PUMPKIN PIE MADE FROM SCRATCH

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make my pumpkin pies from scratch.  Here is the start of the whole thing.  You should use smaller pumpkins because they are sweeter and easier to work with.  Well, it took the help of my son to cut into these pumpkins.  I didn't carve any pumpkins for Halloween so I thought it would be cool to cut them up and cook them.  It ended up being a huge project which I was determined to finish.  It took pretty much all day the day before Thanksgiving.  We had three pumpkins and this was the largest.  The pies turned out really good.  They were fresh and lighter tasting than the store bought canned pumpkin.  


The following pictures are from the biggest pumpkin which was the hardest to cut open and didn't produce much results.  We ended up with 3 cups of pumpkin after it was cooked.  The other two pumpkins were smaller but produced more pumpkin.  I ended up w three with 6 bags of pumpkin at 3 cups in each bag.  That is a whole lot of pumpkin!  Thank goodness we are able to freeze it and use the rest at a later date.  


If you want to give it a try for the upcoming Christmas holiday, just email me and I will send you the recipe.  The stores usually carry the smaller pumpkins through December. 


Deanna  :)

FAVORITE PICTURES OF FALL

I have been trying to organize my life by combining all my websites and connecting them to save time and frustration.  This morning I was doing more of this online organizing and ran across a few of my fall favorite pictures I have taken in the last few years.  As we say farewell to fall this week, I just wanted to share these pictures with you before we move on to the Christmas season.  Enjoy!  

CENTER OF ATTENTION

This is one of my favorite pictures from a photo shoot I did last night.  Sweet little Brimley was completely done with the photo shoot and wanted to let everyone know how she felt about it.  I love all the facial expressions from every single family member.  Absolutely priceless!

Deanna  :)  

GIVE THANKS

Wow!  Time has a way of flying by.  Here it has already been a week since my last post.  My goal is to post more than once a week, but I will have to keep working on that!

Tomorrow we are suppose to get another snow storm here in northern Utah.  My husband is home today and is out raking up the leaves before the big storm hits.  I am inside working on some new designs and of course, blogging.  :)

I was looking through some of my pictures and came upon one of my three beautiful children and my absolutely adorable grandson.  We went to the pumpkin patch earlier this month.  It is a nice picture and I just wanted to post it today.  I am trying to keep my mind focused on fall until Thanksgiving is over but it is hard to do when you are working on Christmas card designs and your mind is already ahead of the holiday.  I do love Thanksgiving.  It is a great reminder that we should always remember how truly blessed we are.  

Here is to you and your family.  May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Deanna  :)

FAREWELL TO FALL

 We had a lovely, nice and warm Halloween.  Then the storm blew in.  By Friday we had snow on top of the trees weighing some of them down to the ground.  Although I love Fall and hate to give it up, I have to admit the snow was impressive.  Before I had a chance to go outside and take a few pics of the undisturbed beauty, my husband was out there beating the beautiful snow off the weighed down branches.  Oh well, the pictures are still pretty.  At least I enjoy them!


Deanna  :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

We had a wonderful Halloween spending time with our oldest daughter and her husband and our beautiful grandson Charley.  He is such a joy to be around.  Exhausting at times but always a joy.  I do believe it is true that you enjoy your grandchildren more.  Most likely because you can send them home at the end of the day and then see them again the next.  
Here are a few favorite photo's from Halloween.  Hope you Halloween was awesome!


Deanna  :)

WEEKEND IN OCTOBER

I took these photo's two weekends before Halloween.  My husband took Friday off and we took the kids to the pumpkin patch.  It was fun seeing the reactions of Charley our little grandson and his little friend Ava.  So many pumpkins!  


On Saturday, my husband and I went on a fall drive around the Alpine Loop.  It was a beautiful day and we put the top down on the convertible with the heater on our feet.  :)  What a glorious, glorious site.  The mountains were so fun to drive through and to look at all the different trees and see the waterfall.  


Sunday afternoon our family went on a small nature walk and this is where our weekend ended.  We had a great time from picking pumpkins to just being together.  It is truly all about families.  


Deanna  :)