Cheerful Churchmouse Cherry Crisp

Can you say yum? It's an excellent recipe!
To explain the extravagant name, Todd and I have been reading a series of books called "Redwall". Basically, it's about a bunch of woodland creatures and their lives in the forest. Some are peaceful abbey dwellers and others are seasoned warriors. There are sea rats (pirates) and hilarious hares, and all sorts of other little animals. In the books the author did a very good job of describing the extravagant meals the critters eat. The descriptions of the food literally make your mouth water, it all sounds so delicious!

Well, back to the recipe, for my birthday Todd got me the "Redwall Cookbook".
Obviously I opened my present early because my birthday isn't until Feb. 6th.
I've always loved cookbooks for some reason. I don't even really cook much but lately I've been looking in all my cookbooks for new recipes and it's been really fun! I've found a lot of new meals I really like! So when I opened the cookbook I was pleasantly surprised :)

The Redwall Cookbook has some of the recipes that the Redwall critters make in the some of the books. I know this sounds so nerdy, but being able to make the recipes makes the stories so much more real! I'm such a Redwall nerd. ha ha

So, the day I got my Redwall Cookbook, Todd and I made Cheerful Churchmouse Cherry Crisp!

We ate it with vanilla ice cream! It was so yummy! It was so quick and easy to
make too! It probably took 15 minutes!

2 Cooks in the Kitchen

For those of you who don't know, Todd is an amazing cook.
He decided he wanted to make Chicken & Shrimp Carbonara.
Can you say delicious?
Honestly, I don't like shrimp. Todd absolutely loves shrimp.
Normally, this would be a problem but since I don't like it, Todd was such a sweet heart and separated the shrimp and the chicken!
He is such a sweetie!
This was one of the most complex recipes we have ever tried.
It took quite awhile to make but was so worth it!
Here are some pictures of our fabulous meal...
(my camera lens was dirty and I didn't know until I had already taken some of the pictures, so some of them have spots.)

This picture shows some of the mess we made while making our meal.

Yumm...

The master chef and his masterpiece!


I love cooking with Todd. He teaches me so much about cooking.
We have so much fun when we have the chance to cook a real meal together.

Riding Bikes

Yes, we went on a bike ride!
In the middle of January.
It was wonderful!
We originally planned on going on a very long ride but became tired quickly,
so we just rode around our neighborhood.
We ended up riding 2 and a half miles.. we think.
Its' a rough estimate.

Our wonderful bikes!

We are planning on trying to get out and go on bike rides as often as we can. It's a great way to stay active and spend time together! I absolutely love it!

I love St. George!

Adventures in roll baking..

Alright, I made rolls all by myself (well, with some assistance from the Mr.) And not just any rolls, Lion House Rolls! Awhile back my friend Clare gave me a Lion House Roll Mix. Yumm! It has literally been sitting in our pantry for months because I've been too afraid to try to make them though. For some reason, making bread intimidates me when I'm by myself. ha ha. But today, I put my foot down!

So, I dove right in. Once I got started I wasn't really worried. I figured if it ended up being a disaster, it would be a funny story to tell everyone and to blog about. My absolute favorite part was when it came time to knead the dough. The box instructed me to mix half of the dough up in a mixer and dump the rest of the dry mix onto the counter in the shape of a mountain It then said to make a crater at the top to pour the mixed up dough into, kind of like a volcano. Is this making sense to you? Because it took me a few minutes to convince myself that the box was serious. The dough I had mixed up in the bowl was soo runny and there was no way all of it was going to fit in the "crater". But Todd convinced me the box was indeed serious so I just went with it. I made a total mess and it really did look like a volcano. When I finally got the volcano under control and started kneading the dough I felt so accomplished. I am so nerdy I know but this was a huge accomplishment for me! I used to make rolls with my Grandma all the time when I was little but Grandmas always make it look so easy. I've also made rolls with my mom before but its so different when you're by yourself. At least it is for me!

The rolls were delish! They went perfectly with our BBQ Cinnamon pulled pork we made in our Crock Pot. Yumm! I love Sunday dinners!

Here are just a few pictures of me and the rolls..

Next time, I'll be making my grandmas rolls completely from scratch!
:)

I looked out the window and what did I see?

I saw snow.

Yuck!
It usually snows once or twice a year in St. George and usually melts within a few hours. This is the second time (that I know of) that it has snowed this year. There were kids outside trying to build snowmen in the tiny amount of snow we got. It was pretty cute. Todd wanted to go challenge our primary kids to a snowball fight, but I didn't think their parents would approve.. haha.

(this was obviously taken through the window.. )

The worst part was the fact that when I woke up, I started thinking about how excited I am to go swimming this summer. I am excited to get a tan and I want to buy a new swimming suit! Then I saw the snow and all thoughts of swimming suddenly weren't so appealing. I told Todd as we were looking out the window that I was thinking about buying a new swimming suit this summer and he replied, "Dear, now is not the time to go swimming.." ha ha. Then Todd proceeded to walk around the house singing "I'm dreaming of a white school year.. where backpacks glisten, and no one listens.."

Trust me, I've seen tons more snow than this and it will probably be gone by the end of the day.
In fact, it's already melting!
I'll probably be dreaming of the swimming pool sometime tomorrow.

Temple Square.

While we were up north visiting family for Christmas we decided to go to Temple Square. I really wanted to try taking some pictures with our film camera before I start my photography class. Plus, I love going to see the lights!

We rode the Front Runner down to Salt Lake with my family and met Todd's parents at Temple Square. I'm not real prone to motion sickness but for some reason the ride to and from Salt Lake made me woozy. Other than that it was a lot of fun! It was the first time my parents had ridden the train and they seemed to think it was pretty cool.

Mama and Papa on the train.

The lights were so pretty! It was very very crowded though. I guess that's what
we get for going the day before Christmas Eve.

Jake & Kori.
So tender!

Mama & Me.

Angie & Dan.

Me taking a picture with the film camera.
I'm so excited to learn more about taking pictures in my class.
Hopefully photography will be something I am good at so it can be my new hobby!

The gang! (Angie is taking the picture)

It was a fun family outing! It wasn't too cold and the lights were pretty. I will admit though this wasn't one of the best years. It seemed like there were less lights this year than there were in years before.

I can't wait to see what lights they put up next year!

Our latest craftiness..

We finally got a second nightstand from the dear ol' D.I.

10 minutes and 6 dollars later we came home with this lil guy..

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
We painted it!

Nice right? Now Todd has a place to keep his phone and chapstick instead of keeping them on the floor. Plus, now he keeps his desktop fountain that he got for Christmas there!

The next thing we will be painting will be our headboard..