Thursday, June 30, 2011

Knitted Blanket!

I did it! I finally finished my very first knitted baby blanket. So now the baby can come. Anytime...I'm ready!
Not super fancy but I really like this border and it wasn't hard at all. Now on to my next project!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Maternity Pictures!

My Awesome friend Kim took these pictures for me. Sadly she moved away TODAY! I'm so happy she took the time to take these last week even though she was crazy busy packing. I never took maternity pictures with Austin, but honestly...I was about 20 pounds heavier with him so I am okay with that. So here they are with me at 38 weeks!









Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sharing the Gospel







Over the past month I've created a personal profile at mormon.org. It's been a great experience in a number of ways:


- I get to share what I believe and how those teachings have helped me and my family

- I've reflected on things that are most important in life

- I'm recommitted to learning more and being better


There is a new link attached to our blog (look under our wedding picture on the right side, near the top of the blog) that will take you to my profile page at mormon.org, and once you are there you can view thousands of other people's profiles from all around the world. I know that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. He has a plan for us called the Plan of Salvation, which provides a way for us to have joy in this life and to return to live with Him after we die. I am so grateful for the scriptures and for modern-day prophets that teach us the Gospel.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Recipe

Pictures for this recipe are just below this post!!!


Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

1/3 cup (3 oz.) cream cheese
1/4 c green salsa
1 T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T chopped green onion
2 c cooked, shredded chicken
1 c shredded pepper jack cheese
6-inch corn or flour tortillas
2 T vegetable oil (optional)
nonstick cooking spray
kosher salt

1. Mix softened cream cheese with green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro, green onions, chicken, and pepper jack cheese. (When I make these again I will go a tad bit lighter on the cilantro, so make sure you don't overdo it)
2. Wrap 3-4 tortillas at a time in a damp paper towel and microwave for 20-30 seconds. This will make them soft and pliable so they don't crack when you roll them up.
3. Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on lower third of each tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch away from the edges, and then roll them up.
4. Place seam side on baking sheet that is lined with aluminum foil that has been sprayed lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Brush tops of tortillas with vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 15-20 minutes on 425 degrees, or until ends become golden brown. Serve with sour cream, guacamole or Creamy Cilantro-Lime Ranch Dressing.

Creamy Cilantro-Lime Ranch Dressing

1 c mayonnaise
1/2 c milk or buttermilk
1 lime, juiced (about 2 T lime juice)
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (Ignore
the directions on the packet)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 c roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 c green salsa
Hot sauce to taste

-Combine mayo, milk, lime juice, and contents of the ranch packet in a blender. Add garlic, cilantro, and green salsa and blend ingredients thoroughly together. Season with hot sauce if desired. Refrigerate for several hours to allow dressing to thicken and flavors to meld.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Tyler and I tried another new meal out of the new cookbook he got me for my birthday called, "Our Best Bites". They turned out really good!
It has cilantro and lime juice in it and Tyler said it tasted just like a lot of stuff he ate in Mexico. I guess they put cilantro in everything. I hardly cook with it, but I really do like it.
The best part are that taquitos are so easy to freeze so you can double the batch and freeze half for later. This amount lasted us 2 meals.
We also made Creamy Cilantro-Lime Ranch Dressing to go along with it...Also found in the cookbook
This meal looks so healthy with the salad and grapes!
Tyler was going coo-koo over it.
Of course I have to post a picture of Austin. He is a Grape-a-holic! We couldn't resist taking a picture with the grape in the perfect spot on his bib!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Canoeing on Trinity River

Austin getting prepped for our canoe trip!
We borrowed the same canoe and tried it out on the Trinity River this time. It was a very slow moving river and there was no wind today. You can tell by the color of the water that it is a slow moving river. But the trees were pretty!
It was a HOT HOT day, but we survived.
Thank goodness I brought grapes for Austin to munch on and keep him cool.
This picture above I was trying to turn around in my seat and snap it...I couldn't turn around very well obviously and cut off Tyler's head and got part of my finger in the picture. Oh well!
We went over this rapid! Our first RAPID! haha. It wasn't scary at all and probably isn't even technically a rapid since it wasn't fast at all. But the anticipation was fun!
Here we are at the end. There was a steep hill the go down to get to the water, so Austin and I chilled while Tyler did all the hard work. The guy in the background was nice enough to help Tyler carry the canoe up the hill to the car.
The guy that helped Tyler carry the canoe also told us someone had seen a bobcat across the river, and apparently this bobcat is not dangerous. As they were carrying the canoe I saw the bobcat walking across the bridge that was about 30 feet in front of us. And it was true, he just walked right past all the bikers and dog walkers and no one made a fuss.
All tuckered out!