J-E-L-L-O

So for those of you that knew my Grandpa Chris, you know that he was a popcorn LOVER!!! He would make the most buttery, caramely, and gooey popcorn! He also loved to make Jello popcorn, which was always fun as a different treat! I got a wild hair to make some of grandpas popcorn tonight.

You start off my air popping some popcorn...I usually just do one cup that comes with the air popper. :)

Then, you add 1 C. light Karo syrup

1/2. White sugar. (even tho I think grandpa would use a cup)

1 small pkg any flavor gelatin. (Kaden picked out Orange)

Then you bring to a boil, and boil for 3-5 minutes depending on chewiness desired. (The longer it cooks, the chewier it is but you want the jello and sugar to dissolve completely).

Pour over popcorn and mix very well.

Kaden wanted to make popcorn balls and triangles, so we did that today! It was a lot of fun, and he is such a good helper!

And here are a few of our balls, and our 1 triangle! :) My favorite flavor is Raspberry. I think it has the best tart/sweetness to it, but Kaden wanted Orange and Lime. Funny thing is, he hasn't really even eaten any yet!

Spring Fever

I truthfully believe in Spring Fever, and I believe that it hit our family. The past couple weeks Kaden has been different. He has been needy, clingy, whiny, dis-obeying, unpolite, etc. I dunno if its because of Garrett's crazy work schedule, or just that it has been a busy time for us. But I decided that maybe we all just needed to get out of the house.

Garrett had ruined his ONLY pair of church pants, since church is kinda a new thing for us, and we didn't have the $$ to go get him a new pair (we're that broke after the wedding), and so we decided that if we weren't going to go to church, we were at least going to do something FUN and as a FAMILY.

Kaden had been begging for a kite for some time, and yesterday was PERFECT kit flying weather. So we went to Target, and found a $3 kite!! Went to Freeman Park and proceeded to fly this baby!! Kaden is a pro! It was his first time EVER and he did so good!!

We even let him fly the kite alone!

Then he thought it would be a brilliant idea to let the wind take the kite wherever it wanted to go, and this is where it ended!! Even tho it was $3, it was worth saving!

Then we walked alongside the river, and Kaden did some exploring like Dora and Diego do. He was finding all sorts of paths that the animals had created from the branches and stuff.

I am so grateful for Chase. He is such a good dog, and puts up with Kadens craziness. I swear everything Kaden starts beating on him, Chase gets even more excited like, "he loves me, he loves me!" Overall, it was a FANTASTIC spring day!! I can't wait for more to come!!!

Conference Cakes

As long as I can remember we have always had Coffee (Conference) Cakes on General Conference weekend. It is a tradition that my mother had when she was younger, and she shared this tradition with us. I have always gone to her house, or my grandmothers house for these cakes, never have I had to make them. My mothers' mother is Danish, and this is something that they have always done. We make these Saturday night and then eat them Sunday morning.

I have never made this recipe before, and for a while my mom didn't even know where hers was, until I ran across the original recipe on my cousins blog! SCORE!!! I still had to call my mom a few times for tips and pointers. Here is the recipe:

2 C. Scalded milk

1/2 C. Butter

3/4 C. Sugar

2 tsp. Yeast

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. salt

5-6 C. Flour

1/4 C. melted butter

1/2 C. Sugar for sprinkling

1/4 C. brown Sugar for belly buttons

You scald the milk and then add the cube of butter and the sugar. Mix. Allow the milk mixture to cool enough before adding the yeast. Once cooled to WARM, add the yeast and let sit for 15 minutes. (This way you can tell if the yeast activated because it will foam up). Then add the beaten eggs, and salt and mix well. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time, until the mixture becomes glossy. It should still be sticky, but it shouldn't stick to your fingers a whole lot. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let raise overnight on counter.

This is what it should look like the next morning before rolling them out. Roll out the dough mixture on a floured surface until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Then brush on melted butter with pasty brush or fingers, sprinkle with Sugar. Then cut them with a pastry or pizza cutter into pieces.(About the size of your hand) Then transfer the cut pieces onto a greased cookie sheet. You can put a little ball of brown sugar in the middle, and then drizzle with melted butter to create the belly buttons.

This is what they look like before they go into the oven. The cakes with brown sugar are the ones with the belly buttons. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. I cook mine about 11 minutes, which leaves them barely golden brown.

The after product. They are served with a side of Real Whipping Cream for dipping. This batch made about 20 cakes, and they were fairly large in size. Most of my family will eat 3-5 cakes a person!!!!

My mom always served our coffee cakes with scrambled eggs topped with Cheese and hot chocolate and juice. They are so delicious!! If you try them let me know what you thought of them!!

Hey Baby Lets Go to Vegas...

...kiss the single life goodbye!!...

Viva Las Vegas Baby!!!

For our honeymoon, we decided to take a trip to Vegas. We used money we got from our wedding to help with this special getaway and we had a blast!

We stayed at the Excalibur, and we got a screaming deal!! We paid $42/night!!! Seriously!?! Who can beat that for strip prices? And honestly, I love the south end of the strip, it seems to have the funnest Casinos. In my opinion.

When we first got to our hotel, we were greeted by some recruiters for a Time Share. They offered us a couple different deals if we went and sat through a Time Share spill. We agreed to do so, and we got 2 tickets to The Lion King, and 2 $25 Gaming Vouchers for the Mandalay Bay. If you are going to Vegas anytime soon and want to see a show that isn't raunchy, I highly recommend this!! It was fantastic!

Neither of us had ever been to a Hard Rock, so we decided to eat lunch here on Tuesday. They take your picture when you first get there, and if you choose to buy it they just add it to your check. Of course, we had to get it!

We visited M&M world mostly for my little Kaden. We bought him a cute pair of blue PJ's that he absolutely loves, so I feel like we scored big time!

Garrett took me to Circus Circus, and we watched a Juggler perform. Then he decided to play a little Fair Game, where you have to get the ball in the middle of like a teeter totter thing. You get 3 balls for $2. He lost the first round, and decided to play again, and on the 2nd ball he did it!! So we won a R/C Helicopter! (another one of Kaden's souvenirs)

My dad and my sister both told us we needed to go over to the Rio for their Carnival Buffet. It was worth the short drive. We got there at 3:00, so we paid lunch price, but they switched over to the dinner menu at 3:30 so Garrett was able to get all you can eat Crab legs for the small price of $17.99. I think he ate enough for both of us. As you can tell, he enjoyed himself!

The first night we were there, we walked over to NY NY and rode the Roller Coaster!! So. Much. Fun. It was awesome to be going inbetween buildings and stuff, and it seems like this coaster went FOREVER!! We got pics of this also.

Vegas was definetly a good vacation, even though we came home absolutely broke with $0 money left in our bank account. Garrett has been working doubles since we got back so we can get caught back up. We didn't gamble a lot, and we didn't win anything, but we were able to make a lot of memories as husband and wife.

~Wedding Day~

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Huserik

Saturday, March 12th, was the big day!! It started out stressful, but ended up delighful.

Garretts mother drove up from Utah with his uncle Dan, and his dad and his wife drove up from Oregon. It was so nice to have everyone here for the big day.

Garretts mom was such a help putting all the sash's on the chairs at the last minute, since we couldn't get into the church first thing in the morning, and didn't start decorating until 2 hours before the wedding.

We had a nice luncheon after the ceremony where we had Cafe Rio Pork Salads, and cheesecake for dessert. My mom really went all out on the desserts for our wedding. She made them all! Yep, she's amazing.

Overall, it was a wonderful day! Since I had been married before, we wanted to make this special for Garrett, and I really think we pulled it off! (Thanks to my mom!) There are a lot more pictures to come, but these are the ones that I have now, for some reason the ones my mom took aren't saving to my computer right. When I get the chance I'll upload more. :)

What's Important

I usually need a daily reminder of what is important in life. The things that give life meaning, and make each breath worth it. Today has been a good day. Not for any specific reason. I just got out of bed with gratitude for what I have been given.

{He} gives my life meaning. {He} is the greatest blessing I have received.

{He} was a beautiful baby.

Every day I will remind myself how grateful I am to be his mother, and I will strive harder and harder each day to teach him the things that he needs to know to be an honest man, husband, and father some day.

I LOVE YOU little MAN

Save the date!!!

It is official. Well, its been official for about a month now. But we have decided on March 12th, 2011 to get married! I am pretty excited, and a little stressed!

I am pretty much planning my own wedding...from design, to flowers, to colors, to everything! (with a little help from my mom). We were planning on used tax returns to pay for this simple wedding of ours, but some unfortunate things has caused my returns to not be here in time. I was really stressing that we would have to change the date, even though our announcements are all printed and almost ready to be mailed out.

Thanks goodness, my mom came to the rescue and is offering to help us keep the wedding date!! So...if you haven't sent me your address, and would like an invite, please do so because announcements will be out in a couple weeks!!