Christmas Pictures

For our christmas pictures we wanted lots of snow, so we drove up to snowbird with my sister and brother in law Val and Ryan for a fun little photo shoot. We love the pictures!! Thanks Val.

It was freezing, but it was well worth the pictures. 

A Little Behind

As you all know life is crazy and as a result I have gotten way behind on updating my photography blog. So instead of posting them all at once I am going to be posting them randomly this week and next week so keep your eyes peeled. There are lots of fun pictures to come.

DIY Tree Ornament

I saw this cute yarn ornament at Joann's and thought it would go perfectly with our Christmas decor, so me trying to save money and be crafty :) I decided to make four for the same price instead of buying one. It was super easy. Here are the supplies...

I glued the first part of the string to the styrofoam ball and just wrapped it around randomly and glued the end piece on the top.  If you slightly loosen one of the pieces of string on the top that becomes your way to hang it on the tree.

Yay for Christmas!! So you are probably thinking it is not even Thanksgiving yet why have we already put our tree up :). Well I just couldn't wait any longer. Not only did we not decorate last year and so we need to make up for it :) , but I'm just ready for it all.... the christmas music, presents, stockings, lights, wreaths, ribbon, wrapping paper, christmas cards, snow.... doesn't it just make you giddy thinking of it all?

While we were decorating we had lots of fun pulling out all our old ornaments.  My sister, Lauren gave this one to me last year and I had forgotten about it...its my favorite. On the wings it says best sister :) miss that girl.

Playing Mom aka Babysitting

Last Saturday we watched my little sisters. We had lots of fun. I can't wait to do that everyday. They took a bath with lots of bubbles :) , we played with their hair and fixed it all cute, made bread, played soccer in the yard.

Yay for fun Saturdays!! Hope you enjoy yours this week.

Bountiful Baskets

A few people in our ward purchase bountiful baskets every Saturday and so when we heard how much everyone else loved them we decided to sign up and we are in love. It is so fun. If you aren't in Utah I'm almost positive they sell them in other states so you should check it out.You get different types of local fruits and vegetables every time and it is such a great deal.

There are some things we have never even seen before, like these....Fuyus

We had to google what they were and how to eat them. We just ate them like apples but you can also cook them. They were yummy,  similar to an apple. I'm so excited to search for new recipes and try new things I have never tried before. I hope it helps us eat healthier!!

On The Search For Fabric

I finished the table!! I was originally going to sand the chairs and table but it makes me nervous I'm going to ruin something and have to redo it so for now they are staying how they are. I'm just looking for different fabric for the chairs and my year long project will finally be done :) yay

Creating a Plan

I love brick walls... I think this room is gorgeous and I'm making plans to make our bedroom have a brick wall. I think it is possible. :)

What do you think? Do you think it would look bad, weird?


P.S Thanks for all the advice on the yellow skirts I'm looking out for some cute shirts/ cardigans.

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

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??

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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!!

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...

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.

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.

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.