henry

because truly, who doesn't love a good kitty picture or two to brighten their day?!

shooting pool

on our last trip to texas we ended up at THE most honky tonk bar I have ever stepped foot into. 

Sara, Phil, and Wil all picked up the pool cues. 

ps isn't she gorgeous?! phil is one lucky guy.

fun with guns

on our last trip to texas we decided to hit up the range. i'd never shot a handgun before...this was really quite the adventure!

The Best Banana Bread

This is my absolute favorite banana bread recipe. It is so easy, I whipped it up in about 12 minutes. And it's so delicious, the whole loaf was gone within an hour of it coming out of the oven.

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x5 inch pan.
2. Cream margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, then bananas. Add flour and soda, stirring just until combined.
3. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 1 hour (or till toothpick comes out clean). 
4. Remove from pan and let cool, then EAT!!!! (or you can refrigerate or freeze)

Before:

After: 

Christmas Sugar Cookies!

Today is the perfect kind of day to stay in and make holiday cookies! Last Saturday Wil and I made these delicious Chewy Sugar Cookies. I got the recipe from Real Simple. Here's the recipe and how we made them! (Nutritional info is at the bottom...but I highly suggest just ignoring that and eating them)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Heat oven to 350° F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined (do not overmix)

Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough onto baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.

• We added fun Christmas food confetti from Target too.

Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the cookies are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

 Don't overcook them, they'll be more crisp instead of chewy once they're cooled.

• Cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. If your house is anything like mine they won't last anywhere near that long though!
• 
  
• Makes 36 cookies| Hands-On Time: 30m | Total Time: 1hr 10m

Nutritional Information

• Per ServingServing Size: 1 cookie
• Calories 117Calories From Fat 45

• Fat  5g
• Sat Fat  3g
• Cholesterol  24mg
• Sodium  51mg
• Protein  1g
• Carbohydrate  17g
• Sugar  11g
• Fiber  0g
• Iron  0mg
• Calcium  8mg

thanksgiving family fun

I know I'm late posting this...someday I'll get better at posting things as they happen instead of a couple weeks after the fact.

Over Thanksgiving Wil and I went to my grandmother's to be with my immediate family. She lives in this little itty bitty town a couple hours southwest of Chicago. This is a one stoplight kind of town. So, we do really fun things like play jenga and phase ten....and watch lots of football.

Quote of all of the games comes from my sister Betsy, "I love jenga because there isn't one winner, there's one LOSER."

We also took our family pictures. Mom and Dad send out a 4x6" of our family as a postcard every year. This year, Wil was our photographer. Next year he'll be in the picture!

We also goofed around then and took other silly pictures.

Follow along with my day-to-day here.

engagement session with arlina!

We went to Texas last month for the A&M game versus Nebraska (GIG EM!), for me to meet our wedding officiant (who is awesome), to get some family time with Wil's parents, to see friends, and to take our engagement pictures!

The trip was incredible, and I got to snap a couple quick pics while Arlina was taking pictures of my ring hanging from a tree branch.

and this is just one of us she took on my camera (to be used as a prop for her picture)

I absolutely cannot wait to get the rest of our pictures back...she's just sent a teaser three so far and I'm dying! I will absolutely some of the pictures when we get them. But until then, you can see her website here and blog here.

And as always more of my pictures here.