Building a Bookshelf

 Due to my habit of acquiring children's books, our shelf has become inadequate to contain the collection.  So Paul kindly agreed to make another one this weekend, and the boys were happy to help.

Safety (or sunglasses) first.

BYU vs. Oregon State Football Game

This past Saturday I (Paul) with a few good friends was able to attend the BYU vs. Oregon State football game in Corvallis, OR.  It was great game highlighted with a lot of hard hits, great running, passing and receiving, The Jimmer and LaVell Edwards, loud fans, and a BYU victory (38-28)!  The game was not as close as the final score makes it seem and other than the last 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter BYU held control of the game.  Here are a few photos from game day... and if you couldn't guess the last photo is my favorite... definitely a dream come true!

CougarTown Tailgate Party; Britney, Elisa & Aaron, John, Ryan, Me, and Nate

 Me, Cosmo, and Nate

Reser Stadium, Corvallis, Oregon

Part of the offensive unit; Quarterbacks James Lark (#3), Riley Nelson (#13), and Jake Heaps (#9), among others...

Coach Bronco Mendenhall

Jordan Pendleton, the hardest hitting most fierce BYU Cougar looking like an Under Armor athlete.

Moments before game time!!

The Jimmer and fiancee Whitney were in attendance.

I'll stick with CTR, thanks.

LaVell Edwards getting some attention from Cosmo.

Final score on video board with the head coaches congratulating each other.

Me and LaVell Edwards!!

(A dream come true!)

GO COUGARS!!

Happy Birthday Dadda, May 2011

Paul's birthday cake recipe here.

A New Back Door (and back to blogging)

The past four months have been my biggest blogging/journaling/family record-keeping failure ever, I think.  Whenever one of my friends goes months without blogging, I tend to think something is wrong.  In my case nothing was wrong other than being busy and having a hard time summoning up the energy to download/upload photos and write something meaningful and/or witty.  So now I'm trying to pick up where I left off.

Two days after Lucy was born this happened:

A closer look:

So the following Monday the whole family trooped over to Lowe's to buy a new door, and sometime after that Paul (with two little helpers) installed it.

We had been planning to put in French doors eventually, just not right at that time.  That's just how life goes sometimes, I guess.

Happy Father's Day

Paul is coming back home today. We're leaving soon to pick him up from the airport. He has been in Alaska for over a week on a business trip. He took Buzz Lightyear with him and sent the boys daily pictures of their adventures.

It will be a happy Father's Day indeed to have him back home with us. We love you, Dada!

Playing catch-up: Paul's birthday

Paul's 27th birthday was May 1. He got this awesome, handy, pain-in-the-neck-to-put-together wheelbarrow. The boys had endless fun riding in it, despite their sober expressions. (Paul is fielding birthday phone calls.)



Paul requests carrot cake for his birthday every year. My latest go-to carrot cake recipe is this one from the Pioneer Woman. I make some changes to it, so here is my version.

Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
(I bet some whole wheat flour would work well in this)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups finely grated carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans. I like to cut circles of wax paper the same size as the pans and stick them in the bottom after I grease it. Then I grease the wax paper and flour the whole thing. Do this, and you'll never tear out the bottom of your cake again when you try to get it out of the pan.

In a large bowl, mix sugar, oil, applesauce and eggs. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in carrots. Pour into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes (possibly a little longer).

The original recipe didn't list a temperature or very specific cooking times, so I've tried to write down the times as I've made the recipe on different occasions. I think 25-30 minutes is pretty accurate for the 9-inch rounds, and 24 minutes worked well for cupcakes (this recipe makes about 2 dozen). If I remember right an 8-inch square pan (1/2 the batter) baked for 30 minutes or so, give or take. Hope that helps if you decide to try it!

This recipe turns out a light, moist, totally delicious cake, unlike some that are heavy with oil.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 pound powdered sugar (4-4 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla, then beat in powdered sugar. Frost cake when it has cooled completely.

After trying this for the first time, Paul commented on how perfect the frosting was, hinting that this is how I should make it all the time in the future.

For Dada

My boys have a great dad.

How could they not love a dad who takes them on the constuction site?

They'll always have plenty to do and learn with a dad who loves to get out and experience the world, wherever we are.

Ice from Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

He's a great shoulder to lean on.

And they can't wait to try to fill his shoes.

Happy Father's Day!

About my husband

I feel a little weird answering a "tag" because for me they're so reminiscent of all those chain e-mails that get so obnoxious. But when I get tagged to talk about my husband, how can I pass that up? (However, while the e-mails get on my nerves a little bit, it is fun to read people's responses to tags, and I often insert my own answers as I'm reading them. So if you love tags, or ever want to tag one of us, don't be put off!)

Here are some fun facts about my favorite man in the world, and some pictures if I can find some to match:

Where we met.
Paul and I met on July 24, 2004 when we went on a blind date set up by his sister Marianne. I was a Conference Assistant at Deseret Towers, and he was recently home from his mission. Our first "meeting" was on the threshold of the S-Hall office/Marianne's apartment.

Us in Marianne's aparment, but not on our blind date. That would have been awkward.

How long we dated before we got married.
As I said, we met at the end of July. We were married on May 28, 2005, making our courtship-prior-to-marriage ten months long (or short, however you want to look at it).

How long have we been married?
We will celebrate our fourth anniversary this year.

My favorite feature about him.
I assume this is about physical features, since the next one is about qualities. Well, I have always loved his dark hair. I also like that he's taller than me. That sounds lame, but it's true. I like that I can feel shorter and feminine standing next to him and his manly muscles. I like that his build is not too gigantic and not too soft and skinny, if that makes sense.

My favorite qualities about him/what I admire most about him. (I combined the two because I think they're the same thing.)
I love his excitement for things. I love his enthusiasm. A couple of years ago we went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which I'd been to several times growing up, and Paul was so into it! It really made me take a second look at something that I was "used to" and say, "Hey, this really is pretty cool!"
I love his confidence in himself. Whereas I'm one who doubts my talents and good qualities until experience or other people affirm that they're true, Paul just knows, but not in a stuck-up sort of way. He knows that he's skilled with tools. He knows that he's good at music. He knows that he has talent with a camera. He knows that he's qualified to do his job. I think confidence like that is so empowering, and I wish I had more of it. Rather than feeling so-so about whether he can do something well, he just does it and learns from what happens.

This is the ottoman/chest that Paul made for us when we were living in Wyview.

I love that he's no stranger to serving others. If someone needs help, he never hesitates to offer his services if he's available. When people call me when he's not around, asking if Paul can help with something, I know that I can say yes for him without asking him first because I know that he would say yes if he were there. He's just that kind of person.

His nickname for me.
I'll share the less-embarrassing ones. Lovey is most common. Sweetheart, too. He calls me Dear most often when we're in public.

His favorite color.
Cougar blue!

His favorite food.
Paul is a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. He loves a good burger, a good chocolate chip cookie, and a cold glass of milk. He's pretty easy to please, lucky for me. He's also a fan of good camping food, particularly Dutch oven cooking.

Speaking of his favorite foods, this is his favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe:

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes.

His favorite sport.
Need you ask? BYU football, of course! He'll watch almost any sport, but I think football is his favorite. In high school he was a swimming and lacrosse champ.


Who said "I love you" first?
He did. We were on a walk near BYU campus after dating for a couple of months. We ended up at the Marriott Center and were talking near the Victory Bell when he said it, and I said it, too.

When and where we had our first kiss.
It was Homecoming weekend in October 2004. I'm pretty sure it was Sunday because I think I had been expecting it all weekend and he finally did it on Sunday night. He was dropping me off at my apartment, and just before I went inside he smooched me! I really don't remember all the details since I was quite surprised. But I do remember this: Before he did it he said, "What would you say if I asked if I could kiss you?" And I said, "I would say no because I'd be too scared!" And then he kissed me anyway, which is why I was surprised and don't remember much about the following moments.
Another thing: One of the first things Marianne told me about Paul, before I had even met him, was that he had decided that he would only kiss the girl that he would want to marry. So you can imagine the significance of that kiss for me.


Favorite thing to do as a couple.
I joked with Paul that I was going to say "watch TV." But thankfully that's not really our favorite thing to do as a couple. We used to really like playing games together, but that has become really hard now that we have little kids who want to "participate." I guess I could say one of our favorite things to do is just talk. When it's hard to get out and do other sorts of "couple" things, we can at least just talk about stuff that's going on.

Our kids.
We have two little boys. Benjamin is 2. Rhett is 7 months old. We love them both to death. My favorite "dad" thing about him is that he is such a proud father. He loves to tell people the boys' latest developmental feats, and could go on for hours about the potential for this or that that he sees in each of them. I know that our kids will never be without a supportive dad who will be cheering for them no matter what.


His hidden talent.
I really can't think of anything hidden. He has a lot of talents that not everyone knows about but many people have seen. None of the ones I'm thinking of involve strange body talents, but when I asked Paul what his hidden talents are, he said, "I can burp on command."

His age.
He is 25 years old.

His favorite music.
He doesn't really have a favorite. He's fairly well-rounded when it comes to music. The things he doesn't like to listen to include country, rap, and heavy metal music.

His favorite pastimes.
ESPN. Dutch oven cooking. Riding his mountain bike. Camping. Constructing things with his power tools. In no particular order. I think.


Will he read this?
Oh yes. He's been dying for me to write it for a week!

I love you, Lovey!