I Love Waffles! -and our fall party

I got so excited because Ben bought me a new waffle maker two weeks ago. I didn't get my hopes up too high because we have had about 4 waffle makers. The first didn't work at all, the second didn't get at all hot enough so the waffles came out flat, the third cooked the front of the waffles but nothing else. So with the arrival of the fourth maker I was expecting another disaster

......but.........finally success!!!!!

Beautiful golden brown, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside waffles.



This past Saturday my sister in law Megan and I threw a fall party (the first of many we hope). We had mostly family and a few friends attend. We were thankful for a little turn out as it was our first party and we were a little behind on the planing front. We had a pretty good spread of food. We had spices cider, chicken teriyaki skewers, pizza with ghostly shapes on it, fruit and some other things. (i didn't snap the picture until after we ate)


I had seen a picture on a Womens Day Magazine of a neat cake so I thought I'd have a go at it. I changed it a little bit but here is my version of it (Ben suggested the red bat eyes).

Megan made some great cupcakes, little pumpkins and some very cute owls.



After we ate we went out on the porch and carved some pumpkins.

Mikalea found some dirt to play with - as all kids tend to.


Here are the pumpkins all done- the photo was taken at night so it took a few times to get a great snapshot.

the two pumpkins on the bench to the left turned out really cool even though you cant see them in the pic - they were matt and vals - matt did a reeses cup and val did a witches cauldron.

It was so fun to carve them - i think it has been 5 years at least from the last time i carved a pumpkin.


After that we came inside and started making some caramel apples - I had to look up a recipe cause I had never made caramel apples before. Thankfully the caramel turned out great - we had to make a second batch cause we had so many apples. Yummy!!!

I don't like much of anything on my apples other than caramel- so I just put some fun little sprinkles on mine. We also had cookie crumbs, chocolate jimmies, white chocolate, mini m&m's and i think a few other things.


So fun!!! I hope that things turn out just as good for next year!!!!!

Conference Sunday- Photo Updates

Hello all, so there have been many photos that I have taken and not yet posted. I figured today would be a good day for these. Per my fathers request there are photos of our new door along with some others.

Lets start with the oldest first.........


This is one of my sweet nieces - Emma- this was back in July when most of the in laws were in town for the Keeffers anniversary party. Emma and her older brother Trey stayed the night at our house. Ben and Trey were playing video games down stairs -boring- so we went upstairs and watched Ever After. Emma said she had a loose tooth and it had been that way for a while. We tried a few things first but after nothing made it fall out she had me yank it out. I do have to say I was more freaked out about it than her. (I know I am a nurse but teeth/mouth things in general freak me out, I have a love hate relationship with my dentist - sorry cousins) We put it in one of my ring boxes so the tooth fairy could come give her some money. He He He that was the first time I pulled a tooth other than mine.


These are from the first demolition derby that I attended in Aug at the Weber County State Fair. It was a lot of fun and we got some extra entertainment thanks to some crazy white trash people started fighting after a bad crash. The bad crash resulted in one of the drivers getting knocked unconscious. He ended up being ok and only needed a few stitches (they found that out after they life flighted him out).

now some sad photos....


Here is our precious family dog Duke. Most of you know these are photos from the day Steph and I had to do put Duke to sleep Aug 18 2010. I am balling my eyes out as expected. He was a great and sometimes frustrating, he lived a very long life and traveled across the country more than most dogs. Not much else I can say about him with out getting myself sad.

So now getting up to today, conference Sunday. I woke up thinking about pancakes, then I remembered we didn't have syrup. So I started thinking about making my own, which led me to think about making raspberry syrup which then make me think about crepes.


So for our conference Sunday brunch I made Ben and I crepes with homemade raspberry sauce and cream filling. We also got out the Nutella and some powdered sugar for fun. I know they weren't the best crepes in the world but pretty good for my first go at them.

So now the photos of the door. Our old door was great except for the fact that after three packs of weather stripping you could still see daylight around the whole thing.

-the old door-


So a few weeks ago Ben and a guy who lives in the apartments where we used to live fixed it.

Turns out our door was square (which we knew) but the doorway was very very messed up so they squared up the doorway and re framed it. They also were able to shoot that fun foam stuff in so hopefully it is much tighter of a seal this winter.

So here is our new fire proof door.

We have to repaint the plastic that surrounds the glass because even after priming it the paint pealed right off. We also have to put our knocker and kick plate back on.

Ben also installed a storm door....


We have the screen in the storm door right now because the beautiful beveled glass pane won't fit by (we have to call Pella for a replacement). Hopefully this week we can get a replacement and get the glass in place.

Hope you all have a great week-

I'm officially 27

Hello all - So less than a month and I'm posting- go me! As most of you know yesterday was my 27th b day. woo hoo! another year has passed, crazy. So to get away fir a few days one of my best friends and I went to Park City Ut for a few days. We stayed in a great room with two bedrooms, a kitchen and ...... our very own hot tub! It was so great. We got some good shopping in, had some great massages and ate great food. It was lots of fun.
Other than that this past month had just been the norm with us working, doing small home repairs and hanging out with friends.
I don't know if i mentioned this earlier but Ben bought me/ well us a wii a few months ago and we started playing mario kart that we borrowed from Ben and Megan (my sis and brother in law) we got addicted to it so we got it used and have almost mastered it. Well i should say Ben has almost mastered it. I get quite frustrated sometimes , most times and have to take a breather.
We are looking into starting to remodel some of the house next year. I am getting excited for looking forward to it.
Well honestly that is about it. I will try to find more to post so I can post more often.
80)

so fun

again, it has been a while in between posts - sorry- not a whole lot to update on. Last night 3 of my friends and I went to the Weber County Fair Demolition Derby, so much fun!! Total white trash event with lots of drunk people acting a fool but so entertaining. Ben and I have just been hanging out and doing little things on the house until the heat cools down.
Well I'll try to post again sooner than later - bye for now

YUP I BUILT THAT

So I am pretty excited about my post today. I just got done building my fist, very own retaining wall (I have built plenty with my mom but this one is for me). Every since we moved in I have disliked the plants in the front of the house, so I decided finally to do something about it. I also disliked how the flower bed slopped down and just kinda fell off. We do live on a hill but I like things level.

First came the decision process, in the store I thought I would like the smallest blocks the best, then I thought the tan/pink ones might look nice. Then I decided that I really liked the gray ones the best at the last minute - he he he-

So I had to go pick them up, hall them back and build!!! I started this morning at about 11am after Ben went to work. I had to make a couple trips to the nursery cause I forgot some stuff but now I'm done. Woo hoo. - yeah I'm pretty excited about it-

The only thing I'm not too excited for is doing this to the other side. It is twice as big.

So here it is.


The plants are sunburst coreopsis, dual color gaillardia, and snowcap shasta daisies.

The flowers look a little droopy cause I just watered them so the petals are weighed down. I'll get a better pic in a couple days when they perk up.

potted plants and...

So the past few weeks we have been staying busy, most recently we went to Lowes to get some stuff for potted plants cause I wanted to bring some color to our deck. We ended up walking out of Lowes with stuff for 6 containers of plants, a large container for tomatoes my grandma sent home with us, also a new refrigerator and dishwasher.

Yeah unexpected but oh so awesome.

So our two year anniversary was May 24th, we went out to visit my Grandma Harbour in California. We stopped in Reno for a night which was fun. While there Grandma grabbed some little tom plants that she was going to throw away so Steph and I could give them a try growing them. That is kinda the whole thing that triggered the potted plant thing.

So here are my pots - Promise the tomatoes look much improved now, they were a bit tired from the trip.









So as I was looking at plants, ben ran and looked at appliances. We ended up getting a screaming good deal cause they were having a sale for memorial day, then we got an extra 10% off so we got about 40& off the regular price. We are lucky cause it fits in the kitchen but it is a tad big for the space but we think it will look better after we remodel.
(I haven't cleaned is from when it was installed so it looks smudgy with fingerprints)

more photos

So just some updates on the yard, most are self explanatory. The one of the bushes in the front is just me showing some progress on the pulling out of the junk.





Plus here is a pic of our new chandelier for our dining room, also the new paint color. We still have some finish work to do around some edging and then we will post more photos of the final product.

more yard updates

Sorry if these posts aren't super exciting for everyone, they are for me!!! Just did another circle of the yard this Sunday in hopes of seeing some tulips (the ones at the church just two 4 blocks away are in bloom) but nothing yet -



They are getting sooooooo close. I think we are gonna see some red ones cause there is a slight hint of orange or red on the edges. Also sorry about the dandelion in the corner there- he he he.

We do have some beautiful spring time blooms on our apricot tree.



Here is a little sad looking rose bush I almost pulled out last fall but decided to leave in and see what happened. Surprise - there is some new growth.


And a new update on my lilac progress - we have so many in the yard i can't wait for them all to bloom. It is gonna look so pretty.


Also .. I have had multi requests from some family for a post about the lay out of our house so I am gonna do that later this week.

I felt it..... did you?

So I don't know if you guys felt it but today we got a little residual tremor from an earthquake near by. I was hanging out on the couch when it hit, Ben was standing up in the kitchen so he didn't feel it. It wasn't real big but it scared me that the BIG earthquake we keep hearing is destined to hit the Wasatch front is gonna get here sooner than later. I keep hoping for later.

Even though I knew that feeling (when we were young kids we were in the Northridge quake in Ca) cause you don't ever forget it. It is always nice to have some reassurance.

Here is the official website. Our little quake.

Our new treadmill

ye haaa - I'm so excited for this new treadmill. Most of you know that I completed a half marathon this last December in Las Vegas. I am sad to say that my short break after that race has become a two - three month long break. So now to help me squash that cycle and give me no excuses for not getting some good cardio in 6 days a week. We have two different "scratch and dent" exercise stores in our area- we found this treadmill at one of the stores for about $140 less than the competitor.

Thankfully I have my wonderful sister in town who has a Tahoe so we could get this monstrous thing home. We started to unload it when Ben really started to question my upper arm strength. So we rested it on our garbage can while Ben enlisted one of our new neighbors for some help lowering it onto the driveway.



Once down we had to disassemble it a bit as our doorways are small.


We hauled it inside, put it back together and.....


viola -


We also decided that we needed to rearrange the guest room/ exercise room a bit so we took some time out of our weekend to get it settled. I am excited to get movin' on it tomorrow.


-I also took another survey of the yard today while talking to my mom and dad - there is some progress and I will photo document it in a few days.