MELT IN YOUR MOUTH PUMPKIN COOKIES

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As you know, I am a big fan of pumpkin EVERYTHING. We took our students to a pumpkin patch this past weekend and it was wonderful except for the fact that it was POURING RAIN...and I don't mean like sprinkle, sprinkle rain but straight up, get you soaked down pour!! We still had a wonderful time but oh my gosh that rain....please don't come back.

But if that horrendous rain comes back I know that I'll stay safely inside curled up with a hot chocolate and some of these melt in your mouth pumpkin cookies.

These cookies though.

They actually MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. They have the perfect amount of pumpkin and spices with a sugar frosting...just perfect for fall. I recommend making them RIGHT away before the pumpkin cravings are long gone because there are only 71 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS PEOPLE!

MELT IN YOUR MOUTH PUMPKIN COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp (each) cinnamon, nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp pumpkin puree
• 2 cups flour
  
  frosting:
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• cinnamon for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves and then mix until well combined. Next add the egg, vanilla and then pumpkin. Once mixed, slowly add flour until just combined.
2. Place dough two inches apart on cookie tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Once baked, transfer to wire rack.
3. For the frosting, melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Transfer to the bowl of the electric mixer and mix in milk and vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Be sure to wait until the cookies are cool to frost them!
4. Enjoy!!

Happy Baking!

XO,
laura

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians out there! I love thanksgiving because it gives us all an excuse to hang out with ones we love, eat lots of turkey and take a moment to be thankful for all the blessings around us! I have so much to be thankful for....my loving husband, family, the best of friends a girl could ask for, an amazing church and of course JESUS <3

Hope you have a wonderful day and eat lots and lots of turkey!!! My amazing mother in law is hosting dinner this year and I am so thankful for that :)

XO,
laura

HELLO WEEKEND

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Hi hi hiiiiiiii. Oh m gee, I am soo sorry I haven't posted in forever! I'm still alive! Just have been unbelievably busy! Last weekend we were in Vancouver at James' cousin's wedding. It was at the most beautiful old mansion just off Granville and 16th. From the picture above you could see the water!! 

19 days until we go away (!!!!!!!) and TWO WEEKS TILL CONFERENCE! I kinda feel like my brain is going to explode but ITS ALL GOOD because God gives us all that we need every year and He won't let us down this year. 

It all of a sudden got sooo cold here and I just want to live in a sweater like this one.

I watched this video and bawled last night. So beautiful to see organizations on the ground, helping refugees in an unfathomable time.

On Saturday we're taking our students to a pumpkin patch! And I'm really hoping to make these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.

Next week I will be back to regular programming (3 posts per week!). Thank you for being such amazing readers. 

Love you to the moon & back!

-laura

Oh and I got a new phone so follow along....
 INSTAGRAM // FACEBOOK // SNAPCHAT: lauraliira
TWITTER // PINTEREST

PRINTABLE OCTOBER CALENDAR

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OH MY GOODNESS. HOW IS IT OCTOBER TOMORROW! October is one of my favourite months but eeeee with conference, our holidays and a billion other things in between I'm slightly freaking out....(cue deep breath in) But it's all going to be okay because in these times I can lean into Jesus. He will give me the strength I need. I won't be overwhelmed.

So as always, I made you a monthly calendar so you can get organized this October! How about scheduling some time to bake some yummy pumpkin cream cheese muffins? OR a PSL date with a friend? OR a pumpkin carving party?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE OCTOBER CALENDAR

Happy last day of September!

XO, laura

(Wreath and leaf graphics from Angie Makes!)

GETTING FIT THIS FALL

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image via

It's time for me to get my fitness on. There are two times of the year where I am motivated to get fit...fall and January (of course). I don't know why but I've never been motivated in the summer...(must be from dying on super hot runs or my love for ice cream.) But I always have been motivated to get fit in the fall time. I was just chatting with my friend Chenoah yesterday how fall is the PERFECT running weather. Cool air but sunshine...ahhh it's the best.

But this fall I'm extra motivated. Mainly because part of my 20 goals for my last year as a 20 something included: 5. Eat healthier, 6. Join a gym and 4. Go on a fancy vacation somewhere hot !

Let's consider two of those goals being accomplished :) James and I have booked a fall vaycay (conveniently right after conference)!!! We're flying down to Austin to see Joy & Ryan (!!!!) and hopefully some Friday Nights Lights pleeeeease and then we'll fly to Florida and embark on a 7 day Caribbean cruise because we're senior citizens and my bedtime is 9:30pm. #SOEXCITED and now I have a reason for a couple fitness goals!

So I signed up at Good Life and have been loving it. I hired a trainer for 3 sessions to teach me how to not kill myself with a barbell and man, I wish I could do their one year program but OHMYGOSH it costs a billion dollars. So I will be my own trainer after my final session today but I'm okay with that. They have some great classes which I'm hoping to try out this week.

So here's my gameplan (or at least the start of it):

• Exercise 4x per week. This could include a run or going to the gym (which I hope to be at least 2 of the 4). Sadly, my half hour walks to work will not count.
   
• Drink at least 2L water everyday. Before I started my training, my trainer made me step onto this magical machine that measured my weight, my body fat %, how much of my weight is muscle, how much calories I normally burn in a day, a bunch of other things AND how much water I drink!!! It was insane. She told me that I was very dehydrated which makes sense because I'm horrible at drinking water and really good at drinking coffee. So I'm gonna change that...not the coffee thing, because that is just crazy talk.
   
• Don't eat after 7:00pm. Now this is gonna be hard because I am a late night snacker. A bowl of cereal before I go to bed is one of my love languages!! But I'm going to try and also make sure I eat plenty of healthy & balanced meals in the day so I'm not starved at 7pm.
   
• Cut back on sweets. Sweets are my weakness. I didn't say never eat sweets because it's fall and I'm gonna bake pumpkin everything so I can't deprive myself!! But I need to cut back a lot...which will be hard, but so good.

So there's the start of the gameplan! I'll be back in a week or two with an update for you. I did take pictures and have measurements of waist and thighs and all that jazz. I don't think I'll ever share that with you BUT I'll definitely tell you if what I'm doing is working!

Happy Monday!

XO,
laura