Easter 2012

Fresh Paint

After browsing Pinterest all afternoon yesterday, I finally decided on what color I wanted for the accent wall in my living room. Gavin got home from work, I showed him the pictures I'd pinned, and he said, "Let's go to Home Depot". What a fabulous husband I have :) We went to Home Depot, got the paint & supplies we needed, came home, and stayed up half the night painting. I'm really happy with the results. We'll be re-freshing the rest of the white paint downstairs over the weekend. Amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do! (That big, white hole will eventually have our T.V. in it.)

 While I had my camera out, I snapped a few pictures of our new counter-height kitchen table that we scored at Furniture Warehouse's "going out of business" sale. We still need to find some chairs or stools. Maybe this weekend.

Pancakes, anyone?

Yesterday, while I was making my amazing Valentine's Day dinner (smashed chicken & wild rice, homemade rolls, and chocolate dipped strawberries), I left the pantry door open. Andrielle took advantage of this moment, found the new bottle of syrup, and dumped it out all over herself and my living room carpet. She got it all over her clothes, her face, her hair, and I'm finding it tracked all over the house. Thankfully, my mom owns a carpet steam cleaner and let me borrow it. On a happier note, Gavin brought me home the new Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 DVD for Valentine's Day. I love you, Gav!

A few pics

 Andrielle woke up from her nap in a really good mood and Grayden was being pleasant, so I decided to take advantage of the moment and snapped a few pictures. Andrielle has also started saying "Say Cheese" when I take pictures of her (that's why she looks a little silly in some of these - I caught her mid "cheese" lol).

Family Pics and Homemade Pretzels

Here are a few family pictures from Christmas Day, 2011. We were lucky enough to catch Andrielle and Grayden while they were both cooperative and happy.








There is something about the colder weather that just makes me want to bake! Today, I made homemade pretzels and pretzel bites. Oh man, they are SO yummy! They're super easy, too. I'm going to post the recipe, mostly because I want to pin it on Pinterest (my new favorite thing!) so that I have it to always remember (lol!).


Homemade Soft Pretzels:
Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
4 cups flour

Dissolve sugar in water and add yeast. Add salt and flour and knead 5-10 minutes (no, that's not a typo - and you really do need to kneed the dough that long!). Divide into 10-12 pieces. Roll out in ropes and either twist into pretzels, or cut into pieces for the pretzel bites. Brush with melted butter and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes for pretzels (or until the bottoms of the pretzels are a nice light brown), 8 minutes for pretzel bites. Brush again with butter after baking and sprinkle with coarse kosher salt, parmesan, or cinnamon & sugar. Enjoy!

Halloween 2011

I know it's late, but here are our Halloween pics. We decided to dress "Goth" for Halloween. Gavin even let me do his eye make-up. Pretty fun. Best part is I got Andrielle's costume for $1!! Yep - I got a coupon code for an online Halloween costume site, it was originally a $50 costume, but it was on sale and after my coupon code and shipping costs, it only cost a buck. Love it.

Here we are at a pumpkin patch in Orem, UT:

Another blog

I've been debating since I first set up another blog (about 2 months ago) whether or not I wanted to share it with others or keep it as my own personal journal. And I've decided now to open it up. It is mostly about Andrielle and everything we have been dealing with. If you would like to follow our journey - the blog link is: http://www.thislittlefish.blogspot.com

Note: I will still be keeping up with this blog :)