Sunday Simplicities

It has been way too long since I've written anything on our family blog.  My apologies.  I've been carried away with life for a little while, but I am looking forward to doing better at writing down thoughts, feelings, and experiences that happen in our lives :)

One new development with me (Jess) is since I wrote last, I have developed an infatuation with baking.  Pinterest really jump-started this love of taking simple ingredients and creating a meal, dessert, breakfast, or side dish.  It makes me feel so good and I want to share the recipes that I know to be irresistible.  So, you can expect from now on, each time I post, I will share a new recipe (easy or hard) that I have come to love.  I'm going to try it.  This will help me branch out even more with creating yummy food, too!

Since I have written last, here are few (big) things that have happened in our family:

~Sam turned 2-years old in October and is in 3T-4T clothing (taking after the Gardner gene in me)

~We planned and hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Rob's family and prepared and cooked my first gobbler.  It was easier than I thought it was going to be, the only downside to it was that my hands smelled like garlic and onion for about a week (even though I washed them with lemon juice over and over again)

~I made my Grandmother's famous Danish Rice pudding twice over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, as well as 4 batches of her delicious caramels (both of which I will not be posting the recipes for, as they are a family secret :) 

~We celebrated my Mom's birthday in January by going out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti factory in Taylorsville (delicious) and then went to see the movie, Les Miserables - fabulous 

~We decided to contract my dad to redo our master bathroom, so we began demolition this week which consisted of Rob and I getting our fix of working with a sledgehammer and hammer to get rid of all the hideous tile.  That felt good :) 

~Sam has been doing so well in nursery the past month because of Sister Stratford in our ward being our saving grace.  We were in there with him every Sunday because he was having such a hard time with the transition.  But, one Sunday, this wonderful woman began taking it upon herself to help him adjust and just letting him cry.  It was wonderful :)  Rob and I can now go to 2nd and 3rd hour of church and actually pay attention to the lessons!

~Sam's new favorite movie is Toy Story 2.  He was really loving Toy Story for a while, but has moved to this one.  His favorite book is Henry The Duck's Big Mistake.  His favorite color is Blue...I know, because he told me today.  We have been working on learning colors and he is such a pro!  His favorite toy right now is his Lightning McQueen car and he takes it everywhere. 

This about sums up our last few months very quickly.  Sorry about that!  

As promised, here is a really easy and yummy recipe for a dessert.  I made them today while blogging and they taste so scrumptious!  Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients

2 sticks butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

3-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

In saucepan over low heat, melt butter with peanut butter.  Stir in vanilla.  Remove from heat.  Stir in sugar until smooth.  Shape Tbsp-sized balls on wax/parchment paper.  

On low heat, melt chocolate chips.  Dip balls with toothpick half-way.  Refrigerate 1 hour.