My favorite boy.

Today is December 1st. The Christmas season is just getting geared up, and it is one of my favorite days of the year.

It's Matt Day!!

Today, my sweet husband is 29. He brushes birthdays off as if they are nothing, where I celebrate them as what they really are: a holiday! Last night we went and bought him a VERY big present that I will reveal later this week, ate at the Seattle Center and saw Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Seattle Repertory Theater. It was fantastic! The actors, the set, the graphic and the live music was all incredible. It was such a fun night out.

Today, we're going to my parent's house for part 2 of Matt day celebration. His favorite cake is there along with some presents and lots of family.

Now, to honor my favorite boy, here are 29 things I love about him:

1. He will eat anything and everything. Leftovers are his best friend.

2. He served an LDS mission in Denver, Colorado. I love that he took me there to visit all of the people and places special to him and that he tells stories often.

3. Knowing cars is a hobby of his. Right now, he's loving MINIs (hint hint).

4. He loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.

5. He doesn't quit.

6. He is so very athletically gifted. He thinks "trying hard" means until you puke or collapse.

7. He is great with little kids - our nephews, cousins and my sisters. He pretty much turns into a little kid too and loves to play.

8. He ran a marathon on a whim, with no training.

9. He is the most supportive person I have in my life. He encourages me to chase after my dreams and won't let me give up.

10. He loves to go camping and all outdoor activities. Those have provided such great bonding experiences for us and has instilled in him a respect and love for the earth.

11. We both love to watch movies.

12. He's got a wonderful, loving, fun family. I definitely drew the lucky in-law card!

13. He's the best road-trip partner.

14. He loves guns, taught me how to shoot, and bought me my first gun.

15. He cares about people. When I met him, he was a CNA. In that job, you learn how to love and care for people that are rude, smelly and difficult. He has a love for everyone and their stories.

16. He is a loyal and honest man.

17. He holds my hand all the time.

18. We love to eat gelato together.

19. He will watch Bachelor/Bachelorette with me. He makes fun of it the whole time and it makes it SO much better to watch!

20. He has a background as an electrician (his dad owns an electrical business) so he is seriously the best handyman there is. He can fix anything and actually loves doing it.

21. He can cook. 

22. He is a good friend. 

23. He has perfectly-straight teeth with no braces. Yay for our kids! haha.

24. He kills all the spiders in the house for me.

25. He always knows what I want better than I do: He even picked my wedding rings out.

26. He loves animals - especially dogs. I wish I wasn't so badly allergic to them so that we could get one.

27. Football, football, football! Good thing I like football too.

28. He has a strong sense of personal responsibility - to correct what he's done wrong, to give respect, and to leave the world a better place. 

29. He listens to God and is a grateful, loving man.

I love to celebrate him!!! 

Boo!

Happy Monday, all! I hope you are enjoying your dose of Autumn in your corner of the world. Fall here in the Seattle area has been spectacular. I have commented so many times to my husband that I have never realized that Washington had such a beautiful fall season. The fluorescent reds, oranges, and yellows of the changing trees mixed with the trademark evergreen of the state is truly picturesque. 

This weekend we made the Winn Family recipe of Pumpkin Casserole! Matt and I made this last year as well and it is turning into one of my favorite fall traditions! 

You bake all of the yummy ingredients in a small-medium pumpkin for a few hours and you get a fun, festive and filling dish! My (picky) little sisters absolutely loved this too. Give it a try this week!

Winn Family Pumpkin Casserole

4 cups cooked rice

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 lb ground beef/turkey browned

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 med/small pumpkin cleaned out

-Prepare rice, brown meat and mix all ingredients together. Stuff casserole in pumpkin and bake @ 350 degrees on a cookie sheet 2 hours, or until the pumpkin is soft.

It only took our pumpkin about 1-1/2 hours to cook. Make sure you scoop all the pumpkin out with the rice and enjoy! We sprinkled some shredded cheese on top of the casserole before we ate it. Cheese always makes everything better, right?!

We also carved pumpkins with the family this weekend. Here are some pictures from the fun:

Note: It is actually pretty difficult to carve and EKG pattern into a pumpkin! But worth it :)

Carving pumpkins is one of my favorite things to do with my family around Halloween. Another is dressing up for parties! Matt and I dressed as firemen for our church party last weekend:

                             

It was really fun!! Hope you all are enjoying the Halloween holiday - have a safe and fun one this year!!

Recipe review: salted caramel popcorn

Yesterday I decided to try out a salted caramel popcorn recipe (from this blog) and it turned out SO. GOOD. Like addicting-ly good. Bonus - it is actually really easy to make! 

(and if you pretend like you don't know how much butter and sugar goes into the caramel, it makes it that much better)

It took me about 45 minutes total to make it all (including the 30 min baking part). Plus the caramel is super easy... just mix and let it boil for 4 minutes! No candy thermometer needed. It is such a delish fall snack and would be really great for Christmas goodies too! 

Here's my "you've gotta make this" pic:

Salted Caramel Popcorn Recipe 

(Makes about 16 cups of popcorn)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels (about 16 cups popped corn)
• 1 cup salted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 - 2 tsp kosher or sea salt, divided

How to Make

1. Preheat oven to 300°
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Set aside.
3. Pop popcorn kernels using air popper into a large bowl.
4. In a small saucepan melt butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and 1 tsp salt together over medium heat. Bring to boil. Boil for 4 minutes without stirring.
5. Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and stir to coat evenly.
6. Pour popcorn into lined pan, sprinkle remaining salt on top (1/2 tsp - 1 tsp depending on your personal taste preference) and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
7. Allow popcorn to cool on a parchment lined counter.

Enjoy!! Let me know how it goes :)

A family-craft-smoothie kind of week

I love living close to my family! I missed the last four years of not seeing my little munchkins very often (and they grow so fast!!). We are lucky enough to spend every Sunday at my parent's house, which usually consists of a Seahawks game, a delicious dinner and lots of fun. Last Sunday was a gorgeous, warm day - probably one of the last of those we will see until next June! We decided to go on a walk a park nearby. 

The two girls rode their scooters the whole time and the rest of the fam threw a frisbee as we walked... that takes a lot of coordination! A lot easier said than done. 

My dad also stole Lizzie's scooter. She would have none of that. 

"I'm a hungry bear! Roarrrr!"

How about some bacon?

We figured this would be the easiest way for him not to exceed the weight limit on the scooters. 

The exploring team, led by their fearless adventurer. 

These little moments remind me how blessed I am to have such an incredible family, and to live in such a beautiful area. 

Speaking of beautiful area, look at these sunset pics of Mt. Rainier out of my bedroom window!!! Fantastic!

Now onto crafts: Tuesday I got together with my great friends Lindsay and Chelsie for girl's day - lunch and crafts! Also, to hold Chelsie's precious new baby boy. I could not put that little peanut down!!!! I had a great time - we made fall wreaths, based off of this one on Etsy. I think they turned out super cute and it will look great on my door all the way until it's time to decorate for Christmas!

It was really easy and cheap to make - we got burnt orange colored burlap, cut it into strips and tied them around a wreath frame. Such a fun afternoon. I love it because it will last me through Halloween and Thanksgiving!

Alright, last thing. Sorry for this super long post!!! I've been doing a LOT of homework this week so I'm catching up on everything at once. My friend Celeste inspired me this week to try making green smoothies! My first one I made earlier this week tasted okay, but I made one this morning with a tweaked recipe and I loved it! Matt loves them too and we feel so incredibly healthy after having this for breakfast :)

Here is what I put in our delicious smoothies this morning (for one serving):

A generous handful of a spinach/kale mix

2 honeycrisp apple slices

1/2 banana

peach yogurt

a couple scoops of crushed pineapple

1/2 stalk of celery

1/2 tsp of honey

1/4 cup of water

Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes?? I'd love to try them out!

Till next time!

Extracurricular activities

I have spent most of my week doing homework - a little cleaning and a little bit (or a lot) of Netflix surfing too, I admit. However, I was able to have a fun evening with my mom and I'm excited to take a break this weekend from all this studying!

My mom serves as the Young Women's President of her ward (if you are not LDS - that means she is in charge of all the teenage girls!). She is fun, caring, selfless, smart, organized, and fabulous - those girls are so lucky to have her. 

My mom and me at Young Women "Girl's Camp" this summer. 

Perks for me come when she calls me up and says, "Hey, we're going to make our own maxi skirts for an activity! Want to come?!"

I can't turn that down, now, can I?

So - now I have a maxi skirt that I made! We had a lot of help from my mom's friend and YW counselor Abby and it was so fun to make! It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, and now I am itching to make more. By the way, Abby has an awesome blog here about sewing - she is a crafty magician with insanely adorable kids!! I had a great time learning how to make the skirt with my mom and the other girls there. Thankfully I had grandmas to teach me basic sewing skills growing up because my mom does not know very much in that department. And there is seriously nothing comfier than a maxi skirt... bonus points if it's super cute!

Completely unrelated to maxi skirts, but related to church... I am so excited for this weekend!! It's General Conference, where we get to hear talks given by the Prophet, his apostles and others chosen to speak to the entire church. I love that we have the opportunity to hear from our present-day leaders every 6 months. If you would like to learn more about what General Conference is, go here! Anyone can watch it online, and it's a really good way to learn about what we believe. 

I might get a chance to make these this weekend. They are calling my name!! And Matt's name too... he doesn't like chocolate so I have to be really creative about making goodies that he'll actually eat. Weird, I know. But these are perfect!

Also, yesterday I watched this video of a Pentatonix cover of "Royals" by Lorde. Prepare to be mesmerized. Every time I watch one of their videos I become obsessed and I never want to hear originals of songs again. They make "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" sound like completely new songs. AWESOMEEEE. 

Well, that's what I've been doing (or will do) with my spare time and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I'm going to enjoy having my sweet husband home for two days straight! Till next post :)