters of baptism. Braden joined the twins in this special day, as he turned eight in August.



My parents came over from the coast to join us for the big day. It was a day of celebration at our house with a fabulous dinner (brisket with currant sauce, cheesy au gratin potatoes, french baby green beans....and a smorgasbord of cookies). I am a firm believer in keeping record of important dates and events, but I was caught not thinking beyond the date...because the Bishop pulled me aside and told me that I needed to have the boys write about their experience in their journals. Journals. Ahh. You mean the ones that are worthy of keeping...not the chintzy spiral notebook kind of journals that get worn and thrown away. So tomorrow I am going to go get the boys some nice, heirloom-quality journals and have them write their baptismal memories for family home evening before the feelings start to fade. You'd think after having five kids, I'd remember the little details in parenting like this. But it's great advice, and I'm going to follow-up with my boys and get them to do it. What a great experience to share with their own future families and even the people they will share the gospel with as friends and missionaries.








Cute kids......Cameron, Braden, Nathan, Jessica, and Ashley






This was truly the only family shot of 50 that turned out! It's amazing how you feel like a fish swimming upstream when every one's inner-comedian comes out for the camera. But, all in all, this was a righteous and memorable family day in the annals of the Eibert history. Free agency was exercised, good choices made, and testimonies strengthened. What it all comes down to, is...that we want to return to live with God and we don't want to be there alone--without the ones that we love the most. Today was about moving along the path towards eternity and making sure that each of our children are prepared to make and receive covenants from their eternal Father. I know how much He loves these little ones because I know how much I love them.

General Conference Bingo Cards

I think I'm like most parents who want their kids to get something out of general conference twice a year, but it's 2 days, 4 sessions, and a lot of sitting and listening for normally busy kids. I've printed packets in the past...they went unused or got flagrantly abused. But this year I thought I would try Bingo cards and see how it goes. I found them on-line at the link below and there were 12 assorted cards...big score! So I printed them on colored card stock and am going to laminate them for better wear and tear. If they are a hit--they might be pulled out twice a year for the next few--if you know what I mean. I even made a couple extra sets--because I can never seem to figure out how to many just one of anything.


So, I figured with extra sets in hand, that I should get my visiting teaching done on the 1st of the month this time (and being as it's also the day before conference starts), a packet of bingo cards for each of my families might be a great idea, being that there are several young children in the families. I got the bingo templates from this website:

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/games/bingo_boards.pdf


There were also really cute packet ideas at http://www.sugardoodle.net/ that you could print and make into little question and answer booklets. They included mazes, word searches, and fun facts about each apostle and members of the first presidency. I think where they had me really impressed was the recipes for fun foods to try for the kids. Eating while watching TV...whoda' thunk? Hmmm...so much creativity and love flowing out there is cyber-space that people are willing to share. I'm grateful, because it really inspires me to do better. Love it!


I found several other great sites with cute Bingo cards, but many you could only download in color and they weren't so cute printed in good old black and white. So I figured black on colored paper was sufficient to complete this project before conference next year!