I.heart.PB&J.

I saw this recipe for PB&J heart cookies on MarthaStewart.com and had to share. If you are following my previous post on healthy snacking, you can make a few substitutions to the ingredients below but let's be real honest with each other...these treats will be tastiest when left in their original state. Butter, sugar and all. It's ok to make exceptions for a sweet valentines PB&J, right!? ;) I think yes. Life is short :)

How cute would these be in your kiddo's (or husbands:)) lunch?!

Recipe: 

Makes about 2 dozen 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1/3 cup raspberry jam, stirred to loosen

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in peanut butter, then egg. Reduce speed to low, and beat in flour mixture until dough forms. If dough is sticky, refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (about 2 tablespoons each). Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press into 1 3/4-inch rounds. Press hearts into centers using your fingertips. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and reshape hearts using your fingertips or the handle of a wooden spoon. Fill indentation of each with a generous 1/2 teaspoon jam to form a heart. Bake until cookies are firm, 6 to 7 minutes more.

One man's trash...another man's treasure

If you've never bought a real Christmas tree before, part of the process is getting a fresh cut on the end, so it will be able to absorb water when you set it in the base. They can either cut it for you when you pick out your tree or you can DIY. Since Mainstay Farm is about 45 minutes from our apartment and the cut is only good for about 30 minutes before you need to place the tree in water, we decided to DIY and headed to my parents house for the saw! 

When my dad finished cutting the end of the tree (on top of Justin's truck...scary!), the sentimental side of me kicked in full-swing and I decided I wanted to save the part he cut off. My dad and Justin laughed at me a little because the piece was all sappy and just didn't look pretty. BUT I was determined to keep a part of our first tree make something out of it. So, I had my dad cut it down smaller and let it dry out for a few days. I'm glad these guys put up with me, because I think we got a pretty cute little ornament out of it that we'll be able to keep forever! ;) 

The tool man, himself, hard at work. 

The fresh cut!

I guess the blog 'thing' to do now is to post the instructions on how I made this, so here you go:

1. Buy a tree. Cut bottom of tree.

2. Sand sides of stump so it's smooth.

3. Grab a sharpie and go to town! I wanted it fairly simple.

3. Decorate sides how you wish. I just added a pic printed on computer

paper, antiqued the edges, and added the gold numbers. Fancy! Ha. Not much to it :)

A few more Christmas details :)

O Tannenbaum.

Because it is our first Christmas as a married couple, when we talked about our Christmas tree for this year, we decided we had to buy a real one. It just seemed most appropriate and festive. And, we didn't want a Walmart, pick-it-out-in-five-minutes tree. We wanted to do this thing the right way: an all-out Griswold, Christmas Vacation, chop down our own tree adventure we were envisioning. So, to the Christmas tree farm we went! 


One of my dad's very best friends and some good family friends of ours own Mainstay Farm in Burleson, TX. It....is the coolest!! If you have not been, you NEED to go! They are a wonderful family and it is a neat experience. We are going to make it a family tradition to go every year, for sure!

Our parents and Hailey were there with us on Saturday and we had such a great time picking out our tree. We rode around on a tractor, scouring the land for the finest and grandest tree for our lil' apartment. Our 3rd floor ceilings are very tall, so we have the room for the height but seeing as how we had very minimal ornaments (as in....a grand total of 4!), we decided that going for a smaller tree would be more economical for our wallets. Paying rent and buying groceries this month are probably more important than me buying sparkly ornaments to adorn a 15 foot tree ;) So, we decided a sweet little 7 footer suited us better. Also, many of the 'traditional' Christmas pine trees do not have great branches for hanging ornaments, which led us to our Fraser Fir aka "Fairytale" tree, below, that is just perfect for decorating (which, we all know is super important, right!!!)

After picking out our tree and a quick stop for ornaments at Walmart (budget decorating this year!!), we came back home, lit a fire, set up our tree and began transforming the apartment into a winter wonderland. Ok, so...what this really looked like was me decorating and Justin beginning his second batch of homebrew! But, we had a great time and I am finished decorating. I think! (I'm sure there are a few things I will be adding here and there!!)  

Here's a little preview of our place all jazzed for the Holidays. It's only 24 days away, so if you don't have yours up yet....do it! Before you know it, it'll be time to take them down (I get sad!!!). 

Those sparkly pinecones are cinnamon scented....YUM! $4.00 @ Walmart :)

Love it, Mom!!!!! Mean it, girl ;)

Justin is already getting tired of me asking to have a fire. I want one EVERY night - even if it is 70 degrees outside!!!! I love them :) I really must have a circulation problem, I'm thinking!!

Still need to jazz this lil' guy up :)

Thanks, Mom, for the beautiful arrangements and wreath. They are all just the perfect touches to our apartment and I am so thankful for your talent! :) 

Thanksgiving 2010

Well, I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We had a great one with family, friends, a decent amount of food and lots of Christmas decorating. On our way to lunch with Justin's family on Thanksgiving day, we talked about how we felt more in the "holiday" spirit than ever this year. I think it is because it was 40 something degrees outside, I was holding a pumpkin pie, we had a big 'ole pot of green beans seatbelted in the backseat, Christmas music was on the radio and every building we passed along the way had Christmas decorations up already. We just felt so dang jolly. Hope you felt some of that, too. 

Pumpkin Pie. Handmade sign....not so much handmade pie.:) 

This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and I just really could not be more thankful for Justin and our wonderfully supportive families. Thanksgiving will always be a special holiday for us as two years ago, Justin asked me to be his girlfriend AT his parents house. On Thanksgiving day....in front of most of his family. (So, we had just started dating and as soon as I arrived at his house, he greeted me at the front door asking if he could introduce me as his girlfriend rather than "Courtni, his special friend." I said yes :) and the rest is history). This year, he had no pressure - we are legit :) We enjoyed a great meal at The Greshams, watched some Cowboys football and helped our cute nieces make a gingerbread village. 

After lunch, we headed over to my parents house for more Thanksgiving festivities! After dinner, more pumpkin pie and watching the Ags bring home the big W in Austin (whoop!) at my parents house, I began to suffer from some MAJOR Black Friday shopping decision-making anxiety. After scattering out all the newspaper ads and looking at all of the once-in-a-lifetime  "door-buster, early bird" specials that were going to be happening at freakish hours of the morning (night?!), I really started to freak out about where I should go and what I was going to get. This was weird, not because I had trouble making a decision (I'm fairly awful at being decisive), but odd because only hours before I vowed to never shop on Black Friday, that those "doorbuster" people were nutso and told myself there was really nothing that I had my eyes set on to purchase. BUT because of Facebook and it's incredible way of making you aware of what every person you know is doing and a fear that I might miss out on getting all of my Christmas shopping done for $100...I felt I just had to go. I begged Justin to go, but he hates shopping with a burning passion so pair that with losing sleep and that's just not a person I'd probably like to be around. After trying to convince several other family members to go with me, I decided that sleep is a pretty good thing and I would skip out on the madness...this year. I did wake up to be at Hobby Lobby (my first and true shopping love) at 8:00, though, and bought a bunch of stuff NOT on sale. I was probably the only person that day that bought things full-price. Hey...when ya need paint....ya just do what ya gotta do :)


All in all, it was a wonderful day and I am just so grateful for the amazing people in my life and how truly blessed we are. I am reading a book now called "Lord, Change my Attitude" (it is really good, fyi) and the day before Thanksgiving I read this quote in it that I really loved. I'll end my Thanksgiving blog re-cap with it - enjoy! 


‎"Thankfulness is the attitude that perfectly displaces my sinful tendancy to complain and thereby release joy and blessing into my life."

Pumpkin Pie - In a cup!

I realize this is my second post regarding something that is pumpkin and slightly unhealthy but I just simply feel this must be shared and not kept to myself. Last night we had dinner with some great friends of ours, Ben and Kara, and just had such a fun time with them. They made some awesome brownies for dessert, which would have been just fine by themselves for me (I am slightly obsessive when it comes to eating brownies....it's a problem), but they asked if we wanted to try some pumpkin pie liqueur....to which we obviously said yes. OMG...glad we did! We might be behind times in just now trying this but...wow. It is AWESOME, people!!! You have to try it. Served on the rocks, it is the perfect holiday drink and literally tastes JUST like pumpkin pie. Nothing could have gotten me in the Thanksgiving mood more than that drink. Truly, I was thankful for this treat. 


The one they served us was called Fulton's Harvest and they said you can find at your local liquor store for around $11. 


So, if this 80 degree weather isn't quite putting you in the Turkey Day spirits just yet, go pick yourself up a bottle and just tryyyyy to not be happy. I dare you. 


Oh yea...don't drink and drive.  ;)

Pumpkin Party Pics

A few more pics from our impromptu pumpkin party last week!

The pumpkin journey begins!!

Kissing in a hay-house is the only natural thing to start off with, right?!

Got a little sidetracked and took quite a few tractor pics...

The pumpkin gathering gang.

Kinda ignored the whole "no pets allowed" sign and brought Penelope

along. Or maybe this is Simba?

Such a cute pumpkin patch - you should go.

 In search of the perfect pumpkin. I think this is it.

 I think we were "discussing" who found it first. 

 Our orange canvas' for the night.

J and Sam hard at work on the balcony

Lacey & Jonathan had never carved pumpkins before. We

inaugurated them and they turned out to be pros!

 Diamonds. ;)

Lacey's amazing creation.

I still don't believe she's never carved a pumpkin before!! Beauty!

Have a happy weekend!

At Halls Pumpkin Farm in Colleyville :) Love this boy.
Our first pumpkin carving of the season went down last night and we had such a great time! We had a full out photo sesh at the pumpkin patch near our apartment beforehand and it was just hilarious (more photos to come). Designs of the night included an intricate flaming pumpkin, a traditional Jack-o-Lantern complete with dentures, a dog, and some brand marketing. We had quite the variety and I am looking forward to painting some, soon! Have a fun weekend!!

The pumpkin crew: Us, Sam & Amanda, Jonathan & Lacey :)