68* and Sunny!!

This past weekend was full of outdoor activity because we finally had warm weather!! Jon and I have been waiting for the warm weather to come so we can go enjoy the State Park without needing to bundle up. Our weather was in the upper 60's all weekend so we thought it was a heat wave. Saturday Jon enjoyed mountain biking with his friends and on sunday he took Lilly and I up to Monte Sano to hike and ride bikes. This was the first time that we had brought Lilly with us and she LOVED it! Lilly and I started out by jogging up the Greenway to the top of the State Park, where Jon met us with his bike. We decided to go on the Family Trail which is about 3 miles long. I jogged while Lilly ran behind Jon on his bike. It was such a wild time! Lilly's little legs were truckin'!

Lilly running behind Jon!

Very sleepy after a long day!

Yummy sugar cookies to end a great weekend!

We hope next weekend will be just as fun! Have a happy week!!

January 2011 Snow

Huntsville Alabama got some serious snow this week. We got between 7 and 10 inches and it is still on the ground. Jon and I live up on Monte Sano so we really got a lot of snow. Our apartment roads are still frozen over and snowmen are still standing strong around here. We had a blast playing in it these past few days. We went sledding down this huge hill next to our complex. Check these out!

This is around 9pm sunday night when it all began!

The next morning!

"Suicide Hill" our sledding slope

Jon sledding in his kayak

Lilly got a ride down too!

Lilly and I in our camo

The Reynolds

Jon sledding, about to hit the ramp

He caught air!!

The hike back up the hill was the worst part!

The INTENSE Auburn game!

Wednesday morning the ice is still on the road

We had a blast in the snow but we are ready for the roads to clear up around here. Be safe everyone!

Momma T's Sour Dough Bread

This Christmas I really got into making my grandmothers sour dough bread. Jon needed 20 gifts for his office staff so I decided to make the bread for them and I am pretty sure it was a hit. I have been asked by a lot of people if I use a bread machine so I thought I would give a step by step demonstration of how the "wonderful" bread is made....and NO there is not a bread machine involved!

Step #1: Lots of flour goes into a mixing bowl

My lovely starter that I feed every 3 days

I add salt, warm water, oil, sugar and 1 cup of the starter to the mixing bowl of flour

Mix it all together

Place into a large mixing bowl to rise for 12 hours

Dough in mixing bowl...rising!

After the bread rises I put them into individual pans to rise more

24 hours later the bread is made!

For Christmas they were placed in small bags with my homemade labels

I made 20 of these cute little guys!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year was our "First" Christmas together after being married and it was a blast. We headed down to Daphne last wednesday morning and came back monday night so we had a long time to hang out with my family. My parents cooked some amazing food, we exchanged wonderful gifts, got to hang out with Jon's brother Chris and his fiance Kelly, Jon shot 2 deer at one time on Sunday night, took a boat ride up to the camp to see all the hard work my dad has done to make the new kitchen and got to see some old Bayside friends. I love the holidays and I am sad they are over but we have some great memories to carry us through the year. I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years!

Winter Weather Alert!

The temperatures are FREEZING around here so make sure to bundle up and stay warm my friends!!

Thanksgiving week

This past week has been full of fun happenings. Jon and I had a short work week due to Thanksgiving which was much needed. This year Thanksgiving was with Jon's family so on wednesday night we headed to Mount Cheaha to visit with his family. We stayed at Jon's parents lakehouse with Jon's brother Chris and his fiance Kelly who drove up from Daphne which was so much fun. Mrs. Sandy and Mr. Hughey also were there so we all had a fun relaxing time together. Thanksgiving dinner was sooo yummy! I think I am still full from all the food. Check out some pictures we took over the holiday:

Chris and Nana

Granddaddy with Cat, Jon, Chris and Kelly

Our little Lilly

Mrs. Sandy and Mr. Hughey

Lilly playing at the lake with her duck

Football was another BIG happening over the holiday weekend. I was pretty disappointed in the game but my husband sure was excited! I think he still has a huge smile on his face. Earlier in the season Jon and I made a bet about the Iron Bowl. We said that whichever team wins the game that Lilly would sport that teams t-shirt. Here is the outcome:

War Eagle

Jon and I drove back to Huntsville on saturday night so we could decorate our aparment on sunday for Christams. This is one of my favorite times of the year and this is our "first" Christmas together so it was extra special. We decided this year that we would find a local Christmas Tree Farm and cut down our own tree. It was so much fun! We went to Valley Christmas Tree Plantation about 20 minutes from our home.They gave us a long measuring pole and a hand saw and sent us on our way. The farm was huge and had lots of different types of trees to choose from so we walked around. We liked the Colorodo Blue Spruce the best. Jon cut down the tree and we headed home with a 9 foot tree to decorate. Once we got it into our apartment we noticed that it almost reached the ceiling so I am happy we did not get anything taller. We had gone to Lowes earlier to purchase some lights so we had plenty to decorate our tree and porch with. Jon was set on having colored lights this year so we got LED lights for the tree. We had no idea how bright they were until we put them on the tree and plugged them in. WOW we pretty much need glasses to look at our tree and I think you can see our tree from space....hahahh you might not want to put LED lights in your home (just a tip)! Our tree is pretty BLING! The lights are so bright that there is no use in adding ornaments because you cannot see them......hahah our tree is decked out in bright lights and gold pinecones.....we are having a tacky Christmas this year. To add to our colorful apartment, Jon and one of his friends decorated our porch with lots of lights. They really went all out! Along with the Christmas decorating madness, we or I thought it would be festive to get our fireplace going. Well that turned out to be a horrible idea because about an hour into it being lit the weather outside got really windy and so the smoke decided not to go up the chimney but to blow into our apartment. Our poor little dog was sound asleep next to the fireplace when the smoke started to come in and the smoke alarm went off. Needless to say, she was really scared and for a while we could not find her. We finally found her deep in Jon's hunting clothes in our room. Well I decided to vacuum up all the needles that had fallen off the tree which was yet again another terrible idea. I clogged the vacuum so Jon spent about 20 minutes "de-needeling it" so about 9pm last night we finally settled down. It was a Christmas decorating day that I will never forget! I guess you live and learn....hahha it was a pretty funny day! Check out the pictures:

My camera had a hard time focusing with all the bling!

Happy decorating!!