Food Favorites of the Week

I can already tell it's going to be a difficult semester if it's only the second day and when I should be doing homework, I'm blogging, playing with Mia, getting my hair done, being social...pretty much anything else but homework. Oh these next couple months are going to be interesting!

Yep, that's right Eric and I have both started school this week and one of us was more excited to start then the other...wonder who that could be? ;) Regardless for my less then excited attitude to go back to school, my first day of classes wasn't all that bad, except after only being gone for less then 4 hours I had to come home and hold Mia pretty much the rest of the night until she went to bed. I missed that little girl!!!

Anyway, on to the real reason I am posting, I just wanted to share with all of you my new favorite foods for the week! Yes, they are that amazing, worth blogging about.

Food #1) Homemade Soft Served Chocolate Ice Cream

Of Course one of my favorite foods would be something involving chocolate! Anyway, for Father's Day Eric' grandma gave him one of these:

Hamilton Beach Half Pint Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker

We've loved this little ice cream maker. It makes the perfect amount of ice cream for a night treat and it's SO good! Usually we just make the vanilla ice cream and add fresh strawberries, which is also to die for, but yesterday I tried the chocolate ice cream and it was like making Ben and Jerry's at my house and for anyone that knows me, I LOVE Ben and Jerry's! You can buy these half pint ice cream makers at Walmart for $30 and you won't regret it if you do!

Food #2) Baked Zucchini Fries

Two words to describe these... nutritious and delicious! I got this recipe from Our Best Bites for a side dish for a BBQ we had the other night and we loved them so much I'm making them again for dinner. They are crispy and flavorful. We dipped ours in ranch dressing.

Hope I've convinced you to give these favorite foods of mine a try! And please, let me know of any recipes you like, especially that involve garden foods! Eric and I love trying new recipes!

Living Room Revamp!

Check out my living room revamp over at SHA Designs along with a post with some tips on redecorating on a budget!

SHA Designs: Simple Jumper for Baby

Hey Everyone!

As part of starting SHADesigns and our blog we have decided to post a new tutorial every Monday along with other posts throughout the week to keep all you crafters up on the latest craft crazes. Check out our first tutorial post here to make this cute basic jumper!

(Mia wasn't in a very "picture taking" mood.)

More Summer Updates and a Not so Original Title

Wow, only a month has gone by and oh the updates! I've decided to give each update a title and paragraph so choose which you care to be updated on :)

July 24th: Eric and I made a last minute decision to go home for the 24th of July. Grandma said she was having Mia withdrawals and we hadn't been home in a little while. Once again, I managed to not take my camera out once and snap any pictures, but the trip was nice nonetheless. The boys went biking and fishing and mom and I just relaxed, did a little shopping at the local craft store, and managed to get a chick flick in there as well. We also got to visit with friends and of course do what my family is known for, which is eat really good food.

Birthday: I got to be spoiled on my birthday by my amazing husband. He surprised me by getting me a new laptop, which has been much needed. Mia also gave me a great present by being on her best behavior all day :) She actually ended up sleeping pretty much all afternoon and evening and still went to bed on time and had a good night. We also went to dinner with my siblings and their spouses which is always fun to spend time with them.

Family and Seven Peaks: At the end of the month Eric's Aunt, Uncle and niece came to stay with us again. They are so fun and we love when they come out to visit! Friday night we staying home and watched a movie. Saturday we spent at Seven Peaks. Eric's grandparents also came out for the day to go to Seven Peaks as well. This time we decided to let Mia have a go in the water and she loved it!

Cousins! Sophia and Mia are so cute together. Mia will always smile when Sophia comes up to talk to her.

Sophia in her cute little swimming suit. She loved the water as well. She would slash and slash and even when it got her in the face she just would laugh and keep going. What a cutie!

SHA Designs and Art's in the Park: I was also really busy this month as Sara, Annelise and I got ready to start our craft business and our booth at Art's in the Park in Ely. That's right we now have an online business called Sha Designs! Check out our blog! We plan to continue updating it with tutorials, crafting tips and new items each month that we are adding to our store to sell. To kick off our business we had a booth at Art's in the Park, which is an annual fair that Ely holds each summer. We were a little nervous to see how it would go, but our booth was a success! Our fastest selling items were our windows. Our husbands and my mom were so supportive and wonderful to watch our kids for us while we did the fair!

Grandma with her cute grand-babies!

Mia: Mia deserves a whole paragraph full of updates, she is growing so fast!! She is now 3 1/2 months! Her newest thing is screaming. She screams when she is happy, bored, sad, mad, laughing...pretty much for every emotion. She is definitely a girl in that sense! She also has started to play with toys now and can roll over from her back to her stomach! Mia also loves boys! She will give her biggest smiles to them without them even really having to work for it. We better watch out or Eric will be constantly chasing the boys away lol. I still love being able to be with her during the days and will be sad when I have to go back to school in a couple of weeks.

Mia has discovered her hands and feet so we got her these toys that go on them and she loves to look at them.

She will also try to eat anything she can get her month on!

Oh I almost forgot to mention that Eric and I also had our 2 year anniversary! It'a s crazy that's it been two years already! I've loved every minute of it so far and am excited to see what the next 50+ years have in store for us! Sadly, our anniversary was during the fair so we didn't really get so celebrate it, but this weekend Mom and Dad are coming in to watch Mia while we have a weekend get-away! I'm so excited!

Summer Updates

We have had such a busy and eventful packed summer so far, where we have had something going every weekend for the last month and a half. Here's just a brief summary of everything we have done.

The last Sunday in May we had family and friends come for Mia's blessing. The week before I spent making her blessing dress (so me for waiting last minute) which to my great surprise turning out perfect!

After her blessing Mia and I went on her first trip to Ely. It was nice to be home for a week and it was nice for Eric to get to catch up on his sleep and enjoy going fishing. He also started his internship with the Church that week which he will be working at the rest of the summer. The next weekend Mom and Seth, my little brother, came in for him to go to the Jimmer and Jackson basketball camp. After enjoying spending some time with my family we got to spend the next 3 weekends with Eric's family. The first weekend Eric's Grandparents came out and stayed with us and used our Pass of all Passes and went to Trafalga and Seven Peaks. We also went to Sophia's 1st birthday party.

The catfish Eric catch will his Grandparents were staying with us. It smelt horrible!

I can't believe that it's been one year since I became an aunt. She has grown so fast, I'll be sad if it goes that quick with Mia, which I'm sure it will!

Anyway, the next weekend we did the same thing with Eric's Aunt, Uncle and niece. Mia did really well going to Seven Peaks. We haven't put her in the water yet, but think the next time we go we might try since she loves taking baths. The next weekend was the 4th of July which we went to Vernal for a family reunion. We rafted down the Green River, shot of Fireworks, and enjoyed visiting with family and as every holiday goes, eating way too much food. We also came home in time to watch the fireworks at Thanksgiving point, which Mia loved! She just sat there and watched them will wide eyes. (I am so bad at taking picture that I have to steal pictures from other people, so thanks to those who document things for me!)

There was another baby at the reunion who is only 2 days older than Mia. They both fell asleep after church in the same position. It was really cute.

Mia is now over 2 months old and continues to change daily. She now not only smiles all of the time, but is starting to make more noises (besides just crying) and even has started to giggle and sit up a little bit. I have really enjoyed being able to stay home with her each day and play with her.

I think the more uncomfortable Mia looks the better she sleeps. Silly girl.

Ready for a bath!

Love Notes

I've been reading talks from the past General Conference every morning and read Elder Richard G. Scott's beautiful talk about his wife and marriage. If you haven't heard this talk yet or its been awhile since you heard it, please read it; http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-eternal-blessings-of-marriage?lang=eng&query=eternal+blessings+Marriage.

Elder Scott's reminds us how wonderful be married is. He says, "It is so rewarding to be married. Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and impressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trials, but the Lord guides you through all of those growth experiences together." I know that to be true in just being married for two years as Eric and I started our lives together, as we are trying to get through school, as we've lost loved ones, and welcomed one of Heavenly Father's precious children into our family.

Also in his talk Elder Scott talked about how his wife taught him the importance of expressing love with notes that she would leave in his scriptures for him to find. Both Elder Scott and his wife showed their affection by writing notes to each other. After

reading I found this message board that I just had to have! It's a kit sold at Utah Vinyl.

I thought this would be a great way to leave little love notes for Eric each day as he leaves for work letting him know how much I appreciate all that he does and why I love him. I also found another really cute idea at Becky Higgins blog that would be great for those of you with a little bit older children. She did a "I love you because" dry erase frame designed by Kiki Creates (love her prints by the way!) for each of her children to see when they got home from school. You could also do the same thing by creating your own print and putting it in a frame and just write on the glass with a dry erase maker.

Elder Scott tells us to "express gratitude for what your spouse does for you. Express that love and gratitude often. That will make life far richer and more pleasant and purposeful. Don't withhold those natural expressions of love." I believe this is the same case with our children and what better way to express these things to our spouse and children then through writing them a "love" note each day, letting them know why we love them.

Chocolate Chip S'more cookies, Day time TV, and crafts

Yes, this title sums up my life lately. I'll start with the chocolate chip S'more cookies and what an amazing thing, I might add too! One of the things that Eric and I love to do in the summer's and have loved since before we got married is roasting marshmallows and making s'mores! We even love making them so much that we have been know to make them over our stove top. :) Anyway, while grocery shopping I discovered the new gigantic marshmallows, perfect for roasting, so naturally I had to buy them along hersheys chocolate and graham crackers. After making s'more last weekend, we wanted to try something a little different. This is when we came across the recipe for chocolate chip s'more cookies. All that needs to be said about these is that they are delicious and definitely worth making!

http://picky-palate.com/2011/02/21/smores-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Now on to day-time TV. This is something I have never had to pleasure of watching since prier to now I have either been at school or work; however, now that I am home, I look for something to watch as I feed Mia. I might also add that we only get a few of the local channels so it has become a routine that Mia eats during the Rachael Ray show and Studio 5. These two shows have inspired me with cooking and crafting ideas and have kept me updated on the latest news and gossip ;). Last week on the Rachael Ray show she made Stuffed Turkey club burgers that looked really good so Saturday night I decided to make this for Eric. To my delight they turned out great and surprisingly quite easy to make! It's made me want to be a little more daring and try some more of her recipes. The gist of the all of this...try these!

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=4070

Crafts: Going back to day-time tv, the local show Studio 5 everyday has different craft ideas they talk about. One time it was on how to make a chevron canvas art piece. I will have to admit that I have jumped on the bandwagon with the chevron design. Also with all of these ideas, it has put me in the crafty mood. Here are just a couple of cute craft projects that are on my "to try" list.

Look this bag, love books, love the chevron design!

I love the baby stats wall art! I think it would be cute to make one of these for Mia!

Mia's baby blessing is this coming Sunday and I dont' have a dress for her...eek! She is still so small that she doesn't quite fit in 0-3 month clothes so I have decided to give myself a challenge and make her dress this week. I'm not the best sewer so I wanted to make something simple and "summery" and found this dress! I'm going to give it a try so we'll so how it goes. I even found the same material.