Commissary Day!!

One Thursday each month we go to the commisary to get a months worth of groceries. With my Mon./Wed. school schedule I have been able to join my mom on this shopping spree. It has been really fun to be with my mom and we get the shopping done twice as fast with both of us working. I take half the list and my mom takes the other. This particular Thursday was quite a big grocery day. My mom wanted to stock up on Christmas stuff, baking goods, and Thanksgiving foods, so we would be prepared for the holidays. When we get home we all work together to put everything away. A months worth of groceries sure is a ton of groceries!!

Mom with the list and all the bags.
Sugar helping us out by keeping us company:)

Our crammed pantry.

Fall Baking

I(Kaitlin) love to bake.......especially dessert stuff:) Just a couple of days ago I was home by myself, so I decided to make something. We just bought a new fall recipe book and I was surprised to see we had all the ingredients for these cookies. They actually turned out pretty good. I will post the recipe for anyone would like to make them. Note: It calls for lightly browned butter not burnt.....I think I burnt the butter the first time(boy did it stink)so I had to do the butter part twice......I'm certainly not a professinal butter browner:)

Pumpkin Cookies

with Browned Butter Frosting

Cookies

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup pumpkin(just plain ol' pumpkin not pie mix:)

2 eggs

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

Browned Butter Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 to 4 tbls. milk

1/3 cup butter

1. Oven to 375. Beat sugars, butter and vanilla in a bowl with mixer on Med. speed. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed beat in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

2. drop in heaping tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet

3. Bake 10-12 min. or unitl almost no indentioni remains when touched in the center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

4. In a med. bowl place powdered sugar, 1tsp. of vanilla, and 3 tbls. milk. Then heat 1/3 cup butter over med. heat in a saucepan until lightly browned. Stir butter constantly to avoid burning.

5. Pour browned butter over powdered sugar mixture. Beat on low speed about 1 min. or until smooth. Gradually add just enough of the remaining 1 tbls. milk to make frosting creamy and spreadable. Generously frost completely cooled cookies.

ENJOY!!(oh and be sure to always lick the bowl and sample the batter while making.....of course, this is must every time you make cookies:)

The finished product

Garage Band

Connor and Nathan doing the Switchfoot jump

Connor and some of his friends from church have a band together. Connor plays bass, Nathan plays electric guitar, and Johnathan plays the drums. A couple of weeks ago they all came over to our house to practice for a little while. They are actually very good and have even made up a few of their own songs. Our house was jammin' that day! If I can figure it out sometime......I might be able to post a recording of their song, so you can hear what they sound like.

Dance Fever!!

You might not have guessed, but our family likes to dance. It is usually just me(Kaitlin) and Kara that will dance together in the family room while Daddy is washing the dishes from dinner(of course, we will come and help Daddy between songs:) This particular night we all got together and danced. Some of our favorite dancing tunes are "September" by Kirk Franklin and "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. It was so much fun!! (and a very good workout:)

Mom and Dad dancing to "Brown Eyed Girl"

Connor pulling some fancy moves with mom.

It's the Start of Something New!

Well, the Richards have started a blog. We thought this would be fun way for us to let our out-of town family know about the crazy, exciting, and random things that go on in our house. We hope you enjoy!