Now that this weekend is here...

...I figured that I should probably post about last weekend.  I was a wonderful weekend full of relaxation for the most part (minus the part where I spoke in church :)  It was just the weekend we needed since I have to work the next three weekends.  We got our first big snowstorm of the year.  It came earlier than we expected and I almost got stuck in Emmett after teaching my dance classes because of it!  It all worked out though and I only had to wait for about a half hour for the highway to open up after they cleared an accident up.  I prayed the whole way home...  I love the snow!  Expect for the part where you have to drive in it. :)  This was the view Friday morning from our balcony.

^^ Shelby ventured out to measure the snow on Friday morning and it was at 7 inches...when ^^

 he measured again a few hours later it was 9 inches.

Friday night we ventured out into the snow to go bowling with some friends from the ward.  It was fun and we even got to do a little cosmic bowling!

^^Saturday night we layered up and went to the Boise State game...thank goodness for^^

 hot chocolate and hand warmers...it totally brought back memories of New York winters!

^^Sunday we went to my parents house for dinner and roasted marshmallows over their^^

fire....this is how we do smores in the winter!

We sure do love our weekends and take full advantage of them when we have time all to ourselves!!!!  Happy Friday friends!!!

Thursday Treat: Huckleberry Muffins

Last week we went on our grocery shopping trip to stock up on food for the next few weeks.  We bought an count carton of eggs since we have been baking a lot more.  As we were unloading the groceries, one of the bag got knocked off the counter and onto the kitchen floor...and what do you know, over half of our eggs were cracked and damaged.  In an effort to save the eggs I began whipping up some muffins and threw some huckleberries into the batter that we had saved from our summer hiking adventures!  We ended up doubling the batch and still have muffins galore in our freezer. :)  Here's the yummy recipe which originally uses blueberries instead of huckleberries-recipe credit goes to my mom. :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 T melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 T oil

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt

1 cup buttermilk

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries (optional-fresh or frozen)

Stir together butter, vanilla, oil, eggs, and sugar, then add sour cream or yogurt, and buttermilk.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and add to mix.  Pour in muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.  Bake @ 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  

Note:  We used yogurt instead of sour cream and regular milk instead of the buttermilk and they turned out great.  Also, if you're craving some chocolate, chocolate chips would be a great addition to the muffins! :)

Enjoy your Thursday!

Gratitude for Jesus Christ

As I was leaving the hospital yesterday I had an amazing conversation with one of my coworkers regarding some of the situations that we dealt with throughout the day.  I love how some conversations just leave us lost in thought-this was one of those conversations for me.  I drove home lost in my own thoughts. 

^^ This picture reminds me of that conversation (photo cred: Greg Olsen art) ^^

At one time or another we all feel like the young man in this picture-lost, confused, scared-everyone has been there to some degree at one time or another.  The world we live in is crazy  Tragedies occur and at times we may think that we cannot get through it, that happiness will never be found again.  Now look at Christ's face.  I'm imagining that his eyes are saying "trust in me, there is hope in me."  I am so, so grateful for Jesus Christ and the hope that we have in Him.  He loves us and wants each and everyone of us to be happy-we just have to trust in Him and His plan!  So just a few thoughts for you on this Sunday...remember this my friends-God loves you!  Happy Sunday!    

Halloween Weekend

We started off Halloween week by painting pumpkins!  We didn't really have the motivation to pull out all of our carving tools and make a huge mess that would have to be cleaned up so we decided to stick with painting our pumpkins this year!  We painted a pirate which Shelby named Argyle...he is officially a member of the family. :)

For the actual weekend we went to Twin Falls to spend time with the Hyde family.  It was fun to catch up with everyone that we saw! We miss the small town feel that Twin Falls has. Within the first few hours of getting into town we randomly saw at least five people that we either went to school with or were close to through church...that just doesn't happen in Boise.:) We love Twin Falls and it will always have a special place in our hearts and of course we will always be back to visit since we have family there!

We couldn't be in Twin Falls without spending some time with Amy, Jesse, and baby Myla. Since it was Halloween we decided to go to Tubb's Berry Farm. It was so much fun! We went through both of the straw mazes they had, shot off their corn cannons and won prizes for hitting the targets, walked through the petting zoo, went down all of their fun slides, and went on a hayride. It was a perfect Halloween activity!

                                                       

We were kind of lame and didn't dress up for Halloween this year....although I did dress up the day before for our dance party.  We have lots of ideas up our sleeves for coming years when we will hopefully have little kiddos to dress up with!  After Tubb's Berry Farm we went to Shelby's grandma's house and ate dinner and watched Trick or Treaters come by for candy...we also ate lots of candy which was great! On Saturday Christie and I went to a baby shower for a family friend. Later that day we had a little party for the end of October/beginning of November birthdays.

Our niece taking a ride on her birthday present!

We love our families and are grateful for the time that we get to spend with them! Now on to November...which started off with visits to the dentist-maybe not the best thing to do the Monday right after a Halloween weekend full of candy and sweet treats! :)

How Shelby feels about the dentist!

Just kidding....that's how he feels about me taking pictures of him at the dentist!

                                               

Used Band-Aids-Yum!

We had Halloween parties at dance last week.  It was great to see what costumes the girls were going to trick or treat in!  We also ate lots of treats and played some fun Halloween games.  

^^ I told them to make silly faces and this is what I got! :) Half of the girls had already taken their costumes off by the time I got around to taking pictures because it was so hot from dancing.^^

^^ These three are so great...their competition team is going to be awesome this year! ^^

This was my all time favorite treat that was brought!  If you look closely the sign says "Place used Band-Aids here."  The nurse in me loved it so, so much!!!  Classic and next time I work on Halloween I'm going to bring this for all of my nurse friends!!!

Hope your Halloween was great and that you didn't have to eat too many used band-aids!!!

Thursday Treat: Easy Cinnamon Swirl Apple Muffins

Delicious crispy cinnamon glaze layer on top!

Earlier this week, I needed an easy treat to take to a Halloween Party.  We also had a bunch of apples that needed to be used ASAP.  We'd already made Apple Crisp and I didn't have any other ideas for foods with apples in it so I found a few recipes that would taste yummy and be healthy...since it has apples in it! ;)  I found a few different apple bread recipes and tweaked them a little to work for what we needed.  We made a loaf of bread and then decided to make some muffins!  The muffins and bread turned out so great!  Here are the directions for the muffins.

What you need:1 cup packed brown sugar3 teaspoons ground cinnamon1 1/3 cup white sugar1 cup butter, softened4 eggs4 teaspoons vanilla extract3 cups all-purpose flour3 teaspoons baking powder1 cup milk4 small to medium size apples-peel and chop into small pieces

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Grease and flour muffin tins. (This recipe makes approximately 2 dozen muffins)Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.In a separate bowl, mix together white sugar and butter until it is smooth.Mix in eggs and vanilla.Next add in flour, baking powder, and milk.Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.Cover each muffin with a layer of chopped apples.Pat the apples pieces into the batter with a spatula, spoon, etc.Sprinkle the top of the muffin with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Note:  To make bread loaves just add one or two layers of the batter, apples, and cinnamon mix.

These muffins make great snacks or even a quick breakfast on the go!  Enjoy!

We're back!!!

Do you ever have those months where you look at the calendar and wonder how you are going to get everything done?  Well, that's how September and the first part of October were.  School started and we were off and running!  Shelby's classes have been keeping him busy with...busy work-which is not his favorite but he is surviving. :)  I am still working and going to school online-I have been doing a Nursing Research class-and I had to write a 25ish page paper on a subject of my choice.  2 months and 36 pages later I am finished with the assignment and even better I passed!!! So now I can move on to more interesting classes and not spend all of my computer time reading and writing about how to improve nurse's hand hygiene compliance! :)  So that explains the lack of activity on our blog...  In between school, work, and church responsibilities we have still found time to play!  

^^ This school year I am teaching clogging classes one afternoon a week.  It has been so much^^

 fun and I am even teaching two competition teams!  I love it and the little girls that I get to teach.  So much fun and we can't wait until competition season!

^^ Mid-September we ran the Harvest Classic 6K!  Shelby did awesome as always and I did ^^

 better than expected.  Now on to training for a 10K next May, and a Half-Marathon next August! 

^^ I spent some time in September gathering items and assisting with St. Luke's United ^^

Way campaign.  Our floor put together a Movie Night basket which was a success!  I'm so grateful that the health system I work for not only works at serving our patients but also the surrounding community.

^^ And of course we soak in and love the time that we get to spend together. :) ^^

^^ We watched Cameron run at one of his cross country meets.  Go Vikes! ^^

^^ I was able to go to the General Women's Meeting with Lila and my mom.  ^^

^^ Shelby played intramural flag football at BSU this fall.  If you look super close ^^

 you can see him chasing after another player. :)

^^ We rode our bikes around BSU and stopped at the Anne Frank memorial-lots of ^^

 inspiration is written on the walls of this memorial.

^^ Cameron celebrated his 18th birthday!  I can't believe that my youngest brother is 18! ^^

^^ Last weekend I was able to go to Time Out for Women with my sister in laws ^^ 

and my mom and grandma.  It was so fun and we came away uplifted and inspired!  We even met US Olympian Noelle Pikus-Pace.

All in all, our fall has been great.  We are excited for Halloween and all the other festivities that are to come!!!  Happy Sunday!!!