Shutterfly Giveaway

So in the Blog World there are many giveaways of free goods and services. I have tried very hard to win several of these. Well a giveaway that I just found is from Shutterfly. Shutterfly is offering a free 50 Christmas cards....I KNOW! How awesome!? I really hope that I can get these free cards. I have seen many things on the Shutterfly webpage and they have really cute things. Go check our this website and see about getting some for yourself! If you already have your Christmas cards handled, you can just check out their website for other products that they offer.

Halloween Fun!

Some people don't think Halloween is very fun or exciting (hint hint JANET!) but I think it is awesome! I don't even know why really, because this year we didn't get to into it. Well we kinda did, but not really. We went to a Halloween party and we carved some pumpkins. We made some pretty awesome costumes from stuff at the DI and stuff my sister had. So I really don't know why I like it so much, I think it's just fun! Dressing up in fun costumes for no reason and having unlimited excuses to eat candy. I think it's all just what you make of it really! Everyone celebrates it in different ways. I know my sister makes homemade donuts on Halloween. My parent's neighbors go all out on decorating their yard, they even have a 6 foot tall Frankenstein they put on their porch! What are some of your traditions?

We found Katelyn's costume first, she was an alien, and we thought it was so cute so we took the theme and ran with it! My shirt had glow in the dark stars on it and Mike was an astronaut! Pretty creative huh!

These pictures were taken a few days after we carved them, so they are a little saggy, but Mike's pumpkin is on the left and it's Frankenstein. Mine is in the middle and it's just a big smiley face and Katelyn's is on the end (carved courtesy of Mike's brother Jeff).

Hidden Chocolate

Has anyone ever have one of those days? You know those days that just aren't going your way? Oh good, I'm not the only one. Well a few weeks ago I was having one of those days. Nothing was going right and I was extremely frustrated with life. I can't even remember the details, I just knew that it was not a good day. So I was leaving to go somewhere (and running late I might add) and it was a little chilly. Well I couldn't find my usual coat, it had gotten put away somewhere, so I grabbed an older jacket, it was the first thing I could find. After putting Katelyn's carseat in the car, I was hopping in and I put my house keys in the coat pocket. I felt something in there! Actually 2 things! I then pull out 2 Dove chocolates. I don't know about you guys, but Dove chocolate is DIVINE! I absolutely love it. I think I must have had the forsight to leave these two little chocolates in this coat pocket, knowing that some day in the future I would desperately need some chocolate! Thank you past self, you saved the day!

Blog Dedication

I have been addicted lately to looking at craft blogs. I love looking at all the fun creative ideas and tutorials and dreaming about being able to do them. Some of the ideas I actually have done, which makes me very proud of myself! I have been doing a ton of things lately and then I just realized, why am I not blogging about all of this! I love looking at other people's blogs, so I bet they would like to see a few things I am up to (hopefully!). So here it goes! I hereby dedicate myself to being better at updating my blog! (Now that I've said it in writing, there's really no going back!) So I hope to share some of the fun things I've been up to and the pictures I have been storing on my phone in hopes of one day updating my blog.

So here it goes!

To start things off, I wanted to show you this hilarious picture.

This is a picture of our dog Annie (the left) and my inlaw's dog Sandi (the right). This picture doesn't do the size difference of these two dogs any justice. Annie is probably 1/6 the size of Sandi, if not smaller. But you know that saying it's not the size of the dog in the fight it's the size of the fight in the dog? That very much applies to our little Annie. She is playing tug of war with a sock with this big dog! Needless to say, she didn't win, but she gave it a good fight and once she even got the sock away from her! (but the rest of the time she was tossed around like a rag dog) But hey, they had fun!

Housewife success!

So apparently all I needed to do to become a better cook is have a child!! Well that and practice...and ask recipes from all of my family...and practice some more...and have good friends that help me practice! Lately I have had several success stories when it comes to the kitchen! Those of you who know me know that this is a pretty big deal to me.

First success story was a dinner that I made for Mike and I. Actually, it was breakfast foods but we ate it for dinner. I successfully cooked bacon, pancakes, and eggs! There was no burns on me or the food!

(I thought I had had a positive cookie baking experience until I took the cookies out of the oven and burned my bicep, that's what happens when you grab too far on the sides of the cookie sheet and then bend at the elbow to pull the sheet out)

Here is a picture of the breakfast/dinner

Thanks to my mom, sister, and grandma I have made several different recipes over the last few weeks. I made banana bread, a chicken and rice recipe, stir fry, and a few other things, go me!

The next adventure was a little more aggressive. I watch way too many cake decorating shows, cake boss, ace of cakes, famous cakes, ultimate cake-off, and many others. I have always wanted to try fondant on a cake, but I have heard that fondant is super hard to use. I have a good friend who was willing to let me use her expertise (and her kitchen!) to attempt this task! We bought all the stuff we would need and we used a special recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, which is supposed to be slightly easier to use. It was sooooo much fun! It was a little labor intensive but not too bad. Here are some pictures!

Here is my friend mixing up the fondant. It looks way sticky but it was pretty easy to knead and make it firm.

I forgot to take a photo of the middle step, of just putting the fondant on, but we put the fondant on the cake and then decorated it with frosting. So much fun!

The finished product! Isn't is so pretty?! I was pretty proud of us, thanks Kelsie for helping me!

I'm going to try and keep updating my blog more often, it's a work in progress but I'm working on it!

Cooking adventures!

I have never been a very good cook...in fact over the years I have made many humorous mistakes in the kitchen. Not all are disasterous but most are pretty funny. Well getting married didn't really help me in this area, in fact I've probably gotten worse! Some of my stories include using salt instead of sugar in chocolate chip cookies, leaving the stove on all night long, and using corn meal instead of bread crumbs for a chicken recipe. My most recent story happened just this last week. We had invited Mike's cousin Kristi and her boyfriend Richie over for dinner and games. I was in charge of the main dish and a salad and Kristi was going to bring rolls and dessert. I decided to make chicken fettucini alfredo. I bought all of the ingredients and I had everything ready. The morning of I took a bag of chicken out of the freezer to begin the defrost. I looked at them and thought "These look a little strange" I even took a picture and called my mom to ask her if chicken can go bad in the freezer. She got my text picture and said they didn't look bad but check them more as they thaw. Here is the picture for you to judge for yourself!

Looks like perfectly good chicken, right? Can anyone guess what I had done? What I believed to be a bag of chicken breasts was actually pork chop...yup I was preparing to make pork chop fettucini alfredo. Well by the time I had realized my mistake I was running short on time and wasn't sure I would have time to go to the store and get chicken. Then I rememebered that they make pre-sliced, cooked chicken breast that would be perfect for my recipe. I rushed to the store to buy myself some. While I was at the store I decided I would get a cucumber to add to my salad. As I'm searching the poultry section, I can't find ANY of those little strips! By this point, I really didn't have time to do anything else. I called my mom, frantically, and she said she had some that I could use. So I bought my cucumber, and drove like crazy up to my mom's.

On the bright side, the salad turned out GREAT! See?

I began making the alfredo and cooking the noodles. I had purchased two packaged of fettucini noodles. I started cooking one of them and then decided that maybe I should cook both. Apparently I misjudged the amount of noodles, because I ended up making WAY too much. Oh well, it's better to have plenty of food than not enough!

Look at all those noodles!!

All in all, the night went really well, we had a lot of fun and every one promised that the food tasted good. It's my goal to become a better cook and not be so stressed about the entire cooking process. Hopefully things go better, if you have any amazing cooking tips, feel free to let me know!

We're having a baby!

Ok ok...this might not be news to everyone seeing as how I'm 6 months pregnant, but I'm really bad at keeping the blog up to date! But here it is...We're PREGNANT! We are having a baby girl due May 21st. Things are going pretty well! We recently bought our first home, it's a two bedroom town house that is very nice and we love having a place to call our own. Mike was just promoted to manager at his work and things are going very well with his job, we are all so proud of him!

Here is a picture of our very first crib! Mike set it up the other day and we put the bedding in it.

Since we're having a girl, we're going all pink with this baby!

Here is a profile shot of our baby girl, isn't she adorable?!

Her cute little foot is the second picture and third is proof that she's definitely a girl!

Honeymoon Cruise

Although it's 6 months late, we finally found our pictures from our cruise. We went on our honeymoon about a month after we got married. We went on a cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada Mexico, we has a blast!! Here are some of the highlights!

This is the first view of our ship, it was huge!

This is the grand staircase, it was so pretty and elegant.

Our waiters sang happy honeymoon to us at dinner and we had to kiss the entire time they sang, it was so much fun, we were laughing while kissing.

This look was pretty much how our faces looked the entire cruise, we had the best time!

*Conflict Resolution*

I went into my boss yesterday at the Pharmacy to speak to him about the problems I have been having with certain employees and the way that they treat me. I truly wanted to quit that job, but I'm very non confrontational (on certain things) and I was nervous about doing it. When I went into his office to quit, I began explaining to him the problems that I have been having and why I felt the way I did. He expressed his apology for the way I had been treated and told me that he didn't feel it appropriate for anyone in his company, janitor or not, to be treated that way. He told me it was my decision, but that if I wanted to stay he would speak with those departments and try to improve my working environment. I felt he truly cared about me and my position with them, so I'm going to give it a try! Hopefully things will improve, because I haven't enjoyed being treated that way, and if they don't I always have my option to quit!

I am still trying to find more full time work, because this will help Mike and I get qualified for a home loan. So if anyone knows of anything or hears of anything in the Pocatello area, let me know!
I have applied and sent resumes to several dentist offices in town, for both office work and dental hygiene assisting. But I'm willing to take anything!

*Changes in our life*

I always get bugged about updating my blog, and I know I should do better, but I have been slightly busy lately! Here's what's new in our lives!

-Mike is doing really well at his job, he makes a lot of sales and really enjoys his coworkers!
-I have been working 4 jobs over the past 6 weeks. I am still at Gold's Gym teaching swimming to little kids, I work at a communication lab on campus, I still have my students, and I recently got a job cleaning at a pharmacy. I don't really enjoy the pharmacy job and I will probably be quitting it soon...They're just not very nice to me and I don't appreciate a job where I'm treated that way.
-We are still living in Inkom, but we're trying to buy a house. Because Mike works mostly on commission, we can't qualify for a loan on his and my basic salary. Even though we would make enough to afford it, we can't qualify...
-I am loving being married, it is a lot of fun and I enjoy it a lot. My husband is amazing and treats me like a queen!
-We have been so busy with our school schedules...It's been slightly intense! But hopefully all will go well and we'll pass all of our classes.

So we're not moving...

Well, we thought and prayed a lot about what we should do with this opportunity we were given. In the end, we both couldn't get a good feeling about doing it, so we decided to graciously pass. We're looking at several different options now. We could possibly stick it out in Inkom, it's really not too terrible, but it would be nice living in town. If we stuck it out, we could save some money and get out of some debt. But it also would be nice to live in town, we'd be closer to work and school, we'd save money on gas, and be able to have the internet at our house. Once again, let us know what you think!

Possibly Moving!

Well, as many of you might know, we are currently living in Mike's grandmother's basement apartment. It has been such a blessing since Mike got laid off, we really wouldn't have been able to afford rent right now. It is in Inkom, which hasn't been too bad, just a big consumption of our time and gas. We did a lot of remodeling on the basement to get it nice and new for future use, which has made us feel really spoiled living there. We love living close to family, but it has been getting slightly difficult to live in Inkom while we're going to school, you can't exactly pop home for lunch when you live 20 minutes away.
Recently I was approached by a professor of mine, who I am good friends with, about the possibility of managing his apartment complex. He owns an apartment complex in old town called Brentwood Manor. It is an old fashion building, built in 1920, by a man from Chicago. He wanted to build something that resembled buildings from his old neighborhood. It is a very quaint building and very cute! We would be responsible for collecting rent, maintaining the building, and other little things like that, but we also get paid on the side for the extra hours we put in. We will be getting a 2 bedroom apartment, FREE, with all utilities and wireless internet included!! We're very excited about this possibility. However, we are still thinking and praying about it to make sure this is the right decision for us right now. Please comment and let me know what you think! If you want to visit the apartment, you can go to their website, which is www.brentwoodmanor.net
Thanks!

How cute!

We have our photos! I love them so much! I'm going to try and post a slide show, but here's another photo.

Preview to Wedding Photos!

I heard from our wedding photographer and we should be getting our wedding photos on Wednesday!! I'm very excited! Here is a small preview

I saw this on my sister in law's blog, and I thought hey why not! It'll be fun!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely Wrapping paper because then you get the "Tearing open the presents like crazy on Christmas morning" effect.
2. Real tree or Artificial? I've only had a real tree twice in my life, and both times they were more work and hassle than they were worth. I'd prefer just a nice artificial one.
3. When do you put up the tree? We put ours up in our new house just last weekend, but we're going to leave it up for a while after Christmas, just to make up for it!
4. When do you take the tree down? We probably won't be taking it down until after our cruise in January, just cause we'll be too busy.
5. Do you like eggnog? I'm not much of a fan, but I usually drink it once during the season/
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Some of my favorite gifts have been when I was an adult, but I got child gifts, like the year we all got laser tag games, and played Christmas morning. Or last year when I got footy pajamas that were my size!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Not yet, but I would like one eventually.
8. Hardest person to buy for? I haven't even shopped yet, so I don't know!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Nephews
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Since we will be sending out our thank you cards in a few weeks, we aren't doing either email or Christmas cards, but I do like receiving Christmas cards and keeping track of friends and family.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't think I can remember any bad gifts, I remember getting a bike one year but there was snow outside so I couldn't ride it. I was pretty bummed about that....
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Muppet Christmas Carol, always a good one.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I'm going to start today actually! Hopefully I'll get a lot of things that I need.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I sometimes recycle those neighborhood gifts you get sometimes, but usually I give them to work friends or people who won't really know I'm recyling.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? We usually get those Clementine oranges, which are delicious! But I love those home made caramels, I remember making them one year, and they weren't cooked enough and it was quite a mess...
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree ? This year on our very own tree we put clear, which I prefer, and then blue lights. It looks very cool!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I have so many favorites it's hard to decide. I like the cheesy pop songs like "All I want for Christmas is you" and others like that, but I also love the parody of 12 days of Christmas called "The 12 things of Christmas that are such a pain to me" That is a funny one, if you've never heard it I recommend finding a copy!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I'm very excited that our first Christmas we get to spend Christmas morning with just each other. We will be seeing my parents earlier on Christmas Eve, and then going to his parents, then to our own house. Christmas morning we'll do our own little thing, and then going to his parents for Breakfast and opening presents with them, and then come into town to spend the rest of the day with them. It'll be awesome!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Of course silly!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We couldn't find a star that we really liked, but Kym said how they have a Bow on top of theirs, and I think I might have to steal that idea!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Definitely Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? When people don't realize the purpose of this holiday. You see it lots with people who have been commercialized by this holiday and don't realize that this season is about the birth of our Savior, who without we wouldn't have anything to begin with. It's frustrating when even family gets caught up in worldly things or get their noses bent out of shape, when in reality they should just be excited that we get to see each other and be together. I'm just looking forward to being with my family and staring my married life out right.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the traditional round Christmas Balls, I think eventually I'll have a tree specifically with just those on it.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Mike told me that his family usually does pizza on Christmas Eve, which I think it a fun tradition! I'm not sure what my family will do for Christmas day dinner, but I know it'll be fantastic!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want our kitchen to be done and all of the tools moved back into the garage. I also want scriptures with my new last name on them. Plus some wonderful surprises from my cute husband!
26. Favorite Christmas tradition? I have great memories of my dad reading us stories on Christmas Eve and then we each get to pick a place for our stockings to sit. I'm hoping that my dad will read those stories again this year too!
27. Tag 5 people - Anyone and Everyone who wants to do it, it's really fun!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wedding Picture Preview

Hey everyone! This is a small preview of some of our wedding photos taken by our photographer on our wedding day! We will be using this picture for our thank you cards, and we can input the words Thank You onto this blank piece of paper. Cool huh?! I will post more pictures as soon as we get them!

Newly Weds

Well Hello!

Yes, we have a blog! I'd like to introduce my new family. Mike and I were married on November 28th, 2008. We got married in the Idaho Falls Temple and it was a very amazing day! We are living in Inkom right now and just finishing up the semester. We are very blessed with amazing family and great friends who have made this time in our lives very special. I will soon post wedding photos and photos of our new home, but until then you'll just have to wait! :)