Some Old and Some New

Part 1 of this post I've been meaning to get up for a few weeks now and Part 2 is new...

Part 1
Rachel, Jared and Judah's visit to Texas (check out Rachel's blog and great mommy stories here). It was seriously great having friends in town and people to explore with. Not to mention seeing all of Judah's sweet baby smiles, quality time with Rach as well as Nick and Jared having some "guy" time together. Fun was had by all and we wish we could see them more often!

Of course, we had to take them to the Stockyards, just like we've done with my parents' visit in October and when my dad, aunts and uncle visited in August. It's just a great, timeless area in Fort Worth to check out!

Judah loved it :)

Billy Bob's - we were fortunate enough to slip in between the daily admission time and the nightly admission time so got to check it out again for free!

We also checked out the Nasher Sculpture Center in downtown Dallas on a beautiful fall day

And made Judah smile, because his smiles are SO cute!

Enjoyed Weeping Willow trees...

And crazy sculptures. By the way, I did NOT digitally enhance this photo at all, this is how my camera took it, in normal mode and it looks the same in a few photos I took of it. It looks like crazy bright blue and stark white which looks awesome! My camera has a mind of it's own and I'm impressed.

Rach and I outside the Sculpture Center - love her!

We found a great fall-ish photo op outside of the Dallas Museum of Art - love him :)

And Judah caught some Zzz's

My handsome hub with a cool water wall at the Art Center

Part 2
Decorating for CHRISTMAS!!! And a great snack recipe.

Breaking in my new candy cane candles! I couldn't wait to light them to smell the wonderful smells of the holiday season!

I put out some of our Christmas decor this past week, which I LOVE so much. This is my favorite time of the year! We have some items from Nick's family and grandparents and some from mine and it was so nice to bring them all out again and appreciate these gifts from people we love.

I love the great nativity set my mom gave us a few years ago. I set mini Christmas lights around it to let it glow at night and remind us of the Reason for this season.

I also love this little nativity scene Nick's cousin Erica got for us in Costa Rica.

Our wreath is on the door, the tree is up, next step is getting up the ornaments and I'll put up some photos of that too :)

I also tried this great recipe for Black Peppered-Sugared Almonds over the weekend for the NE/OU game... sad outcome of the game, but GOOD snack! That always helps, right? :) I can't stop eating them and seriously think I'll never have to buy those flavored almond cans again - I can make it myself now! This recipe is from Sara B's Consulting site/blog - one of my favorites.

Ingredients:
1 lb raw almonds
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp course ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 egg white
1 tsp water

Directions:
Mix sugar and spices in large bowl, set aside. Whisk egg white in second large bowl and add water, whipping until frothy. Add almonds and coat with egg white mixture then pour them into the sugar/spice bowl, coating the almonds well.

Line a large baking sheet or jelly roll pan with foil + Pam or I used parchment paper and that was great. Spread almonds on pan in single layer. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring after about 1/2 hour. Once out of the oven, stir almonds to keep from sticking and let them cool.

They're SO easy to make , have many "good for you" ingredients and are seriously addicting. You could really experiment with this recipe and try other variations - I wonder about minced ginger instead of garlic? Either way, YUM. Enjoy!