Pinterest Challenge

So here is the deal. I was recently going through one of my Pinterest pinning binges and realized that I had pinned over 300 food items to my various food boards. My first reaction was WHOA! Then I began looking at all of the different items that I had pinned and thought, YUM!!! 

So I pitched an idea to Chase. What if we tried to make one or two new Pinterest recipes each week? It would be a great way to try new foods and add new recipes to our newlywed recipe box. Needless to say he was all for it. 

We are starting our challenge this upcoming week, but I wanted to share a pin that Chase and I tried about a month ago. I posted about it on social media and it was a big hit so I thought that I would share it here in the blogosphere. They are cinnamon roll waffles :)

First grab your ingredients and equipment. We used canned cinnamon rolls and our new portable waffle maker. 

Put the cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker. We put two in at a time, but you can put however many you want  in together. Probably not more than four though. 

Then let the waffle maker do its magic. It really is just that simple. They come out crispy and smelling so amazing. Just remember to spray your waffle maker with oil between each use so no sticking occurs. 

Add some icing to make them like cinnamon rolls, or you could add syrup to make them more like waffles. If you are feeling adventurous...add both! 

Finally, add some protein such as eggs and bacon and some good fruit and you have yourself a wonderful meal to share with family and friends.

Keep coming back to see what other yummy goodies we have come up with from the wonderful world of Pinterest. Stay warm y'all.

S & C

A Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Photo Credit: SNAP by Ang

So this happened about a week and a half ago. It was beautiful, it was everything that we had dreamed of, it was the best day of our lives thus far.

Give us a few weeks to get back into the swing of things, to unwrap gifts and write thank-you notes, to catch up on work, to get back pictures and videos, and to reflect on married life.

In the next month or so we will post a wedding and honeymoon blog series so stay tuned.

In the mean time I have a couple of great recipes to share with you all that Chase and I have stumbled upon and fell in love in with. Chase and I also want to show off our new place, and just give you a rundown of "life lately".

Keep checking in! We love when you visit.

- S&C

Wrapping Up 2014...Looking Forward to 2015

Christmas 2014 in the Bum-Smith household was a whirlwind. There is just something about being engaged, planning a wedding, and celebrating one last round of holidays with different last names that makes each family gathering a bit more special and a little bit more crazy and wonderful. We still have not come up with a plan of what the holidays are going to look like next year. However the love and affection that our families have shown to us this year make us feel certain that our first married Christmas is going to be fantastic. 

Our Christmas celebrations lasted 3 full days. We ate a lot. We opened a lot of presents. We laughed until our bellies hurt. I actually remembered to take out my camera and take some pictures. It was the perfect break from work and school. 

Two days before Christmas Chase and I decided to open our stockings together and have our own mini Christmas with just the two of us. At the time we had literally just moved into our new apartment together (a post about that later). Boxes were still everywhere and we did not have time or space for a Christmas tree. But we bought a few decorations and made one little corner of our new place festive. It made it feel more like home which was much needed. 

We drank hot chocolate and opened our stockings in our pajamas. I think that this may be a new Smith family Christmas tradition. It was so much fun! My favorite thing in my stocking was my new red and white scarf. It is the perfect touch of NC State pride. Chase's stocking was full of map things. Chase loves maps, geography, and anything to do with foreign countries. So of course his new map mousepad was a big hit. 

Chase and I came home for Christmas Eve. My niece and nephew spent a couple of days with my parents and me, and on Christmas Eve morning I decided to make them a special Christmas treat. I found this cute idea of making a Christmas tree out of cinnamon rolls on the Internet and I decided to give it a try. It came out really cute and everyone enjoyed every single bite. I wonder what other things Chase and I could make out of cinnamon rolls for other holidays?

After Christmas Eve service at church, my family and Chase's family came together for our annual Christmas Eve dinner and present opening. We have been doing this for about four years now and it is something that we all look forward too. During this time Chase and I open the presents that we got for each other since we will not see each other on Christmas day. Then we both open the gifts that our future in-laws bought for us, and then our parents exchange gifts. 

My favorite and most thoughtful gift that Chase got for me this year was a black diamond sideways cross. He picked it out all by himself and he did such a wonderful job. Chase's favorite gift this year was a large colored globe. He searched high and low for a globe that he absolutely wanted and this one was the one. I didn't know how I felt about it at first, but since we have found a place for it in the apartment, it is growing on me fast. It is what my mother would call a statement piece. One last gift that is worth mentioning is a sign that Chase decided to get for the both of us. It is solid wood and hand engraved with our new last name on it and our wedding date. I cannot wait to use it in our wedding and to hang it up in our new home together. 

On Christmas day Chase and I spent time with our respective families. It was restful, beautiful, and just what we both needed. One highlight of the day was getting a family picture with my dad's parents. Mama normally doesn't have her eyes open and Papa Joe had just recovered from the flu. Seeing the both of them so awake and so in love on Christmas day was a blessing to all of us.

Flash forward to New Years day and...not much happened. Every year I say that I am going to stay up to see the ball drop, and every year I fall asleep and Chase wakes me up 5 minutes before it happens. For breakfast new years morning though we did go out for a special treat. We both are Bojangles addicts and they just came out with a new cheddar biscuit. We braved the cold and filled our tummies with this yummy goodness. We will be going back and getting more of them. They were that good!

School and work is kicking back into high gear for the both of us. So is wedding planning. 19 more days until "I Do". So much left to do, but every minute of planning is going to be completely worth it. Come back for more life updates!

S & C 

Sleep, Eat, Repeat.

Chase and I have been soaking up the holidays. I seriously don't think I have ever spent a Christmas holiday off of school quite like this one. It has been a rest from school and also a rest from social media. Comparatively speaking this holiday Chase and I have spent a ton of time "off the grid". Our Instagram and Facebook accounts have suffered, but honestly we could care less. The memories we have created with our families are way more important. 

Going into this new year of 2015 I have a lot to blog about to wrap up 2014. But for now I shall just leave y'all with a list of some of the fun things we have been doing and then share a favorite family recipe. 

• Celebrated Christmas 3 different times
• Worked on wedding planning
• Moved into a new apartment 
• Read 3 books
• Ate a ton of yummy food
• Slept in almost every single morning
• Tried and fell in love with the new Bojangles "Cheddar Bo Biscuit"
• Spent time with our families 
• Obtained more monogrammed items

If you are ever wanting to try a delightful sweet treat, try this recipe that our family loves from the amazing Pioneer Woman (who I personally adore). 

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Grab your ingredients

Mix up the batter and put it in the oven

Let the cupcakes cool

Add the frosting and garnish

Post your awesomeness on social media

Ingredients:

Batter

• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 3 tablespoons of shredded lemon peel
• Flour coated blueberries

Frosting

• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 stick of cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of lemon zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the batter: Mix the butter and eggs. In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Mix the granulated sugar, milk, and lemon peel together. Then mix the butter and eggs into the milk and sugar mixture. Mix the flour into the wet mixture and then blend. Place paper cups into a pan. Spray with butter baking spray and fill each cup three quarters full with batter. Drop the coated blueberries on top. Bake for 18-20 minutes. For the frosting: Combine the powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, and zest together until light and fluffy. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate with lemon peel and blueberries. 

Happy New Year Y'all

S & C

One Last Party Before The Big Day!

In late November Chase and I had our final wedding shower. We decided to have our showers early in order to miss the hustle of the holidays and to give us a bit of a break before the wedding day when the wedding prep and the small details are sure to take up more of everyone's attention. 

This last shower was a monogram party and it was hosted by my best friend and my maid of honor Katie. Let me tell you a little bit about Katie. She is crazy, beautiful, insightful, loving, creative, and an all around amazing human being. We were connected at the hip when we lived in the same town during middle school. When our parent's jobs moved us to different states we still kept up our friendship through high school, college, and now our young adulthood years. I love being able to just fall right back into easy conversation when I see her every few months and I am so lucky to have a girl like her standing by my side on my wedding day. 

Katie came down the night before the shower and we spent the night prepping in the kitchen and decorating my parent's house. It was so much fun to see all of the ideas that her and her mom had planned out for the shower. I just cannot get over how creative and awesome they are. The next morning we woke up early and finished baking and setting everything up. 

Chase did not attend this shower. It was girls only, and boy was it fun! We mingled, laughed, played a few hilarious shower games, and then opened gifts. I was incredibly thankful for all the love and support that the ladies at the shower showed me and Chase. They come from all walks of life and their advice and encouragement is top notch. We got lucky having these people in our lives. Also, it was so fun seeing my last name as Smith. I am looking forward to having it be official in just under two months from now. 

Sara Smith…double S! 

The spread for the shower

One of our gifts was a chalkboard to keep our wedding countdown on. 

Promoting our wedding hashtag. 

Cute letters that Katie made for us. 

My favorite sign of the day. 

So true! 

Some of the "winter wonderland" shower decorations. 

Rainbow fruit cups. 

Bride and Groom oreos. 

Mini apple pies.

Chocolate raspberry cupcakes. 

Sugar cookies stacked and decorated to look like little wedding cakes.
They were my favorite! 

My monogrammed boots for the monogram shower. Such a sweet gift from my sweet mama. 

My beautiful mom. Geez I love her. 

My best friend and maid of honor Katie. 

A cute surprise gift from my future mother-in-law.

Playing a game where I had to guess Chase's answers to a series of questions.
If I got one wrong I had to eat a tootsie roll. I got 7/16 wrong.
So this is me attempting to eat 7 tootsie rolls. It was fun but really gross. 

The wonderful ladies that I love so much. 

Bad picture of me, but a wonderful picture of my fantastic bridesmaid Michele. 

Half of my wedding party! 

Chase and I after the party. I cannot wait to be his better half.

The countdown is on y'all. 51 days until the big "I Do". Its getting down to the wire and the details are starting to creep up on us all. Chase and I don't mind though. The impending crazy means that its getting closer to us becoming husband and wife. Its been a long journey (over 6 years) and we are ready to make it official! 

S & C

So Much To Be Thankful For

Oh the season of thankfulness. I am not quite sure why we don't celebrate being thankful for our surroundings more than one day out of the year, but I am glad that the day is in the calendar. Thanksgiving for my family and for Chase's family is all about the food and the fellowship. We are not huge Black Friday shoppers (in fact Chase and I have never participated in Black Friday). Instead we think that family and making memories not surrounding consumerism should be the focus of this great holiday. We may not be married just yet, but this year we were able to practice how we are going to balance the holiday season with not only our own separate families, but also with us as our own family.

This year Chase and I celebrated three different thanksgivings. A week before the official thanksgiving holiday Chase and I had our own thanksgiving dinner. We made a scaled down sized meal and enjoyed each other's company. It was the perfect little celebration for our little future family unit. Then on thanksgiving we celebrated at Chase's house. My own parents came over and joined in on the fun as well. We had a great time and we are both so thankful that we have families who love one another and support us in our life adventures together. The day after thanksgiving we celebrated with my family. It was a day filled with food, chinese checkers, and family photos. One thing that I love about my family is how much we laugh together. I always love going home.

I only took photos during my own family's thanksgiving celebration. I kicked myself later when I realized I forgot to document the other celebrations. I really need to get better at this. I am losing my touch. My camera misses me.

Family Photo Time

Chase in all of his No Shave November glory 

My sister and her two amazing children

Papa Amy and Ida Mae

Chase and I realizing that our wedding is a little over 2 months away

We have too many things to mention that we are thankful for this year. The blessings that we have received have been beyond anything we ever imagined. This next year is going to be one of the best years of our lives and we cannot wait until next thanksgiving when we are able to celebrate it as husband and wife. We give thanks to our family, to our friends, to one another, and to the Creator above. Life is good and we are ever thankful. 

S &C