Masters of Bread Making

Last Saturday Sam and I decided that we wanted to try to make homemade bread. We were getting tired of store-bought bread so we thought we would give it a shot. We wanted to make somewhat healthy bread and found a recipe for Multigrain Bread on ourbestbites.com. We pretty much use their recipes for EVERYTHING... all of their stuff is fantastic! And this recipe certainly was no exception.

Of course, making this bread was like a whole-day ordeal, but it was totally worth it! Sam and I were nervous because we put so much effort into the bread and we were going to be really disappointed if it didn't turn out well.  It seriously turned out great and exceeded our expectations... so much so that we ate almost an entire loaf after it was done baking! Haha.

Doesn't it look so yummy??

As an added bonus, you do not need a breadmaker to make this bread! Which is a plus for people who don't have one. We actually do have one but we don't use it very much.

Anyway, Sam and I have made some different types of bread lately (rolls, banana bread, and this multigrain bread) and they have turned out REALLY GOOD so we like to think we are bread-making professionals now. Or maybe we are just really good at following recipes :).

Sewing Project #2

Well, I definitely have not been good with updating this blog. Sorry about that. I guess it has not been on the top of my list of things to do. Plus, I don't think we have had very many exciting things happen lately.

Sam and I are SO over school at the moment. We will both graduate in May (although I will have a few classes during the summer) and we couldn't be more excited! It is definitely taking its toll on our motivation though. 

So I realized that I never posted my second sewing project on here. It's pretty sad, though, that I did this back in December. It is actually Sam's Christmas present. He wanted an apron, so that is exactly what he got. He is pretty much the brains behind the entire operation... I only did the sewing.

The apron is a little dirty because he had already put the apron to good use by the time I got around to taking a picture of it. Sam insisted on having the front made out of terry cloth (towel material) so that he could just wipe his hands on the apron... which is why there are stains on it. Unfortunately, the only colors of terry cloth we found at the fabric stores were pastel colors (which are super girly) so we decided on white... even though white gets dirty easily. We were originally going to make the apron a University of Utah apron (shocker!) but then we decided on this. The back and lining is actually little red and gray football helmets... so it still looks kind of like a Utah one.

Sam also wanted his apron to snap in the back and not have a tie, so this is our solution to that dilemma. Pretty genius, eh?

Sam's apron is definitely a unique one! When we were at Joann's getting the fabric cut the lady asked us what we were making and when we told her, she looked at us like we were psycho in the head. She actually wasn't all that nice to us and made us feel stupid about our idea. IF ONLY SHE COULD SEE IT NOW! Haha. The apron turned out great and Sam loves it. It was the perfect gift for him because he loves helping in the kitchen and is such a wonderful cook!

As a side note, my grandma officially gave me her sewing machine (after a lot of convincing on my part). I am stoked! I just need to find a new project now...

First Anniversary

Yesterday Sam and I celebrated our First Anniversary! Pretty exciting! It is crazy how fast time flies... seems like we were getting married not too long ago! We had such a nice, relaxing day. We spent our anniversary getting a couples massage and then going out to a nice dinner. I must say that I am the LUCKIEST girl in the entire world. I have the most amazing husband ever. This past year has definitely been the greatest year of my life and I am so excited to see what life has in store for us in the many years to come!

One of my favorite photos from our Wedding day. Could I have a cuter husband?? I think not!! Love him :)

Christmas Stockings

Sewing project #2 = DONE. On Thanksgiving I made Sam and I's Christmas stockings. My mother-in-law, LuAnn, has made all her kids, their spouses, and grandkids such cute stockings that I decided I wanted to make Sam and I's stockings. LuAnn went with me to pick out fabric and helped me throughout the entire process... and I must say that I am SO grateful because I definitely could not have done it without her! I am still a beginner with this whole sewing business. It was fun to make the stockings though. They were not all that difficult and they turned out great!! I LOVE the fabric... neither are traditional Christmas colors/fabrics but I think they are super cute!

My stocking is on the left and Sam's is on the right.

My next project? A Christmas tree skirt. We will see how that one goes. Wish me luck!

Our Christmas Tree

Sam and I went and got ourselves a Christmas tree Friday night. And I must admit, it is a fake one. I grew up having a real tree EVERY Christmas, so I was a little reluctant to get a fake tree. Of course, we couldn't just let the little guy stay in the box, so we put up the tree as soon as we got home. We don't have any decorations yet, just lights, but I am still so excited about it!

Isn't it so cute? Our ceilings aren't very tall so it isn't the biggest tree. But I love it! Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. And I can't even tell you how much I LOVE Christmas trees. Whenever there is a Christmas tree up in my house, I always find a reason to turn the lights on and sit by the tree.

I am sure after this Christmas we won't have very many decorations on the tree, but I am excited to see what ones we can come up with! Hooray for the holidays! And that includes Thanksgiving too :)

Weekends are the BEST!!

It is so hard to go back to school and work after each weekend. They are just so wonderful! We especially had a good one this last weekend. Friday night we went to a movie which was exciting because that is not a common occurrence for us anymore. We even made it more exciting by taking Trax down to Gateway to see the movie! I don't know why but it was really fun!

A little blurry but this is us on Trax :)

We saw Moneyball... SUCH a good movie! We highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Sam and I aren't huge baseball fans but we still really loved the movie.

We also went to the Utah vs. UCLA football game this weekend... in the SNOW! For the first quarter (at least) it was snowing quite significantly. Before we left I wasn't really looking forward to the game because of the snow and the cold but it actually turned out to be pretty fun! I bundled up really well so I wasn't even cold at all. Plus, we won the game so that was great :)

I wanted proof that it was snowing a lot.

Just as a side note, Sam found this at JCPenney when we were roaming around and I thought it was SO funny! Plus it just looked ridiculous on him. And would on anyone for that matter I'm pretty sure.

Isn't he just the cutest? His face is priceless.

Needless to say I am not loving being back to the grind today... but I am very thankful I had such a fun weekend and that I have the most wonderful husband in the world!!!

Fall Fun

It is crazy how fast this year has gone by! It is almost over... which means that the semester is almost over as well. Thank goodness! Sam and I have really been enjoying the fall. We love the colors of the changing leaves, football season, going on walks in the crisp cold air, and snuggling up on the couch to keep warm. Hopefully the lack of continual snow holds up for a few more weeks! I am not holding my breath though...

Sam and I have done a few exciting things lately! Things that most people would probably think are really not exciting at all. A couple of weeks ago we decided we didn't want to sit at home (like we usually do) on a Friday night, so we ventured to Macy's. We still had gift cards from the wedding so we decided we would go see what we could find to spend them on :). We got a meat grinder attachment for our KitchenAid which we think is pretty sweet... AND, while we were there, I found this little gem... don't worry, I didn't buy it. I just thought it was hilarious.

For Halloween we really didn't do anything special, considering I had class the night of Halloween. We did carve pumpkins though... which I LOVE to do! Last year I pretty much did all the pumpkin carving myself and Sam tried to take credit for it (even though he hardly did anything). This year though, Sam will have you know that he did pretty much everything. The only thing I did was come up with what the pumpkin would look like. Otherwise, Sam did everything else.

Isn't it so cute? We love the little Utah mouth with the lonely tooth in it.

Just last weekend we had our niece, Lucy, over Friday night to hang out. She kept telling her parents that she wanted to have a sleepover with us and we would definitely not turn down an offer like that (since we are the favorite aunt and uncle after all). While she did not end up sleeping over, we still had a good time playing with her. We built a fort in our living room, moved the TV into the fort, and watched "Tangled." I had already seen the movie a handful of times but I would never say no to watching it another time... it's just so cute!

Cute Lucy in the fort waiting so patiently for the movie to start.

Last thing... I had been SO bugged by the completely bare walls in our room (seriously, there was absolutely nothing hung up) that I decided it was time for me to take action. It took a while for the project to get completed, but it is finally done! It is nothing extravagant but it is better than nothing! I am very happy with the finished product!

This is up right above our bed. I love it!!