Sic Em Bears

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go down to Waco and enjoy a Baylor football game.  We've been wanting to go see the new stadium that opened last year so we decided to find a weekend and do it this season.  And the last time we went to a game, David was coming in from a work trip so we didn't have a chance to walk around campus, so it was nice to show him around some.

We drove up around 11:00 and were excited to see the stadium as we got into Waco.

We spent some time in the bookstore and then  went to explore campus

 David got to meet Judge Baylor!  And yes, we bought him a Baylor hat to wear for the game since we'd be in the sun.  He's good to support the bears when he comes to games with me

 Walking over the bridge to the stadium!  Such a fun sight

 From our seats.  We were on the 2nd level, but still felt really close to the action.  Our seats were in the sun. so at the beginning of the 2nd half we went to sit with Nicki and her parents since they had a few open seats next to them

10 years ago I moved in to an apartment with this sweet friend.  I'm so grateful for all the Lord has done in our lives and in our friendship over the past 10 years and thankful for her continued friendship in my life!  It was so fun to get to experience McLane Stadium together for the first time.

And the football game wasn't too bad either :)

Pinterest Cooking: Pumpkin Spice Everything

The first day of Fall was this past week!  My very favorite time of year is here.  Even though it still feels like summer, I figured it was time to break out a few of the pumpkin recipes and I thought I'd try a few new ones this week.

We had ICF last night and I signed up to bring a dessert, so I set out to make a few different things to take.  Our students don't typically like really sweet things, so it can be hard to find a good dessert to take since most of what we make here is very sweet.

The first things I made were these Skinny Pumpkin Spice Brownies.  They looked and had the consistency of fudge more than brownies.  They had a very interesting taste--not the best thing I've ever had, I'd probably prefer a regular ole brownie.  But these are a little lighter version and a fun twist on brownies for Fall.

The other thing I made were these two-ingredient Pumpkin Muffins.  I've been making the same recipe for pumpkin muffins for years and while they are delicious, I thought I'd try something new this time.  These were very easy.  It really is just a box of Spice Cake mix (despite the picture) and a can of pumpkin--mixed together and baked in a muffin tin.  And I thought they were very delicious!  I'll probably still go to my old faithful recipe a lot, but this will definitely be one I'll make when I need something quick and easy.

I've also made a few non-food Pumpkin "recipes" I found on  Pinterest.

A few Saturdays ago we had a really nice cool morning and it seemed like the perfect time to start the pumpkin spice.  So I made a batch of this Pumpkin Spice Soap.  It was really easy to make and it smells amazing.  I'm loving having it available at our sink.

And yesterday I whipped up a batch of this Vanilla Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub.  I love to use a sugar scrub every once in a while in the shower, and I had just finished up a lemon one I'd made, so this was a perfect time to get a new one going for Fall!

The Year-Long Project

One of the decor projects for our house has been a year in the making--although it really didn't take too much time and effort.  

At one point on Pinterest, I had seen the idea to take a picture in the same location, with the same pose, in every season for a year.  I thought that was a really fun idea and I figured our first year living in our house would be a good time to do this.  

So we started last Fall and just recently took our Summer picture to bring it full circle. I had them printed this weekend and decided to hang them on canvases with some clips which ended up being very simple.  I hung them over our bed this afternoon

And here's a close up of the pictures if you want to see them. 

Since we moved into our house in September, we started with Fall.  We took our first picture on Thanksgiving morning.  By that point most of the leaves had fallen off the trees and were covering our lawn.  We took several different pictures that day, but this was my favorite.  So then we had to pose the same way for all the rest--so sorry for all of the kissing pictures :)

 I held out for a long time for a Winter picture hoping that we would get some snow.  I had almost given in and decided to take it anyway since our snowfall didn't come until the last week of February.  The first day that we had ice I made David take a picture with me, but it was pretty pathetic because you could hardly see any of it (it was so pathetic I didn't even keep a copy of the picture to show you), but for all we knew it was all the white we would get.  Luckily, that Friday we had an awesome snowfall.  I remember watching it coming down out of our office Window most of the day and by the time David got home from work our yard was covered.  I'm grateful we had a good snowfall for our Winter picture since some years we don't have any!

 We took our Spring picture the first week of June.  Which is still technically spring even though I think of June as summer.  I would have taken it earlier, but I had the cast on my foot for most of April and May.  So the first weekend the cast was off we took this one.  Luckily we had a ton of rain in April and May so our grass was very green at the beginning of June and it looks like a perfect Spring day

And we're back full circle to summer.  This picture is from the 2nd week of August before we headed to downtown Fort Worth with friends.  As you can see, there are already leaves on the ground again, but it's nothing compared to the amount of leaves we will have in a few months

I love how all of the pictures turned out.  And I am grateful to have these memories of our first year in our first home.

Pinterest Cooking: Blueberry Bars

We hosted Community Group at our house this week again, so I set out to find a good dessert/snack to serve.

Since summer is "coming to an end" (it's still 100 degrees outside, but it's September, so I am all about bring out my fall recipes soon!) I thought something with fruit would be a good dessert to serve.

I had seen the recipe for these Fresh Blueberry Bars a while ago and decided to try them out.  This blogger's recipe for Fresh Blueberry Bundt cake is one of my very favorite cakes to make, so I figured I'd try the bars out.  They were definitely delicious and very similar to the bundt cake--very blueberry with a hint of lemon.  The only thing was that they didn't cut super easily, so they were a mess.  And they didn't store very well, so we ended up throwing out the leftovers the next day.  

They were definitely a fun dessert and I thought they tasted very good, but not something I will make a lot since they pretty much have to be eaten in one sitting based on how they were faring on day 2.