Puppy Portrait Session!

My babies. My point and shoot camera. My Saturday afternoon.

FYI: These puppies are our pets, NOT models. I know, these pictures are misleading.

 I love these girls!

Ashley's Visited... a belated blog.

My dear friend Ashley was in town last weekend.  It was a glorious weekend filled with photo shoots, cooking, tv watching and lots of Say Yes to the Dress episodes.  Best weekend I've had in a long time! Thanks for driving the 4.5 hours Ashley! :)

Here are some of the highlights!

Ashley and I trecked through some serious mud for these shots!

He was such a friendly horse! I think he had a crush on Ashley.

Ashley is slowly sinking into the mud wearing her pretty mary jane shoes, of course.

I love horses.

Next: Homemade wreaths!

Below is my very first attempt at making a homemade wreath! Ashley inspired me with the idea and we spent a solid hour and a half picking out the materials! I am so happy with how it turned out.

FYI: we had picked out completely different materials but changed our mind at the very last minute. We found these gold covered berries during the last 5 minutes of our Hobby Lobby trip and decided to pick out all new materials. Go figure!

Next: Wall Decor

Oh boy. This wrought iron decor has quite the story to go with it.  Long story short-ish. It took us two visits to Hobby Lobby, about an hour of fighting with a printer trying to get the 40% online coupon to print, returning to Hobby Lobby to try and bargain with the sales team to let us use the Joanne Fabrics coupon we had for 40% off one item (we were rejectied!) and ending with us finding out that between our first visit and our second visit (on the same day) the store had started their 50% off wall decor sale! whoohoo! Despite all the struggles we had to get this piece, it was totally worth it.

Now if I only had a stud finder so I could hang it!

Hostess Gift: Perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

Ashley is so incredibly thoughtful! She brought me a hostess gift bag complete with homemade apple sauce, homemade salsa and an amazing Chicken cookbook! I love chicken and the recipes in this book look amazing! I can't wait to try it out.

Speaking of food: Ashley made me her Pasta Fagiolo soup and it was AMAZING! So amazing that I forgot to take a picture... mmmm. So good!

I'm thankful for good times and especially the good friends that go with them.  Thanks for making last weekend so much fun, Ashley!

Sunday Morning Idea.

Matt has to work most weekends. So while he's at work I like to be productive with my time off.  Mostly, I like to cook and try  new recipes.  This morning I was craving apple fritters.  I love the ones from Starbucks but have no idea how they make them.  So I did a little research, found a recipe and realized I had everything I needed already in the house!

Not only was this exciting because I could make them right away but also because I didn't have to change out of my pjs :)

I found this recipe:

6 large cooking apples, peeled and chopped

1 c flour

1/4 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 large egg beaten

1/2 c milk

oil for deep frying (I used vegetable- its what I had in the house)

powdered sugar or cinnamon/sugar

Mix all dry ingredients.

Beat egg and add milk.

Add egg mixture to dry mixture!

Add apples and mix until fully coated in mixture.

Drop teaspoon size balls into 1/2 inch of hot cooking oil (I heated mine on high in a deep pot)

Make sure to flip them once! Cook for approx. 3 minutes total. Remove from oil and immediately top with sugar- I used cinnamon-sugar.

*NOTE* You will want to eat more than one.

pancakes and pie, oh my.

ooooh, apples how I love thee!

So far we have enjoyed two apple crisps, some fluffy apple pancakes and tonight- apple pie!

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I mixed shredded apple into the batter.

The pancakes were served with cinnamon, syrup and fresh apple slices, of course!

The smell of the pie baking and the pancakes frying = intoxicating.

My very first attempt at a homemade apple pie.

They don't have apple picking in Texas.

When I was working as a youth director in San Antonio, I met with a fellow staff member to discuss ideas for youth activities for the fall. I immediately suggested apple picking and a hay-ride! The staff member replied to my idea with, "um, that sounds kinda gay." I wasn't sure whether I was more shocked by her choice of words or that she'd just completely dissed my idea!

Needless to say, we did not host apple picking or a hay-ride that year. But now that we're back in the midwest you bet I'm going apple-picking! My hubby and I ventured out to a nearby apple orchard today. We joined a group of chitter-chatter filled little ones and rode on the trolley tracker (it looked like a trolley but they called it a tractor) towards the acres of apple trees!

Matt and I wove in and out of the trees in search of only the most perfect apples. Mid-way through, in all seriousness, Matt said, "we aren't looking for average apples here." Ha! This man meant business!

Here are some very serious pictures of our apple-orchard outing.

filling up our 20lb apple bag!

the cute little country cottage that sold the most delicious apple cider we have ever had!

                          

Yes! I found the perfect apple.

I love how this apple is sitting on the branch.   

show me the cheeziest smile you've got!

a perfectly pickable pair!

Our sweet lil apple bag is finally full!

 Taking a much needed break to sit with our lovely apples.

 I wanted to take this lil guy home with me!

apples anyone?

time for some apple crisp!

mmm... smells like autumn.

while i was waiting for the apple crisp to finish baking I had some fun with what I call "apple art"

big apple. little apple.

swirly mini apple.

decorator apples.

such artsy apples.

this isn't the best picture but at this point i was hungry!

this picture says it all.

 

our backyard.

"Ignore the eyesore in the backyard, it will grow and be really nice" our realtor said.

As I stepped out onto what is now my back porch, I spotted the "eyesore". Eew. A pit of mud would have been an upgrade. We loved the house, the yard was nice but, wow was that mud well, about as appealing as mud!

Thankfully, our realtor was right. Where a mud pit once existed, now lives tall grasses, sun flowers, pussy willows and lots of wild life. Every morning I sit at my kitchen table and look out at the tall grasses as they blow in the calm wind. I sip my coffee and think, hmm what mud pit?

Our baby trees... yet to be named.

One of our last lil flowers.

Sun flowers! They grew all by themselves.
The leaves are starting to turn already!

Our beautiful tree and our "mud pit" to the right.

Check out the grass. thank you husband!

One of my favorite colors.

Anyone know what these are?

A few lil buds... soon to be covered by snow.

Love Never Fails

Love. Love. Love.

I love love.

I love everything about love. But don't get me wrong, love is not always easy. In fact, it's often times the hardest thing we will ever do, to truly love. But in the end, if we give and receive love, the kind of love that was given to us by God, then we will truly have life.

This song by Brandon Heath is my current fave. It takes a verse known by many and transforms it into one of the most beautiful songs I've heard.

Listen to a portion of it at www.brandonheath.net


Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath, Chad Cates

"'Love Never Fails' is all about 1 Corinthians 13. I know that audiences have heard this verse many, many times. But the truth is, "love never fails" is probably the most powerful line in the Bible. That's what we are supposed to do as far as following Jesus and loving the Lord with all of our heart, mind and strength, but also loving our neighbor. We have to know that real love won't fail us. If anything, 1 Corinthians 13 tells us how to love well." - Brandon Heath

Love is not proud
Love does not boast
Love after all
Matters the most

Love does not run
Love does not hide
Love does not keep
Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through
Love never fails you

Love will sustain
Love will provide
Love will not cease
At the end of time

Love will protect
Love always hopes
Love still believes
When you don't

Love is the arms that are holding you
Love never fails you

When my heart won't make a sound
When I can't turn back around
When the sky is falling down
Nothing is greater than this
Greater than this

Love is right here
Love is alive
Love is the way
The truth the life

Love is the river than flows through
Love is the arms that are holding you
Love is the place you will fly to
Love never fails you

(2008 New Spring (ASCAP)/ Capilano Music (ASCAP). Upper Cates Music (ASCAP) All rights for the world on behalf of Capilano Music and Upper Cates Music administered by New Spring)

Brandon's inspiration for the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTEriRULD_Q

check out a video of a live performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0cmzs_oRFw

the best of thymes.

This past weekend I got the pleasure of spending time with my dear friend Ashley. I departed Sioux Falls around 7:30am on Saturday morning and arrived just after noon. The drive was surprisingly pretty. Lots of cows and horses of course.Ashley made me a delicious turkey sandwich for lunch, with toasted bread, I might add! We put on our tennis shoes and headed straight out to the Tulip Festival in Pella, IA.The Tulip Festival did not disappoint.

There were tulips everywhere (imagine that)! There was a parade and we could smell funnel cakes as we toured the quaint yet beautiful town.

Here are a few of my favorite non-tulip pictures

It was so good to talk and catch up with Ashley. We first met while working at Church of the Open Door. The funny part is we didn't become close friends until the intervention of facebook! Now I consider her one of my closest friends :)





Ashley was kind enough to let me borrow her camera and I snapped away! In total, we took over 220 pictures!

My personal favorite was the impromptu one I snapped of a little boy in a wagon. The sun was blinding me so I held the camera up and hoped for the best. Here's what I captured!

Ashley and I walked a great deal that afternoon and after a quick trip to the movie store and grocery store we headed home to make dinner and ice cream sundaes. It was an absolutely lovely day.

Sunday I joined Ashley and her husband Larry for church. But first we stopped at a little donut shop for some homemade donuts. They were amazing. We ate at Panera for lunch and we got to spend a little more time relaxing at Ashley's place after lunch.

The trip was oh so short, but oh so sweet.