One Month and Counting

Baby update . . . earlier this week I made a paper chain count down until our little girl’s due date! I can’t believe that it is actually less than thirty days! It is getting so close . . . I am already at 36 weeks!

 

Earlier this week I posted on facebook about how proud of myself I was when I realized I could still put on my socks by myself! Roland laughed at me while I was attempting it . . . and I have to admit, it had to have been a pretty funny sight to see! Can you just imagine what it looked like? I would first pull one leg up, while trying to push my belly out of the way, so I could reach my toes. Then after some inventive stretching and wiggling I would somehow pull the sock on! I think it took me a little longer just because I was so busy laughing at myself as I was trying not to fall over! ☺ Roland has been such a sweetheart and helping me put my socks on for the last little while, so it made me smile to find out I could still do it myself!

 

I miss my feet! I know it sounds a little funny . . . but the other day I looked down and all I could see was my belly and my first thought was, “where did my feet go?” haha I guess that is one of the reasons why I have gotten into the habit of wearing slip on shoes all the time!

I know that someday I will be able to see my feet again . . . in about a month, give or take a couple weeks! Until then, I am going to enjoy laughing at myself, because if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re missing out on some of the best jokes! ☺I think that while being pregnant, one of the best things I have learned is to not take everything so seriously and be willing to laugh at myself! I think that Roland and I have laughed more in the last eight months than we probably have in our entire lives! Laughing until you cry has new meaning to me! This reminds me a of really cool quote that my sister-in-law, Nicole, shared with me . . . “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.” -Marjorie Pay Hinckley

More Than Words

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I know it was after we had gotten married. At the end of a particularly bad day, I was waiting for Roland to come home from work. I don’t remember what I was upset about, and I don’t think Roland even knew that I was upset (I do remember that I wasn’t upset at him, I think it was just one of those “life is hard today” days). Anyways, Roland came home, and told me that he had just heard a great song on the radio that he wanted to listen to again with me. He pulled up the song, took me in his arms, and started dancing with me around our teeny tiny little apartment, while we listened to the song! He softly sang along while dancing with me! I don’t remember anything else about that day, except thinking how lucky I was to be married to such a great guy! He might not be every girl’s vision of her prince charming, but I wouldn’t take anyone else to live my happily ever after with . . . he is my Prince Charming, weird quirks and all!

I found a version of the song that he played for me and I thought that you might enjoy hearing it! Enjoy!

Another Month of Baking!

So, apparently it is my destiny to write only once a month . . . hopefully, this doesn’t become a habit! I promise, I really am trying to do better! It is the thought that counts, right? ☺ In my defense, the last couple weeks have been super busy with the holidays . . . lame excuse, but it is pretty much the best one I have, so take it or leave it!

I will give you the quick update on my cooking adventures! Last time I talked about possibly making no bake cookies and/or spritz cookies for my sweetheart. Well, in the past month I have done both (I think that I made spritz cookies about three times . . . they are super yummy!) and I have made some puppy chow! I love this time of year when all sorts of yummy treats are being made all the time!

For Christmas, my mom and I made some Pull-Apart Garlic Bread and Christmas Rolls . . . both turned out wonderfully! Christmas Rolls is a sweetbread with cinnamon yummy-ness and other delicious ingredients and it has been a tradition in my husband’s family ever since my mother-in-law was a little girl . . . and it was a HUGE hit at our family’s Christmas get together! I have been told that I NEED to bring it again next year or I might just get kick out of the family! ☺

The week after Christmas I used up some of that delicious Christmas ham by making some simple crock pot ham hock and beans soup (okay, so it was just normal ham not ham hock that I used, but it still tasted uber yummy!) and I baked a loaf of homemade bread to go along with it! I FINALLY figured out how to bake a loaf of bread and to have it still have soft crust (like the kind you get from the store) even days later! I happen to be super proud of myself for figuring this out . . . I am thinking of baking another loaf again this week just to see if I really did figure it out or if I just got lucky this time!

My last baking fun adventures have been with normal chocolate chip cookies and some more homemade pizza! It is amazing how much better just simple things like cookies and pizza tastes when you make them from scratch rather than from a store bought package!  I did run into some trouble when making my cookies though this time . . . I didn’t have enough butter (oops!) so I ended up having to substitute some oil and add a little more flour in to have them turn out right! Oh well, the cookies still tasted yummy!

Well, I haven’t decided what I am going to bake tomorrow . . . possible I will try to recreate my soft crust bread again! I will let you know how it goes! Until next time! ☺

Kitchen Fun

Sorry that I haven’t wrote lately . . . sometimes life just gets too busy for you to just stop and write, so here I am again, feeling the need to play catch up! ☺ I said that I would try to write every week saying what I have been baking; well, I have been baking, just not writing about it! Opps! Here is some of the things that I have been cooking up for the past month!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 16th: We have a bunch of left over Peanut M&Ms from Halloween, and since Roland and I aren’t too big of fans of the peanut ones, I thought that I would try putting it in something and seeing if that would help us get rid of them. So, I made up some Peanut M&M Brownies. They actually tasted better than I thought they were going to, but after a brownie or two, I just ended up picking out the M&Ms and eating the brownie by itself! Oh, well! I guess it is the thought that counts, right? ☺ So, my lesson that I learned is: don’t try put something you don’t like in something you like when you can pick it out . . . you will end up picking it out and throwing it away anyways, so save yourself the trouble and don’t do it!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 23rd: Well, since it was the day before Thanksgiving, I didn’t actually do any baking on the Wednesday itself, but I did help my mom out with making the Thanksgiving lunch/dinner the next day, so I am counting that! (After all, I am the one who is making the rules, so I can!)  On Thanksgiving Day, my mom and I baked up some super yummy dinner rolls! She put me in charge of it, but we didn’t have enough space for me to hand knead the dough (do to other yummy things being made) so we ended up putting the ingredients in my mom’s bread machine and just set it on Dough, that way it wouldn’t back it! We thought it was a brilliant plan, until the machine beeped saying it was done and I went to look at it . . . let me just say, if you are using a bread machine, make sure you don’t put in more ingredients than the directions on the machine says, it WILL over flow and make a mess if you don’t! haha Don’t worry, I cleaned it up and saved the dough, before anyone noticed, and the rolls turned out great! My lesson that I learned from this is: don’t skip steps just to make things go faster, you usually end up making a big mess and having to spend more time cleaning it up than it would have taken to do it the right way in the first place!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 30th: I don’t remember if I baked anything this week . . . besides a baked potato that I usually have every week or so! Ever since I got into my second trimester (and now that I am in my third) I get the craving for a baked potato every now and again. Since Roland isn’t a huge fan of then, I usually just make myself one for lunch if I am in the mood. I know that everyone has a different way of making baked potatoes, so I shall share my favorite way! I always start my preheating my oven that way it is all ready for my potato to pop in when I am done getting it ready! After I scrub the potato, I stab my potato for ventilation. I always use aluminum foil, but I do something a little different before wrapping my potato up . . . a rub it with olive oil and then sprinkle some salt on it (sometimes other spices too). I do this so then after the potato is all done, the skins a soft and uber yummy too! I don’t know where I found this idea, but I have loved it ever since . . . even Roland says it isn’t too bad! Then of course you bake it in the oven for about an hour! That’s it, super easy! Lesson learned: umm . . . write more in my blog so I actually remember what I really made that day! haha

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for December 7th: Last week, because Roland was gone ALL day (I mean it, he left before 7:30 in the morning to go to school and came home from work a little before 11:30 at night) I made for Roland his favorite kind of cookie, Spritz! Turns out, they are super easy to make and taste pretty good too! I might have to spoil the boy more often and make them for him more! I had to borrow my mom’s cookie press, because ours didn’t come until this week! My only problem came in to play when baking the cookies themselves. For the life of me I couldn’t seem to get them not to come out looking more done than they should be, there might have been some extra well done bottoms on a few of them too! I don’t know if I had my temperature up too high or that I had them in too long for our oven, or if our oven what just hating me that day, but it felt like a epic fail! Then Roland came home and his face lit up like a little kid when he saw them, and he immediately started eating them . . . so not so much a fail! ☺ Lesson of the week: Be more patient when baking cookies, and always remember, no matter if they even come out a little burnt, Roland will still eat them!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for December 14th: Hey, that’s today! How about that! Well, yesterday I baked some yummy banana bread! I have this no fail recipe that I go to for banana bread . . . here is a link to the website that I found it at and I highly recommend it! http://www.banana-bread-recipe.com/ I usually spice it up a little bit by adding a little cinnamon and nutmeg, but it tastes good just straight by the book too! If banana bread is something that kind of scares you or never seems to turn out right for you and you have those extra bananas that are over rip, the is the recipe to turn to! I promise, it will turn out! ☺ I also made for Roland some homemade pizza last night for dinner.  I used a new to me recipe. I was pretty sure it would turn out good, because I was using Roland’s sister’s recipe, but it is always nice to have something come out of the oven done “perfectly” knowing that you did that! It always makes me smile! I haven’t decided weather I am going to bake something later today or not yet. Roland wants me to bake him some more Spritz cookies and some No-Bake cookies . . . I might do that this evening or tomorrow, I probably should do my laundry first! My learning moment for this week so far: follow the directions, they were put there for a reason, and usually they are right!

Well, that’s all my baking for the last month or so . . . I really love to bake! I love the process of making a new creation, the way it makes my home smell super yummy, and the eating part when it is all done! Sometimes it is important to just step back and enjoy the simple things in life . . . like FOOD! ☺

A Thankful Post

Since it was Thanksgiving a little while ago, I figured that I would share ten of the many things that I am thankful for this year!

1.    I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is truly a huge blessing in my life!
2.    I am grateful that I have a family that can be and will be together forever, until death is not long enough!
3.    I am grateful for education . . . even if I am not the one going to school right now, I am grateful that Roland has this opportunity!
4.    I am grateful to have been born in and be living in a free country, when so many don’t.
5.    I am grateful for all of the men and woman (past, current, and future) who have chosen to put their lives on the line for my freedom.
6.    I am grateful to have a safe roof over my head and enough food in the cupboards.
7.    I am grateful for technology . . . simply being able to pick up the phone and talk to someone who is over one thousand miles away!
8.    I am grateful for a wonderful husband who loves me and is always more than willing to help me and support me through anything!
9.    I am grateful for the ability to create and rise my children . . . I am already seeing the blessings and joy it brings, and my first one isn’t even born yet!
10.    I am grateful to have so many loving friends and other loved ones, who truly care about me and really do go that extra mile for me!

Baking Adventure With a Two-Year-Old

On Monday I started baby-sitting an adorable little two-year-old boy, named JJ. I still wanted to bake, so I knew that I had two options . . . either bake while he is napping or try baking with him! Since I had run out of eggs yesterday that meant that either I had to go to the store (yuck) or not make English Muffins like I was planning on doing this week.  I decided that it would be just as easy to make PIZZA for lunch with him!

A couple weeks ago, Roland and I had made up a bunch of pizza dough and froze it, so it was as simple as one, two, three! After defrosting the dough over night in the fridge all we had to do is: roll the dough out, put the sauce and cheese on, then cook it! Pretty simple! JJ had fun helping me out! He helped at each step, and had to taste test everything that we did . . . yep, even the dough! He liked the cheese the best and was busy picking the cheese off and eating it almost as fast as I was trying to shred it and put it on!

After it was done cooking, it was LUNCH TIME!!! So, we got to try our creation right away! JJ told me that it was “YUMMY!” Even though I had lots of fun helping him roll out the dough and spread the sauce, I have decided that unless I am going to bake something that is pretty simple and doesn’t take that much time to make, I will just bake during his nap time! I don’t want him to get board with it or frustrated with a more complex recipe, but I do think that the next time I bake cookies, I will have to use my little helper!

My little helper with flour on his face with our creation before it goes into the oven!

The First Snow of the Season

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I asked Roland, “What is all that white stuff doing out there?” He, being the smart-aleck that he is, replied without missing a beat, “It is falling on the ground!” haha Boy, do I love being married to that goofball, life would be boring without him! After his remark this morning, a Primary song has been stuck in my head ALL day . . . okay, since it is only noon, it would be more fair to say ALL morning!

Looking out my window into my "backyard" of woods!

“Snow is falling all around,
On the rooftops,
On the ground,
Snow is falling on my nose,
On my head and hands and toes.”

Can you tell that I am a Primary worker since I know this song? (Yep, it is in the Primary Song book, look it up, you will find it in there . . . but under a different name, I think, the “original” verse is about rain, which would have worked for yesterday!) How about that when I sing it I have to do the actions that go along with it? (My Primary kids would be so proud of me and would sign along, then ask to sing the “Once there was a Snowman” song!)