The Calendar Says Fall......Close Enough

Being a Texan, fall is always a season I struggle with.  Text book says it should be cooler weather and warm clothes, but Texas never fails to NOT deliver these conditions.  I am so ready to start my fall cooking, I said screw the temperature, I'm making soup!  OOOHHH the joy I get from making a big pot of any kind of soup.  Seriously, soups have to be one of the easiest things to make.  In fact so easy that I'm not attaching a recipe card to this blog, just take in what I write and run with it....you can't screw it up :) Next I made some banana bread with the 300 bananas I have frozen, because I continue to buy them, although no one seems to be eating them.  I got the recipe for the bread from one of my favorite Food Network girls, Ree Drummond (click on her name to get the recipe).  Now Ree doesn't like bananas AT ALL, yet she liked this recipe, which should have been my first clue that it would need more bananas, lol.  The texture and consistency were heavenly, but I would add a good 1/4c to 1/2c more bananas than her recipe calls for.  Will definitely make this again, with my remaining 294 frozen bananas :)
For the soup, I threw a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot Saturday night before I went to bed.  Now normally I always use bone in when I make soups, somehow the flavor is different, but I had thawed out these boneless ones, and they worked none the less.  Now I'm not into pureed soups.  They may as well be vegetable smoothies if you ask me.  A soup has to be chunky and have good consistency, so I usually always pile mine up with tons of veggies.  So back to the soup, by the next morning I had cooked breasts and broth, YAY!  I then transferred all of this to a big pot on the stove and threw in all my vegetables: celery, cabbage, zucchini, squash, onion & carrots.  In addition, I added some extra homemade broth I had on hand (yes, I go by the name of Martha Stewart sometimes), along with extra water and some chicken broth seasoning.  Let that cook for a few hours and YUMM!!
As long as I didn't go outside, it was easy to eat my soup and bread with the AC turned down low and create my own little fall from inside :)  Happy Fall!

Weekend Full of Water.....

With summer coming to an end, what better way to spend it than outside in this great cool front weather that rolled in. We spent the weekend fishing, washing cars, swimming, taking a ride in the paddleboat on the pond, and checking out the lack of water out at the Riverhouse.  It seems no matter where we went or what we did there was water involved, which resulted in some happy wet children, lol.  We headed out to the river first to pick up the paddleboat from the Riverhouse and get some pictures of how low the water is.  The first couple of photos posted below are from an area that used to have rapids running through it, but as you can see rocks are all that can be seen now :(  We loaded up the boat and let the kids crawl around on the four wheelers and tractors then headed back home. Later that day daddy washed his truck.  Water + dirt = MUD, which then equals Austin front and center with this "black boots" as he calls them.  This kid could stomp in mud ALL day!  Problem was he kept tracking it up onto the driveway, so daddy kept patiently washing his boots off.  As with most 2 year olds, it became a game to him, lol.  Onto our next event which was the paddleboat.  Daddy needed to fix some piece of the pond equipment (I won't even try to pronounce or spell the word) that sits in the bottom of the pond, and he thought the paddleboat might be a better way to get to it rather than swimming out there...smart daddy :)  He piled all the kids into the paddleboat, along with cousin Xavi and they all went for a little ride.  The pond was so pretty and the weather was so nice, I had to snap a few of the scenery.  And as usual, we fished until the sun went down.  Little Austin follows his Uncle Mike around like nobody's business, it cracks me up.  That's his fishing buddy.  Lastly, backtracking to last weekend, we had our old neighbors The Miranda's come out for dinner with their little boys.  I was SOOOO excited to see them!! Seriously, these are some of my favorite people in the world, so it was awesome to hang out and let all the kids play.  Hope you enjoy the photos! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maid of Honor Wedding Day Checklist

With Natalie's big day fast approaching, I thought I should start doing some homework on all the things I will need to do on D-Day.  It's not that often that I am Maid of Honor, so brushing up on all my duties seemed like a great idea.  I did some Google searches and found all kinds of lists.  For the most part they were all basic and not detailed enough, which really stinks when you're looking for some direction.  I finally found the one below that seemed like a good comprehensive checklist.  I will definitely be printing this out and carrying it with me come one month from now!! And Natalie if you're reading this, at least you know what I hope to take care of for you, and if I get out of line, just remind me about my checklist, lol :)

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Fall Ball & More

Fall Ball is here!! Daddy decided to coach this year, or I guess he didn't decide, I kinda volunteered him and the Little League gladly accepted :)  Needless to say, Alex is loving having his Daddy there on the field with him, along with the rest of the Braves T-Ball team (Alex is #4)!  Their first game was yesterday, and although no score was kept I think they won!  I got some awesome pictures that I am posting below of boys in action!  GO BRAVES!!
Also, since I haven't blogged in a while I thought I would catch everyone up on our activities last weekend.  It was so nice to have a long weekend that allowed us to go go go through Sunday, and I was still able to get all the laundry done by Monday night :) 
First thing Saturday morning, we had family photos.  I wasn't too happy with the results initially, but I have to admit that they have grown on me.  I've gotten such great feedback from family and friends that I ordered 4 of them on canvas prints to hang around the house....but on what wall??? Uggghh....Anyways, you can check them out below too.
On Sunday a co-worker of mine and her daughter were headed to Fredericksburg for a grape stomp at Becker Vineyards, so I thought how fun would that be for the kids and I can drink a glass of wine, and hopefully get in some great pics too. WRONG!  Evidently a 2 year old doesn't have much to do at a vineyard, who knew.  Oh well, the attempt is what counts, and bless my husband who was totally not into the whole vineyard thing but put on a smile the whole time.  And by the way, if you've ever been to Napa Valley (as I have, last year for my BFF Audrey's wedding, GORGEOUS!) don't go to Fredericksburg and think you're going to get good pictures.  Fredericksburg does not equal Napa Valley, lesson learned.  I took a few photos, more of JR and the kids, but they're cute so check those out.  Maybe I can drag JR back there some time by ourselves and enjoy some wine and relax.
In between all this we had T-Ball meetings and family in and out all weekend fishing and hanging out.  I was exhausted...so exhausted that I was ready to go back to work to get some rest, lol.
Onto another week, and so ready for some cooler weather and the holidays to get here!  Is it Christmas yet????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Photos

 

Becker Vineyards

 

 

Sorry for the quality of the pic....forgot to setup the settings before I handed it over :(

Can't you see how excited Analisa was about the grape stomp!!!