Best Pumpkin Cake Ever!!

Happy Thanksgiving first of all!!!

I am excited today because #1 it's Thanksgiving and I am with my family and #2 I have found my new favorite dessert. It's Paula Deen's recipe and after taking one bite of this divine creation, I am thinking about traveling to the south just to give Miss Paula a big ol' kiss on the cheek. So I decided to blog this because everyone needs to try this.... Here it is.
Enjoy!!!

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 18.25-ounce box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

For the filling:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 15 ounce can pumpkin pie filling
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 16-ounce box confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

Yields: 20-24 small squares
Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg and butter, and mix well. Pour into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside.
In the mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add pumpkin pie filling, eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioner’s sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well. Pour filling on top of cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake 40-50 minutes (You want the center to be a little gooey; so don’t bake past that point!). Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Tagged

I got tagged and now I feel special!!

This is how this goes, I supposed to write down six things about my personality, or traits about myself that make me nuts!! YES! I love this.... I think it's fun to be a little bit on the cooky side. So here it goes.

1. I have two different shaped eyes, one is round the other is almond. Both Abby and Mac have been blessed with this unique gift! Those poor kids!

2. My feet are CRAZY!! My left foot is just like my fathers, meaning I have his weird looking hammer like big toe, and the rest of the toes are long. My right foot is just like my mothers, meaning I have cute little sausage like toes. It's freaky... but oh so cool to say that I have two different feet.

3. I can't stop dancing. This has been a life long challenge of mine. Ever since the womb I think that I have been shaking my groove thing non stop. I will be walking in a store and a good song will start to play and before I even realize it I am shaking and moving all over the place. I love this trait, I wish everyone could feel the wonderful feeling of just dancing like you really mean it and never care what anyone thinks. Secretly the people that are starring at you are the ones that can't dance : )
(Side note: In high school I won best dancer.. this I am so proud of. I can't divide or subtract, but man can I shake my butt. )

4. I hate warm pillows. This is weird but I can't stand it when I crawl into bed and my pillow is the same temperature as I am. Who likes to sweat in bed? (That's a dangerous question!!!!)
In the summertime I always find myself yelling and hitting my pillow and telling Ben that I am going to invent a pillow that cools you.

5. I make up fake conversations before they happen. For example, Ben and I will be walking into to a store to return an item that we didn't like... or something like this, and I will completely rehearse the whole convo to myself. I act the part as both people in my head, this eventually turns into a comedy sketch that goes crazy fast! I am always thinking what if they say this... because then..... ohhhh I'll say this to them. Maybe this is why I get headaches?

6. This final one is the most fun. I can catch almost anything in my mouth (food related..of course!). This started when I was young, I would do this myself, until I quickly learned that it was much harder if someone were to toss the item to me instead. I have caught sunflower seeds, gummy bears, grapes, M&M's, popcorn (which is the hardest because it floats in mid air) and the list could go on. I'm pretty good..... for instance... last night my sister and I were probably 15 feet away from eachother and she was tossing me lifesaver gummies. Now not only was I catching them, but I was also nursing little McConnell at the same time. Now that's risky!!

Well this was fun... I kept on asking Ben what drives him nuts about me and my personality but of course being the wonderful man that he is, he just came up with fun ones and not the annoying ones. I know that I have a laundry list full of more batty things about myself, but this is what I have come up with for now.

Now I don't want to catch any of you girls starring at my feet at church!!! Just Kidding!!

Smooth Operator

We witnessed the cutest thing today at church. Church was crowded, so this adorable family (The Spackmans) sat right next to us in the little pew. Thankfully the Spackman's have a three year old boy (Jude) to keep Abby busy!! Now this isn't a normal three year old boy... he is the kind of little boy every Mama wants! Well behaved little Jude sat and played with Abby. Now Abby is usually very protective around other children when it comes down to her toys and especially her beloved snacks! But this was an unusual encounter with a playmate.... Abby adored him. She shared her sticker book, her lace up thingy majigs, and most important her SNACKS! But this is the best part.. they were sitting there enjoying their granola bar and goldfish, when out of the blue, Jude put the moves on. He slyly slid his arm around Abby's shoulders... ( just like her daddy would do to me in the movie theater) and then when he tried to hold her hand, Abby decided to keep it clean and shake his instead. We are proud of our Abby girl, obviously those chastity talks have paid off. Even more impressive is the move done by Jude, we will never forget this act of love. There is nothing quite like young love. Thank you Jude for this... it made us proud parents.

If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all

Tonight Abby and I had to make a quick stop into the Covington Walmart. We walked up to check out and our checker quickly says to Abby " Wow, you're a good eater aren't you." Now ironically our checker lady was rather plump herself, well actually I'll just say it she was FAT!!!! How dare her insinuate that my beautiful, wonderful, full of life Abby is fat! I literally had to bite my tongue the whole time she was checking me out. All I wanted to say... actually yell.. is how dare you say that about someone you don't even know... how dare you hurt her feelings, and yes she has feelings. (Abby is a very intelligent 2 year old.... thank you very much). I just don't understand some people, why do they have to even open their mouth!! Okay okay, maybe I am just a little bit on the sensitive side, but this isn't the first time it's happened. I guess people just don't understand that it isn't fun to hear that it looks like my daughter has never missed a meal. Abby is healthy girl, who loves her vegetables, and I shouldn't feel like I need to defend her weight. Basically what it boils down to is... these people just wish that they had a child as beautiful as my Abby. Don't hate!!! I am done venting and now I feel much better. Just to prove my point here are a few pictures of my beautiful Abby .

Halloween 2007

Halloween.... Well, it has come and gone already! Boy... that was quick. Abby loved being a firefighter-girl, that's what she called it. For weeks I was trying to think of ways to girly up her costume, and nothing came to me. Then out comes Ben and Abby from her room on Trunk or Treat night and Abby has on her adore bright pink cowgirl boots on.... now why couldn't I think of that! McConnell decided that he wanted to be a hotdog and I don't blame him, He was the warmest out of all of us. Our stake had a fun Trunk or treat and I was incredibly impressed with how many people were there! I am so thankful that they plan this at the church, because the Seattle neighborhoods around us aren't the safest places, that is unless we were looking for some crack or weed. But Ben and I just go to our regular guy at the park for that. Anyway here are our little pumpkins (no pun intended) all dressed up! They are the cutest!