Sunday, May 29, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

cloth or disposable?

So we are debating whether we want to use cloth diapers or disposable.  What do you think? What is your experience with it? If we decided to get them what type should we get?
 Looking around at the different types I have really only seen the bum genius and the gdiapers. I am in love with the gdiapers I think they are so cute, but I have heard the Velcro doesn't last as long. What is your experience? I love the gdiapers because you don't have to wash the entire diaper every single time and just look how cute they are....




I have an aunt and a friend that use the bum genius diapers and they seem to love them. The one major thing I don't like about these is they are super bulky, and I like the colors of the gdiapers more. I'm not sure if the gdiapers are bulky are they? 
Let me know your thoughts please!! 


Friday, May 27, 2011

one of those days

I'm ecstatic it is a three day weekend this week, ever since I have been home though it has just been one of those days. I'm sitting here thinking about how much I'm getting sick of the look of my blog, how I need a haircut badly my hair is going down hill, and pinning,while I should be doing the laundry that has been piling up. Which husband so kindly asked me to start last night (he is not allowed to do colors) and said, "no.  I'll start when I get home from work." Ha! Or empty the dishwasher that has been almost completely emptied just by us needing dishes on a daily basis. I guess it has just been one of those weeks :). I think we did whites and before we had put them away it was time to do them again haha. ugh motivation come back please!
I was looking forward to spending time in the sun this weekend and hopefully getting a little tan but instead I think we will just be singing in the rain :(

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

weekend partying

We had an awesome weekend! 
I had a maternity photo shoot with my college roomie (pictures to come), we started our nursery by buying a rocking chair. Now I just want to start buying everything. We celebrated this lovely girls birthday....
My sister in law Marissa is turning 21 on Friday. Happy Birthday! 
We went bowling with great friends.....
Although we lost it was a great time. We had been missing Meg and Dan. They had their first little boy the beginning of April and have been confined to their house for awhile. I can only imagine how it is going to be for us :). We will just have to throw parties at our house for a couple months.
Saturday we went to my little sisters soccer game....
and the BYU rugby championship game with my dad. Although they lost it was Amazing! We had great seats. That is one intense sport, look at the blood on that guys bum...

they had little kids playing on the field during half time and Greg said "we should have our boys play rugby." Although I think it is an awesome sport I'm not sure I want my kids playing it. What doesn't kill them only makes the stronger though I guess. I'm sure the ladies would love it. 
Now only two more days until next weekend and it is a three day weekend, YAY!!! 

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

rockabye the babies

 We got a rocking chair for our nursery....

I am in love. We went looking the other day for mama chairs and I had an idea of what I wanted, but Greg was not very happy about the price so he suggested I look at Craigslist. I was an obedient wife and decided I would before I begged him for the other one :). Well I have a super smart husband because the first day I looked I found the above beauty. And it looks exactly like pottery barns (which there was no way I would ever be able to buy but loved)....
Lesson learned, always check Craigslist before buying anything. I couldn't be happier it was only $80!! I'm happy, husband is happy, and babies will be happy when I rock them to sleep in it. Life couldn't be better. 

Friday, May 20, 2011

new recipes

As many of you already know I'm obsessed with Pinterest. If you haven't already signed up do it do it, the more people the more fun. Click here to see my pins and sign up! 
Pinterest has become my source for new meals or treaties in our house. I have tried these three recipes. Some disasters and some delicious. 
Disaster. First of all I started making this at 4:00pm and realized it had to cook for 6-8 Hours, what the heck! I love fruit leather but this didn't turn out at all. I only let it cook for 6 hours at 170 cause my oven wouldn't go to 150. After 6 hours it was crispy and not eatable. Maybe I'll try and find another recipe. 
1. Purchase strawberries.
2. Feel sorry for yourself that you no longer live in California, minutes from a strawberry stand, where you are convinced sells the world's best strawberries.
(step 2 is optional)
3. Wash berries
4. Hull and half berries.
5. "measure". You don't need to measure at all--I just did this for he purpose of telling you how much I used (about 5 cups). But use however many you have. 
5 cups of strawberries = about a pan and a half of fruit leather.
6. Cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Give them a few good mashes so the juices come out. 
Add a bit of honey (few TBS) if you're not using those amazing strawberry-stand berries.
7. Puree.
8. Pour and spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Put in the oven at 150° for 6-8 hours, until leather peels away easily from parchment.
10. Using kitchen scissors, cut into rectangles, and roll them up. (you can even leave them on the parchment and roll them) 
11. Or just eat them right away.
YUMMY. One of the best desserts. The only thing I would recommend is making it the night before. 

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 

Cheesecake Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel topping, recipe follows
1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Streusel Topping:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. I like to really combine it by using my clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.
OK. Wasn't as great as I was hoping. We added tomatoes, maybe that made it not as good, doubt it. It was good just felt like it was missing something. 
 Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza 
1 perfect pizza crust 
1/2 cup prepared pesto (store bough or homemade)
1 bulb of garlic
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 
cooked Mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheeseDirections:
  1. To roast the garlic: Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed. Remove garlic gloves and smash with a fork.
  2. Spread roasted garlic over pizza dough. Do this to taste. I used almost the whole (small) bulb, but I LOVE roasted garlic.
  3. Spread the pesto on the pizza.
  4. Add the sliced, cooked chicken.
  5. Sprinkle with mozzarella.
  6. Top with fresh grated Parmesan.
  7. Bake on preheated pizza stone for 8 - 12 minutes.



Thursday, May 19, 2011

Book Love

I'm not much of a reader of fiction books, I'm more of a personal help book, informative type reader. Well Recently I started going to my ward book club cause it is just a fun excuse to hang out with the girls. I actually read the book for this coming book club and am seriously in LOVE!! It was so good. It was a total page turner. It was kind of pride and prejudicy. You have to read! If you don't like it then you can blame the time you wasted on me. Next book on my list is Heaven is Real. Have you heard of it? My mom has been raving about it. I think I'm falling in love with books again. I go through droughts where it doesn't sound interesting, but all it takes is one good book to get me back.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Tulip Festival

Mothers Day weekend we went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival, it was gorgeous! The gardens were huge, we were there for almost two hours and could have stayed longer easily. The day couldn't have been more perfect the sun was shining I got to walk around looking and taking pictures of gorgeous flowers while catching up, dreaming of babies and holding hands with my hubby. If you get a chance next year you must go! Next year I want to get a year membership to Thanksgiving Point events so I can take my kiddies whenever we want, wouldn't that be lovely. If you are close by (hint, hint) you should get one too, would be a fun play date. 





Monday, May 16, 2011

2 Little Limes


Sunday, May 8, 2011

I can't wait to be a Mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there, and to all of you who wish to be mothers, to the amazing mom who raised my husband, to my step Mom, Aunts, Grandmas,Sisters, to friends, and
 to my amazing mother I love you so much! I couldn't have asked for a better mom. I don't know what I would do without you being such a huge part in my life.I'm so grateful for you all and the example you are for me. 
Happy Mothers Day!
I can't wait to join you in raising God's Children.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Birthday Celebrations!

Last weekend we celebrated My favorite mother-in-law's birthday I think she is like 34 now ;). We had lots of fun. Everyone came to our housie and we made "Grandma Tacos & Salsa." The recipe for the tacos is just cooking ground beef and potatoes together we add salt, pepper and taco seasoning to the mixture while it is cooking and for the shells we fry corn tortillas they are the best and super simple. Salsa recipe will have to wait. It was lots of fun... I love family! 
Happy Birthday Karen!! We love you! I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law.