Sugar High

Last night for Young Women's we had a Dessert Cooking Class. We made 3 quick and easy no-bake desserts (in one hour) that are all really yummy, so I thought I would share the recepies.

(If you have never had Almond Bark Drop Cookies, you have to make them. They are rediculously good!)

1. Almond Bark Drop Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 pound Almond Bark
½ cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 cup peanuts
2 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup miniature marshmallows
DIRECTIONS
In a microwave oven, melt the Almond Bark and peanut butter; stir until well blended. Fold in the peanuts, crisp rice cereal, and marshmallows. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto waxed paper lined baking sheets.
Chill until set. Store in refrigerator.

2. Peanut Butter Fudge
INGREDIENTS
4 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
2 2/3 cups peanut butter
Chocolate, if desired
DIRECTIONS
Boil milk and sugar in a medium saucepan for three minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, and immediately stir in the marshmallow creme and peanut butter.
Pour and spread into a greased jelly roll pan. Melt chocolate and drizzle on top. Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

3. Puppy Chow
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
9 cups crispy corn or rice cereal squares (chex)
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
Melt the peanut butter with the butter (or margarine) and the chocolate chips. Stir in vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cereal and stir until well coated.
Pour into 2-gal food-storage plastic bag. Add the powdered sugar, seal bag, and shake to coat. Spread onto waxed paper to cool about 30 min. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Corn on the Cob, Sand, and Dead Fish...

What more could you want from a trip to the lake?? Makenna got to experience all of these things for the first time this past weekend. We went to my parent's house to celebrate my brother Morgan's 17th Birthday, and Makenna had so much fun playing with her cousins.

First, she played in the baby pool, which I thought would be cleaner than the lake. Well, that may have been the case, but then Ben brought his dead pet fish in, which he had been carrying around the whole evening.Here is Ben with his fish in hand! Eventually we separated Ben from his beloved fish, but not until after lots of tears and protests.

After playing in the pool, Makenna enjoyed some corn on the cob with her cousins. She absolutely LOVED it!

The sand came into play when I left Makenna with her Grandma so that I could go in the boat for a little while. As we pulled away from the beach, I could see Makenna sitting on the beach with a big handful of sand to her mouth. When I came back, she was covered in sand, and it was all over her face and mouth. I should've taken a picture, but I was too busy giving Makenna a bath in the sink!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Our Anniversary

4 - The number of years that John and I have been married.

3 - The number of states that we have lived in since we have been married:

Utah

Washington

(This picture was actually taken in Oregon, but since we lived just over the Columbia river from Oregon, it still counts!)

Nebraska

(I don't really have any "Nebraska" pictures, but here is a cute picture of Makenna with her Great-Grandpa Bailey, who she gets to see much more often now that we live in NE.)

2 - The number of "moons" we have been on since we have been married:

1 Honeymoon to Jamaica, and 1 Babymoon to Hawaii

(All of our Honeymoon pictures were on good old-fashioned film, so you just get to see some pictures from our Babymoon.)

1 - The number of beautiful babies we have brought into our family since we have been married.

Here is a video of Makenna crawling!!! (sorry no sound)

It is hard to believe that John and I have been married for 4 years already. I feel so lucky to have such a smart, funny, good-looking husband to hold my hand. Thanks for bringing so much joy into my life. I love you John!

Out with the Old, and In with the New

John and I decided that after 3 1/2 years of sleeping on a full-sized bed, it was time to upgrade our bedroom furniture. Ever since we have been married, we have had my old bedroom set, which was originally my GREAT-Grandma and Grandpa's! It has been a good set for us, and was still in really good shape, but it wasn't really our style, and we just had to get a bigger bed. With permission, we sold it on Craigs list, and went shopping.

We decided that if we were going to get a new bed, we might as well get our dream bed, so we bought a king-sized sleigh bed. Did we need a king-sized bed? Probably not, but we decided to get one anyway. It took us 3 1/2 hours to pick out the furniture and the mattress, but now that we have them, we absolutely love them. John and I were pretty much in heaven when we slept on our bed for the first time. Our new mattress is amazing! Picking out the bedding was another whole issue. I made way too many trips to Pottery Barn, and brought home 3 different duvet covers before we finally agreed on one. But we are both very happy with the way that it looks now, and are sleeping great, especially since we finally have taught Makenna to sleep through the night! It is amazing what a difference sleep can make!

The old set:

The new set:

A Typical Week

This past week has been pretty boring and uneventful, but luckily I have an 8-month old little baby to entertain me.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

One of Makenna's new tricks. Whenever she is on her tummy, she either pushes herself up to this position, or up on her hands and knees. She can also now push herself back up to a sitting position. She is not quite crawling, but still manages to scoot, squirm, and shimmy herself across the floor. The other day I set her on the bathroom floor in front of the counter while I brushed my teeth, and I made the mistake of leaving the room for a minute. When I came back, Makenna had maneuvered her way over to the trash can, knocked it over, and was pulling things out of it! Note to self: keep trash cans empty.

Makenna has also learned how to pull herself up onto her knees. She is constantly trying to pull herself into my lap.

She also loves to put her hands inside of things. Whenever I have a drink, she tries to shove her hand inside the glass. It splashes all over, and is usually pretty funny as long as it is just water. Here she is trying to get her hand inside a jar of baby food.

Makenna loves to play with lots of non-toy items. Some of her favorites are mommy's make-up (the mascara is particularly appealing), the window blinds, and anything that has a cord.
This is probably my favorite picture from the past week. I was making dinner, and John was watching Makenna in the other room. I heard him laughing, and this is what I found when I came to investigate!

First Words and New Photos

Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma...
That is what I have been hearing non-stop for the past two days! Although I am sure that she doesn't know what she is saying yet, it is still super exciting to hear her say it!

I took Makenna to get her pictures taken at the beginning of this month, and although John thinks that I spent too much money, I just couldn't help it. The pictures were just too cute, and I had to have them!

Here are some of my favorites:

Viva Las Vegas!

Exactly one week after returning home from Utah, Makenna and I were back on a plane, this time headed for Las Vegas (and joined by John). We had been planning this trip for awhile, but I was a little nervous about it, since both Makenna and I had come down with colds since our Utah trip, and we had heard that it was going to be ridiculously hot in Vegas, but off we went!

We stayed at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay, which is right on the strip. It was definitely one of the ritziest hotels I've ever stayed in. We decided that going to Las Vegas by ourselves with Makenna wouldn't be the best idea ever, so we planned our trip with John's parents, and they had an adjoining suite to ours.

During the week, we enjoyed swimming at our hotel (there were 2 regular pools, a lazy river, a wave pool, and a large kiddie pool),

exploring the different hotels on the strip,

eating at lots of yummy buffets, and hanging out with John's parents.

The highlight of the trip however was the shows. On Tuesday night we all went and saw Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil. Makenna starting crying during the pre-show entertainment, and I thought oh no, this could be a disaster, but she actually did really well during the show, and alternated between watching and being excited, and trying to bury her head in my chest to go to sleep (it was WAY past her bedtime).

Here we are at Mystere before the show

On Thursday night, John and I left Makenna with his parents and we went and saw Phantom: the Las Vegas Spectacular. It was AMAZING!! We absolutly loved it, and of course had to buy the cd, which we have been listening to since we got home.

The trip was not without challenges, like when Makenna was awake from 12-3am the first night, or when I got really sick Wednesday night, but overall it was a really great trip, and we are glad that we went.

Thanks Mom and Da for coming to Vegas with us and helping with Makenna. It was great to share our week with you!