Apple Pomegranate Cream Salad

Last month I came across this amazing salad, and if anyone knows me they know I'm not really an apple person, but this salad makes me LOVE them.  I'm going to a potluck recipe exchange this evening and decided to take a chance on making up the recipe.  Here it is...

4 large granny smith apples
1 cup pomegranate arils (I bought them already taken out of the pomegranate for a much easier process)
3/4 golden raisins
3/4 sliced almonds
1 1/2 cups, before whipping, heavy whipping cream
 confectioner's sugar to taste *

Whip together heavy whipping cream and confectioner's sugar until stiff peaks form.    Chop apples into bite-size pieces.  Stir together apples, pomegranate, raisins, almonds and whip cream.  Chill until ready to serve.

Possibly my most favorite salad at the moment and besides the whip cream, it's actually really good for you!

* I used about 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, but that's how I like my whip cream. Not too sweet, but a good taste to it.

why is it that changing

your blog template, background, colors, etc. is so refreshing?  Every now and then I just need a change and spending time changing things like that is probably not really all that worth it and takes a lot more time than you initially think it would, but it's a good break time; creative time.  So hopefully you enjoy it, because I do.  It's new and I'm usually a fan of new.

Speaking of change.  It was time for a musical change in my life...


Out with the old...

















In with the new...

 
I was so excited to finally make the decision to purchase a new keyboard.  The old one just wasn't as nice as I wanted it to be.  It's a great keyboard, but 15 years old, bulky and many things missing from it that I needed.  I have a feeling that this change came about because of one of my new year's resolutions to record my music I have written and hopefully this new keyboard will make that happen.  I'm really excited about it!  Great deal off of Craigslist.

 More recent happenings within our family are that Josh's personality is showing through more and more.  He's more stubborn, eccentric and loud.  With his squeals and his shouts he definitely makes himself heard.  Independence is showing more with him.  He loves to hold his own bottle and also grab everything to get to himself.  As you can tell from the following pictures...

Now mine and Jake's happenings have been on somewhat the busy side.  This semester has been completely different than the first semester and it has definitely taken it's toll on the both of us.  Jake is stressed out of his mind with studying and trying to accommodate 12 classes (45 credits).  And because I haven't seen Jake lately, I've been getting lonely and definitely desiring to have a little break from motherhood.  We knew what we were signing up for and made this decision together.  We will get through it and we will be okay.  Luckily we are surrounded by amazing family and supportive friends.  I'm lucky to have each and every one of them.

Now to add a little lightheartedness to the situation, my dad enjoyed this shirt and got it for Joshua I think before he was even born if I remember right...

 

Hopefully you enjoy it too!  As my father hopes, Josh will someday be a part of his All-American Dream Ski team!

Video Update!

So i'm trying out a new method for video uploading, because I really don't like how blogger does it.  They are poor quality and don't work half the time while uploading.  We'll see how this works. 

This video is from a while ago.  But when he eats he obviously loves it because he sounds like this!




The next few videos are Joshie at his first Christmas










Stuck in his old playmat toy... HAHAHAHA!!!!




Last one! 1 minute of continuous jumping for Joshua!

Picture update! Christmas and the New Year

My 1st Christmas!

My new laptop!

PAPER!!!!

Uncle Enoch!

Jake's stocking

Chelsee's Stocking

After my 1st "Haircut"!

Not really much came off of this haircut.  Just a tiny bit off top and then around his ears.

My first church outfit.  Thanks Grandma Sandy!

Cute Baby!

Playin' in the Laundry!

Craft time - Josh's dresser

We bought Josh a dresser and it arrived just before the break.  It's an unfinished pine dresser.  I knew that i wanted to stain the outside this spring, but I also wanted to do something with the inside of the drawers.  This is what came out of that:

So I just took wrapping paper and mod podged it into the drawers.  I put a layer of mod podge down and then the paper and then mod podged over top of it.  I think they turned out well and it adds something cute to a simple dresser!

Our Christmas Break

So this Christmas was kind of a crazy one, but we did have a lot of fun!

Before we left for our trip, I had a recital on December 18th for the dance studio that I work at.  There were 2 shows and they both turned out wonderful!  I was helping back stage getting the girls ready for on stage.  It reminded me how much I enjoyed the production part of dancing.  My pieces turned out really well and I was so proud of all my dancers.  While there I got some great comments about my pieces which always helps, especially being a new teacher at the studio and this is my first recital as a teacher at a private studio.  One of the comments I got was that my 9-12 grade modern class was the best modern they ever had performed on that stage!  Now isn't that great?   I really have loved teaching modern.  Not that I don't enjoy teaching my other classes, I just would rather teach modern as that is what I am most comfortable with.  I can break out of my skin and really feel like I'm a good teacher.

The night of the recital we left at 8:00pm on our trip to Salt Lake City.  Our target was to get to Ontario, OR which is supposed to be only 5 1/2 hours away.  As soon as we started, we knew it was going to end up being much longer than that. 

No more than 5 minutes, Jake gets pulled over for speeding in a construction zone.  But with his fast talking skills he got us out of it.  Then about 2 hours into the drive we reached horrible fog.  You couldn't see more than a 1/10th of a mile in front of you and the roads began to be really slick and icy.  NO GOOD!!!  As the drive continued the fog stayed with us and Semi's chains were falling off and in the middle of the road.   Luckily we made it to our destination that night and Joshua was a champ.  Sleeping the whole way to Ontario and then falling right back to sleep when we reached our hotel.

The next morning we visited Jake's grandparents in Caldwell, ID (Pictures from previous post).  It's always great to see family and this trip was full of that. 

When we reached Salt Lake that afternoon, we were so happy to get to my parents house.  The next 5-6 days consisted of Family Pictures, parties, ski trips, and just enjoying a great Christmas.  We saw just about all the family we could in the 6 days there and we definitely enjoyed our stay.  Christmas day was so much fun!  It was exciting to be back with family and to also have Joshua with us.  His most favorite part about Christmas was the wrapping paper.  He couldn't care less about his toys because he was surrounded by wrapping paper. 

We left Christmas Day to head out to Billings.  We had a late start because we had to take Joshua to the doctors.  Turns out he had an ear infection which of course added time to our already long trip.  With a stop at the pharmacy, we headed out.  We made it Idaho Falls that evening and spent the night with Jake's aunt and uncle, Steve and Jocie.  It was very nice of them to let us stay.  Definitely a life saver, and it's ALWAYS great to see them.  We used to spend so much time with them while living in Rexburg, that we miss seeing them and their children.  We left the next morning and arrived to Billings in good timing.  We were happy to finally see Jake's family.

Over the next few days in Billings, we spent lots of time together.  We made great food, went skiing, shooting, family pictures, and hung out around the house.  We had a great time and Josh was definitely spoiled!

We left Billings on the 30th, staying in Missoula that night and finishing the drive on the 31st.  We arrived in Yakima that afternoon and it felt so good to be home!  I love seeing family, but there is something about being home that you just can't beat.  We spent that night unpacking and giving our stockings to each other and Joshua.  

Jake and I are so lucky to be surrounded by such supportive family members.  We are so grateful for their love and support in our lives and we were so happy to see them this holiday season!

Now that we are back home, we are just getting used to our normal lives again. It took me awhile to get used to Jake's schedule because I had just spent two full weeks with him.  The first week back was hard, but I'm back into the swing of things, I hope. 

As the start to a new year I made a lot of resolutions for myself.  My goal with these resolutions is to look over them and revise them at the beginning of every month.  I mean that's only 12 times a year, but I feel like that will help me meet some of these goals:

- Make Family Home Evening Plans
- Spend more playtime with Joshua
- Stay in contact with my family more
- Keep a more organized life and home
- Record and write more songs

These are just a few of the things that I would like to work on this year and I hope that I can complete everything that I wrote down. 

Happy New Year everyone!! Good luck with those resolutions!! (Videos and Picture updates to come soon)

Joshua Dan update 8 months

So I cannot believe how big my baby is getting.  Weighing in at 21 lbs he's a chunk to say the least and I love every bit of that boy.  He is growing and developing so quickly!  It makes me sad because I don't want him to get old, but I'm so happy to see him growing everyday.  Such a bittersweet part of being a mother, right?

Joshie is just starting to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.  It is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  He wants to move and crawl so bad and we are all rooting for him to take that first move and he is right there.  I will have to post a video later of him getting up.  He is also a really good boy.  He's been sleeping through the night really well.  He LOVES his solid foods.  For a little while I thought that he wanted to give up his bottle because he would fuss so much while feeding the bottle, but then devour his solid foods.  Turns out he is cutting his top two teeth and so I'm sure the bottle has been irritating him.  Good thing for ibuprofen and baby orajel, he is eating just fine now.  Not that he needs it! :)

Just so that I can remember I'm going to let you know of all the little things that he does as well.  He has a fascination with logos, designs or basically anything that is "different" or "stands out" on any clothing.  He will sit there forever focusing and grabbing the logos or pictures on my shirts.

Jake and I always say that "Mama" is going to come so easy to him because when he whines he says over and over again "Maa maa maa maa maa maa maa"  So funny!

He is in LOVE with his jumper.  As you can see from earlier video, but really he absolutely LOVES it.  He can sit in the for an hour plus and still enjoy it.  Which is great for me.  It entertains him while I get things done.

He immediately rolls over to his belly when he goes to sleep.  The second I set him down in his crib he is over to his belly and out like a light.

Well there are many more things that he does that are just so fascinating and so fun to watch, but I won't bore you with them.

In short, he is adorable, chunky and so fun to have around.  I couldn't have asked for a better baby! Love him so much!

Jake's a little anxious to get him on the slopes

Playin on the bed

Great-Grandpa Matt

Great-Grandma Marge

Little Stink lovin' the solid foods

He plays more with his binky than he sucks it

Diaper change in the car

My first stocking! Yay formula and diapers! (lame...)

He recently found his "little boy parts" while in the tub.  Now every time he's in there he can't stop.

Happy Bath Boy!

Coffee Filter Photo Wreath

Well these pictures are late in coming because I had to wait until after Christmas because this gift was for my mom and I didn't want to post pictures until after she had received it.

So this coffee filter wreath I made and came up with the idea of adding the removable photos so she can switch them out as the family grows. If you have questions as to how it was made let me know.  I got the idea from this creative blog post.  Enjoy!

the finished product

I added magnets so that she could remove the frames and replace the pictures

My "Family" sign that I made.   I got the family vinyl from Craft Warehouse and then printed underneath it "life's greatest blessing" and then mod podged the whole thing