Peach Cobbler

My great grandmother made the best peach cobbler e.v.e.r!  I still miss it!!  Ha ha I don't think mine will ever be as good as hers was, but it still satisfies my occasional craving for Peach Cobbler, and it is pretty darn good if you ask me!  :0)

Ingredients:
Pie Crust, divided into two pieces (or you can cheat and buy the pre made rolls of pie crust at the store, just get the package of two.  The red box in the refrigerator section, over by the biscuits and what not, works well--much better than the frozen kind!)
1/2 stick butter
2 pounds sliced peaches
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg--beaten and some water (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Roll out half of your pie crust to fit the bottom and sides of the baking dish.
If you are using the egg, whisk together the egg and water. Then, using a pastry brush, coat your pie crust with the egg mixture.  Just do a thin coating over the entire crust.
Roll out the second half of pie crust and cut it into strips--about an inch wide.  Save any pie crust scraps and set them aside.
On a piece of waxed paper, lay out the strips of pie dough in a woven pattern and place in the freezer.
In a saucepan, melt the butter.
Add in the peaches and all of the dry ingredients.
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
Cut any pie crust dough remnants into small pieces, and stir them gently into the mixture. 
Remove from heat and add in the vanilla.
Pour the peach mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Remove your woven pie crust from the freezer, and flip it onto the top of your baking dish. 
Tuck in the pie crust edges. 
If you are using the egg, coat the top of your pie crust with the egg mixture.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it's bubbly and the crust is a nice golden brown.
(I use a clear glass baking dish, so I also pick up my dish to make sure the the bottom pie crust looks cooked all the way through the middle.  If it doesn't I cover the top with foil, and bake it a little bit longer.  This has only happened to me once, but now I check it every time!)

I always taste my peach mixture before adding it to the pie crust.  Sometimes I'll add in a splash of orange juice, more sugar, or even some honey.  ha ha it all depends on my mood that day!  But this cobbler always turns out yummy, and my dad, who is passionate about his cobbler, love it too!  :0)

Chicken Calabrese

This chicken dish goes great with a salad with some of the yummy Fresh Tomato Salad Dressing that I posted the recipe for last week.  It has a wonderful light flavorful taste, and is perfect for a warm (or hot in my case) summer day!

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
4 slices of prosciutto (ham works too)
4 slices of provolone (or any good white cheese)
1/8 cup of basil pesto sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup white wine (or chicken broth)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon fresh basil--chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Split (also known as butterfly) the chicken breasts so that they open up kind of like a book.  It sounds hard to do, but trust me, it's not!
Open the chicken breasts up and layer: prosciutto, 1 teaspoon of pesto, 1 tablespoon sun dried tomato, and cheese.
Roll up the chicken breasts, while tucking in the sides, to completely envelope the filling. 
Secure with toothpicks or tie with baking twine if you need to. 
Put your olive oil into a deep skillet and brown the chicken rolls on both sides.
Add the wine (or chicken broth), tomato sauce, basil, salt, and pepper to the skillet. 
Simmer about 30 minutes.   
Enjoy!

I love to make some crusty garlic bread, a salad, and some steamed veggies to go with this.  You can also play with the filling and it will still turn out great!  You can add mushrooms or bacon, or whatever else you have on hand just to change it up a bit.  Cooking these in the wine sauce keeps the chicken moist, and gives it such great flavor!  Yummy!

Fresh Tomato Salad Dressing

I have had several versions of this over the years, and I absolutely love it!!  It has such a perfect fresh bright taste, and is by far my favorite salad dressing. I think this year, I might try freezing it into cubes to see if I can store it that way.  Then I could make up a big batch while my tomatoes are fresh and then be able to eat it for months afterwards!  :0)  I'll let you now how it goes!

Ingredients:
3 cups chopped tomatoes
1 generous sprig of fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic--minced (sometimes I saute the garlic to give it more flavor)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup oil (I prefer olive oil, but I have used canola oil too)
sometimes I also add a dash or two of balsamic vinegar just to give it a little more flavor

Directions:
Put the tomatoes, basil, garlic, salt, and vinegar into your food processor or blender and blend until it is all combined.
Then slowly add in your oil and blend until it is all creamy and yummy looking.
Enjoy!

Yummy!  This dressing is seriously good!  I could almost eat it with a spoon!  :0) 

Ingredient Substitutions

I thought I would do something a little different today!  Instead of a recipe, I am going to post a handy list of substitutions.  I am always searching for a substitute for one ingredient or another because I hate having to run to the store.  (Ha ha With Jay, the days of make a quick run to the store are loooong gone!)  Hopefully one of these tips will help you out the next time you run out of something too!

Buttermilk and regular yogurt can be used interchangeably!  Just keep in mind that if you use vanilla yogurt, you'll need to cut down slightly on the vanilla in your recipe.  You use them in equal amounts too, so if your recipe calls for 1 cup of buttermilk, you can use 1 cup of yogurt and vice versa.   

I really prefer not to use oil when I bake, so I have started substituting butter for oil in all of my recipes.  To do this, just use 125% of the oil called for in your original recipe.  For example, if your original recipe calls for 1 cup of oil, you need to use 1 1/4 cups of butter.  (I am sure that this math can also be reversed to use oil instead of butter, but I have never tried it.)

You can also substitute butter for shortening and vice versa.  You use them in equal amounts, so if the recipe calls for a cup of shortening, you can use a cup of butter instead.

If you run out of brown sugar, you can use regular sugar and molasses.  To substitute for 1 firmly packed cup of brown sugar, use 1 cup of regular sugar and 1/4 cup of molasses.  Also, be sure to subtract 1/4 cup from whatever liquid you are using in the recipe. 

If a recipe calls for heavy cream, you can use 1 cup evaporated milk or 3/4 cup milk plus 1/3 cup butter for every cup of cream called for in the recipe.

Have you ever been 1 egg short for a recipe!?  Next time, use 3 tablespoons mayonnaise or half a banana mashed with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder as a substitute.

I always get frustrated when a recipe calls for a specific type of flour!  But these substitutions seem to work pretty well:
for every cup of Bread Flour called for, use 1 cup regular flour plus 1 teaspoon wheat gluten
for every cup of Cake Flour called for, use 1 cup of regular flour minus 2 tablespoons
for every cup of Self Rising Flour called for, use 7/8 cup all-purpose flour plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Out of Honey!?  For every cup of honey called for, use 1 1/4 cup white sugar plus 1/3 cup water instead.  It won't taste quite as good as the honey would, but it'll do in a pinch!

For every teaspoon on lemon juice called for, just use 1/2 a teaspoon of vinegar.  You won't get the lemon flavor, but the acid in the vinegar will work the same. 

You can also substitute sour cream for mayonnaise!  I like to use half mayo and half sour cream in a lot of things, deviled eggs especially. 

Instead of Molasses, you can use 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar for every cup of molasses called for. 

These have all helped me out of a tight spot at one time or another!  Do you have any great substitutions that you use? 

A Camping We Will Go

The Hubbs, for those of you that don't know, is an Eagle Scout...which means he loves all things outdoorsy.  Ha ha and I on the other hand, am not such a fan of the bugs or heat that typically accompany the great outdoors.  But I have also come to terms with the fact that my Little Man is very much a fan of the outdoors!  So for our vacation this year, we decided to take Jay on his very first camping trip. 

We had originally planned to go to Lake Ouichita in Arkansas, but after a round of rather nasty storms...the state had to close the entire park!  Which meant we had to find a whole new place to camp at the last minute.  Fortunately, we were able to find a state park, Beaver's Bend, in Oklahoma that is in the same national forest as the park in Arkansas.  It boasted a spring fed crystal clear mountain lake and river with the cooler temperatures and family friendly trails we were looking for, and it was only about a four hour drive from our house!  So we packed up the car (so much so that we barely fit) and headed out.

And I have to say that we had an absolute blast!!!  The park was absolutely beautiful and I think we had the best camping site in the entire park.  We went early enough that there weren't many people, and the cooler temperatures kept the mosquitoes away.  We hiked, fished, and even went for a canoe trip!  We cooked all kinds of fun campfire meals, and countless smores.  We even made some wonderful new friends (Hello guys!)  The Hubbs made fun of the 8 person tent I bought, but we sure had plenty of room, and we slept in complete comfort on our air mattress.  :0)  Ha ha I think my version of camping was a little bit different from what The Hubbs is used to, but it worked for us, and I would do it again in a heart beat!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip:

Broken Bow Lake:

 Steam rising off the lake water by our campsite one morning:

The Boys hunting for crayfish on the river:

Our Campsite:

Jay with one of the crayfish they caught:

Jay roasting a Peep to make smores:

The Hubbs teaching Jay how to start a campfire:

Our Nightly Visitor:

(He liked peanut M&Ms and marshmallows!)

And here is a slide show with some more pictures (There were just WAY too many to fit them all into a blog post!)


If you are looking for a fun place to camp, I can recommend this one for sure!  We stayed in the Blue Jay campground in site 12, and it was gorgeous!  I think it was the best campsite in the whole park!!  We had water on three sides, and some seriously stunning views of the lake.  It is also on a smaller outcropping of the lake, so it was very quiet and peaceful.  But I used the bathhouse in the Armadillo campground just down the road because it was much cleaner (smelled like bleach!) and the hot showers seemed to last forever.  I have learned that I can do camping, but not without a good hot shower and my coffee!  :0) 

We had so much fun that we're thinking of planning another big camping trip next year!  Maybe we'll check out some place like Big Bend, Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon...         

Red Velvet Cake

I love red velvet cake, but the catch is that it has to be a good red velvet cake!  I am half convinced that the people that say they don't like red velvet cake, have just never had a good one.  :0)  Too many red velvet cakes are lacking the subtle chocolaty taste that is a must for the cake to be a winner in my book.  Anywho, Jay and I made this recipe for my dad's 53rd birthday, and it was a big hit! 

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour--sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used 3 tablespoons, because in my book, you can never have too much chocolate!!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 oz red food coloring
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla (always use the real stuff, the imitation vanilla just doesn't cut it!)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 (340 if you are using a dark, nonstick, or glass pan)
Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking dish
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add in the eggs one at a time.
In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.
Add the dry mixture alternately with the buttermilk until it is all combined.
Add in the red food coloring, vinegar, and the vanilla.
Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Top this with a cream cheese frosting, or try this Praline Frosting:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Bake pecans on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown, stirring once.
Bring butter, brown sugar, and cream to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring often; boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Remove from heat, and whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
Add toasted pecans; stir gently 3 minutes or until frosting begins to cool and thicken slightly.

Seriously, give the praline frosting a try, because you may never go back!  It is SO good!!  Yummy!  I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we have!
 

Italian or Mexican Popover Casserole

This recipe is a real crowd pleaser, and it is very easy to make!  There are two different variations for the filling, so it's like getting two recipes all in one!  :0)  I toss together a quick salad or cut up some fresh veggies and dinner is served! 

Ingredients for Italian Filling:
1.5 pounds ground meat (I use half beef and half turkey)
1 small onion--diced
1 small green pepper--diced  (In all honesty I never add this)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic--minced
1 jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz mozzarella--shredded

Ingredients for Mexican Filling:
1.5 pounds ground meat (I use half beef and half turkey)
1 small onion--diced
1 cup frozen corn
1 jar of salsa
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz cheddar or Mexican blend cheese--shredded

Ingredients for Popover (Used regardless of what filling you use):
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil (I use olive oil)
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Filling:
Brown meat and add all of the filling ingredients except for the cheese. 
Simmer for 10 minutes or so.
Lightly spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray.
Pour the filling into the pan and top with cheese.
Set aside.
Popover Topping:
Beat milk, oil, and eggs for 1 minute at medium speed. 
Add in the flour and salt and beat for 2 more minutes, or until smooth.
Pour batter over the filling mixture. 
You want all of the filling covered with the batter, so spread it with a spatula if you have to. 
Top with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 400 for 25 to 30 minutes.

I have even cooked the filling ahead of time, and put it into the fridge.  Then when I am ready to cook it, I whip up the popover batter and pour it over the top.  It works great!  I have also found that for the Mexican version, if your salsa has a lot of onion chunks in it, skip the diced onion for the filling.  Otherwise, it just gets too overpowering!  This recipe is just different and fun.  Jay likes to put his with the popover side down and eat it like a slice of pizza!  Yummy!

Swimmin' In The Rain

It's Raining, It's Pouring, and Fred Duck is LOVING it!  :0)  Here is a video of him splashing and playing in his little pool:

And here are a couple of still shots:

Ha ha I wish the pictures truly did this justice, because Fred is pretty darn cute!  He is back playing in his pool as I type this.  Fun Fun Fun!!

Love Together Always!

One of the things The Hubbs and I decided to do for our 5th wedding anniversary was to have a wooden sign made.  (The traditional 5th anniversary gift is wood, so we have tried to keep with that theme, just for fun!)  When my cousin was married, someone gave her this really cute sign that had her new married name on it and under the name, it said established in and had the year they were married.  I wanted something similar for our sign, but I wanted to make it a little bit more personal.  :0) 

When The Hubbs and I were engaged, my Grandma was SO excited!  She did several wonderful and thoughtful things for us, but one thing that still touches my heart today, is the theme she came up with for the Tea Party bridal shower she hosted for me.  She had everyone bring their favorite recipe and put them into a cook book.  One of her recipes was simply this:

Love Together Always!

This phrase became a theme for the things she did for our wedding.  From her toast to us at the tea party, the the card she gave me on our wedding day, to the guestbook picture she signed:

she always included the phrase "Love Together Always".  It means so much to The Hubbs and I, and is some of the best advice that anyone could have ever given us! 

When we were trying to decide what to have our sign say, we knew that this would be perfect!!  So, without further adieu:

We hung it above the picture that my mom made for us as a wedding gift.  :0)  The lady that made the sign for us was really great, and even matched our wedding colors perfectly!  I just love it, and I am so excited that we decided to have it made!! 

  

Sunday School Mother's Day Craft

I teach the Pre-K Sunday School class at our church, and this year I wanted to help the kiddos make something special for their moms (or another special woman in their lives).  So when I saw this tutorial for a felt flower, I knew it would be perfect for what I had in mind!

I used the pattern from the tutorial, but I changed the colors up a bit...you know how I feel about pink!! :0) 

Here is what I did:

I cut out all the pieces, then I glued the two leaves together like this: 

Then I hot glued a safety pin onto the back side of the leaves:

I cut the center circles out of felt that had glitter in it:

I glued the 5 light pink petals together to make a flower shape:

I also glued the larger dark pink petals together to make a flower shape:

Then, I left all of the pieces just like this, and stuck them into a Ziploc bag with my glue gun and some shimmery white paint.  In my class Sunday morning, I had each kiddo put their finger prints on the flower pieces.  We let them dry while we did our Bible lesson, and then I hot glued all the pieces together while the kids finished up another one of their crafts for the day.  Here is the finished pin one more time:

We ended up with some pretty darn cute keepsake flower pins for the kiddos to give to their moms after class!  We even made one for our children's minister with fingerprints on it from each child in the class.  They were definitely a big hit!!  :0)    

Our Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is one of my favorite holidays to make gifts for!  We can make so many cute, creative, and fun gifts for moms, and this year was no exception!  Sorry I couldn't post this before Mother's Day...but my mom reads this, and I wanted her to be surprised!  (Love you Mom!)  Anywho, this year, I decided to make plant topiaries for Mother's Day:

I really L.O.V.E. how they turned out!  Jay and I had a blast making them too, which makes them all around winners in my book!! 

Here is a list of the supplies I used:
Three different sized Terra Cota pots, one small, one medium, and one large
White Spray paint
Clear Gloss Spray paint
Pink Acrylic Paint
Turquoise Acrylic Paint
Purple Acrylic Paint
1/2 inch PVC pipes--left over from the chicken run we built
Wooden Skewers
A black Sharpie
3 different sized circular objects to use at stamps, I used marsh mellows, mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups (the ones in the foil wrappers), and Hershey's kisses
Potting Soil
10 Plants
Rocks
Hot Glue
Floral Foam (you can find this at the dollar store, or any craft store, it's green)


Here's What I Did:
1.  Spray paint all three pots, inside and out, with white  spray paint, and allow them to completely dry
2.  Make sure that your PVC pipe will pit through the hole in the bottom of each pot.  It wouldn't fit through the hole in the bottom of my small pot, so I had The Hubbs use a screwdriver and hammer to chisel out the edges of the hole and make it bigger.  We broke one pot in the process, so be very careful!!
3.  Decorate your pots:

For our big pot, I had Jay put his hand prints all the way around the bottom of the pot, then He used marsh mellows to stamp the circles around the top of the pot:

For the medium pot, Jay dotted his fingerprints all around the bottom of the pot, and he used the mini Reese's Peanut Butter cup candies to stamp the circles around the top of the pot:

For the small pot, Jay used Hershey's kisses to stamp the circles around the top of the pot, and I wrote Happy Mother's Day on the bottom of the pot:

4.  After the acrylic paint has completely dried, spray the pots with two coats of the clear gloss spray paint. 
5.  Figure out how long your piece of PVC pipe needs to be , I didn't really measure, I just eye balled it.  I think mine ended up being between 18 and 24 inches tall.  A good pair of garden sheers works great to cut the PVC, but I had The Hubbs use his saw.
6.  Figure out where you want the medium and small pots to sit on the PVC pole, and mark it with a pencil.  You need some of the pole to stick up into the small pot, mine had about 2 or 3 inches if pole sticking up into it. 
7.  Use a drill bit that is about the size of your wooden skewers to drill a hole through your PVC pole in the places you marked with your pencil.    
8.  Make sure that your PVC pole doesn't fit through to hole in the bottom of your large pot.  Mine did, so I just hot glued a few pieces of a wooden skewer over the hole to keep the PVC pole from slipping through it when you pick the pot up. 
9.  Trim your piece of floral foam and wedge it down into your large pot.
10.  Stick your PVC pole down into the floral foam so that it is centered in the large pot.
11.  Cut your wooden skewers so that you have a piece of skewer the size of the bottom of the medium pot, and one the size of the bottom of the small pot.
12.  Stick the skewer piece for the medium pot through the hole in your PVC pole and hot glue your medium pot to the skewer.  (I added some hot glue on the inside of the pot next to the PVC pole to stabilize the pot a little more too.)
13.  Follow the same process as in step 11 to attach the small pot
14.  Put some rocks (I had Jay collect some from our yard) around the floral foam in the large pot, just to give it a little more weight.  Be sure to leave room to plant your plants on top of the rocks and foam.
15.  Plant your plants, and you are ready to go!  :0) 

These were fairly easy to make, and we had a lot of fun with them!  Jay and I made these over the coarse of about a week.  We would do a little each day, so that it stayed fun for Jay, and he didn't get tired of working on them!  

You may have also noticed Jay's hand print butterflies stuck into the pots: 

They were fun ans easy to make too! 

Here's what I did:
1.  I traced Jay's hands onto a piece of construction paper
2.  I let Jay use some of the same paint we used on the flower topiary to singer paint the hand prints
3.  I cut out the hand prints
4.  I cut out an oval shape, and a circle shape out of a different colored piece of construction paper
5.  I glued the pieces together in the shape of a butterfly and glued it all to a piece of white card stock, but another piece of construction paper would work just fine too. 
6.  I had Jay use some black acrylic paint to make eyes for the butterfly, and I used a sharpie to make the mouth.
7.  I took a pipe cleaner, cut it in half, wound each half around a pencil to make the spiral, and hot glued it to the back of the butterfly's head
8.  Then I hot glued the butterflies to a wooden skewer so I could stick them into the plants.  :0) 

There yo have it!  Easy Peasy!  These really turned out great!  Ha ha I think I am going to make another one, for myself sometime soon!  :0)
 

5 Years of Wedded Bliss!

Five years ago today, The Hubbs and I started our journey together as Mr. and Mrs! It just doesn't seem possible that it has really been five whole years. The Hubbs is and will always be my very best friend. It's corny, but absolutely true! :0) He is an amazing man, and my biggest blessing in life!  And I can honestly say that after five years of marriage, he still manages to make my heart flutter!  I am one lucky girl!!   

We are doing a couple of pretty special things to commemorate the anniversary of our big day, and I'll tell you all about them soon, but today, I just wanted to take a walk down memory lane for a bit!

Most little girls dream of huge church weddings, but when The Hubbs proposed, I wanted a small destination wedding, and HE wanted the big church wedding!  We compromised and got married at a cute little country church just down the road from where we met.  We looked at numerous churches, and when we walked into this one, it just fit.  And it was really perfect for us!   

The Hubbs with his mom, who is am pretty amazing woman!  She raised The Hubbs and his brother on her own!  She is a very strong person, a quality that I am very thankful she passed on to The Hubbs!  :0)

My Mom was my Matron of Honor, and will always be one of my very best friends.  She is amazing!  When I was little, we went to someone's wedding, and I asked her why the Bride's mother had to sit out in the crowd.  My mom explained how normal that was, and I promised her right then and there that when I got married, she would be right there beside me, and not sitting out in the crowd.  And she was! :0)

 This is our adorable flower girl Kaity, and my precious nephew and one of our ring bearers Patrick (isn't he the cutest!?  He is a big boy now, but I still think he is very handsome!)

Mr. Colby, The Hubbs' cousin was also our ring bearer.  Isn't he adorable too!?  He loved the ring pillow so much that he kept it for a while, in fact he might still have it!  He is still the sweetest, and Jay thinks he is absolutely awesome.  Every time there is a family get together, Jay wants to know if Colby will be there!   

(I am not sure why these pictures are so small, sorry!)

The Hubbs wanted to give me a gift before the ceremony, but he knew full well that I didn't want him to see me the ceremony (tee hee) so he had Colby bring it to me.  Ha ha and Colby took his job very seriously, it was precious! 

The gift was a beautiful diamond necklace that I still wear, only now I wear it with the cameo he gave me when I had Jay.   :0) 

The Girls:

My mom was my Matron of Honor, and two of my cousins Bekah and Robyn were my Bridesmaids.  My cousins are more like sisters to me than cousins.  They are both incredible women!  I am so glad that they were right there beside me for such an important day in my life! 

The Boys:

The Hubbs' Best Man was his younger brother, he's the one on the far right.  He did an excellent job, and gave a wonderful speech at our reception!  :0)  And I honestly could not ask for a better brother in law!  He and The Hubbs have really grown a lot closer over the years, and I am so thankful!  The other groomsmen are our good friends, Ivan and EG.  EG, we call Bubba, and he is seriously amazing!  I can tell you without a doubt, that if we're all still alive when we turn 80, we'll still be friends.  

Our Wedding Party:

Ha ha How I managed to convince all the boys to wear pink, I will never know!  But they all did, and I still think they are amazing for doing it!! 

My beautiful cousin Roxie played the piano for us.  She plays very well, and we were glad she could be such a big part of our special day!!  I grew up in total awe of her piano skills, so it meant a whole lot to me that she played for our wedding! 

(Ha ha now if only she lived close enough now to teach Jay how to play the piano!  :0) )

The Hubbs walked his Mom down the aisle and gave her a rose. 

My awesome cousin Reina pulled Patrick down the aisle in a wagon.  Ha ha now Jay plays with this wagon in our backyard!  And yes...it still had all the ribbons and bows on it.  :0) 

 

I still L.O.V.E my dress.  It has a fuchsia train, and it really shows my personality better than any solid white dress could ever do! 

My Uncle, that you see in the front row of the picture actually filmed all of the events the whole week leading up to our wedding, and our wedding day for us.  He even interviewed people.  Then after we got back from our honeymoon he gave it to us as a wedding gift!  It is amazing, and we will definitely be watching it today!  :0)

I thought I was going to be really nervous walking down the aisle and having to stand in front of all those people (I am not really a fan of big crowds, much less having to stand in front of them and talk!) but I wasn't nervous at all.  As soon as the doors opened, all I could see was The Hubbs!  I think I practically floated down the aisle to him.  Ha ha it was like tunnel vision or something!

We still get to see the sweet man that married us every Sunday at church, and I can't help but smile every time I see him.  :0)  His deep booming voice will be something I always remember! 

Husband and Wife!!

Hooray!!

My Family:

I love pictures of our wedding, because it was one of the last times we were all together while my Grandma was living.  Seeing her there, and so happy, always makes me smile!  I know I am biased, but my family is really pretty incredible, and I am so thankful for each and every one of them! 

The Hubbs' Family:

These folks are pretty darn amazing too!  We were so happy that they could all be there for our special day!!

The Cake:

I loved our cake, and amazingly, the top layer was still good a year later, after being in our freezer!  Jason's Aunt Sarah did all the flowers for our wedding, including the ones on the cake.  And she did an absolutely amazing job!  Ha ha in fact that is the one thing I would change about our wedding...I would have let Aunt Sarah plan it all!  She has a true talent for that sort of thing, and I have never really been very good at it.  I keep telling her she should go into business planning weddings!  :0)

The Groom's Cake:

You can't see them very well from this angle, but there were little strawberries dressed like a bride and groom on top!  :0)  Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting...you can't go wrong with that! 

Our reception was a sea of fuchsia, and I loved it!  We served BBQ from my family's favorite BBQ place.  I have eaten it literally my entire life, so it seemed fitting that we should have it at our wedding reception.  :0)

Hooray!!

Our First Dance:

Our Bubble Filled Getaway:

Inside the Limo:

After our reception, we went to a suite at a hotel by the airport because we left the next morning (all too early) for Italy!  :0)  When we got to our room, we had champagne, and strawberries waiting for us.  Yummy!  It was a wonderful day,  and I can honestly say it was definitely the best day of my life!    

And then we spent two weeks here:

Rome:

The Roman Forum

 The Pantheon:

 The Roman Coliseum

Pompei:

 Florence:

 The Duomo:

Venice:

The Grand Canal

Saint Mark's Basilica

We were serenaded by this cute little Italian man:

The Rialto Bridge:

Italy was incredible too!  I can't wait to take Jay there some day!!  :0)

I seriously can't believe it has been 5 years since that day!  They have certainly been 5 incredible years, and I am still glad that The Hubbs and I will be together for Forever and A Day!  He truly is My Love, and I am so very thankful that five years ago, we stood before God and our loved ones to become husband and wife! 
Happy Anniversary My Love!!!!