Finding a Name

Now that we know the gender, the question I get most now is "Do you have any names in mind?" And we do, but we're having a hard time deciding. There are two names that we especially love, but which one is the right one for this little girl? This is a tough decision. This is the name we are going to call her for the rest of her life! So I'm going to put up a few ideas that we have for names and you can vote on which one you think would be best for little girl Jones.

I made this California Chicken for dinner last night and it was so easy and so so yummy! It has melted monterey jack cheese, tomatoes and avocados on top.

I marinated the chicken in a garlic lime marinate like how they recommend in the reviews, it was delicious! 

Free Movies at a Blockbuster Near You

Another great deal: it turns out that there are Blockbusters still in business and they are having customer appreciation days between now and July 4th. A lot of their movies can be rented for one night for free! You can only rent one at a time but as soon as you return it you can get another one for free. I needed to rent Cinderella Man for a class and I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the check-out counter and found out that I was getting it for no cost!

There is a Blockbuster in Provo near the dollar theater and one in Orem near Center street. 

Oh, how I love good deals!

Omelet Night

I love learning about good deals, so I have to share this latest awesome deal discovery with you. If you live in Provo, you probably already know about the awesome deal at the Creamery on 9th, where you buy a kids meal for $3.49 and you get a full-sized cheeseburger (but with no lettuce and tomato, like the regular hamburgers), fries, a refill-able drink and ice cream. No child would be able to finish all that, it fills up an adult and they do not limit the kids meals to only kids. It's awesome! 

(Image from byu.edu)

(Image from ysecrets.com)

And their hambuger buns are homemade and delicious! Plus their ice cream is fantastic, and I think there are more flavor options there than at Baskin Robbins. 

And then there is Kneader's all you can french toast for $5.29. Possibly the yummiest french toast you've ever tasted. It's made of cinnamon rolls and then it's smothered in REAL whipping cream, strawberries and a buttery syrup-- oh yum! 

(Image from KneadersBakery.com)

Now for the deal I just learned about: Omelet Night. I had never heard of it until I heard my co-worker raving about it. He insisted that Adam and I NEEDED to attend. 

(Image from iamsiin.co.cc/recipe-for-omelet)

I found this picture on some random website, the omelets at Omelet Night are much bigger than this and stuffed even fuller than this and they are only $3.50! I only ordered half an omelet (for just over $2) and I was full and Adam was totally stuffed with his whole omelet. 

The thing that threw me for a loop is that it is held at the Utah Valley hospital cafe. I know, weird! I always believed that ALL hospital food was bad, but I was proven wrong, because these omelets are so so so good! They only have this event about once a month, they send out an email and people start lining up for the omelets before the cafe even starts serving them. My co-worker told me that once he was waiting in line for 40 minutes because there were so many people in line, and not just people from the hospital, but college students and all sorts of other people from the community; apparently omelet night is a big deal! When we went earlier this week, we only had to wait in line about 5 minutes. 

When you get to the front they make the omelet right in front of you and you choose out of the fifteen to twenty ingredients what should go in your omelet and they stuff that omelet full. There are bell peppers, hash browns, bacon, sausage, chicken, ham, onions, tomatoes, and tons and tons of cheese. And then you can put guacamole and sour cream on the side. I had never heard of putting those two ingredients on an omelet before, but it totally works! Basically, these omelets are wonderfully delicious and filling and they hit enough food groups to be considered a meal and they are pretty awesomely priced!

Anyway, I've now signed up to be on their email list for the next time that they have omelet night and I will be sure to let you know when it is!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

We are having a little girl! I didn't realize how convinced I was that it was a boy until I was told it was a girl and I was shocked! But I'm totally stoked! 

I loved seeing that little person on the screen and not only could I see her, but the lady doing the ultrasound kind of has to push firmly on my stomach with the ultrasound device and my little girl was quite stubbornly pushing back! I felt little jabs coming from the inside of my tummy and on the screen I could see her little hands making those same jabbing movments, so I knew that what was on the screen was inside of me! It was ridiculously awesome!

The little hand pushing back at that ultrasound device:

Our little girl is very lady-like and modest. She had her legs quite firmly crossed for most of the exam. She was moving them around quite a bit but she some how managed to keep them crossed while kicking and moving. We could even count her toes with this ultrasound-- and they are all there! 

Look at that cute, happy Dad! A girl is what he originally was hoping we would have. This little girl will have her dad wrapped around her little finger from the moment she is born.

She is weighing about one pound, which means that she might be farther along than we thought, she may be an October baby. That would be fun to throw Halloween-themed birthday parties! Or maybe she'll hate that... we'll have to see.

My family so happened to be in Utah for a family reunion this week and so they got to come into the ultrasound room as well and see their very first little grandchild.

Deep-fried heaven smothered in goodness

Our Best Bites has a recipe for Puffed French Toast, which is basically deep-fried heaven smothered in cinnamony-sugary goodness. I decided to try out this recipe for Father's Day and it was so worth every single one of those deep-fried calories! I guess I'm already growing out of majority of my wardrobe anyway, so what did I have to lose? And, of course, Adam approved as well. But really, if you have a special breakfast occasion coming up, definitely try out this recipe!

I made a raspberry-blueberry version of this strawberry sauce, which was super yummy! Adam ate his french toast plain, because it was good enough on it's own.

Adam told me that I didn't need to do anything for him because he wasn't a dad yet, but really? If you run to the store to pick up foods that your wife's baby is demanding and if you hold her while she cries through hormonal roller coaster rides caused by her baby and listen to her get frustrated about not fitting into clothes because of her baby, I'm pretty sure that makes you a dad. And a wonderful dad at that!

And here is my amazing Dad:

This is when he took me on the best daddy-daughter date ever (we went backpacking for three weeks through Western Europe and it was glorious!)

I get to see him for the first time in a year tomorrow and I'm very excited!

Happy Fathers Day!

Makeup, a sandwich, and that growing bump

Half-way there (tomorrow)!!

One week from tomorrow we'll find out this little bump's gender! I can hardly stand waiting! He's been kicking. He has a knack of being able to find my nerve endings and giving them a good kick. I feel this quick, painful jab that makes me wince, but then I get so excited because it means he's alive! And he's absolutely in love with Coldstone milkshakes, every single day he positively begs for them (at least that's what my body cravings are telling me).

So, I love cooking and looking at cooking blogs and there is this sandwich that I have been loving recently that's a mix between a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and a caprese sandwich I once had a restaurant.

(picture fom pithyandcleaver.com)

For one sandwich:

3/4 Tbsp. olive oil

3/4 Tbsp. balamic vinegar

1 ripe tomato, thickly sliced

1 1/2 Tbsp. mayo

1 Tbsp. parmesan

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. basil

1/8 tsp. black pepper

Slices of mozzarella cheese (or strips of two string cheeses)

2 slices of bread

salt to taste

Put the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and tomato slices in a small bowl and let the tomatoes marinate while you make the rest of the stuff. Stir it up occasionally.

Toast the slices of bread so that it is just barely becoming golden brown. Combine the mayo, parmesan, oregano, basil and pepper in another small bowl. 

Spread the mayo mix pretty thickly on one toasted slice of bread and put all the rest of it on the second slice of bread. Put the mozzarella slices on top of the piece of toast that has LESS mayo on it. Stick these two slices of bread under the broiler until both are bubbling and turning golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and put the marinated tomato slices on top of the slice of bread that has just mayo on it (no mozzarella) and stick it under the broiler again until the tomatoes have warmed up. Remove from the oven and sprinkle salt over the tomatoes. Put the two slices of bread together and enjoy your yummy sandwich! 

The only problem with putting recipes on your blog is that you need good pictures. I attempted to take a fantastic picture of this sandwich, but I completely failed. I had to find a picture on another website of a similar sandwich to post above. Here is my terrible picture:

And I've been loving the posts on SherbetBlossom.com where people post what is in their makeup bag. With my skin changing with pregnancy, some of the make-up I have now is not doing it's job so I like seeing what brands people like. I like going to the mall and having the ladies at the different make-up counters in Dillards and Macy's give me a make-over so that I can see what I like and don't like so much. Even if I don't want to buy any of their particular brand of makeup, they say useful things like, "your skin is very pink and so this yellowy foundation really helps balance that out." I've decided I'm particularly in love with Clinque. They not only have makeup that I like the most but their prices are some of the best as far as department store brands go.

A fox, a hippo, a goose

Vogue(ish) Photo Shoot

These are the amazing/adorable/wonderful girls that introduced me to Adam. I lived with them my sophomore year at BYU.

From the first weekend that I lived with them, I learned that one of their absolute favorite things to do is to dress up crazy and take photos.

We once took a color photo shoot.

 And another time we had a photo shoot with a light bulb.

 Once we made garbage bag wedding dresses and had another photo shoot to celebrate Coryn's birthday.

Yesterday we took a nature photo shoot. 

About ten people on skateboards rode by us as we took this picture of us all wrapped up in string. They were speechless, they obviously had never seen anything so cool in their life.