Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Happy birthday sweetheart

I wanted to surprise my wife by sneaking on to the blog and to wish her a happy birthday.  She is an amazing mother and wife.  She makes my life full of joy and is my best friend. I'm lucky to have found her. I know life isn't always easy but it is always easier with my beautiful wife with me

Friday, April 25, 2014

Easter

Easter this year was fun!  Last year, we had everyone over on a Saturday and dyed eggs, had a scavenger hunt and played games.  It was fun and we wanted to be with family, but we didn't want to do such a large event again this year.  So we just had dinner with Andrew & family, Brianna & Kyle, Aaron and mom.  I was in charge of making cupcakes, but I decided to hard-boil and dye eggs as well as make the "bird nests" again.  Scott worked the night before, so Brianna & Kyle came to church with Kylie & I.  After church we took some pictures.  I didn't intentionally buy this dress for Easter.  We just went shopping at Ross one day and I saw it and bought it.  I was originally planning on having Kylie wear the dress she wore for family pictures, but this one is just too perfect for spring.
Picture perfect with our pretty tulips in the background!
My little model.
The cupcakes I made were these cookies 'n cream filled from the Your Cup of Cake cookbook.  The cupcakes are very similar to these, just with a different filling.  They were good, but a little too time consuming in my opinion.  You had to make a separate cake batter, filling, ganache and drizzle.  They sure do look pretty though and my brother Andrew did mention that they look like a hostess cupcake to him.
Everyone came over for dinner at 4:00pm.  We had ham and lamb chops that we got from my Aunt Carolyn & Uncle Brian who have a sheep ranch.  I thought it was pretty appropriate that we had lamb on Easter. We also had potatoes (that look a little gray from the potatoes getting too much oxygen), asparagus, corn, rolls, strawberries and a hard-boil egg.  Andrew and his family were tired from earlier events in the day so they left pretty quickly after dinner.  The rest of us played Settlers of Catan (well, my mom didn't as she was watching Kylie).
Brianna & Kyle dying eggs.
Cooking the lamb chops!
Pretty good tasting!
Table setting with eggs on their nest.
Singing happy birthday to Brianna.
We also did Easter baskets for each other.  Kylie's basket had a new bib, a pacifier holder and some eggs.  She obviously couldn't eat the candy, but liked to shake the eggs to hear the candy in them. Scott's had candy and white t-shirts and mine just had delicious candy.
Easter is also a great celebration of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.  On Facebook, people were posting the week before about things that they have or can do because of him.  It was nice to have that reminder daily that Christ really does have such an influence in our lives and how every blessing that is in my life is because of his sacrifice.  Christ is the true meaning of Easter.

Friday, April 18, 2014

High Five for Friday

1. Spring is in the air! The weather has been really nice here in Utah.  I am loving it and Scott loves that he is able to work on the yard as well.  We've had gopher issues and it is super frustrating!  This darn gopher killed all our tulips out front that were in the star shape and killed 3 rose bushes.  Quite a bit of hard work that we put into the yard last year got ruined in a matter of days.  We're asking everyone what they know on how to get rid of them.  This is one animal Scott doesn't mind killing.  On the plus side, the tulips closest to the house didn't get eaten and they are in bloom!  Also, our fruit trees are blossoming and look so pretty!  I just love the yard during the spring and summer.
 2. Speaking of warmer weather, it is fun to take Kylie outside to play now.  She wasn't sure about the grass at first, but warmed up to it quickly.  I had to keep watching her to make sure she wouldn't eat the grass as everything goes into her mouth now.
3. Also in April besides warm weather, flowers and blossoms is my birthday!  I have a few ideas of what I want to do, but nothing too crazy needs to happen.  I decided that I want getting donuts for breakfast to be a new tradition on my birthday.  Also, I might get a baby-sitter for Kylie and just go out to eat somewhere nice with Scott.  I'll be turning 28 this year!

4. There are a lot of changes happening on Scott's side of the family.  Scott's brother Andrew has been having some difficulty controlling his emotions and anger lately.  He has become a little too physical in his anger and doesn't think as rationally anymore.  He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for 3+ days and got put on some new medication so we'll see how he reacts to those.  Andrew is also done living at home and at Becky's, so the next step is trying to figure out where he should live.  Speaking of where to live, Dean & Nadine are looking for a new place also!  Dean is retiring at the beginning of May and because of that, they are looking to live elsewhere.  Mesquite, NV is there number one place to look, but are open to maybe spots in Arizona or southern Utah like St. George.  It will be different having them live somewhere other than Riverside and we are glad that we took one last trip out there before it happened.  Scott is having fun looking up houses for his parents though.  He is excited that they will be closer, so that way things like 3-day weekend trips are more possible.

5. On Monday, the 14th, the Natural History Museum of Utah had a free day! You had to get tickets online beforehand and sign up for a time.  Museums aren't totally my thing as they can feel a little boring to me, but I do like how much you learn when you go.  Kylie enjoyed herself as well.  I was a little disappointed in the chocolate exhibit as they didn't have samples at the end to try. ;)

Thursday, April 17, 2014

8 Months!

Kylie is 8 months now! She turned 8 months on the 11th of April.  This girl is growing up so fast and I'm already having a hard time remembering when she started doing certain things.  She just does things so fast, I have to remember to keep blogging or else I will lose track of time with her.  It definitely makes me nervous for when she is older how much energy she is going to have.  Good thing I'm working out so that I can have enough energy to keep up with her!
  • Kylie is eating all sorts of things now.  She has tried strawberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, green beans, mashed potatoes and raspberries.  As you can tell, her father is trying to get her to be just like him. :)
  • Kylie is into shaking things. Especially when it's in something like an egg.
  • Jewelry is still her favorite and she has already broken her fair share of jewelry (and not just mine).  So be cautious if you want to hold her and are wearing jewelry.  She can break things you think would be safe.
  • Along with still standing all the time, Kylie will take little steps while holding onto the couch.  She is wanting to walk, but I'm glad she's not there yet.
  • Also, she is starting to get pretty good at climbing stairs! We have the gate which blocks only 3 stairs, but Kylie is quickly learning to climb them with ease.  She will crawl to the gate, stand up, shake it and whine like she's in jail.  Having that gate closed sure makes her sad.
  • Her best friend is still the cat, but Maddie doesn't reciprocate the feelings back.  Chasing the cat is a favorite activity of Kylie's.
  • Kylie still puts everything under the sun in her mouth. I made this edible finger paint out of potato flakes thinking she'd have fun rubbing her hands and fingers through it.  Yeah, she just grabbed it and ate it.  I might have to wait on some activities until she's out of the everything goes in my mouth stage.
  • Kylie loves to be bounced up and down while being held.  She loves to dance to the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
  • Bath time is still fun.  I need to get her some more bath toys to play with.  I also love feeling and seeing her wrinkled toes and fingers.  They are so cute!
  • Changing a diaper and getting her dressed can be a struggle sometimes.  Putting clothes on really isn't her favorite thing as from her point of view, it takes too long and she just wants to play. 
Eating cantaloupe.
Playing outside on the grass!
Cheering on the Royal's!
Playing in a box.

Taking pictures on the Ipad.
Kylie is the best girl we could ask for!

Recipe Updates

I have been doing good at trying out new recipes!  I've tried out some new breakfast, dinner and dessert recipes.  I need to start saving and printing out the recipes that I really enjoy so that way if anything happens to the website, I still have the recipe.  Here's some of what I've tried.

Breakfast:  Saturday morning of general conference, I made this Cinnamon Cinnabon Cake.  It was super delicious! It made two cakes so it was a lot for just Scott and I, but will work well for a crowd.
Just the other day, we wanted pancakes for breakfast and I usually make them with a mix.  This time, I decided to look and see what I had on pinterest.  I saw these Banana, Nutella and Oatmeal pancakes.  I had every ingredient needed to make it!  I don't ever have buttermilk, but I just make it with milk and some vinegar.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of buttermilk, but I only had 3/4 cup milk left in the jug and it worked out just fine.  These were super yummy and I will totally make them again.

Dinner: During a healthy week of recipes, I made these Spaghetti Squash Boats.  If the spaghetti squash had been a little more tender then it would have tasted really yummy.  Because the spaghetti was a little undercooked, it just didn't work for me.  I'll have to try it again though because the combination of all the ingredients was really tasty.
I also did a crock pot week of recipes. I made crock pot chicken taco bowls, crock pot pizza pasta and crock pot sesame chicken.  The only one I took a picture of was the sesame chicken, but it wasn't even the best recipe.  Scott really enjoyed the taco bowls.  It was super easy to put together with ingredients that you usually have on hand.  Scott made burritos with the leftovers when the rice had run out.  I burnt the pizza pasta as I turned the heat up to make sure it got done in time before Scott had to go to work.  I do want to try again without the burnt taste.  The sesame chicken really didn't taste like sesame chicken.  As I was putting the sauce together it just seemed strange that it called for tomato paste and that is what threw off the whole taste.  It was fine, I didn't hate it, but it definitely wasn't sesame chicken.
Dessert: I made two really delicious desserts in the last two weeks.  I was in the mood for something sweet and I was looking through my pinterest board with like 270 pins of recipes I want to try.  I realized while I was looking through that I wanted something with Oreos, cookie dough and cheesecake.  Well, this recipe, Oreo Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookie Bars, had all 3! I didn't top mine with the Oreo crumbs or drizzled chocolate, but it was still so addicting!  I couldn't stop eating them so next time I make them, I'll have to make sure to give them away.
 
Just this past Sunday, I made a quick decision to make a treat to take over to Brita and Lane's for a game night.  I had been hearing about using brown butter in recipes and how good it tastes.  So, I tried these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies.  When you brown butter, it starts to have a nutty smell to it so I'm sure it adds that flavor to whatever recipe.  This one had peanut butter in it, so the brown butter blended well with it.  They were gone super fast and just melt in your mouth.  Scott says that these cookies are ones to be eaten with a glass of milk on hand.  Cookies and milk is always a classic combination.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

April General Conference

General Conference this year was really good and inspiring!  Last conference in October, we had a two month old baby so I really didn't listen as well as I should have.  This year, I decided that I needed to listen and take notes.  I wasn't able to take notes for the Saturday sessions because I was busy making this delicious cinnamon cinnabon cake and taking care of Kylie.  I recorded conference and I definitely want to go back and watch that session again.  The only talk I truly remember on Saturday was by President Henry B. Eyring. His was about hope and happiness.  Throughout conference on Facebook, people were posting quotes from the talks and this is a great quote from President Eyring's talk.
It is through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can be this happy and it is important to remember the knowledge that the gospel brings us so that we may continue to have optimism and hope about the future.

Here are some quotes from the other talks that morning:
 
I was able to take notes during the Sunday sessions, so I'm going to share the notes I took. 
Sunday Morning Session:
*Dieter F. Uchtdorf: a favorite talk!
  • Throw away your bitterness and be grateful
  • Have an attitude of gratitude
  • Instead of being grateful for things, we must be grateful in circumstances
  • Choose to be grateful no matter what
  • Gratitude is an example of hope and testimony
*M. Russell Ballard:
  • Remember the name of the church, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
  • The follow-up in missionary work is just as important as the invitation
*David A. Bednar:
  • Is the load I am carrying producing the spiritual traction that is enabling me to press forward with faith in Christ on the straight and narrow path and avoid getting stuck?
  • Is the load I am carrying creating sufficient spiritual traction so I ultimately can return home to Heavenly Father?
  • Take the Lord's yoke to help carry burdens
  • Covenants and ordinances are needed to receive all blessings of atonement
  • The Lord strengthens us to help endure our burdens
  • The atonement enables us to do good
  • The Savior truly knows and has perfect empathy for whatever we are going through
*Thomas S. Monson: another favorite talk!
  • Love is the very essence of the gospel
  • All important will be our ability to recognize someone's need and respond
  • Charity is the pure love of Christ
  • Some of the greatest opportunities to demonstrate love will be within the walls of our own home
  • Forgiveness should go hand in hand with love
Sunday Afternoon Session:*Boyd K. Packer:
  • If a testimony can come to me, it can come to anybody
  • we must choose who to follow
  • personal testimony of the Savior

*L. Tom Perry:
  • To succeed in life we must teach our mind and body to work together
  • Must have faith in the driver of the team
  • There is a challenge in following Jesus Christ
  • Obedience is an emblem of our faith
  • Our faithfulness along with obedience will ultimately save us
  • We have limited knowledge and God has unlimited knowledge and power
*Lawrence E. Corbridge:
  •  The truth will always be opposed. Christ is the truth.
  • You are more than a human-a child of God (who is an exalted being)
  • Joseph Smith did receive revelation and was a prophet of God
*Michael John U. Teh:
  • All that matters is our family and other relationships
  • Don't labor for that which does not satisfy
  • Where your treasure is, there is your heart also
  • Treasures in heaven: Christlike attributes, strengthen family relationships, serving others, understanding doctrine of Christ and strengthening testimony
*D. Todd Christofferson:
  • Christ's resurrection shows that his existence is independent
  • Christ is justice
  • If Christ was literally resurrected, it means that he was a divine being and had to have been a God
  • The grace of Christ is real 
It is so nice that we have these conferences twice a year.  The words that are spoken help re-affirm my testimony and that the words that come out of these leaders mouths are true.