Last Weekend=Good for my Soul

 

This past weekend was PERFECT! Exactly what we were needing. The only thing we had on the calendar was Aaron's family coming to visit. It was so so nice.

 

Friday night we had a date night. We went to dinner and rented the movie "Unbroken".

 Date night selfie :)

We watched this gorgeous sunset from our front porch. That's one thing I really love about where we live. Our front yard has the most beautiful sunsets!

 

We didn't set our alarm for Saturday and we finally got to sleep in....it was GLORIOUS! I made some snacks for football watching. Aaron hasn't watched a single college football game until Sat so he was pumped about it.

 I had the sweetest snuggly boy to watch football with.

I was sporting my OU attire...you Normanites should be proud.

 I made my favorites....chips & queso and pigs-in-a-blanket....you can never go wrong with them!

 

Aaron's family arrived and we watched football...

 Played with these golden pups outside....they became fast best friends. Since Oakley is getting bigger, Samson is starting to pay more attention to him.

 

 

 

 What a pretty boy!

The boys practiced shooting their bows.

 

Then we went to dinner at The Grand Buffet inside The Winstar Casino. All you can eat crab legs were on the menu and we left stuffed. We loved getting to spend the day with family!

 

Sunday was another relaxing day full of nothing. It rained all day so I took full advantage and spent the day inside crafting for my best friend's baby shower. Hooray for a great weekend, I probably won't see another one like that for oh, about 5 months! One can hope though :)

Hooray for Fall!!

Fall is by far my most favorite time of the year. I love everything about it. I'm always in a better mood in the fall, I'm more motivated to do things in the fall, and I never want it to end. This week I worked on getting our house in fall mode. I don't have a ton of fall décor, just one measly tote full, but I love the coziness it brings to our home. We've got a fall bucket list in the works. We made one when we lived in Mammoth and we really enjoyed having a list of fun things to do throughout the season. When we decide on our bucket list items I'll post them to the blog.

 

I've already completed two things that will be on my fall bucket list. #1. Make a fun fall craft. We really needed a new door hanger/wreath for the front door and I found a plain wooden pumpkin for sale at Hobby Lobby so I decided to paint and personalize it. This project cost me a total of $9.

 

 

 #2. Make a new fall treat. I saw these white chocolate pumpkin snickerdoodles on Pinterest and I decided to make them this week. They were very rich and tasty!! Aaron gave his approval and said we will be making them again! You can find the recipe here. Pretend like mine look as pretty as theirs.

 
 

 

 

Here's a few pics of my fall décor.

 Traded the hydrangeas in for wheat.

 Can't wait to snuggle up and watch movies when the weather gets cooler!

 I got the painted pumpkin fence art this weekend. Look how pathetic my monogram pumpkin looks. It got just a tad faded while in storage. I'm going to have to freshen it up with a coat of paint.

 I got this cute scarecrow this weekend. Now I just need some hay, pumpkins, and mums for the front porch!

 By the front entryway

We got this pretty centerpiece as a souvenir from our friend's wedding last weekend. We found the perfect home for it on our fireplace!

 I added all my favorite things about fall to the chalkboard and swapped my spring flowers for little white pumpkins.

 

And here are a few of my favorite fall finds on Pinterest:

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

 

 

Did you count how many times I said fall in this post??? Way too many times. I'm just a little excited. Aaron's family will be in town all weekend! We are going to celebrate his birthday with a yummy crab leg dinner (his choice), watch lots of college football on Saturday and eat snacks (also his choice), and just enjoy time spent with his family. Looking forward to it!! Hope you guys have a great weekend :)

Camping Trip & A Wedding!

 

The last two weekends have been so much fun. Over Labor Day weekend we went on a 4 day, 3 night camping trip to Lake Tenkiller in Tahlequah with a group of friends. It was hot and humid, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

 

We camped with my friend Stephanie and her boyfriend, my brother and his wife, and the soon-to-be newlyweds Nick and Paige.

 

On Saturday, I got to play in a 6-on-6 grass volleyball tournament with our friend Kyle's team. It was so much fun and made me miss volleyball so much and now I have the itch to play again. The team I played on was AMAZING...they made me look like I never played past middle school...YIKES. We won every game and ended up winning the tournament!

 

After the tournament we went back to the campsite and swam with everyone and tried to listen to the OU game. Aaron made us burgers and homemade French fries for dinner, then we made a campfire on a cliff right by the lake and sat in our lawn chairs and ate s'mores and told stories.

 

Sunday morning we woke up to an amazing breakfast prepared by Chef Steph. She made Chorizo and egg breakfast burritos complete with cheese, peppers, onions, and avocados...talk about yum! You definitely get spoiled when you camp with Steph. It's not your typical camping food. Sunday afternoon my Uncle Pete picked us up in his boat and took us for a ride. We swam, jumped off cliffs and rope swings, did some fishing, and enjoyed the lake. Thanks Pete for taking us out! Sunday evening we had beans, hot dogs, sausage, homemade fried okra, grilled corn and homemade dutch oven blackberry cobbler....yummers!

 

Monday morning we woke up early and Pete took us on a nice little fishing trip. We all caught a bunch of fish. I caught three in one day which was a record for me so of course I was loving it!

 

It was a wonderful outdoorsy weekend getaway with great friends!

I completely failed at taking pictures so this one will have to do.

 

This past weekend we celebrated the marriage of Nick & Paige in Tulsa. It was seriously the most fun wedding we've ever been to. We had way too much fun dancing the entire night. You know it was a fun wedding when my husband gets on the dance floor....and it wasn't to two step. I was so shocked and laughing so hard because it was totally out of character for Aaron, but I was loving it! After the wedding, everyone stayed in cabins at the resort and continued the celebration with the bride & groom until the wee hours of the night.

 

The wedding was gorgeous....the weather was perfect, the view was perfect, the bride looked perfect...we are just so excited for Nick & Paige! Here are a few pics from the night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've got the day off so I'm headed to unpack, clean the house, and put up my fall decorations...YAY!!

Hello September!

 

I am not sad to say goodbye to August and summer and hello to September and fall. Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. I'm always in a better mood, more motivated to cook, and I love to constantly be outdoors. I'm looking forward to all things pumpkin, football season, sweatshirt weather, and campfires!

 

Speaking of cooking....I've tried a few new recipes lately.

 Recipe:http://mixandmatchmama.blogspot.com/2013/02/dinner-tonight-taco-joes.html

Mix and Match Mama's Taco Joes were a big hit. Aaron loved them. We had a ton of it left over so we used it the next night to make nachos. We will for sure be making these again.

 Recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/make-ahead-muffin-melts/

The Pioneer Woman's Make-Ahead Muffin Melts. These were also very tasty, but I would probably go a little lighter on the mayo and mustard next time.

Recipe: http://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/?s=ranch+pork+chops

Ranch Pork Chops served with mashed potatoes and edamame. The glorious thing about these pork chops... they are made in the crock pot and require 3 ingredients. Sign me up!

 

And this is the recipe I'm currently drooling over and want to make next.

Recipe: http://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/?s=cinnamon+roll+pancakes

 

In other news, I got to meet this precious baby boy this past weekend.

We met his parents almost 9 years ago when we were freshman in college. Aaron played baseball with his dad, then they roomed together, he stood by Aaron's side on our wedding day, and now we get to celebrate the birth of their first son. It was so great to meet their sweet baby boy and to catch up with them. I took his newborn pictures and then we went to dinner afterwards.

 Isn't he perfect?

 They already are the best parents and baby Kylan is so lucky to have them!

 

So I have decided to longer do photography for the time being. I have been thinking and praying about it for a while, but I've come to the conclusion that I need a nice long break. I absolutely love doing it, but recently I just haven't had the time for it and it's like pulling teeth to get me to sit down and find time for editing. I think I'm just burnt out and the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is edit all night long. I dream of coming home and just getting to hang out with Aaron and Samson all night. I'm sure eventually I will start doing it again, but for now if you ask, I will be saying no. You have no idea how hard it is for me to tell people no, but the day I decided to hang it up, I got four people asking me to do a session and I was so proud of myself when I said no to all four! There's only one session that I have left to take and that's not until December and its a super special session for my best friend :) It feels so good to say that!

 

I'm also in the process of contemplating when to take my Etsy shop off of vacation. I put my shop on vacation back in June so I could catch up on my photography editing. Now that I'm done with editing, I'm trying to decide when I want to start that back up. I definitely think I want to keep doing it, because I really enjoy it, but I just don't want it to start taking over my evenings also. I think I may relax and enjoy fall and the holidays first. Chances are, I will get bored as soon as the cold weather hits and I'll be begging you guys to have a baby so I can make some things and take pictures, but until then I'm really going to enjoy having NOTHING to do (for once in my life).

 

 

 

These are a few of the items I made for baby Kylan.

 

We've got a busy September. I'm looking forward to a camping trip, a super fun wedding, celebrating Aaron's birthday, and much more! Stay tuned for updates. Hopefully with less stuff on my plate, I can find more time for blogging!