Peanut Butter Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Here we go again with my cravings, guys. Sometimes it's exhausting trying to keep up with the foods that sound good to me. haha I don't really have the "have to have it right now" cravings a ton, but last night I was all about indulging in some kind of peanut butter dessert. I am a total peanut butter lover, so when I saw this recipe for peanut butter chocolate-chip cookies, I knew it was the best of both worlds. Chocolate and peanut butter in a cookie? You really can't go wrong with that. AND this is a totally gluten-free dessert for any of you gluten-free people out there. AND it's the simplest recipe ever. AND the cookies are so fluffy and delicious. I made these last night and the recipe made about 2 dozen cookies. Yeah... the hubs and I already polished them all off. The baby made me eat it guys! Seriously though...totally need to buy this shirt for myself. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from: myrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets,
3. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire baking racks to cool for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Apple Fritter Bread

I am so excited to post my first recipe on this blog! It has been a long time coming. Like, a long time.

While everybody else goes crazy over anything pumpkin flavored the second the season changes to Fall, my weakness is everything apple flavored. Yummy. So naturally, ever since I pinned this apple fritter bread recipe on Pinterest, I could NOT STOP thinking about it. Granny Smith apples and cinnamon sugar all baked into the sweet goodness of this bread, what could be better? That's where my pregnancy brain is always at: thinking about food. Seriously, all day long that's what I think about. It doesn't help that I have a major craving for all things sweet, so I pretty much had to make this bread otherwise I would crave it until I made it. And I'm so glad that I did. The bread was delicious and it filled our apartment with a heavenly smell. Love it. Enough talk, time for you to see it to believe it.

Recipe adapted from Rumbly In My Tumbly

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped (I used Granny Smith, but it's up to preference), mixed with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze: 1 cup of powdered sugar + 1-3 tablespoons of milk (depending on the consistency you like)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Grease and flour a 9x5 inch bread pan.
2. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat sugar and butter together using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated. Add vanilla extract
4. Combine flour and baking powder together in a bowl; stir into butter mixture. Mix milk into batter until smooth. Pour half of the batter into the prepared bread pan; add half the apples and half the brown sugar mixture. Lightly pat apple mixture into batter. Pour the remaining batter over apple layer; top with remaining apples and brown sugar mixture. Lightly pat apples into batter; swirl brown sugar mixture through apples using a spoon.
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
6. Let cool for about 15 minutes before drizzling with glaze. Enjoy!

Pregnancy Story/ 24 Week Bumpdate!

Wanna know something crazy? I'm 24 weeks pregnant. Which means that I only have 16 weeks left! And I'm already so anxious to meet my little man that I can barely stand it!

Since I haven't blogged in forevs, I figure that I should probably start by telling you the story of how I found out I was pregnant....

The day before Mother's Day, Taylor and I went shopping with his parents and his sister. Everything was great and I was feeling good and obviously the new clothes helped with that (shopaholic right hurr). Then we decided that we were going to go to the cheap theaters, but first we stopped at a grocery store. That's when I started to feel sick, and not the kind of sick where I felt like going and sitting through a movie would help it to go away or at least make it a little better. I was nauseous and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and lay down. So, Taylor and I decided to ixnay on the movie and go home instead.

The first thing that Taylor said when we were in the car and out of earshot from his parents was, "What if you're pregnant!?" Right you are, Harry. (Please tell me that you guys know that Harry Potter reference!?) Immediately I got really excited because we had just recently started trying to get pregnant. About a week or two earlier, I totally jumped the gun and took a test too early and was heartbroken to find out that I wasn't pregnant. So, as soon as I got home, I went straight to the bathroom and took a test. Guys, longest 3 minutes of my life. I was sitting on my kitchen floor and Taylor was standing above me and I was kind of trying to block the test from him because I didn't want it to say no. But then it said yes. Before Taylor even knew what was going on, I started crying and jumped up and hugged him. I think that's when he put it together. Such a happy moment for us. But just in case, I took one more pregnancy test and the results were the same: I was gonna be a mom! I couldn't even think of anything else except for the little bub growing inside of me for the rest of the night. (PS. I was born on Father's Day and I found out I was going to be a mommy on Mother's Day so I feel like that's pretty cool)

Mother's Day the next day was so much more meaningful to me than it had been in the past.We decided to wait to tell everybody other than immediate family (and one of my closest friends) until I had my first Doctor's appointment. I was too excited to wait until the first trimester was over to keep this a secret anyway!  My mom texted me that morning to tell me Happy Mother's Day and said that someday I was going to be a great mother. My reply was "Someday might be a lot sooner than you think :)" And I sent her the picture of the pregnancy test.

While we were at church, the speakers were obviously giving talks about their mothers and it made me so excited to know that by that time next year, I would be a momma to a cute little bub. I couldn't stop smiling all throughout church.

 Later that night, we went to eat dinner at Taylor's parents house. Taylor had this whole plan of how he was gonna tell them, but it kind of fell apart when the first question Taylor's mom asked was if I was feeling better. I said yes. She knew that we had been trying to get pregnant, so she asked if I took a pregnancy test. I said yes once again. Then she asked if I was pregnant, and I couldn't help it, I had to say yes and ditch Taylor's plan. haha Man she was good, a mother's instinct, am i right? :)

Picture of how we announced our pregnancy :)

Now onto the bumpdate!

So, as some of you probably know, I'm finishing up my last semester of school at BYU right now. I've been a little bit worried lately because I finish finals on December 19th and baby boy is due January 9th. So I'm cutting it a little bit close. I'm just hoping that if baby boy decides to make an early arrival, he at least waits until my finals are done. haha I also worry about how my third trimester is going to be. I have pretty much had smooth sailing up to this point. My first trimester I didn't have any morning sickness (other than a little bit of nausea the day I found out I was pregnant. Weird right?) and was feeling pretty good. The only thing that has been hard has been how tired I've gotten. I'm just hoping that my third trimester is the same as my first two trimesters have been so far because I'll already be stressed and uncomfortable waddling around campus while I'm eight months pregnant, without having to worry about being sick and missing a bunch of class too. But anyways, here's a little update on my 24th week of pregnancy :)

How far along? 24 weeks

How big is baby? As big as an ear of corn :)

Maternity clothes? So far, just the maternity pants. But I'm definitely going to need some dresses soon!

Total weight gain? At my last doctor's appointment, I had a total weight gain of 12 pounds.

Sleep: Have been sleeping pretty good. I've started sleeping with a body pillow, which is more comfortable. Taylor recently started going to work earlier though, so sometimes it's hard for me to fall back asleep after he leaves.

Best moment this week? Last night we put some music on my phone and put it up to my tummy and the baby started moving a little bit :)

Miss anything? Since I've been pregnant, I've pretty much been off of caffeine. (Occasionally I'll have a sip of Taylor's Dr. Pepper, but only a sip.) This week, I've really been missing Dr. Pepper. Especially with 3 tests coming up this week. Missing my study aid. haha

Movement: Some throughout the day, but this little guy moves a lot at night!

Food Cravings: Chipotle burritos, apples with caramel, pineapple, and here's a weird one...pizza flavored combos.

Gender: little boy :)

Symptoms: peeing more frequently, sometimes get out of breath walking around campus, and the baby's movement :)

Belly button in or out? In

Usually happy or moody? Usually happy! Taylor might disagree with me on this one though haha

Looking forward to: We're going to a Blake Shelton concert on Friday! Baby will totally be jammin out! (bought the tickets before I found out I was pregnant)

And of course here are my weekly baby pictures!

P.S. Does anybody know where to get some cute maternity clothes? Specifically dresses? The only places I've seen that are cute and less expensive are pinkblushmaternity.com and asos.com! HELP!

Adventure Is Out There!

I have had a hugeeee interest in themed dates lately. So naturally, when I found out that there was a replica of the UP house in Utah, it only made sense to have an UP themed date! And I am sooooo excited about this one.

I work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the week at one job, and then Friday night and Saturday night at my waitressing job. So, pretty much the only time husby and I could have done this date was on a Saturday morning before I had to go to work. Here's the added bonus to this date...
I woke up to breakfast in bed! Best husband ever award? I think so.

breakfast sammy and orange juice = yummmmm.

Anyway, after breakfast, we watched UP. :) If you haven't seen this movie, it is so cute and funny. Totes need to watch it if you haven't already.

Got our adventure goggles on :)

So, once we were done watching the movie, we headed up to Herriman, Utah to go see the UP house. It was legit. Apparently before the house was built, the builders had to get permission from Disney so that they could recreate every detail of the house. Although we weren't able to tour the house, I've watched a video tour of the house and they seriously don't miss any details! They had the weather vane on top of the house and the green hose in front. So fun! They even had Carl & Ellie's mailbox. Since there are actual owners of the house now, it doesn't say Carl & Ellie, it says the owners' last name, but it used to say Carl & Ellie. Here are some pictures of the house!

Although we didn't have enough time left to do this, another fun thing you can do for this date is to go for ice cream and then sit outside on the curb and one person counts the blue cars that drive by and the other person counts the red cars, just like Russel and Mr. Fredrikson do at the end of the movie. Or, you can make an adventure book of your own. The possibilities are pretty much endless. :)

Juan-uary!

It's that time again. Oh yes, that time, and after months of anticipation. JUAN-UARY! I know, I know, you think it's a waste of two hours on a Monday night, but I love it. Maybe part of the reason for that is because of all the drama, it totally sucks me in. AND I'm a total romantic. AND Juan Pablo seems like such a genuine guy compared to some of the other Bachelors. When Ben was the Bachelor, I have to say, it almost ruined my love of the show because I hated him, but I'm so glad that it's Juan Pablo! I think the husby secretly likes watching it with me too, but shhh, don't tell him I said that. ;)

So, just based on watching the premiere of The Bachelor, here are my predictions for the final 4 girls!

1. Andi

2. Nikki

3. Renee

4. Elise

Who are your final picks? Happy Bachelor-watching! :)

2013 In The Rearview

It is the start of a new year! WOOOHOOO! The start of a new year means a fresh start,
 the chance to make resolutions to do things better in the new year (in the hopes that we'll actually keep them), and a chance to reflect on the previous year- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This year, I've decided to take on a deeper meaning for my New Year's Resolutions. In the past, I really haven't taken them very seriously and therefore, didn't keep my resolutions throughout the year. But this year, I have a better appreciation for the tradition of New Year's Resolutions. This year, I want my resolutions to not reflect the person who I am now, but the person that I want to become. Resolutions are meant for bettering yourself, so here are some things that I want to do better this year...

Stop feeling guilty, or letting people make me feel guilty for the things that I truly want. This is my life. I shouldn't have to worry about how people are going to judge me based on my choices. I need to stop letting people who do so little for me, take up so much of my feelings, mind, and emotions.

Learn to accept the apologies I never got. I'm sure that everybody can relate to this one. Everybody has been hurt by somebody else, but that's in the past and I need to start focusing on the future. This reminds me of a quote by C.S. Lewis, "Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing the monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward."

Don't be so afraid of the unknown. Take baby steps and watch how things unfold from there. This is a huge one for me. It makes me feel so much more comfortable knowing what's going to happen and when. But especially right now, when I'm getting ready to start applying for grad school's in different states, I need to just have faith that everything will work out and that I'll end up being where I need to be, when I need to be there.

and of course, the ever so present resolution of...

Working out at least 4 days a week and eating healthier. I don't really think this one needs an explanation, everybody want's to look and feel the best that they can!

As I look back on 2013 and remember

• Celebrating my first anniversary with my husband 
• Transferring to BYU
• Moving to Provo
• Getting accepted into the Communication Disorders Major
• Sharing memories with friends and family
• And making many important life decisions

I welcome 2014 and hope that it's filled with lots of love, laughter, memories, friends, and happiness. Happy New Year!

Food, Family, & Football

Well bloggers, I'm back at it. After an extremely stressful week of finals that involved multiple nights of Mountain Dew Code Red, (which is the good stuff for helping me stay awake, reserved only for special occasions) staying up until 6 am to study and waking up at 8 am to go take tests, and having absolutely no time to even think about anything other than studying, I am finally home. And by home I mean Pennsylvania. I haven't been to Pennsylvania since I got married, about a year and 4 months ago. Is it horrible of me to say that the thing I missed most was the food? Cause it's totally true. Other than my family, of course. Since I've been back, we've been making the rounds between all of our favorite restaurants. For all of you out there that are reading, Old Forge, the town next to where I grew up, has THE BEST Italian food and pizza. It's unbelievable and I totally crave it when I have to resort to domino's in Utah. 

Other than food, we've been doing some fun things as a family. Since 5 out of the 6 of us kids are still in college, it's pretty rare when we're all together. This Christmas, we were all able to be in Pennsylvania for the holidays, so it has been pretty fun. We had a family game night a few nights ago, playing one of our favorite games, pegs and jokers, and by the time the game was almost through, we all hated each other haha. We get pretty intense when we play games. We've also kept up with some family Christmas traditions, like going to the movies on Christmas, opening a present on Christmas Eve, having our family Christmas party the day after Christmas, going ice skating, etc. It has been pretty fun so far. The only thing we haven't done that was the only thing I REALLY wanted to do while I was home was go to New York City. I am so bummed about it. I wanted to go see the Christmas lights, go to Serendipity, and go ice skating at Rockefellar Center. Oh well, there's always the next time we're here for Christmas. Hopefully that same year we can go to Times Square for New Years Eve... Crossing my fingers that I can get Taylor on board for that one so I can check it off the bucket list. 

And right now? Well, right now, the hubs, dad, and myself are eating boneless wings and watching the BYU vs Washington football game on tv. Really hoping that BYU comes out on top! Fingers Crossed! Merry Christmas bloggers!