Living in Lewiston & 1 amazing recipe :) :)

 Hi!!! Long time no talk yes I know! We are still alive in this little town Lewiston and somewhat getting adjusted :)

 

At first glance at moving here, I wanted to cry with our lack of stores, specifically Target or any type of craft store. I admit I have gone through my fair share of withdrawals because of this and it isn't enjoyable! BUT!... the GOOD NEWS is that yesterday, I snuck away to Spokane for the day with a friend to go to Hobby Lobby!! I was in heaven for a few hours and that was a good fix.... for a few days :) ha ha :) Being new in town and not knowing anyone, it was so great to get away with Courtney and have some real "girl" time. I knew Courtney and her husband from Twin Falls where we all worked at Walmart together, and now they live about 25 min away from us in Moscow :) We can't get together as often as we would like, but its nice to keep in touch! It's hard to find good friends that are genuine :) I seem to have bad luck with ending up with "part time" friends and I promised myself that I will no longer put up with that. Thanks Courtney for a day getaway!

 

As far as the settling in process goes, we are FULLY unpacked and getting decorated a little! We are slowly aquiring furniture and switching out old stuff and all I have to say is WHAT A PROCESS! Speaking of process also, I am OFFICIALLY a Martitz! Everything has finally been changed over and man I wouldn't do that again if someone paid me to!

 

On the newlywed list of "firsts", we are having our first Garage Sale this weekend! Between wedding duplicates and swapping out old stuff, we have lots to get rid of :) Excited to see it all go so we can get new things for our house! We are loving our house and most of all, we love the view from our backyard! Every night there is a gorgeous sunset that is right outside our porch :) The pic below was from last night :) :)

 

Jordan's job has been busy busy these past few weeks with his new territory and I couldn't be more grateful for his hard work and dedication! Last week he pushed through several 12 hour days and I didn't see alot of him, but come Friday night, I was so happy to get some cuddling and relaxing in <3 This territory has been great so far as far as emergency calls go! In Montana he would get several emergency calls daily that consumed alot of his schedule. Here in Lewiston, his customers are alot more independent and only call him if there is an extreme emergency which means more smooth work days and more time with me :) :) I've never been more happy with life and being married :) It is the little things that mean so much! Making homecooked meals, having a clean house for him to come home to, and feeling accomplished as a good wife :) Can't wait to see what else comes our way!

 

So as you all know, we live in a senior community and LOVE the quietness of our culdesac :) Recently, our neighbor on the right side was put in a care home and we have been without a neighbor for a couple weeks! Today we saw moving trucks and come to find out, a sweet older lady moved in next door! I was so excited to introduce ourselves, so I decided to bake some sweet treats to take over there :) Pinterest came to the rescue and I found a recipe for Brown Butter Banana Bars. I ended up making them tonight, and needless to say, THEY ARE AMAZINGLY GOOD & EASY!!!! I was so impressed that I have to share the recipe with all of you!! I promise these will melt in your mouth and make your taste buds throw a party :) Eat your heart out!! P.S. From experience, this recipe is even EASIER if you whip it up in your kitchenaid!

 

Brown Butter Banana Bars

 



 

Ingredients:

 

Banana Bread Bars:

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

 

 

Brown Butter Frosting:

1/2 c. butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. milk

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375F. Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan(aka a regular cookie sheet with sides). For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute.

2. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

 

4. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting). Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

 

Well there you have it! Now run to the nearest grocery store and get what you need for these yummy squares of goodness! They will knock your socks off!!

 

<3 Good night!

{{Pinterest}} Projects

So.... most all of you know that I have a craft/scrapbook addiction :) It comes in handy to make cute personalized stuff for our house and make it "homey!"

Pinterest is pretty much an addiction ALSO! I seriously don't know what I did BEFORE pinterest was discovered! I love all the crafty, creative, out-of-the-box ideas that it has! I had a crafting itch the past few days and ended up completing 2 awesome pinterest projects :) Happy looking!

Project #1: Recipe Binder

I got sick and tired of all my recipes all over and the printed ones that didn't fit in my recipe box! So when I saw this idea on pinterest, I knew I had to make it and it would solve all my problems! I personalized the binder cover and tab cover pages in photoshop and bought tabs to put on the sides! I love that I could personalize it for my specific categories and the page protectors will protect them from food splatters while cooking :)

Project #2: "I love you because...." Dry Erase Frame

I have looked at this idea for sooooo long on pinterest and today, I broke down and made it! With a cute 8x10 frame, photoshop, and a dry erase marker this is now in our bathroom :) I love the fact that you can write on the glass with a dry erase marker and change it whenever you want to! Its all about the little things!

{P.S. the printable image is below if you would like to use it for yourself and make one too! Click on the image so it will enlarge, save it to your hardrive, and PRINT! Make sure to print a size that is a little smaller than your frame opening, otherwise the outer edge will be cut off by the frame :) My frame is an 8x10 and I printed the image size to be a 7X9 to make sure it would fit!}



Our home in Lewiston & recent happenings :)

I'm on blog overload right now! Trying to stay caught up while I can because I know that at one point, I will be too busy to stay caught up!

So unfortunately, I had to get glasses to wear one day a week :( I needed them anyway as a backup if I tear a contact or for driving, but when I went in for my exam renewal, the doc said that my contacts were wearing out my eyes and so I need to wear them one day a week. BOOO!!! Oh well... They don't look too bad, but they will definitely take some getting used to.

So I've had some people asking what our house looks like and to take some pics!... So once we got somewhat settled, I snapped a few pics and here is our home in Lewiston!

This is the view from our backyard. It overlooks Sunset Park. Jordan loves to pop down there and join in basketball games with the guys on the court.

 Our porch in the backyard :) It now has Jordan's BBQ on the porch and as of this morning, a patio set to eat outside!

 Kitchen Corner; Gotta have the music!!

 Kitchen! I love it so much! It was on our list to have a large kitchen with lots of storage and a pantry. We were lucky enough to find exactly that :)

 Pantry and Fridge

 Dining area with my lovely red painted kitchen that was quite the project!

 Living Room (Hopefully we will be getting updated couches soon)

 Guest bathroom across from the guest bedroom

 Office/Scrapbook Room

 Master Bathroom

 Our Bedroom

 Our Association :)

 Our House!!!!

 We live in Lewiston,ID and right across the Snake River is Clarkston,WA. That is where all our big stores are like Walmart and Costco. We visit washington regularly needless to say :)

Well there ya go! Our home sweet home :) We are still in the process of getting things on the walls,but are waiting to get some furniture upgrades so everything matches! Can't wait to get our house that "homey" feel :)

A weekend in Bear Lake

We got to sneak away this past weekend for a fun filled weekend in Bear Lake! The cool thing about it was that it was our first vacation as a married couple AND we got to spend it with BOTH of our families TOGETHER! It was way fun and the lake was beautiful!!! We got to eat our "Bear Lake Monster Burger" on Friday night and get raspberry shakes at Merlin's too! YUM!!!!

There was 12 of us total that stayed in the cabin in Bloomington :) Us, Jordan's mom and sister, My parents and 2 brothers, and the Reynolds family. All of us had so much fun together playing in the lake and jetskiing and playing games :) It was such a blast and every year we are reminded why Bear Lake is our favoritest place EVER! Check out all the fun pics below! I had tons, but tried to narrow it down to only a few.........

The view of the beach

Kerin, Rita, and My mom headed out to tube

The usual of Justin being buried in the sand :)

Mom and Dad

The Reynolds Family

The guys

Jordan, my mom, and Jordan's mom takin a spin on the jet skiis

The whole family! We've changed a bit ;)

Reynold's little boy Paxton.... I was all over takin pics of him! What a stinkin cutie!

Yeah we're sisters now... its ok to be jealous of us hotties lol

Love this pic :) Thank you pinterest!

Us :) Sooo happy :)

Jordan's mom Rita and sister Kerin

Yes Justin loves the mud and playin in the sand!

Everyone was skipping rocks in the lake, so Paxton decided he didn't want to miss out, yet this is the rock he picked up to go skip :) I couldn't resist the excitement on his face though!

 Driving back to Lewiston on Sunday evening, we drove through Grangeville and looked back, and the sun was blood orange and illuminated the whole valley! Jordan was sweet enough to stop at a turnout so I could snap a pic! It was such a sight to see :)

We had so much fun together at Bear Lake and its a bummer to have to come home and get back in to reality! For me that means job hunting and unpacking, and for Jordan its back to work in the new EcoLab Territory. We are adjusting slowly, but surely and are excited for fall coming up!!! Much love to everyone and keep in touch!



Honeymoon in P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E {Hawaii 2012}

I'm finally getting on to blog our amazing honeymoon!!! It may be rather long, but its hard to pick and choose! We got to go to Oahu, Hawaii for our honeymoon and spend a whole week in paradise! It was beyond awesome and we got to do sooo many cool things :)

We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Hotel right on Waikiki Beach :) The first picture below was the view from our balcony! It was breathtaking to wake up to the ocean every morning!

At the pier watching the boogie boarders

We visited the Internation Marketplace which was similar to a swapmeet and it had sooo many Hawaii Souvenirs! It also had huge Coy fish in a pond at the entrance.

On the bus headed to our dinner cruise and polynesian show on the Ali' Catamaran

Walking around on the ship after dinner

We are kinda cute together huh ;)

While we visited the Polynesian Culture Center on the other side of the Island, we stopped at the Laie, Hawaii LDS Temple and it was BREATHTAKING! The flowers on the grounds were gorgeous, the fountains and statues were amazing, and you could really feel the spirit!

Snorkeling in Shark's Cove

Turtle watching by the ocean :)

Yes a bird pooped on me in mid walk! I was freaking out and Jordan was laughing sooo hard! YUCK!

All tuckered out and takin an afternoon nap

Aloha from the Polynesian Culture Center

Headed for the beach! Jammin to the radio in the hot rental car with the sunroof open :)

Jordan had fun with our sporty rental car that was decked out with all the toys!

View from the pier of Waikiki Beach and the strip

We LOVED these trees that were all over Oahu!! They looked like weeping willows and they were HUGE!! And I mean HUGE!!! I loved all the intricate branches and unique features!

Jordan lovin the huge fish

Getting ready to eat on our dinner cruise

Lovin the beautiful sunset on our dinner cruise

Polynesian Culture Center Luau

Our tour guide for our dinner cruise :) We LOVED him! His name was 'cousin' Eric. Everyone in Hawaii is referred to as 'cousin.' He was quite the dancer and was hilarious! We had so much fun :)

We are here :)

Our little Hawaiian room

What a cute cali guy :) O wait thats MY hubby!

The shore at Shark's Cove

Turtle watching :) I LOVED taking tons and tons of pictures of the turtles. They were sooo cool! We could stand a couple feet away from them and watch them walk and eat the reef. We had so much fun!

He posed for me :)

Our hotel

We got to see sunsets like this EVERY night! What a view!

Jordan loved this motorcycle and couldn't pass up a pic ;)

sunset <3

Walking to dinner down the strip :)

Every night, the entire strip of Waikiki Beach was lit with fire torches and lights. It was a cool sight to see!

Another cool motorcycle :) Jordan can only dream! ha ha

Snorkeling in Shark's Cove

Jordan was having a ball trying to touch the fish

Thats true love right there :) Snorkeling husband and wife :)

fish!

One of many turtle sightings :)

We had a waterfall hike/kyak/zipline/snorkeling tour that was a full day long! We had a blast and LOVED our tour guide! He took lots of pictures for us and we LOVE looking back and remembering that day :)

Well that is a few pictures from the 604 that I took that week! It will be hard narrowing down what pictures to scrapbook! We had such a good time just being together and having the time of our lives :) Such a great way to start off a marriage! Hopefully one day we can go back and do more! We left our hearts in Hawaii <3