Things I LOVE about Fall

Since Labor Day is over and Football Season has began, I can officially say I feel that Fall is here!! I LOVE Fall (I feel like I say that about every season - ha!)....and I love pretty much everything about it....

Yankee Candle's Autumn Collection...I may have a small candle addiction. I just love my candles!!

...Leaves Changing Color

Crisp Cool Mornings - perfect for jogging!

William Sonoma's Mulling Spices on my stove

Bath and Body Work's Creamy Pumpkin Wall Flowers

Autumn Bouquets

OU Football & VT Football

Fall's color palette! Red, orange and gold - some of my favorite colors to decorate with

Fires in the fireplace

ps...I LOVE the tile around this fireplace!!

Sleeping with the windows open

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

I was pretty excited to see that these were back!!

I love, love my pumpkin spice lattes!!

Apple Cider

Hot Cocoa

And, most importantly...our Anniversary!! I can't believe that Kevin and I will be celebrating out 2nd anniversary next weekend! Time has just flown by!! Honestly, I feel like our wedding was just a few months ago - ha!!

My new favorite wedding picture

Every now and then I choose a new wedding picture for my computer's desktop background and yesterday when I was looking for a new one, I came across this one:

I LOVE it!! Love the angle...love the memory of that moment....just LOVE it!!

Even though Kevin and I have been married now for 8 months and have looked through my pictures hundreds of times, I feel as though I've never seen this one before - crazy, huh?!?

Just thought I'd share. ;)

Wedding Video Trailer!!!

Our videographer just posted our wedding video trailer! Yay!! I just love it!! She did such a fantastic job!! Kevin and I couldn't be happier!!

My Great Day just got BETTER!!!

Seriously, this has been an amazingly wonderful day!
First, Kevin and I are leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow (or, in a few hour - however you want to look at it - lol!).
Second, when I was in class today, one of my friends mentioned that Omaha is getting a Trader Joe's! Which is an AWESOME inexpensive organic grocery store.
Then, my fantastic photographer sent me an email saying that she posted the wedding pics!Yay!! Woo Hoo!! Yippee!! Cassie is the BEST photographer EVER! She is truly blesses with an amazing gift!! She is an absolute doll and we have become good friends - if anyone is in the Omaha or Kansas City area, I HIGHLY recommend her!
Lastly, I went to get my haircut today. It's a L O N G story BUT, over the course of this semester I have decided to cut my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. Gina, my stylist, did a great job! I was kinda nervous but, I think it looks great! :) The pics are below.

The "Before" picture

Going....

Going....

Gone! The official "After" Picture

My first short hair picture with Kevin :)

Now, I'm offically done until after the honeymoon.

Happy Thanksgiving....again ;)

My Aunt's Fall Visit

My awesome photographer and friend, Cassie, and I thought it would be fun to do “Trash the Dress” pictures and after I intended to give my wedding dress to charity. Well, when I told my Mom and Aunt this news, they were less than thrilled about this decision. Apparently, trashing my wedding dress and giving it away would be something I would have regretted. Lol! :) My Mom and Aunt know best and…they make sure I know that fact. :) So, we all compromised on doing lots of fun after dress pictures. Since my Mom flew up from Florida to be with me for my Bridal Portraits my Aunt decided she would come up for these pictures.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather! It was gorgeous! We took so many fun pictures. We all had a blast together. It was so awesome to spend the day doing ultra girlie things with a group of fun women! :)

The next day, my Aunt and I went grocery shopping and began making a HUGE meal. In fact, while we were making dinner my Mother-in-law called and she asked what we were making, I began to rattle off everything and at the end of my list she aksed, “And, who is going to eat ALL of this food???” Lol! It was pretty funny. My Aunt and I love to cook when we get together and it’s always nice to have lots of leftovers to eat during the week.

For an appetizer we made muscles with a white wine sauce with French bread (perfect for the sopping up the white wine sauce – yum!) and, butternut squash fries – both were super tasty! :)

Then it was onto our main course, it was: Panko Breaded Chicken served with a pumpkin cranberry white wine risotto alongside sautéed squash and zucchini.

For dessert we had pumpkin bread pudding, made with challah bread. It was soooo yummy

While she was in town, we also visited the Durham Western Heritage Museum. It is housed in the Omaha’s historic Union Station. It’s such an awesome old building. I love museums! I’m such a dork like that though – lol! :)

Here’s one of the pictures I took, I was playing in the leaves – so much fun!

Shawn-A-Palooza

It just so happened that Kevin's best friend (and Best Man) turned 30 the weekend after our wedding. Since this is such a momentous event, he decided to forgo a simple one day celebration and turned his birthday into a week long event....called Shawn-A-Palooza. Itofficially began Sunday, September September 28th and kicked off with homemade pizzas on the grill! Since we liked the previous pizza dough recipe I posted so much, we just used the same one!

Earlier that day we went to a near by amusement park, here are some of the pictures:

We had so much fun with all our amazing friends. We were so sad to see them go. If only we could get everyone to live in the same place, or even the same area code......honestly, at this point, I'd settle for the same time zone - lol! :)

A few wedding pics!! ;)

Hi Everyone! Here are a few pics from the wedding - they are just some of my favs I've seen that my friends and family have taken. Professional pics are coming though.

Posing with my dress

The night before

Me & My Mom Getting Ready

My Gorgeous Bridesmaids

Opening my present from Kevin

Takin' a break at the reception

Does Caffine Help Stress???

Sadly, I know that caffeine does not help relieve stress. Lately, I have really (and truly) started to cut back on the caffeine; BUT, today Kevin and I received an espresso machine and I thought I would indulge myself in an latte. It was great! I was so excited about it I documented the whole process. Kinda weird, I know but, I *heart* Starbucks and this is probably the closest I will ever come to being a Barista. Lol! :)

Here it is, yay:


Adding the Espresso:

Frothing the Milk:

And we have espresso:

Here's my Vanilla Latte - Ta Da:

My Omaha Shower

I was recently blessed with a personal shower here in Omaha. It was so great to have some quality "girl time" with my friends. Of course, we had tons and tons of food - lol! I do have priorities! :) And, since it was a "Girls" shower - almost everything was *pink!*

Here's the first half of our food:



Here's the second half:


Our Menu:
Bruschetta
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Fresh Fruit Salad
Cookies
Mini Hot Pink Cupcakes
Sprinkles Coconut Cupcakes (recipe below)
Pink Lemonade
Iced Raspberry Tea
Assorted of Hot Herbal Teas

Here's a picture of my beautiful pregnant friend Heidi:


Here I am trying to hold back my excitement - I never thought I could get so excited about dishes! Lol!! :)



Coconut Cupcakes
From Sprinkles Pastry Chef Candace Nelson
(Yes, the rumors you've heard about that place are true - these cupcakes are amazing!!)

2 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 large egg whites, plus 1 whole large egg

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two greased standard muffin pans with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the milk and extracts. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg whites and the egg and mix until they are combined. Add half of the flour mixture and mix until it is combined. Gradually drizzle in all the milk mixture. Add the remaining dry mixture and mix carefully until just combined. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake cups (they should be two-thirds full) and bake about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back when pressed lightly and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Makes 18-20.


Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cold cream cheese
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup sweetened coconut shavings

In the bowl of an electric mixer, slowly mix the cream cheese, butter and salt until fluffy and combined. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Mix in the extracts until incorporated and the frosting is smooth. Frost each cooled cupcake with about 2 tablespoons of frosting and immediately top with 1 teaspoon of sweetened coconut shavings. Makes about 2 1/2 cups