We bought an awesome camera, and now my posts have pictures.

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and it was so great! We got our Christmas present a little bit early (because it was also our combined birthday/Anniversary present!) so we were able to capture the memories of this fun holiday with our new Canon Rebel T3! We love it and we are super happy we made the leap to DSLR camera. It does just a little bit better than the iPhone camera. ;)
And now to recap the day:
We went on a little run first thing in the morning.

I baked and baked

 















While Kevin did a little bit of homework.

Then we got to Grandma's and snuggled a little bit

Photo Credit to Cammie. I'm in love with this picture. 

And helped get dinner ready

After dinner we set up Grandma and Grandpa's GIANT fake Christmas tree (well, everyone else helped, I took pictures mostly...).

We mostly just loved spending time as a family!

Then we played an epic game of Hand and Foot

And broke into the desserts

We keep it classy around here.

When Kevin and I got home we set up our own little Christmas tree (ornaments in progress)!

Happy Holiday season! 

Recipe Wednesday: Pumpkin Roll

Kevin and I have a Fall/Winter Semester Bucket List, and one of the items on that list is "Pumpkin flavored everything." It's kind of a little inside joke that we have.
So the moral of the story is that I've been trying to do some pumpkiny baking! And I'd love to share this delicious pumpkin roll recipe with you just in time for Thanksgiving (this is actually going to be my contribution to the Thanksgiving feast this year).
I found this recipe via Pinterest at this website.

Pumpkin Roll:

CAKE: Set your oven to 375.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)

FILLING

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1st, prepare your pan and towel (this will make things easier when you are ready to bake). To prepare the pan, spray a 12x17 pan with cooking spray, add some parchment paper and grease and flour the parchment paper. For the towel, lay out a clean towel on a flat surface and sprinkle with that 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. 

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. 

Mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl and combine with the dry ingredients. 

Spread in your prepared pan

Bake at 375 for about 12-13 minutes.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, flip it over onto the pre-prepared powdered-sugar covered towel and roll it up (hot-dog style). It's important to roll it up in the towel when it's still hot because it will help it keep its form. 

While the cake is cooling (all inside that towel cocoon), make the icing. 

Combine ingredients and stir well.

Try not to eat all the icing before you put it on the cake. This will be hard, trust me.

Once the cake is cool, unwrap it from the towel (it will try hard to keep the rolled-up shape), and spread icing on with a spatula. 

Then roll the cake back up without the towel!

Cut it in half and start eating! It's better if it's been refrigerated for about an hour before serving.

Debut! Recipe Wednesday (On a Thursday...): Auntie Anne's Pretzels

I've decided to start posting recipes on this little blog because, hello, I make the yummiest stuff! The majority of my finds come from the internet, and my favorite Swiss cookbook given to me by my wonderful Grandma Sue. But my debut recipe is one that has recently made a comeback in our home (meaning we've been eating them all.the.time.) and it was given to me by one of my favorite Young Women leaders when I was a Laurel. I went through a phase where I made these puppies once or twice a week for like 3 months. It was awesome.

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon yeast
3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons oil

Bath
2 cups warm water
¼ cup baking soda

Toppings
¼ cup melted butter
kosher or pretzel salt OR cinnamon-sugar
Or, whatever you want! We love garlic poweder and cheese.

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Combine flour, powdered sugar
and salt. Add water with yeast and oil. Stir till dough forms a large ball. Knead 5
minutes as dough pulls off sides of bowl. Allow to rise in warm place for 45 minutes, till
double in size.

Preheat oven to 425. Make soda bath in a small pan (or even a bowl, or some tupperware). Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll into long sticks and form pretzels. Try to make them as long and skinny as possible, otherwise your pretzels will be really doughy on the inside. Dip formed pretzels into bath then 

set on paper towel for a moment. Place on greased cookie sheet. If you want salt (slash garlic powder), 

sprinkle immediately. Bake 4 minutes then spin pan half-way round in oven before 

baking another 4-5 minutes, till pretzels are golden brown. Immediately brush with 

melted butter and cool slightly.

 

If you want the cinnamon-sugar topping, brush with a generous amount of butter and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on BEFORE you bake. Then you get baked butter/sugar goodness on your pretzel. 

Hello gorgeous pretzels. We had these for dinner a couple of weeks ago. The top one is just salt and garlic powder with a bunch of garlic butter brushed all over it. The bottom one is exactly the same plus as much cheese as I could get to stay on. We dipped these in pizza sauce and garlic butter (and Kevin dipped his in some hot sauce, little weirdo). 

my little third wheel.

My sister Cammie was in town this weekend and while she was here we made an excursion to see In the Heights at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. I love that show SO much, but that's not what this post is about.
This post is about how much I love my sisters. And specifically this post is about how much I love Cammie (don't fret, Janna. Your post will come. ;)).
Cammie is 2 1/2 years younger than I am. We were best buds when we were little, we were fiercest enemies through elementary/junior high and then in high school she became one of my favorite people on this earth.
She's so different than I am, in pretty much every way. Except, we both love to crochet, and we both love musicals. That's where most of our bonding has happened. Teaching each other new crochet tricks, while listening to Evita, Miss Saigon, or In the Heights.
I really miss her while she's away at school. She loves going to college in St. George and I'm happy for her. But my favorite times are when we get to be together and catch up. We always talk a million miles an hour because there is just so much to say.
I love it when the stars align and we talk on the phone, or facetime while I'm on campus. I love hearing about her life, and remembering that I'm a part of it.
I've been thinking about her a lot, probably because she was just here. I'm deliriously excited to see her again over Thanksgiving, and to have more time to just be together.
I'm really proud of her and the decisions that she's made.
It makes me super happy when I remember that no matter who comes and goes in my life, she will always be my sister. That's pretty special.

Please note that each of us are wearing our own homemade, crocheted scarves and getting ready to watch a musical. Story of our relationship. :)

Some complaining, and some sappiness

To be completely honest, today was a rough day. 

It started with waking up late because I didn't hear my alarm. I bolted out the door for my run, but it was a cruddy run. I had time to shower when I got home but it ended up being a bad hair day. 

I paid less attention in my classes than usual and I also felt more pressure from techies today. 

I worked on a big paper that's due next week and it was an ordeal. I had a really hard time coming up with a good topc and a good argument. It was a very frustrating experience. 

Remember me talking about the most stupid assignments ever that I worked on for hours last week? Well, I got them back today and found out that I got a ZERO on two assignments and I have to redo them completely. 

Yes, it's just been a bad day.

Kevin knew about all of this obviously. At the end of my class I looked up and saw him there. He usually never comes down onto campus on Tuesdays. But he wanted to be there to help me feel better. Having him make an effort, even a tiny one, just to bring a smile to my face made everything feel a little better. He loved me and texted me pictures of fluffy kittens, and told me comforting things. He is the greatest thing about my life. 

My husband is my support system, my therapist, my love. He knows how to cheer me up, how to distract me and how to make me feel better. I love him so much. 

The day isn't over, there are still papers to be written and textbooks to read, but for the moment, I'm just going to pretend that I have nothing left to do in the world besides love my sweet hubby. 

#crochetlikeagrandma

I love to crochet. I love creating something all by myself. I love sitting on the couch, and unwinding from my day as I wind yarn into functional items. Yes, it puts me in the category of a grandma. Kevin actually has a hashtag that he uses when talking about me and my crocheting: #marriedtoagrandma. How hilarious is that? I love it.
I recently decided that I don't need 50 scarves and hats, and I can't afford the yarn for all that, so I thought I'd try my hand at selling my stuff. I made a page on Facebook, creatively called "Crocheted hats and scarves." If anyone is interested, message me what you want and I will make it for you. I'm selling the hats for 5$ and the scarves for 7$.
I'm not really trying to make an income with this little project. Mostly I just want to be able to to justify spending 20$ on yarn, and justify sitting on my behind all day doing something I love to do. :)

Things I particularly love today.

I'm loving lots of things today:
Early morning snuggles.
A pushy husband who motivated me to run.
Early morning runs.
Fantastic buffs that keep my ears warm.
Boots and blazers.
My red pants.
Breakfast burritos.
Walking to school.
Musicals.
Pinterest.
Leftover soup for lunch.
The Biggest Loser.
Good deeds.
This view during my break from classes:

tips on how to not be the worst professor ever.

Have you ever had a professor that assigned the most ridiculous, non-useful, time-consuming assignments?
Yeah I'm in the middle of that right now.
The first half of the semester had zero assignments, and then one day it was like "oh by the way, your first annotated bibliography is due in two days. There are a million asinine technical requirements about stuff that totally doesn't matter, and each one is going to take you at least an hour. Only one is due in two days so I can tear it apart but after that you are welcome to turn the rest in early. There will be ten total and they are all due at the same time."
So,  here I am, almost three hours in and I have one more assignment.
Oh, but that's only to fulfill the requirement for what's due tomorrow. Four of them are due tomorrow. I still have five more to do.
My brain is heavy from reading and summarizing studies about children's play.
Oh, and at the end of the semester I'll have a seven page research paper in which I have to somehow tie together all ten bibliographies that I summarized. How backwards.

There are some people who should not be teachers. Being an incredibly boring speaker, never varying your lectures and giving the WORST assignments ever is a fast way to make people hate you.
Just so you all know.

we have a reputation

I have some good news. People in our ward have been asking us to babysit.
This makes me incredibly happy for a lot of reasons.
Firstly, I love babies, and I love playing with babies, and I especially love playing with them for extended periods of time.
Secondly, it means that people in our wards trust us with their children which makes me feel proud and happy.
Thirdly, I can use their babies to figure out how exactly I should size a baby-sized crochet hat.
Fourthly, I have strong feelings that married people still need time to just be together without worrying about their children and I always feel very good when we can help make that happen.
Fifthly, it makes me excited to have babies of our own, but it also makes me very happy that we don't have any quite yet.
Serving is fun, especially when it involves babies.