Zoo animals are professional subjects

Zoo day with Austin! Somehow we picked the hottest day in April to go, but still fun nonetheless!

Easter day and our Spring Decor!!

Texas Country

As most of you know, Austin's family moved out to Argyle. This is rather inconvenient for me seeing him on breaks, however, justifiably it is SO beautiful! These horses are just outside the front door of their house and what a perfect time to capture them than at sunset. There were some cows in the same field that were a little bit jealous that I wasn't taking pictures of them....

My Cowboy Boyfriend

Okay, so maybe he's the farthest thing from a cowboy; but he's a Texan and has some pretty sweet boots! He's a true southern gentleman :)

Sweet Sleeping Sadie

She gets so excited to play that it took FOREVER of sitting very still on the floor to get her to get bored enough to lay down and go to sleep. You can imagine what my outfit looked like covered in yellow lab when I was finally finished!

Rustic Tablescape for our Christmas Party

We were able to do this with almost everything we already had! the only thing we had to buy was twine for $2 and a bag of cranberries for 29 cents! The rest was an assortment of overturned wine glasses, scraps of burlap, ornaments from the tree and a stack of old looking books. We wrapped candles in twine as well as the stems of the wine glasses, and the napkins were tied with strips of burlap! Super easy and cheap.

Baby Zachary!!

This is my nephew Zachary who I go to see for the first time recently! He's got the biggest blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he should be a gerber model! I can't wait to see the rest of the family again.

Austin and San Antonio, TX

Sweet & Salty Popcorn

This has fondly been called "Princess Popcorn" for no particular reason...It is ADDICTIVE, and you have to try it to know! The best part-- if your are trying to slim down, you can snack on this forever and with very little debt to your diet! This recipe makes a big family portion.


Ingredients

1 cup unpopped kernels (popped)
3 or 4 squares white almond bark
Salt
Sugar

You will need a BIG bowl. Put the popped corn in the bowl and allow it to cool a bit. Meanwhile, melt the almond bark in the microwave. I start at 1 minute, stir, and then 30 second intervals after until melted completely. The key to this is just a little patience in assembly. Drizzle the almond bark over the popcorn (I use a FORK because it keeps it from coming out in huge globs), sprinkle just a BIT of salt and sugar, and then toss thoroughly. The key with this popcorn is to stir and stir and stir a lot! Taste is frequently while you make it to make sure the saltiness is tasteful. If it is getting too salty, just add the bark without sprinkling salt. When you are done, allow it to cool just a bit so that the bark will harden. Enjoy!

Wonders of a 10 second timer!

You can hardly tell I was running frantically just before this was taken! LOL I hope our neighbors weren't watching!

Boothbay Harbor, Maine

These don't nearly depict the beauty of the upper north east, but are some of the more characteristic sights that you would never see in Texas! I have tons of pictures from this trip, I'm sure there will be more to come!

Easy Pumpkin Spice Monkey Bread

In the fall and winter pumpkin flavored anything is delicious, but pumpkin spice monkey bread? Get real. However, my searches for and EASY pumpkin money bread recipe have been fruitless. So I just decided to figure out a better way myself. This recipe takes about 5-10 minutes to make and is just as delicious! Of course if you wake up in the morning and really feel like spending a couple hours making monkey bread, feel free to make the pumpkin dough yourself! I'll be sleeping while you do that. Enjoy!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 cans of flaky biscuits
1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling
6 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat the oven to 350. In a shallow bowl combine the sugars and pumpkin pie spice and stir with a fork. In a separate cereal size bowl, melt the butter. While the butter is still hot, whisk in the pumpkin pie filling. On a plate cut the biscuits into inch sized cubes. Now its just technique. If you completely drench and roll each biscuit piece, you'll end up with quite a large gooey mess. Just pinch each biscuit piece by an end, dip in in the pumpkin butter as much as possible, tap of excess on the side of the bowl lightly, then flop each side in the sugar mixture and throw into a lightly greased bunt pan. Thats it! Continue dipping, flopping and throwing until each piece of biscuit is done. Bake for 40-45 minutes, turn upside down onto serving platter while still warm.

Texas girls in Texas boots