Another new favorite recipe!

The apron I'm wearing is the cute one that Jane made for me for my birthday! Thanks so much!

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/8 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons butter 7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 2/3 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cooking spray
PreparationPreheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

P.S. Jake left on his high adventure scout campout this morning and won't be back until saturday. I'm so jealous! And I miss him already!

Portland Temple

Our temple in Seattle is closed for cleaning right now so Jake and I drove down to Portland on saturday to go to the temple there. This temple is soo gorgeous! We got to do a session at this temple when we visited from Raleigh but I forgot how pretty it is! It has beautiful white and black marble and there are these awesome stars on the wooden doors and hidden on the spires. The weather was so perfect when we came out of the temple that we couldn't resist taking a stroll around the grounds. I brought the camera along to get some pictures. We love being in the temple! The spirit is so strong there and we can feel so much closer to the Lord there. I feel so blessed to have had a temple so close to me my whole life.

Remember?

Write down your favorite memory with me and add this to your blog so I can do the same for you!!1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you remember me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you! If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing and leave a memory about you on your blog!

Tagged once more!

My sister tagged me to share 10 interesting things about myself. I love these so that you guys can get to know me better and I get you know you! Here are some things that I have found out about myself since getting married and living with another person. You really do find out so much about yourself when you get married!

1. Like my sister put down too, I hate having dishes in the sink. I guess it was the way we were raised but I can't stand to have dishes pile up in the sink.
2. I think I've always known that I had an introverted personality but I'm realizing now what that means. I love being social but I get nervous to plan my own social events that I host. I can tell when I reach my social limit and I'm needing some alone time to recharge my social batteries.
3. I love cooking meals, baking goodies and just being a stay-at-home wife. I love to create things and to look around my house and see it is clean and taken care of.
4. I love listening. Sometimes I don't say much but I sure am listening. I love to read people by the way they speak, act, move. I probably should have become a psychologist. I love that stuff. Or maybe a detective. Some say I'm very observant.
5. I cannot wait to be a mom. Just like I was so prepared and ready to be married, I'm preparing as much as I can for when I'm finally a mom.
6. I have a major sweet tooth. I love brownies, cookies, cake, ice cream, pie....anything sweet!
7. I love the outdoors. Four-wheeling, hiking, camping, guns, hunting.. I would love to live out in a place with lots of land around my house and a lot less people.
8. I'm a bit of a clean-freak, I get it from my dad. My car is always clean and clutter-free and I love everything in my house to have a place.
9. I'm a terrible friend. ;) I don't enjoy talking on the phone and so it's hard for me to keep in touch with friends. Luckily the internet has saved me from losing all contact with friends.
10. I hate shopping but I love to get new things. I have about an hour and a half limit on shopping. Once I hit my limit, I can no longer shop. My mom used to bribe me with food to come shopping with her. I'm all about speed shopping.

Well, there's some more random things about me! Poor Jake has to live with all of this! ;)
I tag...Everyone! I really want to know more random things about all of you! Kelly, Jane, Ally, Shannon, Heather T., Candace, Diane... anyone who is reading this!

Happy Birthday, Jake!

Happy birthday to my cute, sweet, loving, woderful and all-around amazing husband!! I feel so blessed to have Jake as a husband and I'm so grateful to have him in my life. Jake is so helpful and attentive to me and the things that I need. He is so spiritual and intelligent and has taught me so much. I love spending as much time with him as I possibly can, we have such a fun time together! Jake is a hard worker and does so well to provide for us. I can't believe that I am so blessed to be his wife and I'm grateful to be married to him for eternity! I look forward to many more birthday's with Jake and so many more great memories. I love you, Jake!

I tried out the Company Chicken recipe on sunday and it got great reviews! Here's the recipe for you all. It's so easy to put together and tastes soo good! (this recipe says only 2 chicken breasts but you can increase the chicken and ingredients to fit your family!)

Company Chicken

2 chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 pint sour cream

1/2 parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

• Mix last four ingredients and pour mixture over raw chicken in baking dish.


• Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serve over rice.

Enjoy!!

Banana Bread

I made banana bread yesterday from a recipe that I found on MyRecipes.com and it is very good. Here's the recipe for it! I'll for sure post the Company Chicken recipe after I test it out!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter, softened 2 large eggs 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas) 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cooking spray
PreparationPreheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
Yield
1 loaf, 14 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

visitors

My mom and brother are flying here from Utah this afternoon to stay with us for the weekend! My dad flies in tomorrow evening since he had to work. I'm very excited to have my family here to show them our apartment and where we live! Friday, we got tickets to go see the new Batman movie for Jake's birthday! We are all sooo excited to go see it! Saturday, we are heading up to Seattle to Pike's market to look around, then on a boat tour and finally to the Spaceneedle. We'll probably stop by to show them the temple on the way back home that evening. Sunday, my family is coming to church with us and then I'm cooking "company chicken". It's a recipe that my sister gave me and it sounds really good but I haven't made it yet. Monday, we're just doing whatever during the day and then my family drives up to the airport to fly home at 5. I can't wait to have them here!

Jake and I went with the missionaries last night to meet with the investigating couple that I mentioned before. It was so awesome! I had no idea what to expect since I have never had an opportunity like this before but it was such a great experience. They are both in their 30's and expecting a little baby girl in 2 months. The husband has been raised in the church and even served a mission but fell away after his first marriage fell apart and he got a divorce. His wife doesn't know much about the gospel yet. They are quite cautious about being "rushed" into anything and don't want to commit to much. We invited them to church on sunday and they said they would "try". Hopefully they will come. They're such a cute couple and I hope to see them come to church and change their lives. It was so amazing to hear the testimonies of the missionaries and Jake and feel of the spirit so strongly. I don't know if the investigators felt the spirit as strong as I did but I know that the spirit was there with us. That was such a great experience for me and I'm so grateful to have this missionary opportunity.

P.S. Jake and I have been married for 5 months as of yesterday! (I still haven't run him off!) ;)

Welcome!

My best friend from high school, Diane, just started blogging!

I'm so glad to be on here and be updated on what everyone is up to even though we're all so far away! So, it will be so nice to hear from my best friend more often since she lives in Cedar City and I'm aaaall the way in Washington.

I'm so glad you're on here, Diane! Welcome!

P.S. we need to take more pictures together next time we see each other!!

Thanks!

Here's some pictures that my sister took at the rodeo! ^^^

Thanks to everyone! Jake and I had such a fun vacation for the 4th of July! It was so good to see all of our families and spend time with everyone! Congrats to Holli and Phil! Their new little girl is so adorable and I'm so glad everything went well. We're sad that we weren't there when she had her though! There's grandbaby number 17 with 3 more to come!

Life is back to normal here in Washington for us. Back to laundry, grocery shopping and housework! I've been looking on the internet for some places to apply for jobs at. I found one yesterday that is a photolab assistant at a place called KITS Cameras. It's owned by the same company that runs the Inkley's Camera in Utah. I'm not exactly sure what they would have me do there but I'm guessing just developing pictures part time. Also, Jake met a guy last night that just moved here and is in our ward and he is the hiring manager at the Cabela's here in Olympia! I don't know what position I would apply for there but that is an option!

Last night, Jake went on a split with the missionaries to visit a couple that is investigating the church. It's a young couple and the wife is pregnant with their first baby. The husband was out of town when they went over and I guess that I was supposed to come with to meet the wife so Jake said that we would bring her over a treat and visit with her today! I'm making brownies. This is really exciting and I hope it turns out to be a good missionary experience for me and maybe I could make a friend from it, too!

Well, wish me luck on my job search and missionary opportunity! ;)