Texas State Fair - Take Two

Last year was our first year to experience The Great State Fair of Texas that is right around the corner from our house. We started a couple of new traditions last year: 1. Sneak into the OU/TX game and 2. Try all the crazy fried foods. In true tradition form we picked those right back up this year as soon as the fair set up shop.

The OU/TX game sneak-in was successful for the second straight year and we got to see OU put a pounding on Texas which is always fun. But more importantly we carried out the 2nd Annual Fried Food Tour (check out our tour last year).

So without further ado, let us begin our tour.

First stop on the fried food train, deep fried biscuits and gravy. Take your basic biscuit, fill the inside with gravy and then flash fry it. Not bad but not great either.

Fried biscuits and gravy


Rolling right along we hit up the item that won the Texas State Fair contest for best tasting 2011, Buffalo Chicken in a Flapjack. Buffalo chicken, rolled in a jalapeno flapjack, fried and served with syrup. The chicken and waffles approach. Salty, sweet and delicious. Our 2nd favorite item of the evening.

Buffalo Chicken in a Flapjack


After the sweet and salty from the flapjack we were on the hunt for something a little spicy, enter  Fried Salsa. Chase was really excited about this one but it ended up being pretty disappointing.

Fried Salsa


Time to stop for an ice cold beer and a chat with Big Tex.

Big Tex


Then on to more fried goodness. After the salsa dissapointment we needed something we knew would be good so we hit up the best tasting from 2010, Fried Frito Chili Pie. We had this last year and it was our favorite. It was just as yummy this year. Was our #1 favorite thing again this year.

Fried Frito Chili Pie


And what's a state fair without a corn dog?

Corny dogs


After all this, we were stuffed but we HAD to try some dessert (plus we still had a bunch of coupons left). We hit up the Fried Autumn Pie- a pumpkin pie gingerbread concoction that was to die for! And Fried Pineapple Upside Down Cake which Chase had to force down because we were so full.
 
Fried Autumn Pie & Fried Pineapple Upside Down Cake


Whew! That was a lot of food and we were feeling the affects. Chase was highly considering sticking his finger down his throat on the walk back to the car so he could puke it all up (he chickened out and didn't do it). Another successful Fried Food Tour.

Until next year when we do it all over again -- and introduce Molly to the magic of the fair!

Turning 27

I am officially in my "late" twenties. That just doesn't seem right. It feels like just yesterday I was relishing in the fact that my ID was now horizontal and I could buy alcohol on my own. Time flies. And ironic that I can't enjoy a libation on my 27th since I am 9 months pregnant.

But there are other ways to celebrate. Pizza, dessert, presents and family.









It was a delightfully low key birthday celebration. Until next year...

no more mattresses on the floor

We decided it was time to get our act together. After all we are going to be parents in around 4 weeks, we better start acting like adults. And adults don't sleep on mattresses on the floor...at least not my version of adults. Not adults with kids. So, with time running out before our  lil one gets here I decided it was time to  take it up a notch and buy a bed.

If you remember from this post about bed hunting (yes, from May of last year!) we sold Chase's bed so we could buy a new one. Well, a year and half later and still no bed. We were still bunking up like college kids in a small apartment on a mattress tossed on the floor of our bedroom. No bueno.

We had never really given up on the bed idea, we just hadn't found one we liked (it takes us awhile to pull the trigger). Our fallback bed was the Jackson from Crate&Barrel and when we finally decided to just bite the bullet a couple of weeks ago and get it we found out it was discontinued. Way to procrastinate right! So back to square one. But this time with much more determination and a deadline.

I decided to peruse Overstock.com and came across a bed I thought might actually work. Chase wouldn't be able to give it his patented shake test since it was online but from all the positive and glowing reviews we read we decided we didn't need to shake it. Screw it...order the damn thing! And so we did.

We stayed up til 1am last night putting this bad boy together. And we were very pleased with the quality of construction and the wood materials. 

Adults! A real bed! Voila!

NOW we can have a baby.  

New Artwork

In lieu of a guestbook at our wedding we had Wedding Wishes. We didn't really see the value of a book full of signatures of everybody who attended, so we wanted to do something different. Instead, as part of our wedding brand, we had blank wish cards printed up and invited guests to jot down any messages of advice, good luck, congratulatory remarks etc. It went over well, with the exception of not posting someone at the table to make sure everyone participated. But what we did get was great.

We cherish the lovely, hilarious and a little bit inappropriate messages we got from our friends and family. Much more fun to read through these than to analyze people's handwriting in a guest book. We dig the pile out every now and then to read through but we wanted a more permanent way to display some of our favorites in our home. Something we could showcase. Our solution, frame a few.

We took the sign that we had on the table next to the cards, picked out 7 cards that we really like and had them custom framed. What we ended up with is a very personal and special piece of art. We are proudly displaying it in our living room. It looks fantastic and its fun to stop by and read a message every now and then.

Adjusting to the Bump

Fortunately, up to this point, I have not had to alter my wardrobe much. I have been able to scrap for things in my closet that would fit and the current flowy style of clothing made it easy to fit in the same tops I had before. Slowly this is changing and I think I am going to live in tights/leggings and tunics for the remainder of my pregnancy and post baby until I get my rockin' bod back. : ) I thought I would share a few looks that I think are perfect for someone 8 months pregnant.

I think I need some awesome new fall boots to help me pull this off.

Hoping it gets a little cooler so I can rock this look!

celebrating Molly

We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends! This past weekend our long time friends Brittany, Jessica and Pam threw us a fantastic baby shower for little Molly.

We got to catch up with friends we don't get to see very often and they were all nice enough to hook us up with some things we really needed. Thanks guys!

It was a such a fun afternoon and Molly is so fortunate to have such awesome people in her life that already love her and care about her.

Now for some pictures...


Our gracious hosts [from left: Jessica, me, Brittany and Pam]




Parents to be



Some of the essentials



Molly's first designer outfit, Missoni 



Photo from our maternity pics that our generous friend Kathleen [of jeremyandkathleen] took and gifted us