Putt Putt & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Starting off Memorial Day weekend (also anniversary weekend) with some fun! 

The great thing about our anniversary being on May 30th is that it will usually fall on or around Memorial Day! The year we got married there were 5 weekends in May and our wedding weekend was actually the last weekend, the weekend after Memorial Day weekend. This year our anniversary falls on Memorial Day, so we get a day off to spend together! I'll keep ya posted on what we do that day. :)

I think my nesting kicked in last week. I've been really planning painting baby furniture for the nursery (which I will be starting next week!) and cleaning out closet space for baby items to have more room. The first closet I cleaned out had a huge tote of kitchen items and dishes that my Aunt Barbara gave me before we got married. Since she passed away in January, I have been so thankful for all of the thoughtful things she gave me for married life. One of the things in the tote was a really adorable blue cake stand and topper! Keep reading for pictures/how it was used below.

Friday night:
Kicking off the summer with our first game of putt putt! Y'all might think that this is just something you do on vacation at those cheesy mini golf courses, but not this family. We are hashtag #blessed with a great putt putt course right near our parents' houses. Some people have season passes to Six Flags, and then there's us who always has a three game ticket in our wallet. Sometimes I'm really good and beat my husband (how I measure a putt putt victory), and other times I completely embarrass myself, ha! This weekend was definitely the latter of those two, but that's okay. I still gotta get warmed up for the putt putt season, ya know? We are just getting started.

Saturday: 
Our day consisted of rest and cookies. I tried a new "best chocolate chip cookie" recipe from Williams-Sonoma's website that I saw on Pinterest.  The only thing I changed in this recipe was the amount of chocolate chips and sugar. By the time I mixed all the dough together and was ready to add the chocolate chips, I thought there was NO WAY I was about to add 2.5 cups of chocolate chips to the tiny amount of dough! I only did a little over a cup of chocolate chips and it turned out just fine. I also left out one of the tablespoons of sugar and I'm glad I did because they were sweet enough. Also, I totally took their advice and scooped the cookie balls out with an ice cream scoop. Yep, never going back to the regular spoon again.

Let's talk about baking and being pregnant. I thought I was going to die the first time I baked something knowing I couldn't lick the utensils because of the raw eggs it contained. I don't think I had ever baked anything and not been anxious to lick the spoon. But alas, I have restrained myself during this pregnancy. My husband doesn't like to lick the spoon ever! He would rather wait for the treat to finish baking before taking a first bite. Not-pregnant me always thought that was so weird! But you know what? I've kinda enjoyed saving the first taste for the finished product. (That's something I never thought I would say.) I don't feel as sickly sweeted out before I even get to the cookies. Maybe I'll keep up the habit even after Baby comes!

Husband was a huge fan of these cookies, so I will definitely be keeping this recipe in my back pocket.

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend with lots of good food and family time!
-Em

Babymoon-aversary to Gatlinburg, TN

May has been a big month for our little family of two (and a half ;).

On May 9th, I graduated from college with my Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. That one is still sinking in. The end of the month, May 30th, is our one year wedding anniversary. Cue all the feels. Also, since I'm 30 weeks pregnant (when you're reading this), my hubby planned a babymoon for May before I got too incredibly pregnant to enjoy our one last travel as two. Major props to whoever started that trend 'cause what a great idea.

All that to say, we just got back from possibly one of the most celebratory vacations we will every take. It was a babymoon-aversary to the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Made that word up myself. ;) Timed perfectly before all the kiddos get out of school for the summer and before the real heat of summer sets in, we had the best weather and hardly any crowds.

Our little cabin was tucked into the hills about a mile and a half off of the main parkway between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It was an ideal location for just about anything you could want to do. Before we left for the trip I was checking the weather constantly, and they were calling for 60-70% chance of rain every day that we would be there. But it never rained! We were able to spend a lot of time outside walking the strip of Gatlinburg, playing Farkle (the best dice game ever) in rocking chairs on our porch, and sight seeing on the mountain outlooks without a single drop of rain falling on us. Bless.

Speaking of sight seeing on the mountain outlooks....we did have one funny little mishap on the trip. In true little James fashion, we locked the keys in our car when we were on the side of a mountain, almost to our 5,000 feet up outlook destination. It was a classic snowball of unfortunate situations. We were not only locked out of our car, but the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees cooler, there was an impending rain cloud coming towards us, AND we were hungry and about ready to eat our picnic lunch at the next outlook spot (which was now locked in the car). Hungry pregnant lady warning. What happened was I locked the car, but thought my husband had the keys in his pocket, and he did not. Marriage communication 101 yall. Haha!

That day actually ended up going about as amazing as it could have though. We met two kind Christian men, Allen and John, from Chicago who drove us to find a park ranger and let us warm up in their van. About an hour later, two volunteer park rangers arrived! The man broke out his handy bag of tools and ended up using three of those air pumpy thingys to unlock my, apparently, super resilient car. Did I mention these two volunteer park rangers were a man and woman who had been married for 64 years? How cute is that! This couple now spends their retired years driving around the Great Smoky Mountain National Park helping people out for fun. If that aint #goals I don't know what is! So much kindness was shown to us that day.

Some other highlights from our trip included eating breakfast at The Pancake Pantry, the Star Cars Museum (we got to see actual cars used in the movies!), dinner at the Apple Barn, seeing the new Captain America: Civil War at the Forge Theater in Pigeon Forge, eating a caramel apple from the Chocolate Monkey, and just enjoying hanging out in our cabin. It was a much needed trip of relaxation, good conversation, and anticipation for what's coming soon with my honey.

Other random travel favorites: 
Song: "Boy Problems" by Carly Rae Jepsen. Seriously. Listen to it.

Snack: Twizzlers & Pringles. Only the healthiest of choices.

Books:
1) Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney. I read this before our wedding last year and am re-reading at our one year anniversary. I highly recommend this book for any female considering marriage, about to get married, or already married!

2) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: The Illustrated Edition. My graduation gift from Samuel! IT IS AMAZING.

Souvenir: New cups! Apparently I have a thing about water bottles and coffee mugs. Those were my souvenirs of choice for this trip.

Outing: The lookout spots in the National Park were pretty amazing. I almost wish we had done that twice.

Eats: The Pancake Pantry, of course. Their pancakes are outofthisworld good.

This picture was taken minutes before I walked back to the car to get my jacket because I was cold, and then realized that the car was locked. Notice that scary rain cloud approaching...

Thanks for a wonderful little getaway, GB. 

Much love, 

the Jameses

My Blog Has a New Name!

Well as you can read above, my blog has a new name!

Although "A Little Piece of Em" was still true- this blog is definitely a holding place for little pieces of who I am- I felt like it needed a change. Maybe because my life is about to change. Really, it has already changed a lot over the last year. I got married a year ago, graduated from college this year, and in a few short months I will be a new mom to our first baby boy.

Mrs. to Momma is going to span a variety of parts of my life, just like this blog already did. I feel like this new title more specifically identifies who the "little pieces of Em" are now. I'm a Mrs. to the most loving and sacrificial husband, and soon I will be a momma.

Another exciting face lift for the blog came on the tab/page headings! I used to have a page called "#MM" (Music Mondays) where I would share a song or playlist that I had been enjoying lately. Music is still a thing I love to share, but let's be honest, I spend waaay more time cooking for my family nowadays than I do browsing the Billboard Top 100 list. So to reflect that, I have a brand new section of my blog to share recipes I have been loving lately and want to share with you all! (Don't worry, I will still share noteworthy music when it comes. It will just be under the Life section now.)

This is totally brand new for me...because honestly I was terrified of cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my family before getting married. Sure I had done some cooking when I lived at home, but I did not consider myself someone who liked, or was good at, cooking. But over the past year I have discovered how much I really do enjoy it! To be truthful, right now I stick to some pretty simple recipes and repeat our favorite meals a lot. BUT some of them I love so much (and my husband loves so much) that I think you all might love to cook them for your family too! So, here's to trying a new thing!

Even though I don't blog as consistently as I wish I did, I have loved coming back to this blog to share stories with you over the past two years. (I know! I can't believe I've had this blog for two years now!) I'd like to keep up this friendship, wouldn't you?

I hope you'll stick around for the ride of Mrs. to Momma.