First Warm Christmas

It's official. Matt and I had our first warm Christmas this year with the McCauleys. We actually went to the pool on Christmas! Here is the McCauley bunch below.

After Christmas Eve service, we returned home for appetizers and dinner :)

Matt getting ready for some serious grilling

This was the first time we have ever had to use the table insert to make the table bigger! haha It was fun to have a full table of family :)

Key Lime Pie seemed like a fitting dessert for this Christmas, followed by some yummy cake balls (Kelsey and I worked hard on those suckers--it took some major teamwork when it was time dip the cake in chocolate...so worth it! Love my s.i.l.!)

Christmas presents!

Beacon loved Matt's gift too.

IPhone!!!!!!!

Topher loves Tiffany's boxes.

This family LOVES their technology! Especially, when it involves a new IPhone ;)

camping out!

Bananagrams. Kels dominated, as usual!

Out to dinner

lovely couple

:)

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

We are very thankful for the birth of our Savior and for the relationship that we have with Him. He is the source of everlasting peace and joy, and we are thankful for such precious gifts!

Spontaneous!

The other weekend Matt and I randomly decided to go to the beach. We didn't have any plans for the day, and it was nice and sunny. So, on a whim we decided to go to a surfing beach we had heard about. It was a little bit of a drive, but worth it!

It wasn't too busy because it was a little cooler on the coast. But, we did see some surfers and just thought it was cool to see the ocean. We are Florida newbies :)

Thinking Out Loud

As I was huffing and puffing on my jog today, I did some thinking. I was thinking about how its kind of funny how we ended up in Florida. The Lord really threw a curveball at me, but really in the big scheme of things...it's a pretty small act of obedience that He was asking for. And we have seen the Lord's faithfulness in so many things since the time we decided to take this journey. From Matt passing his test to me finding a job down here! The Lord has BLOWN MY MIND. Complete surrender and faithful obedience. Some new things that I am really trying to put into practice these days. I will try to remember this season in my life when I am in the desert again, wondering where in the world we are headed next. But, when I start to panic about the future, I realize I just need to stop and pray. Don't I believe that the Lord has all the pieces woven together already? And, it will be beautiful if I let it go and allow Him to do it. So far, He has not shown me any differently.

Thanks for reading!

Baking just because.

Baking comforts me, especially when I am one my own (Matt traveled this week). So, I went ahead and made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and crushed peppermint :) It was a pretty easy recipe. I just used cake from the box and followed a simple cream cheese frosting recipe from online. These were delicious. Now, I just need to find some people to give them to so I stop eating them!

Very soon, I will have plenty of people around to share all of my treats with! Christmas is around the corner and I am looking forward to having the McCauleys to entertain!

A Really Good Meal

This post could be considered as "Part II" of the "Three Hours at the DMV..." post. These are PW recipes that I tried and turned out REALLY well. I highly suggest them.

Below are "zucchini cakes." Very easy to make. Check this out for the recipe :)

Recipe #2: Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

I recently received a blender/food processor as a belated wedding gift (thanks, CORE!!!). I didn't realize what I was missing until I used it to make this pesto cream sauce. Highly enjoyed my new appliance! Here is the recipe.

Below is the process...

And, the final product...

Happy cooking!

p.s.- I had to preface these meals with telling Matt to not get too used to all of this cooking...haha I think I might have raised the bar a little high!

3 hours at the DMV and Iced Coffee

The first three hours of my first day, in my new town, was spent at the DMV to get my driver's license. Rough way to start. However, I had plenty of time to look at The Pioneer Woman's blog and find some good recipes. I have not cooked in weeks because I have not had my own kitchen or pantry to work from. So, I have been feeling inspired to cook again after the long break from it. I was really excited when I found this iced coffee recipe. I love Starbucks iced coffee but I have never had the guts to try and make my own because I figured it would never taste as good. However, I can tell you that this PW's iced coffee is pretty darn close!

I followed PW's recipe very closely. I even used the same brand of coffee. However, I did cut the recipe in half (which I would recommend, unless you want A LOT of iced coffee). Obviously, my pictures aren't as gourmet as PW's...haha

So, basically you mix .5 lb (half the bag) of coffee grounds with 4 quarts of cold water. Let it sit for 8 hours.

Then, you use a mesh strainer and cheesecloth to filter out the coffee grounds. This is very messy.

However, the final product turns out great!

This should last me a while :)