Absent.

Hello! Yeah, I have been lacking with this whole posting thing. Sorry about that! A LOT has been happening! Well, my computer crashing is one of the bigger things, that is why there has been a lack of posts. I have been using my roomie's computer to get by. =) Since my absence, I have been taking pictures of adorable children, awesome families and other random stuff and during the editing of these, I think my computer decided that it officially hated me for all of the memory I was taking up, so it crashed, but I made a huge step in the business direction and I was able to use the money that I have been saving up from my art show, and photo sessions and bought a new laptop STRICTLY for pictures and editing. I am so excited to get it! =) Business aside, my break has been overall pretty good! It started with Tacky Sweater night at Christmas Challenge, babysitting a couple of my favorite girls, and mostly staying in Manhattan for the majority, but the *combined* 2ish weeks at home were really good. This year's Christmas' was one of the best that I can remember. I don't know what it was about it, but it was just awesome. Started with the Akers family Christmas at the Diamond W Wranglers Christmas show in Cowtown. How fun! Then, at our church we had our Evening in December where, Emily and I sang together and we definitely showed how fun we are and dressed as twins. haha, it was awesome. =) Fun times. Then we went over the Grandpa's and this year was another emotional year. DEFINITELY not as emotional as last year, but Grandpa gave us all a special gift again that kind of hit an emotion button. My grandma had an Indian jeweler that she LOVED and Grandpa had that jeweler make all of us girls one of a kind necklaces. They are beautiful! Then, we had a small Christmas this year according to presents, but we really didn't care. Emily and I are to the age where that isn't what Christmas is about and I think that helped. =) Then, on Christmas day, Carrie got to be with us ALLLL day. It was awesome! Now that she has been with us on Thanksgiving, and Christmas, which holiday is next?! Hmmmmmm. haha, Christmas day was awesome though. Very relaxing and I think exactly what all of us needed. We watched about 4.5 Christmas movies while we were working on our annual christmas puzzle. Let me tell you, it was good Carrie was here this year. Those Schulz's love their puzzles and she was a machine! ;) Needless to say, Christmas was awesome and I actually didn't want to come back to Manhattan. BUT, I got back and it has been good, other than me being home alone until January 3, but I did get a lot of quiet time and time to think. New Years kind of hit hard this year for us and I let my depression get the best of me, but Mom and Em came up and spent the evening, night and morning with me and it helped a lot and now Brittany is back, and things are starting to get back to normal. =) Here are some pictures that I took off of my facebook because I couldn't really upload them from my computer. =) Enjoy!

(Sorry for the complete random post.)

Tacky Sweater Christmas Challenge!

Roomie and I with our homemade tacky sweaters! =)

Me and the awesome guys of the worship team. They are pretty great

The girls of the worship team (Past and Present) =)

These guys are wonderful.

Two of my favorite girls with the presents I got them!

This little bundle of joy is about to turn one! Crazy!

The Akers family! Well, those that could attend. =)

The Diamond W Wranglers

My mom and her brother and sister. =)

The ladies with the Wranglers. =)

My seester and I in our lovely attire. =)

My best friend and I. Our typical pose.

Now on to Anderson family Christmas! All of the grandkids with Grandpa. =)

Us girls with our necklaces!

Mom, Em and Carrie working on the Puzzle

One of our many movies of the day!

Me and my best friend. What a blessing. =)

More blessings in my life. Gotta love the matching Seahawks attire too. =) hehe

Sisters with the finished puzzle. =)

The finished puzzle!!

So. There ya have it! Sorry for the long post! I hope that you have had a super great break full of family, fun and blessings! =D

Maple Frosted Pumpkin Blondies

Hello friends! I hope that you had a great great GREAT Thanksgiving whether it was with friends, Family, or co-workers! I wish that mine would have been a little longer, but that is what I get for working at a place that has a great black friday sale and they want us to be there at 5 in the morning and stay until 5 in the evening. Whew. What a day that was! Who knew Menard's in Manhattan would be that packed?! I surely didn't! Well, before that, I was at home for Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't get much of a break because I also had class until Tuesday, but I still got SOME time at home, so that was fun. =) Well, On Black Friday, we had a dessert day, which is basically a dessert potluck. SO, I found a recipe online for Maple Frosted Pumpkin Blondies and I just HAD to try to make them! They were actually delicious! Well, I love anything and pretty much everything that has pumpkin in it, so how could I not like these!? So, here are the steps to making them! I would HIGHLY recommend making these. =)

(Sorry this is a long post!)

Preheat to 350

Ingredients you'll need!

Having fun dishes will help! =)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside!

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy and smooth.

Add the eggs, one at a time...

Get a generous cup of this heavenly goodness. =)

Add the pumpkin until it is all mixed in

This is what it will look like!

Add the flour mixture slowly until it is all mixed

Spread the batter evenly on the pan

So excited. =)

Put it in the oven for 22 minutesish.

While that cools, make the frosting!

Ingredients for the frosting:

Beat together the ceam cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until it is smooth

Add the Maple to taste

Then spread it on!

Recipe:

Batter:
-Preheat oven to 350* F

- Grease a 15x10x1" jelly-roll pan.

-Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

-In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy and smooth; scrape sides of bowl.

-Add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.

- Add the pumpkin; blend well.

-Reduce mixer speed to low; gradually add the flour mixture until well blended

-Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.

-Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick tests out clean.

-Cool completely

While it is cooling, work on the Frosting!

-Beat together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on medium low speed until smooth.

-Add enough maple extract for desired flavor and spreading consistency; frost cooled bars.

http://www.food.com/recipe/maple-frosted-pumpkin-blondies-70691

Good luck making them! =)

Pinterest!

Wowzers. Sorry for my like month absence from this. I have been actually pretty busy and my mind just hasn't been focused on writing blog posts... I don't even really know how many people read this, so I don't think I am really letting a lot of people down. Haha =) I just had a 'Lily moment' from The Princess Diaries where she said that her cable show only reached 12 viewers. Maybe that is like this? Oh well, that was a pointless rambling session. Anywho. I have recently became addicted to www.pinterest.com. It is basically a website that you can put in your interests and it is a virtual bulletin board of dreams, crafts, ideas and all around awesomeness. Well, while looking at it, it makes my creative side start to imagine a lot of stuff I can do someday! Well, I saw this on one of the boards and instantly fell in love! I love love love love anything and everything to do with colors, and the next day I just decided that I had to do it. Brittany then told me that she had a friend that had done it and she wanted to do it too! Soooooo, about a month and a half later, we are doing it! So, I grabbed some crayons, a canvas, a bowl of pomegranate, a spoon, a hot glue gun and a hair dryer and went to town! We also had the KSU vs. Texas game on and that also helped. =) So, here is how you do it!

First: Line your crayons up in how you want them on the canvas.

Then, start hot gluing them to the canvas!

It takes a while.

Now, time to start blow drying!

Woot! This is the part where it gets to be time consuming. It takes a while for it to start to run down the canvas. =) But it is totally worth it.

Awesome.

Oh my. Happiness.

Even the cardboard underneath is happy!

Brittany's!

She put hearts on hers.. It looked pretty sweet too. =)

Well, there ya go! A pretty inexpensive fun little craft for you next rainy/snowy day! I hope that everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving break and an even more blessed, and amazing Thanksgiving day!

"Give Thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." -Psalm 107:1