Pumpkin Pancakes

I have been pumpkin obsessed this year. It must be because I've discovered so many pumpkin related recipes online and I have been really inspired! R and I both love anything pumpkin, so I decided to give some recipes a try.

This weekend I made Pumpkin Spiced Pancakes with Pumpkin Butter for breakfast. R loved them and so did I. They were really simple, especially since I had all the ingredients handy. And it was nice to cook together in the morning to get the day started. :) I recommend making these this season. They make you feel all warm inside..... enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Pancake with Pumpkin Butter Recipe from Skinny Taste.com

My 29th Birthday!

Last weekend, I celebrated my 29th birthday with my family in town! My mom, stepdad and brother Mike flew up to Georgia from Miami to visit us. I was so excited because I've been dying for my parents to see our new home and because I am extremely homesick and miss my family very much. I haven't been home (Miami, that is) since my grandmother's passing in May and life has been a whirlwind since then. It's hard to deal with her passing, and this whole new life transition, without having family close by. I've had to handle it all on my own and it just makes me miss my family soooo much! But I am blessed with the most amazing hubby who does help me see a better new day in each day. So, having my family here to celebrate my birthday was icing on the cake!

Anyways, we did a lot while they were here. We visited the cute town that is Dahlonega, GA. Had delicious food everywhere we went and my parents whipped up a delicious meal here at our home on one of the nights. My parents have this thing where they LOVE to go all out at home on the weekends. They get dressed up, my stepdad whips up a delicious restaurant quality meal, they have "happy hour" before dinner, my mom setups a fine dining table with her finest china, and dinner is enjoyed with family or friends in the luxury of their home. It was quite nice to be told by my mother to dress up, only to come out of the bedroom and into the kitchen with martinis served and the table whipped up to perfection! I really enjoyed the special treatment in our home!

We cruised around Atlanta and just enjoyed being together. Simple. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

First Home Art

I recently discovered a new photo editing website called BeFunky. It's very much like Picnik, but has different editing options, like turning an image to a cartoon or even a painting! That's the feature I have been obsessed with. I have been wanting to frame some of my favorite pictures of our first home to display in our new home. And I decided to play with these pictures at this editing site and fell in love with the way it turned our home pictures into paintings. All I need is to save them, print them and frame them! That simple and very inexpensive. How classy do they look?

Fall 10' at the new W. Home!

Fall is upon us! And this means a lot to us because we have our birthdays and wedding anniversary coming up. I always get excited during this time of the year, of course! And one way I celebrate is by decorating our home with fall decorations. We got to it this weekend and so far I am liking the way our new home looks decorated. It makes a home a little warmer and festive and I am all for that. I'm also loving my Bath and Body Works fall scented candles filling the air with autumn goodness. Soon, we will add Halloween touches and I can't wait to share those. I hope these will inspire you to add some Fall touches to your home!

Our mantle is decorated with a fall leave garland and small pumpkins.

More pumpkins on our fireplace.

Our coffee table is decorated with glittery fall candles and another pumpkin! I picked up these at Home Goods this weekend. I love that store!

Ovens are decorated with fall inspired kitchen towels from the Martha Stewart collection at Macys.

Our kitchen table is decorated with this centerpiece of glittery pumpkins and gourds! I got these at Hobby Lobby. I love anything sparkly!

And finally, you are greeted at the front door with these cute fall touches.

Weekend in the Mountains

Last Friday, Ronnie gave me a call in the morning and surprisingly asked me "Do you want to go to the mountains this weekend?". Of course, I said "yes!" and he took a half day to head there in the afternoon to arrive around dinner time. We've been talking a lot lately about going, but we've been so busy we haven't had the chance. Ronnie's family has a mountain home and his grandparent's were there. So, he thought it would be a good time to see them, too, since it's been a few months since our move from NC to GA.

We really enjoyed the cool air and it was strange visiting a place we called home. Actually, it felt really good to be back and we soaked up the cool mountain air and appreciated the things we love about living in NC.

I took some random "NC" things during our weekend and I hope you enjoy taking a peek at what we did and saw.

This was taken on our drive to NC. This is one of the things we first saw. The sky was really blue and clear. It was a beautiful NC day. When I see old rustic barns like this, I totally think NC. We had several of these around our town.

We saw the Grandfather Mountain sign as we were getting closer to the house. Who knows how many times we've been to it and crossed the mile high bridge? We didn't this time. But it really is an amazing place. It's also where my BFF got engaged!

One of my favorite places to visit is Beech Mountain and their little general store called "Fred's". I have to eat at their small diner at least once when I am there. And I love their sweet tea! (a must have drink in NC)

How cute are Ronnie's grandparents? He's so blessed to still have them in his life.

Of course, we had to pick up some jars of the taste of nc. We bought some pumpkin butter and honey.

Finally, here is a picture of us on the final day. Saturday was very gloomy, but Sunday it was clear and beautiful. We had a really nice time!

Honesty Still Exists.

How cute is this sunflower stand?!

Remember when I posted about the Sunflower field we saw near us? Well, Ronnie took me this Sunday and we were in shock at what we saw! Driving up we noticed that there wasn't anyone working the stand, so naturally we thought it was closed. Until we read this sign:

Yes, the sunflower stand was running on the "honor system" and we were able to pay and pick on our own. This is unthinkable in this day in age. We were so in shock! How cool is that?

So, we did what they asked and put the money in the box, made our change, and picked our flowers!

Ronnie did the picking. I just told him which ones I liked. There were tons of bees flying around and it was funny seeing my hubby freak out about them. :)

See the bee? They were huge! He was so brave! lol

I was really happy. Sunflowers make reallllyyy happy!

Home Touches

I thought you'd like some show and tell. So, today I snapped a couple of "home touches" around here that I love. These are just some of the things that I think my our house "our home"....making this bigger house feel warmer like our first home. ;)

Family portraits. I miss my beautiful Tita more everyday. There she is holding my incredible papi.

I chose this color for my dining room and it definitely makes this huge empty room feel warmer. It's "Spud" by Martha Stewart. I love it and the crown moulding. We are still working on the furniture. One thing at a time....

Mr.'s pepper plant. He thought it was cool and the more I water it, the more I think so, too!

Mr. has his pepper plant and I have my cactus. I'm so intrigued by these. I guess we have exotic taste in plants.

I love, love my glass door. And you know how much I love sunflowers. Perfect combo.

My beautiful best friend, Janelle, gifted this for me as a housewarming present. It goes with my decor perfectly. She knows me well!

I snagged this fabulous Martha Stewart round rug at Home Goods at an excellent price. It lays in our half bath downstairs. I can't tell you how obsessed I am with rugs. But I think I can pick them out good.

We also painted the coffered ceiling in the family to give the house a warmer feel. I think we picked a great color. It's not as dark as "Spud", but it is still in the family. This one is "Coffee" that we got at Lowes.

Finally, here is mother of rugs in our home. I couldn't resist this rug when I saw it at Target. It just suited our new wood floors nicely and it matches our love seat pattern nicely. I had to have it. Mr. made it happen.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little tour around our home. It really is beginning to feel like we actually live here. We will really feel it once we get started on the gardening and planting in the fall. Mr. and I really enjoy that!

sunflowers.

I adore Sunflowers. I love having fresh ones at home. My bridal shower was sunflower themed, as well. They just make me smile looking at them. This weekend we drove passed a sunflower farm field. It was so beautiful! I hope to go back this coming weekend to pick fresh ones from the field. I'll blog about them if I am successful at picking out some nice ones. I don't think I will have trouble. :)

coca-cola brownies

One of my favorite treats to make at home are brownies. But I make them a little different by changing up 2 specifics ingredients. 1. use butter instead of oil and 2. use coke instead of water! sound crazy! But it's not. It was inspired by Cracker Barrel's Coca-Cola Cake, which I L♥VE! It is seasonal, so making the brownies this way helps when I have cravings for it. The coke makes the chocolate richer. The butter trick was suggested to me by my lovely bff Jackie. Butter just makes everything taste better! I picked up a box of Ghirardelli (the best in my opinion) to make as a weekend treat. Hope your weekend is just as sweet!

Full House ♥

I ♥ it when our home is a full house! Looks like these little guys will be dropped off very soon to spend a few days with us in Georgia. I can't wait. I am sure we will make cupcakes and cookies galore, per Nick's request, since we have 2 ovens! My life was complete when these guys entered it. So excited...and I am sure my dad and my step-mother appreciate a quiet house for a few days!

Banana Delight

*I forgot to take a picture of my creation, so Martha's version of it will have to do!*

This past weekend we hosted another BBQ get together. I decided I wanted to make Banana Pudding. I thought it would be an easy, sweet and refreshing summer dessert. And it was a hit. Everyone LOVED it! I can't tell you how simple it is to put together. And if you wanted it to be light on the calories, all you have to do is substitute some items with fat-free or light versions of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. Jello instant vanilla pudding (You can go the sugar free route to make it easy on the calories)

Milk (for the pudding)

About 4 ripe bananas

1 box of Vanilla Wafers

Cool Whip (Again, you can get the fat-free version or just omit all together. It would still be delicious without the whipped cream topping)

Directions:

1. In a big bowl, prepare the vanilla pudding. After whipping it together, the pudding will be set in about 5 minutes.

2. Cut bananas into slices.

3. In a dish of your choice, prepare the dessert by layering the ingredients. I chose to layer the vanilla wafers first, then pour the pudding, then layer the bananas, and repeat!

4. After all the wafers, bananas, and pudding are layered, top with the cool whip.

5. Enjoy!