The Beginning of a New Era....Sister Swap

While on vacation last month in Oregon, my Sister-in-law and I were talking about exchanging more recipes with each other. We thought what better way to do that then on our blog, and include the other sister-in-laws. So I present to you the Sister Swap, where once a month we will post our favorite recipes for the theme that we picked, then link you all to there blogs, so you can share in all of our fun. Enjoy!


This month we chose to do a BBQ theme, since Summer is coming to an end what better way to go out with a bang than Barbecuing.

Brian and I got a new BBQ for him for Fathers Day this last June, and it has certainly not disappointed our barbecuing needs for the Summer. Our two favorites things were Grilled pineapple. Oh My this was so good! Just imagine warm gooey brown sugar grilled into fresh juicy pineapple. Did I get your attention? Hopefully.

You can make this side with anything that you are grilling, or you can just eat it plain since it is so good! We loved having it with seasoned grilled salmon, and grilled zucchini, and it did not disappoint. Try it I know you will love it.

Now onto the recipes......

Grilled Pineapple

1 whole fresh pineapple(no canned pineapple)
3 Tbl. brown sugar or more depending on size of pineapple
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
1.Cut top of pineapple off
2.Cut outside of pineapple off until you have one beautiful looking fresh yellow pineapple
3.Cut pineapple into about 1 inch discs; how many discs you have will depend on how big your pineapple is
4. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl
5. Lay pineapple onto baking sheet and sprinkle both sides of pineapple liberally with sugar mixture
6. Let sit for about 15 to 20 minutes for pineapple to start getting juicy, and sugar starts absorbing into the pineapple
7. Grill pineapple about 3-4 minutes on each side or until you have nice grill marks on pineapple

Embrace A New Year

A new year is here again. Ahhh...I always love a fresh new start. It just makes me want to have a dance party in honor of new goals I want to set for myself this year. Happy New Year!

Some goals in no particular order........

1. A healthy life style, not just "I want to lose weight this year" but to fully embrace a healthy mind, body and spirit.

2. To be more organized. Enough is enough already with the unlivable spaces.

3. To be a better friend, sister, daughter, and wife.

4. To have a personal relationship with my Savior.

5. To start my family...we have our toes in the door of that party room right now, we will keep you updated.

6. To not think badly about other people and gossiping, refer to #3. Sometimes it's tough, but it needs to be done.

7. And one maybe two slightly selfish goals.... a new Honda Pilot, and a trip to Europe.

For Your Entertainment

We recently took some new family pictures and all I can say is I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it! My friend Laurel did them and she did a phenomenal job, I highly recommend her! So with out much further ado her are some of our favorites and yes Wattson is wearing a bow tie. It was only fitting...Enjoy!

Let's Get This Started Huh!

So here I am again, with requests from a few people, I thought it might be time to get this party started again! The last time I posted the sun was just starting to warm my soul and summer was in full swing, now almost 6 months later Jack Frost has schemed his wintry wrath down on me. On the upside Father Christmas is about to make his appearance and I have been a very good girl this year, 2 pairs of fabulous boots good, in my book that is practically perfect in every way good.

A few good things these last few months....
Brian did find a job back in July! Horray! Yipee! Gadzoooks! He works with a company called VMT Technologies. They have designed a new transmission, and Brian has helped to design their last prototypes before manufacturing. So that means we are still in Springville and we are very happy with staying here. The Lord knows our plan better than we do, and we trust what he has to say, so here we are, and happy!

Wattson is one, I can't believe we have almost had him a year already. I can still remember that little fatty at 7 weeks old. Now he is full grown, and likes to get into the pantry while we are gone and open up food packages like he is a human.

We went and saw Harry Potter and I almost peed my pants with excitement! It is that good!

Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we will be spending it with these lovelies, who I have missed desperately, on the Oregon Coast in a quaint beach house.

Get ready I am back and in full swing!

Little Entrepreneur

I finally did it! I have a booth at the Provo Farmers Market! I am so excited to be starting my own little business. I went a couple of weeks ago, had my own little booth in the park and had the time of my life selling all my little goodies to the public. Some highlights of the day.........

All my goodies ready to sell

Having a canopy was a must if you want to "fit in" with everyone

But I think my most favorite part was being next to the Fiesta booth. All day long I got to look at Pinatas. I hope I'm next to them everytime!

I had so much fun being there and am so excited to be there all summer. Come on down every Saturday from 9-2 and check out the Farmers Market in Provo at Pioneer Park, and if you feel like it stop on by and say hi.

P.S. I won't be there this Saturday but I will be there the rest of the summer. Can't wait to see you.

P.P.S. I hope to have my design blog up soon for everyone to see everything. I will let you know when it is all done. Tootalou!

It's Been A While

SO as you can see it's been awhile and no it is not because we moved. Rats! No go on the job just yet, still working on that part of our life, but we are getting through it. I can just say being an adult is really hard, not having as much money is really cramping my style, I really love my husband and am glad he is my best friend and are going through this together, but most importantly I have found the Lord really loves each and everyone of us. He won't make us go through anything alone, we just have to ask for help and VIOLA! he keeps his promise even though we may feel unworthy, and seems to help get us through one more day not wanting to run away from eveyone and everything. But we are still alive, we are excited for what the future holds for us, even though we have no idea what is going to happen, but we know it is going to be just what we ordered. I really hope it's somewhere like this!

What Is Going On!?

Here's the low down of what has gone on with us fro the last couple of months...In January, January 8th to be exact Brian was laid off from his engineering job here in Provo. So that meant we needed to find a new job and fast. We had been looking at some jobs before he got laid off, but I guess we just needed a little extra push to get us to really start looking. Brian was given a lead to a job in San Diego, and North Carolina. We thought we were definently going to be going to North Carolina, and were more than qualified for it. By the way North Carolina is 2100 miles away from Utah, and a 500 dollar plane ticket. Just in case you were wondering, and we do not know one single person there. But we didn't get it, and during all of this Brian has had two phone interviews with the San Diego company, and is going out there at the end of the month for a on site interview and then if they do hire him it will be at the beginning of March. So yes, we will be moving probably to San Diego, and soon. Wish us luck!

Week Of Love: Day 2 & 3

Day 2:

We thought we would send a little love package to my nephew who is currently in the M.T.C. He is going to be there for 9 weeks before he leaves for Paraguay, and have heard he was pretty lonely over there. So we thought it would be fun for him if he received a little love package in his mailbox...I just wish I could call him to see if he liked it!

Day 3:

There is a lot of love going on in our house since we got this handsome boy. This is from last night after Brian had gotten home from work.....I guess they were both a little tired. And yes my dog does have two eyes, but you can only see one.

Week Of Love: Day 1

I thought I would start the "Week Of Love" week with a little lovely joy when people passed by our home. This wreath has done the trick! I made it at work one night, and loved it so much that I bought all for my little bitty self! It definently will spread love around the neighborhood, and since this will probably be the last holiday spent in our home I thought it would be fun to show it off for once.

Meet Mr. Wattson

First of all this is not April. This is Brian her husband. She for some reason has been slacking on updating her blog, so I am hijacking it for today.

On to more important news... we got a dog, a while ago, January 5th to be exact. These are pictures of Mr. Wattson. He is a miniature schnauzer. He should be in the 15-18 lb range, and does not shed. We really like this, the only down side is that you have to take them to get their hair cut every so often.

Any way here he is after we first got him.

(Mr. Wattson, up close)

(Wattson by his fun rope bone, still minty fresh)

Now how about some more recent pictures, as of Jan 25th. Notice he is growing a bit. I tried to get a picture by the same toy so you can get a little idea about how much he is growing.

(Wattson playing)

(Notice the not so minty rope bone, it is just a little smaller in comparison to the picture taken a few weeks ago)

Well that is the end of this post. Hopefully I don't have to do this again. He is so fun, April and I can hardly imagine how we managed with out him. Just imagine how we will be once we finally have our own kids, and no unfortunately that is not a sneaky way of saying we are expecting any. That is some thing for another post, on another day.

Have fun with these,

-Brian

When You Wish Upon A Star.....

With Christmas being this I realized I needed a little bit of a happier posts than my lasts I thought I would share with you a few wishes on my wishiest of wishlists....Hopefully Brian will read this.....

1. These might be one of the most fabulous boots I have ever seen in my life, but I might have to give my own life for them. Anthropologie you pricey people you.....

2. Breakfast At Tiffany's, I don't think there needs to be an explanation

3. This jacket would keep me warm on those cold wintery days in Utah, and well I would look fabulous in it.

4. I asked Santa for a puppy, and he told me I had been naughty all year, so he wouldn't bring me one. I really havn't been naughty...I promise.

5. And a couple of these please!!!!! Do you think these babies will be comfortable in his bag coming down the chimney? I think they will be!

Black Friday why are you so ugly looking?

I work in retail, whoopee. So I was one of the lovely ladies that said "did you get everything you needed?" or "thanks for coming in see you later", yep that was me, the red head behind the counter all day. Taking your money, wrapping, bagging, smiling all day....

At the end of the day my thoughts went to other scenerios that I wish I could of said today, for example....

1. No I do not like working here, please stop asking me

2. No I don't want to see you come back in again, in fact I didn't want to see you at all today

3. Yes that is our last one on the wall, and NO I do not want to get it down for you, in fact I'd rather cut my legs off

4. I don't care if you are decorating your mantel, don't ask me to come over and do it for you, figure it out yourself

5. YES! I did put your discount in! and YES I am going to stamp your rewards card! and YES I want to reach across the counter and slap your silly little face off

6. To the lady who went into the office and took the stocking, I wanted to reach my short arm across the counter and punch you in the face. Then I wanted to tell you that we do not take things that don't belong to us, especially if it is a room where your not aloud. So don't ever do that again.

Thank you for shopping with us and have a great day.

P.S. To the people who tried knocking on the door to let them in after closing, GO AWAY! There is reason why we locked the doors.

Brian told me I am not being very nice, and way to be in the Christmas Spirit, BAH HUMBUG!

Really I wish I had some babies so I could be one of the ladies standing in line at 4 a.m., asking to get things down for them, taking stockings, and making sure I got my discount and my rewards punched....But alas, that is not my fate today, maybe next year, maybe next year. To all the mom's I am JEALOUS, that right you heard it JEALOUS! Someone give me some babies!

Happy Black Friday!

Rah, Rah, Rah.....

This is late but we went to the BYU game on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. Our friends Miles and Kris came, who are visiting from England, and we had a spectacular time. We had great seats, North endzone 2nd row right next to the cannon. Which is a lot louder when you are sitting right next to it. Good thing BYU won because it was cold! Go Cougars!

Come Together........

At the beginning of October my side of the family decided it was time to take some family pictures. The last one was over 15 years ago. Since then there have been 7 new people added to the family, and well it was 15 years ago. What slackers we are. They turned out FANTASTIC, and we were able to get a great photographer, who is one of our good friends from Fresno. Michelle Tandy is a great photographer and very affordable. We had so much fun with her. Visit her blog michelletandyphotography.blogspot.com. You will fall in love with her pictures! Here are a few, the background is my parents backyard, beautiful in my opinion, just gorgeous.

Yes...I am Alive

I know, what is an intervention worth, if it doesn't help? I've been gone...I know, have you missed me? I've missed myself if that helps? There comes a time in everyones life where they have to sit back and look from the outside in and revamp what is going on in their lives. They have to dissappear for a little bit maybe even hide out, and then one day in all the confusion and darkness the light shines through a little brighter and everything is well again. I'm back, and am feeling like a shining beackon of hope. In fact in honor of my shinyness, were going to throw a party, a bloging party! Sleep with one eye open your not going to want to miss it!

Sweet Little Dresses

For my niece Bella's 7th Birthday I had decided to make her some sweet little dresses that I had seen on dana-made-it and she has the easiest tutorial to follow. They were perfect for her to wear to school, and one of the easiest things I have ever made. I had to make a few changes to make them long enough for her, but I was still able to follow it closely. I made some bows to match, but of course forgot to take pictures of them. Word of advice, get the biggest mens shirts you can find, the small ones are a waste of time. I found that out the hard way.

My Love Language Is Gifts

I know that comes as a big shocker to all of you that know me, but I love presents! I love to receive them, but mostly I love to give them. When I saw on My Mama Made It that she was doing a gift exchange I had to join in on the fun. We were all paired up, and sent our packages of sewing goodies to each other, I was luckily paired with Paula who gave me the most fantastic gifts! When I received my package I was so elated, and all of her goodies made my very hectic day a lot better.

She knew me all to well with her colors and fabrics, even the details of butterflies, made me smile until my face hurt.

Her packaging was exsquistic and her attention to detail was something out of a magazine

I am so excited Paula! Thank you so very much!