Saturday, October 30, 2010

Liams Blessing

Last Sunday our cute little nephew Liam was blessed. I can't believe how fast he is growing up.
Also had to include one of my new favorite pictures of all my sister in laws.
I love the family I married into they are so much fun. I love that we are all so close in age. Awww this picture makes me smile. (Courtney I fixed your shirt cause I love you)  
Valerie, Kelsey, Cortney, Marissa, Me

Friday, October 29, 2010

What Should I Wear With These....

I have had both of these skirts for almost a year now and I have never worn them. I have tried wearing a black shirt with the solid yellow one, but Greg told me I looked like a bumble bee.So I turn to you for some tips. 
 Any suggestions??

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Autumn Center Piece

I saw this idea on Better Homes and Gardens, you should make one it is fast, free and I think it adds so much to our table. . On my way home from work I just pulled over grabbed some branches and put them in a vase I already had a home. We love our new little addition.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Updated Photography Blog

Check out my photography blog I have had a couple photo shoots in the past couple weeks and more to come before the month ends. Crazy its almost already November where did October go?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Look What I Finally Started...

I think they look a million times better black. Now all I need to do is sand the chairs a little, finish the table and get cute new fabric for the chairs. I love working on projects.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Roomie Get Together

Saturday my roommates from college and their hubbies all came over to celebrate Amy's birthday and carve pumpkins. We had lots of fun.It had been a while since we had seen each other and I had forgotten how much fun we always had.
We of course had to cook the pumpkin seeds... that is tradition, they are super yummy just put them on a cookie sheet  or a broiler pan is the best because it has a little edge. Add a little olive oil and lots of salt and bake at 250 for an hour.
And as if we didn't have enough treaties already we made caramel apples. They didn't turn out super pretty, but they were fun to make. By the time they were all hard all the candy on them had slid to the bottom :). If you know a better way to make them I would love to know.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Tutorial On Using Our Water Dispenser

Anybody who visits our house needs to take a minute and study this tutorial :). Everyone even myself has spilled water on the floor while attempting to get water out of our fridge for the first time so we thought we would give a little lesson on how to use our water dispenser. .....

We hope you visit soon!!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Beautiful Monday

Today has been a great day. Nothing particularly different or exciting happened, but I just had a new outlook on life. Yesterday Greg and I were able to go to a fireside that Jenny Phillips put on, if you don't know, she is a singer and song writer. It was amazing!! I felt the spirit so strongly and I think it totally changed... or I should say ... helped me remember why I am here. The theme of the night was Remember the Journey. The quote that stood out to me the most was
" The joy is in the journey, the joy is in becoming like him"
We all or should I say I ...get so distracted in having cute clothes, trying to be great at everything, caring what other people think of me, blogging :) but when it comes down to it all we need to be doing and worrying about is working to become more like our Savior and being able to return home. As I have been able to refocus, I feel so much happier.  
As a result I had a beautiful Monday. I had dinner ready for my hungry husband when he came home from work and made this delicious cinnamon bread from mrs. harding cooks website. (click for recipe)
while listening to Mindy Gledhill's new song on repeat (my fav at the moment). I felt inspired, uplifted and so happy. I wish I always felt like this.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Magnet Making

Last week Kels and I had a little craft night :). It was lots of fun to have her over. I love having family so close. We watched one of our favorite movies... Dan in Real Life and made magnets. We originally wanted to make the magnets with the round beads, but Michael's ran out and so our alternative was these square pieces of glass which I think turned out better. They are super easy. The materials we used were...
Mod Podge
Sponge Paintbrush
Glass Squares
Magnets
Scrap Paper
 While making these magnets I thought of another brilliant idea..making scrabble piece magnets. Wouldn't that be so fun to put little quotes up on the fridge and love notes to your hubby as he is walking out the door to work. I think it will be a cute little touch to our frige...so I added it to my long list of projects.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Its the weekend....yay!!

Greg and I get to babysit our adorable nephew, I have two photo shoots  and we get to go to our new ward again. I just wish it could be longer.
hope you Enjoy your weekend!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Red Curry

You have to try this amazing curry recipe. The only issue is some of the things you can't find at a regular grocery store so you will have to find a local Thai store, but it is so worth it. My one tip is to not add all the curry paste. I normally only had 2 Tb because if you add 3 Tb I think it is way to spicy, but you will have to figure out what your preference is.

2 Tb Veggie Oil
3 Tb Red Curry Paste
1 Can Coconut Milk
1lb chicken (slice thin)
3 Tb fish sauce
31/2 Tb sugar
2 cups Thai pumpkin ( peel, cut into 1' thick)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
3-4 Kaffir lime leaves ( tearing off the middle stem)

Tips and Substitution:
The texture and color of the Thai pumpkin go very well together with red curry. You can use canned bamboo shoot strip or slice, or Thai or Chinese eggplant instead of Thai pumpkin.
The fresh basil can be substituted for non-fresh basil just check the conversion.
The Kaffir leaves are meant not to eat just to add flavor.  

1. On medium heat, put veggie oil in pot, then add red curry paste, stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add 1/3 can coconut milk stir fry for 4-5 min until they are bubble red
3. Add chicken slices, stir fry for about 5-8 min
4. Add the rest of coconut milk and 1/2 can of water ( using coconut milk can)
5. Add Thai pumpkin
6. Add fish sauce, sugar, kaffir lime leaves
7. Simmer for 30 minutes. If curry sauce is too thick, add a little water. But if it is too much liquid, simmer longer to thicken it.
8. Add fresh basil leaves, then remove from heat.
9. As always, if you find the recipe to be too mild,add more fish sauce or sugar to suit your personal taste. If it's to spicy use less curry paste next time
Enjoy!

Conference Weekend


This past week was conference weekend and we had our good friends from Arizona, Tim and Mal Pal, up visiting, which  means I got to take lots of pictures of their baby girl Alex. Isn't she the cutest?
We had a great week we...enjoyed watching conference, made delicious crepes and curry, caught up, celebrated Cort's birthday, and had a girls night while all the men went to Priesthood.  
I love her little grin...

Monday, October 4, 2010

So Giddy For The Holidays and...

the leaves changing colors and the snow and the decorations, the Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate by the fire, teaching Greg how to snowboard, making snowmen, having snowball fights, sledding, having our first trick or treaters, carving pumpkins, putting up our Christmas tree...the list could go on and on.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Yellowstone

Last weekend I met up with one of my good friends from High School, Stephanie, to help her on a segment of her road trip from Boise to Yellowstone to Utah where she met up with another friend and went on a two week adventure. I'm so grateful I was able to take some time off and catch up with her. We hadn't really spent quality time together since high school. A lot happens in five years so we had lots of fun stories to tell :) . Yellowstone was gorgeous... we saw tons of animals and almost hit a couple while driving, hiked to a natural hot spring, slept in the car cause we were to cold and tired to set up a tent haha.....saw the gorgeous sites of yellowstone...
Old Faithful...
We got back sunday afternoon and since she is not LDS we had the opportunity to answer some questions she had about the church.
Sad we only had one weekend together, but hopefullly we will keep in touch better.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

why are we in such a rush to grow up?

Some days I would give anything to be a kid again. We are all in such a rush to get married, buy a house, finish school.... why? I would not give my life up for anything, but being an adult is definitely more stressful than I hoped for. I think my word of wisdom for all you youngens is don't rush life enjoy being in the college phase, living in a grody one bedroom apartment, being in high school and having no worries. Some of those times have been my greatest memories.
My daily routine of  getting up, going to work, coming home, cooking dinner, working out, doing the dishes,  going to bed, repeat gets so boring.  My goal this month is to focus on making each day exciting and worthwhile and look at life like a child.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Air Force vs. BYU

A few weekends ago Greg and my dad thought it would be a fun idea to drive to Colorado for the BYU vs. Air Force game. We had lots of fun besides the fact that BYU lost and our car overheated in the post game traffic to which Air Force fans passing by said " haha its BYU." :) I don't know if I would drive all that way for a game again, but it was a fun little adventure.
We stayed the night with the Rust family who were some of the nicest people I have met. They took us to a little tailgate party before the game and I was actually really surprised at how many BYU fans were there it was lots of fun and of course Greg became best buddies with an Air Force fan behind us :).... I am starting to notice that I'm becoming more like him when it comes to making conversation with strangers.

Monday, September 27, 2010

My Love for Mantles






















I have a new love for mantles!! I want them everywhere in my house. I want one above my bed and in my living room so I can do something like Ashley Ann did here. I'm trying to find a place where I can get used ones and fix them up. Does anyone know where I can find such a place? I love finding new DIY ideas and projects I have such a huge list building up. Now just need to find the materials for cheap,which is so much harder then people make it look.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Our Housie

We bought a house!! Ever since we have moved back to Utah we have been looking for a house and we found "the one" in Lehi. We love it!! We closed on the second and this weekend was our first time sleeping in it. It was glorious and we got to sleep in our comfy bed again. I missed you bed. It is so fun having our own house. We have only ever been in one bedroom apartments so this is a big change for us. Not only do we love our house, but we love Lehi.  All the places we love eating and love shopping at are so close and we like being able to have a short drive to Provo and to Salt Lake. Our neighborhood is alot like a townhouse community except for the fact that the houses are not connected.  Our neighbors our really nice and we can't wait to get more settled and just be able to come home and relax.We already have plans for people to come visit us for the weekend and can't wait!! So if anyone else wants to come and hang out, go snowboarding or whatever vistors are always welcome.
Sorry there is only one picture I know many of you have been asking to see pictures, but the inside is still a mess at the moment and I have been extremely busy so those pictures will have to wait for a little while longer.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Check Out My Photography Blog!

I have recently started pursuing my love for photography and getting closer to my goal of starting my own business. I have taken a couple classes, but really the only way to become amazing is to practice practice practice. So I have been working on  a website for you all to view my photography and to let you know that I'm taking pictures for free temporarily. So please check it out, become a follower, refer your family and friends....I would love to take their picture too.
I'm going to be working on my portfolio until about January 2011. So contact me for your Christmas pictures or any other photogenic occasion!!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Celebrating Birthdays

Sunday we celebrated Kim and Cam Bam's birthdays by
opening presents..
Blowing out candles...
Being our goofy selves...
( I know this picture is blurry sorry, but it was so good I couldn't not use it)
Ate delicious food... steak, potatoes, asparagus with bacon wrapped around it, yum. I can't wait to make it again.
Tortured Ashes outside...
Greg's family cat is such a patient cat she will let you do anything to her. We have enjoyed being entertained by her.
And we did lots of Liam holding :) one of our new favorite things. Greg is a natural with him, I love it!!
Lots of fun. I love spending time with family they are the bestest.