Thanksgiving and After

We had a great Thanksgiving in Georgia! We got to go to my aunt Joans house and celebrate with family there! I have so much to be thankful for including my amazing husband Ryan, my family, the gospel, friends, health, education, America, food, shelter and much much more!! On black Friday we got up at 3:00AM and snagged some great deals!! Then pretty much napped and hung around the rest of the day. Saturday we were able to go to the Atlanta temple then did some shopping and found this HUGE Christmas tree!!

I love Christmas and everything about it! Its such a great time! I especially love decorating for it! Since we only were able to take our car down to Georgia and whatever we could fit in it, we really couldn't bring any Christmas stuff. So I decided to improvise and make some of my own things and decorate with what I had! I did buy some cheap lights at Walmart but made some little ornaments and decorated the fake tree that came with the apartment! haha
Yesterday I really wanted a treat but didn't know what to make and Ryan came up with the great idea to make a little cake from scratch and it turned out so good and cute! I love the decorations I made! ;) haha

Pumpkin Roll

My husband LOVES pumpkin rolls and I love making food that he gets so excited about, so I had to make him one! Its perfect for the fall season and tastes amazing! This recipe was easy and tasted great! I got it from a recipe book one of my old wards made but it doesn't say who gave the recipe so I really don't know who to give credit to except someone in the Rexburg 58th ward!

Cake:

1/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 can pumpkin

Filling:

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

6 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line greased pan with wax paper. ( I used aluminum foil because I didn't have wax paper and it worked really well.) Lay out a hand towel and sprinkle surface with powdered sugar (it will be used after cake is finished baking.)

2. Combine flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a small bowl.

3. Beat eggs and sugar in separate large bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin.

4. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into a prepared pan.

5. bake for 13-15 min, or until top of cake springs back when touched. Remove cake from oven. Immediately loosen wax paper from pan and turn cake onto prepared towel. Cool on wire rack. Spread filling on cake and carefully roll up the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Then keep refrigerated after eating!

Ethans Baby Blessing Weekend

I got a new haircut! I've been thinking about going back to my natural hair color for various reasons but especially because I was sick of having to get my hair re-highlighted every couple months and spending all that money! So now I'm back to brown and love it! I also cut off about 5 inches and love the change! (Ryan wouldn't let me cut my hair above my shoulders, which is fine, he loves long hair! :) This weekend we got to go up to North Carolina to see Shalyse, Ben, Andrea and Ethan for Ethan's baby blessing! Since we only live about 5 hours away we HAD to come! On our way up we stopped at this big tourist place that was South of the North Carolina border! It was pretty cool but, out of season so we just looked in one of the shops. We got to stay the night at Shalyse and Ben's and had tons of fun! Andrea showed us all her books and baby Ethan was so cute and much bigger than we saw him in August! It was really fun just being with everyone and the blessing was great! We're so glad we had the opportunity to go and see everyone and the blessing!

October

A couple weekends ago we went up to the Appalachians in northeast Georgia to see the mountains and fall colors which was fun! At the state park they had these owls that were partially blind and couldn't live in the wilderness alone, so these people cared for them and were showing them off!

So Ive been lacking on the blog and need to update! Since living in Georgia I have a lot more free time and Ive been trying to pick up cooking/baking. Ryans birthday was Sept 27th and he's 25!! What a man! We went to this really good seafood place called Rhineharts and was way good! I also made him his favorite pie, Lemon Cream Pie ( I got from dana-made-it blog) which is AMAZING! But since we dont have all our usual baking tools I really couldn't "whip" the whip cream very well and it turned out a little soupy but, he still loved it!

Summer Fun

Now that everyone has a blog, I figured I should jump on the bandwagon! Lets see, well, Ryan and I have been married for almost a year and a half. We got married April 2, 2011 in the Seattle temple! We were currently living in Rexburg, ID while Ryan is studying mechanical engineering at BYU-Idaho. I graduated from BYU-Idaho's nursing program 3 years ago!!! Wow, I cant believe its been so long! I was working at EIRMC on the cardiac unit but as of Labor Day we currently live in Augusta, Georgia!! Who would've thought! Ryan scored an awesome internship with John Deere and we got a great opportunity to get to come down here for a couple months!

The past month we have literally been traveling the country! We left August 10th for Wisconsin for a family reunion which was a blast and got to see all the fam for a week then we decided to keep driving to New Jersey to see my dad! I mean it was only a couple states away! haha. We stayed there for a week and got to see my family and my little brother Sean! Unexpectedly, but happily, we got a call from John Deere saying we got the internship so we drove back across the country to Rexburg in 2 days!! It was a very long drive but we did it! Hurried, packed, sold our apt in a week and were back in the road again. We stayed and the Richins in Henefer, UT for a couple days because we didnt have a place to live because our housing in Georgia wasnt set up but, we had to be out of our old apt in Rexburg! The Richins are so nice and let us stay, which was fun. After a couple days there we started our drive again and got to see some sights. We went to the Nauvoo temple, which was BEAUTIFUL and the church sites. Next day we met Bro Raatz down in St Louis, MO and got to see the arch. Bro Raatz surprised us and bought us tickets to go up to the top! He's so nice. I couldn't believe that people could fit up there and there really isn't that much room to spare. Five people jam into this little egg carton transporter and make our way up creaking along the way ( let me tell you, you don't want to be claustrophobic!) but finally made it and the view was great! That day we made it down to Altanta and rested for the night but before that was ate at my now favorite restaurant! Crackerbarrel!! I know it sounds funny, but seriously, the food is amazing!!! Homecooked goodness, if you haven't been there, make that your next place to go out to eat and its so cute too!! The little store, decorations and the whole atmosphere! The next day we finally got to our place!!! We were so ready to be done traveling!!

We finally have a home!! Augusta is a nice place, its a city, but not too big. Definitely different than Rexburg but we wanted a changed and we sure got it!! It has been hot and humid! Summer definitely is still here and I don't think its going away any time soon. I thought I'd go for a walk and go to some stores in the morning, I mean it was only 70s when I left. Well by the time I got back I had a sweat band on my shirt from my purse! yuck, it got hot so fast and it wasn't even 11 by the time I got back! Ryan started work the past Monday and really likes it! He's getting to know the system and how things work and did a driving test yesterday. Its cool that he gets to do hands on things and help solve problems! We are so happy and grateful for this blessing to get an internship and great experience!! Wow, that was a lot to say, but hopefully my blogging skills we get better with time and I can better figure this out! :)

Inside the arch in St Louis
Our new apt

Our home away from home
Washington D.C.

No need for explanation