Home Sweet Home

We've moved! We LOVE our new place. As soon as we found out about the baby we knew our choices were to move or put the baby in the closet. So now we are in a great two-bedroom townhouse that we absolutely love! But don't take my word for it, here are some pictures:

Sorry this one is a little dark. This is our dining room.

 

This is one of my favorite parts! The walk-in pantry.

Ben's "office" and soon-to-be nursery. Notice our awesome bassinet (thanks mom!).
 I think it looks like a picnic basket.

I left out pictures of bathroom #2 (boring) and our bedroom because I didn't feel like making the bed since it's 8:00 at night and I didn't want to show everyone our unmade bed.

In other news, Ben went back to school last week. He is extremely busy and I don't see him nearly as often, but we are both quite happy that he is getting closer to being done! I started a different job (with the same company) that I like WAY more. Things are good! We find out if our little peanut is a boy or a girl on October 4. Waiting is so hard!

In case you haven't heard...

Baby Rawlinson is due February 21, 2013

Two Year Anniversary!

Tuesday was our second wedding anniversary. I had to work all day so we didn't really plan to do much to celebrate. I should have known that my sweet, creative husband would have something up his sleeve. Remember this? And this? Well here is another surprise to add to the list. 

While I was at work Ben sent me a text message asking me to check the mail when I got home. I thought this was a little weird, because I always check the mail when I get home. I asked if his legs were broken and he said he was feeling too lazy to walk down the stairs. I didn't really think anything of it. On my way home I got another message reminding me to check the mail. Now I knew something was going on. If he needed to check the mail that badly he would have just done it himself. In the mailbox I found an envelope containing this:

If you click on the picture it will get bigger

I've never been to New York City, so Ben brought New York City to me! He put so much thought into everything. Once again, he moved all the furniture around so it looked different. Ben even turned on his old Baseball video game and had a Mets vs. Yankees game playing in the background. Here are some photos:

Bobby Flay was supposed to give us a cooking lesson but he couldn't make it.

Frank Sinatra played as we cooked.

It turned out really yummy even without Bobby's help!

For our evening entertainment we took a walk around "Central Park," which was really the local nature park. We saw two snakes while we were walking. I would have taken pictures, but I was running away too fast. Back at home, I got to choose to go to a movie or see a Broadway play. Ben found all of the movies we had that were set in New York. 

My favorite part of the evening was exchanging gifts. I love mine! Isn't this the coolest thing ever? It's a pillow.

I was a little more practical with my gift and got him an apron. He cooks all the time and he is a little messy. I've already had to wash it once. 

Thanks for making our Anniversary memorable, Ben! I love you!

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

I know it has been several months since I've posted. I was just waiting for noteworthy things to happen to write about! As soon as things started happening I tried to write, but Ben changed the email address associated with our blog and didn't tell me (still love you dear). But I'm back!

In July we took a trip to Washington to see my brother. He came home from his LDS Mission to Belém, Brazil on July 25th. To learn more about what our missionaries do, click here. My mom was a tiny bit happy...

(Sorry about the balloons in the way)

He has been home for a couple weeks now and I'm not sure if my mom has let go of him yet. All our local relatives came to greet him at the airport.

I wonder what the other people at the airport were thinking...we made quite a scene!

After a week in Washington, Ben flew to Oklahoma to visit his family while I stayed with my parents for another week. He got to meet our 6 month old niece Brooke.

While he was gone, I went with my parents and siblings to a Seattle Mariners game. It reminded me of pretty much every vacation we ever took when I was growing up. We went to Seattle at least 1-2 times a year.

As horrible as the Mariners are, they actually won the game! We had so much fun. We drove home after the game and arrived home at 2:00 a.m. We spent the rest of the week talking and playing games and trying to help Cody catch up on all the movies he missed over the last two years!

Now we're back in Idaho and back to work. More updates to come...

Touchdown!

It's football season! What's that, you say? Football doesn't start until the fall? Wrong. For the first time ever, BYU-Idaho is having a spring football season. Ben is coaching...again (no surprise there). This is his third season as a head coach. 

I think it's funny that he carries around a bright pink clipboard, but he tells me it's not pink, it's fluorescent. Same thing, if you ask me. I was happy to hear football would be going on in the spring. I thought, "Oh yay, I can sit at the games and not freeze my buns off." Boy, was I mistaken. Last week I wore a sweatshirt, coat, gloves, two pairs of socks, and two blankets and I was STILL a popsicle when I got home. 

Ben's team struggles. I won't say they're bad, because I know there are some guys with talent, but they haven't won a game yet this season. 

There's my cute little coach! Only 4 more game and then I will no longer be a "football widow," as my grandma calls it!

Laundry

Ben went back to school this week! Spring semester started on Tuesday. After three months of being at home all day and taking only a few online classes, he has felt a little overloaded this first week. I'm not surprised, he's enrolled in 8 classes! Here is a conversation from yesterday:

Ben: Did you do this laundry on purpose?
Me: No, I accidentally dropped all the clothes in there with soap and turned it on without realizing it.

Oh, Ben. Get some more sleep.

Yummy!

Today I made these little beauties:

They were the easiest and possibly the most delicious cookies ever. I like to call them "Caramel Surprises." Well, I do now because I just made that up. They are actually called Rolo Cookies. Here is the recipe:

1 box Devil's Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 package Rolo's (I used the mini ones so I didn't have to unwrap anything)

powdered sugar (optional)

Mix cake mix, eggs and oil in bowl. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around a Rolo. Only use enough dough to cover the Rolo so it can spread its goodness throughout the whole cookie. If you want, and I highly recommend doing this, roll each ball in powdered sugar. 

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

This recipe is definitely going in my cookbook. I can't believe I had never heard of them until now! If you haven't tried them yet, make them. Do it now. You will thank me later.