December part 2

Continuing our December festivities!!!

You may be wondering why I am posting a picture of Target..

On this particular day I walked into target and grabbed a few items I needed for the new year in my Preschool classroom, as well as some workout gear, socks, a cute new hoodie...and just the JUNK you always get at Target ya know?? I swear I have never spent less than 50$ at that store. I was in line thinking how I did not need half of the stuff I was about to purchase when a lady smiled at me and said " can I please buy your things?" Stunned, I answered quickly with a laugh and a " no thank you." In my mind I was thinking OMG is this lady serious?? This stuff never happens!!! Again, she insisted and said she really wanted to buy this for me and to please let her. So I obliged... Shocked that anyone could be so kind. I felt a little guilty because I truly did not need the things she was buying for me and wished that someone else who really needed help was in my spot. But Gods good grace told me that I was there for a reason. So Thankfully I gave her a hug and told her how appreciative I was. The next day I bought two strangers a Starbucks. Tis' the season... and always pay it forward.

This day was the FABULOUS day of LION KING!!!! 

here is my outfit :)

and my fancy makeup!

In line waiting to take our seats

afterwards we were treated by my grandmother to dinner at Bohanon's. If you are ever in the San Antonio area and really want to splurge on dinner this is your place. I have need been in such an exquisite restaurant. Fine china, medium rare steaks, and beautiful tasty wine were just a small part of this fantastic experience. I felt like a princess the whole time!

momma and Dg

Rosalyn and me

I bought all the girls face masks.. so after dinner we came back to our hotel room and popped some champs while we minimized our pores :) we decided we look a lot like Michael Meyers from halloween.

Next morning was Coffee and breakfast in bed!

and a little shopping.. OOTD

 We ended the last night by walking in down town San Antonio looking at all the lights and beautiful carriages that were strewn all along the streets. 

Happy December!!!

December part 1

As December comes to a close I thought I would share some of the fun we have been having and the places we have seen! I feel like December is always such a RUSH.. I even made myself promise to enjoy every ginger bread latte that I sipped, listen to Christmas music every second that I could, and make some time for family and special memories. December did it's thing and came and went as quickly as it always does. I did make an effort to spend LOTS of time with Brandon since this will probably be our last Christmas without kids ( no not an announcement...but it will be soon:) So we enjoyed a few fancy date nights, hosted a Christmas dinner party,  hung out and watched movies on our favorite spot ( a home made pallet ha!) and cooked LOTS of yummy recipes and cookies to share with our neighbors. 

I am more than excited for year 2015.. we have so many exciting things happening for us and I always say this every year but I truly feel that this is going to be the best year yet!!!! 

This is part 1 in pictures of our month of December!! My favorite month of the year!!!!

We started off our Month of December taking a few family photos.. they turned out PRECIOUS!!!!

I got all dressed up for a fancy date at WILDFISH!

and drank some champagne...

Our wonderful home made pallet that we literally did not clean up for two weeks... we watched a movie every single night on it. 

Baby brought home a chimenea I have wanted one for a while now!!!!

We baked lots of yummy Cookies..these ones are white chocolate peppermint pudding cookies. 

We managed to pull off THE CUTEST play at St. Thomas

I can't help but love them sooooo much :)

I created my famous Bananas Foster Bundt Cake :) 

Sampling it of course...

All dressed for our Christmas Friends Dinner!

Bestie Pic!

The gang at our house for a yummy dinner!

He is the best :)

Christmas Day 2014

Christmas Day!!!

Came and went :(

I feel like that always happens....

We started our festivities by packing Brandon's humongous truck with presents, people, and fur babies and got on the road to the ranch. 

Christmas at the ranch is pure bliss... There is nothing but clean country air and family. We unpacked and the boys shot skeet while mama and I started some early cooking. I enjoyed this special time because this Christmas is the first Christmas in 5 years that Brandon has been able to spend with his mom. I flew her down from California as part of Brandon's Christmas gift so that she could spend this special time with my family and her son :) It was probably one of our best Christmases yet. 

Here our some pictures from our amazing day!!!

I got Julia Child's famous cook book!!! Ya'll I am in heaven...Beef Bouginon (sp) here I come!!! The blog is about to BURST with new recipes :)

Christmas Eve 2014...I love him more than ever :)

Good Morning!!! *Christmas Morning* After the breakfast casserole which I blogged about here, coffee, and yummy sausages...we sauntered over to the PRESENTS!

Good Morning!! Grant and his GF Baillie

Brandon and Laurie

uh oh duckies.. better watch out.. baby got some new Binoculars and duck vest!!!!!

and I was spoiled rotten :)

This cook book was given to me by my brother.. I cannot even go into detail because I will never stop talking about how amazing this book is!!!! 

My new arm party from my hubby

mama got pearls!

daddy got his binoculars

My little family

My big baby

Mom and me

Our traditional Christmas dinner * Beef Tenderloin, spinach artichoke salad, whipped bacon bourbon sweet potatoes, and a wedge salad ( no pictured) DROOL.*

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

Bananas Foster Bundt Cake

Just call me the #bundtcakequeenya'll

Last night we held a very special Christmas dinner with our close friends. I feel so blessed to be a part of the San Antonio community. Just to think a year ago we celebrated our first christmas in the house that we bought together and now it has become a place where all of our best friends meet for dinner parties and share memories and laughs over a bottle of wine.  I am cherishing this Christmas and the simplicity of our sweet home that we have worked so hard on because future Christmases will most definitely be filled with the pitter patter of little baby feet, messy faces from licking the cookie batter, and squeals of excitement from all of the Christmas cheer. This has been a beautiful holiday season and I am grateful to have a husband that is so wonderful to share it with.  One of my favorite ways to celebrate the season is to BAKE!!!  Joanne came in from Ft Worth and we had so much fun baking together and getting all of the recipes ready for this fun dinner! Obviously from my blog you may notice that I have an obsession with bundt cakes?? I think Bundt cakes are so awesome because they are SO easy and turn out so pretty. This cake was created from a fabulous blogger Shay Shull, and I created this recipe to share last night and it was a major hit.  Bananas Foster is mine and Brandon's all time favorite dessert and i just HAD to make it :) Enjoy!

Shopping List

One box  yellow cake mix

two boxes vanilla pudding mix

four eggs

1/2 cup veggie oil

1 1/4 cup water

rum extract

two ripe banana sliced

one cup of brown sugar

one stick of butter softened and sliced 

1 cup pcans

Procedure

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

in your bundt pan, place the butter pats inside and stick inside oven until melted

once melted, take it out and crumble brown sugar, a few dashes of rum extract, the bananas, and the pecans then set aside.

in a bowl combine cake mix, puddings, eggs, oil and water and mix

once mixed well, pour batter into bundt pan( over the sugar banana mix) and bake for 45 minutes.

when done let the cake cool a bit then invert onto a plate and WALA!!! 

Its beautiful right ?? :)

Chicken Gloria

Yesterday, Brandon and I had a HUGE shopping day...

It started with the idea to buy back porch furniture and a chimenea ( SP?) he actually agreed and took me to pick out the furniture I wanted!!!! He is so sweet sometimes :) Then we went to the home organization store and bought some containers and baskets to organize this house of ours...after we were up to our eye balls in home organization goods we remembered that we needed to go to the grocery store. Oh joy. 

So off we went.. I scoured pinterest for something easy and therefore Chicken Gloria came to be!

Quick. Easy. Yummy.- My staples when cooking something new!

Shopping List

three boneless skinless chicken breasts 

8 oz of pre sliced mushrooms

sherry wine ( I just used what we had)

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup whole milk

salt/pepper

cream of mushroom soup

slices of muenster cheese (3)

fresh parsley

flour

Procedure

Start by salt and peppering your chicken on both sides, Then lightly dust them in flour. 

Heat up some oil in a pan then gently lay the chicken in the pan and brown on both sides.

Place the chicken in a  9 by 13 glass casserole dish and set aside.

To the chicken drippings add your butter and mushrooms. Saute' until tender...salt and pepper them too. Add a dash or two of wine and cook for another 1 or 2 minutes. Then add your one can of cream of mushroom soup, and the milk. Stir until nice and smooth.

pour this mixture on top of your chicken in the baking dish and bake COVERED IN FOIL at 350 for 30 minutes. Once finished, top the chicken with the slices of muenster cheese and pop back in for another 2 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly serve over rice or noodles and top with fresh parsley. This is such a yummy dinner y'all!!!!!!

Christmas Cookies

Are you ready for some cookie baking?? 

I am thinking this year I am going to be making these....

and maybe these......

Oh and possibly these...

I will be baking up a storm these next couple of weekends....I absolutely love to give cookies as a gift  wrapped in a really cute DIY box with a ribbon or those cute tins you can find just about anywhere!!! These are truly a gift from the heart and I find that neighbors, co workers, and friends love getting them!! I will list the recipes these upcoming weeks along with a few of my favorite Christmas time Bundt Cakes and loafs....get ready to bake!!!!

xoxo

December Goals

My absolute FAVORITE time of year is finally here!!!! I have been sticking to most of my monthly goals with the exception of a few here and there but for the most part I really like having a little set list of goals to keep me busy and going all month long :) Christmas always has been my absolute favorite time of year..I start listening to Christmas music after Halloween :/ I create a Christmas voicemail each year...and just feel happy all month long during December :) its my favorite time!!!!!

1. Bake my annual tins of cookies for the neighbors, co workers, and various friends

2. Watch a Christmas movie every night

3. enjoy a date night down at the river walk with my husband where the BIGGGG Christmas trees are and all of the festival lights :) 

4. Take family christmas card pictures and mail them before December 5th

5. adopt an angel from a tree at Church

6. Plan and host a Christmas dinner with close friends

7. Start taking yoga three times a week

8. GIVE this blog a MAKEOVER

9. work on our back porch makeover 

10. Enjoy time with my FAMILY

There you have it!! My goals for December ...I think it's a pretty good little list!!!