Sa.weet!

The coolest thing happened the other day! I was sitting down making a list of baby boy names because I realized we really are going to have to name this kid I'm growing, and I got distracted by baby girl names. I wrote down a couple of my top girl names, and decided that my number one favorite girls name right now is Evelyn. I don't know why, but I'm totally in love with that name! Later that day we were driving somewhere and names came up, so I told Beau how much I love the name Evelyn and how if we ever have a girl I really want to name her that. Then Beau looks over at me with this Duh look on his face and says, You know that's my Grandma Davis' name right? NO! I didn't know that! I thought her name was Lynn. That makes me love the name even more. It will have more meaning.

Too bad something like that can't happen with a boys name! We're having the hardest time coming up with a name for this little bean! Like we can't agree on even one name...

Any ideas?

Day 24

Where I live:

Okay. You're going to have to cut me some slack here. I know my house is unbelievably bare/boring right now, but we only moved in 6 weeks ago, and I haven't wanted to decorate just to take it all down and put Christmas up. I started putting Christmas up last night, but only got as far as setting the tree up. We didn't even decorate it because we're having light issues. SO.... maybe I'll decorate after Christmas. Until then, have a good time looking at my naked house.

The HouseView as you come in the front door. There is a formal living room to the right, but it's empty at the moment.

Family Room

Kitchen

From the fire place looking upstairs.

From our room looking into our bathroom and closet.

Laundry Room

Down stairs half bath

View from the top of the stairs looking into the bathroom. The closed door is Josh's room. No picture of his room because he's sleeping. The two other rooms are off to the left of the bathroom.

Upstairs bathroom. I really like the way this one is set up. The shower and toilet are in a separate room and there are two vanities across from each other. It's a perfect way to have the 3 kids rooms share one bathroom. I'll have to remember this the next time we build.

Play room/ future nursery, whenever we decide to take Josh out of the crib it'll go in here for the new baby. Until then it's a play room that usually looks like a bomb went off in it. I LOVE having a play room. Josh's room stays so clean, there's not toys all over the rest of the house, and I can just shut the door to this room and pretend the mess isn't even there. The guestroom may be converted into a playroom when the baby comes...we'll see.

Guest bedroom/craft room

View from the upstairs looking down. And yes, that is our flat-screen TV on the ground. It's a long story...
I left out pictures of the basement. It's unfinished, so basically it's a huge storage room. I love having it though. Now that it's freezing outside Josh plays and rides his car down, and there is tons of room for all my crap/important belongings :)

Day 23

A youtube video:

Lately I've actually been on youtube quite a bit. Joshua asks Beau and I probably 5000 times a day to watch tractor's on the computer. So every once in a while we'll get on youtube and search for tractor clips. He'd watch them all day if we'd let him. His favorites right now are of the fire trucks. Other than that, I don't have a youtube video in mind and I don't really feel like finding one right now.

So...moving on.

Hopefully my house gets cleaned tomorrow so I can take some pictures for day 24.

Day 22

A website:

www.thepioneerwomen.com

Easily my favorite website. I have lots that I love, but this one is the best. I have made probably 100 of her recipes, and all of them were good. That never happens! She's way funny and an amazing photographer. I think that's probably why her website is my favorite, because it's got it all. Comedy, photography, recipes, and some design.

Halloween

This year we had tons of Halloween fun! Josh was Buzz and he totally loved every minute of it. He didn't know what to think of being dressed up at first until I put him in front of the mirror. Then he just started yelling BUZZ! It was so funny! He was such a little character after that.
We did a few different things to celebrate.

We started the week with a FHE with the Dalton's. We went to the Pumpkin Patch and picked pumpkins. Then we went home to carve them and eat pizza. It was way fun! Joshua was pretty into the whole carving thing this year.

We went to the Library costume parade.
*Buzz and Jessy (Lucy)

Then we went to Boo at the Zoo!

And finally, our ward's Trunk 'r Treat.
It was a pretty packed week, full of fun and candy. We have so much candy in our house! I don't know what to do with it. None of us are candy eaters. Well I am, but I've already picked through and eaten the couple candy bars that I like, and now we have like 3 gallons of candy just sitting on the counter. I keep offering it to Joshua at treat time everyday, but he doesn't even want it. What a weird kid :/

Day 21

A recipe:

How do you narrow it down? I'll just post my favorite I guess. Out of all the new recipes I've tried over the last couple years, this is by far the best! If you are a meat and potatoes person, or your husband is, you seriously have to make this. It will be your favorite dish I promise!

Braised Short Ribs
(I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients

• 8 whole Beef Short Ribs
• Kosher Salt & Pepper To Taste
• ¼ cups All-purpose Flour
• 6 pieces bacon, Diced
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 whole Carrots, Diced
• 2 whole Shallots, Peeled And Finely Minced
• 2 cups Red Or White Wine (I use 1 cup red wine and one cup broth because I don't like too much of the wine taste)
  
• 2 cups Beef Or Chicken Broth (enough to almost cover ribs)
• 2 sprigs Thyme
• 2 sprigs Rosemary (I found that I like it better to only use 1 sprig of both or else the flavor over powers the meat.)
  

Preparation Instructions

Salt and pepper ribs, then dredge in flour. Set aside.

In a large dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until complete crispy and all fat is rendered. Remove bacon and set aside. Do not discard grease.

Add olive oil to pan with the bacon grease, and raise heat to high. Brown ribs on all sides, about 45 seconds per side. Remove ribs and set aside. Turn heat to medium.

Add onions, carrots, and shallots to pan and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape bottom of pan to release all the flavorful bits of glory. Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes.

Add broth, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add more salt if needed. Add ribs to the liquid; they should be almost completely submerged. Add thyme and rosemary sprigs (whole) to the liquid. Throw in the bacon as well.

Put on the lid and place into the oven. Cook at 350 for 2 hours, then reduce heat to 325 and cook for an additional 30 to 45 minutes. Ribs should be fork-tender and falling off the bone. Remove pan from oven and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes, lid on, before serving. At the last minute, skim fat off the top of the liquid. (Can also refrigerate mixture, then remove solid fat from the top.)

Serve 2 ribs on bed of creamy polenta, spooning a little juice over the top.

And now I have to go to the store because I have to have this!

Day 20

A hobby of yours:

Hmmm...This one is hard for some reason. I don't really have any hobbies. I think really my only hobby is blogging. With the little spare time that I have I usually read, try to blog, or I get on and look at other blogs (but I'll be honest, lately if I have spare time, I'm trying to sleep. No time for hobbies, I need sleep!). I love looking at crafty blogs and pretending that I'm actually going to make some of the cute stuff I find. But more often than not, I don't. I also love to look at recipe blogs and find new recipes to try. I try to cook one new thing a week. It's made me a pretty decent cook because a lot of the time I try dishes or ingredients that I've never even heard of before and find out they are actually amazing. Plus it helps me not make the same 5 meals over and over.

So I guess I'd say my hobbies are reading, blogging, and cooking. Pretty exciting, I know.

Day 19

A talent of yours:

I'm not sure if this is really considered a talent, but I'd say something I'm really good at is managing money. I love to budget! It's weird, but it's like a game to me. I like to set an amount of money I'm going to spend every month in multiple areas such as groceries, misc., Joshua, and fuel, and then see how far I can stretch it. At the beginning of this year Beau and I switched over to the cash only system just to try it out. We've always been really good at being conservative with our spending and making sure to save some each month, but I wanted to see if we could set an amount for everything in our lives and not go over by even a penny, and also see if there were any areas we could save more in. So at the beginning of the month I would fill my little envelopes with the designated amount of money and keep them in my wallet. Then when I went to the grocery store I'd pull out the envelope and see how much I could spend that trip and that's all I'd spend. Sometimes I'd have to get creative on meals those last couple days of the month and other months we'd have extra. But we never went over, assuring that we had a certain amount to put into our savings account each month no matter what. It was the coolest thing and the best thing that we could ever have done! Literally watching the dollar bills leave your wallet does something to you that doesn't happen when you just had over the card and swipe. It makes you think twice about every penny you spend! We did that for six months and it completely changed the way I view spending money. I've become an even bigger tight-wad.
That was fun to me! And I got seriously good at it...so I'd say budgeting is a talent of mine.

Day 18

My wedding:


I swear I'm not ever going to finish this 30 day thing...

My wedding.

We were Married on August 3, 2007 in the St. George Temple. I loved everything about the whole day. Everything went perfect, we were the happiest we'd ever been, and it was Gorgeous! It turned out exactly the way I had imagined.
I cried my eyes out during the ceremony (which I thought was normal because I'd never been to one before, but I've been to a few since and I've decided I'm a huge baby!). I was so happy to finally be there with the perfect guy. Being married in the temple meant more to me than anything in the world.
Or reception was held at the Bell Tower. We had an event planner do the whole thing so it was relaxing and fun for everyone. Us and our families just had to show up and enjoy the day. No worries, no setting anything up, and no taking down. The flowers and food were amazing! It was an unbelievable day all-in-all.

I don't have any pictures on my computer of what the photographer took on the actual day because we didn't get a cd with the photos, only hard copies. Sad huh? So these pictures are just some I pulled off of the florist's website of our reception.