Father's Day and Brittany's Bundt Cake

Happy Father's Day!  I know, I know... I'm a month late.  But hey... it's my summer break and I tend to lose track of time.  And our Father's Day was WAY too fun to just skip over.  Soooo, here it goes!

The fun thing about this year was that Dad and Papa came to Houston!!  We did dinner at Uncle Don's, so I got to celebrate my real Dad, Grandad, and Houston Dad!  I was in charge of dessert...fabulous, if I do say so myself. :)  The actual recipe came from a bundt cake Brittany and I made, but I switched the pan and made my oh-so-fabulous frosting to top it off.

 

I found this golfing cake idea on Pinterest... I was obviously REALLY excited about it.

And so were the Dads!

 Here's the close-up...so cute!!

 

Our patriarch... would you believe I can't count how many pictures I have with this expression? :)

And now for the cake recipe...

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 small box instant chocolate pudding
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 package of chocolate chips

 Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt cake pan.  Mix pudding, cake mix, and sugar in a medium sized bowl.

Add oil and water and mix.

 Add one egg at a time and beat well after each.

Add sour cream and mix until incorporated.

Stir in chocolate chips. (we only added 1/2 of the bag, but you could add up to the entire bag, depending on how chocolate-y you want your cake)

Pour into grease pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, depending on your oven.

Allow cake to cool slightly, then place it on a plate and dust with powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

Our taste testers waiting for their slice... :)

Hope you had a great Father's Day!!  Check back soon for some more delayed summer fun! :)

Love, Sara

Getting Out of the Heat...

About a week after I was done with school for the summer, Anthony and I decided to get out of the Houston heat and go on a little vacation!  So, we picked the coolest, chilliest, spot we could think of... Scottsdale, Arizona!  I know, I know....Houston to Scottsdale.  Not really that much change in heat, but the change in humidity made all the difference.

We spent most of our week relaxing by the pool, doing a little shopping, watching basketball playoffs, seeing a Top Chef cookoff, and hiking.  Yes, hiking.  I quickly realized being a hiker is NOT for me.  This, however, I didn't really consider hiking... more like side of a cliff rock scaling.  I won't be going again anytime soon! The pictures from that little outing are on Anthony's phone, so I'll share the gorgeous views later, but I here are the few I have from my camera!

Top Chef Cookoff!  So much fun!

Judges table!  We got to try the food, but I don't have a picture. :( We did get to meet two of the contestants, though, and get autographs! Even Anthony had fun!

Dinner

...and dessert! The Sugar Bowl was all sweets and pink EVERYWHERE... my kind of place!

 Anthony's sundae...

and mine!

More summer fun coming soon!!

Love, Sara :)

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today I was excitedly getting ready for the biggest day of my life.  I was all smiles and couldn't wait to walk down the aisle.  The day went by so smoothly and so quickly, and I can't believe Anthony and I have been married a year!  

I was thinking back over this past year and am blown away by everything that has happened.  Here's a little peak into our first year as Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes... :)

A year a go today I had never paid rent, an electricity bill, gas bill, or phone bill.  I had never lived with a boy, let alone in the same city as Anthony.  I had never followed a blog, or seriously thought about starting one of my own.  I had never heard of TeachersPayTeachers, nor had I ever imagined I would be selling hundreds of products to teachers across the country.  I had never known someone to hit the snooze button on an alarm for over an hour, and let's be honest...I'd never mopped. :)

 Being that Anthony is such a numbers guru, here are our year one statistics. :)

• We started 3 new jobs.
• I moved twice.
• I willingly semi-willingly endured 3 needle encounters.  (If you know anything about my needle phobia, you know this is HUGE)
• I flew on 23 airplanes.
• We ate fajitas more times than I can count.
• Anthony cooked dinner a total of ZERO times. :)
• I flew to Dallas 4 times to see Chuck and have my hair done.
• My car was in the shop 5 times.
• We went on 3 vacations and 2 different countries
• I only got lost in Houston twice! Never mind that I was following a GPS while getting lost...
• Our China was used once.
• I've caught Anthony learning new dance moves from YouTube 3 times... this isn't to say how many times I haven't caught him. :)
• We painted 12 rooms/areas in our house... you don't want to know how many hours that is!
• Christmas was celebrated 4 times
• We only broke 1 dinner plate and 1 bowl.
• I called the vet around 9 times because I was worried about something Reese had done or ate.
• We killed only 5 plants! (...we didn't have that many to begin with!)

This year we bought a house, got the most adorable puppy, and watched more sports than I have watched in my entire life.  We tried calamari and spinach and artichoke dip at every restaurant we went to.  We found a new church, a new neighborhood, and, despite my nervousness and shyness, made new friends.  We ate more meals with the Harrell's than I can count, and Anthony cleaned more dishes than he has in his entire life.  I spent my first holiday away from my immediate family, and still got to wear my birthday tiara.  

This year has been filled with laughter, joy, lots of tears, but most of all, happiness.  It has been by far the most challenging, difficult, change-filled, and rewarding year of my life, and I wouldn't change a second of it.  Today is just one more sweet reminder of how God's plans are so much bigger and so much greater than I could ever have imagined for myself.  Between Anthony, our families, and our friends, there isn't a better word to describe it all, but blessed.  We truly are blessed beyond anything we deserve.  So Happy One-Year Anniversary to us!!  On to year two...

Love, Sara :)

Reese Goes Swimming!

Yes... this is my third post in a row about little Reese.  And yes... I'm totally okay with that.  What can I say?  I'm one proud mama!!  And yes again... I have not been super on top of updating my blog. (Ahem...Rachel)  Between spending time STILL painting and putting together the house, training my little ball of cuteness, work, and life in general, I plum run out of time and energy.  Not to mention I used all of my free photo space from my blog server... I didn't think I took THAT many pictures!

OK, so now on to my REAL reason for this post.  Last weekend for Memorial Day, my friend Brittany came to visit!  Uncle Don was super nice and let us come use his pool.  He's been telling us to bring Reese to swim for a while, so we finally took him up on it.

We packed her up (with Brittany) and headed over to UD's house {UD...Uncle Don...I figured that was a given, but didn't want to confuse some people...Ahem, Rachel :) }

So Reese was NOT wanting to get in the water...

We tried bribing her... but no go.

We FINALLY got her to get in the water!!

 And she even started jumping in!  Check out that form!

She would only jump in if Anthony was standing right there waiting for her. :)

And look at my little fish!  How cute!

 This was an attempt to get her to jump off of the diving board.  Reesers had a different plan.

Great day. Lots of fun. Tired puppy!

Happy summer!!

Love, Sara :)

Mother's Day and A Reese Update

For Mother's Day this past weekend, we went up to Dallas.  Mom's birthday is the same week as Mother's Day, so it's a double the fun. :)

Not only did we get to see the fam, they got to meet Reese for the first time!!  Everyone came over for dinner on Saturday and brought their dogs as well.  Needless to say, Reese was quite a hit!  The only problem was with my sweet Ellie Mae...she's not really a fan of female dogs, puppies, or anyone trying to take the attention away from her.  No worries, though! She was beginning to come around by the time we left! :) 

Here's our weekend! ...Be prepared...I took A LOT of pictures.  I pretty much just followed Reesers around and snapped shots of her being her adorable self.  Josh was making fun of me and how I will mostly like act when we have human kids.  Scary.

Umm.. how cute is she?!?!

Not such a cute moment... at least she just got the box.

Ellie.  Please note the shock collar for scare tactics... We wanted to make sure Reese's cute little head stayed attached to her body. :)

Friends! Friends! Friends!

NOT how you maintain a friendship, Reese.  I guess I need to give her some more lessons...

Love the ball.  Have someone throw the ball.  Chase after the ball.  Forget to grab the ball because flowers are nearby.  Puppy ADD at its best.

Reese and Grandpa Deets became fast friends.  He was so sweet to her!

Yes, Reese is loved. :)

Mom... the true reason for our celebration!

Yep.  He put up with this ALL weekend.

And this..

And this...

And this!!!

Finally some peace and quiet.

They love catching the ball bouncing off of the roof!

Woah Reese...chasing the wrong black dog there!

Poor Ellie.  She sure had her patience tested!

 

Getting a little tired.. finally.

With Uncle Josh

And Aunt Jennifer

 Yummy potatoes!  My contribution to our fab dinner.  Recipe coming soon!!

Mom and her presents! And Dad being his cheesy self. :)

Hmmm...

Isn't he adorable? :)

Our first new family picture!!!

Hope your Mom's Day weekend was wonderful too!  Our mattress is FINALLY being delivered tomorrow, so new house pictures coming soon!!! 

Love, Sara :)