Old Settlers Days

You know Fall is right around the corner when all the fall events are starting up!

The first weekend in Sept Shane and I went to Old Settlers Days. We haven't been in years and I think I have maybe only been once, so it was time for us to go check it out again. It was little hot the day we went but we sucked up the heat and walked around and looked at everything. It isn't that big so it took us about an hour or so to check out all the shops and grab a little to eat.

I found this one little booth that was rings from heaven, and with my grandpa just passing I thought it would be cool to have a ring made. I love my ring I made and wear it everyday! It says Grandpa with 2 orange cancer ribbons on each side. The Orange stands for Kidney Cancer.

Shane and I have been wanting to try deep fried oreos and we FINALLY got to try them! They were awesome! I'm ready for some more. LOL

Thanksgiving Decorating

Halloween has now passed and it was time to take down the decorations and put up Thanksgiving stuff! I didn't plan on putting up Thanksgiving decorations till today but that instead I put them up Thursday night while Shane was making pizza for us. I got all the Halloween stuff down and Thanksgiving up. I was very happy how all my decorations turned out! 

The centerpiece for our dining room table.

 This idea was found on Pinterest, but  instead of using pumpkins I used pine cones.

 Our table by the front door.

 Fireplace

 This idea was also found on Pinterest. I had to order the acorns online. 

Photography Challenge: Textures

So, it has been a LONG time since I have posted about my photography challenges. I still receive these each week but I have been busy or just putting them off lately (Laziness!!)....But I'm trying to get myself back in the routine in doing the Photography Assignments and Photography Challenges every weekend.

Last week the challenge was Textures. I was out taking pictures of our tree in the backyard and found a couple good ones for this challenge to use!

This is the texture from the tree.

 This leaf was just hanging out on the tree so I got a close up so you could see the texture from it as well.

Leaves Leaves Leaves....

I have really been enjoying watching our big tree in the backyard change daily. It's so pretty! We are going to have a ton of leaves once they all decide to fall off, but I can't wait to see them all over our yard. :)

Thursday night I decided to take some pictures of the leaves that have already fell off. I just love all the fall colors!

These are the leaves that have fell on the ground already. Aren't they pretty so far?!

 This is one of my fav's I took Thursday night. 

 This is the top of the tree, the leaves are starting to fall from the top. So I thinking if it keeps that up the top will be bare and the rest will have leaves. LOL.

 I can't wait for this whole tree to turn red! It's going to be so pretty!

Here is our tree in the front yard. It hasn't started changing a whole lot but it's working on it. I need to take some more pictures of the full tree. These pictures are just of the top of it. 

I thought the sunset was pretty and this was just a cool picture that I captured.

 Here is the top of the tree out front. You can see where just the top is starting to change. I will try and get more pictures of the full tree so you can see how big this one is as well. We are going to have a ton of leaves between the backyard tree and the front yard one!

The trees are turning....

The one thing I love about Fall is watching the trees change color! There such pretty trees out there that change to such pretty colors! I could spend all day taking pictures of the beautiful trees.

This year we finally have our own trees that we can watch change colors and see how pretty they become in the Fall. Last weekend when I was outside I noticed the tree in the backyard was starting to change to a pretty red. I was so excited that we had a tree changing and it's going to be so pretty when it's done changing! I can't wait for it, but we will have ton of leaves, LOL. 

This picture was taken Sunday 10/7/2012

These were taken 10/9/2012 (just a few days later) And you can so see the difference I love it! 

And these were taken today with the sun shining on it 10/10/2012

I need to keep an eye on the front one as well. I noticed today that it's slowly starting to change too! :)

Pumpkin Brownies

This is another recipe I found off Pinterest. My hubby and I have really been into baking this fall and we are loving every minute of it. We have decided we are going to try a new recipe every weekend. So get ready for lots of postings of yummy foods! 

We made Pumpkin Brownies on Sunday. They actually turned out pretty good! 

Everything you will need (We added pumpkin pie spice to give it a little more pumpkin flavor)

 Mix it all together. You can either make the brownies as direction then add the pumpkin or you can just use the  brownie mix.
We just used the brownie mix this time, but next time we might make the brownies as directed and see how that turns out.

 When they are finished. I added cool whip to mine and it was very tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 box brownie mix
• 1 can of Pumpkin
• 1/1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix brownie mix, pumpkin and spice together
3. Spread in greased baking pan
4. Bake for 25-30 mins until set

Pumpkin Beer

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day!! 

About a week or so ago we went out with some friends and Shane ordered a pumpkin beer. He asked if I wanted to try it and I did and to my surprise I really liked it! Now if you know me you know I'm not a big beer drinker. There are just a few I like and Bud Light is my go to beer always. So, me liking a new beer really came to a shock. I always try Shane's beer and I never like them, Gross! 

Last week we stopped and got a 6 pack of it so we could enjoy it. I'm really liking this beer and I wish they would have it all year round, but I guess now I will have something new to look forward to every fall!! 

I've only tried one brand of pumpkin beer so, I guess it's time to branch out and try other brands to see if I like them! 

As I try more I will try and post them on here to see if I liked them or not and share. :)

Pumpkin Pie Almonds

I recently have download the Pinterest app on my phone! I love it! I have always liked this site but hardly was on it since I didn't have it on my phone. Well things have changed and I'm on there everyday! 

When I was scooping out things I found this recipe called Pumpkin Pie Almonds. My husband loves Almonds and pumpkin pie so I thought these would be great for us to make and try. 

Last weekend we decided to try these so we got everything we needed at the store and came home and made these. They turned out really good, but we did decide next time we are going to add some sugar to them.  

Everything needed 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw almonds
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 4 tbs honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Sea Salt

Directions:
Couldn't find the actually directions so we just made up our own...This is how we did ours.

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Mix the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice & sea salt together, then mix the almonds in to coat with powder spices
3. Mix in honey and vanilla
4. Mix until all almonds a coated
5. Bake for 20 mins

Weekend Recap

I hope everyone enjoyed there weekend and got a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather we had!

I know I enjoyed every bit of it!! :)

Friday: We went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant Frontera's. Then I had to run to Wal-Mart to get a few things for a photo shoot on Saturday. After Wal-Mart we headed over to a friends house to sit outside and enjoy the weather and have some drinks. It was chilly but really nice out. I loved having my jacket on sitting out there next to the fire pit we had going.

Saturday: Shane had to work from 9-3pm. When I got up I decided I wanted to go sit outside and read my Nook for a little while. It was such a wonderful morning I loved just sitting out there in the cool breeze. After my morning read I had a name frame I needed to make for the photo shoot. At 3:15 I headed out for my very first Maternity shoot in Riverside at the Waterfall down there. I will post about this later....After my shoot I headed home to get Shane and we had to go to the store then we decided to have dinner out and try Dodge City Distillery. It wasn't bad but I still love my favorite Texas Roadhouse. After dinner we went home and hung out and watched some TV.

Sunday: When we got up Shane said he wanted to make some hot tea and sit out back. It was another beautiful morning! I love sitting on our deck! After we finished our tea I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yum! We had already decided that Shane was going to smoke the turkey we had in our freezer since last year. So he got that all ready and on the smoker. It turned out so good when it was done! Even the dog couldn't get enough. :). Once the turkey was on the smoker we ran out to get a few things. First stop was Bath and Body for some new fall wallflower and candles for the house and then it was to the comic book store for Shane to get a new one after that was back home. We hung out outside all day and enjoyed the weather. I look forward to more weekends like this and spending time outside! Fall is coming!!

The turkey before it went on

 And after...SO Yummy!!

I hope everyone had a good work week!

Pumpkin Pie

Yes I know I'm sure everyone knows how to make pumpkin pie. But I am sharing recipes from Thanksgiving so it's a must I share the recipe I use. :) I love pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream! Yum!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 (9in) unbaked pie crust
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 15oz can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 12 oz can Evaporated Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Mix together
3. In large bowl beat eggs lightly, stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
4. Pour into pie shell
5. Bake 15mins. Reduce temp to 350 degrees. Bake 40-50mins or until knife comes out clean.
6. Cool on wire rack for 2hrs

Cranberry Sauce

A few years ago we were left with the task at Thanksgiving of bringing the cranberries. Well Shane didn't want to just get cranberries and dump them out of a can, so he went on a hunt for a good cranberry sauce recipe. And let me tell you he found the best one! This is requested as a must every year. It's super good. I recommend that everyone try it at least once!

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 5 (3in) Cinnamon sticks
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 8 whole cloves
• 6 cups fresh cranberries (2 bags)
• 2 1/4 cups orange juice
• 4 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 4 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and diced
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Place cinnamon sticks, allspice berries and cloves onto the center of an 8 inch square of cheesecloth. Gather together the edges of the cloth and tie with kitchen twine.
2. Place the sachet into large saucepan along with cranberries and orange juice
3. Bring to boil over heat and cook until berries burst, about 10mins
4. Stir in apples, pears, white sugar and brown sugar. Return to boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until apples and pears are slightly soft, 25mins
5. Remove and discard the spice sachet.
6. Pour into bowl and over
7. Refrigerate overnight
8. Serve cold

Fall Is Here.....

I think it's safe to say Fall has arrived and I'm loving it! Fall has become my favorite season now. This weather has been just prefect. I have been enjoying it so much. Kira and I have been walking at night since it's so nice outside, and I have to get the energy out of the dog somehow. LOL. On our walks I like to look at all the colorful trees around. I just love how they change so many different colors.

Here are some of the beautiful trees around my complex that I really liked!

I'm anxious to see more trees around town as we get more into the Fall season. I will of course be trying to capture these pretty trees as I see them. :)

I'm still trying to get caught up on Photography Assignments.....it's just a slow process that I will soon be caught up on! I Promise you that. :)

I Feel Fall Coming.....

I'm so glad the heat has decided to leave us and bring on this cooler weather. I'm loving it!! The windows opened in the evening, walks at night and the smell of crisp fresh air. Awe Fall Time. Kira and I have definitely been enjoying walks more that we can stand to be outside. It's been wonderful walking every night after work and not sweating and just enjoying this cool weather.With fall finally coming I'm ready to get our house smelling like it....Last weekend at the store I got some pumpkin spice candles and I can't wait to get more fall scents this weekend to put up in the house. I love the smell of fall. I'm also thinking of decorating more this year but we will see if I make that happen. Fall may now be my favorite season, I love it!!!

The candles I got from the store. Pumpkin Spice they smell delicious!

Kira loves when the windows are opened....She just lays on the couch and looks out the window. She has tried to claw her way out once b/c she wanted something. Little Brat. HaHa!

The back door is her spot as well but she usually lays on the floor looking like a frog. :)

And of course you can't have nice weather without the husband doing a little grilling. 

The chicken is all ready to go one.

Our dinner tonight....Chicken Legs, Corn, Noodles & Garlic Bread

I hope everyone has been enjoying this nice weather as much as I am! I'm looking forward to this weekend as well with nice weather. I will be outside as much as I can.....and you can beat I will be taking pictures of whatever I can find. ;)