Reading Pillow

Here's another post I completely forgot about doing!  Since my husband is an avid reader, I made him this macho {49ers} reading pillow {the tan fabric is corduroy}!  I was afraid he'd think it was too girly, but he LOVED it and uses it every night when we read in bed!

Brownie Points!!!

My hubby surprised me for no reason with a gift on our date night!  The next book in a new series one of my all time favorite authors is writing!  I didn't even know the book had come out!  He made my heart go pitter patter because of his thoughtfulness!  Love you babe!

Oops I Forgot

Okay so I feel terrible because my sweet and thoughtful friend Beth made me this adorable {and that's an understatement} pin cushion for my birthday and I totally forgot to post it to show it off!  Thank you Beth for allowing me to be the recipient of your endless talents!  Love ya!

Pumpkin Obsession

I just can't get enough.  I have made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at least once a week the past few weeks.  Really I know it's an unhealthy obsession!  Here are the two recipes I keep alternating.

Ingredient 1

Ingredient 2

Ingredient 3

That's right folks.  It's as easy as 1-2-3!  1 box of spice cake mix, 1 - 15 oz can of pumpkin, and 1 cup of chocolate chips!  Bake for 15 minutes at 350.  It makes 3 dozen cookies!

The second recipe is from scratch.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tsp milk

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg.  Mix together and add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt along with dissolved soda.  Mix well, then add vanilla and chocolate chips.  Drop large spoonfuls of dough onto lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Thriller

This is a little late, but my sweet husband surprised me with tickets to see Thriller a few weekends ago!  I loved the dancing and had a blast going with Malissa, Machelle, & Tim {Machelle's soon to be hubby}!  We ate at the yummy Olive Garden and got home in the wee hours of the morning, but it was so worth it!

She's Engaged!!!

Congrats to my adorable cousin Telicia 

who got engaged to Matt this past weekend!

We are so excited for you guys!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Fall Walks

I LOVE living in Utah, I LOVE fall, and I LOVE that I can go to the public library and get LDS books on tape!!!  I have been trying to get in as many walks as I can before the snow comes and it gets too cold.  I download said book on tapes onto my iPod and walk 2-3 miles everyday because I am so absorbed in my books.  I kept thinking I had a little more time to take pictures of the beautiful changing leaves, and then one day I noticed that overnight the leaves had mostly fallen to the ground and turned brown.  It was so cool to be walking down this street with leaves up to my ankles.  So I grabbed my camera this morning and even though the leaves had blown away and been picked up, I still thought it was neat to see the heaping piles!  Fall comes all too quickly and is gone in the blink of an eye, but I absolutely love it and I appreciate it so much more knowing it is so short lived.  Sigh...as I type this I am watching the news and it is supposed to snow tomorrow.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees in one day, and the overcast days have been hinting that we need to bust out the hot chocolate and add more soups to our dinner menu.  Bring on the cold and snow!

Halloween

We had a simple Halloween this year.  We went to Firehouse Pizza for dinner {YUM} and then headed over to a Haunted Miniature Golf Course.  

It was a great course and their decor was amazing!  This was our favorite hole!

We killed enough time re-doing some holes that we were able to go see a midnight showing of an un-named scary movie - which the sickos that we are actually liked {the psychological part of it}!  We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween and scored on candy!

 

October Visiting Teaching

Back Home...Finally

There's so much to catch up on!  First of all, we got a call conference weekend to help out a family member whose original babysitter ended up not being able to watch the kids.  So we headed down to Sandy for a week to help out.  Then we came home for a day and a half so I could do laundry and I hitched a ride to Arizona with my aunt and uncle while Phil went hunting.

Arizona

The drive was long {as always} but it was very eventful!  I was the booger magnet {enough said about that}!  I downloaded a few books on tape and slept a lot.  We made a really cool scenic stop just outside of Page where I got a picture of their family.

The first thing I did when I got there was meet up with my friends Sarah and Molly {and her new son Bo}.  We didn't do Scrapfest this year, so going out to dinner had to count {we missed Beth - who moved to UT and Tina - who was camping with her family}.  We ate at yummy Macayos and had a blast talking!

Then Friday night was my grandparents traditional Halloween party!  I didn't get very many pictures, but I love the one of my nephew Jaron in his Halloween costume and the one of us changing him on the floor.  We had Neds Krazy Sub and made Haunted Halloween Houses!

I got to go to lunch with my aunts and girl cousins at Gecko Grill and I spent more than 8 hours at glorious Scrapbooks Etc!  We had a blast Saturday night playing slaughter ball, eating pizza, and having rootbeer floats.  David's homecoming was amazing and his talk truly made you feel the Spirit.  By the end of the meeting when we were singing Well Done the tears were flowing!  We stayed for all the blocks and I was thrilled to go to Relief Society with family and sit by my long time influential friend Amy {Hurst} Stewart!  We ended the whirlwind weekend with a yummy traditional Sunday dinner and games til the wee hours!

Hunting

Although my amazing hubby didn't get a "Bambi" hunting, he did catch some yummy fish which he grilled up for us last night when he got home.  We had yummy butternut squash, salad, veggie rice, and of course the trout!  He did good!

I Can't Wait!

The countdown has begun! I am officially stoked {thanks Amy}!

27 Years Young!

First of all, thank you for all the well wishes and phone calls.  Yesterday was my 27th birthday!  I despise birthdays because as many times as you tell yourself they are just another day, deep down we hope that it's special.  In the end my birthday turned out great!  

I woke up to these beautiful flowers and a card from my sweet hubby!

I was alone pretty much all day.  My husband didn't get home from work until 9:00, but I didn't get to see him until 10:00!  It was so sad.  But he made up for it by having a super fun surprise!  So my first instructions were to change into jammies!  Then we drove up the canyon {which even though it was so late and dark, you could still see all the pretty colors of fall by head lights}.  We arrived at our destination which was a little camp spot where he immediately started a warm fire.  We ate by fire light our yummy Cafe Rio salads {with spoons because he forgot to grab utensils}!

Then he busted out the sparkling berry cider to do a toast in my honor!

Then for my birthday dessert we had smores!  I loved it!  

He even got cinnamon graham crackers!

Then we looked at the stars and talked until 1:00 am!  

The evening was creative and thoughtful and I am so grateful for my amazing hubby!

Happy Birthday To Phillip

My totally rad hubby turned 31 the other day!  It's so sad when you get older because it tends to be just another day.  Poor guy had to get up for work at 5:30ish and he didn't walk in the door until about 8 pm.  His mom took him to lunch so that brightened his day.  We ended up having his sister Malissa, and cousin Megan over for dinner {his weird request was spaghetti w/ black olives, hot italian sausage links, and pepperoni - think pizza on pasta}.  Here are a few pictures of some of the presents I gave him.......

{He has always wanted this picture of Einstein}

 {He has been begging for this book about Einstein}

He really was spoiled by so many sweet people!  After opening presents we walked next door to the neighbors and had cake.  He made my life easy this year and asked for an ice cream cake so I let Coldstones do the work!  This is their cookie dough cake because my husband LOVES cookie dough {and that's an understatement}!  When I went to pick up the cake I got to enjoy their free 'make a wish foundation' ice cream social - yum!

 

Happy birthday to my amazing hubby!

River Rafting/Camping In Moab

Even though we got a late start Friday night and a little storm was rolling in, we still headed off to Moab and arrived in the wee hours of the morning {1:30ish}.  We're so glad we went because the weather was beautiful and it was fun to hang out with everyone!  We weren't there long so there isn't much to blog about, but here are some pictures...

Feelin' The Love

My amazing friend Amy gave me the "I Love Your Blog" award and I am completely flattered! Thank you so much for making me feel cool like you Amy!

Here is what you need to do if you have been chosen as a WINNER!!!
1. Pick 7 of your favorite blogs
2. Winners can put the logo on their blog.
3. Link the person who gave your award to your blog.
4. Name the 7 that you are giving the award to with their links.
5. Leave a message on their blogs so that they know they've won!

I randomly chose 7 of the blogs I read by drawing names out of a hat so I didn't make anyone feel bad. Natalie, Valerie, Angie, Beth, Megan, Amber, and Kristin.

Shameless Plug...

It's that time again!  My mom has always had the tradition of playing Christmas music on September 1st!  I love it because it gets me in the mood for Christmas cards.  That's right friends.  I am offering my services again this year.  I will be designing Christmas cards for $10 a design.  I am also offering my services of making your cards if you find yourself short of time.  {If that's the case, I charge for materials and it's $1 per card}.  Feel free to pass this along to friends and family.  Remember, the holidays creep up quickly {that's why I get a head start} but if you plan ahead you'll get those homemade cards out just in time!

Visiting Teaching

I am confessing that I didn't get my Visiting Teaching done last month because mainly I was out of town.  But my goal was to get it done early this month, then stay on that track.  I read the August message last month hoping I would be home in time, and I fell in love.  So Sunday and yesterday I whipped it out to more thoroughly study it.  I made tons of notes and highlighted the heck out of it!  Then I got to thinking about what I could make the girls and I reread my favorite quote and in the first few words it said "drink".  So I put together these cute little water bottles in about 15 minutes.  And yes, I did my visiting teaching for the month of September last night! 

"All of you need to drink in deeply the gospel truths about the eternal nature of your individual identity and the uniqueness of your personality.  You need, more and more, to feel the perfect love which our Father in Heaven has for you and to sense the value he places upon you as an individual.  Ponder upon these great truths, especially in those moment when (in the stillness of such anxiety as you may experience as an individual) you might otherwise wonder and be perplexed." - Spencer W. Kimball

Blessings Be Upon You...

I just want to share with all my blogging friends a neat testimony building experience I had regarding personal revelation.  Friday morning had been so rotten with our fridge going out.  To top everything off I had what I thought was a migraine coming on.  I was stressed about us finding jobs, money, and how in the world we were going to pay for the new fridge.  After 'trying' to clean my kitchen I finally told Phillip that I had to lay down before my head exploded.  As I laid in bed my mind would not shut off.  The thought kept coming to me that I needed to go to lds.org.  Finally I just got up and went to the website.  So as I'm on the home page I'm thinking to myself why in the world do I need to be doing this when my head hurts so bad?!  I start looking around and I see employment.  I click on it, enter a little info and the first thing that came up was a cable installer position.  The pay was amazing, it was for the fall semester, and they didn't necessarily want someone who was trained but would like someone with a little experience.  So I quickly email the person acting as though I was Phillip.  I sent him his resume and let him know that he had 8 years of experience, and his first degree was in Telecommunications.  Not 10 minutes later Phillip had a phone call from the guy wanting to meet with him within the hour {I thought it was crazy because it was 5:00 pm on a Friday}.  So off my amazing hubby goes to an interview and wouldn't you know it's better pay than we thought because they had never seen someone with such experience, they give him a $10 allowance a day for lunch, and he gets a company vehicle.  Oh and did I mention he starts tomorrow morning?!  I know crazy.  So, if it wasn't for my killer headache that made me lay down so that I could listen to a gentle prompting, then we wouldn't have received this amazing blessing and opportunity.

Peach Days

We had so much fun at the Brigham City "Peach Days" today!  We went with Phil's sister Malissa, and his cousin Megan {both go to USU}.  Also my really good friend Beth ended up meeting us there with her cute kids.  We made it just in time to see the parade and boy howdy was it a long one, haha!  We did laugh and make fun of a few floats {which wasn't very nice}, but the one that almost brought tears to my eyes {the real heart felt kind} was the LDS Family Services float.  It had all these cute families with their adopted children on it waving and playing together.  It was really neat.

  

We had a yummy dutch oven lunch of ribs, potatoes, and beans.  We walked around to all the vendors and Beth and I took her kids to get their faces painted, and then of course we had to stop at the local scrapbook and fabric stores!  I ended up getting terribly sunburned, but it was fun and worth it!

Un-Welcome Home Present

We are so glad to be home again!  We have started the job hunt and are crossing our fingers.  Luck would have it that the 3 year old fridge that was left here by the previous owners went out this morning.  UGH!  Turns out it's the compressor and apparently no one replaces compressors because they cost more than a new fridge.  So I went to Home Depot today to buy the cheapest one I could find...and fridges aren't cheap!  The best part of this whole ordeal is that they don't keep fridges in stock {or so they say} and our new one won't be delivered until the 13th!  So, we will be using our awesome camping coolers until the Home Depot delivery truck graces us with it's presence...which won't be soon enough!  Argh!  What an 'Un-Welcome Home Present'!

I Miss Him...

I had the privilege of watching my stinkin' cute 18 month old nephew Jaron all week and from the moment he woke up cuddling with me to the moment we read scriptures before going to bed I cherished it all!  I miss him so much and his fun personality.  He was so sweet and I have never watched a child that was as good as he was.  Here is a cute picture of him having a {sugar free - don't worry Jen} banana popsicle.  He just kept saying mmmmm!  Aww, I miss him!

Storm

Arizona always the coolest storms!  All I wanted when we were down there was to have a good monsoon.  I got exactly what I asked for.  Here is a crazy short video of a thunder and lightening storm that lasted 2 hours.  The lightening was like a constant strobe light and the thunder was a constant rumble.  Some reports said that in 1 hour there was over 1500 lightening strikes!  It was wicked!!!

Book Nerd

So I stood in line at Walmart and was one of the first 50 people to get my 'Breaking Dawn' copy!  I even owned the copy an hour before my friends in Arizona!  That's great and all, but it meant nothing!  Weeks later and I still haven't finished the blasted book that I swore I would have read within 24 hours of holding it in my hands.  Life happens and since I can't say no to anyone, I never found a minute of spare time to myself.  When we went down to Pima to visit family and take care of a few things, I snuck into my aunts amazingly comfortable bed to do a little reading.  I still haven't finished the book, but I'm getting there.

Where Are We?!

We are in Pima, Arizona at the moment with a bunch of things 

going on.  I do have an update coming, so be patient.

Just Hours Left...

There's just hours left until the release of "Breaking Dawn" and my amazing friend Amy made a bookmark for the fanatics out there {me} although who plans on even putting it down!  Hop on over to her site and don't forget to post a thank you!  Does anyone else feel like it's Christmas morning?!

{Oh and after I emerge from a fun filled weekend, reading said book, and going to a scrapbook getaway, I promise to post pictures of our trip to Yellowstone}