A Halloween with No Tricks and too many Treats!

Halloween tends to be my least favorite holiday of the year.  There is something about dark scary costumes with spider webs, eerie music, graves stones, and human parts with blood laying in the yard that makes me not  fan. 

I do love Halloween because of the fall weather, pumpkin carving, decorations, and the colorful leaves that are boldest in Arkansas. This past weekend the plan was to go to our church Fall Festival to play games, eat corn dogs then go to my sisters to watch the Rangers in the World Series Game and pass out candy to all the little ones in Frisco.

Fall Festival at Prestonwood turned out to be so much fun! It was my first year going and there were over 20,000 people there. They had a petting zoo, 20 inflatables, a kiddy train, all the fair foods, games, pony rides and of course candy. I saw the most adorable kids dressed up in every costume imaginable. My favorite was the UPS little boy that had a wagon that was his "UPS" truck. Here are a few pics we took.

Pink Pony rides! If I was a little kid
I would have gone nuts!

Petting Zoo. They sign said please just pet
the animals. All the little girls would pick them up
and try to carry them around.

Of course I got a corn dog and Dick got a
Turkey Leg! 

We love passing out candy. Since my sister lives in a neighborhood that has an elementary school  behind it we thought this was going to be a great year for passing out candy. We went to Sam's bought 2 huge bags of candy and filled up our giant bowl.  The bad news was we only saw 6 kids all night. We knew something wasn't right after it was 7:45 and the sidewalks were empty! Not a single lady bug, monster, avatar, princess, lady GaGa costume was in site. Apparently the city of Frisco tricked and treated their little hearts out on Saturday night and we were prob the only ones unaware. LOL! It's CRAZY, you cannot change the date of Halloween! We did in fact dress up all of the kids in our family.

They are best buds and LOVE each other!

My child Lucy the Bumble Bee

My sisters Maddie the Lady Bug

Baby Frankenstein! The only costume that
would fit him this year! He was 10 days old!

I hope everyone had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN and the candy in your bowl made some little kids smile!

Abigail

Little Hands, Little Feet Simply Precious and Oh So Sweet!

So I am so behind on blogging but I can blame it on this little precious thing! Meet Jonah Dalton Apple, my first nephew! He was born Wednesday, October 20th at Presbyterian Hospital of Plano.

The story went a little something like this. Katie started having those lovely contractions at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday. But because Jonah's original due date wasn't until Halloween, Johnny refused to let Katie check into the hospital!  Let me say this, Katie is a bit of a drama queen, well ALOT of a drama queen so I understand Johnny's  train of thought. He kept telling her that it was too early. They drove all the way to the hospital, turned around went home, then drove again to the hospital and sat in the parking lot and talked things over. SO FUNNY and typical of these two!

She's going to kill me for this pic, but it was 5:00 a.m. and
we were SO excited!

Finally Katie convinced Johnny into walking into the emergency room. So 4:00 a.m. I get a knock on my bedroom door from "Pretty" Chrissie telling me it was time to meet Jonah. My first response was we aren't READY!! That Wednesday night we were actually going to help Katie finalize the baby room, install car seats, and organize all the baby gifts. Well Jonah had other plans!

All Katie would talk about is the Texas Rangers playoff game at 3:00 that afternoon. She was hoping he would be here before the first pitch was thrown. We take our Rangers baseball seriously! :)

Made his grand appearance at 2:57 p.m.
6lbs 9 ounces  19 1/2 inches

Born with a full head of dark hair that is naturally a Fo-Hawk this boy is for sure related to Johnny Apple! He is such a blessing and a miracle from above. It blows my mind to see God create this perfect little human being and to think that he already has a plan for his life!
Here are a couple pictures out of 200 from all of the many people that visited Katie and Johnny at the hospital..

I can tell you now, this child will be SPOILED from Pretty and Babs

The wreath that sweet Angie made last minute! It was adorable.

His mini-me.. They look so much alike. 

Future EEE Beau.. just kidding but he does look good on that blanket! :)

I'm obsessed

Finally getting to go home on Friday afternoon

A little surprise at there house when they got home! The stork came by to announce his birth.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers, support, hospital visits, gifts, and love. Jonah is so loved already! There will be plenty more blogs about this little boy!

A Dick Tracy Party!

To top the weekend off we celebrated Dick's 26th birthday! So what's more appropriate then actually having the classic yellow and black cartoon inspector. It was thrown together last minute, but turned out cute!

We had a party cooking his favorite dishes from "Pretty's" kitchen. He ordered steak, shoepeg corn, ranch potatoes, and rolls. Typical boys meal! Since I don't eat steak, my dad so kindly threw me a piece of chicken on the grill!

Yellow hat and all, The table was complete and he loved it!

Blueberry cake from the famous "Bonnie Ruth's" in Frisco. It's his absolute favorite! There is nothing like it!

Him trying not to bust out laughing! Yes the hat was necessary to blow out the 26 candles!

A little fuzzy but it was the only one sweet Lucy was looking at the camera! 

He had the best birthday! The trend has caught on..now everyone in the family is getting a themed birthday this  year! Happy Birthday to my sweet "inspector" and best friend!

The State Fair of Texas.. Fried Food Welcomed!

Fried Latte's, Margaritas, Butter, Twinkies, Ice Cream, you name it and they can fry it! Once a year the fair comes to Dallas bringing in Fletchers corn dogs, lemonade, the ferris wheel, games, and cars. They have the fair every year down around the cotton bowl stadium. Like they say, "Everything is Bigger in Texas."

The cotton bowl.. Where OU beats Texas every year :)

This was Dick's first time to the Texas State Fair so we saw EVERYTHING! My favorite was the animal tent that Children's hospital puts on every year. They have zebras, goats, giraffes, ducks, pigs, turtles, kangaroos that you can feed and pet! I think we spent like an hour in there! Here are a few pics of the little guys..

We also we enjoyed the best Corn Dogs ever made... EVER made! Fletchers con dogs with a little bit of mustard is the only fair food a person needs! Incredible and I'm not a huge hot dog fan!

Another fun part are all the buildings that you can walk through. They have a huge car show, arts and crafts, cooking shows, and lots of sampling. One really cool exhibit every year is the statues made out of BUTTER ONLY!

This year it was an OU vs. Texas games scene. How would like to have that job?! lol

We rode one ride that dick made me get on that I thought I was going to DIE! I hate fair rides. They are sketchy. This one went in the year flipping and spinning. NEVER AGAIN.

It was a gorgeous fall Saturday and the last weekend to attend the fair this year! What fried foods could they possibly cook next?

Running in Pink To Cure Cancer..

"YOUR MAMMO IS THE BEST AMMO"


This past weekend in Dallas was the Race for the cure for breast cancer awareness! Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. I met one of my friends from college, Andrea Walker, and headed down to North Park Mall. Over 26,000 people gathered for either the 1 mile fun run or the 5k race. There were all ages of men, woman, dogs and children.

Reunited..and it was so much fun!

So many survivors with so many different backgrounds. It was a bitter sweet feeling to see the support from so many thousands of people. 

We FINISHED!! It was Andrea's 1st 5K!

Sweaty after running and having to dodge people, trees, and baby strollers! We definitely went for the freebies afterwards; water bottles, apples, bananas, nail files, and bracelets! 

Next year we plan to recruit more people and hopefully form our own team! Starting the tradition through the EEE's we have successfully supported Race for the Cure for 5 years!  It was such a great feeling for an important cause!

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice!

October 8th Weekend:
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Heath bar

The countdown to Halloween to bring in the Fall Season week two. The funny thing about this recipe is that I stumbled upon it while getting my hair done! It was in a "House Beautiful" magazine. It was a must-bake recipe and it turned out to be very tasty. My Dad rated it an 8 stars out of 10! That's pretty darn good in his books!  

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 cup of canned pumpkin (8- ounces)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 brown sugar

1/2 vegetable oil

1/2 coarsely chopped Heath Bars :)

1. Preheat over to  350 degrees and spray muffin tins with vegetable oil
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg
3. In a larger bowl whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. 
4. Add the flour mixture in the larger bowl and stir until completely combined. 
5. Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes
6. Let cool completely

Cream Cheese Frosting

6 ounces of cream cheese

3 tablespoons of butter, unsalted

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups of confectioners sugar

1. Mix all ingredients into a bowl at a low speed adding the ingredients in one at a time. Mix until smooth
2. Spread the frosting on the pumpkin cupcakes and sprinkle the Heath bar on top

I hope this recipe bring smiles and yummms and will be the next hit for your friends and family fall season! 

Making Fall a Little Sweeter..

Every weekend through October I am going to make a new Fall recipe to bring in the season! It's going to be a countdown to Halloween. I LOVE fall if you can't tell!

October 1st Weekend:

Caramel Apples

At the State fair instead of getting corn dogs like the rest of the world, I spend my coupons on a caramel apple! They have candied or caramelised with just about any candy bar you can think of. 

Since the apple plays a huge role in the taste, I chose three of
the best apples in season. Seasonal Honey Crisp , classic Red Delicious,
and Granny Smith.

Straight out of the oven and melting with caramel. Since
they are already sweet enough, I chose not to add the candy.

We just bought the caramel apple wraps from the grocery store and popped them into the oven for a little longer then the package says. Quick. Easy. Fun. Yummy!



The alternative is Mrs. Prindables apples. They are online, QVC or at Neiman Marcus. They are adorable and they are offered year round celebrating every season. Best apples I have ever tasted ya'll!