A New Post...Finally!

It has been almost a year since the last time I posted on my blog. A lot has happened since a year ago and I wanted to share those things in this post.

First of all the reason I stopped posting on this blog was because I started writing on another blog, and keeping up with both blogs seemed impossible at the time. The blog I started writing on is called I Love My Kids. It is another mom blog full of fun crafts, recipes, reviews and giveaways. I really love being a part of the I Love My Kids Blog team but I thought it was about time I get back and start posting a few times a month on my blog as well.

A big thing that happened this past year was that my family and I moved down to the Atlanta, Georgia area and we love it. We are currently living in a suburb north of Atlanta called Alpharetta. My husband is working for Etrade and he really likes it and has been able to receive a few promotions since starting only a year ago. We love how it is always warm and sunny here, even in the winter. Although I do miss the snow a little bit but I am glad it does not make up my whole winter now.

The biggest news of all from last year is that I was pregnant! I found out in March or April and after 9 long months our little baby boy, Bentley Bear Blegen, was born on December 21, 2014! The first trimester of my pregnancy was pretty miserable. I was sick to my stomach the whole time, no puking but it was very hard to eat anything so I ended up losing about 15 pounds during those months. The second trimester was a lot better. I could actually do things around the house and play with my daughter who was then about a year and a half. Then the third trimester I was miserable again. I was getting to the point where I was huge all the time, I was always tired and I was always burning up even though the weather was starting to cool down. So when my due date came around I was so ready for this baby to come out! (hopefully I will get his birth story up on this blog someday soon).

This year has been long but so good in so many ways and I would not change any of it!

I am excited for the upcoming year and the surprises it holds for my family. I am really going to try to keep up with this blog and make it into what I dream it can become and I have some really fun things planned for this year with the blog so I can't wait for you all to see what I have in store!

Here is some other pictures from this year!

At the Atlanta Aquarium

At the Park

Birth Announcement

Gender Reveal

Etrade Family Picnic

Halloween

She loves her little brother

His sister covered him with diapers

Sibling Love

Baby Bear

We Moved!

Hey! I feel like it has been way too long since I have posted anything to my blog, I was getting in such a good habit of posting everyday and then all of a sudden life caught up with me and I can't seem to ever find the time to post but I have a lot of saved up content, mostly recipes, to post in the upcoming months.

The purpose of this blog post is to update my family and friends on some recent news. Ryan, Savannah have moved from Waterbury,CT to Alpharetta,GA. It was sudden and it has been a bit change but we are all excited.

My husband had been working for Macy's for about a year 1/2 and about 6 months ago he started applying to new jobs because he is going to be graduating soon and he knew he did not want to stay with Macys permanently so the sooner he could get a new job with another company the better. He first found a job in Sandy,UT with Etrade doing something he knew he would love to do but after he submitted his application the process seemed to be taking longer than expected so he started to look instead of at specific states he just looked at other similar positions within Etrade and he found the exact same position but in Alpharetta,GA and he applied.

A few days after he applied to the job, he was contacted by email by someone from HR saying they were worried that he would be a full time employee and a full time student and maybe he should try applying again in June when they would have more positions opening up. He replied letting them know he had been a full time student and employee for over a year and he was able to balance those things along with a family and the next day he got a phone interview.

His phone interview was quickly followed by a plane ride down to GA on a Sunday, on Monday he looked at apartments and on Tuesday he took a pre broker's test and had an in person interview with the managers and he could tell that they liked him so it was no surprise when he got a call on Thursday morning with the news that he got the job. When he found out it was about 3/4s of the way through January and he was told that he would be starting his new job on February 10th so that gave us about 2-3 weeks to contact an apartment complex for a new apartment down in GA, find movers and get out of our lease up in CT.

We have one of the corner apartments with the wrap around porches!

We were able to get a great deal with the moving company Swift Movers who loaded our stuff in CT and took it to New Jersey so it could be stored until we called them. When we called them we only had to wait two days before they told us that our stuff was on it's way down and then two more days to get our stuff where they unloaded it all! We were also able to make an agreement with the manager of our apartment complex in CT and find a great new apartment in GA for almost the same amount we paid in CT but with 400 more sqft and hook ups in the apartment, my top priority when looking in GA, a pool, top notch gym with free personal trainers and other classes, car washing station, playground for Savannah, a small room for an office, wrap around porch, two bathrooms and garden tubs! It has been and will be a great place to live for next year or however long we end up staying here... I hope it becomes permanent because 1) I hate moving and 2) we both really love it here so far!

Ryan is loving his job so far and the people he works with and he can tell that it is something he is going to enjoy and will put him in a good place for the future. I feel so blessed right now to have the family I have and to be able to experience this new move with them and get to experience new things and meet new people.

In a couple days I will have to post about what it has been like to live in Georgia so far but for now I hope you enjoyed our update and if you have something new and exciting going on let me know in the comments I would love to hear all about it! =)

A Journey Through The Last Two Years!

Today October 14, 2013 is my husband and my 2 year wedding anniversary! To celebrate this day I thought I would put up a post to share with everyone what our relationship has been like through these last two years with pictures.

Some wedding pictures:

He still loves me even though I smashed cake in his face twice within two weeks of being married!

Honeymoon picture: (we went on a cruise to the Caribbean)

We survived a trip across the country in a car together! We drove from Idaho to Connecticut.

He survived a pregnancy with me!

And he was next to me during labor! I couldn't have made it through it without him!

Then there were three!

I loved him even more when I saw the amazing father he was to our new beautiful daughter!

Now we get to how we are today! 2 years later and one person added! I couldn't imagine being happier than I am today with my wonderful husband and our daughter! It has been the best 2 years in my life!

Day 2, Where I'd Like to be in 10 Years

I guess before I go over where I would like to be in 10 years I should probably share where I am right now.
Right now I am:
-A mother of one.
-A graduate from BYUI with my associates in general studies and a current undergrad student and WGU.
-I live in Connecticut in an apartment with my daughter and husband.
-My husband is finishing up his bachelors degree online with BYUI.
-I am a stay at home mom.
-A blogger.
-A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with a calling as a Den Leader.

In 10 years I would like to be:
-A mother of at least three or four!
-A graduate from WGU with my bachelors degree in interdisciplinary studies.
-Living somewhere in the west, maybe Washington or Oregon in a house.
-My husband to be a graduate from BYUI with his bachelors degree and maybe even his MBA.
-Still a stay at home mom but I want to be super crafty and be a great cook!
-Still a blogger but with many many followers.
-I want to be in great shape so I can feel good about myself and the way I look.
-I want to be super organized.
-I also think it would be fun to be in a calling in the Young Womens or Relief Society but I would accept any calling because they are all important!

That's all I can think of right now but that is pretty much where I want to be in 10 years!

Now an update on my chunky little girl!

 So these pictures are from Tuesday and Wednesday when we went to the park.
Last week though we went to the doctors for her 6 month check up! Yes she is 6 months and today she is only 4 days away from being 7 months old! I can't believe it! But at her appointment we found out that she is 19 1/2 pounds and 26 inches long! She is a shorty and a chunky haha

In the last picture above, the close up of her face, her face is covered in sand. Yes she was eating sand. We put her down in the sand so see what she thought of it and at first she thought it was a little strange and she was feeling it with her hands and then as we both knew would happen, Ryan and I, she took a handful and lifted it to her mouth and then made a pretty ridiculous face since sand is obviously not delicious it is disgusting. I then told Ryan to not let her eat anymore and he told me she wouldn't because she has already learned that it is gross but no she did not learn anything... she then continued to shove more and more sand into her mouth! We always say that she loves everything that she eats and so now I guess that includes sand! haha but I still love my chunky sand eating baby!

Comment below and let me know where you want to be in 10 years. Also share below the strangest thing your child has eaten and liked!

My Not so Little Girl!

My little girl has been growing up so fast lately! She is eating rice cereal and some fruits and vegetables. She is rolling over. Sitting in the cart at Joann's! Trying to talk all the time. She is just growing up way to fast for me!

Showing off her Memorial Day outfit and her strong leg muscles! 

First time in a cart! What a big girl!

She loves rolling over but once she get on her stomach she gets stuck and she hates being on her stomach!

Mother's Day

I know that Mother's Day was last week so I am a little late on this but I left my camera at my parents all week so I couldn't get the picture I wanted for this post until now.

My first Mother's day was perfect! I got hot breakfast, lots of presents and spent the afternoon at the beach! What could be better than that?

It was Savannah's very first time to the beach! She had an ok time but it was very windy so there was a lot of sand blowing around but she was happy once she was able to fall asleep. 

This is my peanut butter M&M pancake! I highly recommend trying this out at least once in your life! Peanut butter M&Ms are my favorite candy so I obviously loved this but you will need a glass of milk on the side!

I love being a mom so much and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Savannah Update!

We went to Savannah's 4 month check up a couple of weeks ago and we found out how much she weighs! She is 25 inches and weighs 15 1/2 pounds. She is in the 90th percentile for her height and the 70th percentile for her weight! Daddy was happy to hear that he contributed at least one thing to our baby haha since we pretty much is my clone!

Savannah has been and still is such a happy baby. She has started to try to roll over in the past month and it is so fun seeing her get closer and closer. She is also getting so good at grabbing things and pulling them to her mouth. One of my new favorite things to do with her is to try to get her to laugh and although she dosen't laugh a whole bunch it is worth the wait when she finally does laugh.

Savannah is growing up so fast and it is so fun to see her learn new things and just become more independent and it is also sad to know that she is starting to need me less and less but I know that there will always be time when she will need my help! I love her so much! She is the cutest baby ever!

I'm Back and a mint chocolate parfait!!

Vacation was GREAT!!! I was so happy that Savannah's grandparents could finally meet her and she loved all of her new family that she got to meet!

Here are just a couple of the people that Savannah got to meet and who will be very important people in her life!
Ryan of course enjoyed his time in Washington but on Monday he had to start his truck ride across the country so he could move our stuff from Idaho to Connecticut but he was lucky because his brother Jacob was on spring break and was able to go with him so he didn't have to make the journey by himself. They ran into some snowy weather in Wyoming that set them back a couple of days but they made it out alive and Jacob only had to miss one day of school.

So this is my first blog post in a couple of weeks but I finally figured out how to get my pictures on the computer with my new memory card reader, well actually Ryan figured it out for me, so I decided to combine an update post with a recipe post! This recipe is a dessert and it combines two of my favorite things, chocolate and mint. We went over to another couples house for games and dinner and they had asked us to bring dessert so this is what we made and it seemed to be a hit!

Mint Chocolate Parfait

Ingredients:
-Mint Oreos (Yummy!! It took all my self control to not eat all of these instead of making the parfaits!)
-Chocolate or fudge jello pudding mix (we made these for four people so we used two boxes but if you only need it for one or two people than you only need one unless you want a bigger portion which you probably will because these are delicious!)
-Vanilla jello pudding mix (one or two boxes depending on your needs)
-Cool Whip
-Hershey's Chocolate Bar (We got the huge one because those ones were on sale so you can stick with the regular size or even the minis because you won't need a lot of it)
-Peppermint Extract
-Green Food Coloring
-Also you will need milk (It is not in my picture but I was assuming that most people have milk)

 First put a bunch of oreos into a food processor to mash them up into crumbs. Normally I don't like oreo crumbs on or in my desserts but this was so good because it still had the minty flavor in it.

 After you blend them up they should look like this except for the few chunks, I left those so I could eat them!

 Now make the two puddings in different bowls according to the directions on the boxes or according to the directions that I will give you in the next step.

Add 2 cups of milk for one box of pudding.

 Mix.

 Add 5 drops of green food coloring to the vanilla pudding.

Add 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract to the white, now green, pudding.

Now put the two pudding in the fridge for 5 minutes to set. While they are setting draw a peace sign in the cool whip so you can have an approximation for three even parts. Also at this time you can shred the chocolate with a grater and put it in the fridge or freezer until you need it next so the shavings don't melt.

Take the puddings out of the fridge. Put half of the chocolate pudding in another bowl and half of the green pudding in another bowl so now you will have two bowls of chocolate pudding and two bowls of green pudding.
Put one of the thirds of cool whip in one of the chocolate pudding bowls.

 Put the second third of the cool whip into one of the green pudding bowls. You will now have a dark chocolate and a light chocolate bowl and a dark green and a light green bowl of puddings.

Take your cups, any kind (I used some plastic ones from my open house) and put a handful or so of oreo crumbs on the bottom and then layer the puddings in any order that you want and then top with another layer of oreo crumbs.

Now use the last third of the cool whip to add a dollop to each of the parfaits. 

Now add the chocolate shavings on top and you now have your delicious Mint Chocolate parfait!!

I hope you enjoy and if you try this out let me know in a comment below!



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