7 months and counting :)

Wow its been 7 months already that I have been married to my high school sweetie pie :) They have been so great! They say the 1st year is always the hardest, but we've done very good so far. I love him so much and these past 7 months have gone by so quickly it seems like just yesterday we were at the 1 week mark of the big day! I never really stressed as bad as I thought I was going to, but maybe I just knew the outcome of the day meant me and him as husband and wife and that calmed my emotions. Plus I had big help from my coordinator Amber and my step-sister who made all our paper products such as the programs, favor bags and of course the BEST looking INVITATIONS EVER! My family and friends were great with all the help and mine and Eric's wedding wouldn't have been what it was without the help of all of you so Thank you all so much for allowing it to be such a special day!

Speaking of Amber today marks her and Patrick's 2 months until they become husband and wife! She is going to make such a BEAUTIFUL bride inside and out! Amber I can't believe its only 2 months away already!!!!

Light Rolls....Yeast!

So this past weekend I attemped to make Light Rolls for the very first time, it also was my first time using Yeast! Let me just tell you I had NO IDEA you could kill yeast! But of course if it can happen I accomplished it! Eric is the one that suggested I make yeast rolls because they are his favorite bread, so of course to be a good wife I wanted to learn how to make them (plus I love to cook).

Friday after I got off of work, Eric had already gone to the store for me to get all the ingredients to make these light rolls (from a recipe he found online) I wasn't really in the mood to bake after I got off of work, but figured I'd give it a try anyway.

Well when the directions said for me to mix hot water and then cold water to yeast I did like it said but it said the Yeast would start to dissolve....mine was not! But I figured it was ok that the dough would still rise...but after an hour of waiting for the dough to rise it did no such thing! So we threw that dough out and I was going to give up.

Now onto a positive thing about Facebook.....all I posted was "Yeast sucks..." and I had quite a few people respond to it. Also had someone give me her recipe for Light Rolls. So below is the recipe I received from Melody Taylor Goodwin which was a great recipe. Thanks again Melody :)

Ingredients
6-8 cups bread flour

2 packages dry yeast

2 cups milk

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs beaten

Directions

In a mixing bowl, mix 4 cups of flour with the yeast. Set aside. Pour the milk, salt, oil, and sugar into a pot, stirring to mix and place over medium heat until warm but not hot (lukewarm). Pour the milk mizture into the flour and yeast and beat until smooth. Add the eggs stirring hard to mix well (using your hands is best). One cup at a time add as much of the remaining flour as needed to form a soft dough. Put the dough on floured counter and let rise to double its original size. Knead the dough 12-15 times, until elastic to the touch. ----now this part is in my own words--- grease a baking pan with high sides. put oil or spray pam onto your hands to keep the dough from sticking. form the dough into balls about the size of a plum. let the dough rise until it doubles in size again. bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown. this whole process is gonna take at least 2 hours, but its a crowd favorite.

THEY'RE DONE :)

Right after they came out the oven I brushed melted butter on top of them. I think the next time I make them I'll brush the melted butter on the dough before it goes into the oven and then brush it again once it comes back out.

We also made London Broil in the crock pot to have with the Light Rolls: London Broil, Potatoes mixed with Worchestire Sauce, Italian Dressing and Beef Broth. This would of been good with some Onions and Carrots too but we had just made some Beef Stew the weekend before with all that stuff.

Please Enjoy!

Also let me know if you tried out this Light Roll recipe and if you made any changes to it or not. I will probably make it my own next time I attempt to bake these again.

Christmas Time!

Christmas is by far my FAVORITE Holiday! Eric says I'm like a child when it comes to listening to the Christmas music, watching the millions of Christmas movies that come on tv, or even watching the ones I own over and over again. I believe I started watching my Santa Clause movies (1-3) back in November! Eric said I already made him sick of that movie haha, but he'll still watch it with me anyway :)

We put our tree up the week before Thanksgiving! It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL (but that's me being a little biased ha).

Another reason I love Christmas is all the baking that goes along with it! I have made pigs-in-blanket, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate pies, "puppy chow" yes I said "puppy chow" one of the guys at the station requested it and I had never heard of it so of course I look it up online and all it has in it is: chex mix, chocolate chips, vanilla, peanut butter, and powdered sugar..very yummy and SUPER easy and quick to make! I have also made cinnamon candy, and many more things! I LOVE baking. Some people have suggested I start a cooking blog, I've thought about it, it would be a good way to have my recipes saved but I know good and well I won't keep up with it like I would like to do. Maybe sometime down the road.

Christmas is also a great holiday because of family get together's, work Christmas parties, VACATION, Snow (if your lucky), Hot chocolate, Christmas lights, SANTA at the mall, traditions, wrapping presents, and lots of other great things.

Eric and I are unable to be home on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I am very happy that my dad will be coming up to stay with us. This will be the first time in a LONG time that I've actually woke up on Christmas Day with my dad. So I'm VERY excited about that! We do plan on going home but it will be the week after Christmas and then we plan on spending New Years there as well. We are so lucky to have our family live close enough away where its a simple drive :)

Holiday Tradition: Every year (except this one) for as long as I could remember on Christmas morning I was always the first one to wake up and I would go down stairs to look at the presents then I would wake my sister up and drag her butt down stairs, which she would fall back asleep instantly on the couch. Then I would organize the presents: I would put mine on the left, Carly's on the right and everyone else's presents would go in the middle :) Then we would wake up everyone else in the house! It is something I always look forward to doing. I wonder if when Eric and I have kids if they will do funny things like that on Christmas morning. I remember always leaving cookies and milk out for Santa and food for the reindeer out on the back porch. Then when we would wake up the cookies would be almost gone, the milk always all gone and the reindeer food moved around on the porch. Its great how parents go through so much trouble at Christmas time but I for one appreciate it all. I'm still such a kid when it comes to the holidays and I think its mainly because I absolutely LOVED my childhood so much. My parents were such great parents and I appreciate everything they did for my sister and I, because if it weren't for them Carly and I wouldn't be who we are today and I think we turned out pretty great! :) So thank you mama and daddy for being you :) Love you both!

Please enjoy the photos of mine and Eric's decorated house for Christmas :)

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

I am Thankful for.........

.....FAMILY MOMENTS

Each family has moments,
Moments of happiness and emotion.
Moments that show love and kindness.
To each member of the family.

Some family moments are sad,
Some show hate that never lasts.
Then the truth shines and shows,
Each family moment is special after all.

Family moments may show happiness,
Happiness that lights up the earth.
Family Moments are amazing,
So don't forget your...
Family Moments.


I am thankful for every single person in my family! I have also been blessed with 2 wonderful photographer friends :) Who took photos of my family the first 2 weekends of this month.

Caroline Corwin Photography
http://carolinecorwin.com/

She took our photos the first weekend of November at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum, Harkers Island, NC.





Amber Styron of Ambiance Photography
http://theambiancephotography.blogspot.com/

She took these photos the 2nd weekend of November at Fort Macon, Atlantic Beach, NC

I LOVE each photographer's photos they both captured something different in each session. I want to thank both of them so much for their talent and time :)

"Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter."-- Brad Henry

"Family faces are magic mirrors looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future."--Gail Lumet Buckley