Bake Off!

As many of you know when we firsted moved in we had an ancient oven. Last Christmas Landon's dad and step mom got a us a new oven. Since then I have been on a baking spree! A couple of weeks ago I pulled out my grammy's chocolate chip recipe. I started mixing away! Before I knew it I had a HUGE bowl of cookie dough, much larger than I was planning on. Instead of freezing half of it, silly me, I decided to cook all of it. So, I baked for about two and a half hours straight! I have still not mastered this art called baking so each pan of cookies turned out different, but sadly most of them were flat. I have tried using less butter, more flour, more baking soda, cooking with the pan turned over(heard this idea from someone and it actually worked pretty well), less time, more time.......and still none of them were those fluffy, beautiful looking cookies. I did some taste testers of course and they tasted fantastic, but I don't just want delicious tasting cookies! I want them to look as good as they taste! Seeing the accomplishment is almost as big of a prize as the taste! If any of you have any idea's for me please feel free to pass them on this way. I will not give up!

See how pretty they start out in the oven! This is cookin them upside down on the pan.

Flat as a board!

Oh don't worry! There was still more cooking! And yes they are stacked and stacked and stacked!

Enjoy the beauty

A few weeks ago Landon and I went on a two hikes up Adams Canyon. The first one we took Mia up with us. We were trying to make it up to a known waterfall, but it was getting too dark so we just went as far as we could and turned around. Mia loved being out on the trails. The second one was a bit more of a challenge. lol We parked a bit further away from our desired hike location so we ended up hiking about 8 miles. I won't lie I nearly fell over and begged Landon to go back to the car, but we kept to it and made it all the way up to a beautiful waterfall. It was a crazy hike that in spots we honestly didn't think we could do it, but we did. And it was worth every step!

First Hike

Second Hike

Book Nerd

As many of you already know I have become a serious book nerd since I read Twilight last year. I had never really enjoyed reading when I was in school. I actually don't think I ever read all the way through any of the books I did book reports on. lol Then Twilight came along. I read it the first time and fell in love with reading. Reading for me has become an escape from the real world. A time for me to escape to fantasy and forget all my worries. Since Twilight I have read two other series. The first one was The Luxe. It was based in the late 1800's early 1900's. It has a lot of love and scandel in it, but also I feel like it has education about earlier times. I liked getting to know more about how lifestyles were back in those times. It's crazy to think how different things were and just reminds me how blessed we are to have all the freedom we have. The second series was called The Mortal Instruments. Absolutely loved this series! It is kind of like Twilight. It has more than just vampires though. There are werewolves, fairies, warlocks and so much more! It is full of action and of course has romance. Currently I am reading Gone With the Wind. I have been reading this in between series so I haven't gotten very far in the whole 1400 pages, but I am slowly making my way through. :-) I recommend them all!

4th of July

This 4th of July Landon had to work the whole weekend and I magically had three days off in a row. My parents were heading out to Strawberry to go camping with some more of my family on that side of the family. I felt bad leaving Landon behind, but I decided that I desperatley needed some time away or I was going to lose my mind. So we left Thursday morning and came home on Sunday. I didn't realize how much I had missed my family. I had a really good time. I brought one of my books and just got to hang out with fam, ride wheelers with my little bro, and be a book nerd. :-) My mom, me and Tim went out on the lake to do some fishing. I don't have a fishign license so they were the ones that were fishing, but I liked being along for the ride. They both caught some pretty good sized fish. Unfortunately most of them we had to throw back because they were either too big or too small, but it was still fun. I missed my hubby the whole time, but I loved getting to spend some time with my family. Plus, absense makes the heart grow fonder, right? ;-)

Timmy and Momma

Me, cousin Landon, Uncle Lane

Bringing back my PAZAZZ

About a month and a half ago my dad's girlfriend, Audrey asked me to help her with a hair show she was asked to do. She needed me as her assistant and to use me as one of her models. They needed her to find a few different models that she could cut and style with the product they were doing the hair show for. So, I am not sure all of you remember, but I have been growing my hair out for about the last year and a half. It had gotten to past my shoulders. Audrey found a funky cut that she wanted to do on me. It was going to bring my hair to just above my shoulders. Well, lets just say that PART of it ended above my shoulders. lol There is only one way to explain how it looked. Audrey did a great job with the cut, of course, but I did look like Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch. I won't lie that I cried a little afterwards, but I do feel like I got back a little bit of my pazazz. :-) I am enjoying the short hair for summer, but I will be growing my hair back out again. Check out the pics!

Jessi was one Audre's male model. He was pretending to be my stylist lol
Audrey did great with my make up!
Hair after hair show

Two other models from show

Playing Catch Up

I finally put some time aside for me to get caught up on our blog. I don't have much time so I will just give you one of the fun things that has happened. More to come!

In May my aunt Monica came and visited from her wonderous hometown, NYC. She came up to our place with my dad, Audrey and Korey to play some texas hold'em. I, of course, won. lol She set aside a day for just her and I in her busy schedule of visitors. :-) I loved getting to spend some time with her. We went to this cute little tea shop in Farmington called Tea's and You, which I recommend to all of you. They had many delicious tea's to choose from and you got to do it in style! They have a special room you can reserve ahead of time that has a bunch of princess dress up clothes for you to dip into. We didn't reserve the room, but the ladies said it was okay if we wanted to go in there after we were done with our tea to take some pictures. lol So fun! Then we went to the Gateway and did some shopping. We walked and talked and just had a lot of fun catching up. Landon and I are hoping that we will be able to make it out there next year for our big trip we have planned. We are planning on going to Georgia to visit his hometown where he grew up and then to NY to enjoy it's pleasures. I think will be exactly what we need before we start a family. One big trip to spend some quality time together and enjoy two beautiful places. Both beautiful in it's own way. :-)