6.06.2012

What we've been up to

We had some friends from our ward over for dinner and I made a black bean cake. It was super easy to make and actually tasted delicious! Had I not told them, nobody, including my bean hating husband would have known. I would definitely recommend giving it a try!



We ventured up to Utah this past weekend for Scott's (Jeff's brother) graduation and Seare family photos. We were also able to see my family and got to check out the new City Creek downtown which is awesome! My mom was sweet enough to take Scout and "babysit" for the day while we did family photos in Midway. He was in heaven at her house and took advantage of their huge yard, they even got some gardening in. 


 Dirty, muddy boy!

As soon as we got home this was the position Scout assumed for the next 24 hours. All tuckered out!
Abbie let me borrow her sewing machine and this was a little project I did first to get my confidence level up, it's been a while since I have sewn anything. A little dog park bag for my boy on 4 legs.

I have officially started back to school. I am only taking one online class this summer and applying for the phlebotomy program this fall to give me a leg up on nursing school. It's been only two days and I'm already being reminded of what it's like to have to schedule for homework/study time. Not my favorite but it is kinda fun and nice to be back in school.

5.15.2012

Dos

  It seems like just yesterday Jeff and I were waiting in the Celestial Room of the temple for our turn to be married, but we have already made it to two crazy years! They have been the best, hardest, most adventuresome and happy two years of my life!


I am so thankful you chose me Jeffrey! Love your guts!



We celebrated our anniversary by getting pedicures and going to dinner and Jeff got me this awesome clock I have been talking about wanting since we got married. I love it!

5.07.2012

Update

 A lot has been happening here in the Seare house over the last couple of weeks which can explain for the absence of updates on our blog. Here is a quick run down of what we have been up to:

-Scout lost his first baby tooth (on his own) we won't forget about the 4 to 6 to 8? we don't really know, that he had pulled. I put it under his pillow and the puppy tooth fairy payed him in cheerios.


-We also ventured out to another dog park that everyone was telling us about, turns out it's not as great as everyone said but we did manage to get some pictures with this big guy. Only after I picked Scout up and carried him over, as you can see from the photos he was not so sure about it.



-2 Saturdays ago we spent about 3.5 hours washing, waxing and polishing the 4-Runner. She looks beautimus now! Lucky for us the neighbor kids came over and entertained Scout while we worked.





 



















-Jeff and I have been watching a lot of documentaries and doing some homework on our food system and government regulations which are awful by the way. We are slowly (as time, energy and $$) will allow making the switch to organic, homegrown and local foods. If you are interested in learning about what we have log onto Netflix and watch some of the documentaries they have on there. We have watched most of them and they are all very good, true and educational. Eating is something we must do to sustain life on a daily basis, it's sickening to know that most of us don't know where our food is coming from and what happened to it before we buy it, take it home and feed it to our families. Anyway, enough of the soapbox.

-I made some dang good buttermilk biscuits and gravy for my hubby, mom and aunt and Jeff said they were the best biscuits he has ever had. Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested, I have already had a few requests so this will make it easy and available for everyone.



1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick real butter)
2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
additional Self-rising flour
(for counter surface to knead dough)
2 tablespoons melted butter

*If you do not have self rising flour, you can make your own using all purpose flour. To make your own self rising flour, simply add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for EACH Cup of all purpose flour. 
* If you do not have buttermilk, you can make your own using vinegar or lemon juice. 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice plus enough milk to make 1 cup. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes before using.


Cut butter with a sharp knife or pastry blender into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Sprinkle butter slices over flour in a large bowl. Toss butter with flour. Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas. (I used my hands) Cover and chill 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding additional flour as needed. With floured hands, press or pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Sprinkle top of dough with additional flour. Fold dough over onto itself in 3 sections, starting with 1 short end. (Fold dough rectangle as if folding a letter-size piece of paper.) Repeat entire process 2 more times, beginning with pressing into a 3/4-inch-thick dough rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Press or pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 2-inch round cutter, and place, side by side, on a parchment paper-lined or lightly greased jelly-roll pan. (Dough rounds should touch.) Bake at 450° for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; brush with 2 Tbsp. melted butter.
Prep: 20 min., Chill: 10 min., Bake: 13 - 15 min.



-My mom and aunt came down to spend one night with us and it was so fun. I am so glad they came. We relaxed and caught up, took them to Trader Joes which they both loved and we even got to walk through the short sale we have under contract with them. They both loved it naturally. Jeff and my mom just happened to be twinners on saturday in their plaid shorts. 



-While shopping for a baby gift for my Cousin Kylie I came across something that I couldn't resist so I bought it. After taking it home, I timidly showed Jeff who was not mad by the way but did tell me it was a bit premature. I know, I know. And no we are not pregnant and NOT trying. Just couldn't pass up this darling romper for our future babies.







so sweet right? 






















-I am going back to school. It's exciting, scary and dreadful all rolled into one. I have had some issues so far with credits transferring and all that jazz but we are trying to work it out. I am still hoping to do nursing but will not compromise on starting almost half of my pre recs over if they don't transfer so i have been exploring other options as well. I won't know for 8-10 weeks so until then I am hoping for the best and planning on nursing. Here's hoping it all works out!


 -Jeff and I have joined a team with our cousin's Carissa and Brandon and will be running in the Vegas Ragnar in November. Our team name is Mustache Mafia and I have been "shopping" for some awesome t-shirts for the team, this is one of my favorites. We are excited for the event, now for the training... haha


-No word yet on the house, we have had a few bumps in the road but it has been resolved. But I have stopped calling it our house just in case things don't turn out the way we like and we lose it. Ah, the joys of short- sales. There's not a thing that's short about them! 


Anyway, that's the gist of what we have been up to over the last few weeks along with the regular work day. Hopefully things will slow down here a bit and I will be able to stay on top of the blog again. Until then...






4.09.2012

"Those People"


I must admit, with a bit of regret (regret isn't the right word, embarrassment? that's more like it) that we have become "those people". You know who they are, they treat their animals like they are children, talk about them constantly, brag about them, pull out pictures for anyone who will look at them, even for those who would rather not. What can I say, Scout is our "baby" right now. Someday I now know that I will be one of "those moms" and you know what? That's ok. If our kids are even half as cute as Scout is I will have plenty to brag about. (ugh, annoying right?) haha So without further adieu here are some pics of our boy.

This is Scout's favorite way to ride in the care, he ducks back in for breaths every few minutes but other than that he is a happy pup.

Apparently they give out for than lollipops at the banks these days, I opened up the tube to get my cash and this pretty red bone was sitting inside. Again, one happy puppy!


Easter


Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I got up a bit early and snuck out to the kitchen to make a yummy Easter breakfast and set out Jeff's Easter treats. We had whole wheat brown sugar banana pancakes that I found on pinterest and they were delicious! We spent the rest of the day going over our primary lesson, watching the Masters and preparing our masterpiece of an Easter cake.
Dreamed up by yours truly, Ice Cream Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. It might not have looked as pretty as I had planned but it did not disappoint!


A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes


Jeff and I have been talking about buying a house since we got married, we knew our time would come and patiently waited. We started looking and browsing homes, neighborhoods, listings, etc. in November after we got settled here in Vegas. The first neighborhood we drove through we both instantly fell in love. I told Jeff I didn't care what house we bought as long as it is was in this particular neighborhood! It is that unique, darling, quiet, new, and so much more. There were at least 8 homes in this neighborhood for sale and we went home and pulled up the neighborhood just to find out that all of them were under contract and not active listings. :( That sucked but it didn't keep us (me) from driving through the neighborhood every chance I got. I'm sure the neighbors think we are a bunch of crazy creepers! Wait until they found out we're gonna be neighbors! ha We happened upon our real estate agent by chance and quickly set up a search for that area that would alert us anytime a new house came on the market in the area and we started looking elsewhere. We made an appointment to walk through 3 different houses on the Saturday Chris and Tess would be in town just to have our agent call us on Friday to tell us all three were already sold! He sent us a link to some other houses and the first listing was a house in the neighborhood we love. We were so excited and called him right away to see if we could walk through the next morning, the house had literally been listed an hour earlier and he didn't even know it was for sale! Our agent made a call and we were set to walk through saturday morning.
Saturday morning we walked through the house and found that it's everything we have been looking for! It was great to have Chris and Tess with us being our voice of reason and also encouraging us to make an offer (it didn't take much believe me!). We went to walk through another house but we both knew we weren't going to find anything better so we went back, did one more walk through and went straight to the office to make an offer. We set it up so the sellers would have until monday @5 to accept our offer but just 2 hours later we got the call that they accepted. 2 other people were getting ready to make offers and 5 others were set to walk through that day so we felt so excited and blessed to have been the first ones and it paid off!
We opened escrow on monday and now are just waiting to hear back from the bank, who has 90 days to accept our offer. The listing agent explained it is a small, local lender and she doesn't believe it will take that long. We are hopeful it won't because it's only been a week so far and we're on pins and needles! Tuesday we went and purchased a new washer and dryer and I told Jeff, "You know you are getting old when you are excited about the new washer/dryer you just bought!"
So here's "our" house!
We absolutely love it!
It's a 3 bed, 2.5 bath
2,200 sq. ft.
large loft, lots of storage
great backyard
charming double doors and porch
lots of natural lighting
Can't wait for it to be ours!

Our Spring Break Stay-Cation

Chris and Tess came down south and we all had a pretty sweet vacation which consisted of:

-House shopping, and purchasing! (More on that later)
-Many intense and sometimes long games of Settler of Catan
-dinner @ Setebellos. I had to give it a 2nd chance, turns out it's pretty darn good!
-Chris and Tess went to see Garth, so jealous! Jeff and I listened to Garth all night and watched Tower Heist (stupid!)
-A gorgeous and scenic drive around Red Rock
-Pizza ordered in and more Settlers
-Jeff and Chris went on a bike ride while Tess and I took Scout for a hike and to the dog park
-Soaking up the sun by the pool
-Jeff and I got the 2 for 1 locals' deal and saw Phantom @ the Venetian, he loved it!


We love having visitors, thanks for coming Chris and Tess!

*on a side note, Jeff and I went and saw the Hunger Games. Pretty good. And this is pretty funny