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Sunday, October 26, 2008

Happy 2 month birthday to my big boy!!
Here is his 2 month picture. I can't believe how big he is getting. We go to the Dr.'s on Tuesday where we will find out exactly how much he weighs and how long he is. He weighs somewhere around 12 pounds or more, and is 24 inches or longer from what we can tell, but we'll get the true stats soon!!
The rest of the pictures are just some cute ones that we have snapped of him over the last couple of weeks. It is so much fun since he has started smiling. It was hard a first to get a picture of him smiling, but now he does it all of the time, so we can usually get at least one smiling picture a day. Oh, I just love him to death!









We just love this picture because he looks like he is frowning--he just sucking in his bottom lip. It's too cute!
My youngest brother came in to town last weekend and got to see the baby for the first time. It was fun to get to visit with him, but it went by way too quickly. We are lucky because this weekend my parents are coming back in to town, for just 2 1/2 days (they decided they couldn't wait until Thanksgiving to see him!) So we are really excited about that!!!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Deal Alert...

I just thought that I would let those of you who are interested know that at Albertsons you can get 10 2-liters of soda for $10, and then at the register you get a $10.00 mail in rebate. Which means you get the soda for 30 cents (just the tax). There is no limit to the number of sodas you can get, you just have to ring them up separately, and mail in the rebates separately. So if you are a parent who helps out with class parties, or if you will be needing drinks for upcoming holiday parties/events, or if you just want some soda, this is a super good deal. It's FREE, you can't pass it up!! (It's only good for 7-UP, A&W Rootbeer, and Sunkist sodas).

Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Tag...

I haven't been tagged, or done a tag in quite some time, but my friend Mandy tagged me, so I figured it would give me something new and different to post about, so here I go. Anyone who wants to do this tag, feel free, but I tag...Kendra, Megan, Becca, Bethany, Julie, and Hayley.

I am: now a mother
I know: that families are eternal
I want: to feel in control of my life again and have a schedule
I have: a club foot
I dislike: the snow after Christmas
I miss: my parents and California
I feel: lazy sometimes
I hear: a baby breathing on the monitor
I smell: nothing
I crave: water, I am thirsty all the time
I cry: when I think about how fast my baby is growing up
I search: for free scrapbooking stuff on ikeagoddess.blogspot.com
I wonder: if we will ever move from Utah
I regret: not participating in study abroad programs while at BYU
I love: my son
I care: about my family
I worry: about my weight
I remember: camping every year at Dinkey Creek
I believe: we have a true prophet on earth today
I dance: with my son
I don't: like having a messy/cluttered house
I argue: when I feel like I am right
I write: in my daily calendar with the weeks' "To Do List"
I win: at things that I put my mind to
I lose: at bowling--not my sport
I wish: my husband worked at normal times of the day
I listen: to 103.9 fm most of the time in the car
I can usually be found: at home--sad huh :(
I am scared: that something will happen to my baby
I need: new clothes
I forget: to read my scriptures as often as I would like
I am happy: when I am doing what is right

Hope everyone has a good week!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Warning: Bouncing while running may be hazardous to your health...

Throughout my pregnancy I walked at an incline for 40-50 minutes 5-6 times a week, because I was worried about running while being pregnant. Since I've had the baby I've tried to go a few times a week, but am lucky to get 2-3 times in (and it's with the baby, so it's always just walking). Well, this morning I decided I was going to make sure to leave the baby so I could try and run a little with the walking. So I fed the baby and then about an hour and half later, when he was asleep, left for a walk/jog. Have any of you tried running with DD boobs that are fairly full of milk???? (I HATE having such a big chest since being pregnant) Let's just say it is horrible. It's fairly painful, and completely uncomfortable. I could only run for a little bit at a time, and everytime I did run, I had my arms holding/supporting my chest as I ran. I'm sure that everyone who drove past me thought that I was retarded and didn't know how to run. I tried switching it up and only used one arm to support at times, but then it just looked like my other arm was lame. What am I suppose to do (I will definitely make sure that I go right after I feed next time, but what else?), how am I suppose to be able to do more than walk while I am nursing? This seriously sucks. I knew that nursing would take sacrafices, but I never thought that running would have to be one of them. Any suggestions or ideas? Anyone out there ever have to deal with this besides me? Please help!!!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Something to cheer about...

So last week, and the week before, Albertsons was running some great deals. Oh, even the week before that too. I have to say how excited I am for their super 10 for $10 or less deals. The first week I got Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom soups for 50 cents a piece. You can't even get Wal-mart's brand of the cream soups for that price. My mom and sister thought it was such a great deal, I had to pick them up some too. (I think I got close to 100 cans of soup :) Then the next week they had Duncan Hines cake mixes and Hershey's baking chips for 70 cents a piece (but they ran out so I had to get a rain check). Last week they had Pillsbury rolls, crescent rolls, and cinnamon rolls for $1.00 a piece and I had 30-50 cent coupons off each one. Plus they had general mills cereal $1.50 a box. Well they ran out of cereal so I had another rain check with that (not to mention the coupons I had for those too 50-75 cents off a box--all thanks to bettycrocker.com).

This morning I ran to Albertsons in hopes that they would have all of the items in that I had rain checks for and tada!!!!


10 boxes of cereal (Lucky Charms, Plain/Honey Nut/Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, and Total Cinnamon Crunch) plus 10 boxes of Duncan Hines cake mixes, and 10 bags of a variety of Hershey's baking chips all for a grand total of...$24.67!!! Now, maybe you don't think that's a great price, but I was sure happy with it all. I think that if I had bought all of these items at Albertsons at regular price (not the cheapest on a daily basis I know, but still) I would have spent about: $100.00.
Soooo cool huh?!!



Sunday, October 12, 2008

A few things to post about...

First of all, a big hooray because Creighton got his car back last Monday. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited we were to get it back. The first thing we had to do was get it registered, since that expired in August. But you can't register a car you don't have can you?? The next thing we realized was how filthy it was. So Wednesday morning, we gave it a good old scrub--inside and out, and now Creighton doesn't feel so dirty driving it. But here's the best part of all. Creighton told me today that the check engine light came on yesterday, and so far has stayed on--not a good thing. Let's just hope we can figure this all out quickly and painlessly. Creighton is already talking about getting rid of it, and getting a new one for him...two cars in 1 year is a little much for me, so let's hope it doesn't really get that far. We still have to take my car in to get the side fixed, but that should be much quicker--cross your fingers!

Last weekend some friends gave me a good size bag of hand picked peaches, and I decided to make some raspberry-peach freezer jam. My good friend Julie makes it, and always gives me some, and since it never lasts long at all, I thought I would make my own batch of it. Well the peaches I had made enough for about 8 batches of jam, so I went to Mitchell's to get some raspberries. I bought a whole flat, and it was only enough to make 6 batches (so I used the rest of the peaches for oatmeal and waffles), but boy oh boy is that a lot of jam. I used almost my whole 25 pound bag of sugar!! It took some time, but I think it was worth it. So far two people have told me how good it was, so I guess my first freezer jam experience can be called a success. Here are the results...

(I think that the color of the jam is so pretty, Creighton said it looked like blood :) )


Here is a peak into the baby's room. We are still finishing up the wall on the opposite side; adding some pictures and his name. So I don't have anything to post of that side. The bead board goes all the way around the room, except for that it is only 1/2 way up on the other walls. Doing the bead board this high, and with a shelf, was our friends' idea, and we just love how it turned out.

Now for a quick "quote of the day." I have to quote Bella Swan (yes I am a HUGE Twilight fan for those of you who don't know. Maybe one day I'll have a confessional on my blog where I admit just how HUGE of a fan I really am).
"EW. SNOW," Bella Swan

This is the horrible view from my back window, from this morning, after it had already started to melt. Luckily this afternoon, things look quite a bit different. I'm just so glad I didn't have to drive in it last night like Creighton did!!!!! Where oh where has fall gone? Please don't say it is gone for good. We never really had spring this year, so please don't take fall away too. Haven't we had enough winter????? I miss CA...

Saturday, October 04, 2008

One month has come and gone...

Last Friday, Sept. 26th, my little guy turned 1 month old :) I can't believe that it has been over a month now since he was born. He is growing so much too. He weighs about 10 1/2 pounds and is about 22 inches long. I can't believe he weighs that much because he only eats every 3-4 hours, and I am lucky if I can get him to eat for a total of 20 minutes. I guess he is just a really efficient eater, and maybe I have really good milk...who knows! The poor boy is slowly losing his hair on the top of his head, and he is just about finished with a good old case of baby acne--ha ha! But things are clearing up, and he is still just as cute as ever. I truly believe that I fall more in love with him everyday. I am just waiting for his first real smile. Hopefully it will be coming sometime soon, and I better be the first person he smiles for, considering that I am the person he spends the most time with, plus I am his #1 care giver :)

Here is his 1 month old picture.
This is a picture of him after a bath. Can you tell how much he loves having his head covered by the towel?? It was driving him crazy, but my sister and I just laughed the whole time I was taking the pictures of him. He is just too cute!!!
This is Creighton's favorite past time with him. This is how I found them when I got home from getting my hair cut a couple of weeks ago. Too funny!


I have some projects that I have been working on, so as soon as I get them completed, and get some pictures taken of them, I will put up some more posts about them all.


Friday, October 03, 2008

Two new recipes and an old favorite...

Over the last couple of weeks I tried two new recipes that I got from allrecipes.com and I really liked them, so I thought I would share them with everyone. If you haven't been to allrecipes, you should definitely go try it out. They have every recipe imaginable, and each recipe is rated and reviewed by people who have tried it out, so after reading the reviews you can pretty much find the necessary changes to have the perfect recipe!! I love it.

I tried this one a couple of weeks ago, and we really liked the pretzels. We made all different flavors, and they were all delicious. The only thing I have to say is that they need to be eaten that day, and the sooner the better. Pretzels just don't keep very long. So either make sure you have enough people to eat them all, or make 1/2 a batch :)

Mall Pretzels

INGREDIENTS

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.
Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.
After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.
Editor's Note

When forming the ropes, roll each one to about half the length you want, then set it aside while you roll the rest. By the time you get back to the first rope, it will have rested enough to roll further.

This carrot cake recipe I made last week. I only made 1/2 of the cake because Creighton doesn't like carrot cake as much as I do, plus with only 2 people, we don't need a whole cake :) I made a couple of modifications to this cake after reading the reviews, plus I like to make cake, muffins, and breads healthier by substituting apple sauce for oil, and cutting down the amount of whole eggs. (I actually usually just use apple sauce and egg whites, no oil or whole eggs, but the reviews said that this way was the best, so I didn't take out as much fat/calories as I normally do).

Carrot Cake

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs (2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites)
3/4 cups vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce
1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots (grated with the cheese grater side)
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, apple sauce white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

This recipe for taco soup, I got from a student 2 years ago. It is one of the easiest soups to make, it's super healthy, and absolutely delicious. So if you are looking for a super easy, delicious, taco soup, you have to try this one.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or cubed
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. chile powder
6 C. water
6 chicken bouillon cubes
16 oz. Jar of chunky salsa
15 oz. Can of corn, drained
15 oz. Can of beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 C. chopped fresh cilantro (I have never actually put the cilantro in, because I never have it on hand, and it tastes great without it too, so I guess it's optional)


Optional Toppings:

Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and sour cream

Directions:

Place all ingredients except for toppings into crock pot and cook on low for 5-7 hours.

Well, I hope everyone enjoys the recipes. If you have anything extra special good to share, please pass it along to me. I just love to try new recipes, especially ones that are already tested by others :)