A Thanksgiving Photo Overload

((So I may or may not be avoiding working on some major school projects right now))

I thought I'd pop in and share a few scenes from my Thanksgiving!

For the first time in years, I was able to spend almost a whole week with my parents. I went to work with my dad one day, got to visit a good friend from high school, had quality sister time, visited both sets of grandparents, and ate LOTS of delicious food. I had some quality time to reflect on how blessed I am, and just focus on thankfulness. 

I left my camera in my purse for most of our time and tried to focus on where I was, but here are some snapshots of our week. 

Got to have lunch with my best friend Monday before I drove to my parents' house! I rocked some #cheapgirlfashion with a hand me down cardigan, $3 tank top (JCP), $10 jeans (F21), free red shoes (Blowfish shoes), and a headband from my sister! 

Ringo likes to sleep in uncomfortable places and positions. Instead of laying on this nicely placed pillow on the spacious front seat, he crawled into my purse between the seats. Of course.

One day of feasting wasn't enough for my folks. We had chicken and dumplings Monday, a shrimp smorgasbord Tuesday and delicious homemade prosciutto pizza Wednesday.  

Preppin the good stuff! Lots of mashed potatoes and homemade green bean casserole. Ok, so I burnt the topping just a little bit. 

Pretty drives to the grandparents!

Photo shoots from the back seat

Baked Brie with Cranberry Chutney on Thanksgiving. You're probably supposed to let it cool a little longer but I like the brie lava flow!

Shannon made this super cute veggie tray!

We got back just in time for the last quarter of the Texas game! Me and Ringo cheered and yelled and cried. I'm still a Longhorn fan. 

Got some fun hand me downs from my sis! Love all my new flannels. 

Stopped for Starbucks on the way to Thanksgiving #2 and reveled in some Christmas spirit!

 Caramel Apple Cheesecake. Recipe to come. It was tasty. 

 We braved Wal-Mart on Saturday to pick up some board games. My cousin and his fiance are cute. And apparently I'm their paparazzi. 

We got the tree set up before I had to return to Fort Worth- wish I could have stayed to help do all the decorating!

My sister is gorgeous and she doesn't even know it. 

So is my mom. It might be easier to tell when we've got our eyes open though...

We finally wrangled dad into a family picture. And that's all folks!

Hope y'all had a very Happy Thanksgiving week as well!

Miscellany Monday

My students call themselves The Rugged Kids. Yeah, they're cool.

We are officially done with The Rugged Kids Cafe! It was a great camp fundraiser.

Our most popular item? The Green Monster Smoothie!

Ched 'R' Peppers should never come without a pepper! Sad day, Sonic.

My mom makes the best salsa in the world. She uses her garden grown tomatoes and cans it all summer long. Well, I got tired of waiting on this season's crop and made my own using this recipe. It's pretty good. It went well with our enchiladas.

I made my students my favorite enchiladas and they LOVED them. Definitely give them a try if you haven't!

After consuming crazy amounts of enchiladas, we had some live band karaoke at the church. This may have including 1000 Miles by Vanessa Carlton and Only Hope from A Walk to Remember. David was thrilled.

This past week, our church had Kids Bible Camp in parks and home in four separate neighborhoods around Austin. I took pictures and video each night and it was awesome to just observe and capture how God worked through that time! 

Also, I worked for hours trying to put a decent edited video together and failed miserably each time. David graciously volunteered to take care of it for me and did a fantastic job!

On Saturday we invited all of the children from Kids Bible Camp to the church for a big celebration service. We had free food, lots of songs, silly skits, puppets, and shared the gospel.

(practicing a skit)

At the very end we surprised all the kids with a giant water balloon fight! It was seriously so fun (even though none of the children listened to me, and they still threw the balloons at my head.) I was so grateful to all of the students who gave up their Saturday morning to come help us fill up 1000 water balloons! 

Sadly, yesterday I missed out on spending Father's Day with my daddy and I missed a surprise party for my grandma's 70th birthday. I'm so grateful for video messaging and phones that I was still able to communicate with both of them! 

Oh, and I'm definitely sending this card late. It's so perfect! My daddy still tells me I'm his favorite oldest daughter. 

Happy Monday, y'all! 

Same Blog, New Name!

Hey y'all!

So, it looks a little different around here. 

Lenora at Yellow Heart Art designed some ah-maze-ing bloggy things to help spruce up this blog. If you're interested in making an investment and getting custom art done, I would definitely recommend her! She was so easy to work with and took my poor explanations and visions and created something absolutely perfect! Seriously, these designs are sooo me. 

Plus, she's super funny and cute. Check out her blog, store and Twitter.

You may have also noticed that although the url is the same, 
I've changed the name.

What do y'all think?

There are a lot of other "Live Laugh Fill in the Blank" 
blogs out there [that are really great!]

but I didn't want to add to any confusion

and wanted to make the title a better indication 
of what you can expect to see here.

"Taste and See" is based on Psalms 34:8

Psalms 34 is such a beautiful chapter and I am praying for this blog to exemplify these words. In verse 3 it says, "Come let us tell of the Lord's greatness; let us exalt His name together." So, first and foremost this is a place where we can encourage one another, share what God is teaching us, and glorify His name through our words. I want to invite you to share your experiences, stories and needs here also. I pray for several of you who I've never even met and am happy to get to know y'all better.

I also chose "Taste and See" because food is my second love.

after Jesus ;)
Seriously though, food brings me joy.

Although I am in no way a gourmet chef, I do love to cook and really love to share my successes with y'all. So expect to continue to see recipes at least twice a week!


Lastly, I now have a button to swap! If you're interested in button swapping, let me know!

Easter and Other Happy Things

This Easter was so good. 

First off, I woke up on my own which never happens

and I had time in the morning to get cute, go get coffee, 

come back home and make breakfast tacos. And get to church early. 

It was beautiful.

It was the first year that I haven't been in charge of anything in a long time 

(besides making some costume accessories for our drama team).

Our church scaled back- 

no community Easter egg hunt, no sunrise service, no grand musical productions.

But I was so grateful for this. 

It focused our hearts away from the services and activities and onto our Savior. 

We took the Lord's Supper and had a drama about the Roman soldiers guarding Jesus' tomb.

There were only two actors in the production, and they did an amazing job!

But even without all the fanfare and glitz and candy and busyness

Jesus was glorified

His name was lifted up

and we were reminded that Jesus conquered death!

I got to wear this beautiful floral dress that y'all insisted I go back and buy

(When I went back to the store is was marked down from $35 to $19... score! 

Good things come to those who wait!)

Other miscellaneous, lovely things from my week:

I got to hang out with my brilliant and beautiful little cousins

They are seriously the best

We played Trouble, watched movies, and made puff ball animals. So fun!

Pretty new spring nail polish

Austin Restaurant Week date with my roomie at Botticelli's!

During ARW, lots of top-notch Austin restaurants create a menu 

highlighting some of their best menu items and offer it at a reduced price.

This is still more than I'd normally pay for a meal... 

and I felt poor sitting at the [white tablecloth-ed, multiple forks, 

extensive wine menu] restaurant

but it was way fun and definitely a culinary experience!

And you know how much I love food ;) 

seared sea scallop with grilled strawberries

roasted beet salad with fennel and Parmesan

mushroom stuffed ravioli with the best cream sauce eva'

white chocolate raspberry cheesecake

It was delicious. I was so glad I wore an elastic banded skirt. 

Bluebonnets!

I took these three guys to the Youth Ministry Lab at SWBTS 

and they were awesome and let me stop and take pictures in the bluebonnets.

How was your Easter? I'd love to hear how you celebrated!

linkin up!