Diving In

It's been so long since I've written anything that I feel like I should introduce myself all over again. Thanksgiving was my last post which is really quite sad considering everything that has happened since November. I've been up to much of the same shenanigans and a few new ones too. :) For the last week or so I have been anxious to start blogging again so here I am, back to it. I hope you didn't think you could get rid of me that easily. 

I will do a very quick recap of the last few months just to catch you up in case you care. Get ready for picture overload

November:

Hawaii!!!

 Caught up with my long time high school friend Kelsey who's going to school in HI, and enjoyed plenty of other good times with beautiful scenery. (I really need to do a Hawaii post I guess)

White girls just can't pull off 'gangsta' signs. I should learn my lesson. 

A trip to visit my sister and her family.

What a cutie!

Laura and I had a girl's date night while Katelyn had a Daddy-daughter date night. Laura and I chose a steakhouse which was the best meal I have had out in a very long time.

Festive chips and queso for appetizers (never a good idea) 

I'm not a steak person but this steak was amazing. Needless to say, I couldn't finish it.

 I also found out that I'm going to be an aunt again!! What a great reason to look forward to May :)

December:

Candy making with Grandma and Aunts

 A lot of baking

My sister's work of art... the world's best Apple Pie. :)

Since I worked X-Mas, there was a pot-luck for everyone and I took mint brownies and Mini cupcakes. I didn't care for the brownies that much but the cupcakes were really good. (Spice cake w/cream cheese icing)

By the way, squeezing cupcake batter into the cups makes sooo much more sense than trying to spoon or scoop it in. Maybe I'm way behind the times but this was the first time I used this trick. Way less mess and a whole lot more accurate portioning.

Christmas eve game night at Blake's

Not sure what the tissue in my nephew's nose is for. I can only assume there was a bloody nose involved at some point. :)

The girls + my baby brother won! :)

I love my family but we're not perfect. Can you tell my Dad hates pictures? and that 4 seconds after this was taken we all yelled at my nephew for using a root beer bottle to ruin an otherwise respectable picture. Oh well, it documents a very fun and memorable night that we had together despite the fact that there were 10 (yes 10!) missing.

also in December: I casually started in on internship applications and scheduled my DTR (<---more on that story)

I will have to stop here and do the rest of the catch up tomorrow. Maybe I can make it through January and into present day by tomorrow. It would be nice to be caught up with current events and to start writing about food again. I did quite a bit of cooking this last week. It feels good to be in the kitchen making messes and creating madness.

Goodnight for now.