Oreo Pudding Cookies

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So often times, when I am on Pinterest, re-pinning things I wonder if anyone has actually tried/cooked/used/read the pin, or if they are just re-pinning. I especially wonder this on recipes. So I thought that I would start recommending Pins that I have tried and liked, in case anyone ever wonders the same thing.

One of the first things I made from Pinterest a few months ago were these cookies. They are AMAZING! I can only make them now for neighbor treats or for events, otherwise we would eat the entire batch. They are called Oreo Pudding Cookies and boy are they good! Ingredients include – Oreo Pudding, Cookies and Cream Candy Bar and Chocolate Chips.

 Two things I have learned when making these: 1.-If you are making them for people I recommend doubling the recipe and 2- Do not over cook them. The original recipe says 8 minutes or so but my oven tends to cook faster so I usually cook them for only 5 to 6 minutes. These are only good chewy, so just be careful to watch them and don’t overcook them. You can find the recipe here: Oreo Pudding Cookies

Lucky Charms and Army Wives

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Sleep has not been my friend this week. April 29 was the last night I could sleep on my back and since then I have spent the nights tossing and turning – resulting in only 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Today it has caught up with me resulting in some sniffles and exhaustion. So I decided to take it easy and reward myself by enjoying some much anticipated carbs via a bowl of Lucky Charms and watching Army Wives on Netflix.

- My stomach seems to be getting bigger every second – I can’t believe I still have three 3+ months to get even bigger!

- I LOVE Carbs, if I had to choose between sweets or carbs I would definitely choose the latter. I have been on a low, basically, no carb diet for a little bit and recently have been dreaming about carbs – Pizza, Cheesy Pull-Aparts  from The Pie, Sweet Potato Fries, I think I amy reward myself this weekend

- I recently turned all of our white kitchen towels pink because I left them in the washer with our red rugs for 3 days, 3 DAYS!!

- I have a love/hate relationship with Netflix Instant Stream – because of it I get hooked on TV shows that I would never otherwise watch

- I don’t think I will ever get use to feeling this little girl kicking inside of me – even if she likes to party at 3 am

- I am obsessed with Chick-Fil-A’s Diet Lemonade, I think it has filled my Diet Coke void

Bedroom Art

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So I set a personal goal for myself recently. I love Pinterest (duh) but have discovered that I could spend my life away each day sitting in front of my computer re-pinning things. It hasn’t be all a waste – most of the recipes I cook these days are from Pinterest and I have found some great workouts to add to my regime, but overall, there seems to be a lot of sitting and not a lot of doing. So – I have set a goal to actually do/make/implement something each week that I have pinned from Pinterest. (We will see how this goes).

To kick-start this goal, I decided to make some art for our bedroom. I recently completed sewing some pillows for the bed and when it gets made – it looks pretty good, but besides the bedspread and pillows, that is all our room has going for it.

So my next project for the room was an art project I found on Pinterest. (Original tutorial can be found here). Our bedroom is gray and yellow, but I wanted to mix in some other colors as well. So I went to Michael’s crafts to get some supplies:

-12X12 Canvas { x2 }
-Paintbrushes {I got brushes for acrylic paints}
-Martha Stewart Acrylic Craft Paints {she has amazing colors}
-Tape {the original tutorial used very thin painters tape, but I used thicker masking tape to make the grids larger}


So the next step is to tape the canvas in a grid-pattern. I thought I took a picture of this step, but didn’t, so I apologize! I did a diagonal grid. Once it has been taped off, you can begin painting. I didn’t really follow a pattern, I wanted the colors to be random. I also wanted yellow and gray to be the most used colors.

Here is one of the canvas’ after I painted in the squares.

You can see the tape lines as well, to give you an idea on how to tape.  After letting it dry, all you have to do  is take off the tape and “Presto” you have a beautiful piece of grid art.

The gray looks pretty dark in this photo, but when I put it against the walls, I think it will look great! I have one more piece of art to do, that will hang in between them, so will keep you posted! I have no artistic bone in my body, so was quite proud of myself when I completed these and they looked pretty good!

Adam’s Big Day

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On February 1, my handsome husband turned the big 3-0.
To celebrate this event, I decided to throw a Surprise Party for him.
[Warning - this post contains ALOT of pictures]

{Menu}: Sweet Pork Tacos
Chicken Tortilla Soup

{The Party}

{Surprise!}

{The Boy’s Favorite Treats}

Chocolate Cupcakes, Peanut M&M’s, Gumballs

Blue Raspberry Tootie Frooties, Reese’s Pieces,

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Homemade Oreos

{The Guests}

It was a fun night full of wonderful friends and good food!

20 Weeks

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Well we are halfway there, unfortunately unlike most other cases – it is all downhill   uphill from here. This has been a pretty easy pregnancy for the most part minus a few hiccups and for that I am grateful. Friday was the first time that I really felt ‘pregnant.’ I have been really active this week – gym time, long walks with the dog, major cleaning, etc.  and Thursday night that all seemed to collide into one very painful lower back ache. This continued into Friday and I was laid up for most of the day. This was the first time that I actually felt like there really was something growing inside of me and that my body is not the same (ugh).  But as I continue to read and learn about pregnancy and birth and I am continually amazed at the incredible things our bodies can do.

Major Cravings so far? French Toast, Fruit, and sadly anything sweet and sugary

Food Staples? Tapatio Hot Sauce, Cheese, Popsicles

I have been avoiding posting any pictures, but have received numerous texts from people asking for an updated one, so here goes nothing. . . . .

 

 

 

The Difference Paint Can Make

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So I spent this last week on a hiatus in Provo while they painted the trim and walls at our house. Now, before you get too excited, we just had them prime the walls because there are still a few things to be done construction wise on the main floor so I didn’t want to get the walls all nice and painted, only to get potentially ruined or nicked during the final stages.

Now having said that, it is amazing the difference, even white primer can do! It is starting to feel like  a real house. So to emphasize the difference, I thought I would do a before and after shot of each room.

The Parlor:
If you recall – this was the room in the worst condition. No walls, just frames full of the 1800′s Adobe Brick Insulation.
Before: (Photo of doorway and part of West-facing windows)

 

After: Now fully functioning with insulation, drywall, trim and primer!

 

Remember the red kitchen???
 After: Red is gone! More to come in the kitchen – including new granite counter tops, new cupboards and hopefully one wall knocked down.

One last photo of the Mud Room. This room was also missing walls.

Before: Showing Back Door and Part of Wall
After: Same door plus the windows with new trim!

‘The Change’

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So last week I decided to take the plunge and purchase some maternity clothes. I have delayed this event for a number of reasons. 1- I didn’t want to admit that my middle was expanding. 2-It seems to me a lot of stores that carry both regular and maternity clothes tend to lose their creativity when developing the maternity line and it just becomes bland t-shirts.   3- I have a thing, a thing about buying clothes that I am only going to wear for the next few months or so. I am not sure why this bugs me, but I have been struggling to adopt the idea of buying clothes to fit only during pregnancy.

But after some gentle encouragement from my husband, who I am sure was sick of seeing me in the same two pairs of sweats everyday, and then watching me squeeze my ever expanding belly into my jeans when we go out, I conceded.

So I started off by purchasing some things online from Motherhood and Pea in the Pod. It took me three hours of searching, adding and removing things into my carts, bouncing back from five different sites but at the end of the search I was starting to feel comfortable, maybe even excited about the new goodies that are now en route to my house. I was even starting to feel confident and excited to wear clothes again. So I decided to take this bravery to Target to purchase some new workout clothes and bras.

This was a disaster. The last time I felt this uncomfortable in my own skin was in Junior High – feeling like I was encased in an unfamiliar and clumsy shell. I kept having flashbacks of walking down the halls of Dixon Middle School feeling clumsy and extremely awkward. It seemed everyone else in the store was full of calm, confident beauty. They would walk into the dressing room with arms full of clothes and come out with that same arm load. While I would go in with five things and come out with nothing- everything I tried on didn’t fit right. I didn’t know what sizes to pull and was just left to wandering down each aisle, confused, ashamed and extremely uncomfortable.

I finally gave up trying things on. I carried a basket full of bottoms, tops and bras to the register and checked out, eyes brimming with tears. What a disaster!

Trim

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We are approaching the end of Phase 1 – which was to make the main floor actually livable again. This summer we will be updating the kitchen and doing a few other small cosmetic things, but for the most part we are approaching the end (Yeah!).

The last month we my dad has been doing all of the finish work. We chose a somewhat elaborate design for the doors and windows to keep the feel of the house somewhat authentic. We also chose to do tall base because of the height of the ceilings. Although the trim and walls aren’t painted yet, it is amazing the difference it makes!

Front Door Trim

Window Trim

Doorway Trim

As you can see in the above picture I am testing out paint colors. I want to do the kitchen and living room the same blue – a robins egg-like blue. I have since found the color ( I think) it is called Shallow Sea, here is a swatch. It is a bit bold, but I like it! Now I just need to find a color for the entry.

 

New Year

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I have written this post in my head a million different times in the last month. Yet, I could not find the motivation or desire to actually type it up until now. This week I realized how much I missed the blog world – reading about everyone’s lives. (You should really just blame Pinterest). So here is to the first of many new posts.

Here is what has happened so far in 2012

*We are pregnant. I am 14 weeks this week
It was a rough start, with weeks filled with bed rest but things are going pretty well now.
I am currently in that awkward stage where I look fat rather than pregnant.

(Token Belly Picture)

*Because of the bed rest we decided that it would be best for me to quit my job at Sundance to take it easy to make sure the pregnancy progresses safely. So I left my wonderful job and now work at home for my husband. I was sad to leave, but know this was the best decision and am very grateful it was an option

*Because of the above, I am going through a little adjustment period- going from full work days to part time at home. It has been fun, but at the same time I feel a bit lost

*Lots of progress has been made on the house (pictures to come in next post) and we are winding down Phase 1 and beginning to start Phase 2 (the basement).

*My husband turned the big 3-0. He is now in the “Thirty, Flirty and Thriving” stage (namve that movie) Had a surprise party for him – pictures to come.

*We are currently fighting a few battles with the Historical Society regarding an addition we want to do on the house. We have already gotten rejected twice, so our fingers are crossed that the third time really is the charm.

Residing

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Yes, we are alive. . . . alive and well.

There is so much to talk about and I am not sure where to begin.

We are in. We took the plunge and moved in on the 18th, amongst subfloor and drywall.
My one request (of many ) was to get the bedroom painted before we moved in, although we won’t be doing work upstairs until next year, I wanted a space that I felt had our touch on it.
So I went to Home Depot and spent 80 dollars worth of sample pints – 5 different grays for the bedroom and 4 different blues for the kitchen. I think the woman at Home Depot thought I was crazy.

So, the first step in the bedroom was to prime over the golden glow of the current wall color. This was my first experience with painting walls and to be honest it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped.

Previous color

Primed Walls (Apparently painting for me is a challenge, at one point I got so mad at Adam because his walls looked so great and mine looked so terrible. I know, I know it is just primer, but still)

So as a birthday surprise, a member of our bishopric came over and helped Adam paint the walls the gray color I selected.

And here is the finished room:

Our charcoal bedspread looks great with the walls. I am currently sewing the pillows and working on the finishing touches and then I will post pictures.

The floors were put in downstairs three days after we moved in which was a real upgrade from subfloor! I went from feeling like I was camping to actually living in a house.

And here we are almost a month later. I finally finished unpacking the kitchen this weekend. It was the longest process - vacuuming and washing out each and every cupboard and drawer
-Washing everything that I unpacked – without a dishwasher

A month later we are also now finally sleeping through the night. The first few nights were rough – we both never really let ourselves fall asleep and jumped at every noise we heard.

Now this next part I am somewhat embarrassed to say, because I vowed to never be this person. But this little guy has really made our lives a little happier. No, he does not sleep with us, no we don’t dress him up. We do treat him like a dog, but we do love him.