Baby, Oh Baby!

Can babies at 5 months have their own personalities already? My answer is YES! This is what I know of my girls so far:

Baby A:
She is a lot like her mom.
- she is very active
- she kicks hard
- she likes to stay up late
- she is stubborn (I have to move not her)
Not like me but still true.
- she is very territorial, if I lay on my left side or up against the counter she kicks until I move. Her space is hers!

Baby B:
She is a lot like her dad.
- she is very chill
- she doesn't like to get a lot of attention (she shys away during ultra sounds)
- she is a morning girl. (like 5 in the morning type)
- she is very giving, if I lay on her side, or poke at her she just moves and gives me some space.

I love my girls! They are so fun. Alan has been able to feel both girls kick. We have lots and lots of pictures (I need Alan to scan them then I can post some). Everytime I go in and see my girls I walk out missing them already. I can't wait for April to come so I can see them all day everyday. But until then I am enjoying the time we have together and each little kick and twist.

Pop Quiz

A. I ate way too much at Thanksgiving dinner.
B. I'm 4 months pregnant.
C. Both A and B

SUMMER TIME FUN-- A FEW ADVENTURES

4TH OF JULY AT THE RANCH AND MYSTERY CANYON

CAMPING AND RANCH WORK

BACKPACKING FORTYMILE GULCH

ENGLESTEAD CANYON

BIRTCH HOLLOW

BRANDING IN MOAB

I LOVE GOING HOME AND BEING WITH FAMILY!

Crepes

I have a lot of catching up to do. I still haven't even put our pictures from Mexico up yet. But all of that will have to wait another day (mainly because I hate waiting while the pictures load). A few people have asked for this recipe so as I was typing it out for another person I thought I would just add them here.

Small history on the crepes and filling. Every year for Alan's family reunion each family takes a meal and prepares it for the whole family of about 70-90 people. I love to cook, but I hate choosing what to cook. You never want to do the same old same old, but you can't get too fancy when cooking for that many people; so last summer I came up with crepes (which I had ate a lot of but never made). You could fill them with fruit and sauce, eggs with sausage gravy or nutella. I was pretty proud of my idea. Simple, yet different. The crepe recipe came from Alton Brown on the Food Network. The sauce is actually a cream filling from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. I have to mention the cream filling because I miss hanging out with my bro! I found it one day a long long time ago in 2009, as Ben and I had set out to make Eclairs. I'm don't remember why we wanted to make them but we had fun. The cream filling is the filling for the Eclairs and it is yummy yummy.

These recipes are easy easy and are seriously the best.

Crepes
Ingredients
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Butter, for coating the pan

Directions
In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months. When using frozen crepes, thaw on a rack before gently peeling apart.

Sauce
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 large egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Pour half of the mixture into egg yolks stiring constantly, then pour back into saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into bowl. Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top. Refrigerate at least 1 hour until cool.

*I cook on high instead of medium when I want it to be a sauce. The lower temperature and cooking it longer is what makes it more a custard.

AHHHhh Honey, Honey....

12 pounds of honey really isn't that much. Right? Okay maybe it is, but I... I like honey. Not in a really really like honey type of way, but I like it. I like how on a peanut butter and honey sandwich it makes the bread kind of crusty. But that’s really the only time I use honey. But what I really really like is the idea of honey. I want to be a bee keeper. Not in a someday kind of way, but in a, if the class was on any other night other than Tuesday nights I would be in the class right now. I have it all planned out. The bees come in a box in the mail. :) That sounds fun!! I will put them on the mountain during the summer and out at the pastures during the winter. And bam, I'm a bee keeper.
I don't think I came to this idea all on my own. I think it is in my blood somewhere. I know of at least one ancestor who was a bee keeper, and on their way along the Hole in the Rock trail the wagon tipped over and the bees went everywhere. They had to wait a day for the bees to come back to the hive at night before they could move on. My Uncle Joe has or had bees, and I know my dad wanted to be a bee keeper until he got stung and quickly found out he was allergic.
So it is my blood. It is meant to be. I will be a bee keeper. All you unbelievers just wait. Someday you just might want my honey.

Late, but better than never! Christmas

Christmas was AMAZING!! My parents, Jessie, and James all came to our house for Christmas. I wish everyone could have come, hopefully next year. On Christmas Eve, we all went to Alan's parents house for dinner. It is so nice that my family and Alan's family can spend time together. Our dads can sit and talk for hours. Christmas morning at 7:00 Alan and I went to his parents house for breakfast and to open presents with his family. Then we came home and ate breakfast again and opened presents with my family.
Christmas is a great time of year. I love that we were able to spend so much time with family. A HUGE thanks to my parents, Jessie, and James for coming so far to spend Christmas with us.
This is a picture of our beautiful Christmas tree. I know to some this is not much of a Christmas tree, but to us it was perfect this year.

I got a slanket, and some rock climbing shoes. The slanket is by far the best present ever! It is like a snuggie but better. It has a pocket at the bottom for your feet so they don't get cold.

James opening his bran new camera that he didn't know anything about. :)

Alan opening this way cool camping organizer. Thanks Ben & Brina!

My mom opening her T.V. while my dad opens his present (the bracket to hold my mom's T.V. to the wall.)

Opening presents at with Alan's family.

I LOVE shoes!

Christmas Is On It's Way

For our Christmas ward party I signed up to take cupcakes/cake pops. Since I like to bake and don't really do it all that often I chose cake pops. I had to look them up on the internet because I had never heard of them let a long know how to make them. They looked so fun, and not too complicated. They are basically a baked cake crumbled up then mix the frosting in to make a dough. Then stuck with a stick and dipped in chocolate. These were my first try! Not too bad, if I say so myself. I learned a few tricks as I was nearing the end, and I think they will be easier next time. I had so much fun with them and they are soooo good that I think I will take them around to the neighbors as my Christmas treats this year.

Anyone that knows me and picking out Christmas trees would know that the next picture is not a picture of a tree I would typically pick. Lets just say I have a thing with picking really good Christmas trees. Well, this year we were discussing if we wanted a bushy tree or one that you can only get high up on the mountain, like the ones around my cabin, and are not found too much here in St. George area. We wanted a perfectly spaced, green, triangle shaped tree that you get high in the mountain, but since we were only going up on Pine Valley, a bushy tree like the years past was what we were going to get.

We dressed really warm and drove up near Pine Valley. We started hiking around looking for the perfect tree. After about an hour of looking we found one tree that was not a typical tree for this area. Since it was like one we wanted and knowing we wouldn't find another one like it we decided to go for it. it was actually three trees in one and was really tall. Yes, we topped our tree. Alan climbed several feet up and started sawing. Our saw was not a good saw but it was all we had. It took about 30 minutes to finally cut the tree down. Once it was on the ground we realized it was way too tall. So I laid down on the tree to measure out and we went back to sawing. As Alan and I took turns the saw blade began to stretch. We did the best we could but the tree put up a fight. Just before we were all the way through the tree the saw broke completely. We had to just break the rest off and call it good.

We stood the tree up and realized that it was not a good looking tree. In fact it was quite ugly. But, we had no saw now, and we had put so much effort into this tree that we decided it was ours for the year.

It now has pretty lights and lots of decorations, yet it is still ugly. It is our poor Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But even though our tree is ugly, misshapen, and has sparse branches I LOVE our tree. It grew on me. I know what you might be thinking... but thats okay, we still love your tree.