THE USED & TAKING BACK SUNDAY

date night doesn't happen very often with kiddo's in the picture, although dave and i have made a goal to have one on one more than once every few months. last weekend we went out to dinner just the two of us for the first time in a really long time.  we were lucky enough to have ANOTHER date night this weekend.

i have never been into the alternative/rock music, but that is dave's world pretty much.  The Used is his band guys. and they came to salt lake city this weekend and we had tickets and an all access pass!!! when dave first found out they were coming to SLC i told him that i would go with him, knowing that i probably wouldn't enjoy myself- but actually, i had a really really great time! thanks for the fun night babe!!

outfit details // top > forever21 similar here skirt > my sister's closet 

shoes > vans 

CREPES + CINNAMON SWIRL CRUMB CAKE, MUFFIN EDITION

i've been terrible at keeping up with my blog. it is something that i really love and wish i had a little bit more time for!! since i started my nanny job i have been so busy... there has been no time! :( so here i am, laying in bed posting at least SOMETHING! and of course it has to do with food. i haven't been proud of myself the last 2 weeks when it comes to my eating habits. i'm getting back to my routine though. slowly but surely.

growing up we put vanilla ice cream in our crepes. ice cream and maple syrup. that's it.  when i married dave, i was so concerned the first time i had crepes with his family and they didn't have any ice cream out. i was like, "what the heck?!" dave thinks i'm a weirdo with crepes, he says, "that's not breakfast food!!

also, this was my very first time making crepes. my first two were pretty decent. my last one i ripped as i was flipping.... hence the big hole.

 || crepes ||

6 eggs

3 cup milk

2 cup flour

3 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

beat eggs and milk slightly; add flour, sugar and salt.  beat until thoroughly mixed.  let batter sit for 10 minutes until all air bubbles are gone.  pour 1/2 cup batter into greased pan; cook for a few minutes on each side.

served with // fruit, vanilla ice cream, cinnamon & sugar, whip cream and maple syrup

today i made these with the kids.  children love to cook with you. it's adorable.  i had a Krusteaz Cinnamon Swirl Crumb Cake mix sitting in our pantry that i decided to pull out this afternoon. instead of making a cake, we made muffins. the little girl that i nanny kept saying, "can i lick it now?" the entire time we were mixing it together. :)

find recipe here. 

MY NEW NANNY GIG

I've had a couple nanny jobs since I graduated from high school, it's a job that I actually really enjoy. Kids are my thing. I love being around them. especially if they're fun- easy going kids. I would probably have more than 3 kids if pregnancy wasn't so difficult and hard on my body.

Recently I have just been feeling a little useless because I'm not bringing in any money to our family. I know that being a stay at home mom to Olive is my job in life. So instead of going out and getting a job I decided to search around for a nanny job. I wanted to find something where I could watch the kid(s) at MY home. It would make it a lot easier on both me & Olive. It's really hard to find those kinds of nanny jobs. I gave up looking for a while. Last week I decided to just give another try on care.com to see if I could find something that fits my needs. And the first ad that popped up was someone looking for a nanny who is already a stay at home mom who could watch their kid at MY home. 

Seriously! It was a prayer answered!! Within a day the lady contacted me, and by the weekend I was interviewed and hired!! The little girl is SO easy going. It makes this job easy! And she plays well with Olive which was my main concern!!

Monday was our trial run and it went really well. Olive was a little confused, I could tell. My first thoughts were "how am I going to do this without feeling like I'm cheating on Olive?" It's definitely an adjustment. But things are going surprisingly really really well!!

NINE MONTH OLD OLIVE

i'm still in shock that little olive bug is 9 months old. she's been on this earth as long as it took her to cook inside my little belly.  we love her so much, and she sure keeps us busy.  it was really difficult to get her nine month pictures [as you can see] i could barely get a decent picture of her looking at the camera.

olive is getting to be such a big girl, she weighs 16 pounds 10 ounces. before her doctors appointment, dave and i both took guesses on how much she weighs. we were both off and our little pumpkin is skinnier than we thought. she is 29 inches long!!!!!

she has been pulling herself up onto furniture for quite some time. she loves it, and thinks she's so big. just this week she has been walking along furniture and STANDING with no help all by herself. for a really long time. she also took 2 steps on sunday! i think we'll have a walker by the end of the month.

she has 2 bottom teeth, and workin' on the tops.

she is getting more and more interested in our food and wants her baby food less and less. she loves cookies and peanut butter sandwiches.

she hates getting in her car seat, but once's she's in she's totally fine.  she loves looking out the window and watching everything go by.

she is the BIGGEST daddy's girl.  if dad is around she wants nothing to do with mommy, or anyone else for that matter.  she even hates it when he puts her down.

she is still the worst sleeper i've ever met. for quite a while she had been waking up 5+ times a night. AND waking up for the day at 6:00 in the morning!!! the last few days, she has only been waking up once and is ready for the day by 7:30-8:00. i hope this continues!!

she loves being outside. loves playing with kids. and loves animals! she is constantly on the go!! keeping me very busy every day.

her new thing is to hold her toys in her mouth while she crawls or plays with other toys. it's seriously hilarious.  she loves books. when music comes on she loves to dance, especially when the strawberry shortcake theme song comes on.  she's getting more and more obsessed. ask anyone who has seen it, her eyes light up with excitement!

she's super cuddly and LOVES giving kisses. or i should say ATTACKING you with kisses.  she loves jewelry and knows the people who usually have it on everyday- she goes straight for their ears or necklaces.

she is in size 3 diapers now.  which are so huge on her.  2's were still big but just weren't fitting right and we kept having leaking diapers. :/

we love olive so much, and can't believe how much she is growing up.  her personality is really starting to shine through. and we can't get enough of her. i told dave last night that i didn't want her to grow up- i just want her to be my little baby forever!

CURRENTLY PINNING...

dessert // cadbury mini egg blondies- from six sisters stuff . k really? does that not just look delish?!
food // i have been pinning lots of clean eating recipes lately- not sure how "clean" this is, but this southwest chicken wraps- from mostly homemade mom looks amazing!!
diy // masen jar soap dispensers !!!!!!
baby // can you believe i'm coming up on baby's first birthday in just three short months?!
style // i went with this one ^^ this one aaaaannnnd this one . they're all my style and that swim top is adorbs.
work it // time to work the butt . enough said.
future home // i'm obsessed with pinning things for the home and i've pinned A LOT for the home. it was hard to find just one that i wanted to share.

if you like what i've pinned, check out some of the other things that i'm currently pinning, here!

CHEESEY HASSELBACK CHICKEN

i'll probably be getting all my recipes from pinterest.  whoever invented that site is genius. i love it. i'm all about simple and quick. especially with a 9 month old and a hubby who gets home from work an hour before baby's bed time. simple and quick is a must.

again, i found this yummy cheesey hasselback chicken recipe on pinterest. so, so easy! pretty much, you know the directions just by looking at the photo.

Cheesey Hassleback Chicken

ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts

8 cheese slices of your choice

8 slices of ham

directions:

+ cut 4 slits into each chicken breast, be sure not to cut all the way through

+ stuff each slice with a piece of ham & cheese

+ salt and pepper to taste

+preheat oven to 350 degrees

+ place chicken breast in oven safe pan with 3-4 thin butter slices

+ bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

serve with a side of vegetables of your choice, and enjoy!

ARM DAY AT THE GYM

[i'm still feeling super weird about taking & posting pictures of myself, here is my first "gym selfie"]

today i decided that it felt like an "arm" kind of day. ballet blast is a variety of pretty much everything but the majority of it is your lower body. which means i have to work my butt off outside of ballet blast on the things i feel didn't get quite as worked.

before i went to the gym i did a quick search [of course on pinterest] of arm exercises. and this is what i came up with.... it's kind of a lot but my arms were burning and it worked out every muscle in my arms and upper back.

bicep curls // 3 sets // 20 reps

overhead tricep press // 3 sets // 20 reps

standing chest fly // 3 sets // 10 reps

tricep extension // 3 sets // 10 reps

bicep diagonal reach // 3 sets // 20 reps

bent over lateral raise // 3 sets // 10 reps

crisscross reverse fly // 3 sets // 20 reps

[i don't really know what to call this last one, because i kind of just made it up so i will explain it as best as i can...]

arms parallel in front of you, out to a "T", up parallel by ears

down to a "T", arms parallel in front of you, back down to beginning.

3 sets // 10 reps