Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Hello readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family of some sort. My husband and I went to my parents house to be with my family and his mother. We ate so much good food and had a good time, but our time with family was cut short because I work at a retail store that opened up at 7pm on Thanksgiving so I had to go to work. I believe that black Friday should be on Friday NOT on Thursday, on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is meant to be spent with your family and not with grouchy customers. We were so busy when we opened and it took 8 hours to get to where there was no line at all at the cash register, it was crazy. Well I thought I would share some of the pictures we took of our family at Thanksgiving.

 As you can see all the bowls on the counter, they later were full of food.

 My dad made two turkeys, both delicious. That is my grandpa watching him.

 My niece Sophia is teething so I think she feels better with her tongue out for some reason, she wasn't feeling good yesterday, poor baby.

 As you can see we had a lot of people, pretty much 20 I think is what we had, I remember when we would just have 7 for Thanksgiving. 

I hope your all enjoying your leftovers, I know I am. Loves.

Outfit of the Day - November 29, 2013

Hello my fancy readers!! Hope your lives are amazing and your happy it's Friday! I'm sure you are all stuffed from your wonderful Thanksgivings! This is what I wore yesterday to Thanksgiving dinner, my outfit of the day this week. I have natural makeup, just straight down hair, my pearls and a silver bracelet on. I'm wearing a pink tank from Old Navy for a couple dollars under my thermal shirt that is from Old Navy as well that I paid about $6 for last year. I have on my jeans that are also from Old Navy, the sweetheart style is so comfortable, and my trusty lace up black and white plaid Vans that I got for about $25, 2 years ago.

There you have it, I didn't get all dressy cause we just don't do that in my family, it's very relaxed. Loves.

Wednesday Recipe - Fried Chicken Tacos

Hello my hungry readers! My husband and I are so in love with this recipe and have it once a week. It is Fried Chicken Tacos, recipe from the Pioneer Woman. We love this and I would recommend it to anyone!!

Ingredients: 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon canola oil, 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into small cubes), 2-4 oz cans of diced green chilies, 16 small corn tortillas, 1 1/2 cups finely grated cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, 2 cups of lettuce (thinly sliced), 4 tomatoes (diced)

     

Directions:

1. mix chili powder, cumin and salt in a small bowl and set aside

         

2. heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil over med/high heat in a large skillet, add the chicken and chilies and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the chicken has lost its color

        

3. sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken and cook until chicken is done and remove from heat

           

4. in a different skillet heat 1 cup of canola oil over med/high heat, drop in a piece of tortilla to see if it's hot enough, it should sizzle as soon as it hits the oil 

             

5. spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken into a tortilla

6. grasp the tortilla closed with tongs and then lay it in the hot oil, holding down the top half until it stays closed

7. cook until golden brown on each side 30-45 seconds on each side

          

8. remove it from pan but hold it over until the excess oil has dripped off

9. wrap in a paper towel for a second or two to get most of the oil left off of it

10. while the tacos are still hot add the cheese first then the rest of the desired toppings

We add cabbage instead of lettuce sometimes, hot sauce and tomatoes, my husband puts sour cream as well. :-)

 Hope you enjoyed this recipe its amazing and everyone should try it! Loves. 

November's Events in Our Family

Hello my wonderful readers! Our month of November has been the busiest month of our whole year and its not even over yet! We started out the first weekend by cleaning out the house Aaron's family owns in the mountains and found lots of fun family stuff, that was so neat. The second weekend we drove to Mt. Shasta for Aaron's cousin Kat's wedding. It was so very beautiful and fun!

 We took a walk down to downtown Mt. Shasta and found a place to take a picture :-)

 Here we are at the reception after dancing all night it felt like. 

 Here is the new Mr. and Mrs. Josh and Kathryn McNulty!! So happy for them!!!

The next weekend, November 16 was our niece, Sophia's 1st birthday!! I can't believe she is 1 already! It totally seems like yesterday that we sat in the hospital all day waiting for her to be born. Me and her were hanging out watching Uncle Aaron figure out how is going to put up the streamers before the party.

 Here is her with her mommy and daddy (my brother)....also helping the grandpa, great uncle, uncle and great grandpa BBQ.

 Here she is putting on a show for everyone, she just started walking about a month ago and there is no stopping her now. Also great aunt Jill and cousin Geoffrey holding her. 

 She fell asleep right before the cake so her other auntie held her by the cake and we sang to her and what not. Uncle Aaron wanted a picture of his streamer work haha. 

 Tangled is her favorite movie so that's what the decorations were and here is her cake and cupcakes in the design of rabbits. Still can't believe she is one already!

The next week we decorated our house for Christmas. Aaron couldn't believe I wanted to decorate already but I was so ready! He put the tree together for me and helped me decorate it and I took care of the rest. 

This past weekend we went to another one of Aaron's cousin Brittany's wedding. It was simple and beautiful! Here is the new Mr. and Mrs. Phillip and Brittany Roadruck! So happy for them too!

A quick picture of us at the reception.

The next day after the wedding we decorated my grandparents house for Christmas. Sophia helped out a little, love her onesie, "My Aunt is my Bff" love her. Charlie helped a little by staying out of the way haha. I decorated the inside with the tree and all the stockings and whatnot. Not too long ago we only had 7 stockings and in the past couple years we have gone to 12! I will have a picture of the outside of the house in a later post because it is very special to me and I will explain why later. :-)

Hope you enjoyed all the happenings in our life this month so far. Loves.

Day Date - Apple Hill

Hello my beautiful readers! Me and Aaron made our annual trip to Apple Hill recently. I just love it there it is one of my favorite places to go! We went for the day and just had a wonderful time together. I of course took some pictures to share with you. Denver Dan's is one of our favorites on the route around Apple Hill.

 We got someone to take our picture together :-)

 I got an apple from Big Al also we bought some sugar free delicious apple butter 

 Aaron driving us around all over with me as the navigator :-)

We also went to the Jack Russell Brewery, we found it last year and really like the place. I love this man so much! Loves.

Outfit of the Day - November 22, 2013

Hello my fabulous readers! We are going to yet another wedding of another one of Aaron's cousins, Brittany. So this is what I will be wearing to the wedding tomorrow. I choose to wear my hair down, natural/sparkly makeup, with gold jewelry. I am wearing my blue flowing dress that has pleats with black spike booty heels and black cover-up.

Hope you enjoyed this outfit of the day! Loves.

Wednesday Recipe - Soft Pretzels

Hello my hungry readers. Today's recipe is all about the soft pretzels. My husband loves soft pretzels so I thought I would make him some from scratch. 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups of Water at 110 degrees

1 Tbsp of Sugar

1 ½ tsp of Salt

1 package of Dry Yeast

2 Tbsp of melted Butter

4 ½ to 5 cups of All Purpose Flour

6 cups of Water

1/3 cup of Baking Soda

Directions:

• 1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the water sugar and salt, stir to mix and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast begins to foam.

                                               

  2) Add the flour and butter and turn the mixer to low and mix until everything is combined. Turn the speed up to medium and mix for about 5 to 7 minutes or until you have a smooth dough.

                                              

  3) Brush the bottom and sides of a bowl with some vegetable oil and put the dough in the oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour.

                                              

  4) Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, lay 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and brush some vegetable oil on the parchment paper.

  5) Add the water and baking soda to a roasting pan and set the roasting pan over a burner and turn the heat on to medium and let the water come to a rolling boil, meanwhile form the pretzels.

  6) Once the dough has risen, cut it into 12 equal pieces, roll each piece into a rope and make a U shape, then press the ends of the rope at the bottom of the U shape and pinch the ends. Place your shaped pretzels onto the oiled parchment paper line baking sheets.

                                               

  7) Carefully place the pretzels into the boiling water for 30 seconds one at a time, remove from the boiling water using a flat spatula and put them back on the oiled parchment paper lined baking sheets. Continue to cook all of them and then sprinkle each one with a little kosher salt.

                                            

  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown

                                             
  

  
  

   Hope you all enjoy these as much as we did, they are so very good! Loves.