A Peanut Butter Sandwich made with Jam

My little cutie last fall having her first PB & J experience. Pretty cute, and she was lovin it!

Gobble Gobble

Happy thanksgiving! So I'm thinking better late than never right? Well I was really really excited this year because I got to be in charge of thanksgiving dinner! I was so excited to make a turkey. Although I did have some reservations about the cooking plan. I knew I wanted to brine it but I wasn't sure about the flavors. Also I knew I wanted to try a different cooking method then the standard all day long low and slow.

So everyone was a little nervous and let me just tell you there was no reason to worry...it was amazing!!! Mmmmm, I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything but I've never tasted meat this tender, juicy, and flavorful. So brine, brine, brine for 24 hours. Remove and rinse, rinse, rinse, inside and out. Dry and let rest room temp for about an hour. Rub down liberally with canola oil. Bake at 500F for 30 minutes. Tent with foil and turn down to 350F. Cook until temp is 161F in the deepest part of the breast. Remove and rest at least 15-20 minutes. Carve and devour the goodness. There are more subtle nuances if you're seriously interested leave your email in the comments and I'll email you the whole thing. Seriously it's so easy and so worth it.

Okay, enough about that. We also made some creamy mash potatoes, asparagus, sausage and apple stuffing, cranberry pear relish, and pumpkin pie. I also had lots of fun doing my table...on a budget. I used branches, berries, and leaves I found outside. Napkins I found on sale at Kohls. A drop cloth from Home depot for the table.  And pine cones I found outside for place card holders. It was so fun.

Here's my table.

Here's my brine. And I'm hoping someone has pictures of the beautiful turkey that I can post later.

We also had a wonderful time with our family celebrating Karli's birthday and baptism, the birthdays of my sister, brother, and grandmother, and my new nephews baby blessing. It was very busy! Welcome to the family little Mason, we love you!

Catch Up Catch Up

So obviously I haven't been posting regularly so I'll do a quick recap of some of the fall events we missed! We had family in town off and on a lot! Fall break, thanksgiving, and Christmas so that was lots of fun.

We went to a little pumpkin patch in pleasant grove with some friends, which as I mentioned is like cornbelly's but smaller and cheaper.

We went on a hayride then were allowed to hand select our very own pumpkin. Etta got one just the right size for her.

They had a huge bin of corn to play in which Etta loved!

They also had these kind of trampoline's which were perfect for little ones.

Then we had robbie's birthday which of coarse was started off by his favorite breakfast, banana french toast, on the you are special today plate!

Then we had a little get together with family and friends for our now annual Rob's birthday soup party. I made french onion, southwest pumpkin, white chicken chili, and hmmmm...can't remember the fourth. It was so yummy and then we finished off the night with lemon cream cheese, banana, and of coarse chocolate pie...another Robbie fav.

Then we had Halloween and as you see we were vampires! We went for cheap and easy, kind of a cop out I know, but we are lookin good though right?

We went to our ward party, a fun party up at the Magleby's cabin, and trick or treating with Etta followed by fun with the neighbors on actual Halloween. It was great!


Etta was a Lion, and she was certainly the cutest one I have ever seen.



We also took a little weekend trip to Park City with the Shaner's where I apparently took no pictures besides Etta and the frog! We swam in the freezing yet supposed 90 degree pool, went to the outlets, ate yummy food, and hung out with our friends. It was a blast, thanks guys!

So there's definitely more catching up to do but that's it for now! Tune in for Christmas!

Budding Beckham

Ok, so this isn't my belly but I thought it was pretty much the best, weirdest, and most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Seriously what we go through in the child bearing process is so bizarre. Have you seen the movie alien? Not a far stretch my friends. I have spent many a night thinking this little guy was going to find some way to bust out before his time. No joke, had I had a camera on hand I'm sure there are a few times my belly has looked just like this. 

With Etta I had to do "kick counts" because she was so chill in there we were constantly worried if she was OK. Well this little Juninho wannabe leaves nothing to be concerned about. There's no question that he is one healthy boy. I actually asked the doctor if something could be wrong...if he's trying to tell me something with all the crazy movement. I'm telling you since like 5 months it's been 24/7 kicking, rolling, punching, stretching, spasming, flipping insanity. This boy just might be more than I can handle. 

So if you can see my stomach bubbling, mutating, and morphing into strange shapes from across the room, don't be alarmed...apparently every thing's fine. This baby just floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.

Babies and Volleyball

As many of you know Volleyball season has started. Which means my husband is at work until seven o'clock everyday and is gone or working every weekend. He also coaches a club team so on Tuesdays and Thursday he's not home until 10:30. Hmmm...yikes! Another bummer is that normally I would go on at least one trip with the team but seeing how pregnant I am I don't think they'll let me! So I can't complain too much though because really it's only for a few months and the rest of the year is so flexible and fun. However it is particularly complicated this year because, hello...we're having a baby in like 6 weeks! 

So last time I was at the doctor I asked his advice on my delivery. I'm due on March 5th and with Elizabeth I was five days late. Rob goes out of town on the 10th. Do you see the dilemma? So the doctor suggested that with my routine pregnancies and labor coupled with this being my second child that they'd have no problems inducing me up to a week early. Honestly I'm a lot more keen on letting the baby naturally run it's coarse and come on it's own but having Rob there trumps those feelings. So I think we will actually be having this baby on March 1st! Considering I was thinking I would have him almost a week late this seems so much sooner! 

Anyway so we're getting pretty excited and I really have to get moving to have everything ready for this baby! So anyone who wants to go to Volleyball games let me know, the time is here and I won't even be able to go to half of them! And get ready to come help me with my craziness because this baby is coming ready or not and my husband is going to be MIA! Lots of love to all of our family and friends and I promise I'll be back blogging soon.

Sick :(

So Etta and I got colds last week. I thought we were getting better on Friday so we emerged out a bit Friday and Saturday but were we getting better? No, the tiny, ugly germs were yet to descend and they did Saturday night. We took Etta in on Sunday and they told us she had croup so she had to get a steroid shot to open up her throat. Then I took a dive that day and we've been pretty sick since then. The worst part being that we're bored out of our minds! We can't go anywhere, we can't hang out with anyone, and I don't even feel like doing the normal fun activities we do daily around the house. I don't even feel like blogging! So my triumphant return to blogging has yet to happen...again. But really...I haven't had a cold like this in years!! Blah. Anyway so Etta and I take 2 or 3 showers/baths a day to do something, watch lots of YBCR and Yo Gabba Gabba, and look at lots of books. Note I say look at them...I can't even read to Etta, one of her favorite activities, because I have no voice! Anyway, I was really really grateful to find out there are actually a couple cold medicines you can take when your pregnant. I thought it was all taboo, so that's been helpful. Also I just had my 32 week appointment and as my doctor pointed out that although I feel totally awful it's something that doesn't affect my sweet healthy baby boy which I am eternally grateful for. We feel very very blessed that he's growing well and everything seems to be on track. So hopefully we'll feel better soon and we can get back to having a life that includes leaving our home!!

New Creation

1. Graham Cracker

2. Very thin layer of Peanut Butter

3. Nutella, sweet sweet nutella

4. Thinly sliced Banana

5. Mini Marshmallows, don't scrimp on me here

6. Under the broiler until the desired level of golden brown toasted plumpicity is achieved

7. Just a touch of Caramel drizzled over the top 

8. Napkin

9. Milk

Oh me oh my.....

Glorious Sabbath

Having my child in nursery for the first time...Pros and Cons.

Pros:

We're all so excited to go in the morning.

She made new friends.

She had fun and loved church.

We remembered why we loved church.

We learned something in church.

She spent all her energy and passed out for her nap afterwards.

We were both able to teach our lesson.

My purse isn't bulging with three hours worth of distractions.

We have pictures she "draws" to put on the frig.

She's learning to play with others.

We were able to sit next to each other.

She didn't disrupt anyone's class with the infamous squealing.

She has time without us.

We have time without her.

Cons:

...?...hmmm...?...

Nope, can't think of one.

Cornbelly's Flop

It's fall, Halloween time, the slight chill in the air...does it ever make you nostalgic for bad food, over priced admissions, crap attractions, and horrible attempts at entertaining performances?

Hmmm, yeah...me neither.

I'm sorry, but you've gotta be kidding me. We walk into a complete mess of "attractions" not labeled well and not enticing. Perhaps Elizabeth was just a little young to appreciate it or perhaps it was completely trashy. I'm thinking it's both. I suppose I just expected a little more from thanksgiving point (and a little more for our $22 dollars, yeah...seriously). The info about it touts fun rides, entertainment, good food, and animals.

Rides: slides, stuff to jump on, swings, open fields to run around in...does this sound like a park to anyone else? Oh yeah you're right it is different, a park is free.

Entertainment: people attempting to recreate Thriller with animal costumes and an inaudible boom box, grown men making fools of themselves for the so called "pig race" featuring rat sized pigs for 2 minutes of the hour long show...yikes.

Food: Admittedly delicious corn chowder served in an unfortunately frozen bread bowl, oh yeah, greasy limp fries, sub sub par burgers, and fried PB&J...people don't really eat those do they?

Animals: For a mere $7 more dollars on top of our $22 that you thought included seeing farm animals you can walk over to farm country, a completely separate attraction!

Well, despite all this we thought we'd try to make the most of it so we walked around, played on the swings, took the kiddies through the mini corn maze, ate, checked out their actually impressive display of carved pumpkins, and watched a pig race!

Classic comments from Rob through out the night like:

"Next time we're getting food and going to the park."
"This is the first time we've ever done anything really stereotypical of the Utah hick."

So cute! Etta would have a blast anywhere she could watch kids run around.

Kennedy lovin the swings.

Me ruining the picture...not sure what I'm doing.

The Shaners with their cute smiling baby.

All in all it definitely flopped in my books. Maybe the haunted maze is fun and the jury is out on Farm Country which we will be trying soon...but my suggestion, especially for little ones, would be to go to Hee Haw's. Just as ghetto but more for little babies to do and $3.

Hope you all had as much fun this Halloween as we did...pictures coming soon!

Cold Weather Frolicking

So all summer we had so much fun playing outside with our neighbors. It's pretty much what we did every day. Now that it's getting cold we're going to have to find some other things to do. I'm starting a list of Cold weather activity ideas. If you've got any great ones let me know. So far we're still trying to enjoy the outdoors till it's really unbearable. So we just get bundled up and cruise the neighborhood as usual!

Etta has a slight obsession with "unkins."

The famous tight lipped Etta smile.

What a cutie, how could you just not melt at the site of that?!

What a girl wants, what a girl needs.

Rob: "Hey this weekend the guys are gonna do a team hike and we thought it be fun to do tin foil dinners afterwards."

Me: "So are you telling me I'm making 40 tin foil dinners?"

Rob: "Yeah, pretty much."

And we did and it was a success. Although my kitchen and chopping hand will never be the same we had a good time with some bomb tin foil dinners which to my husbands credit he did help me a lot with. I did however decide I'm never making them again without one of these:

Which I actually have but I'm missing the blades!? Who knows how these things happen. Definite note to self that this is a necessity!

Anyway, so it was an awesome day for a hike and a great night for a bonfire.

What 35 tin foil dinners look like in our frig...

Thanks for the good time BYU MVB.

Happy Birthday to me!

Generation Y. Virgo. Year of the Rat. Boomerangs. Yes, that's me and I turned 25 on August 29th and it was a wonderful weekend. I am a firm believer in celebrating your birthday as long as possible. Go ahead and stretch it on out. Rob and I have our Anniversary on Sept 1st so it works out perfectly and we usually get a non stop celebration for at least three days sometimes even a week! So we went up and had a sushi dinner with my family topped by some delicious fried coconut ice cream and an adorable play put on by my nieces and nephew...Thanks Dad! Another day my dad came down to watch Etta and Rob and I went for a meat, cheese, fruit, and martinelli's (my fav!) picnic up the canyon. Then we had some friends over for a cake and ice cream celebration. And lastly Rob's mom usually has us over for a delicious "favorite meal" dinner but this year decided we would go out. So they took us to my favorite restaurant around, Foundry Grill. It was so fun to have a peaceful adult night somewhere beautiful and relaxing. I had to get steak of coarse with a delectable wine reduction and their yummy tortilla soup and caeser salad and Rob got a new menu item, an amazing brined and roasted pork loin that he's still talking about. Thanks Bob and Margaret!

The always unsuccessful "picture taken ourselves" up at Sundance.

One the hostess took...so fun to be on a date!

And here's the whole crew. It's funny, without fail we always see someone we know when we go up to Sundance and frequently someone famous. This trip was no different. Along with running into some old friends we ran into Donny Osmond and family. They're so sweet and offered to take a picture for us I had neglected just before we were leaving...and I think Dan was pretty excited because he couldn't quite take his eyes off Donny as evident by this shot his wife took. :)

Anyway, it was a fun night and an awesome weekend. Thanks everybody!

Camping Trip Numero Dos

So remember how I said we took another camping trip? We did, a few weeks later the night before my birthday. We went up with some of our neighbors for tin foil dinners and dessert and then just two of us stayed the night.

So we get to the camping sight and all is well. And things generally continued to be fine...we read books in the surrounding of nature...

We prepared meals to share with our friends...

We sat around the campfire...

And made closer bonds with existing friends...they look like they're having a blast don't they!?

There's a smile! We ran around and got all sorts of dirty...

Enjoyed some peach cobbler and an attempt at Taboo...everyone quit when Rob and I started ladominating. Not really, but it's true that we can never be on the same team, it's so sad. We love to play together but we know each other to well and think too much alike it becomes unfair.

And then...the night came...

All was well, we put Elizabeth to sleep around 830 and she went down pretty easily. We enjoyed the rest of the night around the campfire and retired probably around midnight. I don't remember anymore if it was right then or an hour into it but our little neighbor friend was not having as easy a time slumbering as the rest of us. He started crying and crying and crying and just when we thought he'd stop...it woke Elizabeth up and she started crying which eventually got him crying again. Let's just say this went on the majority of the night! My poor neighbor tried everything, even getting in the car for a little drive but he was just so sad. So we were up the WHOLE NIGHT! We were in exhausted hysterics by about 4 AM with nothing to do but laugh as Elizabeth jumped up and down on our mattress wide awake and lovin it.

Unfortunately Rob was supposed to leave straight from there to go golfing the next morning in Park City. I had promised to drive him to his car probably about a mile away maybe longer because I'm always up early when we camp. Well, in the brain fog I was experiencing of like one hours sleep I said, "bye I love you" about the time he was going to ask if I was still driving him. So he just walked to the once in a life time golf opportunity he just had to take on my birthday that he's had three or four times since! :)

So this is us first thing about 6 or 7 in the morning on officially the worst night sleep of my life. :)

I love this little girl.

We don't look to horrible right? How can you be in a bad mood on your birthday!? We seriously did have a great time anyway and laughed off what can only be expected from even the best of little ones every once in a while. So will this derail us from many a camping trip next year? Not one bit!

Pizza a la Sarah

So the more we eat out the more we decide we should eat home. We pay four times the price and usually leave unimpressed. It started with Indian food. We love, love Indian food. After quite a few trip to the Bombay house (which we were actually happy with but were spending too much on) I thought ummmm, aren't I a chef or something and couldn't I make most of this at home? And so the perfect Indian food, anything comfort food, the perfect steak, and the perfect burger were born. Most recently it's been the quest for fall of the bone BBQ Ribs for Mr. Neilson and

The Perfect Pizza.

So at first I had to perfect the crust, that was the biggest thing. It took me about 4 tries till I was really happy with it. I feel like so much thin pizza I eat the crust ends up a bit soggy bottomed. So that was an issue to solve that took a little science and a pizza stone. I also like a crust that's slightly sweet. Then you have to get the sauce just right. My first attempt was way too watery, sometimes not enough, sometimes too much. I think I'm finally happy with it.

So these are pics of our two best pizzas so far. A Veggie Pizza topped with olives (a must), yellow and green peppers, tomatoes, sauteed mushroom and yellow onion, red onion, and zucchini with Parmesan and a garlic Alfredo sauce. It's pretty good but will probably still take some tweaking.

Then there's the all time favorite, can't go wrong, Margarita pizza which we love.

So we're having fun experimenting and invite you all to come try whatever we're making whenever you want. Next will probably be the perfect peach cobbler because my attempt the other night was pitiful! Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Going back to Cali...

So in August Brandon, one of Rob's really good friends was getting married in Las Vegas. We figured if we're going all the way to Vegas we may as well go all the way to California. So we called to ask Rob's sister Sara if we could head out after the wedding and she told us Rob's sister from New York, Katie, was going to be out there the week before. Perfect! So we headed out the week before and had a blast.

We didn't get any pictures of Sara and Shawn's new place which is a bummer because it's absolutely beautiful. She has this old 1920's house overlooking all of LA. We hung there with Rob's whole family over the weekend then headed down to San Diego with a short stop in Corona to see the Grandparents. Keith and Sally are awesome. They are 90 something and thriving and we love them a lot. So we love to opportunity for Elizabeth to know them better.

Keith and Sally with Etta

After a few great days in San Diego we headed out to Las Vegas. On the way we got to stop and see Russell, Julie, and Sadie Holmes...some of our favorite people and unfortunately took no pictures. Next we were off to see Rob's cousin, Wes and Kristy, who were also going to the wedding. So the next day we were off to Vegas. We were happy to stay with our good friends Delana and Brian Rowley who we also love. We are so lucky to have so many people who will let us invade their homes.


The wedding was great and we are so happy for Brandon. His new wifey seems awesome and perfect for him. Again I'm lacking in the picture department but I got some.


A very exhausted dad and his daughter stickin it out at the reception that night.

All the old college buddies reunited.

All the wifeys and kids who came later.

Little family.

And Paige, another favorite person of ours.

On our way home Mike and Kara were so kind to have us at Mikes parents in St. George. We had so much fun and are so grateful for all our amazing friends and family. However, we did decide that vacations are no longer...until we can go alone there is nothing vacationing about it. As long as they include kids from here on out they will be great, fun trips...but not vacations. We were soooo tired. But we'll do it again anytime!