They still do :)

This wonderfully sweet couple is Danny and Laura Goolsby. They are celebrating their 10 year anniversary with a full on vow renewal wedding ceremony. I love everything about it. Celebrating marriage is amazing in my book. They are obviously very much in love and I was able to feel their connection through my computer screen. 

Danny and Laura, Thank you guys for giving me a chance to be small part of your story. Congratulations on 10 years of love and I pray for many many more. 

I love this one. It was the shot of the day :)

Muffin Monday Madness

I am so tired of not knowing what to do for breakfast. Sometimes it is harder for me than coming up with something to do for dinner. I was talking to my mom the other day and Muffin Monday Madness was born. I am going to try a new muffin recipe every monday. My first muffin actually turned out really great. I mixed a few recipes from Pinterest and my trusty better homes and garden cookbook. I hope you enjoy and try my apple cranberry vanilla muffins. 

The highlight of my morning was Lincoln playing with the oven mitt and his easter basket. He is totally obsessed with gloves and bags here lately. He is turning into his father :) 

Apple Cranberry Vanilla Muffins

prep time about 10-15 minutes. 

makes 12 muffins

preheat oven to 400

bake about 18-20 min. depending on your oven. It took closer to 20 minutes in mine. 

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup vanilla sugar ( see not at the bottom on how to make vanilla sugar)

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 small apple (peeled and chopped) * I chopped up 2 this morning and it was way to much.*

1/3 cup dried cranberries (at least I think it was 1/3, I just stuck my hand in the bag and pulled out a handful)

turbinado sugar (sprinkle on the top. gives it a nice crunch)

1. In a small bowl put your apple, cranberries, cinnamon and brown sugar. Mix together and set aside.

2. Grease or line with paper bake cups a 2 1/2-inch muffin pan. set aside

3. In a medium bowl combine flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture: set aside

4. In another bowl combine egg, milk, oil and vanilla. 

5. Add the egg mix to the flour mix. It is very important not to over mix. The batter should still be a little lumpy. (An over-mixed muffin is a bad muffin)

6. Fold in the apple and cranberries.

7. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. I used a ice cream scope and they came out perfect. This is an easy way to make them all the same size. 

8. Bake at 400 for 18-20 min. pull them out when your house smells heavenly and they are golden brown. To be safe stick them with a tooth pick and if it comes out clean they are done. I get them out of the pan as soon as they come out because in my mind they continue to cook in the pan. So I go ahead and flop them out onto a wire rack and let cool for a few minutes. They are best served warm. 

**Vanilla sugar is so easy to make at home and is way to much of a spurge to buy from the store. All it takes is per 1 cup of regular sugar you add a vanilla bean. Scrap the paste out of the bean and drop it in the sugar. I always add the bean pod itself, it gives it a nice flavor. Shake it every few days and it is ready to use in 2 weeks. store in an air tight container and enjoy. **

cousins

On this day 13 years ago the world was forever changed. My family suffered a tremendous heartbreaking loss. We lost a wonderful, sweet, funny, athletic (the list could go on forever) kid. Having Austin taken from us way too early has taught me so much about life and how every moment should be enjoyed, because we never know when our time will be up. In a split second lives are changed. There are no do overs.. I've learned to say I love you, not just with my words but with my actions.  I pray that Austin knew we loved him and still love him. We (the cousins) were raised very close. Every Sunday we would get together at my Grandma's house for lunch and spend all day together. During the summers we were constantly at each others houses, having sleep overs and  making wonderful silly memories. Looking back we were more like a big group of siblings then we were "just" cousins. We are even "aunt" and "uncle" to each others kids now. I hate that we are so spread apart and can't get together as often as we would all like. I would give anything to have one Sunday dinner with the six of us back, sitting in grandma's back room drinking sweet tea and writing Jonathan Brandis love notes, (Lindy will get that one :) )  but that's never going to happen. Like I said there are no do-overs, we can only go forward. I pray that Lincoln gets the chance to be as close with his cousins as I have. I pray he has the opportunity to be called Uncle by Rhyann and Blayne's kids. Family is important. It makes us who we are and who we want our kids to be. It all starts with six silly kids playing at grandma's house to really change your life for the better.  So to all of you ( you know who you all are) I love you even when it's not said. You guys have made my life wonderful and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I wish I had more pictures of the six of us to put on here, but I don't. So enjoy the one that I had handy. :)  

With speaking of cousins also enjoy these two sweet cousins. 

I

A small tribute to best friends

My mothers best friend passed away when I was in the 5th grade. It was the first real loss I ever experienced and really remember. Trish was the type of person that "you" as a whole were better just by knowing her. My mother must have been someone really great to get the chance to called the best friend of somebody so wonderful. I hate that she had to leave us so soon and my mom lost her partner in crime before they really got to the good stuff. You know the grandchildren part. Anytime we were sick she would bring us little treats to make us feel better, and always played funny little tricks on us. Well they were funny to her. This would always send her into a laughing fit, then she would reassure us when the "trick" would upset us. I remember one scary evening on a VERY dark road when the headlights just happened to go out and we could not see where we were going. I really thought we were going to die. She laughed and then hugged. All in all she has really taught me how to be a friend, and how to treat the kids in your life like real people that deserved to be loved. She really made me feel like someone important. So even if I did not get a chance to know her as an adult she is still teaching us things and comes up in conversation quite a bit. So in a way she is still right here with us everyday.

I am happy to say that her daughter Amanda has stayed in our lives. I thank God everyday for our friendship. Now my children will know what it is like to be loved by their mom's friend. Amanda is equally full of love as her mother was. ( Amanda if you are reading this, there is so much more I would like to say about you I just think I have enough room. :) I think you are pretty amazing) I pray that we continue the traditions of our mothers and stay friends. Hopefully our kids will learn a little something from us and stay close throughout their lives, and the circle will keep going for generations.

Now staying home does not always mean that I have a lot of time to do things I really love like randomly take pictures in the park. This day was perfect, the kids were smiley and playing really great together. So I thought I would get out my camera and shoot a few. Hope you enjoy.

 I love these two and I know Trish would be head over heels for them too.