Grandma's Almond Joys

Every Christmas my grandma would make this yummy almond joys. Up until now, I haven't ever had too much time to cook or bake. Lucky me, now that I'm a stay at home mom I have more time to do this. Can I tell you how much fun I am having learning all these new things?

Almond Joys

What you need:

4 cups powdered sugar

14 oz. shredded coconut 

1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

1 cup butter, melted

almonds, about 1 cup

chocolate to melt

coconut oil

Start with the powdered sugar and shredded coconut. Set aside a few tablespoons of coconut for garnishing them after. Put rest of the coconut and the powdered sugar in a bowl and mix well. I used my Kitchenaide for this and it worked perfect! Next, pour in the sweetened condensed milk and the melted butter. Mix well. Put the bowl in the fridge for half an hour to an hour. You just want it firm enough to roll into balls. 

Once they are rolled into balls, put one almond on top of each one. 

Put them in the freezer for a little while just so they don't fall apart when you put them in the hot chocolate.

In a double broiler, put the chocolate in the top and get it really melted. My aunt taught me the trick with the coconut oil. Put enough in the chocolate so that it thins the chocolate out in order to get that smooth look on the chocolates. There really isn't an exact amount to put in, just enough to make it work for you. Dips all the almond joys in completely and put on a tray to cool. As soon as you get them on the tray, put a little coconut on top so that it cools into the chocolate. 

Put them in the fridge to cool for a while and bam! You have yourself some almond joys. :) 

They are actually really fast and easy to make once you know the method. Have fun and eat up!

Sweethearts Day is Near!

Valentines Day is almost here! Have you made your sweetheart a card yet? Making cards is one of my favorite things. This year I have a new (tiny) sweetheart to celebrate too! I'm getting all my Valentine treats ready for all of our loved ones.

Next week I'm going to share my grandma's recipe for homemade almond joys! 

Fruits & Flowers

This December was our fourth wedding anniversary. I know everyone says this, but I honestly can't believe it! Steven and I are often asked why we got married so young. Both of us always tell people that it is the best way to do it! I was 19 when we got married and he was just barely 20. We have grown up together and I think that we are so much closer because of it. And by the way.. December weddings are the BEST weddings! :) Although, I am bias. I can honestly say that aside from the day we had Weston, our wedding day was the best day of my life. I loved every part of it!

From previous anniversary posts, you know that Steven and I have a fun tradition with our anniversary. Because it's so close to Christmas, we don't want to do regular gifts. The rule is that it has to go along with "traditional" anniversary gifts and it has to be homemade to some extent. 

Year four gifts are supposed to be fruit/flowers or tools. This was a hard one for me! First of all, Steven doesn't like fruit and what would I do with flowers? And how in the world would I make a tool? Brain power was low this year so I took it to Facebook to get some ideas. My friends are much more creative than me and I used their ideas. One friend came up with the play on words, "fruit of your labors" so that is what I used. 

Steven had been saying that he wanted pictures at his desk of the baby and me but he couldn't decide what one. So I made him a collage of pictures and on the back wrote this note...

Here is the note that I made him. I stole the little poem from a popular children's book, but changed the word "baby" to "true love". 

When he got home from work we put all of our presents in one pile. I also got him Starbursts and Sparkling Cider because that is as close to eating fruits as this guy gets! 

As always, his gifts are much better than mine! He is so creative. He made me "tea party" shoes for the summer. How cute is that! He bought regular white flats and hot glued the pink flower onto them. He says that he knows how much I love having tea parties and he thought these would be perfect for the summer time. 

And I also have a weird obsession with colored pens (don't all crafters?). So he got floral tape and flowers and made the pens all fancy so I don't loose them. All his idea!! 

For our anniversary we went downtown to City Creek which is one of my very favorite places in the world. I wanted Weston to meet Santa! He was so cute in his elf outfit on Santa's lap! 

After City Creek, we came home and crashed. I can't think of a better way to spend our anniversary than with our little bug!

Weston

Where to begin.... Four weeks ago the most amazing life change happened to us. Our baby Weston was born! Weston was born October 16, 2013. I had been in false labor for a couple of days and I finally went into real labor the night of the 15th. I was so nervous! Going to the hospital that night was one of the scariest things that I have ever done. We got to the hospital at 3:30 am and Weston was born at 12:39 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. He has a beautiful complexion and dark hair, just like his daddy. 

The whole thing was so surreal. When they handed him to me for the first time, I still couldn't grasp that he was mine. That night I was absolutely exhausted so the nurse took him to the nursery for a couple of hours. It was just Steven and I in the room. Steven was sleeping in the pull out bed. It was quiet and dark, except for the night light that was on. The nurse brought the baby back to me a few hours later in the little rolling crib. She took my blood pressure and asked how I was feeling and left. I looked over at the crib and saw his sleeping little face. That was the moment. I just knew he was all mine. 

We had always loved the name Weston. In our first ward in Taylorsville, we were in the primary. There was a boy in our class named Wesley. We just loved Wesley. He was the most tender-hearted boy and he loved Steven. After meeting him, we decided that we wanted a baby named after him. We had a couple of different boy names picked out, but after a few hours of cuddling him, we just knew his name was Weston.

The next few days that followed are a little bit of a blur. I was so exhausted and we were running back and forth to the different families. But there are a few moments that really stick out in my mind. The first morning that we were home and got to sleep in, Steven and I were laying in bed with the baby. Steven turned to me and said, "Why were we so scared of this? I didn't realize that something was missing out of our lives until we had him." I feel the exact same way. Why was I so focused on working and school? Why did I feel like I had to squeeze in just a couple more years of working before I had children? Babies don't care if you are rich. They just need food and love, and we already had that to give. Why was I so worried that things between Steven and I would be so different? I have loved being married from day 1, and I was worried that things would be too different. Our relationship has definitely changed, but it has only made us feel more connected and more in love. There is nothing in the world like seeing Steven hold the baby and watching him take care of us. 

We are tired and exhausted and it is hard to run on a few hours of sleep. But I would take every painful moment and every tired minute in order to have our little buddy with us. He has turned our whole world upside down, but by turning it upside down he has actually turned it right side up. He has shown us what is really important in life. How lucky are we to have such a great blessing.  

Baby Blocks

 It's almost that time!! I'm 38 weeks and the doctor says that it is any day now! {Please come soon little guy!!} I just had to share this idea before the baby comes and I take a little blogging break. I saw some blank blocks at The Wood Connection and thought that it would be so cute if we made custom blocks for the baby. I bought enough for our parents, our sisters, two future brother-in-laws {wink, wink}, and a few extras for Steven and I to do. Everyone was so creative! Here are the blocks that we all made...

The block on the right is the block that Steven and I did together. We did it about our hobbies. Besides the birdie stamp on the side, one of us would start the picture and the other one would finish it. It turned out really cute! On the other block I used plain stamps. 

These are blocks that Steven and I made. Don't you love Steven's Bronco? :)

Here is the other side of the same blocks...

These are the blocks that my mom and dad made. The thing that is great about these blocks is that they can be as fancy or as simple as you want them to be and they all look so cute! The only "rule" that I had for everyone is that their name had to be on the block somewhere so that the baby would someday know who made what block. 

These are my sister's blocks and one of the future family members. :)  I love how different everyone's turned out!

These are my in-laws blocks... I feel like their blocks totally show off their personalities. Cute, right? I love the self portrait going on with Ken's!

Seannie did something so creative with hers. There were enough sides for each letter of her name so she added little pictures to each letter. I love the elephant!

It was so much fun seeing what everyone did with their blocks! Because it was so fun, I decided that I am going to make this a tradition for each of our babies!

Only a few more days!! We are ready for you baby!