for those farther away!

just wanted to share what i'm lookin' like these days for those that can't come see!

black and white cookie disaster!

yesterday linds was craving cookies. so we decided to try out a recipe for the famed "black and white cookies" found only in NYC. her roomie carly came over and we got to work like the gourmet chefs we are, and slaved for three hours to make these cookies. and three hours later, none of us could finish a single cookie. they were straight sugar! we didn't realize the frosting would be so thick! we used about twice as much as we should have..... haha at least we had a good time doing it, right? now i'm sure these cookies are really good- so i'll give you the recipe. BUT with this caution- make the frosting thinner than you think you should, and don't put too much on! if it starts to get too thick, reheat it and add some more water. (if you REALLY want to know, ask lindsay where the recipe came from....)

Black and White CookiesAdapted from a bunch of places, but mostly Zabar’s
Traditional black and white cookies are BIG and LOUD, not unlike the New Yorkers that made them famous. Preferring everything on the daintier side, I’ve made them very small before, but this time went for a nice medium size.
Yield: About 2 dozen very large cookies, 60 medium (I used a scoop 1 3/4 inches in diameter that yielded 3-inch cookies) or so many cookies that you might lose your mind frosting them if you go tinier. I’m just saying.
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature4 large eggs1 1/2 cups milk1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon lemon extract2 1/2 cups cake flour2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt4 cups confectioners’ sugar1/3 to 1/2 cup water3 ounces very bitter or unsweetened chocolate1 teaspoon light corn syrup.1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix by machine or hand until fluffy. Add eggs, milk and vanilla and lemon extracts, and mix until smooth.
3. In medium bowl, combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until mixed. Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. Using a soup spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.
4. Boil a cup or so of water in a small pot. Place confectioners’ sugar in large, heat-safe mixing bowl. Gradually stir in enough boiling water to the sugar to make a thick, spreadable mixture. Err on the side of caution because a too-thin frosting is hard to undo. Leave remaing boiling water on the stove.
5. Spread frosting on half of the flat side of each cookie. Once all cookie halves have been frosted, place the bowl of the remaining frosting over the hot water and bring it back to a simmer (creating a double-boiler). Stir in the bitter or unsweetened chocolate until melted, as well as the light corn syrup. At this point, depending on the chocolate you used and your preferences, you might find the chocolate color to be a little lighter than the “black” of a black-and-white cookie. If so, I find that a tablespoon or so of cocoa mixed in darkens the color nicely.
6. Ice the remaining half of the cookies with the chocolate frosting. I find that the chocolate–especially with cocoa in it–is especially prone to getting too dry, so don’t worry about whisking in an extra teaspoon of that hot water from time to smooth it back into a shiny frosting.
7. Let the frosting set. Store in an airtight container. These cookies keep for a few days, but I think they’re best on the first or second. Because of the cake nature of the bases, they can get stale quickly. However, this is really a non-issue as I have yet to make a batch that didn’t get polished off in no time

hopefully someone can do this faster than the three hours it took us!

what joy can be found in utah

this is a list of things that i came up with last night about why i am glad we are back in utah. i couldn't sleep- i was dreading it because i knew that i would be getting up in a couple hours to head to the bathroom anyways, and was just waiting for it. and i took a nap at 830 pm. yay for being pregnant!

1. family

lindsay- shouldn't you be looking where you are driving?

2. friends

friends i miss you!

3. mountains

these make it sooo much easier to know where i am going! anyone who doesn't like mountains is crazy!

4. my home.
home is currently under construction. will post later!

5. byu football

59-0. need i say more???? (i will say that joe thought i was going to go into labor during the first game against washington, thats how excited, tense, nervous, etc. i was! i really love cougar football!)

6. things you can only get in utah

rhode's frozen rolls- cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, dinner rolls, caramel rolls.......

7. no traffic

you have to understand what the traffic is like in our nation's capital. i will never again complain about the traffic in utah! it is NOTHING compared to what you will find in dc. the only time it is ever bearable is maybe 11 pm. even then, you have to plan out your route pretty carefully because of construction.

really, these are just a few of the things that i have missed. now there are plenty of things that i didn't miss- but this is a happy post so i will leave it at that. oh utah, how i have missed you! now all you have to do is keep up the weather pattern that we have enjoyed since getting back here and you will be perfect.

we made it!

we are still settling in a bit, and getting ready for this baby to come, but we made it back safely to utah! lets back it up a bit and update where we left off- the week before we left dc:

we celebrated our one-year anniversary by making a quick little trip down to williamsburg, va for a day of sight-seeing! it was so nice to get away from work and just be with each other, especially because we would be separated later on that week....

governor's palace

in the stocks!

later that week i flew to st. louis a few days before joseph was done working to go see my family before we have baby claire. again- so nice to not be working and just relax! i was feeling guilty the whole time because he was still working like crazy.... while i was there some friends from my family's home ward got together and threw me a fun shower! it was sooo nice of them and we had tons of fun! thanks again heather and kirstin!

these girls know how to party :)

we then had a crazy couple days scrambling to get back to utah before school started last tuesday. i had tried to clean our apartment and pack as much as possible, but i had some stuff at work that HAD to be done before i left that i wasn't expecting to do, so after a loooong day of work he cleaned and stuffed the car-literally- and got to st. louis as quickly as the speed limit would allow. we decided he was too tired to drive straight through, and i would need to stop halfway between st. louis and utah, so we took our time. we left that monday morning, and it was a pretty long drive but we made it as interesting as possible. we had some friends that were taking the same route as us, and we met up with them every so often when we filled up with gas and stopped for food. we also made this quick little detour through liberty, missouri. joe had never seen the 'seashell' temple of the church of Christ. i decided he needed to see it so we stopped, used the LDS visitor's center bathroom, took a a picture and left. we then spent the next part of the drive discussing whether or not the spiral had stairs He would walk down or if He was supposed to slide.....

we rolled into town last tuesday night and have been moving ever since. joe started school right away, got all settled into his classes, and i've been putting the house back together and getting a nursery ready! i decided i needed to be more 'domestic' again- i had zero time to do that this summer, and have been making every meal and trying to develop some 'skills' in the sewing deparment by crocheting burp cloths and a blanket. so far so good! my mom is so talented with sewing, and i just did not inherit that gene, so i have to work extra hard. ask my sister lindsay- my hands just have a hard time with that stuff. anyways... we are getting ready to paint a few walls, etc. pictures to come!

puppy love

just a little post dedicated to my puppy. my puppy- as i will always call her. she's an old lady now, about to turn 13 (63 in people years!) this year, weighs at least twice what she should, mostly blind, deaf, and is losing her sense of smell, but she still acts like a puppy sometimes.

she came into our family for christmas one year, and has moved with us all over the country. we named her Oreo, for she looks like the cookie. anyways, i don't want this to get depressing, because we know her time with us will probably not be much longer, but she really is a member of the family, as much as my dad doesn't want to admit it. i just want document two things- 1- that today she came to sit with me over everyone else- thats why shes mine :) and 2- my mom and i are pretty sure that she gave herself a brain freeze a couple days ago! see, my mom has this ice cream for dogs, and it comes in a little dish, and she takes it out of the dish, puts it on a plate, and it looks a bit like a hockey puck. normally she just licks it up, but she decided she wanted it so bad, and she bit into it and ran off with the whole thing! it was too funny and made a big mess, but she kept doing it, trying to eat it really fast, and we are pretty sure she caused herself to get a brainfreeze!

remember- she came to me!

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!

This is my first blog and my wife doesn't know about it but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm done for the summer and packing up to head out to Utah tonight!!!!! As an office we finished as the number one office ever. I beat my summer last year, but not by much.... I'm just glad to be done and glad I'll get to spend time with my wife again. The best news of the night is that our office did well enough to win free video camera's for all of us rep's.... Well hopefully my wife doesn't get mad at me for posting a blog but hey I also wanted to publicly thank her for pushing me this summer especially at the end when i was burned out.... She truly is amazing and does so much. I'm proud of her this summer as she worked while being pregnant and had to deal with me on the days when i was in a bad mood from selling... i'm truly the luckiest guy ever. Well i've got a lot to do so i better get at it.....

its been one of those weeks

its been crazy but good! it was a great anniversary weekend- we slipped away to cute williamsburg, virginia saturday night and toured it all day sunday. it was SOOO nice to get away, just the two of us and not talk about work! it was a pretty warm day, but everyone there kept saying how lucky we were it was wasn't as hot as it normally is.

we left and headed back to dc for our last week of work! what a relief it is to be done! i left yesterday morning to fly to st. louis to spend a couple days with my family, before heading back to utah, but i just didn't have enough time to finish things with work and pack, and ended being the in the office til almost two in the morning, and we had to get up at 5.30 to leave the next morning! i had a quick flight (it really was quick, we even arrived almost twenty minutes early! so unheard of these days!) and my mom and i have been talking baby stuff ever since! i have been holding back all summer because i knew we wouldn't have room to bring things back, and its been so fun to start making some decisions! some friends threw me a great baby shower last night, (thanks again heather and kirsten!) and i think that this baby will be the best dressed baby ever! she probably won't have to wear the same thing twice- she has so many cute clothes!

anyways... just wanted to document.....

lame! its not letting put up pictures right now... i'll get back to that later!

true love

this last week we've been playing a game- its called "what were we doing a year ago right now?" one person says it and the other person has to remeber as fast as they can. why do we play this game? because this week last year was the week we got married! (yes wedding festivities went on for a whole week) tomorrow is our one year anniversary! its been the longest week of my life because i've known for a while that he was planning something this weekend and i wasn't allowed to know until he told me about it a little bit ago- so now i am packing for our little trip this weekend! i'll keep y'all in the dark til we get back.....

to continue with the game.... a year ago right now we were just getting out of a temple session with our families and getting ready to eat dinner at hotel nauvoo- so much fun and so so so yummy!

this was after dinner....

and just because i like talking about him- here's some info:

1. what is his name? jospeh william brewer he's such a stud

2. how long did you date? friends for a long time, best friends for 5 ish months, dated 5 weeks.... engaged 5 months

just after we decided to get married!

3. how long have you been married? one year tomorrow!
4. who eats more sweets? not sure... it could be a tie, but i probably do
5. who said I love you first? he did
6. who is taller? he is
7. who is a better singer? he definitely is- just come over and listen to him shower on sunday mornings and sing hymns in samoan- you will agree.

8. who is smarter? i probably have better grades, but i think he knows more than me.
9. who does the laundry? i mostly do it, but he helps, and will do it if he needs something. and he will usually refold his socks.
10. who pays the bills? we share. he does more though. and he makes the money to pay them
11. who sleeps on the right side of the bed? looking at the bed, i sleep on the right. laying in bed he sleeps on the right.
12. who mows the lawn? we haven't gotten a chance to mow our 2 ft. by 5 ft. patch- we left before the ground had thawed out. but he was in charge of finding someone to do it for us for the summer. he probably will be the one to do it though- i somehow got skipped growing up and have never actually used a lawn mower or even a weekwacker. i am not sure how this happened because i did a lot of yard work, but no one ever bothered to ask me to mow the lawn. because everyone else liked it? most likely because i am a klutz and am not allowed to handle power tools...
13. who cooks dinner? me most of the time. he helps sometimes, and will do any grilling. he likes to make breakfast though- he's pro

14. who drives? he usually does- it just depends.

everytime he drives, he opens my door. everytime he opens my door, he gets a kiss. everytime

15. who is more stubborn? i probably am.

16. who kissed who first? he kissed me. it was awkward. there were no sparks.

awkward.... not. but i like it

17. who asked who out? we just decided to go out. kinda. he was supposed to take someone to see a show, and she backed out last minute, and he was telling me about it. i had a ticket to the same show but later, but decided i would rather go with him instead of the people i had tickets with. so we went. and then we decided that we would "try" dating for two weeks for a marriage class he was in. loooong story behind that.

we went on lotsa dates

18. who is more sensitive? tough call- but he probably is- he will actually cry during a movie.
19. who has more siblings? the same- we are both the middle child of five, and we both have two brothers and two sisters
20. who wears the pants? he actually prefers his lava-lava.

boys will be boys

this has been such a great summer for us becuase of the awesome people that we get to work with. there were about 40 guys that worked in the office with joe throughout the summer, and these are some of the funnest, funniest, and just all-around good guys to work with. they were all so different but their personalities meshed so well and getting together with them is a guarunteed good time. this week was a fun pool party at the apartment complex, and it was non-stop laughs as they played 'basketball', had a relay race and had a 500 dollar coin dive. the best was watching them wrestle in the pool over huge watermelons covered in tons crisco! the goal was to be the first person to get one out of the pool- basically hilarious! anyways, love these guys, love the good times, and we will definitely cherish the memories!

getting ready to go for the coins

little fishies

searching for more

fighting for the watermelon

and this little guy- my absolute fave munchkin! i just want to eat him up!

another belly picture

for anyone who is interested in the growth of my tummy this summer.....


here it is! at my last appointment i weighed in at gaining about 16 pounds, and measuring 28 centimeters at 28 weeks- absolutely perfect! i've gotten a lot of comments lately saying i look too little to be 7 months, but i'm perfectly average, in the middle, normal, on schedule.... like i am with everything else. (except my blood pressure- a low 94/68. i've always had low to normal, but it could just be the nurse. the appointment before last she couldn't get pressure or even a beat in one arm....which would mean i was dead) should i take everything looking normal as a good sign? i think so.