Halloween Puppies!

We came to a decision! If you did not read my earlier blog about what Bella should be for Halloween, click here to catch up. Michael and I could not decide on what she should be, then we heard that PetsMart had their pet costumes 75% off. When we got there we found it, and it was only $4.25 which made it even better!!

Here is Bella on her first Halloween!

 

We decided on the chicken! We thought the orange legs and the beak were perfect! Also how cute is it that there is a part for her ears to stick out! She was a little curious about the legs but gave up on trying to eat them shortly after.

Here are the brownies all dressed up!! Enjoy :]

The only candies they got were doggie treats so they did not push their way out the door to greet all the cute kids!

A Weekend in College Station

I have never blogged about activities that take place on the weekends we stay in town and I think this weekend was one worth sharing about!

On both Saturday and Sunday morning we took the pups to the lake to drain some energy! They loved it and so did we!

Bella and Jake

Samson -- "throw my ball!"

On Saturday Michael's sister Julie got into town and we went right to campus for a breakfast tailgate! We met up with some friends and went to the game. It was very cool in the morning, 34 degrees when we were at the lake, and it was only 2 and a half hours later so we had all dressed warm and stripped off layers and had them under our seats. We basically had a whole wardrobe under us. Sadly out of all of us, I got super burned and now I look ridiculous!

Our group!

Hubby!

Aggie Band -- the best part of the game

After the game we went to Casa Rodriguez for dinner (delicious) and came home and carved pumpkins. Thanks to Pinterest I got a new idea for carving our pumpkins this time!! We used a drill to make the holes which was so easy and super fast! Here they are

On Sunday we went to the Renaissance Festival, it was our first and last time to ever go. We have been told by many people how much they love it, but we did not agree one bit. We knew there would be some people dressed up, but I had no idea that about 50% of the people would be! When we first got there Julie went to meet up with some friends, so Michael and I wandered in and went to the Birds of Prey show, the best thing we did. I learned a few new things, Michael already knew them. Later we ate some yummy food, watched a few more shows, and did so much people watching. There were so many costumes that at first I felt bad taking photos, but then I realized they want their pictures taken. Sadly I missed some of the best ones from the beginning, but I got some others later on during the day. In the end we are glad we went to be able to say we went and experienced it, but do not care to go back. If you have never been it is something to see. We were shocked by how many people get into character and what people chose to wear out in public. Here are just a few pictures from the day.

King Vulture

WHAT in the world!?!??!!

Julie shooting an arrow

His job was to stand there and have tomatoes thrown at him all while he made crude jokes at the people throwing them at him

Good gracious!!

Men dressed up like this EVERYWHERE!

How does this fit in?

All of us at the end of the day! It was so bright, lucky Michael had his sunglasses on

This weekend flew by, but that is how all weekends are. We are so glad we were able to spend time with Julie since she is normally going somewhere fun every weekend!

The Flying Bella

Since we got Bella we knew she had a little jumping bean inside her, we just did not know how to get it out of her. Luckily we figured it out!!

Last weekend we found a new place to walk the dogs at Lake Bryan. Since the water level is so far down there is a part of the lake that is normally underwater and the dogs loved exploring it! We got far back to where the little coves are (which are very deep) and Bella became a new kind of lake dog!

Meet the Bella we have been waiting for, The Flying Bella!

 

We had so much fun watching her literally just fly through the air! She is so springy and we have been waiting for her to finally do this and now we know she does!

Here is a video of her in action!

If you want to have a lake play date, let us know :]

Tasty Thursday!

We started a tradition at work that makes us look forward to Thursday! I blogged earlier about Tasty Thursday and some of the things I have made here and here, and today I am catching up on some of the things I have made lately.

We decided that Tasty Thursday was a little much for every Thursday, so we have changed it to every other Thursday and we have had a great turn out since then! We also changed the idea behind it and Tasty Thursday is now like Iron Chef when you have to use a certain ingredient in order to participate. It is nothing crazy like beets or oysters, but more normal ingredients.

Here are the past three things I have made for Tasty Thursday!

The ingredient was Chocolate so there were so many idea but I wanted to try something new. Thanks to Pinterest I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies that were DELICIOUS!! I will blog later about how they are made, but I never would have guessed making homemade brownies would be so easy. On top of the brownies was no bake cookie dough (no eggs) with chocolate sauce drizzled on top. Here is the recipe!

 

Two weeks later the ingredient was cinnamon and I made snickerdoodle blondies. They did not turn out like cookies like I thought would, I actually had no idea what to expect, but it turned out like a coffee cake. Click here for the recipe.

On a side note about cinnamon: Earlier in the week I had made snickerdoodles for Michael (his favorite cookie) and it was a recipe for Pinterest, who would have guessed. I had not been happy with the recipe I had been using so I was ready for a new one. My old recipe used shortening and the new one used melted butter and dark brown sugar. The cookies were soft for a week and were so good! I will be making more of these soon! Oh and dark brown sugar is the way to go, from now on its the only kind of brown sugar I am going to use. Here is my new recipe for snickerdoodles.

Today our ingredient was pumpkin (in the spirit of halloween and fall). I have been searching Pinterest for recipes and found one, pumpkin spice doughnut holes. These are baked and not fried, which is GREAT! They were so easy to make and yummy! They did not turn out as circles though, I am not sure how they could have, but as they looked little muffin likes. When I rolled them in the cinnamon sugar they sorta looked like circles. Such an easy recipe you all should try, click here for it.

In two weeks our ingredient will be strawberries!

Parade of Homes

Michael and I can not wait for the next step in our lives when he graduates, gets a job, and we move to a new place! Even more we can not wait to buy or BUILD our first home!! 

We love HGTV and have pretty much seen all the House Hunter and Property Virgin episodes. We also love to watch any show that does a home make over because when we think about what we want, we are never sure if we want to buy a house we want to make over or if we want to build a new house. After today I am saying BUILD PLEASE!

This weekend in the BCS they are having the Parade of Homes. I heard about this from some friends who found their builder through this event a little over a year ago. The Parade of Homes is an event where builders can apply to have an open house to show what they are up to. You are able to meet the builders (if they are there) and they give you ideas to what you can do if you use them. I couldn't wait to get out and look at new homes and meet the builders! 

I thought I would share a little about some of the houses we went into today.

The first house we went to was our friends who told us about this event (they actually just moved into their house this past week but were out of town this weekend, so they let the builder use their home as the open house). They builder of their home was JMV Homes and wow did they do an amazing job! We met the builder and learned some very neat things to make sure to include if we decide to build. One of the things I never thought about was with the granite counters, making sure it keeps the same thickness the whole way through. With most counter tops if you grab underneath there is a lip (and I do not like that) but when I grabbed underneath their granite there was no lip and it was very nice. We loved looking at their upgrades and their ideas all through their house. Here are some pictures of their beautiful home.

Loved the dark wood and the granite! Beautiful kitchen!

We liked the idea of adding wood to the fireplace

They used the same wood throughout the house and I loved this mirror

This was a big deal for the owners of the house! I love it! Laundry basket pull out drawer

I do not like shower caddies so I will need to remember this for our house

We then went into another home that we thought had some pretty ideas but it was very small and we did not like the use of space. We drove by some other townhomes that we were not that interested in as we are not looking to ever live in a townhome. With two sweet chocolate labs, they need a yard to run around and just be dogs in. 

Another house we went in was beautiful as well! It was built by Blackstone Custom Homes and was huge! It was 2,700 square feet which is a lot of house for our first home, but had so many great ideas inside. This was a really busy open house when we were there so we did not get to meet the builder, but we enjoyed looking through the home. Here are some pictures of things in the house we loved!

Different look with this fixture in the master bathroom

Michael loves this idea by the back door

Bar area, love the wine fridge and wine rack!

Exposed Wood Beams, LOVE

Can I say PERFECT, I want this exact range and pot filler!!

Very pretty cabinet idea

Spice rack pull out! On both sides next to the range, SO SMART!

I thought the entrance was beautiful with the dark wood

After that we drove north and thought we were headed towards 3 more homes, but it ended up being model homes that are always open and we were not interested in going in those 2 so we continued to the last one on our list. And I am so glad we did!!

Our last home was the best home I have seen and it was just the bones basically. They were not close to being done, but that made it even better because as we walked around with the builder he explained what was going to be happening in each room and all the details I loved. Raven Homes is the builder of this home and he was so friendly and helpful. The house is a 2,000 sq ft custom home being built on 10 acres (they already owned the land – exactly what we want) and was the best use of space I have ever seen. It had such an open floor plan and we fell in love with the layout. The one thing both of us loved that we do not see much anymore is when the front door (it was double doors) opens and faces the back door (double doors as well). You looked though the living room, but it made the house so open which we loved! The owners chose to do stained concrete which both of us really like how it looks! Here are some pictures of the home and I will explain what is in the pictures as the house is just in the bones phase.

Fireplace to the left and entertainment area on the right.The hole is in the master closet that opens up to the back of the TV, SMART! 

Window seats in the kitchen/dining area

So much natural light!

Looking through the living room to the back door

Front Porch, PERFECTION!

Front of the home

Another look of the front of the home

We know we are not ready to build or buy a house yet, but we loved going out today and looking at what we can do soon. We have been saving and saving so it is nice to finally have some ideas as to what it is going towards. We are lucky and got so many great ideas for when we ever build a home. We can’t wait to be in this step of our lives :]