carrie & her kids

I love this little family. 

The end. 

learning to move

Here's our little dude practicing his new skill... crawling. Being mobile is going to take some adjustment around here. Yesterday we had lots of bumps and bruises. Poor kid. 

How was your Thanksgiving?! Ours was wonderful, although I missed being at my grandma's house and putting up the tree with my mom and siblings. I did, however, get my husband home all weekend and that was pretty much perfect. I'm not very excited about sending him back to work today. 

thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! 

I have learned there is power in gratitude. I have tried to start my days listing 5 things I am thankful for in a little journal I have. The days I follow through with it are always better. Gratitude can make bad days good and good days great. When we try, we can find so many little things that make our lives richer. 

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

- Anne Frank

dc on the diana

all these photos were taken by my husband on the diana. he's good, huh? 

DC is actually a really inexpensive vacation spot. Just about everything is free! All we paid for was the hotel, meals and a few metro tickets. Not a bad deal, my friends. Not a bad deal.

washington, d.c.

A few more of our trip to DC...

lincoln memorial / washington monument / marshmallow baby / tossing baby around {don't worry, he loves it} / lincoln / vietnam memorial 

simple biscuits

I can't remember where I originally found this recipe, but I've been making them a lot lately! These biscuits are incredibly easy. They are a great option if you need bread last minute, especially with soup! 

Simple Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. coarse sea salt 

1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 T. vinegar

1 cup milk 

Heat oven to 450. Add the vinegar to the milk, set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture looks like small pebbles. Slowly add the milk mixture, mix until combined. Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes. 

holly & preston

This is my friend Holly and her sweet little boy Preston. They live down in DC and we were able to meet up for a quick photo shoot. Holly & Preston have quite the story. You can read it here. 

Inspirational, right? These two are awesome. 

morning frost

This is the view I've been drooling over lately. I walk by this on my way to the gym every morning. The leaves here are beautiful, and this morning there was a little frost on the ground. I wonder if I'll ever find anything quite as beautiful as autumn in Pennsylvania. 

pumpkin scones

Fall and baking just go together, am I right? 

I had a little get together with some friends the other night and wanted to make something that would make the house smell like fall. Enter pumpkin scones. 

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. cloves

1/4 t. ginger

6 T. cold butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup + 3 T. pumpkin puree 

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Add butter with a pastry cutter (or two knives, cutting against each other) until the mixture looks like pebbles. Gently stir in the pumpkin until barely mixed. Divide the dough in half and make two 6-inch rounds. Cut each round into 6 wedges. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Let cool completely and drizzle with sugar and spice glaze. 

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 T. milk 

Mix together until frosting form. Drizzle half of the glaze over cooled scones. Then add: 

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

pinch of ginger

pinch of cloves

... to make your spice glaze. Drizzle the rest of it over the scones. Let the glaze set before eating. 

Enjoy!

black & white

I've always been drawn to black and white photographs. Black and white film? Absolutely in love. These were taken a couple months ago, when Spencer was still new at the whole sitting-up business... hence the pillow wrapped around him. He's an old pro at that now. He has since moved on to pre-crawling. Looks like baby proofing is in my near future... 

food

Random shots of food from the last little bit... 

new york, new york

notes about manhattan: 

1. Trevor and I decided that if we have enough money when he retires to get a second home, it will be an apartment in Manhattan. No beach house for us. 

2. Shake Shack is still home to my favorite burger. 

3. Macaroons look better than they taste. 

4. It takes forever to get from point A to point B, especially when the subway you need is out of service. 

5. Running into your best friend from 2nd grade on the subway (because of said outage) is a little miracle, wouldn't you say? But yes, it happened. 

6. I can't wait to go back... we're planning on going up to see the huge Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. 

Have a fun weekend!