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This post was originally posted in 2017. It has been updated with this adorable video of my daughter from when we made some today. These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles and the perfect fall cookie.

     Today, in 2025, this little girl is exactly 7 and 1/2 years old!  Since I'm deciding what to do with all of the pumpkins that I'm growing, I ran across this adorable post and I am wondering how the time has flown!  I'm going to make some of these and remember back to this time in her sweet life.  I have to say that at 71/2, she is just as cute and sweet! 

Do you know what I love about pumpkin? 

Everything. That's what. I know pumpkin spice is all the fall rage these days, and let me tell you something, I will take the blame for it. Way back in 2006 a few friends and I started a tradition of having a pumpkin party. It just so happened to perfectly align with my birthday, and I've had a pumpkin party every year for my birthday ever since.

If you want to know the truth, if it were up to me I'd put pumpkin in my food every day of the year. Since I have a husband who, while he does not object to pumpkin, does not adore pumpkin as I do  I behave myself every year and wait.

​Well guess what! IT IS ALMOST FALL AND I CAN DO WHAT I WANT! PUMPKIN EVERYTHING!

I decided to make you a pumpkin recipe this week and I really got into my head. Should it be sweet or savory? Basic or creative? What else could I do to show you the power of pumpkin? Well, my mom suggested I make my pumpkin snickerdoodles, and since I had volunteered to make cookies for a church function anyway it seemed like a win win.

I'll be honest, I originally found this recipe on Pinterest many years ago (we're talking pre-mission  somewhere around 2012). I can't recall where it originated from, and I am sorry for that, but it is really so delicious. These snickerdoodles are so soft and pumpkin-y and wonderful that if you find who originally created the recipe, tell me. Not only will I give them the credit they deserve here, but I'll find some way to give that person an award.

Fall baking is honestly where I feel in my zone. You see that cinnamon container? We have two of those. I think I have three different bottles of pumpkin spice as well. It might be four. Needless to say, I have a lot of great plans and how-to's for your fall baking, so make sure you come back and see what else I have in store for you. (For example, I realized I never showed you how to cook a pumpkin.) Until next time, enjoy these pumpkin snickerdoodles. If they're not the best snickerdoodle you've ever had, well, honestly I'll think you're confused.

     This post was originally published in 2022.  In honor of Good Friday, we are posting it again because it is the best way for us to express what Good Friday means to our family.  We hope this message takes your minds and hearts to that glorious place of love and gratitude for our Savior.  He lived and died for us, and he lives again! 

In the Christian world, today is Good Friday. Sometimes I wonder who came up with that name. I think about the people who stood at the foot of the cross of the Savior Jesus Christ. They probably didn't feel like it was a very good day.
Of course, the Good News of that Friday was that Sunday was coming.

If you are subscribed to our email then you would have heard the news about our baby boy Henry Merrill. 
You might recall this post where I wrote about our second daughter Elodie.  Nine months after Elodie's birth and death I was once again pregnant. We were hopeful and nervous about this third little baby who was coming to our family. Would he or she be perfectly healthy like his oldest sister Emily? Or would he too have Meckel Gruber Syndrome like his sister Elodie?

On September 13 I went in for a doctor's appointment when I was about 17 weeks pregnant. My doctor tried to do an ultrasound, but found there was no amniotic fluid around the baby. I don't know if you've ever seen an ultrasound image of a baby with no amniotic fluid, but it is impossible to see anything. The lack of fluid suggested that this baby had a problem with his or her kidneys, one of the symptoms of Meckel Gruber Syndrome. I went to see a specialist where it was confirmed that this baby had Meckel Gruber Syndrome as well. We did a blood test to find out the baby's gender and found out we were going to have a little boy, our little Henry.

After losing a child once, the second time around feels even darker and harder somehow. You've already had to do this once, how can you possibly do it again? I spent many nights praying and begging God to please please please save my baby.

Henry made his debut into the world a little earlier than planned. At 31 weeks I started bleeding. At 33 weeks I went into labor on my own. Henry was born on January 2, 2022 at 6:13 PM. He lived for 3 hours and 13 minutes. In this life he was able to meet his parents, his oldest sister, and his two grandmothers. He was sweet, tiny, and so handsome. As he passed I knew his sister Elodie was there to greet him and welcome him to the Spirit World.

Henry's time on this earth was so brief. Unlike Elodie we didn't get to bring him home and take family photos. My mom took that one at the top of all of us after his birth. I can't fully explain to you the depths of my heartache at losing him too, and now having two sweet babies waiting for me in the Spirit World. As we have explained on here before, we believe that families can be, and in fact are meant to be, eternal, and that death is not the end. Although I do truly have faith that I will see my children again someday, that doesn't mean I walk through this life without thinking about them and missing them every single day. They have impacted my life in so many ways. I love them so deeply and I'm so grateful to be their mother. Sometimes though, sometimes I feel like living each day without all of your children alive and healthy is the circle of hell that Dante was afraid to go to.

On this Good Friday I reflect back to those standing at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. Looking up at their Savior, the Promised Messiah as He hung, nailed to a tree, suffering for us all. How dark it must have felt for those who loved Him. Although there were countless scriptures prophesying of His coming, of His death AND resurrection, there was so much they couldn't understand. What they could understand was that it was painful to watch someone whom they loved so deeply be crucified despite the fact that He was innocent of any wrong doing.

I feel that Good Friday sorrow deeply. Christ understood perfectly their suffering. Yet, despite the fact that He was perfectly capable of doing so, He did not get down from where He hung. He knew what He must do, and why.

Christ has given us all the promise that our Good Fridays will end. The sun will go down, and long will be the night. But Sunday is coming. On Good Friday I invite you all to look forward to the promise of that glorious Sunday. Holding Elodie and Henry as they slipped from this world to the next was both deeply painful and spiritual. Painful because I don't want to be parted from my sweet children. Spiritual because I know what Christ has promised me.

Thanks to my Savior who stayed on that cross, Sunday came. He overcame death and sorrow and gives me the promise that one day I will see Elodie and Henry again. They will live. They are my children to raise. On that joyous day I know that I will never have to say good-bye to them, or anyone else I love, ever again.

​So you see, this is a Good Friday.

 Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and what better way to show your love than by creating homemade chocolates? You may remember this post from ten years ago (wow! How long have we been blogging here?) where my mom showed you how to make Easter dipped chocolates and gave you our recipe for dipped chocolate filling. Well, now I'm going to show you how to make some tasty dipped chocolates using my mom's base recipe for the filling, but we are going to give them a Valentine Day design! (This is Lindsey by the way, and the humor of me doing something special for Valentine's day is funnier than you know.)

I am Young Women President in my ward, which means the young women in our church congregation between the ages of 12 and 18 are my responsibility. We plan activities together throughout the year from a weekly youth night to a summer camp. We recently held a fundraiser for our yearly summer camp and the girls chose to do a dessert silent auction. We decided to hold the auction the weekend before Valentine's Day, and so I decided I would make some dipped chocolates for my dessert for the auction! I wanted to make them look a little prettier than just little balls, so I used a silicone mold to shape the chocolates into cute shapes!

I decided to make two different fillings for these Valentine dipped chocolates, orange and thin mint. For the orange flavoring I followed the directions from my mom's post, which I included on the recipe card here. However, I had a container for Thin Mint crumbs in my cupcake cupboard so I just kept shaking out the thin mint crumbs, mixing them in, and doing a small taste test to see if you could taste the thin mint until it got to a taste I liked.
When it came to shaping the chocolates, there was a little trial and error for me. At first I thought it would be a good idea to shape the filling inside the mold and then do the chocolate bit. So here is what the shaped fillings looked like.

However, I learn that the easiest thing was to add a little of the melted chocolate to the bottom of the mold, then press in the filling and let them freeze. After letting them sit in the freezer for thirty minutes the dipped chocolates would pop right out of the mold and I would then dip the bottoms into the chocolate on the stove and placed them on a tray to put back into the freezer until the chocolate hardened.

I used two different dipping chocolate for these, Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers, and Wilton's Milk Chocolate Candy Melts. (This Link is for the Light Cocoa Candy Melts, I couldn't find the milk Chocolate on Amazon.) I personally prefer the dark chocolate, the milk chocolate was too sweet for me, but you can use whatever chocolate you prefer!

These made about 4 dozen dipped chocolates. I bagged them in clear little baggies to display at the auction. The auction was a lot of fun and we raised a good amount of money for our summer camp! These chocolates are delicious and were a popular item that people bid on! I hope that you'll make some and enjoy!

     Today, I'm posting on Lindsey's behalf! She had some glitches with our site, which was unfortunate because she was so excited about this pumpkin post! 
      As you know, if you have been following us, Lindsey loves pumpkins!  Not just pumpkin spice and not only during the Fall, but she loves them all year round.  She is one of pumpkin's most devoted fans.  It's no wonder then that this year she grew her own pumpkins in her garden and was thrilled with the resulting beautiful fruit! (From Google: "A pumpkin, from a botanist's perspective, is a fruit because it's a product of the seed-bearing structure of flowering plants. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the edible portion of plants such as leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, flowers, and tubers.")  Aside from the many pumpkin recipes that we have already shared on the blog, she decided to make this wonderful, comforting recipe for Pumpkin Stew, made in a Pumpkin!