2014

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2014! 

Sisters.

For Christmas Tim took pictures of my sister and I to give to my parents and grandparents. Do you know how hard it is to come up with poses for two adult sisters? We would try some and just felt like we were posing for engagement photos which led to lots of laughing. We had so much fun and they turned out great! Here are some of the good....and the bad...

Our favorite picture came from finding out my necklace was caught in her sweater. Doesn't it look like a catalog pic?

 I'm so glad I have a sister.

7 days till Christmas.

This has been the quickest December to date! I feel like we've packed so much into the last 17 days, but really the best is yet to come. I'm pretty sure this is the first Christmas in my adult life that I'm genuinely excited about and I just can't put my finger on it, but I'm not complaining. 

Another first is having all of my gifts purchased and the majority wrapped! Why have I been procrastinating all these years!? It feels great not to worry about it.

We also sent out volume 5 of our Awkward Christmas Card

Whew! All caught up!

Craze Tuesday: Ankle Booties

Hello November

Pinterest

I can't even believe it's November! This year has been a whirlwind and now I completely understand when adults say "The older you get, the faster time flies!"....I think that means I'm an adult now. I have a lot of hope for this month. I think it's gonna be pretty great. I'm not sure why but I can feel it in my bones. 

Unfortunately it's still about 80 degrees here in Southern California and it's quite confusing when all of the shops are putting out their Christmas decorations and cozy sweaters.  Lets hope that we get a cold front in the near future. 

I purchased my first Christmas gift today and I'm feeling ahead of the game...well, my game because usually I'm out shopping the week before and it becomes super stressful. My goal is to get everything done by the first week of December but we'll see. 

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

My Aunt gave me this recipe before I got married and I've made them every year since. And every year I get people asking for the recipe because they're THAT good!

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES WITH CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

- 1 pkg. (2 layer size) Spice Cake Mix

- 1 cup sour cream

- 1 can 15 oz pumpkin

- 1/4 cup oil

- 3 eggs

Heat oven to 350.

Beat all ingredients until well blended.

Spoon into 24 muffin cups  and bake 20-22 minutes until

toothpick comes out clean.

Cool pans 10 min. then remove from pan and cool completely.

Frosting

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 pkg cream cheese softened

1/4 cup butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg 16 oz powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until blended.

Gradually beat in the sugar and blend in cinnamon.

Voila! Easy Peasy and delicious!

The Great Pumpkin...Party.

Last night we had our 1st annual Life Group Pumpkin Party. Everyone brought a pumpkin inspired treat and I set up a DIY Caramel Apple Bar.

Making caramel apples was much harder than it looks. We had a lot of trouble keeping our toppings stuck to the apples but that made for a lot of laughs and like most things we do it turned into a competition for prettiest apple.

We brought pictures from Halloweens past and had to guess who was who

 

 

Then the ridiculous pictures started...there wasn't even that much drinking! 

 

As usual, we had such a great time and I left feeling so blessed with such authentic friendships!

Craze Tuesday: Free People

While in New York I got to visit my first Free People and I was in heaven! Thanks to my awesome employee discount I left with a couple of awesome pieces.

NY

Last week we went to New York. This time the weather was lovely...cold, but lovely!

We had such a great time and I'm so glad my sister was able to come along.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures: