Bonfire

After the chili cook off festivities and voting - we all chilled out in the driveway as Eric is famous for (and well b/c last year he set the yard on fire.  Dry pine needles and fire do not go together!)  Anyway - We had a great time and we have lots of great friends in Augusta!  I tried to get pictures of all of them - b/c I have most of the same ones from last years Fall Fun.
Lenny Birt came...

and the Lakes

and the LaFontaines (with a great 2nd place chili!)

and the infamous Greg Lacock

and the Furmans

and the Shaos (pregnant lady #1 at the party!)

and the Zarembas (pregnant lady #2 - they are due like 1 day apart!)

and I of course made Matt take a picture of us too!

We had a really really good time!  Our house is a great place to have a Fall Festival and chili cookoff - and its always fun to enjoy it with good friends!  I am already looking forward to next year!

Thankful, but first...

We had a great Thanksgiving (and other FUN activities) while we were away - but before I get into all that - we had a very eventful weekend before we left and have lots of fun fall festivities to report on.

First of all... we joined the church ...

 

The same church we have been going to for almost two years now, the church we got married in.  We just aren't around enough weekends to join - but finally we got around to it.  Luckily they accepted us with open arms and even some great "Fellowship Friends" we have had fun getting to know!

Next... we had the GREATEST party at our house - a CHILI COOKOFF!!  What a great idea!  We took so many pictures and had so much fun - I am gonna have to spread it out a bit.  But the jist of it is... we invited all our friends - challenged them to a chili cookoff (bring your best recipe in your own crockpot), or bring fixins (man we had alot of sour cream, cheese and crackers!) and add in an apple pie bakeoff, a bonfire, and byob and boy! do you have a partay! 

Now onto the chili highlights (I missed the apple pie pictures - which is a shame b/c they were really just as amazing!)

All the pots o chili waiting to be scored...oh - how did we score them you ask?!  Genius idea we had - pick all the hot peppers in the garden - give everyone two (for their two favorites or double vote if you really loved one) and then we add up all the peppers to see who won

So all these people were responsible for tasting all the chilis and deciding ...  so what did all these people think?

 

 

Well they thought some were hot...look at Jason's face.  lol - and finally the winners were picked

Winner Winner Chicken Chili Dinner!!  I have to make sure you all know it was a BLIND taste test - just a table full of crockpots of chili - but I did win!  I feel like there will have to be ALOT more effort put into it next year to maintain my championship chili title - but I am up for it.  It might be a winter full of new chili recipes - and Eric is very excited about that!
So what does a bowl of winning chili look like you might ask? 

I have to say it looks "mmm,mmm, good."  The bad part about winning the chili cookoff?  People eat alot of your chili and you don't have any leftovers.  This was the only bowl of leftovers we had - and its gone now.  Looks like its time to start preparing for next year!
Wanna come too?!?  Just wait - there is MUCH more fun from this party and our week in Florida!  We missed everyone!
<3 the Moores

Fall Color at the Moores

Well - this may not be as exciting as the Airstream (yes, that is what it was if you were wondering - a 1966 26' Overlander Trailer - but we opened it up and it was waaay worse than I remembered (and I remembered it as pretty bad!) so I haven't posted anything else yet).  Anyway - back to my original thought...

This post might not be as exciting as an update on the Airstream....but.... 

Our backyard has been soo gorgeous these past few weeks - with the BRIGHTEST yellow colors and the sun shining through (well - when the sun is shining - there has been ALOT of rain).

I took both of these photos just coming or going from the back door and thinking - Wow!  That's Amazing!  Fall is fading fast (into the darkness of Winter! - blech!) but its my favorite season and it still strikes me at times to stop and gaze at how gorgeous this world is HE made for us!

Thank you God for Happy Hearts, Rain and Sunny Weather.  Thank you God for this our LIFE and that we are together!  (modified I know BK - but it makes me smile) This truly is a Thankful time of year!

Hope you are counting your blessings wherever you are too!

<3 the Moores

 

Weekend Fun!

We had a great weekend!  Friday we had some friends over for my mom's amazing pulled pork.  Then Saturday one of my very best friends stopped by the house with her son D - and we enjoyed watching our Tigers win their game, D taught us all about weather - and read from his book (amazing!) and then proceeded to play with all the fun things out here in the country...
a swing...

a drum set... (this was really fun!!)

and mommy in the pinestraw!

It was so great to see Beth feeling well - and to spend some time with her and D.  Hope they come back soon!

Sunday brought a new adventure too - details later this week!

Sneak Peek

Just a little sneak peek at what I believe might be consuming our winter, (our cash) and our imaginations for awhile...

for those who don't know... any guesses?

WooHoo!

Last weekend at Clemson we saw this beauty!


Eric was very happy to see Clemson's Athletic Department using a Club Car vehicle for some of their transportation. It was all decked out as the 'Defender' with stripes and tiger paws etc. We took some pictures of him with the car.


Always great to see the product you work hard to make being used! Next week - electric transformers - with amazing fin radiators attached (just kidding - seriously - its not nearly as exciting!)

Weekending, Part II

After our pumpkin carving we headed to Clemson on Saturday for homecoming. Beck goes to a MAC school - so there is very little football action and no tailgating... so we had to show him what football was all about! We walked over to a friends tailgate and immediately there were signs of college life...


(yes, that is a parking sign ON a mattress!!)

Unfortunately for Beck (and us kinda...) we are getting old. And the days of tailgates with beer pong, kegs etc are long since forgotten and quickly being replaced with veggie trays, talk of jobs and even (gasp!) babies...



Prime example here Brian - with baby Evan - who received most of the attention at the tailgate. But I have to say there wasn't a cuter pumpkin there! Eric is still doing some practicing with holding babies - making babies smile etc - so he took a turn with Evan too.


It started POURING right at game time, and since we were playing Coastal Carolina anyway (we ended up winning 49-3) we decided not to go into the game and get drenched. We stuck around the tailgate for a bit longer...


Went to the infamous Tiger Town Tavern to actually view some of the game. Did some shopping in Clemson, had a GREAT dinner that this new pasta place in Clemson and then headed to Greenville for the evening. Beck had figured out that we are old - and headed out with some other college age kids for the night and Eric and I took advantage of the extra hour of sleep and went to bed at 10. Seriously - we got old. Lol! I hope he had a good time this weekend - we sure did. Can't wait til Christmas now to see the fam again. I miss them SOOO much being down here so far away. Too many months in between good family time!


Anyway - we had a great weekend! Hope you did too!! :)

Friday Night Festivities

We had a great weekend! My little brother came to visit from Miami U (in Ohio) and we had a fun filled - totally orange weekend planned for him! Friday afternoon Eric picked him up and they had the pumpkins out and ready to go when I got home!


Eric was way behind Beck and I (see his pumpkin behind me there with the top still attached etc) b/c he was picking the seeds out of our goop to bake up later - and he didn't use the stencils (must have creative bones in his family - for Beck and I it was stencils all the way!)

We had a nice night outside for it and enjoyed catching up and spending some time together. The dog had a rough night though (ha! lol - really this is posed - no animals were harmed in the carving of the pumpkins!)


And our finished products didn't turn out to shabby either!


Stay tuned - that's just the very beginning of our weekend!