Six Years!

Sunday was our six year wedding anniversary.....
it doesn't feel like it's been that long!

Being married to Jacob has been the best thing about my life.
He makes me laugh all the time...even when he's not trying, and we have so many fun memories that still make us laugh!
We leave little notes...

Pretty sneaky (#5 &6), but I got him back! :)

 in random places to surprise the other person....sneaking it onto lists is a pretty fun way to do it. :)
I wrote, "I love you the Most" in the shower one time to surprise him (which it did!), but what was suppose to be a wipe off crayon wasn't so he got to look at it for a long time! Of course, I hid the crayon so he wouldn't find it. :)
And since this is my blog I get to write it all the time for whenever he reads it!

I love you the MOST, Jacob!

I love being married to you, and you are the best friend I could ever have!

So...

I started off the day not very motivated, but I figured I should wash the breakfast dishes and then sit down for awhile.
Well, I washed the dishes and then for some reason decided the top (and outsided) of the fridge needed to be cleaned off. At some point, while I was doing that, I figured I might as well clean out the inside of the fridge too. By then I was on a roll so I went ahead and cleaned out the cabinet next to the fridge, and then moved on to our big cabinet (you can't see it in the picture, but its to the right of the freezer). 
So, here's the finished look. :)

 I should have taken a picture of the inside of the fridge, but I haven't been to the store in a week, so it's looking pretty bare....especially once I went through and threw a bunch of stuff away. Can I just say, "I love throwing things away," I mean, it really clears up so much space and makes things look so much cleaner!

Of course, while I was cleaning that section of the kitchen, I was also washing the sheets and blankets from the girls beds since that hadn't been done in awhile. It looks much better...

I just wish it could stay looking like that.....but, that's highly unlikely. :) What you can't see from this picture, is that all over one side of the mirror is covered in princess stickers....yep, and I have no idea how to get them to come all the way off. Lovely.

But, I didn't stop there, I asked Jacob to pull out all the baby clothes. I thought about waiting until tomorrow to get started, but I went ahead and reorganized the box, washed a big load of all the newborn stuff, and got it folded and put away! :)

Yep, I'm pretty pleased with everything I got accomplished today, and even though my back isn't feeling the greatest, I'm glad I got so much done. Maybe tomorrow I'll take it easy....after I go to the store. :)

I hope you all had a good day!

Thanksgiving Break Fun!

I know I'm late posting some pictures from our Thanksgiving with my family, but I'm finally doing it....so no complaining! :) Of course, I didn't get a picture of the kitchen full of food (yes, I was filling my plate and my stomach as fast as I could!), but trust me it all looked and tasted amazing!

So now, just enjoy some pictures of the kids and some of the fun....

The cute and adorable Logan(my nephew)!

Paige & Eden(my niece & cousin) playing in the leaves.

Logan & "the real photographer" Hillary (my sister).

Kaden & Logan (my nephews).

There was even game-playing in the pantry! :)

Lots of playing with toys happened.

There was also a lot of dancing and being silly that was video taped, but they'll probably just be added to our family videos so as not to embarrass some people! :)

While we were all home, my mom and sisters were all able to go out for our "girls coffee time," which was as fun as usual...although, I'm sure we tend to be a distraction to other people with all of our laughing and talking, but they just don't know what they're missing out on! :)
We did have the exception of one boy tag-along, but he was a cutie so we didn't mind!

Logan!

He got tired of girl-talk though, so he ate cookies. :)

 I didn't get pictures of everyone while we were out, but I did get a couple of some of my sisters....of course, I have tons of crazy, silly pictures, but I'll refrain from posting them!

Hillary & Kayla

Hillary, Kayla, Janessa, & Adalie (4 of my 6 sisters!).

 It was definitely a fun little break, and it was awesome to all get to be home together...just a few more weeks and hopefully we can have a repeat! Hurray for Christmas/New Years break! 

Pregnancy Update

Well, I had another prenatal visit with my midwife and time seems to be going by faster now that I'm seeing her every two weeks. In two weeks we'll be down to once a week visits since we decided to do another two weeks this time....we're getting closer though! :)

Little Miss Ella is leaning towards being posterior, and boy was I feeling it last night when my back was killing me! I seriously felt like an old person when I would get out of bed to use the bathroom...ugh, not fun. Hopefully she turns herself around soon so it gives my back a break. I already deal with (what we think is) Costochondritis, which is an inflammation of the cartilage around my ribs, and it causes really horrible rib pain, so combining the fact that my ribs hurt no matter which side I lay on at night, and the back pain, makes for difficult sleeping.
Other than the sleeping situation, I've been feeling pretty good though so I shouldn't complain too much! :)

I'm measuring at 33cm, so I'm definitely measuring behind since I've only grown 2cm in the past month, but the midwife said that a lot of the time when the baby is posterior it can make you measure smaller too. I'm still guessing I'm around 35 weeks, but no matter what we're getting down to the finish line!

She's staying very active, and evening time is definitely her favorite time to do crazy acrobatic stuff, which can be very entertaining.....although, occasionally she'll surprise me with some power kicks which make me randomly jump. :)

As for staying busy this week, I'm planning on going through the baby stuff and washing it up, so that should take up some time :) Plus, at some point during this weeks, or next week, we'll probably start doing some Christmas decorating...I don't know who is more excited, the girls or me!

Thanksgiving Desserts

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! It went by way too fast, but it was definitely wonderful to get to spend time with family.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my grandparent's house, and even though it was a smaller crowd than normal it still consisted of two big fried turkey breasts and one whole roasted turkey. We were actually able to convince my grandma that we didn't need a roast too since normally we have multiple turkeys, plus roast, and the occasional ham! So, yes, there was a lot of food to eat, but I stuck mainly to the turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn....yum, that actually sounds really good right now too! :)

For dessert, we tried to keep it smaller too.

Pumpkin Pie...

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18470/libbys-famous-pumpkin-pie/detail.aspx

  Which I just use the recipe from the LIBBY'S Pumpkin can, but I made the crust gluten free (since my grandma can't have gluten) and it's such a good crust people don't even know it's gluten free!

And, Pecan Pie...

http://karosyrup.com/recipe_details.asp?id=485

 Again, I just use the recipe from the back of the Karo Syrup bottle and made the crust gluten free, and people loved it!

Then, because there are so many chocolate lovers in my family we had to make something with chocolate, so we give this Mississippi Mud Pie recipe a try....

http://bakemeblush.blogspot.com/2011/09/mississippi-mud-challenge.html?showComment=1315625768659#c7545815830188198170

 I thought it was amazing! It's very rich because you use darker chocolate, but it was sooo good. It's actually all gluten free except for the oreo crust, which if you can find gluten free chocolate cookies it would be completely gluten free.

We also whipped these little Rolo cookies up real quick just to have something a little more kid friendly.

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/07/rolo-cookies.html

I didn't try them...yes, I only had eyes for the Mud Pie....but they went pretty fast and the kids seemed to like them. I think they probably are best warm, but for being a 4 ingredient recipe they were definitely worth making.

 Needless to say we were all very full from our Thanksgiving meal, and I think Ella enjoyed the turkey dinner, so I might have to do a mini version soon! :)

I'll be posting pictures of some of our Thanksgiving activities soon!

***For any of you that might be interested in the gluten free pie crust I use, whether for yourself, family, or friend, here is the one that I use...

 

 You can buy it at a lot of Wal-Marts, most health food stores, and online. It's only about five dollars, so it's a good buy since it makes 4 pie crusts for 8-inch pie plates. It also tastes good and people won't even know it's gluten free!

It's Monday Everyone!

Only three more days until Thanksgiving! And only two days until we head down to spend the rest of the week with my family! :) This week will probably go by so fast, but it'll be so much fun to get to spend it with family.....and I'm going to try to remember to take lots of pictures...oh, and videos!
Yes, I'm definitely excited, if you couldn't tell. :) There's going to be lots of:
talking, 
laughing, 
staying-up-late, 
girls coffee time, 
Black Friday craziness (who cares if all we have is a Wal-Mart...we make it fun!),
random, silly videos,
and of course, lots of good food! :)

So, as I was looking back on pictures from previous Thanksgivings I came across this one...

This was taken 6 years ago...just a couple weeks before Jacob and I got married!

 That seems like such a long time ago, and I can't believe how young some of my siblings look...lol, well, I guess we were all 6 years younger! :)

Now for the more current picture of us all with the addition of grand-kids.

April 2012

 The family has definitely increased in numbers, although the girls still outnumber the boys, but it's starting to even out a little, and I Dad has enjoyed having more guys around. :)
I think Dad looks exactly the same, and Mom actually looks younger in this picture....I don't think most people would guess they've had 10 kids and 5 (with one on the way) grand-kids. :)

I am definitely blessed with an amazing family, and I love them all so much!

I hope everyone is having an amazing Monday-before-Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin & Cream Cheese..it's on my mind

Well, today is just one of those days where I don't really feel like doing anything. I feel like I should be motivated to do something, but I just can't get myself going. Ok, well I did do dishes and things are picked up around here (for however long that lasts before another Abigail-Bethany storm hits), but that's about it.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner I'm getting the itch to bake....ok, ok, I almost always have the itch to bake, but sometimes it's worse than other times. I'm going to blame it on the pregnancy. I mean really, the one time I would like to not want to make all these yummy things I'm, of course, really wanting to try them all out, and there are far too many yummy looking things out there just waiting to be made!

Libby's Pumpkin Roll (recipe on pumpkin can)

These kinds of rolls look hard to make, but they're actually pretty easy. I've never done a pumpkin one before, but I'm thinking now would be a good time....plus, it just sounds really good. :)

As for these....

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

they sound so good! The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman, so I'm thinking they will be good....and, seriously, it's pumpkin and cream cheese! Those two things just taste amazing together!

I've made this Pumpkin Cream Trifle before...

http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2010/11/pumpkin-cream-trifle-2

but it's easy to make, looks beautiful, and it's amazingly good. Family and friends will love it, so if you're looking for an easy and delicious dessert to make for Thanksgiving I would highly recommend this one!

I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, but for those who are, I think these are super cute and would be something fun and different...and maybe, just maybe I'd give them a try. :)

http://www.bakerella.com/pumpkin-pie-bites/

Alright, just one more and I'll be done with my craze on pumpkin and cream cheese....besides you're bound to be wanting something with pumpkin and cream cheese now, aren't you? Ok, maybe it's just me...it's the pregnancy remember! ;)

http://dreamydesserts.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpkin-whoopie-pies-with-creamy-cream.html

I like whoopie pies a lot, and these have pumpkin and........

......oh yeah, you know, cream cheese. It's a deadly combination, but don't blame me, blame these people that come up with these mouth-watering recipes....I mean really, what were they thinking!