holiday baking!

This weekend I went to the baking extravaganza with the med school wives. We had a lot of fun! And we made so much food - mint brownies, peanut butter balls, gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, hot chocolate, wassle, toffee, peanut brittle, chocolate candies...oh my goodness, I can't even remember what else! (above: Logan, Stacy, Rebecca, Aubrae, Callie, me, Darcie, Misty, & Beka)

(the "sig. others" from Jeff's mod: Callie, me, Misty, & Darcie)

living Christmas tree

My parents were in the First Baptist Church of Moore Christmas pageant this weekend. My dad was the lead role and my mom was in the living Christmas tree. They had an incredible light show and it was quite fun. Jeff had to stay home and study...such is life these days.

ornament exchange

Thursday, I went to the ornament exchange with the med-school and resident wives. It was a lot of fun and after a game of dirty santa, and having my ornament stolen a few times, I came home with the cutest ornaments. (above is a picture of the med-school wives that came: Jenny, Rebecca, Logan, Stacy, & me)

baking ideas

Let me tell you, I am so full of holly in my heart and these cookies cutters make me just want to go bake and have a wonderful time decorating cookies!

So, I am needing an excellent idea for holiday treats and I am wondering if anyone out there has any good suggestions.

What is your favorite holiday goodie?

rug-a-licious

So, I am in total decorating mode...finally time to make this place our home. However this is such a long process! At first I was so excited; picturing myself in a cute little apron making our home! Unfortunately, doing it mostly by myself in between working and life, it becomes very daunting. I just keep telling myself, one step at a time. Between decorating our home for our first married Christmas, renovating, moving in, and sorting through stuff,... I am starting to see small victories and it makes me ever so happy!

As one of our wedding presents, one of our dear friends is buying us furniture and a rug. Picking the furniture is a lot harder than we had anticipated. I will show you pictures of that whole process later. But for our big living room, we are getting a rug. Finding a rug we actually like, was difficult. I love this sculptural rug (above) from Gandia Blasco. It would be too small for our space. CLICK HERE to see a few more Blasco rugs I love...not for our house, but still lovely. However, I believe we are going with the rug shown below. We both really like the reverse skin, tan zebra...I never thought I was an "animal skin" person, but as I have been looking for things to decorate our home, I definitely see a zebra theme arising...which reminds me of Kelly.

wonderful month

So, I hardly blogged last month because I was having the best time and doing so many wonderful things that I didn't have time to share! But what a wonderful birthday month!!!

Jeff took me to Cattleman's. We also went shopping (we just looked, but it was a lot of fun). Of course we had a birthday party with both of our families and a big birthday party with our friends. We enjoyed our first married Thanksgiving, which we hosted at our house with my family and went to Julie's for his family's meal. I played football, for a while with Jeff and a little bit with Allison. Both my teams dominated...which means it can be contributed to my excellent football skills (but really it means when I was playing with Jeff that he played better than I sucked.)

Between Jeffrey Alan Hopkins, who is simply the best, our families, and all our friends old and new...I truly have so very much to be thankful for!!

November!

Jeff is in test block mode once again. But once it is over, we will be celebrating November! November is the month in which I was born and is in fact my favorite month. Not my favorite season mind you (because I could never pick that), but my favorite month.

pumpkin time

We didn't get to decorate pumpkins this year due to our busy schedules. However, we along with some other MS1's are going to decorate "thankful" pumpkins. So, I am working on my pumpkin idea!

Have you decorated pumpkins this year? Please share!

good day, sunshine

Oh what a beautiful sunrise we had today! So, of course I grabbed my camera, ran outside, and took pictures until my feet were completely frozen. Next time I should grab shoes!
Oh, so lovely! I really can't decide which one is my favorite...you should really look at all of them! Check out more HERE.

wonderful weekend

Oh, wonderful weekend, why are you gone?

Weekends are becoming my favorite time because it is when I get to cuddle with Jeffrey the most!! Sadly, the next test block is next week which means life is crazy at our house again. I really wasn't ready for another one to come along so soon...I think Jeff has hardly recovered from the last one. Oh well. Pray for Jeff if you think of it!!

We had a nice weekend before he crawls back into his study hole. We had a date on Friday, which included mexican food and curling into our fluffy bed with fuzzy blankets to watch a movie. Fantastic! Then we had people over to the house to watch OU play on Saturday. (Aaron, the guy in the stripes, really likes to pose for the camera!!) And Jeff had his last intramural football game of the year Sunday. He was the only player from his team to show up. So he, the refs, and the other team scrimmaged and it was still fun.

happy 23rd!

Five months today!!!...

Every 23rd I have a little celebration in my heart and in our home. The last couple of 23rds Jeff has not been able to do things because he is having to study. So we have just both gotten a little excited (really I get a lot excited and he pretends, but I think he just sees it as another wonderful day). Today, we are actually going to celebrate, and have a date, and maybe even go out to dinner. Oh! And we are going to get a movie from Redbox! I am really excited!!!

Please enjoy these pictures of the BEST day!

(pictures by David Baxter)

toasted marshmallow ice cream

So, on our trip to OU/tx Jeff had this idea to make toasted marshmallow ice cream. Honestly, at first, I was skeptical, but thought, "hey, we'll try it!" As it turns out, this idea was shear brilliance. In fact, we have now made it twice in the last four days and we still have none left! YUMM!!

We burn the marshmallows ourselves over my 4-wick candle! That is the best part...so fun!

He is genius when it comes to creating unique ice cream flavors. So far, we have done:

- pear-carmel

- mint-chocolate

- toasted marshmallow

- tart-honey fat-free frozen yogurt

- honey fat-free frozen yogurt

- strawberry-banana-orange fat-free frozen yogurt

- vanilla fat-free frozen yogurt...and that is all I can think of right now.

We make up our recipes totally from scratch...in fact, the first time we made ice cream together, we just put in ingredients and amounts that seemed appropriate without any sort of guide. It is awesome too because there are no eggs, no long, slow cooking, so it is super fast and has super easy clean up! And now, we just follow that base recipe and add flavors. Our next experiment is going to be sea-salt carmel ice cream!! I am excited...I'll let you know how it goes!

P.S. I love our ice cream maker by the way!

birthday month treats

Today, Jeffrey surprised me with donuts, grape juice, and cheese sticks for the first day of my birthday month!! (because he loves me... :D ) He actually went to TWO stores to get me happy treats! Oh, f.y.i. I really get excited about my birthday. I personally start celebrating October 21st and my birthday month ends Dec. 21st...and all throughout that time, I am really secretly excited! Well, not truly "secretly," since I am posting it on the internet, but still...you know what I mean.

Anyway, this is a personal things that I never expect others to recognize because I realize that most people don't care. But Jeffrey loves me so much that he is willing to wholeheartedly celebrate even the most trivial things with me just because it makes me happy!

I love him so!

A is for astronaut

These are pictures of my nephew, Smith, at the fair. We had a fun day. He loved the giant clydesdales, the pig giving birth, baby goats, chicks,...but ironically, the baby sheep scared him.

OU/tx 2009

We went to OU/texas this weekend! It was really nice to get away and have some fun! The weather turned out to be BEAUTIFUL!!!

I will post fair pictures from both the great state fair of Oklahoma and the texas fair later in the week! The Oklahoma fair is WAY better than the texas fair!

second

This seems to be a perfect post leading up to OU/TX this weekend...

I hate texas (lower case, that's right), but this video with Colt McCoy is pretty awesome...To see more, click HERE.

VS: game 4

Well, another weekend...resting, tailgating, OU football, intramural football, and Sunday afternoon naps! So nice, but COLD, way too cold this early in the season.

As good as this weekend was, I can't help but be excited for next weekend and OU/TX, even if it is just because Jeff gets a long weekend and we are going on a road trip together!! Sooners are coming to Dallas!!!

rain, rain...

Today it POURED down rain...so, of course I got drenched taking pictures.

so much fun!!! Look how good they came out and these are only a few of them. Then, Jeff scared me when he came up behind me yelling my name. Of course, I was under some plants in our backyard, engrossed in my picture-taking. And to be far, I think I scared him too because the whole house was open, my car was in the driveway and I was nowhere to be found...but clearly, this means I am on an adventure taking pictures in an obscure place. He should know that. And since I was in a picture taking mood and he came outside, I took pictures of him too!

Look how cute my baby is!!

weekend off

Oh, such a good weekend!! Jeff took the weekend off from med school. We slept and got to spend wonderful time together!

He played intermurals again. This time they played the male nursing team. The game was such fun. As opposed to previous games, this one was clean and everyone was playing nice; which mean I was having fun on the sidelines because I wasn't having to get mad that people couldn't play right. Also, no one got hurt this time. Again, I could stop worrying about them and just enjoy!

test block 1: OVER!!

Since test block THIS has been Jeff. He is restoring his body with lots of cat naps and loving it!

Test block 1 is over! We celebrated by having some of the MS1's from his mod over to the house, taking naps together, and watching a movie...I didn't realize how much I missed simple things like snuggling under a fuzzy blanket watching a movie with Jeffrey.

In the top picture: Brian, Chad, Jeff, David, Kevin, Cale. Then in the bottom picture, same boys plus me and Callie (Chad's wife). Of course, I had to take a picture and they willing obliged.

test block...almost done

Enough said.

test block 1

So, this is about as much as anyone sees of Jeff these days. Study, study, study, a few hours of sleep, and study, study, study...this is Jeff's life right now, and by extension mine too. When Jeff studies, he likes to snack. He has almost eaten everything we have in our home and I have already made multiple trips to the store this week.

Cookies for the mod. Of course, Jeff won't eat them, but I get to bake and decorate and eat a little cookie dough. So, it all works out.

baby cupcakes

Stephanie Owen, a girl in Jeff's mod, just had a baby boy. (right before first test block too!) So I made these cupcakes for her and the mod to celebrate. And oh, did I have fun decorating!!

While I was baking, I also made homemade pear-carmel ice cream to take to the Spouse Alliance ice cream social and chocolate chip cookies and sent a special one to Lindsey. My kitchen smelt delicious!! But I was good, I did no pre-tasting. I did lick the spoon when I was done however... benefits of working in the kitchen :)