Pinterest Challenge Follow-up

Do you remember our Pinterest Challenge??? Well tooday is the day to report all the pins that we accomplished in the last 2 weeks. Here are the seven pins that I chose, and a breakdown of how they went.

I started out with an easy one first  by copying this outfit. I know I don't look as amazing as the pin, but I actually made the skirt a few weeks ago so I should get bonus points for that, (you know because we are keeping track of points). 

I tried  my hand at making these tamales. I am sparing everyone the picture of my inexperienced wrapping job, but here is the finished product. They were very tasty, but next time I think I will make them smaller. Although that will mean I have to wrap more of them, and like I said before that was not pretty, so it is a toss up between smaller tamales or less wrapping.

I made this super cute dress for my baby girl from this pin (there were no directions, so I just had to wing it). The dress was pretty easy and turned out super cute, I may have to stock up on white onesies and make these with all my spare fabric for baby gifts.

This is the yummy chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt that I made from this pin. It turned out good, although I want to try it with plain yogurt rather than vanilla because I felt like the yogurt flavor overpowered the cookie dough. It froze REALLY hard overnight so plan on letting it sit out a bit before you scoop it. I will also add less chocolate chips next time because I don't really like biting into that many frozen chocolate chips, I feel like you don't really even taste the chocolate when it is frozen anyway. BTW this was the best eggless cookie dough I have ever made.

I copied this outfit with my beautiful Mother's Day scarf, and my $5.00 green skinnies from DI. Baby girl wanted to be in the picture, and I have to say she really makes the outfit.

I tried some photo editing from this pin. I have pinned a few different pins on photo editing tips, but this challenge actually got me to try doing it myself. I am cheap, so I had to use some free online photo editing sites rather than downloading photo shop. I tried out a few different sites to find the ones that would do the things that I wanted to, and my favorites were this one and this one. Baby girl is pretty cute no matter what, but I think the picture turned out pretty good. Although I have to admit the thing I am most impressed with was the fact that I managed to edit the random little girl that liked pushing Kynlee in the swing out of the picture. 

And lastly I made quinoa granola from this recipe. I already have a really good granola recipe from my Mom, but I thought I would try this healthier version with the quinoa that I had. The recipe was not as good as my nice unhealthy one, but it was still pretty darn good. I didn't have any brown rice cakes on hand at the time,well I have never had brown rice cakes on hand, so I skipped that and just added extra quinoa and oats. I also added chopped walnuts, sunflower seeds, and coconut because I like my granola pretty loaded. The granola didn't get quite crunchy like I am used to, but no biggie. I would recommend adding a half cup or so of brown sugar in the future, but I also LOVE sugary cereal so that may just be me.

This challenge was really fun, but more importantly it made me feel very accomplished every time I finished a pin. We will definitely be doing another challenge in a week or so because I still have lots of crafts to do. Watch for it and join us!!

Camping!!!

Carson and I went camping to Kolob Reservoir this week with Megan and Andrew. We had lots of fun, but I learned a few things.

• Camping with a baby girl is a bit tricky if you want to keep her at all clean because it means you can't put her down EVER.
• Cooking pancakes in a dutch oven because you forgot a frying pan is not ideal
• Dutch oven pizza cooks a little too fast if you put it directly on the really hot bed of coals, (Andrew and I will definitely be practicing that one so we don't mess it up next time)
• You should take bug spray when you decided to go on a walk around a lake 
• It turns out that walking around Kolob Reservoir is a 4-5 mile hike
• Camping is really FUN, even if it is a lot of work!!!

 Alex trying his first s'more, he LOVES marshmallows, but it turns out he prefers just the plain marshmallow to a s'more.

 We were up in time to see the sunrise

 Alex showing us the mud that he stepped in

 cute kids playing in the tent

 Man I love these cuties

 Alex riding Carson's motorcycle

We sure had a fun time. I hope we get to go many more times this summer. 

The Many Faces of Kynlee!

 This is Kynlee's face when she eats chocolate covered strawberries with Mom and Dad

This is her face when she face-planted in Dad's drywall mess

  This is her face when she woke up from her nap (I am not sure what she had forehead against)

And  this is her face when she rides swings.

Such a cutie no matter what she does.

10 Months!!

Kynlee is 10 months old now. She is still such a sweet girl!! She loves to explore the house, especially the bathroom, and she has started to stand up on her own for little bits of time. She loves to eat almost anything and she likes to ride in the jogging stroller while Mom and Dad run. We love her so much.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Around this time last year I was wandering around Walmart for hours, literally hours, we were getting the truck tires fixed before heading to Moab. Carson was trying to get things hurried along and I was waiting inside with my smoothie. I went up and down the isles trying to find the perfect present for my Mom. I wanted to get something really special for her because I knew it would probably be the last Mother's Day she would have with us. Even then as I searched for the perfect gift I knew that there was nothing I could buy her with money that would tell her that I love her, she already knew. I ended up buying some flowers for her to plant in her garden, flowers made her happy. Then we headed to Moab to spend some time with her, something she enjoyed more than any gifts or flowers. 

This year Carson asked me what I want for Mother's Day. Without any hesitation I told him I want my Mom back. I miss her everyday. I am so glad I was blessed to have such an amazing mother in my life. I will try my whole life to be as good a Mom to my baby girl as she was to me.

Now as a Mom I am certain that it is the most thankless job in the world. Sometimes I feel like my husband thinks that his clothes magically make it back to his drawer and there are little fairies that clean and put the dishes back in the cupboards. Other times I get tired of listening to Kynlee cry while she tries to communicate to me that she is not happy the only way that she knows how. But when she snuggles with me or smiles at me while we play, I don't mind the boring or challenging tasks that come with Motherhood, I love being a Mom. So happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mothers in the world. 

 And especially to my wonderful Mother. I love you and miss you.

Pinterest Challenge!

Join Megan and I in our Pinterest challenge!!! It is going to be awesome!!! You can read about it here. Remember to report back by blogging about your accomplished pins. Ready... Set.. Go!

Do you remember this little girl???

Thankfully this is that cute little girl now loving bath time.

That is when she is not taking it a little more seriously.

Yay Carson!!!

Mr. Carson Smith Dalton graduated from Southern Utah University with a bachelor's degree in Construction Management on May 4th 2013.

Congratulations babe!!! 

               These are the cute cupcakes I made for Carson and Andrew. They tipped over a little in the car when I took them to Andrew, but it didn't really matter because Alex started eating them before Andrew even saw them, silly guy.

I love you Carson!!!

Our House!!!

Last month we bought a house!!!! But our house needed lots of work. In just 3 weeks the living room went from this... 

to this... 

to this...

 and finally to this!!!!!

We did  lots of work all over the house. There was yucky wood paneling all over, and ugly brown trim on the windows and closets. Over the last few weeks I have painted until I could no longer grip a brush, sanded drywall till my arms ached, swept and cleaned nooks and crannies till my knees bled. But that is nothing, my sweet hubby did ten times the work I did. He would get up early everyday to work on the house before classes, and he would stop late at night when he got off work to finish things up. He is the hardest worker I know, and I am so lucky to have him. And a big thanks to the friends that helped us with the big projects and helped us move, we couldn't have done it alone. 

We love our new house, although I think I will like it even more when we actually finish the bathroom, and when I finish unpacking everything. 

In other big news, Carson attended his last undergrad class today!! Now he just has to survive finals and then it's on to graduation next week!!!

9 Months!

This little cutie is nine months old. And when I say little, I do mean little! We went to the Dr. this week and Miss Kynlee hit the 1 percentile mark for weight. I guess someone has to be the smallest. I sure can attest to the fact that great things come in small packages.  She is such a sweet girl and her active curiosity keeps Mom on her toes.

It is the Little Things that Make Me HAPPY!

Yesterday was an epic day people!!! You want to know why??? Well I will tell you. I did 3 loads of laundry... wait for it... in my own washer and dryer!!!! Now this may not seem so monumental to some of you, but it was a first for me. I did not have to load my laundry into the car and take it to my Mom's or my sisters. I did not have to haul my laundry to a laundry room a mile away (because that is how far it feels when you are carrying laundry). When the clothes were not quite dry I did not have to put more quarters in the machine, or spread them all over my apt to finish drying, I just push the button, and like magic it starts again. Life is good!!

I do have to say though that some of the awesomeness wore off today when there was more laundry to be done because baby girl threw up on her sheets and blankets at 2 AM, but it is still awesome.

And on another note, in case you couldn't tell from the above ranting, we finally moved into our house!!!! More posts will come on that soon, and maybe even some pictures if our house ever stops looking like a construction zone.

Happy Wednesday!!! Go do some laundry.

Happy Easter!!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter and took some time to reflect on the atonement of our Savior.

 Kynlee's surprise from the Easter Bunny, and a few gifts from Aunt Stacy, thanks so much

 She is more interested in the candy than anything else. 

Enjoying her waffles

 And my little Easter surprise from the best hubby ever. 

After our waffles with yummy homemade buttermilk syrup we got to attend a baby blessing for our good friends Then we had a yummy Easter feast with Megan and Andrew and some other friends. I also made a tres leche cake from here that was delicious. What a happy Easter!!!

Farewell Douglas

The annual burning of the Christmas trees has come and gone. We had a blast cooking smore's, enjoying the nice weather we have been having lately, and of course burning our Christmas trees. This year when we choose our tree, Carson decided we should name our tree Douglas. It seemed like a great name for a fir tree so it was agreed, this year our tree would be Douglas. But then we got our tree home, and I realized it was very cruel of us to name our tree Douglas and then take him home and dress him up like a GIRL. Now some of you may have manly Christmas decorations, but mine are not manly, they are very un-manly. So Douglas sat thru the holiday in his beautiful shame. From now on we will be careful to only choose girl names for our trees.

 

 I am the favorite aunt for bringing the beloved marshmallows!

Farewell Douglas, we will miss you.

8 Months

This little monkey is 8 months old and crawling!!!!

She is such a beautiful, sweet, happy little girl. I feel so blessed that I get to be her Mom. I love you Kynlee!

More fun in the Snow!!!

Lift passes are free on Thursdays at Eagle Point, forget classes, we can't pass a deal like that up. This last Thursday was actually only the second time we have gone, but we plan to go a few more time. We couldn't find a babysitter, so Kynlee got to come with us. 

Dad letting Kynlee try out his snowboard.

 She hasn't got is quite figured out yet.

 Well at least she is standing up now, she will be a pro in no time.