Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Three weeks!

So, we only have three more weeks left until our little one gets here.... AND I CAN'T WAIT! We got her stroller and car seat delivered the other day, and it is taking all of my strength not to put it together and walk down the street with it (and no baby)! It is way cute, I will take pictures and post them for you. Today, I bought her way cute head bands. It's the first thing I have bought for her. I wasn't allowed to buy anything until after all our baby showers (Denton's rules). Me getting her super cute head bands of course was a necessity. I mean, she has to look super cute always right? And the best thing are head bands!

We have everything we need now and I have set it all up, and MAN, that really makes time go by slow. All I do is look at her stuff wishing she was here so I can play dress up with her. But, she will be here before we know it. I guess I really need to learn patience. (BUT I AM TOO EXCITED I AM SCREAMING RIGHT NOW!!) Oh, doctor up date, I am dilated to 1 1/2 cm and 70 % effaced. So I am right on schedule!! And, I am pretty excited about this, I have only gained 23 pounds! WOW! It's the water aerobics, I now swear by them and will do them for the rest of my life!!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Attempting Photoshop









So I attempted to do photoshop. I still have no idea what I am doing, as you can probably all tell, but I thought it wasn't that bad for a first shot. The first one and Fifth one are my favorites (if I had to choose). Well I will be practicing, and hopefully I will soon have some photos up that will just blow all your minds!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Home made Pizza!!

Today I decided to make some homemade pizza, and it was amazing. I used a recipe for the crust I found online. It is a whole wheat recipe. I decided to make a BBQ, chicken, bellpepper, pineapple pizza. It was probably the best I have ever had. The crust was super good, and really easy to make. In fact, I am going to give you all the crust recipe, and encourage all those pizza lovers out there to try it out! Here is what our pizza turned out to look like!



As you can tell by the picture, we devoured it, so I hurried and got a picture of it before it was all gone! Yummy Yummy Yummy!!


Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
  2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
  5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

*Here are a few tips they recommend to make it easier. I followed the tips after step three from the above directions. I didn't have the crust rise again for 45min, I just allowed it to settle for ten minutes like they suggest in the tips below.

1. We used the recipe for Jay's Signature Pizza Crust. Once the dough has been formed and allowed to rise, uncover the dough and punch it down.

2. This particular recipe makes a two pizza crusts or one very large crust. If you would rather make individual pizza pies than one large pizza, portion the dough into as many round balls as you want pies. Once the portions have been formed, cover and let the dough sit for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the gluten to relax before rolling the dough out.

    3. Flour the surface of your work area to keep the dough from sticking. While you don't need to use a rolling pin to roll the dough out, it will help maintain a consistent thickness. Another approach is to pound the dough down with your fist or palm of your hand--this is just a preliminary shaping, to form the dough ball into a disc.

      4. Dust your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking. Gently stretch the dough using the back of your floured hands, letting the weight of the dough pull the dough thinner. Use the backs of your fingers to push the dough out wider. Start in the middle of the dough with both hands close together, and slowly pull your hands apart, allowing the dough to glide above your hands. Turn the dough about 15 degrees on your hands and repeat this step until the dough is thinner, wider, and consistent throughout the entire circumference of the crust.

        5. Try spinning the dough in the air. This is certainly not required, but it's a lot of fun! It also helps to make the dough more round, as the centrifugal force causes equal amounts of pressure to be thrown out in all directions, helping the crust to form into a perfectly round shape.

          6. Cover a bread peel (a rimless baking sheet or heavy square of cardboard will work well) with either flour or corn meal. This flour layer is vital because it keeps the dough from sticking to the peel, which will allow you, with a quick motion, to push the pizza off of the peel, into the hot oven, and onto a baking or pizza stone. Place the dough on the peel. Complete any final forming of the shape.

            7. Arrange whatever toppings desired onto the newly formed homemade crust




            I do hope you all try it out, and love it as much as Denton and I did!!


            My creative side!












            I have been practicing my photography. I am still not very good, but I would like to show you some of my pics. I don't know how to use photo shop yet, so they are just straight from the camera. Let me know what you think!!

            Wednesday, September 8, 2010

            Trying to stay busy...

            So I have come to realize that when you don't have a job, your pregnant and waiting for the baby to come, you have A LOT of free time on your hands! (and I mean a lot!!) I found that you can only clean the house sooo much before you have nothing to do. I have read all the Series of Unfortunate events, washed all of Starlyn's clothes for her arrival, typed up some of Denton's mission journals and have found my creative side. I re-did our cork board. It used to be the family home evening board (which we never used for that) into a tribute to Denton and I..hahaha! I also Decided to make a paper chain to count down to Starlyn. I must admit, I chose great colors, however I am finding out that it is really making time DRAG! haha... We only have five weeks and a few days, which is nothing compared to the months I have just been thru, but when that is all you think about and walk by and stare at the count down, it really does not help the time at all!


            My awesome paper chain!


            Mine and Denton's Tribute!!!

            Our adventure to get to Caliente!

            We recently had the privilege to go to my sister's baby blessing for her new son, Spencer! But before I talk about that, I must tell you about the adventure we went thru to get to Caliente. My parents have a storage unit up in St. George. They decided that the best time to clean it out, was the weekend of the blessing. Great idea, since Denton and I were on our way down, we could just come and help them, so it could get done a lot faster. We meet my parents at the storage unit Friday afternoon, ( which at that time was like a million degrees!!) and we start loading up the truck.

            A few hours into it, we see that it's not all going to fit (my parents have TONS of food storage). My parents didn't get a big enough truck. Well, no problem, they just decided to get a smaller unit and keep food storage there for my sister to come and get and take back to Caliente so they can start their year supply.

            We finish loading and we all decide to head off to Caliente so we can spend the rest of the weekend with Tara and her little family. Denton and I decided to go to dinner with my bestest friend Stacia and her cute family before we leave town. Well on our way to meeting them, we get a phone call from my parents telling us the truck is way to heavy and that they can only drive about 2o mph, the tires are rubbing against the truck and that we are going to have to unload some more of the food storage. They decide to stay in STG for the night and do it in the morning. Well, me being me did not want my parents to do it by themselves so Denton and I stayed with my friend Stacia (SLUMBER PARTAY!!) and would help them first thing in the morning.

            We meet up with my parents and unload about three truck loads from the moving truck back to the smaller storage unit. ( thankyou Stacia and Troy again for letting us use your truck!) This is looking a lot better, so finally we are able to head off to Caliente. We decided to follow behind my parents just in case something went wrong. Well about half an hour into our hour forty five minute drive, I get another call from my parents saying that it is still to heavy and that Tara and her hubby our getting a truck from their bishop and our heading towards us to unload some of the truck onto them. Who knew food storage could weigh soooo much. We meet up with them, and unload some more boxes into their truck, and finally, FINALLY, we are on our way. And we made it!!!

            ~My advice to anyone getting a moving truck, always get bigger than you need, cause you never know how much stuff you really have, and how heavy it is!!






            Well this is the big suburb of Caliente!! (Nevada) It is actually pretty cool. It has tons of hiking, off roading trails, and some state parks! It was fun being able to see my parents and my sister! It's hard living so far away. The blessing was beautiful, it made me soo super excited for when Denton gets to bless our little Starlyn! I am so excited!!! She just needs to get here. Only five more weeks and three days, but who is counting..haha!



            So for those who don't know, Denton and I were married in the St. George temple. Isn't it beautiful?!! So for us to go to St. George, of course we had to pay a visit. We were sooo excited, since we haven't been there since we were married. Well we were getting ready to go and I decided to check the schedule to make sure they were open, well of course to our luck, they were closed until sept 6th for cleaning. AAAAHH! I was soo sad. Every time we have come down, this happens to us. But we did go and enjoy the scenery, and paid a visit to the visitors center. The thing I love about temples, is that you don't have to go inside to feel the spirit. Just being on the temple grounds we could feel our saviors' love and his spirit! We just hope next time we are there, its opened!