Happy Birthday John!

John turned 26 on January 5th!  John isn't a huge fan of big birthday celebrations, which seems absolutely crazy to me since I like to celebrate my birthday for the entire month.  I always like to do something special :)  This year John requested a homemade dinner and an apple pie - from SCRATCH (probably because he knows what a great cook I am).  If you know me, clearly that is a joke.  But being the great fiance that I am, I obliged and made chicken parmesan and the apple pie.  I was pretty proud of my cooking, so I took a picture. (Ignore the random assortment of placemats haha)

John's B-day dinner

Thanks to my great friend Morgan I was able to make John's wishes of an apple pie come true.  Here are a couple before and after pics of the pie.

If you would like to make a great pie of your own, here is the recipe - compliments of the great Morgan Sattler.  Sidenote:  Most people probably know that you are supposed to peel the apples.  Being the amateur cook that I am, I forgot.  The pie was still DELICIOUS, but I think I would peel the apples next time :)

Ingredients:
6 apples, 3 golden delicious, 3 granny smith. Cored and sliced
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c white sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix above together well.  Place into pie crust.

Crumb topping:
3/4 c flour
3/4 c. butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. white sugar

Cut with pastry blender until mixed well, pile/press onto top of pie.
Bake 400 - for 15 mins
        350 - 35-40 mins. Will be bubbly and crust and topping golden.

I think John really enjoyed the meal and it was a success!  I actually really enjoy cooking and baking, it's just a matter of finding the time to really learn and practice.
Happy Birthday babe - looking forward to spending the rest together (and married)! :)

Christmas in January

We actually didn't celebrate Christmas in January, but I am a little late posting pics - so lets relive Christmas.  This was our first Christmas in our first place, so I will always remember it!  We had so much fun decorating the place and listening to Christmas music - even Tucker got into the Christmas spirit.

And here's our Christmas card pic!  John was not a huge fan of the "family" photo haha, but I think it turned out great.  I picked a cute polka-dot Christmas card from Snapfish and uploaded our pic - it was super easy, quick, and pretty cheap.  I would definitely recommend it.

We had a great Christmas with both of our families.  We started at my sister's house in NC for a few days.  It was nice to relax, open presents, and watch my nephews enjoy Christmas - they LOVED it!

After all of the Christmas presents, celebrations, and travel we were all pretty tired, but Tuck was one tired puppy.

Tourists in NYC

Now that we've settled into the new year with our "resolutions" and super cold weather, I figured I would post some pics of a happier time - our trip to NYC before Christmas!  John and I were able to get away the weekend before Christmas and spend some time being touristy in NYC.  We had a great time walking around the city, hitting all the tourist spots, and eating great food.  Our first night in the city we stumbled upon a little pizzeria that was delicious!

Saturday we went to Times Square, Rockefeller Center to see the tree, and even went for a carriage ride through Central Park.  I will not admit that the carriage ride was not as cool as I thought, because I convinced John to do it, but I probably won't be going again.  Ah well, gotta try everything once.

In Times Square

I think one of our favorite things was going to the top of the Empire State Building.  I had never been up there before and the views were awesome.

We also saw Lion King while we were in NYC!  It was AMAZING!  It was definitely the best show I've seen, and even John will admit that he liked it - that says something.  The show was great, the costumes were unbelievable and they even sold signature cocktails in sippy cups.  It doesn't get any better.

On Sunday, we finally succeeded in having someone take our picture in front of the tree and then went on a tour of NBC Studios.  We ended our super touristy NYC trip by having lunch with my friend Charlene in SoHo.  We had a great time!

 

REWIND

So I am obviously VERY behind on the blog.  It was a busy end to 2010!  John and I had a great Thanksgiving with both of our families, had our housewarming/holiday party with great friends, and took a trip to NYC.  We drove down to North Carolina to my sister's house for Christmas and even had a white Christmas before heading to Orange to celebrate with John's family.  We really enjoyed spending time with our families.  It really was a great year :)

After taking a short break from all things wedding related towards the end of the year, we have hit the ground running in 2011.  I (I mean we) have made so much progress!  We've been busy working on the caterer, save the dates, rehearsal dinner.....and lets not forget THE dress!  Anyway, in the next few posts I'll rewind and fill you in on our last few months and all that's been happening.  Hope everyone is having a great new year!!

Babies with a Puppy - doesn't get any better...

Last month when we were in Fredericksburg my nephews and Tucker got to spend some quality time together.  And while I'm a little behind posting this, it's too adorable not to.  

Tucker loves Chase

Going for a ride (Parker insisted)

Tuck looks like he's loving it

Don't you want to just squeeze them all?  Or maybe that's just me...

And here's a few of us - not as cute, I know...but at least Tucker is in them :) 

Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!  I usually don't dress up for Halloween and this year was no exception.  Although late Saturday night I had the realization that Tucker would make the perfect Toto - perhaps I will have to be Dorothy next year :).  Just because I don't dress up doesn't mean that I don't love doing festive Halloween activities or that I would pass up the opportunity to dress my puppy up.  No way!  So this past week John and I carved our pumpkin and dressed up our own little pumpkin!

 

Tucker the pumpkin!!  What you can't see is that he's wearing the "stem" of his pumpkin costume that goes around his ears and makes them stick up.  But he's too fluffy, so the stem doesn't show haha.

Pumpkin carving

A masterpiece at work - check out that free hand

Tucker's good at carving pumpkins

The jack-o-latern

Tucker also got to to trick-or-treating at the shops in downtown Fredericksburg.  I think he was slightly overwhelmed at first, but after the first few shops he knew exactly what to do - run in, look cute, get a treat.  He's still working through his bag of treats!

Happy Halloween!

Fall Fun

While my nephews were in town we all took a trip to Graves Mountain Lodge Apple Festival and the Belvedere Pumpkin Patch (the pumpkin patch my sister and I went to every year growing up).  I must say the apple festival wasn't the best idea I've ever had.  I've wanted to pick apples the last few years, but haven't had the chance.  I figured what better than an apple festival - wrong.  The place was packed and all of the apple trees were pretty much picked over.  There's always next year I suppose...

Attempted photo #10 (they're both ALMOST looking at the camera)

Trying to get a pic with both boys paying attention is harder than it seems

The boys were ready to pick pumpkins, too bad we were at the wrong place

Pretend apple picking

In the apple orchard

The pumpkin patch was definitely more of a success.  I love taking the hay ride out to pick our pumpkins, it reminds me of when we were little and would go pick our pumpkins, ride the zip line, and play in the hay barn.  Parker had a great time - there was face painting, and a petting zoo, and tractors, and pig races, you get the picture.  And I would show you pictures, except that I forgot my camera and my sister's died.  So these few pictures will have to do.

Riding out to pick our pumpkins