General Conference/Easter -- 2018

Our Easter weekend started out on Friday.  Jason turned the big 15!  Devin got the day off to go snowmobiling with his great Uncle Larry and Cousins Greg and Laura.  That man could snowmobile almost every day if I would let him.  Fridays are my grocery shopping days.  After I got home from grocery shopping, and Devin got home from snowmobiling, we headed down to my parents for some pizza and cake!  I can’t believe that Jason is already 15.  When we were growing up, my mom, dad, Allie and I would call Kendal, Jason and Lindsie the ‘three littles’.  I still call them that, even though they are now 17, 15 and 13.  I’m sure that they will be the ‘three littles’ until the day I die – and then probably still in heaven.  Haha!  The three littles are in the stage now where they all like getting money for their birthdays.  That makes it super easy for Devin and I! They spent the night playing basketball and then D and I went home and had a nice little walk by ourselves.  (Aggie went to my parents to play with Myla, so we decided that we could go on a walk by ourselves for once.)

Saturday morning we slept in a little bit.  I always feel so much better when I wake up naturally on my own.  Even if it’s like 20 minutes longer than what my alarm is normally set for.  We kind of just laid in bed for a little bit.  It was so relaxing!  On Thursday, we had started to trim our raspberries.  With the warmer weather, I was afraid that my berries were going to start to budding before I got them trimmed.  We went out and finished cleaning up our garden and trimming raspberries before the next rain storm and just so we're ready when it’s time to plant!  After we got our garden all cleaned up, we decided that it was probably time for lunch.  Today is the first day of the year that we whipped the grill out!! We made bacon burgers with steamed carrots (that we kept all winter in the garden) and zucchini.  Once we finished our delicious lunch, we raked the entire back yard.  Now—I understand that there are people out there with bigger yards than me, but I was already so tired and exhausted that it was painful for me to rake the backyard.  Thankfully, Devin was there and he did most the work. ;) After we finished in the yard, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out, Devin went to priesthood session, and then we watched the final four.  (We did listen to General Conference while we were outside, and we went in to watch the Solemn Assembly for President Nelson and we were able to sustain him.  What a beautiful moment that was to watch and witness.  President Monson was put in 10 years ago, so I didn’t really remember what happened.  I hope that I will be able to remember that for a long, long time. 

With Sunday being Easter, Devin and I laid in bed and watched the first session of the Sunday General Conference at home.  It was so nice and relaxing.  It was good for me at least too, since I really couldn’t move.  I was so sore! We went and ate lunch with D’s family.  It was such a nice day!  

In 2010, Devin got called to serve in the Nicaragua Managua South mission.  He served from July 2010-July 2012.  He loves the country, the food, everything about Nicaragua.  When he was serving down there, President Nelson (then a member of the 12 apostles) came to visit and told the people that they would not get a temple until they started to pay their tithing.  Every general conference since I have known Devin, he is always hoping and praying that a temple will be built there.  As we listened to President Nelson announce temples in the last session on Sunday, we were both just praying and hoping that Nicaragua would be a part of that announcement.  When President Nelson read Managua, Nicaragua, I looked at Devin and his face was filled with pure joy.  We yelled and we cried.  I have not seen my husband cry in a long, long, long time.  But these were tears of accomplishment and of joy and of gratitude.  Those people that he loves so dearly, in a short time, will no longer have to leave the country in order to visit the Lord’s house.  The spirit was strong in my little home.  You could feel of the love that God has for ALL his people.  It was such a tender moment for us to enjoy together.  I will never forget that feeling that was in our home.  I know that Christ lives.  I know that he loves each and every one of us.  I know that prayers are answered.  Not in our time, but in God’s time.  They will be answered.   I love general conference.  I love the opportunity that we get to hear from each of the beloved members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as those in the First Presidency and members of other quorums.   One of my favorite quotes from this conference was by our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, “We can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction, be warned about dangers and distractions, and be enabled to accomplish things we simply could not do on our own.” 

We finished our Easter day by having dinner with my parents.  I got the cutest cow shirt from my mom.  I told her that if I didn't get a basket, I was calling child services. Haha!  So she bought me this shirt instead.  We laughed, played volleyball, and enjoyed each other’s company.  What a beautiful blessing it was to celebrate Easter, and listen to those who have been called by God.  I am so grateful for the blessings that were given to my family this weekend, and well as the beautiful sunshine!! I hope and pray that everyone had a Happy Easter.

Meat Day

I am 98% sure that I almost killed my husband, and myself off today.  In our house, we have whats called: Meat day.  I'm not the biggest fan of meat day, and usually Devin is the one that is pushing me to participate in this horrible day.  Meat day is what it says.  A day full of meat.  Obviously, it doesn't take us ALL day to do our thing, but it's long enough.  All meat day is, is we brown a bunch of hamburger (usually 6-8 lbs) to freeze and have for later. Now I know what you're thinking.  6-8 lbs? That can't be to bad.  But have you done it? Have you REALLY done it?  It's not the most fun-filled activity, and its just something that I personally despise. What we usually do is brown and season the hamburger, Devin will then hand squeeze the grease out, bag it into some quart sized bags, and freeze it.  It takes us at least an hour, depending on how many pounds we do, and it makes life SO much easier on the days that we're short on time!  We've done this for sausage too.  

Today was worse that normal.  I found a deal at Macey's for chicken.  I've done the Zaycon chicken, and sorry you Zaycon lovers, but it just wasn't my favorite.  I loved it at first!  It was a lot of chicken for a good deal.  Well the deal today, was even better!  I got 40 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $61.39!  When I bought my chicken through Zaycon, it was close to $75.00.  I had to order it online, and wait to pick it up.  I picked my chicken up from Macey's and brought it home today. (Now we have not ate any of this chicken yet, so I'm not necessarily saying that it's better than Zaycon.  As soon as I try it, I'll let you know which is better!)

What I've done in the past is bought whatever bulk meat, and stored it in grandma and grandpa Jeppesen's extra fridge.  Well I took my 40 lbs box down there today after work, only to find the fridge had been unplugged.  DANG.  In their defense, they had no idea that I was bringing chicken today.  There was no way that the chicken was going to fit in my fridge.  The original plan was to put it in the fridge and grandmas, and then deal with it tomorrow or even Monday. Devin walked in right when I was attempting to put it in the fridge and since he is a go getter, he decided that it would just be best to get the chicken prepped today.  We spent the next 2 hours trimming the fat off the chicken, creating fillets and tenders from some of the pieces, (we've never done fillets before) and then vacuum sealing it with grandma's Food Saver. (We haven't talked to grandma or grandpa, and its likely that grandma will see this sometime tonight.  So if this is how you find out grandma, surprise! haha) 

After those 2+ hours of chicken prepping, I browned 3 lbs of hamburger.  Between all the prep work and the cleaning up, by the time we sat down to eat dinner, it was literally 9:00 PM.  OH MAN.  We're going to sleep SO good tonight!  I'm really thankful that Devin supports me in these weird little things that I like to do.  I enjoy getting the chicken because if all we ate was the steer, it would probably drive me nuts.  I have always felt strongly about having some of these kinds of foods stored up, just in case anything happened.  As much as I don't enjoy meat days, I honestly would highly recommend it.  As Devin and I are trying to expand our family, I feel that its important for us to take a few days out of the year, to do this small prep.  It has really been a lifesaver!  Especially in the summer when we're at work all day, and then go straight to the farm.  

 Chicken before and after

 Browning the hamburger and squeezing the grease out.  (Saving our hearts! <3)

Grease and bagging

Good food!

This week I wanted to post about what Devin and I had for dinner, last week.  I felt like we ate pretty decent and thought, why not!  Last week, a couple of our meals were: Gallo pinto, pork chops, steak and sausage/potato soup.

Devin and I eat a lot better during the summer months.   I’m not saying that we eat terrible in the winter either.  I just think that in the summertime, you get a lot more fresh foods that I feel like are easier to work with.  I feel like in the winter, our side dishes for every meal are either some kind of a potato…or rice.

In the summer, we eat a lot of “summertime” salads.  Apple salad, broccoli salad, pink salad, green salad etc.  We eat A LOT of vegetables too.  Whether we grow them in our own garden, or get them at the grocery store – I just feel like the months of May-September is easier for me to cook dinner.

I’ve been trying so hard to eat healthy.  But unfortunately for me, I am a carb lover.  I love all things carbs! Bread, potatoes, chips, crackers…all things bad for you.  I’m trying my best to eat healthier.  I know that carbs aren’t very good for you, because they turn into sugars.  But I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with eating potatoes or rice every now and then.  With that being said, any of your favorite side dishes, would be appreciated!

Gallo Pinto:  Devin served his two year mission in Nicaragua.  One of his absolute favorite meals from there is gallo pinto.  Translation: Rice and beans.  We’ve made this a couple of times, and each time we make it we get a little bit closer to having the authentic, Nicaraguan taste that he dreams about.  He tells me about when they would fry up the rice and beans, scramble an egg sunny side up, and then slice an avocado with it.  I love seeing his face when he describes things like that from his mission, so I always try my best to replicate it to my best ability.  Ever since coming home from his mission, he can’t eat some fresh fruits.  A lot of fresh fruits upset his stomach.  Fruits like raspberries, fresh peaches and avocados really hurt his stomach. (Yes!  Avocado is a fruit!)  So for dinner last week, we settled with just gallo pinto and a fried egg.

Pork Chops:  There are a couple of different ways that I usually make pork chops.  I will either pan fry them, or bake/crockpot them in apple juice.  Apple goes SO good with pork in my opinion.  This week I decided I’d fry them up.  I put one of the McCormick seasonings as a rub on the outside of them.  Smoky Applewood Marinade is what I used as my rub.  I rubbed them lightly with the powder, and pan fried them on the stove!  They were pretty good!  Not my absolute favorite, I’d definitely pan fry them again, but maybe not with that specific rub.  I’ve been on a green bean kick lately too.  They seem like “wintery” food to me.  We ate the pork chops with mashed potatoes and green beans.

Steak: As I mentioned above, most of our side dishes lately have been mashed potatoes or rice.  Lucky D got to eat mashed potatoes AND green beans, twice last week.  Poor guy!  The only difference between these two meals, was literally the meats.  Since Devin’s dad has the cows, he butchers a steer every year.  He has been very gracious in sharing the meat with us.  That being said, we get steaks!  We decided to grill some tenderloins that we had from the last steer we killed.  Since it's a little bit too cold to be outside grilling, we decided to pan fry these tenderloins in butter and with some rosemary sprigs.  Oh my delicious.  Devin has become the steak pro!  I am not even kidding.  When ever I’d go out to a fancier restaurant and get steak, I was just in heaven.  Restaurant steaks now, just do not even compare!  There is only one other place that can cook steaks decently close to Devin’s.  Devin’s are better, but Texas Roadhouse’s are pretty close.

Sausage potato soup: We decided to try and make a new soup.  As posted before, Devin and I are very much soup people.  Devin found this one soup on Taste of Home’s website.  It is a sausage potato soup.  It has sausage, potatoes, carrots, and celery in it.  It was different than any other kind of soup I’ve made.  There was no roux to be made. (That means no flour!)  You can find the link to that recipe, here.

I have told D multiple times, that if I could be anything in the world, I would be chef.  I love food!  I watch all the food network shows. (Beat Bobby Flay, Guys Grocery Games, Chopped, Worst Cooks in America, you name it, I’ve probably seen it)  Now I’m not the best cook in the world, but I’m definitely not the worst! I’m grateful for Devin and his patience when I see some fancy recipe on food network, or the internet, and want to try and do something similar.  I know this isn’t the best written blog and maybe the food isn’t that impressive, but it is definitely a work in process and I look forward to trying to cook a little bit better every day.

Martha and Phoebe

Back in December, the 18^th to be exact, I was on my way to the dentist in Brigham City.  I was as far through Sardine Canyon as you can be when my car went nuts.  I was just listening away to the radio when all of a sudden I could hear my engine revving.  I had wondered if I had knocked it out of drive for some reason, but when I checked my dash, I was still in drive.  I noticed that my RPMs were all the way over.  Of course, after I see my RPMs freaking out, my oil light comes on, followed my engine light.  Thankfully my engine light wasn’t flashing so I could maybe just coast off the exit and pull over there.  Wrong.  My engine light started to flash.  DAAAAANGGGGG.  I knew that once the light started to flash, I had to pull over.  I was literally like ¼ of a mile away from the exit.  I was so close!! 

I know next to nothing about cars.  I can add oil and check my oil.  Put gas in it.  I could probably change a flat tire.  I’m even pretty good at using a blinker when needed.  I called Devin immediately.  I was so frantic and scared of being on the side of the road that I forgot to turn my car off. *face palm* Devin was so sweet and he says, “Honey, I can still hear your radio on.  Please turn the car off.” Haha.  Oops.  Devin called Toms Service Station from Wellsville and they came and got my poor Martha.  Devin drove down to pick me up.  I was hoping that I could maybe make it to my appointment still, but I just had to cancel. 

SIDE NOTE:  Dr. Brady Benson in Brigham is fantastic!! I had called his office and told them that I was on the side of the road and that my car was broke down.   I told them that I work for billing and I totally understand if I need to pay a late cancel fee.  They were so kind to me and told me I did not have to pay a fee.  I even got a voicemail from them the next day telling me that they were worried about me and thought about me all night and hoped that I was okay! It was the sweetest thing. 

While Devin was on his way down to pick me up, I called my dad.  Devin was on the phone with Toms and I was having a little bit of a panic attack being on the side of the road that I decided I’d  call my daddy for a chit-chat.  We all assumed that it would be some sort of belt.  I knew that I hadn’t lost any of my oil because there was no cloud of smoke behind me when all of this happened.  When Toms picked up my car, Gerald (Tom’s son) said that he thought it might be my battery.  I just had a feeling.  Turns out, we were right.  My timing belt BROKE.  That’s the worst.  We had it taken out to Accurate Automotive and Performance here in Logan and they said that it would be $800.00 to fix the belt and water pump.  BUT then there was a possibility that they would turn the car on, and all my pistons would be ruined.  That would be about $3000.00 to fix.  This was a hard decision for Devin and I.  Fix Martha?  Buy a new car?  Devin wanted to think about fixing her, but I’m someone who looks like 50 years into the future.  All I can see is Martha breaking down at the exact same time that D’s truck goes out.  Then we have TWO car payments.  It was so hard though because my parents and Devin’s parents have the exact same car, both with over 200,000 miles!  Martha only had 138,000! We could get so many more miles out of her!!  As much as I love my Martha, I was pretty sure it was time to let her go. 

We spent the next few days after Christmas, looking for a new car.  On December 30^th, we hit every car lot in Brigham City and Ogden.  The day before that, we had gone to nearly every dealership in Logan.  We looked at A LOT of cars.  My final two choices were between a 2012 Ford Fusion and a 2009 Hyundai Sonata.  My sister and brother-in-law have a Sonata, so we decided we were going to test drive their car, and then go test drive the fusion so I could get a better idea on which one I liked more.  Long, long, story short – we are now the proud owners of a 2012 Ford Fusion!  I’m still heartbroken over my Martha.  I decided though that Martha and I had a good run and she deserved to have her own name.  (I was just going to call the fusion Martha #2) My new car’s name is: *drum roll please* Phoebe.  Phoebe the Ford!  I was going to name her Monica (I took a ‘name your car’ test online and Monica was the answer.  That led me to thinking of F.R.I.E.N.D.S – which made me think of Phoebe.)   Devin negotiated Phoebe down, saved us a little bit of money, and on January 2, 2018 we officially got to take her home!!  

 The dashboard in Phoebe looks like a spaceship.  It’s blue and just looks shnazy.  In most places that Devin and I have lived, or cars we’ve had/borrowed, I usually have something that’s my “favorite” either at the house, or in a car.  For example:  My favorite thing in grandma and grandpas basement, where we used to live, is the light on the oven.  It looks like a light switch! (Not a button that you push on the stove.  You actually flip a mini switch to turn the light on.)  My favorite thing in Martha was the little clock that was above the radio.  My favorite thing in Phoebe is the button that turns my cup holder lights and floor lights different colors.  I saw it a couple of years ago when we thought about buying a car and I test drove a Mercury Milan (pretty much the fusion now) and it was just the coolest thing ever. 

Someone from Montana is going to come and take Martha either on the 20th or 27th.  I get attached easily to my stuff.  I don't want to see her go to Montana, but I'd hate to have someone local fix her up and then she's around town.  Haha.  Is it weird that I think this way?! 

Martha will forever be a part of me.  She was MY FIRST car.  But I am learning in life, that there are just somethings you have to let go of.  I know that the day she leaves—you mark my words – I will cry.  I’m grateful that Devin and I are in a situation where we could buy a “new” car.  Phoebe’s not Martha, and she's got big shoes to fill -- but I think she'll do.

Day we bought Martha! January 28, 2014

Day we bought Phoebe! January 2, 2018

Christmas 2017

I realize that my last post was posted today.. but in my own defense, I wrote it like 2 weeks ago.. My life I feel like is literally just getting away from me. Haha.

Christmas has come and gone.  It’s always so quick! After looking back on the last couple of days, Devin and I have decided that we had a really, nice break.  It was much needed!! We spent a lot of time together, and enjoyed time with both of our families. 

Friday I was able to get off from work at noon.  I was able to go and finish some Christmas shopping.  Mostly for food.  I did grab a couple of stocking stuffers however.  So last Monday (December 18^th) I was on my way down to Brigham City to go to the dentist.  I was literally like ¼ of a mile away from the Brigham City exit when my car went nuts.  My RPMs were bouncing back and forth, my engine light came on, (and then it started to flash) and my oil light came on.  I knew I had to pull over.  I called Devin who called Tom’s Service out of Wellsville, and both came through the canyon.   I stopped by Tom’s on Friday after work to check the status of my car.  Looks like I’ll most likely need a new computer put in.  I didn’t understand all the terminology other than he’s going to take it Accurate Automotive and Performance in Logan.  So my Martha is currently sitting there waiting to hopefully be diagnosed soon.  Also on Friday, we got a snow blower!! It was delivered to us from Ipaco.  Full of gas and oil and ready to go! Which was nice – considering it snowed all night Friday night. 

Saturday we really just hung out at home.  We did a lot of cleaning, preparing for the holiday.  We got to use our new snow blower and man it’s amazing.  Isn’t it funny what we find entertaining now as adults?  This year, since this is the first time in our own place for Christmas, we decided to start a new little tradition.  We’re going to start decorating gingerbread houses!  We decided that where it’s just the two of us right now, we’d just decorate one together.  It really was just so much fun!

Sunday we got up and went to church.  It was nice that D didn’t have any meetings before.  Now that we’re going to start going to church at 9:00, Devin’s meetings are going to start being at 7.  Since we only had sacrament meeting, we just went over to my parents or a little bit after church.  We enjoyed Papa Murphey’s pizza!  I love that stuff.  I made a new bean dip too!  1 cup of sour cream, 1- 16 oz can of refried beans, 4 oz (1/2 bar) of cream cheese (softened), 1 package taco seasoning, 1 cup Mexican blend cheese.  Preheat oven to 350, mix all (but cheese) into 8x8 pan, top with cheese and cook for 25 mins.  It was so good!!  After we left my parents, we had our annual Fabricius Christmas party with Devin’s dad’s side of the family.  We had a baked potato bar and it was so nice to see everyone who came.  When we got home from Grandma Shirley’s, Devin and I decided it was high time we watched A Christmas Story from start to finish.  This was the first time I’ve really seen any part of that movie and it was the first time that Devin has seen that movie from start to finish.  What a cute movie!! We will definitely be watching that every Christmas Eve now.  

Monday I set my alarm for 6:30.. Devin wasn’t exactly thrilled haha.  He made me wait in bed until 7:00.  Which is fair, since we only got each other two gifts this year, we wanted to make Christmas last a little longer.  Devin got me a new Ninja Fit blender and a new set of utensils! (Again, the things you get excited about as an adult!!) Devin got a new set of wrenches and a GoPro for snowmobiling.   After we did a little bit of shoveling and food prep, we headed over to Jedd and LaDawns for breakfasts and gift exchange with them.  I got ONE HUNDRED AND ONE cookie cutters, some kitchen gadgets and new clothes.  I got this thing called an herb dryer.  It’s a mesh net with layers in it to hang out side and dry herbs/plants/fruits etc. without bugs getting on them.  When I opened it, the package it was in was the size of a small salad plate.  I unzipped it and it popped open! Scared me to death!   Derik got me some new plates!! White, circled plates.  I love them!! Devin got a new ladder and this game that’s called “Exploding Kittens”.  It’s actually really fun!  I won the first round.  I was very proud of myself haha! Jedd and LaDawn also surprised us with these hangers that we’ve been wanting from Jackson!  We found them on our trip in October but we didn’t want to quite buy them yet.  LaDawn called the store and they found the exact ones we wanted and shipped them to her! We’re so excited to hang them in the back hall way.   We ate Christmas dinner with my family this year.  We had ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, everything bad for you.  A couple of Saturdays ago, we made jalapeño jelly with my mom.  Its sweet, and so so good over a block of cream cheese!! I ate plenty of that!!  I’m actually like 90% sure I gained 3-5 lbs this holiday season.  Not very thrilled about that, but we’ll make due ;) My mom and dad got devin a bunch of new pliers! Now that we have our own place, tools are prime gifts for Devin.  I got a new sweater.  I think it’s quite beautiful!  We drew names this year in my family.  Kendal had Devin, Devin had Lindsie, I had Jason and Allie had me.  Kendal got Devin an iTunes gift card.  He loves his music, so that was a perfect gift for him!  Allie got me this gorgeous rose gold watch set.  It’s beautiful!  Devin got Lindsie a new sweater and some Lindt coconut chocolates.  I got Jason a wood carving kit and 2 Mountain Dews.  Grandma Karen also got us Scattergories.  We played that and ate and ate and ate.  I made my loaded baked potato dip.  I posted it in December of 2016 – but I’ll post my recipe here too.  After time spent with my family, we headed back on over to Grandma and Grandpa Jeppesens house.  Ate good food, received wonderful gifts and had a good time.  I got a new purse, wii u game, shoes and some perfume.  Devin and I got a new heated blanket too that will fit on our bed!!  We tried it out last night, man, oh man do we love it.  We also got a new little popcorn popper.  I’ll do a little review of that in another blog post.  Haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like so much fun!  The best part of Christmas however, was returning home to our own place, to find that we had water in our basement. (yay! Not.) It was just a little, tiny bit, but enough to make me cry. (This would be number three.  My car, D needs new truck tires, and then this?!)  Devin could hear something in the baby room that sounded like running water.  Turns out, there were two leaks in the city’s water line, and they were working on fixing it.  In the process, our water heater’s pressure release valve popped up (as it should) but it got stuck.  So we had boiling hot water spilling out of our water heater.  We decided to just turn our water off until the city could get the line fixed.  Thankfully we got water back the next day at like 5:00PM.  We are so blessed that we had such a great Christmas.  We were able to spend our Christmas with the most important thing of all, family!

 This is the ONLY picture I have of Devin and I on Christmas. 

 herb dryer and all my cookie cutters! 

Yesterday we really just relaxed.  We put away all of our Christmas stuff and enjoyed the day together hanging out with grandma and grandpa (they had running water ;)  Sometimes I struggle with the fact that I don’t get to see my grandma and grandpa Jackson as much as I see all our other grandparents.  It can be sad, but I know that they love us and understand that we have work and responsibilities here at home.  We’re planning on making a trip up to see them sometime soon though.  Hopefully they know too how much we love them and appreciate them :)  

I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and that we were able to spend time worshiping his birth.  I am so grateful for my families and for the time that I get with them.  I know that not everyone has the same privilege that I have in seeing them so frequently and I can take that for granted.  I love them dearly and I am so blessed to have the best.  I hope that everyone was able to have a very, Merry Christmas and that we will all be able to have an enjoyable new year!

November

November got away from me so fast! Every blog post I say I’m going to be better, and every blog post I lie. Haha! Here’s a quick little update of everything that’s happened.

Grandma Karen: Grandma is doing so good!! I can’t even believe it. A couple of months ago, she was
having this massive pain in her leg and she couldn’t walk very well. As you can imagine, that made
everyday tasks more difficult. Going potty was difficult, getting dressed was difficult – the sad thing was,there was literally nothing they could do about it. Grandma has had a couple of knee surgeries, so long story short, there’s nothing that could have been done unless they amputated the leg. Well, obviously nobody wanted that to happen. We did a lot of praying, fasting and hoping that her leg would get better! It’s been a rough couple of months for my mom. The last couple of weeks though have been a complete miracle. My grandma’s done like a complete 180! She’s getting dressed on her own, walking with her walker on her own – she can even take herself to the bathroom now, which has been a huge blessing!! We are so glad the God has been watching over her and helping her.

Thanksgiving: This year for Thanksgiving, we ate the main meal with Devin’s family. Grandma, grandpa, Jedd, LaDawn , Derik, Devin and I. It was a nice little intimate Thanksgiving. After playing some games, we went and chilled with my family for a little bit. Then off to Newton for pie night with grandma Shirley. Black Friday was a big hit! I always try to do Black Friday with my mom and sisters. This year, poor dad drove us all over Ogden. I was able to get some of my Christmas shopping done, which is always so nice!! Devin and I also spent Black Friday, setting up our cute house for Christmas! I don’t think anyone can comprehend how squealy I was. OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS IN OUR OWN HOME! We hung our lights up outside and sweet Devin was able to rig something up where I can hit a button from the inside of my warm house and all the outside lights will turn out. What a beautiful day it was to set up lights too! Devin, Derik and Jedd were nice enough to set up grandma and grandpa’s lights too. I know they really appreciated it. I am so THANKFUL that we were able to enjoy this blessed holiday with both families.

Cows/farm: The cows are officially out of Dry Lake! The guy who owns the piece next to us (Brian)
hauled his cows home the same day that we did. Unfortunately for him, one of his cows is still up there. She got spooked and went up the mountain. I am not 100% sure if she’s come back down yet. To add to the sadness of that last sentence, my favorite cow, 644, has left the herd. It was so sad for me! She was Chleo’s mama and the sweetest thing you’ve ever met in your life. You could pet her in Dry Lake, at home, wherever! She just was getting so old, we had to sell her. Thankfully I got to pet her one last time and she even let me take her picture!

Birthdays: We have officially started the birthday streak for Devin’s family. Starting on December 3rd through March 25th , we knock out every ones birthdays on Devin’s side. Including grandparents and
mine! In a way it’s nice to get them all over with.

Christmas: Christmas is just a few short days away from us.  I PROMISE that I will post about our Christmas adventures :)

Rainy days = catch up

Rainy days are not always my favorite, (I do enjoy a good rainy day though too!) but they give me time to catch up on some things.  Mainly life. Haha.  This rainy November day has given me time to catch up on quite a bit of things.  First thing I did was sleep in! Last weekend we were in Jackson, which meant we were up about the time we're up to get ready for work.  I have been looking forward to sleeping in this weekend for a long time! Since it was rainy, I didn't feel too bad about sleeping in.  First thing that D helped me do was brown hamburger.  (Also, it was brought to my attention at lunch today that I've been saying "grounding hamburger" instead of "browning hamburger".  So...sorry if I have ever confused anyone while talking about this subject.  I clearly didn't know what I was talking about.)  We browned eight pounds of hamburger to freeze.  We call these days, "meat day".  It's nice to be able to brown a bunch of hamburger and freeze it to have for days we don't have a lot of time for dinner.  I just use simple seasonings when doing this.  Deverle's seasoning, and onion salt.  Usually we use this meat for tacos, hamburger helpers, tostadas, spaghetti, things like that.  It's really useful when you're in a pinch with time.  

For our anniversary (we weren't supposed to get each other gifts..) Devin bought me the Instant Pot! I got the IP-LUX80 model.  8 quarts of pure awesomeness!  I was so terrified of using it at first.  When I think of pressure cooker, I think of a lid in my ceiling, with food all over my kitchen, with the smoke detector going off.  This is SO easy to use though! I love it.  With that being said, along with my eight pounds of browned hamburger, I made a batch of homemade chicken stock!  In my Instant Pot, I can saute things directly in it.  It's great for keeping extra flavor!  I threw my rotisserie chicken bones in and hit the saute button.  They browned up nicely.  I added carrots, celery, onion, four cloves of garlic and browned them with the chicken and bones.  I added 10 cups of water, two bay leaves and a bunch of thyme -- hit manual and set the cook time for 100 minutes.  While this was cooking (in a "pressure cooker") Devin and I acutally went to dinner with my family!  It did a natural release and it was so nice to not have to sit there while making this stock!

  

Rainy days also give me an opportunity to catch up on missed blog posts. *insert embarrassed emoji here*  September and October were good to my little family.  We started September off by helping my dad put a new roof on.  Whatever it was that I did, is the reason the entire roof is staying on!  HAHA! Just kidding.  I didn't even get up on the roof cause I hate heights that bad.  Infact, my palms are a little sweaty just thinking about it.  Devin was able to smoke some great meat!  We smoked some chicken and ribs. 
Also, we took Aggie to the Founders Day parade with us.  She was very well behaved!  She LOVED the marching bands.  So enjoy this cute picture of her listening intently to the marching band.  

My little Aggie baby is growing right up!  She graduated puppy class.  Unfortunately for us she has literally forgotten everything.  Except for sit and lay down -- but only cause I usually have a treat.  She will not lay down unless there's a treat in my hand.  In case it's not obvious, she rules the roost.  Because it's starting to get colder, and her mama (me) has some anxiety issues, she also got a new house.  It's supposed to be insulted and keep her extra warm.  As in, if its 0 degrees outside, it will be 30 degrees inside her house.  It came with a cushioned bed and an electric heater for colder temps.  She is so protective of her house too!  That is HER house.  Along with anything inside.  She gave D the cold shoulder for close to 20 minutes because he was messing with her house. (He was adding her electric pad in...silly dog, little does she know he's trying to help her!)  Today for instance, it has rained nonstop.  Her bed was soaking wet, her blanket and towel were soaking wet, SHE was soaking wet..I thought I would be a good puppy mom and put her blanket and towel in the dryer for her while we did a quick 15 minute errand.  She cried the whole time and then proceeded to stand in the rain until we were back. (Trying to break her mama's heart!) Even taking a single leaf out of her house will make her almost die of worrying. #dramaqueen

We went to an Aggie volleyball game, which was really fun! I'm sad we never went to anymore games.  We had planned on attending more, but we all know that life happens and doesn't always goes the way that you would like it to.  An example of life not going the way you want is my toe.  Ya'll remember how I had to have my toe nail removed OVER A YEAR AGO?! -- Still not fully grown in.  I had to do an ingrown toenail procedure which seems to have helped.  I've almost got a full nail back.  Yay! 

We got to do one of my favorite things on the farm! -- as well as one of my not so favorite things.  Preg-checking the cows (yay!) and castrating bulls. (boo!)  We ran almost every single cow in our herd through the shoot that day.  All the mama's are pregnant, except for maybe two.  Every time they exit the shoot, I tell them "congrats, you're pregnant!"  Then the least favorite part.  Making bulls, steers.  Poor dudes.  They walk into the shoot not knowing they were going to be leaving their manhood behind.  Literally!

I have had an obsession lately with making cookies and decorating them.  I'll do a post on cookies hopefully soon.  They have been so much fun to do! I'm hoping that I could maybe make cookies for small parties and/or events.  But here are cute pictures of my first cookies, to my most recent ones I've made.  I haven't made cookies in a couple of weeks, but you can plan on some cute Thanksgiving ones coming!

Jackson Hole in October was by far our most successful trip!  We saw 41 moose, 3 bear, elk and a whole lot of buffalo!  We determined that 36 of the 41 were different moose. (Sunday before we came home, we saw 21 moose..) A lot of people who live in Jackson say that the park resets at night, and you'll never see an animal in the same place twice.  Its sort of true -- for example: If we saw 3 bulls and 2 cows near the Gros Ventre campground one night, and then the next morning we went out and there was 4 bulls and 2 cows a mile or two away from the Gros Ventre campground, chances are there's only one new bull in the group.  Alot of times too, bull moose have patterns in their antlers that are very different from each other.  I would compare them to a snowflake.  Not every moose's antlers are exactly alike.   We saw Blondie (the bear) and her two twin cubs too!  We got really lucky.  We've known that they've been up by Pilgrim Creek, but we didn't know if they'd be there again on Saturday morning.  There she was, a mile or two up the road in a little field, just being a cute little photogenic bear.  (I apologize if the pictures aren't fantastic.  Remember, I am NOT a pro photographer and it was really cold outside.  Even with a tripod I was shaking so bad. -- I tried to edit them with photo shop, but again, not a pro :) 

One of the most memorable experiences happened in Jackson on this trip.  If you're at all familiar with Jackson,  when you're on highway 89/191, going north, there's a road that will take you to the Gros Ventre campground.  Right at the intersection between the two roads, is where the elk refuge starts.  With that being said, there's also a 10+ foot tall fence.  On Saturday night, we were starting to head back to the Moose-Wilson road, when we noticed a bunch of cars stopped near the intersection.  Right there, 15 yards from the fence (on the inside of the fence) were 5 moose!  We were able to walk right up to the fence and take pictures, 15 yards away from these beautiful animals.  You can only imagine the kind of heaven that I was in!!  

Hopefully now that it's starting to get cold outside (as I'm typing and getting ready to post this..its currently snowing...) and darker a lot sooner, I will be able to keep up with my "blog".  (I know, I say it all the time..but a girl can dream, right?!)