Sweet Gran Hollowell passed away this week.

Gran Hollowell was so kind to me. While Raymond and I were engaged Gran would send me regular letters and emails. She was contstantly showering me with gifts and made me feel so welcome in a new family. Once Raymo and I were married she continued to send us regular letters and always added a little "bonus" for "a nice meal". She was so good to us.

Gran was such a tech-y Grandma. She used email, skype and facebook. She even rewired a light one time all on her own. As Raymo would say, she was a Legend.

We will miss Gran Hollowell so much. Raymond and I are quickly finding out how hard it is to be away from family at a time like this.

Emmy's Got Style

I am so excited about this I just can't stand it...

I am a partner in a non-profit organization called Emmy's Got Style. We are dedicated to improving the lives of chronically ill children by supplying them with designer hospital gowns, bloomers, boxers and bows to help make their stay in the hospital a stylish one. We have found that looking good and feeling better go hand-in-hand.

I've been spending the last few weeks doing lots of sewing and I have come up with a wonderful design that is totally functional and stylish too.

Emmy's Got Style is still in its baby stages but we are growing quickly! Please visit us on Facebook and you can read more about miss Emmy- the girl behind all this madness- on our blog!

Give me a second.

I really do not want to use the blog as a place to complain but just this once, I might have to. 

You know what I hate?

Feeling like the paychecks are spent before they are even deposited! 

Spring Cleaning

Pictures speak louder than words...

Yes, this is real. The entire contents of my closet is sitting on our bedroom floor and has been for a couple days now. Yuck!

The good news is that we are diving right in to spring cleaning! We spent HOURS on our hands and knees this weekend. It was gross! Good thing there are no pictures to document the lovely experience.

Pizza Love

Have you ever heard the song "Pizza Love"? If you went to Beacon Heights, I know you know the tune I am talking about. If not, you should look it up. 

So why is that song on my mind? 

I've got pizza love.

Raymo and I have had pizza for dinner 5 out of 7 days this week. We ate Papa Murphy's on Monday. Little Caesars on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. And finally, we ate Frachetta on Sunday. Oh, and every night we are not eating pizza we eat cereal. So I admit, my diet is not exactly great. I'm not kidding when I say I eat like a third grader. I pretty much only eat pizza, bagels, turkey and candy.

Delish!

Go-to granola

This is, quite honestly, the only thing I know how to make well.

HOME-MADE GRANOLA

Luckily, it is Raymo's favorite.

Want the recipe? Ok!

Before buying the ingredients, be aware that you can use any nuts or dried fruit you want. I love mine with almonds and craisins. Also, you can use more than one fruit or nut. Mix it up! Next batch I plan on adding dried pineapple tidbits. 

I buy all my granola ingredients at Winco in the bulk food section. They have LOTS of nuts and fruit to choose from at a fraction of the price because it is not pre-packaged and it is priced by the pound.

Ingredients:

4 cups old-fashion oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup craisins

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Scatter rolled oats on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until toasted. Remove from oven and pour oat and nut mixture into a mixing bowl. Add syrup, sugar and fruit of choice. Mix well. Return mixture to cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Turn the mixture often!

Once baking is complete, remove from oven and let cool for 2 hours. Once the granola is COMPLETELY cooled, break apart and store in an air-tight container.

What blog?

Who has time for blogging?

Not me.

Instead of trying to recap the last two months, take what you can from the pictures below.

This last one might get me in trouble but I think it is so funny! I'm not sure how it happened but the camera totally distorted Erica's face. I love it.

Christmas Cheer-o-Meter

We are doing everything possible this year to catch the Christmas spirit and get a little Christmas cheer. I'd say on a Christmas scale of 1 to 10 we are pretty cheery and we have done a lot of fun things to boot!

We went to the Festival of Trees to start the holiday season off. Unfortunately the trees were not as wonderful as they have been in the past but it was still a fun night. I got so many craft ideas from the gift shop and I can't wait to start them all! All in all, it was a wonderful night and all for such a good cause.

The Dickens Festival!

I had never been before so it was treat to go this year. Everyone is dressed up in old-time apparel and they all pretend to be celebrating Christmas during the time of Charles Dickens. If you need more help understanding... 

watch the Muppets Christmas Carol.

The trees are trimmed

Christmas decorating is way more fun when you are married.

Also, How does anyone make it through Christmas without a stapple gun?

It was our #1 decorating tool this year.

Snowed In

We were driving home from California during that huge snow storm that hit Utah. Every complained that it was not so bad... I disagree.

We got snowed in in Cedar City. We made the most of it though by watching movies and drinking hot chocolate in our smelling motel room.

I realize it is totally and completely inappropriate and embarrassing to post bathing suit pictures but just this once... I had to.

We were showing off our muscles...

and our bathing suits all matched.

Chop. Chop.

GUESS WHO....

So basically... I chopped my hair off. That's right, 25 inches GONE!

I really had no reason for doing it. I just wanted to. I thought it would be fun. and you know what? 

I love it.

P.S. I donated the hair to Locks of Love

Halloween

I hate to back it up so far but we had so much fun celebrating Halloween that I want to share it with you all. At the Cobabe house, we dont mess arounf when it comes to pumpkin carving... We got out the power tools this year. As you can see in the pictures the jig-saw was the tool of choice. Although it is not pictured, we also used a power drill to make a polka-dotted pumpkin.

Raymond and I dressed up as geeks on Halloween and spent the night at home with family. We had delicious soup served in bread bowls, a Halloween tradition, and cozied up to the fire to enjoy the night. We also enjoyed a chocolate fountain with friends on Halloween night.

Honeymoon Take 2

When Raymo and I Honeymooned the first time we made a big mistake... We forgot the camera. How do you forget to bring a camera along on your honeymoon? I'm not sure how it happened but somehow it got left behind.

Day after day we would say we were going to buy a disposable camera but somehow the days slipped by and before we knew it our honeymoon was over and we had no pictures to remind us of what a wonderful time we had. Bummer.

Fast forward to present time... Raymond and I just got home from California after Honeymoon Take 2. Good news, we remembered to bring the camera along! Bad news, we only took 2 pictures. I'm not sure how we always manage to forget about using the camera but we seem to forget quite often. Oh well, I guess it gives us a good reason to have Honeymoon Take 3!

Girls Trip!

It has been over a year since I have seen these two girls... 

Meet Robyn and Elizabeth. 

We met in Dundee when we were all there studying. We quickly became friends and spent nearly everyday together. Now, one year later, we joined up for a little reunion girls trip and had an absolute blast. We spent the whole week talking, talking, talking about boys, jobs, marriage, life... you name it, we talked about it. It was such a wonderful trip and I am so glad that I got to spend time with them.

I miss you girls already!

Take me back...

TO THE FAIR!

I absolutely love the Utah State Fair. Just ask me how many times I went this year... 2. Because one time just wasn't enough for me.

Just a few reasons why I love the fair...
1. COTTON CANDY. See image below, I was so excited.
2. Baby animals. Baby anything! But seriously, I was lovin' up that calf. See picture below.
3. Gypsy rides. No doubt the rides are missing a few screws... They are out of control and I love it!
4. Such a good date night.
5. People watching! Wow, Utahns don't mess around...
6. Again, baby animals.

Dinner Date

You know how much I love hosting a good dinner date. I live for that kind of crap.

Last week Raymond and I hosted our best dinner date yet. We set up in the art gallery! As Ali said, it was totally bachelor status (yeah, we are referring to the show on ABC). After dinner we took full advantage of the space and our artistic abilities... if can't tell from the pictures, we were dipping our hands in wax to make a mold. Then we filled the molds with wax and voila! we had casts of our hands. 

Too much fun.