libby's pumpkin cheesecake

easy to make and delicious!! any uk people, its great with ginger snap base!

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
2/3 cup NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
COMBINE graham cracker crumbs, butter and granulated sugar in medium bowl. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes (do not allow to brown). Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.
BEAT cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, pumpkin and evaporated milk. Add cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg; beat well. Pour into crust.
BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly.
COMBINE sour cream, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in small bowl; mix well. Spread over surface of warm cheesecake. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Remove side of springform pan.

pumpkin bread/cake

a few were asking for a recipe for this on facebook so i thought i'd post it here as it goes to my facebook page as well. this is a recipe for my mom and its very very yummy =)

cake:
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2/3 cups water
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice
3 and 1/2 cup self raising flour

mix sugar, oil, water, egg and pumpkin in order given.
mix in sifted dry in gredients.
bake in tube pan 350 degrees for 1hr 15min.
(if you use loaf pans, check in 50 minutes or if you make cupcakes 20-25minutes is enough.)

frosting:
1 8oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1lb box 10x sugar (powdered sugar/icing sugar)

cream together and frost away =)
p.s. i made 24 cupcakes and a loaf of bread out of this recipe and only made up half of the icing as that was all the powdered sugar i had and it was more than enough! though its so so yummy, the more the merrier (and fatter ~ ha ha)
its so yummy!! the icing along, OMG!

enjoy =)

baby rice

sad news

since there are a good few perry hall peeps who read, i thought i'd post. my brother is married to kelly loftus. her sister katie and her family were involved in that big car accident in bel air friday night. katie and her son wilson were killed instantly. her husband steve was flown to shock trauma with multiple broken bones and other injuries. he was in surgery for quite awhile. ian their 2.5 year old was taken to john hopkins but has already been released. he had a few cuts but was thankfully ok.
please please please keep them in your prayers over these next few days and weeks.
here is one of the news articles. http://www.wbaltv.com/news/17934305/detail.html?taf=bal

thanks =)

p.s.
in other mullan news, jonah has his first tooth! so much earlier then the other boys!!

At the homestead

hello from belfast. we are having a nice time here in belfast. it is cold but the weathers been nice! sunny and dry =)

our trip over was fine...until we got to dublin and missed signs for the ring road and had to go straight through dublin during rush hour. a hour and a half later we got to the other side and onto the motorway. a long trip but we made it and all is well!

yesterday we just hung out with karen and luke at their house (and zach). then simon and esther and sarah came over too. nice and relaxing =)

today jo and i went shopping, then again over to karen's for a book party. found some lovely new usborne books! bought some for the boys. we got to see some of andy's cousins who have either lived in canada for 2 years or live in pennsylvania, so it's been awhile since we have seen them!

the men of the family went out to play football today and came back with a few injuries! minor so far, but philip is off to the A&E to have his foot checked out. he might have a fractured metatarsal in his right foot =( poor boy!! )

so philip didn't break any bones, he just had a bruised foot. so that was good. he even went to work on saturday at tesco's so was on his feet for 4ish hours!

saturday afternoon, us siblings went out for a meal with only the 2 babies. micah, noah, luke and sarah stayed at nana's and papa's! that was nice. we went to a country club type restaurant and it was lovely! andy and i started with pumpkin soup which was delicious, though you couldn't *really* taste the pumpkin as i guess we were thinking sweet pumpkin like in my pumpkin cheesecake/pumpkin choc chip cookies/pumpkin cake...and so on!

which by the way, i can't wait to start baking and cooking all the pumpkin stuff and thanksgiving stuff. i think this year we are celebrating thanksgiving on the saturday which will be much easier for working ones and the students. now just have to figure out who to invite!!

monday thru thursday the boys and i didn't really leave the house at all! monday was my birthday and i was told by andy not to make dinner for him and i, but to just make it for the boys... so that was fun and easy to do! when andy got home he said that we were going out for a meal and peter and becky were coming to babysit! it was their gift to us (dinner and babysitting!) so once i got jonah down around 7:45 and once micah let us leave =( we were off to nando's!! yummy. we haven't been in a very long time and it was delicious! then we walked next door to the movie theatre and didn't see a movie (as they all finished just before midnight) but got some ben and jerry's ice cream for dessert!!!! so a very yummy evening (i took a hiatus from my diet!!)

here are some photos from halloween. we had abook party at karen's and some of the children dressed up for it. micah actually dressed up in his cowboy outfit and we got there and he saw luke's outfit and he asked luke if he could try it on! so they swapped! noah didn't want to partake in the fun and i forgot to take jonah's doggy outfit. oh well! but sara stole the show in the ladybug outfit that i got 9 years ago when i was working at old navy! i wish that i had bought more outfits!




here are zach, jonah and aiden. zach is 2 weeks older and aiden is a day older then jonah!


wednesday night was bonfire night (Guy Fawkes Day). we didn't go anywhere to see the fireworks but could hear them of course. thursday night our neighbours out back and over 1 had their fireworks display and it was so very loud and annoying. micah fell asleep anyway, but noah wasn't going to sleep at all... thankfully tonight there is no one close by setting them off! so all asleep =)

snow! its snowing!!

*just to say i hate blogger and the way this is showing up! the pics should all be one under the other! yuck*

ok, it was snowing! but we are loving it!

i went out this sunny morning with only flip-flops on. i kinda thought to change into my boots, but didn't. i was fine on the way to doctors for jonah's last immunization (3 shots and no tears!). then into town and onto the train to go and visit andy at school.. he had micah and noah with him. (its half-term, so no children and usually no teachers! BUT they have ofstead inspection next week so he wanted to get some planning done!)

anyway, it was sleeting when i got off the train so i waited a bit before walking to school, which usually take about 10 minutes or so. i was a bit wet when we got there but ok. went out to pick up lunch with micah and noah and it was raining, but not horrible, until my feet got wet. puddles + flip-flops = soreness inbetween big toe and the next one! anyway, whatever. but while eating lunch the sleet turned into snow! quite big flakes, but so wet we knew it wouldn't do anything! around 4 though it started settling on the ground, grass and street a like! awesome! so we finally got home and the boys played for a bit!

micah made this mask while at school with andy. he coloured all of the beard by himself and when i arrived he told me his thumb hurt. i asked why? and he said b/c he had coloured so much!

noah doesn't like having any mask completely over his face =)

some new pics and moo postcards!

we got a new bumbo chair for jonah as the old one we had (a bebe pod) got broken by the older boys...go figure! but this one has a tray so i love it =)

jonah can join us at the table now!!



just a random carrot that we came across last week!

these are awesome postcards! i almost don't want to send any of them!! 60 postcards all with different pictures on them. they are quite thick and just awesome to see! i can't wait to order more things from them!! Moo

rolling over more and more

jonah likes to roll! just now he went from back to tummy and then on to his back then on to his tummy! all going to the left each time! he also rolled to his left, back to front then rolled back onto his back (his starting position..) does that make sense?

the weighing of jonah!

so i finally got around to taking jonah to the baby clinic today and he weighed in at 13lbs 13.5oz. so only a 7oz gain in 3 weeks, but better then his 5oz gain in the weeks. i'm thinking of giving him a bottle of formula once a day, one to give me a break and 2 to give him a boost. so the health visitor was happy with that and so we'll see what happens. then hopefully i can find an exercise class that i can go to in the evenings but its hard when i can't drive. i forgot to ask them about starting to feed fim solids, but i don't think i really need to...yet! i started both boys at around 4-5 months, so it can't hurt right?

malverns

yesterday we spent the day up on the malvern hills....it was so beautiful, though very windy! here is a teaser picture, the rest will come tomorrow! i'm off to bed =)

nothing much going on

not too much to talk about really. all is going well. we missed jonah's appt to be weighed so will have to go next tuesday. we haven't done anything really at all this week. have barely gotten out of the house!

we have had some nice sunny days though. monday we went to the park for a wee bit. and today we went to the store, but other then that...nothing!

we've booked our ticket for half-term to go over to belfast. only there for 5 days barely but will be nice to see everyone! some time soon i'll be doing an engagment session with our friend becky and peter. can't wait for that to happen. possibly at the botanical gardens and/or stratford. should be lots of fun anyway!

jonah has been waking up a bit in the nights recently. for 2 whole months he has been sleeping through but now has been waking around 3ish for a feed. not all the time, but some. last night was a horrible night for sleeping. jonah woke at 3 as i was finishing feeding him, micah woke up and came into our bed. i took him back to his but he cried off an on for literally 2 hours. andy actually got up and made him a sandwhich. and he still carried on. he just did not want to be on his own and wasn't falling back asleep at all. andy spent some time with hime, but then i did as andy had to get up in a few short hours for work. will with micah carry-ing on, noah and eventually jonah woke up too. all 3 boys were awake and it was barely 5. so i was going back and forth between the 2 rooms and had to eventually feed jonah and when i finished i think micah and noah were finally back to sleep too.

it was terrible. so i got into my own bed nearer to 6 and slept off and on until 9 when the boys who were ofcourse by then awake *again* would not leave me in peace. so a very tired mommy and daddy today! thankfully it wasn't the night before as andy had an interview at school on thursday. it was for the maths co-ordinator. a roll in which he has already been fulfilling but had to have a proper interview. he got it with flying colours and was even told that it was the best interview one of the heads had ever sat in for (in maths that is)!!! so *go* andy!! we so proud =)

this is the cake i made last week that was oh so so delicious!!

this photo is of micah watching *lord of the rings* it was the only movie that we have the had a guy shooting with a bow and arror and he is so interested in knowing how to carry it and shoot it! he doesn't like us forwarding it when it gets to scary/goary bits but i know he'll think its scary so i just do it anyway...he's enjoyed it though, even though we have to answer thousands upon thousands of questions about what is happening and why, why, why?

a definite roll-over!

so yesterday jonah definitely rolled over. as he did it again later in the day! today was a gorgeous day so we got out to the park for a wee bit and then to the shops. i baked a cake today too! it was scrumptious!!! it was from a children's cookbook and the icing was dark chocolate and double cream. that is all you needed to make the icing and it was/is delicious!! its a 2 layer cake and i am pretty pleased with it!!

rolling over (and we are back online)

i think jonah rolled over today! he was on his side and i moved him over as there was something blocking his path and he then went onto his tummy! usually its his arm and thumb that are in the way of going all the way over...but i think he really did it!! hurray =)

and as you can tell (maybe) that we are back online. it was out phone extension lead that wasn't working i guess. though i had tried without that last week at some point and it still didn't work for me, it is now working, so whatever!! we are going to go over to PC World to get a wireless adapter so that the hub can stay near the phone jack and the computer can go wherever we want it too!

not too much else going on. we had loads of rain today....so not very nice. yesterday we spent the day with hannah and samuel. i think samuel enjoyed having micah and noah around and micah and noah loved playing with some new toys =) hannah kept micah and jonah while i took noah to the speech and language lady. who said that there wasn't any worries with him, just to keep going with single words and repetition! we don't have to go back unless in about 6 months time there is no change.

Jonah found the giraffe's leg and thought it looked yummy!!

Out of the Loop

Sorry for no news recently. Out internet has stopped working at home, and we're waiting for BT to come and fix it. So Janelle hasn't been able to keep in touch with all our avid readers!!!!

I'm writing this from school, as I'm too exhausted to think about school work. We've just finished a day of inspection, which went well. I got observed teaching math, and they said it was good, so I'm pleased, even though the kids didn't make as much progress as I expected.

So what's the news ...

After Jonah's appointment, Noah had one the next day for a hearing test which he got through most of. He didn't finish it as he wouldn't let them put anything in his ears, so he has to go back at some point. Janelle is taking him today to see a speech and language specialist to see what can be done, if anything about his lack of speaking. They were happy with things and said we didn't have to go back so that's encouraging.

All the family are well, although I'm trying hard to fight off a cold that is flirting with me. Thankfully it hasn't taken hold fully, so a bit more sleep should do the job - there hasn't been much of that this last week.

For my english lesson today, I wanted a picture of a hero and a dragon, so asked my brother Stephen Mullan to sketch me out something to inspire the kids in writing their myths. I thought you'd like to see it.

jonah wighed in at....

So..jonah was weighed and hasn't gained much at all. on the 2nd of september he was 13.1 and today he was 13.6! i wasn't there for the weighing as i had my own appointment. my friend becky took jonah and they asked her if there were any feeding problems but there aren't any. he is sleeping through the nights and only have 4 feeds during the day, all from me. so i don't know! she wants us to come back in 2 weeks time.

which means that in the next 2 weeks between noah, me and jonah we have 5 dr/hosp/speech+language appointments! oh boy. becky took us today and will accompany us to the childrens hospital on thursday for a hearing test. then on friday i have an appt (which is a whole other story...mostly involving possible allergies or asthma?). monday noah goes to the speech and language specialist and i'll be dropping jonah and micah off at hannah's on the way. thursday i have another dr appt and then the following tuesday i'll have to take jonah back to be weighed again!

yuck. but jonah is happy and healthy otherwise. he had 2 more shots today and calmed down quite quickly afterwards. he is sleeping 10-12hours at night and sleeping a wee bit between each feeding... like an hour or so. its great! he's lovely and coo-ing away. loves to be standing =) and likes his big brothers!!

jonah

jonah gets weighed, measured and his 2nd immunization tomorrow...so in preperation of that here is a gorgeous photo from today!! isn't he adorable?

updates =)

sorry for the lack of posting...but my excuse is that i haven't taken any photos b/c of a dead battery and i can't find the charger ;)

but...our going to bed routine has worked a charm and we are loving the extra free time we have! the other night all boys, yes! all 3 boys were in bed by 8 o'clock!! by 9:30 andy asked what the time was and if it was our bed time yet?! we had so much time!

so jonah is usually down by 7:30, 8 at the latest. noah is very good and barely cries. if he does it is a totally fake cry! you can hear him humming away to himself. micah puts up a fight and does not like to go to bed at all. he's the worst of the lot =) but we get the lights off and he stays in bed but he cries, sometimes sobbing and usually falls asleep midcry!

now staying in bed all night is a hit or miss. we still wake up with children in the bed. sometimes we don't even wake up so we can't put them back into bed...while other times we are just way too tired! so we're working on that one =)

all are doing well. we've kinda starting homeschooling with micah. just 5 minutes a day, usually when noah is taking his nap and we work on counting and the alphebet, sometimes writing and a little math. thanks to thomas math is fun ;)

noah is signing please without us asking him too. we have 2 appointments coming up for him. a hearing test and then an appt with a speach and language lady. so we'll see what happens!

oh to be in the states today..

did i ever tell you how much i love love love ice cream?? i think it was from working at Friendly's =)
so for any of you near a cold stone creamery....here's your chance at a free dessert tonight!

Cold Stone Creamery: Free Icecream--September 25, 2008
On Thursday, September 25, 2008 from 5:00-8:00 PM, all guests to any Cold Stone Creamery location in the nation will be treated to a 3 oz. serving of icecream. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The two free flavors available are: Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge or Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake. More details here.Thanks, Sherry!

becky's twins have arrived!

becky (at almost 35 weeks) after many hospital appointments and blood pressure checks, ryan and isaac were born yesterday weighing 5lbs 2.6oz and 5lbs 2.4oz!! you can read her sister's post here: http://beckyislosinghermind.blogspot.com/

our lil cowboy =)

we got micah 2-3 costumes for his birthday. a cowboy, as you can see that he loves! you can turn the vest inside out too and be an indian with a feather head thingy and a bow and arrow! the other costume is a knight... (i'm sure...pictures to come later!)