A New Year and Celebrations!

And so, a new year begins! 2015! TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN! So incredible! Do you know that I actually heard folks on HGTV talking about how things from the 80's are called 'vintage' now. VINTAGE. I was born BEFORE 1980. So, ... well, we won't hang out on that one. Crazy talk.
Damion and I are still in Texas for work, but going home when we can.  We are missing our church and fellowship with other believers and our family, but we are praying for big things for our year! We also began our reading plan together; we're reading through the Bible chronologically. It's fun to discuss stories as we go through them, especially ones that we became familiar with as children. I'm grateful for this time together!

January also entered in with celebrations on the horizon! Damion's Mom and Uncle Jamie both celebrate their birthday in January. I've missed a couple here and there (sorry Dylan! and Dustin!), but I've been trying to do a cake/dessert for everyone's birthday. I guess I technically missed Aunt Michelle, Damion (!!), and Mawmaw's, too - but we celebrated all the June birthdays altogether and since I'm included in that, the cake was store bought. :o) I'll have to do better this year!

Since it's my first year having Molinda as my official Mother-In-Law, I wanted to make something super delicious. She LOVES sweet things - especially frosting! Which is fun for me because that's exactly what I like to put on cakes! How about that! ;o)

We both share a love of caramel-y goodness, so I wanted to be sure I could pull this off for her cake. Thank you, Pinterest! Have you searched for dulce de leche cake on Pinterest? Be prepared... so much rich goodness abounds! THIS is what I ended up choosing. It was such a pretty cake! (If you don't have Pinterest, here's the recipe for you to save!) It was a little bit more labor intensive than cakes I usually make (browned butter is VERY.WORTH.IT), but my whole kitchen smelled so, so good! For weeks afterward, I could still just think of this cake, and the taste would come to mind. (*note - I didn't try to do the homemade dulce de leche. I'd like to one day, but since we're traveling back and forth between home and Houston, I didn't think I would have time to devote to making it great. Trader Joe's had jars of it that were super yummy!*)

Here's the final product! 

(Since the frosting was a little more delicate than I had planned,

I decided to be a little more whimsical with the dulce de leche on top.)

We also had plans to go to Painting With A Twist in Lake Charles as a family. (We're sad Dylan and Jamie couldn't join us because of work!) I have wanted to go one one of these places for a while, so I was excited! We had a small private room with our painting teacher, a table set up for the party and gifts, and our easels were set up and ready to go! Molinda chose a Louisiana Sunset picture, and since we are still working on the decor for our home, I'm happy that we'll have something personal to hang up! We aren't artists, but these classes sure help you to feel like one! Here are some photos of our shenanigans. :o)

Elaina did such a great job! She was ready to go!

My In-Loves. :o) 

I gotta start somewhere, right? 

A little further into the project (mine is left; hubby's is right)

My Brother-In-Law, Dustin. He's pretty excited. :o)

Sweet Emily!

Our finished products!

(Elaina's facial expression cracks me up in this photo!)

Since we missed being back home for Uncle Jamie's actual birthday, we went a couple of weeks later to make his cake for him. Everyone said that he wasn't much a dessert eater, so I decided to just ask him what kind of cake he wanted. He asked for Pineapple Upside Down Cake - another I hadn't ever made before. I know it's a Conley family favorite, though. I had heard it was Papaw Conley's favorite. I am sad that he passed away before I met Damion. I love everything I'm told about him, though! So, after hanging out the night before at Mawmaw's house (where we love to play games!), I got up early to make his cake!

Since Jamie works long hours at work and would be sleeping during the day, I wanted him to enjoy the cake when it was fresh!  He would be getting off from a 12-hour shift around 6:30 a.m., so this would be his dessert before bed. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, right? Cake for breakfast! Pinterest for the win this time, too! (And the recipe, if you don't have Pinterest.)

This seemed like it was gonna be interesting - a cake made in my cast iron skillet! It was YUMMY! I had a little bit of batter left over because my cast iron is a little bit smaller than the recipe calls for, so I would adjust that a little bit next time (or maybe make 1.5 times and make two!), and I wish I had added some extra pieces of pineapple since they shrink up somewhat. It was really moist and buttery, and I loved that glaze that the brown sugar and pineapple juice makes for the top! Turning the cake onto the tray made me nervous, but everything came out smoothly! Pun intended. :o)

Unfortunately, those few days at home ended with Damion at urgent care. :o( We started working on re-doing our bathroom at our house. He and his brother trapped themselves in the small room to get the primer on the walls (learning a valuable lesson about proper ventilation because of this! :o)), and by that afternoon, Damion's throat was very irritated. We had hoped it was from the fumes, but I think he was already getting sick and that just irritated it even more. The doctor barely had to look at him to determine he had a pretty serious infection. A shot, antibiotics and steroids were on the docket. Bummer! We waited an extra day to head back to Texas for his work (he wouldn't have been able to get anything done anyway - he was miserable!), and thankfully, the medicines were working. After a week or so, he was feeling pretty good.

Just in time for Valentine's Day! Our first one as a married couple! YAY MARRIAGE! <3
We got each other a gift (he got a watch he's been wanting, and he splurged and got me a really nice wallet and some roses) and enjoy yummy dinner and some cupcakes from Sprinkles! Delicious! Being in love is a real gift!

I finished out February by really trying to work hard on a new business venture I've begun. More on that SOON!