Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this really yummy chocolate chip recipe on pinterest...surprise. surprise. (If you haven't check out their website click here and sign up now. I love it. Its awesome!) Anyway, I decided to give them a try and they were super yummy! So worth it, even though I am not a fan of making things from scratch.  Sadly this is the first time since being married that I have made cookies that didn't come in pre-made and just needed to be heated up. Tyler rated them an 8 or 9, which is as good as it will ever get because he doesn't believe in giving out 10's!

Ingredients: 

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 c. brown sugar 

1/4 c. granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 c. all purpose flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Try not to eat them all.

THINGS I LEARNED: If you do not have a mixer, do not attempt to use a hand mixer...yes I'm an idiot and attempted it. I kind of new going into it, it wouldn't turn out too well. But, I was lazy and didn't feel like handmixing it. In about .25 seconds sugar was everywhere. So don't be as dumb as me...hand mix it! Also, I was really hesitant about the 8-10 minutes. At 8 minutes the edges were a little brown but the middles looked completely doughy so I left them in 2-3 min. longer and they were a little overdone...still yummy, but not as pretty looking. So I'd highly reccommend taking them out at 8 minutes even if you aren't sure if they're cooked. They will be :) And last but not least I learned how much I love my cookie scoop. It was my first time using it and it was super awesome. It has officially made the list of products I love!

The Cougar Life.

At our house, fall only means one thing: BYU FOOTBALL. We love it!!!

The Utah game was pretty sad, but we got over it...and 2 good things still came of it!

Jeff came up to go to the game!!! It was great to see him!!!

And Russ and Misty had a great announcement for us! They're having a baby and this is how they told us!

We took a short mid-week break from Football & went to the Jimmer All-Star game, because who can resist watching Jimmer???

...and then it was back to Football again.

The Central Florida game went much better than Utah and we were sure glad :)

And of course we're super excited for the rest of the season!!!

BRING ON MORE FOOTBALL!!!

Happy Birthday Jaynee!!!

Over the years I couldn't have asked for a better friend than Jaynee.

We've gone thru lots together and experienced a lot of different things!

Dance Co, Drill Team, Boyfriends (and all the drama that came with them!), Dances, College, Sending off missionaries, Road Trips, Roomies, Writing off missionaries, More boyfriends of course, Watching each other get MARRIED...and the list goes on! All I know, is I am sure glad she was there with me thru it all. Who else would have been as willing an excited to do the "Dr. Pepper Dance" with me?!

Happy Birthday Jayners!

Hope Texas treats you well on your special day!!!

Love you lots!

Hello Fall.

I'm always very sad to see summer go. Its my FAVORITE season no doubt.

However, I am sure glad there are good things about all seasons.

I do love Halloween, in fact, Tyler and I were on the ball this year and got our costumes last month. We're super excited to show them off, but for now they will remain a secret!

...and of course, I love football season (maybe not as much after the massacre on Saturday).

Pinterest is sure helping me love fall even more. I have a bazillion different decor items I want or want to make! Craft night anyone?

Thought of the Day.

Weekend Getaway.

Thursday evening my family (with the exception of Nat) all headed down to St. George. Tyler and I both had class Thursday night and could have left later, but decided it wasn't worth the expense of the hotel since we'd be getting in so late. We decided to go down to Tyler's parent's house in Santaquin and stay that night and knock off 45 min. off the drive. Friday morning we hit the road a little after 7 and after only a few minutes we got pulled over. Tyler has horrible luck when it comes to cops.
He wasn't speeding (for once), instead was pulled for the tint on our car. It's not legal, although it really doesn't look dark at all during the day...but since the sun wasn't yet up it looked darker than it was. Thankfully we got off with just a warning. This doesn't happen often for Tyler either so we thought we were pretty lucky.

Friday we spent the day shopping and that night we saw the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn.

Saturday consisted of more shopping & laying out at the pool.  Tyler spent the majority of the day watching football...I of course joined him for the BYU game.

Sunday we visited the temple and took a few pics before heading home!

10 Years Ago.

10 years ago today I was 12 years old.
I got up early and got ready for school, as always.
I was almost ready to go and my parents had the tv on in their bedroom.
I went in there and my parents were watching the news.
I saw tower 2 on fire...I didn't even know what the world trade center was.
I watched as the 2nd plane hit into tower 1.
I remember my dad shaking his head and saying it was an act of terrorism.
He was pretty angry.
I didn't even know what a terrorist was.
I went to school where most kids didn't even know about it yet.
I sat in my 7th grade Art Class and we did nothing but watch the news.
We watched as both towers fell...we watched it over and over.
We went to the rest of our classes and watched it again and again.
We watched the coverage at the Pentagon.
I knew it was bad, but I couldn't really comprehend.
I really didn't understand how many people were inside or how disasterous the event was.
I remember after school my mom asking me if I was scared.
I wasn't sure what I was feeling, but it wasn't fear.
That evening my dad took Kevin and I to a medical study we were asked to participate in.
Several of the nurses and people there were from New York City.
I remember them talking about how long it took before they heard from their family.
One woman had just barely heard from her brother and how relieved she felt.
I remember the days after...just being a daze...watching as much of the news as I possibly could.
Hearing the death counts. Becoming obsessed with the information.
Still not knowing how to feel.
I remember feeling anger and being glad when we went to war.
I remember 4 years later, going past ground zero and wishing I felt even a portion of what people who were there felt. Just so I could understand how it was for them.


...that's how I Remember 9/11.

Today, I find myself again obsessed with the story...I've spent every minute I can watching the History Channel and any other program I can about that day. I keep thinking how I will be sure to tell my children about it and make them understand how horrific it was. At least as much as I can--I know I will never comprehend how awful that day was at ground zero. But I believe that history should never be forgotten.

3 years of tradition.

One Lucky Guy :)

This guy:

Met

This girl:

How LUCKY is he???

Thought of the Day.

Sometimes we leave church for this...

Tyler is the most unflexible person I know. He can't even sit up straight, because his hamstrings are so tight they won't let his back straighten fully while sitting. The only thing he can really do for himself is try to stretch them but they seriously hardly move. Sunday in the middle of sacrament meeting Tyler started complaining that he was dying and couldn't sit--his back was in so much pain. We couldn't leave because I had to be there to say the closing prayer so I told him go walk around for a bit and see if it helped. He came back after about 10 minutes in just as much pain...you should have seen him get up to leave. He looked like he was a 90 year old man and took about 10 steps before he could stand up completely straight. Basically, he looked like a limping hunchback. Anyway, there was no way he was going to be able to sit through 2 more hours of church so we drove home. I planned on going back for Relief Society but ended up doing this instead....

I know this doesn't even look like somebody stretching but this is HARD work for Tyler, it took a little while before he could even get his legs to go up this far. And he couldn't do this by himself, I had to lift them up while he complained about how much it hurt. The chair is not even an inch higher than the step ladder but it was a big achievement for Tyler...poor guy.

My Game Day Get Up.

Friday Photos.

This is what happens to a poor girl when her husband finds the TCU game more amusing than his wife.

Picture 1: This is my face when I see Tyler wear this hat when it doesn't match.
Picture 2: This is me practicing my excited face for when BYU scores tomorrow.

Bottom line: I'm not very good very at finding "normal" ways to entertain myself...but I am sure thankful for photo booth.

His and Hers.

This is how we do things in this house.
We meet in the middle, LITERALLY.

I've been known to pick out the chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies/bars...so one day I got smart and quit putting them in.

PERFECTION.

oh, and that pan is perfection too! i love it.
(thank you Frandsen's!)