I'm trying to be better at cooking and one of my co-workers inspired me last weekend and gave me some yummy recipes! Thanks Kristy! Sooo last Monday night we had pork tenderloin seasoned with brown sugar(sooo yummy) with maple syrup mashed sweet potatoes. It turned out so good! Except... it was a 15 min prep time and a 15 min cook time, that ended up taking me 1 1/2 hours! hahaha, at least it was still hot when Brad got home. He was super surprised A) that I cooked and B) that it was a new recipe. Then the next night I had awesome intentions, but ended up super tired when it came time to cook dinner, so we ended up with pancakes. BUT i did use a different recipe and they were WAY more yummy than my normal pancakes. AND I found out that Brad can't cook pancakes, so he was happy to have some yummy ones. Yay for me lol!  My last cooking of the week was homemade banana pudding. I learned how to double broil(thanks dad). The pic I took was taken the next day, so it's not as pretty looking as it was right after I made it. Still tasted good though, so I'm three for three.
     Easter weekend was fun. I've worked the last 2 weekends and the last two Easter's, so having this weekend off was awesome. We went to the ward Easter egg hunt and dinner Saturday night, both sets of Raelee's grandparents were able to come watch her hunt eggs, so that was awesome. Brad's parents were able to stay for the dinner too, it was good to be able to spend that time with them. Raelee did awesome finding the eggs, she totally got what she was supposed to be doing. She found five eggs, and she thought it was soo cool when she figured out she could open the eggs.
    


We gave Rae her basket this morning before church, maybe not such a good idea. She only had two bites of chocolate, but she was CRAZY at church. Brad surprised both of us, he did Easter shopping on his own one day last week and last night after I put the basket together, he added his surprises for Raelee and me. He bought Raelee Bambie and me a Reester Bunny! mmmm yummy! When we got home from church Raelee was playing with her basket and we went upstaires to change. Raelee babbles all the time now, so as long as I can hear her I don't get worried. Well she got quiet, too quiet. I called her name and she wasn't answering, so I went downstairs and found that she had ripped open the wrapper to a kit-kat bar with her teeth and was eating the chocolate. When she saw me, she said "mmmmmm". Too funny! Then she was so hyper she wouldn't take a nap.
We went to my parents for dinner tonight. Lindley and I had fun dying eggs. Raelee even did one. Then the boys hid the eggs and us girls hunted for them. Man those things were really hidden. Lindley won, she found 35 eggs, I found 32, and Rae found 4. BUT Lindley's basket ended up being infested with ants, so maybe I did win lol.

watching Bambi with Daddy

Raelee's egg

all the eggs I did

with Lindley's favorite egg she dyed

Raelee with her egg

Whew the last few weeks have been CRAZY busy!!! Is it really the 13th of APRIL already? I can NOT believe how fast this year is flying by. I was complaining at work the other week about how tired I was, and one of my co-workers was like "Shelley, of course you're tired. Look at how much has been going on in your life!" So true! Anyway, two weekends ago I was able to be part of an amazing event. It's something I am involved in multiple times everyday when I go to work, but having it be my BFF was an awesome experience. She had a BABY!!! I don't even have words to explain how awesome it was. Go here for amazing pics by my other BFF LindseyLou.

 I've know Marquesas for 11 years now! She is such a fun and loving person. I was sooo impressed with the strength I saw in her as she did NATURAL childbirth. Again, I've seen more deliveries then I can count, but she truly handled it like a pro. I was super impressed, you would have thought it was her 6th child haha. I've now known her husband Drew for 10 years and Lindsey for 9 years. and of course Lamay since I met Marquesas. This was such a fun memory to add to the years of memories. Thanks Blimes's!!! And thanks for letting us keep Miles one night, it was sooo fun once he was happy :)
    Saturday was our stake softball tournament. I've been going to these as long as I can remember. This year was kinda sad, cause not that many peeps showed up. Still, we were there from 8am to 4ish for the men's portion of the tourny. The women only had two teams, so we were finished pretty early( 2nd wards team won, my ward, whoohoo). 1st ward mens team won, this is the team my dad, brother and , bro-in-law were on. 2nd ward men's team came in second, this was hubby's team. At that point in the day, Brad didn't care if they won or lost, he was was sooo tired poor thing. Oh and to our ward members, we weren't at church the next day cause I was at work and I took Brad's keys with me accidently. Oh and he pretty much couldn't move lol. Brad and I decided AGAIN, that our baby is awesome! She did so good. She sat in her stroller while I was playing, took a nap in her stoller between games, and never fussed! All day! She wore great-grandma out following her around for one game, it was cute.

First day of the year that the temp hit the 90's

Left right: my dad, Brad, Uncle Chris, Matthew(bro), Grandpa, and Michel(bro-in-law)

Raelee practicing her pitching

Brad. He was slamming with his hitting, homeruns and triples!

My dad

Grandpa catching. So FYI he's 80! How awesome that he's still so active

Those of you that know me know that I am addicted to reading. There's nothing better than a good book. Pretty much my favorite hobby. I recently came across some books by authors I haven't read before and I loved them, so I'm sharing them with you!

Touching the Clouds by Bonnie Leon. 

Red River of the North Series, Return to Red River Series, Daughters of Blessing Series, Home to Blessing Series by Lauraine Snelling


The Frontiersman's Daughter by Laura Frantz
Courting Morrow Little by Laura Frantz

 Hope you enjoy!

Practicing to be the next American Idol