Another Yummy Recipe: Oatmeal Bars

I made this for a friend who took some bridals of me for our 2nd anniversary. (Pictures to come)

1 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup milk

2 cups quick oats

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375. Coat an 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter on med-high until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and beat in milk, then flour mixture. Stir in oats and 1 cup of the chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter into prepared baking pan. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Microwave remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips for 30 seconds; stir until smooth and drizzle over bars. Cut into squares. Makes 16 bars. Enjoy!

Two Year Anniversary Adventures

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary so we decided to go up to Silver Flatts, where Tyler proposed. We hiked around the lake, it was so beautiful up there and we had fun taking Emri.

The photos are all out of order, I couldn't figure out how to fix that. Oh well. :)

Ty and the babe hiking.

Emri sleeping on the way home.

This is the chunkiest looking picture we have of her to date. For some reason she always turns out looking extra chunky in pictures... but still so cute!

Emri started to fuss toward the end, wanted mommmm.

Family photo with Silver Flatts in the background.

Job Joys

This post should have been posted a long while ago but keeping true to my terrible-ness of keeping up our blog I am just now getting around to it.

I'll keep it short and sweet cause it involves no pictures (still need to get better at that too) and I know and you know that's what you'd rather see on here.

Anyway.

Tyler got the Phoenix job. He will be working for Deloitte starting September 20th. We are thrilled. In the meantime we are putting off renting until we have some income. So. We are spending (and have spent) most of our summer up here in Utarrr. It's been tons of fun so far and we are really enjoying the break.

That's all.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is for Aimee. I made some delicious cookies a week or so ago and I'd like to share the recipe with y'all. (Thank you to Kaylee for sharing this recipe with me!)

Enjoy!

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 Tablespoons pure vanilla

Heaping 1/2 Cup vanilla ice cream (frozen from container)

4 Cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 bag chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined. Add in ice cream until combined.

2. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl; mix. Add to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips; mix until combined. Scoop dough onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are cooked through. Let cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Job Woes

Tyler slaved to find a job, he applied to SO many companies and worked so hard. I am so proud of him. The good news is, he finally got some offers. He accepted one for a CPA firm here in Tucson. Not our ideal place to live but it's a good job. We had been looking for a new apartment (bigger!) and we decided to buy a house instead since prices and interest rates are so low. So we got a Realtor and began the hunt for a house. It was fun while it lasted.

A couple weeks ago Tyler got a couple emails from some companies he'd applied to way back when wanting to interview him. One of the companies was one of the big 4 accounting firms, which was our original ideal job. So we talked about it and decided that it would be worth it to interview with this company. The job is for Phoenix, so that meant we had to quit house hunting. But we, especially me, would MUCH rather live in Phoenix. Tyler has LOTS of family in that area and it would be a couple hours closer to my family. The downside is that it is actually hotter there. But we can handle it!

So now we are back to waiting, wishing, wondering, where we will be in the future. The interview was last Friday, almost a week ago! and they still haven't gotten back to us. They told the interviewees that they would let them know Monday or Tuesday. But here we are, THURSDAY, and we still haven't heard anything. Tyler emailed them and they said, "by Thursday" but we'll see if they come through this time.

Until then we'll just be crossing our fingers, praying that he gets this job! It would really free up our summer to get this job, a break that Tyler really needs. He worked so hard this last year in school and finished his masters with a 3.9 GPA! Even after he got appendicitis the week before finals! He is amazing. Again, I am so proud. And I would love for him to have a little relax time.

We will keep y'all posted on what happens and where we're headed in the coming week or so!

Hello and Goodbye June

Emri's Birth Story

I know it's been forever since I've updated... but I guess that's what happens when you have a baby.

So I'll do a little recapping...

My due date Feb. 15 came and went without a baby, I ended up going a week over and

getting induced, Feb. 22. I had a hard time sleeping the night before, I was so nervous and anxious. We were supposed to be at the hospital between 7:30 and 8:00am but I was up at 6:00, I believe, running around trying to make sure everything was

ready to bring BABY home!

And I couldn't sleep anymore.

So we got to the hospital early and checked in and then we had to wait. That is the hardest waiting I had to do all pregnancy. I was thinking about backing out, then thinking OK I'm ready NOW. But eventually we got in a room and my nurse asked me a million questions and eventually, what kind of pain medication I wanted. Haha! I told her I didn't want any... nothing! And I saw it on her face, she didn't think I could do it. Hehe. But she respected my wish, I told her not to even ask me. Then I got all hooked up to everything and they started me on pitocin about 9am. I didn't really start "feeling" the contractions 'til about 11am. They were the meh, it kind of hurts contractions until around 2pm they were getting REALLY bad.

And I was thinking that I still had hours and hours to go. It was getting tougher and tougher to hold off from saying GIVE ME SOMETHING! But I kept going back and forth in my head, I really didn't want to get anything. I just kept thinking, people do this ALL the time, I can do it, I can. But the pain was so intense I couldn't focus on anything else and I finally broke and said I want an epidural. I was so tired I just wanted to sleep. BUT THEN, my body took over and pushed instinctively. I didn't say anything the first time but then it happened again and so I told the nurse I was pushing. So she said well maybe I was further than we thought. Sure enough, she said, you're at a 9! That was the best news! I knew I could do it from here on out. So I said exnay on the epidural, I don't want it! Anyway, because I was induced they shut off the pitocin after that and I thought my body would just take over at that point, but unfortunately it didn't. I went from pushing to feeling NOTHING. That was super frustrating.

So I had to wait to work up to the pain again, so fun. Then I pushed for an hour and a half and we said hello to little Emri and 3:10pm on the 22nd! I got lucky and had a really short labor, SO much shorter than I was expecting (which was marvelous!) And I managed to make it without ANY medication! I was so glad I was able to do that.

Anyway, it was the best day, rough, but so rewarding. I couldn't believe we finally had our precious little one with us. She was 6lbs 15oz and 19 inches long. A perfect baby!

The first few days of her life were a little rough though, probably more on Tyler and me than on Emri. But she had jaundice and had to go under the bili lights which kept us in the hospital an extra night. And we had a hard time getting her to eat and latch and she dropped down to about 6lbs 4oz (which is pretty normal). But she was slow to gain over the first couple of months. She got things figured out at about 2 months and now my happy 4 month old is getting to be a lil' chunker!

It is so amazing to watch our little one grow from day to day, month to month. She is a very good baby, and very happy. She smiles and even giggles from time to time. She is changing to much and getting smarter with each day. We are so in love with our little one, she is such a special blessing and it is so wonderful to have such a new and sweet spirit in our home.

I hope to keep this updated and with new pictures from here on out. We have lots going on here, I'll try to keep y'all posted on what's happenin'!

Baby News!

More baby news... 'cause that's about all we have to talk about these days.

So, we had another ultrasound this week. The doctor said I'm measuring small, (33cm, should be 36cm). So we went in to get things checked out, make sure baby is still growing and that I'm not low on fluid. And the good news is... all is well! Baby is growing well and they estimate she weighs about 6lbs 7oz, so she is doing great! And I have plenty of fluid so everything is just perfect. In fact, all of baby's measurements combined = my due date a day earlier! Woohoo! Not that that really changes anything, she'll come when she's ready. But now we're just hoping she comes a little bit earlier, rather than later.

I also had a doctor's appointment the same day and we were also happy to find that things are progressing wonderfully. I am dilated and almost 100% effaced so wahoo! But now we just hope things continue to progress and I don't stay like this forever...

We are mostly ready for our little one to come now. All her things are packed for the hospital, need we make a mad dash, and her crib is set up, sheets on. We still need to figure out where we are going to put all her clothes but I think I may have an idea for that. So now we play the waiting game. We are really getting excited, really, to meet our little girl. She has already been such a great blessing to us and we feel so lucky. We can't wait to say hello!

Happy January!

Happy New Year! We are so excited about 2010, it's going to be an adventurous year for us with the arrival of baby girl. Just 6 more weeks until she's due but I'm sure she'll come whenever she's ready.
We spent Christmas in Utah this year and have had a lot of fun up here in the cold weather so far. Christmas day we went up to Salt Lake to see the lights at temple square. It was so beautiful, I was glad we could make it up there.
It's been good to be around so much family and spend time with them. It's been especially nice to have such a long break from school; even though Tyler has been studying long hours for the CPA exam, but we've managed to squeeze in some playing and relaxing.
It's also been fun to see friends and visit with them. It was great to see some of you at my baby shower, thanks to all who came! It's fun to finally have some baby stuff to take home and start getting everything ready for our little one.
Well that's about all that's new with us. We wish you all the best this year!