Mint Chocolate Brownies

Why have I never thought to make these delicious brownies before?! I was reading a random blog and saw a recipe for Mint Brownies. I love brownies, and I'm sure I've had a mint brownie before, but seeing it on the blog made me want to try making my own. My mouth is watering just talking about this. I adapted some recipes to my own liking yesterday and they turned out so DIVINE. Some mint brownie recipes call for a ton of mint frosting and its too overpowering. I did a regular moist brownie recipe(my moms, its great), thin layer of mint butter cream frosting and a layer of semi sweet chocolate on top. Ben and I agree, they are SO very good. We made a big pan with the intention of taking them to neighbors....but I don't know if they will make it over to the neighbors house. Oh how I love chocolate, but I think mint brownies might be my new "go to" dessert :)

More Spring Break

I forgot that we had taken some pictures over Spring Break...We got some great gifts from family and friends while we were in town.


I guess this is what I get for insisting that he participate in a baby shower. Isn't he cute pregnant :)



We stayed at my parents house and got to get in on some of the everyday action. Since my bro has left for his mission it's just my two cute sisters at home now.

Ben helped Emilee make posters for her election, he's so good with stuff like that.


Becca and I took a drive up AF canyon one afternoon, it was so cold and windy!

This is the laptop club.

And we made it to 29 weeks! Feeling a lil pregnant these days...

Spring Break and Happy 3 Years!

We aren't really into picture taking lately, but I will provide an update of our comings and goings. We spent the last week in Utah for Spring Break. It was so nice to see family and some friends as well! I wish the week could have been twice as long, but it was just as well because the morning we left my family also left on a lil vacation to meet my sister Kelly's new baby boy. We have 4 babies due within about 7 months of each other in my fam. We are all about two months apart. Kelly was the first, my sister in law Camille is next, then it will finally be my turn, and last my sister in law Breanne. It's too bad we don't all live closer to one another, but hopefully our kids will grow up to be good buddies.
Ben and I also celebrated our 3rd Anniversary last week! We spent the day shopping for Maternity clothes which Ben wasn't too thrilled about, but he was a good sport. We have never really done anything huge for our anniversary, but we did start a tradition of going to the Training Table on our first anniversary. We were just moving into our new house and it was getting so late and we were tired of unpacking so we stopped to get dinner at the Training Table, Ben's favorite. The next year , our 2nd Anniversary we had just gotten a new puppy so rather than leave him alone, we loaded him into the jeep and took him to the Training Table with us. He was so well behaved in the jeep, but we did eat really fast and then headed with him to the park. So now I guess we have our tradition. We went there for lunch last week and then since we were still out shopping in the evening we hit up my favorite, Cafe Rio. What can I say, we are livin the high life when it comes to celebrations ;) All in all in was a good trip and a good Anniversary. I love love love Ben and I think we are going to make it a few more years :)

Baby Bump

Things are moving right along around here. I am in week 25 now, and feel like I have been pregnant for so long, but I still have a little over three months to go! I am enjoying time with my sweet husband though, he has always been so good to me, but even more so now that I am carrying his lil girl :) Here is proof that we are really going to be having a baby.

Week 23
I always imagined that I would be a cuter pregnant lady, but I guess I'll have to deal with what I've got...

Strange things are happening to me...

I remember when my older sister got married; I thought she was such a nerd to get excited about things like dishtowels and what colors she should include in her bathroom. Once I got married I understood the hype, there is just something about it being your dishtowels and your bathroom, the stuff that will grow with you...until it wears out or you get sick of it. Anyhow, I am experiencing a similar situation with baby stuff. I never really cared to even look twice at baby clothes until I began preparing to have my own baby. We have known for almost two months that baby is going to be a girl but I had yet to purchase anything pink. It's almost like i thought I might jinx myself and she might not turn out to be a girl after all. Well I finally made a purchase. It was so strange to buy baby clothes knowing that they were not a gift for someone else. In fact I had a hard time deciding on just one thing, especially since I have no idea if this is going to be a newborn size baby, or if she is going to come out with a lil extra chub. Either way, its fun to have some clothes now to get me excited about baby girls arrival. We are also expecting our new crib to arrive this week. After tons of research we finally decided on this beauty. I think I would sleep in it myself if I could!

Happy Valentines Day!

Last week we had the day off for Martin Luther King Day. It was gorgeous outside so we took a walk around town and hit up Ben's favorite pizza place. It's the college hangout so I always feel younger when we are there. According to Ben they play the perfect music, have the best "Stromboli" and show ESPN non stop. During our lunch he said something along the lines of what a great day it was turning out to be..."Stromboli, my girl, and ESPN, what more do i need?" I tried to get a picture of him in all his happiness but he couldn't turn his head away from the TV long enough to look at the camera.

Family Pictures

Before we moved from Utah this last summer, my whole side of the family got together for some pictures. I think our last family picture was taken in 1999. Looks like Ben is officially a part of the family now!





These were all taken in my parents backyard. They are amazing gardeners...




Ben's parents returned home from serving as Temple President in Mexico before thanksgiving. When we returned back to Utah to visit we were able to do family pictures for his side of the family as well.







So I guess now that we have new pictures as a couple, we should probably take some of our wedding photos down. I'll admit that I am somewhat hesitant to take them off the wall; does this mean we aren't newlyweds anymore?! We are going on three years now. Maybe I will just leave ONE wedding photo up somewhere.

The Little Things

The days are so long but the weeks are going by fast! Life is good but I can't help but get a lil grouchy here and there. I remember reading others blogs when they were pregnant and getting so irritated when they would complain, because after all, at least they were lucky enough to be having a baby. So I try my best not to complain now that we have finally gotten what we so very much desired, but some days are hard, no matter how blessed you are. I don't really enjoy my job, which is too bad because i really thought I would, but that's another story. Yesterday was just a bad day, but it got better when I came home to find a present from Ben. I have been wanting a small water bottle to take around with me that is less noticeable than my huge 32 oz bottles since I am always thirsty now. He bought me two lil water bottles and I can't wait to use them! Ben has been so great about cleaning up around the house and catering to my needs. Luckily I haven't been sick or anything, but i sure don't have the energy that I use to. It comes and goes though. I don't get to run as much as I use to since it's been so cold out, but I made it back on the running trails today. It was great! The little things; a good run, having the dishes and laundry almost always done, loving food more than ever, and lately, feeling lil baby spasms in my tummy, life is perfect. I wasn't sure I was feeling the baby but i described what I had been feeling to my doc yesterday and she helped confirm that yes, I am feeling this lil baby move! We should find out if its a boy or girl next week. Crazy how fast time is flying, but despite the bad days, I am really lovin life and looking forward to the months to come.

Thanksgiving Surprise

I realize I am nearly a holiday late on this post, but I am unmotivated to blog lately because my desktop computer is so slow, and that is the computer that I upload my pictures on to. However, I just discovered a way to get pictures from Ben's camera onto the laptop, so hopefully I'll be posting a little more often. Like the last post mentioned, we're going to have a baby soon! I imagined waiting until Christmas to tell everyone, but this was such a hard thing to keep a secret, especially since it seems like it took forever for to actually happen :) We we're in Utah for Thanksgiving so we decided that would be a good time to spread the good news. Thanksgiving dinner was at Ben's parents this year so we were able to tell most of his family in one sitting.  It was a fun way to tell everyone, but it was kind of embarrassing to have all the attention on me. I guess I'll have to get use to that though as my baby bump begins to grow! To tell my side of family we passed around the picture of the ultrasound and waited to see the reaction on their faces, that was fun too :)