Here's to Four Years

On July 24, we celebrated a whopping 4 years of marriage. These 4 years seriously feel like 10, but that's probably because we've been together for almost 10 years. Those early years feel like a dream; things are just SO different now. 4 years, 3 states, 6 apartments, 1 baby, later... here we are. I've learned a lot. A lot about me, about Scott, and about life in general. So, here are my 4 bits of advice; nothing new, but I've found they are so true.

1. Do something for yourself. Whether it's blogging, gardening, or working out, when I've had just a little me time each day, I am so much better off.

2. Make time for each other. We're still working on this one. With a crazy career and a crazy child, sometimes it seems like this just isn't possible. Well, slowly, we've been able to spend more time just the two of us, and it does wonders for our relationship. A little hug, kiss, and Lindt truffle go a long way too. :)

3. Expand the family. Words can't describe how different life is when two become three. Even though it seems at times that Landon is vying for the most-challenging-child-on-the-planet-award, I love him to pieces and he is everything to me. He is teaching me so much, and every day I think about how thankful I am for him. I gotta say though, if one more person tells me their newborn is sleeping through the night, I think I'll have a hernia.

4. Stick together. You can plan how you'd like things to work out all you want, but in the end you just have to hold hands, take a deep breath, and step into the unknown together.

we were made, we were made for each other

In honor of it being Scott's birthday tomorrow, I wanted to jot down a few reasons why I'm glad he was born.

1. He's my bestest friend and I love spending time with him. Our latest kick is watching Freaks and Geeks with a big bowl of Double Fudge Brownie ice cream after Landon goes to bed.
2. He's the greatest daddy ever. Landon and Scott play soccer together all the time now and it's just too cute.
3. He loves me even though I can be a handful at times. :)

Crinkles!

Let me preface this post by explaining my history with sweet things... I love them. Any and all. However, when I was pregnant with Landon I decided to seriously cut back all candy and baked goodies. Once Landon was born I couldn't eat chocolate (has milk) so it's been a while since I've had any really scrumptious, chocolaty treats. Untilllllll I recently found the recipe for these bad boys.

Oh. my. goodness. You know when you find some sinfully delicious dessert but it's so sweet you can only have a few bites? Not the case with these chocolate crinkle cookies! I'm not kidding you, I can down that whole pan in 5 minutes and not feel one bit sick. It's a miracle. (And I'll refrain from mentioning how many pan-fulls I've eaten.) They are SO easy to make. Amazing right out of the oven. Still chewy the next day. Mmmmmmm. Anyway, go make them...

Crinkles
Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar  

Directions

• In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. I like to use a number 50 size scoop. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.  
• Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool. 

I love my husband. I love that he works from home and I get to see so much of him. I love how ridiculously random he is. And I love that he is always looking for ways to help me take care of Landon. All in a day's work:

Sooooo much to talk about!

1. Saturday the 24th was our 3 year anniversary. Yippee! It's been an amazing 3 years and of course it just keeps getting better! Since it was also pioneer day, we went to Provo's pioneer festivities. I ate a fish taco. Landon was very curious. Scott took sweet picts. It was hot. We also went to Olive Garden to celebrate (since we went there on our wedding day.) Of course Landon woke up and wanted fed RIGHT when my food came out. That's life. We also caught a glimpse of some fireworks that night. Only a glimpse though, because well, it takes a lot of effort to get Landon fed, then ready for a car ride, and by 9:00 we're all pooped.
2. It's official: Scott is deferring fall semester because he has too many other projects going on. Tons of commercials he doing, shooting a feature, touring New Zealand, writing an album for Warner Bros, shooting a couple weddings, etc... Because he won't be a student this means he can't have his job with the library's multimedia unit. Soooo, he will just be working freelance, which means between projects he gets to chill at home with me and the babe!

3. I finally joined twitter. Tweeting is kinda fun, especially since typing long blog posts with one hand is not. If you're on, go follow me @beccawinn

4. We are taking a road trip to WA to visit our families in August. Should be interesting with our third wheel along for the 16ish hour drive. (And that's time WITHOUT stopping to feed a baby...)

5. Landon is 6 weeks old and weighs 11lbs. He thinks bedtime is from about 5 - 5. And by bedtime, I mean he will maybe sleep 2 hour stretches during that time. Never in his crib, sometimes in his swing, more often on me. He smiles at us a lot now! Our little couch potato is just too cute.

Any Day Now?

Well, so far little Landon has decided that an early appearance is not on his agenda. Figures. I guess he's just having too much fun using my bladder as a punching bag, why not stay a little longer? Generally speaking, this pregnancy has flown by - but these last two weeks are just torture!

In other news, Scott and I are seriously hooked on Bones. A while ago we started season 1, but didn't really have much time to watch it. Well, on Friday we got a Wii (found a good deal on KSL!) and now we can watch all the Bones seasons on it through Netflix. We are in the middle of season 2 and it is getting so good! We highly recommend it.

A week ago, Scott did his friend Justin's wedding photography. The pictures turned out so great, I just had to post some of them. Maybe I should start a blog for Scott's business stuff? That would give me something to do...

3 Years Ago Today...

Scott proposed! This picture was taken that very day. Soooooo, in honor of that, I'll share the proposal story. Scott came out to Olympia (since his fam was living in Spokane at the time) and left for the afternoon to meet a friend for lunch - or so I thought. Then he called me and told me to look in one of my desk drawers... then he speedily hung up the phone. In the drawer I found a treasure map. I followed the map to LBA (a park behind my house) and ran to the marked location. There I found a bench (that Scott made) with roses on it, and a pair of gardening gloves and a trowel on the ground in front of it. Beauty and the Beast's Tale as Old as Time was playing in the background. Scott came out from his hiding place behind the trees and said I should probably dig up my treasure. So I did, and in the ground I found a ring box. Of course the box was empty and at that moment Scott got on one knee, held out the ring, and asked me to marry him. He proposed in the exact place where we had our first kiss, years before. Awwwwww, what a sweetheart.