what a hoot!

i made these cupcakes for a cake walk at church tonight...


i had been wanting to try one of the cute designs from this cookbook that i got last christmas! just didn't have much reason to make fancy cupcakes yet... but this seemed perfect!

and guess "whoooose" putting the sequel cookbook on my wishlist for christmas? :) (haha, corny i know - i just couldn't help one more owl joke!)

can't believe october's almost over!
now it's time to start working on thanksgiving recipes!
got any you'd like to share? any favorites y'all have every year? :)

mmm. mmm. good.

if you'd like some fall goodness (and you're a fan of pumpkin flavored things), you should totally try these Pumpkin Blossom Cookies. OH. MY. WORD. they are so yummy and pumpkiny. (is pumpkiny a word? probably not.) :)



PUMPKIN BLOSSOM COOKIES
i found this recipe here
(makes about 40 cookies)

4 Tbsp. butter, softened
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice*
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 (11 oz) bag Hershey's Candy Corn Kisses, FROZEN

*original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. i only had pumpkin pie spice and it worked great :)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F.
Step 2: Unwrap 40 candy kisses and place in a bowl and put in the freezer (otherwise the candy will melt immediately when placed on a hot cookie).
Step 3: Cream together butter, sugars and oil.
Step 4: Stir in egg, vanilla and pumpkin.
Step 5: Add flour, cinnamon, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until completely combined.
Step 6: Place dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up.
Step 7: Using your hands, roll the dough into large teaspoon sized balls and roll each cookie in a small bowl of white sugar. (if the dough gets warm, place back in the freezer for about 5 minutes).
Step 8: Place sugar rolled balls onto lined cookie sheets (I used foil and it worked fine, she suggests parchment paper if you have it). Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Step 9: As soon as you pull out the cookies from the oven, press a candy kiss in the center of each cookie. Move them to a cooling rack and place in the freezer for several minutes.
Step 10: Try not to eat them all at once :)



Personally, I am a fan of pumpkin flavored things -- muffins, pie, chai (i think it tastes kind of like pumpkin pie) -- and I thought these were DELICIOUS! The taste of the warmed candy corn kiss mixed with the pumpkin cookie is like a fall party in your mouth! :) But I also tried some plain and they were yummy too - so if you can't find the kisses you could make just the pumpkin cookies by themselves. :) Let me know if you try these yummy treats, or if you have another fall recipe that you love! Happy Fall!

Phew!

To say we've been busy the last couple of months is a total understatement.
I am not sure I've ever been this busy. In my life! :P

We house/dog sat for friends, had back-to-back weddings that included a trip to Kansas, a trip to Wisconsin and a visit from family, my husband is taking 21.5 credits this semester that includes 1 night class, we have church, we do AWANA every Thursday, Ben plays on an Ultimate Frisbee team (and I'm their biggest fan!) and we are just all around BUSY. I've also had 3 different jobs in the last 2 months (that's a different story!) and we are WORN. OUT.

But we have been having some fun mixed in with all the craziness as well.

We took a day-date to Madison and ate at one of our favorites - CHILIs, :) and walked around their big mall (WAY bigger than our mall here!) holding hands and doing some shopping. We have been dying to get a dog, but our apartment rules are no pets... so while we are waiting, Ben built me this adorable dog at the build-a-bear store :)



We got to dog-sit for Atticus who quickly became one of our favorite dogs and only made us want a dog even more! We had lots of fun taking him around in the CR-V, taking him on walks and we even walked around Pet Smart looking for a treat for him at the end of our stay. (Did I mention we really want a dog? haha).


We got to be a part of Adam and Abby's wedding. Ben was a groomsman. It was a beautiful wedding and we had fun staying with friends in Kansas and visiting with people we love.


We were also part of Ryan and Charissa's wedding. I was a bridesmaid. My family flew up for the weekend to come to the wedding and we got to see more friends that we love as well. And we got to meet baby Hannah Myers - who is SO precious!!


Now it's getting a little colder (35 degrees this morning - BRR!)
I'm staying busy subbing most days, and Ben's staying busy with all his classes. We are trying to make it through to Christmas, and are longing for a nice break!! :)

So that's a little update from the Graves. :) Happy Fall!!!

summer photo shoot

here's a sneak peek of some of our photos from our photoshoot last week with Pitman Photography. he did our wedding photos too and he and his wife have become good friends of ours. :) he was doing a fundraiser last year while we were in japan and we got to cash in on our photoshoot this summer! we wanted a few shots with ben in his navy uniform since we didn't have any like that, and saw one of my grandpa and grandma (my dad's dad was in the navy) and got some inspiration :)

click here to see some of our pictures

this is 1 of my favorites:

thanks again graeme! :)

end of summer things...

here we are all dressed up for a summer wedding.


it's always fun to have straight hair for a change. :)

we're doing well, staying busy...
ben's hours at school have picked up as students will be returning in just a couple weeks!
i think he's excited to start classes at the end of the month :)

i had an interview today for a preschool parapro position that sounds like fun, should know more in the next couple of days.

other than that we're just enjoying time together and time with friends!

and speaking of friends - there are lots of babies coming very soon!
my friend jen recently had little ellie kate - adorable!
we're very excited to hear that marcie has had her baby girl (hopefully tonight!)
and we're looking forward and praying with anticipation for charity to have her little girl (see the countdown ---->)
and jodie to have her little boy, parker in just about a month!
there are even more than that, but those are the ones coming very quickly :)

happy end of summer! :)

july has been a busy month! :)

where to even start? i need to finish the road trip blogging, but so much has happened since then and time is getting away from me! :) what have we been so busy with? well, let's see....

last week we were counselors at camp willowbrook in des moines.it is a small camp, and there were only 13 campers this year, but we had fun, saw God work and were thankful for the chance to serve and to be a part of it! :) here are a few pictures...i was also able to throw my dear friend charissa a wedding shower earlier this month, and we pulled off a HUGE surprise because jan and charity flew in from north carolina the night before and she had no idea!! :) when she walked in to see the decorated table in the kitchen, this was her face when she saw the girls sitting at the table :) (ps: i think surprises are awesome! when i came back for a visit last summer, i surprised the heck out of jan and charity (wish there was a picture for that one! and they told me it's my turn next... uh oh!) :)
here's the (not quite finished) decorated table: and here are the fab foursome together again:it was a lot of fun and the first big event we had in our new place! there were about 15 ladies that came! :) speaking of our place, we are getting settled and maybe next blog i can put some pictures up of the apartment.

the 19th brought ben's 29th birthday! we were at camp, so i had the directors wife (our friend anna) get some cupcakes on the sly and we all sang him "happy birthday" and enjoyed a little cupcake in honor of my sweetie :) we also went out the day before we left for camp to celebrate with graeme and ashlee because graeme and ben share the same birthday! (just different years) :) here we are eating a little birthday mexican food:

we have also been able to help friends of ours move, traveled to kansas for a wedding and to stay with our wonderful hawkinson friends for the night, have other house guests (more this weekend!), gotten our iowa licenses and car tag (boo hoo! it was sad to say bye to the GA ones!), we've had lots of game nights and people over for dinner, and just been social in general :) (we're trying, anyway!) it's been an adjustment getting back into the swing of "normal" life, but we're doing our best and trying to keep trusting God along the way :)

next month we are getting a photo session done by Graeme :) and are looking forward to that very much! ben also starts school and we are having more company come to stay with us a couple different weekends! it seems that we are just staying in a busy season of life!

well that's all for now as we actually have a houseguest today and people coming for dinner soon :) but hope y'all are enjoying your summer, staying out of the heat when possible, and enjoying God's love and provisions! i was reminded of this verse the other day by a friend of mine. Phil 4:19 "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." so thankful He does just that! :)

Road Trip part TWO

Continuing from last post....
Wednesday afternoon, after we left the Grand Canyon, we headed up to Las Vegas for the night!
We were able to catch the "BLUE MAN GROUP" perform, and it was very fun :)
Here we are in our ponchos, since we sat in the "You might get Wet" section...

















And here is Ben with one of the Blue Men! (haha)


We stayed at the Trump Hotel, (thank you priceline!!) and had a super fun time!

We left Thursday morning and headed up through Death Valley, Ca to get to our next destination. It was HOT HOT HOT (I think 120 degrees!) And at one point we were 200 feet below sea level! Crazy! But the view was great! :)







We passed through Hoover Dam on our way into Reno, NV to stay for the night at the Atlantis Hotel. Also very nice! (and cheap thanks to priceline) :) They told us when we checked in that they didn't have any queen rooms left, so they were going to upgrade us to a king hot tub room for free! Sweet! We ate dinner at a very swanky steak house in the hotel that night, and had a fun time hanging out and relaxing.

Friday morning we woke up and drove the rest of the way into Oregon, arriving at Ben's aunt and uncles house in time for dinner! :) They are super sweet and let us stay in their RV for a few days while we hung out with the family. Here we are on their front porch:



Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to Crater Lake, OR with Ben's dad. I must say I think it might be my favorite spot of the whole trip - the view is BREATHTAKING! It looks fake in pictures because it's just that amazing. Here, see for yourself :)





If you ever get the chance to go, DO IT! It's such a neat part of God's creation. :)

We also saw some neat waterfalls in Oregon, and got to go to Ben's dad's church and eat lunch celebrating his graduation! That was the main reason for this trip - to see Ben's dad graduate with his masters from the University of Oregon, which happened on Monday. We are so proud of him! Here's a few pictures from graduation day.





We stayed one more day in Oregon -- then got up EARLY EARLY Wednesday to start the journey back.... but that will have to wait until the next post :)

Road Trip 2010 Part ONE

Ben and I were blessed to able to take an AMAZING road trip earlier this month. :) We started in Georgia, and made it all the way out to Oregon and back!

To start it all out, we packed up all of our possessions (which were all being stored in Georgia at my parents house after being delivered from Japan, and some of which had been there before we even moved) onto a HUGE 24 foot moving truck, and drove it IN ONE DAY up to Iowa. (I know, we're crazy!) My wonderful parents drove our Honda Civic behind the truck so we could have our car and also all travel together, and we made the usually 14 hour trip in closer to 18 hours. (It was a LONG day).

After driving all day, we crashed and then woke up the next morning to unpack the entire truck into our new apartment in Iowa! We then unpacked as many boxes as we possibly could over the next 3 days (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!) :)

We took my parents to the airport on Saturday morning, and then left for our road trip from the airport (Did I mention we're CRAZY?!) haha :)
Here we are saying goodbye...


We headed off to Topeka, KS to see some friends and family and stay for the night.
Then we woke up Sunday morning, dropped our nephew off at camp for the week (KBC - where Ben went many summers) :) It was fun to see some old friends and meet some new ones! We also ate at a place Ben loves called "Bogey's". YUM. Then we headed on to our next stop in the journey - Denver, Colorado.

Here are some beautiful Colorado mountains we saw:




We stayed at a great hotel with mountain views and had a BEAUTIFUL (but long) drive on Monday down to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We stayed the night there (no pictures really because we were pooped out!) got up Tuesday morning, and headed to Tucson, Arizona to see Ben's grandparents whom he hadn't seen in a long time and I had never met! Here they are:


Then we headed that afternoon up to Chandler, AZ to see Jess and Jodie! Sadly I forgot to get a group shot of us girls before we left in the morning :( But I did get this cute picture of Jodie and Grant's little girl:


We had such a fun time visiting with all of them for the evening and being off the road for a bit. Thanks again for letting us crash friends! :)

Wednesday morning we headed up to Grand Canyon (which I had never seen before.) AMAZING! I know you've probably heard it, but pictures really don't do it justice. But for good measure, here are a few :)




That's all for now... catch the rest on my next post :)

Girls/Wedding Weekend

This weekend our dear friend Rachel got married, and it was the perfect excuse to get together and have some girly time! :) And it worked out even better because Ben had planned a guy's getaway for this weekend, so we both were able to spend some time with friends we love! God is good.

We ate good food, did lots of shopping, talking, laughing, snuggling with Jan's baby, and were so glad to get to see our friends Rachel and Reagan say "I DO!" The only part we didn't enjoy was getting lost on the way home from the wedding (right, Charissa?) :) I was wishing Ben didn't have our GPS with him! haha.

As always, here are some pictures, because they speak louder than words!!

we had one boy along for the girls weekend, but really didn't mind! :)


my FAVORITE picture from the whole weekend!
loving on sweet baby myers! we adore her already :)


c & c at the wedding


all of us girls with the lovely bride!


smoochy smooch! :)

Charissa and Cake Pops :)

Well, today's been a very busy day!

I woke up early to go have my tooth implant surgery - blah!
But it went ok and at least it's over... until the last step in 3 more months (putting the crown on)

But the day was brightened when a trip to the airport produced a friend visiting! :)
Charissa is here for a few days! Woo Hoo!

Here's a picture of us from tonight (we're tired!)...


Also she helped me finish another batch of cake pops!
This time I tried Ashlee's suggestion of Funfetti cake mix and Cream Cheese frosting - YUM!
Also tried light blue candy melts and sprinkly candy melts, and love the springy colors :)

Here, take a look:



They are really easy to make, you can click on this link to see Ashlee's step-by-step pictures.

Basically, here are the steps.
#1: Make the cake according to the box directions, and let it cool.
#2: Food process the cake until crumbled.
#3: Add 3/4 can of frosting and mix well.
#4: Form into balls, place on wax paper lined cookie sheet, place a lollipop stick into each ball, and freeze until hard. (at least a few hours, can be frozen overnight)
#5: Melt bag of candy melts, dip balls into the melts.
#6: Coat with sprinkles, frosting, or however you choose - ENJOY!! :)

I'm still learning different tips and techniques to make them better -- Let me know if you try them and what you think!

Florida Sunshine...

Last week Ben and I were able to go down to Florida with my parents to visit my dad's side of the family. What a blessing!

I had not been able to get down to Florida to see them for about 5 years, and Ben had not been able to meet my grandparents yet at all! as they were unable to make it to our wedding, and we had been unable to get down there since our wedding! :) So it was great for them to meet, and for Ben and my grandpa to swap war stories!

We were able to stay out at the beach and had a fun time walking along the ocean -- we even saw a bunch of stingrays one day (pretty close to the surface!) We got to visit with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins as well, and played a fun game of "Win Lose or Draw" on our last night together. :)
Here's the whole gang after dinner (at the Sawgrass TPC golf club restaurant):


And here's Ben and I with my grandparents!

We had a great time and are hoping it won't be another 3 years before we get down there again!