Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 bag Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix
3 eggs (2 beaten, hold 1 back from beating)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 cup agave
1 teaspoon allspice (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg)

Measure out 2/3 cake mix and set aside, Combine remaining 1/3 cake mix with 1 unbeaten egg and butter until crumbly. Spread in bottom of a greased 9X13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Combine reserved cake mix with pumpkin, sugar or agave, nuts, eggs, and allspice. Mix and pour over crust. Continue baking for 15 minutes. Refrigerate. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Mix all ingredients and frost over cooled bars.

BSU Pumpkin

I decided to paint my pumpkin this year. It took me all week to get this BSU football player done.

This is our second tournament of the season. Luckily this was in Boise, ID. We did not have to travel far.

Our first game was Saturday morning at 10:15 a.m. We played the Kickers from Nampa, ID. We won the game 5-0.

We played game #2 later Saturday at 4:30 p.m. We played a Rush team from Boise. It was an exciting game. At half time it was scoreless. About 5 minutes left in the game Rush scored a goal on us. The referee should have called off sides, but he missed it. It was 1-0 and our girls were tired. One minute left in the game Rush scored again on us and the game ended. The girls played their best and we were all proud of each and every one.

Game #3 was played early Sunday morning. We had a 9:00 a.m. start and the temperature outside was 32 degrees. Luckily there was no wind and that made it feel a lot warmer. We won the game 2-0. We won second place in the tournament. Not bad for a young team.

Linder Farms

Today we took the girls to Linder Farms in Kuna. We went on a tractor ride and got to pick the perfect pumpkins. The BSU corn maze that took us all about one hour to find our way out.

Panama City Beach, FL 2009

Once we made it to Panama City Beach, FL and saw the ocean we knew that it was all worth it.

One day we had rain and decided to go to the mall. I found great deals at JC Penney and bough the girls some school clothes.

We went to Hunt's Oyster Bar and I ate my first oyster! It was o.k. but I doubt I eat another.

We love the ocean and the sand is like sugar. This is a wonderful place.

We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool. Kennedy did so good swimming. She was able to do two forward and backward somersaults under water.

Our Flight to Florida

We left Idaho at 7:00 a.m. October 2, 2009. It was a Friday and we were given airline buddy passes from a friend. Flying standby with a 5 year old was a challenge. It was an even bigger challenge hauling all of her food through the airport. Our doctor gave us a note for the airlines to allow us to bring Kennedy food on the trip. We made it to Phoenix and then our day went down hill. We watched 5 flights to Charlotte, NC leave Phoenix and we could not get on. All of the flights were full and had no room for us. 7 hours passed and I was starting to get frustrated. We were told there was a chance we were going to have to stay the night in Phoenix or Charlotte because there were no other flights into Pensacola for the day. We had missed all the connecting flights. They were telling us that we may not even make it Saturday! I called Kevin and he was able to find cheap airline tickets from Atlanta to Pensacola. We were able to get on a flight to Atlanta at 6:00 p.m. Kevin reserved us a hotel room by the Atlanta airport and by the time we made it to the hotel it was 11:00 p.m. We were exhausted and had no clothes! Our bags were in Florida and we were not. We slept in our T shirts and woke up the next morning at 6:00 a.m. (4:00 a.m. Idaho time). We ate breakfast and off to the airport we went. We made it to Pensacola, Fl around 8:30 a.m. We were 16 hours late, in dirty clothes, and ready to hit the beach.