The first full day of AUTUMN!

Oh my goodness...it is FINALLY here!!! 

AUTUMN 

FALL

HARVEST

Take your pick! Fall is here. How EXCITING! I cannot begin to tell you just how incredibly much I love this season. It is by far my absolute favorite season. I look forward to it every single year. I think my love and obsession of fall began as a child living at West Point, New York.

I am really hoping the weather starts to get the picture in the very near future that summer is over and fall is really here. I know it is the first day of fall, so the calendar says, but today in Wilmington it's supposed to be almost 90 degrees.  What's with that?!? I'm supposed to be wearing scarves, boots and jackets right about now.

Now let me just lay out my top 10 favorite things about fall...and if you know me well, you will already to know just about all of these things.

1. Scarves.

2. OU Football.

3. Leaves changing colors.

4. Boots

5. Carved pumpkins.

6. Apple picking.

7. Thanksgiving.

8. Carmel apple cider from Starbucks.

9. Fall decorations.

10. Apple crisp (especially my mama's!) 

I hope you enjoy these glimpses of fall as much as I do! So head out and take in those first sights, sounds and smells of this beautiful season. Throw on a jacket, scarf and boots and inhale the crispness of fall if you are able...and maybe an extra one for me until things cool down in this part of the country!

Add a little ZEST to your life!

Aren't weddings just absolutely brilliant and exhausting?  Well, I think I have recovered from the late nights and early mornings and am back on my game. Wow, do I sound old or what?!?

As I sit down to type this latest post I am listening to Sara Bareilles newest album Kaleidoscope Heart (which I would totally recommend, it's really awesome) and the smell of lemons is wafting through the air of our little home. It smells absolutely DELICIOUS! Holy moly, I love lemons...especially baking lemons!

This summer my mom's really good friend, Judi, threw me an incredible bridal shower in southern California. It was so fun being with family and lifelong family friends celebrating my upcoming marriage to Jake. Anyways, she made the most incredible lemon square bars I have ever had in my entire life.  They were seriously addicting. So my sweet treat to you today is this fantastic recipe. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

 

Lemon Squares

By: Judi Pyke

Crust:

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Just mixed up!

 -Blend ingredients and pat mixture into 8x10" pan.

-Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Crust, prior to baking.

Filling:

4 eggs

2 cups of sugar

4 TBS lemon juice (fresh)

2 FULL tsp lemon rind (zested)

4 (to 6) TBS flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling.

 -Mix together.

-Pour over crust.

-Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. 

-Sift powdered sugar on top.

Filling poured over crust.

 

Just pulled it out of the oven...

Ready to be feasted upon!

Time...

Isn't time such a funny thing?!? Jake and I spent our entire pre-marriage relationship living in different cities and only getting to see each other for two days (sometimes three for an incredible long weekend) at a time. Well, today I am venturing back up to the nation's capital without my sweet husband. He will join me on Saturday morning, only two short days from now...but, time is such a weird thing...it feels like two days without Jake is going to be an ETERNITY. And the funny thing about this last comment is that prior to marriage is I would have been ecstatic to only have to go two days between visits with Jake. And not only that, I would have thought, "Oh gosh, what a ridiculous thought!".

Ok, well moving on! I get to head up North for some really fun things! I get to hang out with my former roommate, Courtney, and check out her new diggs! It's going to be fantastic. We also are going to indulge in our secret, or not so secret, enjoyment of Chuck Bass watching the season premiere of of Gossip Girl. Oh man, think of all the INCREDIBLE fashion to take in...don't kid yourself, fall fashion is on its way in and will soon wiggle its way into my blog!

And the main reason for my adventure...Meghan Maginnis and Chris Moore are getting married! How fun and exciting! There will definitely be more to come on this topic as well...and pictures. And get this little interesting piece about time...the Anderson family (my family) and the Maginnis family have known each other since 1980...

So, I must get going. Bags packed. Book on tape in hand. I bid you farewell until the wedding festivities come to a conclusion!

The Beginning...

Welcome to my very first day of blogging! I am pretty excited, but slightly nervous, as any new adventure is. This is just one of many new adventures for me these days...getting married, moving to North Carolina, becoming part of the Marine Corps family to name just a few. This blog will serve as a little window into the sights, sounds, tastes and adventures of the lives of Jake and Kelsey Yeager as we travel the country (and maybe the world). I hope it will provide laughter and encouragement to everyone who reads about our experiences.

So on this very first day of blogging I leave you a photo of our new and current hometown, Wilmington, North Carolina...and yes, for those of you tv buffs, we do live where Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill  were filmed.