December

Brayden ended his semester with awesome grades and was glad to get a break from school. I had to work the week after Brayden was done with school so we got about a week and half break down in Utah. Here are a few highlights from our break...

We got to have dinner and play games with my brother Matt, sister-in-law Emily, and niece Mariah. That girl is so stinkin cute. She was making some cute faces for me.

Christmas was great with Brayden's family and both Nicole and I got an ipad mini!

 Family Picture on Christmas Day

 Mia Rockin' out on Brayden's new Dre Beats headphones

 Brayden's Grandma Jones rockin' Brayden's Celtics hat.

 We celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Hooray!

October and November

So it is a new year and i have not blogged in over two months. One of my goals for this year is to continue to get better at taking pictures and then blogging about it. So here is a brief update of what we did in the months of October and November.

In the middle of Ocotber we got to meet our sweet new niece, Mariah Rose. She is such a little doll.

We didn't really do a lot for Halloween because Brayden was busy with homework but I did make these cute candy corn sugar cookies.

In November I had a random urge to make homemade cupcakes and frosting. I then had a little fun decorating them. As you can see I made a good decision to NOT become a cake decorator. haha

Over Thanksgiving break we also went to a Jazz game and had pretty good seats!

Our niece Mia had fun copying Brayden and decided she wanted to play some video games too! haha

A Delicious Mistake

So tonight I made a delicious mistake. We had our friends Mike and Sam over for FHE (family home evening) and I was making dessert. I decided to make some no bake cookies with ice cream over them. Instead of letting the cookies cool and harden you put a scoop of it when it is warm and gooey and then put a scoop or two of ice cream on top. It is SO good! I was excited to share this treat with our friends. Well, when I went to the store earlier today I couldn't find the cocoa so I asked a store clerk. He grabbed a bag and told me it was cocoa and that it was in a bag because it made it a lot cheaper. I didn't think anything of it and went home to prepare our treat. As I was making the cookies I was at the step where you add 3 tablespoons of cocoa. Right after I added it something didn't seem right so I looked at the bag and it said the word "CINNAMON"!!! I yelled "NOOOO" and everyone asked what was wrong. I told them my dilemma and they said well lets see what it tastes like with cinnamon. I was a little skeptical but I didn't want to throw it all away and waste all the ingredients. I decided that there was wayyy too much cinnamon in there so I took as much as I could out of it. I would say it ended up being about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. We also didn't put any peanut butter in. Peanut butter and cinnamon didn't sound too good. haha I was sooo excited when we tried it and it was actually delicious! It was actually kinda perfect because it tasted like a Fall dessert with the cinnamon.

So, if you need a new spin on your regular no bake cookies try this recipe! I'm trying to think of a good name for these. Here are a couple that we thought of: "Cinnamon No Bake Cookies", "CinnaBakes", "Oops... CinnaBakes", "No Bake Cookie Twist". What's your favorite? Any other good names that you can think of?

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1t. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1 T cinnamon
3-4 cups quick oatmeal

Directions:
Combine sugar, milk, butter, cinnamon in saucepan. Bring to boil for 3 min and stir. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Stir and spoon onto wax paper to cool OR spoon into bowl and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

WARNING: These are very rich so you are only going to need a small scoop of it because if you put too much then it becomes a bit of a sugar overload.

Hope you enjoy this yummy Fall treat!

Pumpkin Carving

Last night Brayden and I carved pumpkins with our friends Mike and Sam Hall. Brayden was companions and roommates with Mike and is one of his best friends. I hadn't carved a pumpkin in a while and it seems like all the times I can remember carving one someone else had done most of it. This time Brayden and I each got a pumpkin and carved our own. I was a little nervous that I was going to ruin mine because I'm not the most artsy, creative, or patient person when it comes to that kind of thing. I was very happy when it actually turned out pretty good. We are still putting the finishing touches on them and haven't put candles in them yet but here is a little sneak peak...

 This ones mine!

Here is Brayden's pumpkin. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a CLUE. He still has to do the writing on top of it but he is of course very proud of representing his team. Now Brayden and I are still trying to decide what we should be for Halloween. Any ideas??

Life Lately

Well it's been over a month since the last time I wrote! I definitely have been thinking about different things to post about but just haven't ever sat down to write them down so this post is going to be a little mix of everything.
Brayden and I are now officially back in Idaho and we are loving our new apartment. It is a definite upgrade to our first apartment we lived in up here. Brayden is working hard in his classes and currently has held onto all A's. So proud of him! Since it was a bit of a last minute decision to move back up here it was a little hard to find a full time teaching job so for now I am working part time as a Title 1 paraprofessional. This means I go into classrooms and work with students who are a little behind and need some extra help. So far I've enjoyed it and am starting to get to know the students I work with better. I am hoping that it will turn into something more full time but for now it has been awesome to have so much time to prepare and cook dinner and get other things done around the house.
 I feel like Brayden has appreciated my extra time as well because I have cooked a lot better meals than when we were first married. haha I am absolutely LOVING the "Our Best Bites, Mormon Moms in the Kitchen" cookbook that I got from our wedding. Every recipe that I have tried has turned out great! One that Brayden had been wanting me try was the chicken cordon bleu. I finally made it a couple weeks ago and it was delicious!

 Some of our other favorites from Our Best Bites are the Alfredo Artichoke Chicken Pasta Bake and the French Dip Sandwiches.

One day when I was blog hopping I saw a recipe for peanut butter cookies. What caught my eye about this recipe was that it was 3 ingredients. SO EASY! It's always nice to have some easy recipes especially when you are having a sweet tooth. 

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

this makes about one dozen cookies 

 

Directions:

Mix ingredients together

Roll into balls and place on greased cookie sheet

Dip fork into sugar (so the fork doesn't stick to the dough) and smash the cookies like so

Cook on 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes  

Let cool....

For only being 3 ingredients they turned out great and really satisfied my sweet tooth for that evening.

In other news, we have a new niece! She is soooo adorable! We got to meet her this past weekend and I can't wait to see her again.

Beautiful Mariah Rose

Summer Highlights

Sadly, summer is ending and Brayden and I are moving back to Idaho tomorrow. We are excited but sad to leave family. I'll post some pictures once we are settled up there. So, I thought I would post some of our favorite things we did this summer and that we'll miss while in Idaho.

Eat this sandwich....

 This is one mine and Brayden's favorite summer lunches. It consists of a slice of pastrami, a slice of turkey, Havarti cheese, and a couple slices of avocado. Pop this thing in the toaster oven and it is oh so good.

Hanging out with these people....

Brayden and I got to hang out with his best friend Jordan and his wife Natalie a couple times this summer. Our joke was that if one of us was at Cafe Rio we would most likely see the other. Not even joking but this happened probably about 90% of the time. We also enjoyed playing games and having movie nights with them. In this picture we went to a drive-in movie together and played games before the movie started.

Hanging out with these people as well...

We also got to hang out with Jenna's brother Matt and wife Emily. We got to play games a couple times and Matt and Brayden went golfing one day. We are soooo excited for their little girl to come in just a couple weeks. We definietly will be making a trip down to meet our new niece!

And hanging out with these people as well....

Since living in Brayden's parent's basement this summer we have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with his family. It has been so fun being able to spend time with them and getting to know them better. In this picture we had a girls day to the farmers market.

We have had a great summer but are ready to move on to the next chapter in our life in good ole' Idaho. We'll keep updated on our adventures up there!

And happy we will be...

A year ago today Brayden proposed to me! The photo above was the last message I saw before he proposed to me. I am happy to say that his message was correct and we are so happy together. I am so happy I said "yes" to his proposal and said "yes" at the temple. I cannot imagine my life without him. I cannot believe we have been married for 7 1/2 months! I can't wait to see what life has for us in the future. Love you Bray!