Food Baby

Food

Eating is a big deal around here. 

Enough that I feel like it needs it's own blog post, I guess.

We'll start with our absolute favorite meal: Ranch Chicken!

Ranch Chicken

It is so fast, easy and delicious! It's also very versatile with the sides, which is a big deal to Clayson. 

We often do ranch potatoes (as pictured), rice, or garlic roasted potatoes. Usually with a few sides of vegetables as well  :)

Calzones

Once, I decided to get adventurous and made Calzones. 

They were pretty good, but I'm still a fan of regular homemade pizza.

"We don't ration bacon at our house."

Clayson went on a breakfast kick, and this was not unusual to see at all. 

Yes, we only have 2 people living at our house, and yes, that is all for us (mostly Clayson)

Meat!

This is what our freezer looks like. 

That is all meat! (Along with some delicious homemade jam and corn.)

Olive Garden

And this is our refrigerator. 

We discovered the Get One Take One deal at Olive Garden. 

This fed me all week!

Cereal!

This is our pantry.

We may have a slight cereal problem on our hands....

They were all on such good deals, though, and we couldn't pass it up!

Baby

11 weeks pregnant & 38 weeks pregnant 

When I took this picture in March, not many people knew I was pregnant. But those who did made sure to give me a hard time about being so big that I already had to start wearing Clayson's shirts.

Now, in September, I really am so big that I have to wear his shirts!

I have such wonderful friends and family who have thrown me baby showers!

The best part was just getting to see everyone!

My phone was dead for the family shower, so I don't have any pictures, but it was so fun as well!

Thank you to everyone who made these happen! It really meant a lot to me.

We are getting excited to meet our little one!

Less than a week left! The count-down is on!

and we still don't have a name....

:)

Making the Bed

Growing up, I never made my bed. I just didn't see the point. I was going to get back into bed again in a few hours, so why waste my time making it every morning when it would just get messed up again. Despite my moms attempts to help me understand the vast significance of making my bed, it made no sense to me and could not be justified, so I refused to do it.

my bed in college

Then I went to college and roomed with Krisann. She always made her bed. Even better, she would make my bed! But then I felt bad that she always had to make my bed for me, so I started doing it. And then I understood why anyone would ever want to make their bed every single morning. There is just something about it that starts your morning off right. Things are in order. It looks nice. I don't know, it's a mental thing, but I grew to love making my bed and I very rarely don't make my bed now.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Then I got married.

(The first minute of this is a joke about pillows on the bed. 

You can continue listening if you want, but it has no relation to this post.)

I had never seen Clayson's bed made neatly. His mom told me he has never made his bed and I shouldn't hold out hope. He shares the same feelings I had growing up of making the bed being a waste of time. Although I no longer agree with him, I fully understand where he is coming from, because it was once me as well.

Guess what?

Our bed is almost always made.

Guess what else?

More often, I am not the one making it.

And on those few occasions that it is not made, guess whose fault it is?

Mine.

There was no big argument, or discussion, or agreement.

No big hoop-la about it at all. 

Clayson knows that I like the bed made, so he makes the bed 

(He also knows that if he doesn't do it, I will, and I'm usually already running late getting to work)

I know that every time he makes the bed, it is purely for me because he could care less about it.

This is the kind of person the he is.

Our unspoken agreement: When he makes the bed, he gets to arrange the pillows any way he wants.

Clayson's greatest pillow creation "The Backwards Bed"

We have been making the bed together for a whole year now! 

I am so blessed that he is mine forever  <3

Kylee Ann Photography

Because love is in the little things.... like making a bed.

Come To Me My Sweetest Friend

This song gets sung a lot at our house:

(There may be one slightly pornographic part in this video. I apologize. Please be responsible and shield your own eyes)

Like at least every day.

Sometimes multiple times a day.

With various word changes and substitutions.

And it makes me happy.

:)

That's all.

<3

We are the Searles, and we have a problem....

 We eat a lot of tomatoes around here. 

We eat them in salad, spaghetti, sliced with salt and pepper, or any other way we can think of to work it into our meal.

 It has become excessive to the point that we are consciously trying to cut back on our tomato intake. 

We tried only buying 3 tomatoes on Saturday instead of the usual 5 for the week. 

I broke down on Tuesday and bought 3 more. 

We're addicts!

I told Clayson I was blogging about our excessive tomato intake and he said "What do you mean? I only got 7 this time!"
He was dead serious. 

Our addiction is getting worse! 

Don't they have a Tomatoes Anonymous we could attend?

In no particular order:

We had a bon fire

We went climbing

(I did an eleven plus!)

We had a girls night

Life is good

Foods I Am Loving

I eat these two things on a daily basis.

They are so fast, so easy, so healthy, and so good!

Number One:

Tomato

Avocado

Mozerella Cheese 

(or String Cheese, if you're cheap like me)

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Balsamic Vinegar

I feel so healthy when I eat this!

I have it for lunch most days, or a snack.

It is so good!

Number 2:

Special K Red Berries

Vanilla Yogurt

Blackberries

Raspberries

Blueberries

The picture doesn't look that appetizing, but it is delicious!

Perfect for breakfast, lunch or a quick snack.

p.s.  berries are on sale 3 for $5! Gotta love Lee's  :)

Life These Days

Pie night at Village Inn

Katie & Mary

These girls are my faithful sunday school goers! Love them!

Just for fun

this is the picture we put on the slideshow with the awesome app

Carlie and I crashed Trent's brother's wedding! It was so fun to see Trent again!

I loved this wedding!

They had this cool app where you could take a picture with your iphone and it would put it on the slideshow that was playing. 

I will have that at my wedding. haha!

Climbing

We (usually Tony, Cullen, Carlie, and I) try to go climbing at least once a week.

One day Carlie and I kept climbing by ourselves after Tony and Cullen had left! We were so proud of ourselves. 

Carlie did her first 5.10 and she didn't even cheat!

This was Jana's first time climbing! I am so proud of her  :)

Cullen had already gone climbing earlier that day and I had to prepare my sunday school lesson 

so we couldn't stay and climb, but we decided to pop in and say hi. 

Photo bomb! This is one of the awesome guys that works there. 

Can I just say how much I love all those guys!

Pot Luck

Every Sunday we have Pot Luck. We have so much fun and such tasty food!

This week the topic of conversation was "If you could marry any food, what would it be?"

Jana chose potatoes and Cullen said Pie.
Cullen is known for making delicious potato dishes, and Jana likes to make pie.
Everyone knows the foundation for a good relationship is food!
Need I say more?

breaking the touch barrier

They were a little shy about it at first, but things progressed quickly.

showing off their calves

They have a lot in common - Pie and Potatoes are just the beginning!

They also both like climbing, sushi, long naps, and their children would have awesome calves! 

They are perfect for each other!

On a different note, the toy company has really stepped it up these days! 

Kalli & Jana

Me & Jana
I'll work on getting a picture with Kalli for the next blog post

I'm pretty much with Kalli and Jana all the time. It's great. 

Life is good.

Journal vs Blog

There was a time when I was an awesome journal writer. 

All through high school and all the way until about November 4, 2010

What happened on that fateful day? 

I got this blog.

And nearly all journal writing ceased from that day on.

November 17, 2012 I decided it was time to bring the journal back.

Isn't it cute  :)

You may notice that about that time my blog posts have been pretty lame for the most part.

I just can't do both!

I am proud to report, however, that (other than trips when I'm not home) I have not missed a single day of writing in my journal!

Excess of Beds

We have an excess of beds at our house.

Six to be exact.

They can be found in the garage, loft, as well as under my bed.

I think it would be fun to lay them all out next to each other and have a giant slumber party!

Why am I telling you about our extra beds?

1. Because I think it is utterly ridiculous that we have that many beds just laying around

2. Because, although it is ridiculous, it's also a fun fact and kind of exciting

3. Because the bed under my bed finally got used last week!

Kandace came to visit!

It was so much fun!

Cherise came from Brigham City to have dinner with us and then we skyped Porter and Patux.

It was such a fun night!

I think Kandace's post sums it up pretty well:  Sour cream misfortunes, peanut butter ice cream, 12th ward recollections, ukeleles, awkward hugs, beds and laundry, smooth kissable skin, and sweet conversations [German accents/cultural diversity, cheek instruments, and Allison's song] Ah, good night! :)

Porter and Kandace tried to recreate the "Allison Song" but you just can't recreate genius like that.

Here is the original (again) because it never fails to make me happy every time I listen to it  :)

Come back Kandace!

My six extra beds are feeling lonely.