Being married means...

well a lot of things actually, if you ask me all good things....although cynics may say thats its only because we've been married 2.5 months but I know it will just get better! Being married means...

GETTING BREAKFAST IN BED.

For no reason at all husbands like to do nice things for you. Whaaa?! I know. Boyfriends do nice things for you too (like surprising you with T.Swift tickets!) but they can't usually bring you breakfast in bed! One day Lyle even brought me cereal in bed haha which made me laugh a little but since I love breakfast and being in bed it was my favorite. 

GETTING TO DECORATE YOUR OWN PLACE

Now I loved having room mates, don't get me wrong...even the ones that were a little difficult because you learn so much about yourself and living with others. However, living with Lyle is hands down the best. He has no weird or annoying habits, he doesn't snore and best of all, he lets me decorate our cute home any way I want. I think most boys don't really care about stuff like this so its way different from having 5 room mates who all wanna decorate the apt in their own style. Like for instance one of my sweet roomies put up like 12 huge pictures of Jesus in our living room....Now I am all for Jesus throughout the house but this was overkill and everyone laughed when they saw it...so yes, in my own home it is nice to spread Jesus throughout the house....

husbands even let you put monograms throughout the whole house because you love them so much!

The one thing Lyle wanted a say in was this baby- and I can honestly say I had no problem with that! It may be a little big for our space now but it was our investment piece for a bigger home someday.

HAVING YOUR VERY OWN 24/7 TASTE TESTER

I absolutely love to cook and bake and we also love to have people over for dinner and lately I have been trying a lot of new pumpkin recipes so Lyle is my go to food tester. I think he happens to love this part about being married on his end too. Every year i love to test out new ones from pinterest and i found some good ones! The Pumpkin whoopie pie recipe is hands down one of the best recipes i have ever found. Lyle always asks me to make these now and seriously tried to eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner. The frosting is so good that it replaced my old frosting for my homemade cinnamon rolls. You will not be disappointed. 

Pumpkin Rice Krispies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Dip

( I made this for a Halloween party & it was amazing! SO fluffy)

good thing Lyle likes pumpkin just as much as i do...

YOU GET TO PLAN YOUR OWN FHE

Married FHE is great. Having 2 people agree on a fun activity is a lot easier than having 20 people agree so needless to say it used to be a lot of awkward getting to know you games in college. I am not one to do charades or things in front of people that I don't know where I embarrass myself so planning FHE now is a lot of fun! One night we booed a neighbor and made treats or one time we went to a jazz game or we watched a halloween movie. Although you will have to say the prayer or give the lesson a lot...unless you plan on having tons of kids and then you can have them do it.

WHEN YOUR SPOUSE GETS COOL TRIPS SO DO YOU

Exhibit A: Pirates Cove. Spouses are more than welcomed, fiances and girlfriends are not...much to the dismay of the unmarried reps. A place that is about $10 grand a night, Pirates Cove was amazing. Exhibit B: Cancun. We are going to Cancun in January-the first week of school actually haha whoops. Or when his work gets box seats to the Jazz games or free tickets to the Imagine Dragon concert...all in all having a husband with a cool job makes me a lucky wife.

& there are a million other awesome things about married life. It is the best.

xoxo CAIT xoxo

Chocolate Lasagna Cake

As promised! Besides wedding planning, working or Lyle I have managed to find a couple new recipes. One being this. This is hands down one of my favorite recipes ever: I made it for Lyle's birthday this year and for the missionary's and my family...everyone always asks for the recipe. It's super easy and its layered so it looks difficult but its not.

Chocolate Lasagna Cake Recipe 

 

xoxo Cait xoxo

Cookie catastrophe

One time it was my turn to make dessert for Sunday dinner- no problem right?I make treats all the time, i can do this- so anyway I found these cookies- and lets be real there arent too many things that taste better than smores...so i made these babies

Gooey Smore's cookies

The dough itself is enough to make them but let me give you a quick heads up. Dont you dare think that you can substitute the marshmellows it tells you to use with the fluffy mini marshmellows. Or you will end up with cookies that are a weird consistency and then you may go try and look good because a certain boy is coming over and lose track of time and get cookies that look like this- mine actually looked worse but when heather told me to take a picture i was embarrassed.

...and then everyone will force you to make another dessert and on top of that every one will continue to ask if you set a timer and think you are now incapable of remembering things in the oven and i'm all like

i now need to redeem myself, so i'm off to find an amazing dessert

but for real try these cookies

xoxo cait xoxo

 

Look ma, i can cook!

This weekend has been one of the best ones in a long time...

it was less focused on school and work but rather just having a good time and with all the credits i am taking and being so busy all the time it was much needed. On Friday we had a girls night and baked some cinnamon roll cake for "the team," and then we went to the dollar theatre and saw New Years which was actually really good considering all the bad reviews it got...Saturday i did work, it was my last day at my seasonal job which i absolutely love but it was time to part ways. Then Jared and Philip picked me up from work and we went to the BYU volleyball game. They lost. All. three. sets. Sad times...werent they supposed to be number one in the nation?? Anyway then the boys plus Joey went grocery shopping with me and i got ingredients to make them dinner! I made them BBQ cups and french fries and they absolutely loved them. It was only my second time making them by myself ever and the first time i burnt them...whoops....but this time they turned out perfect. They are amazing and SO EASY and a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Boys LOVE them. I have not met one person who didnt like them, even Shannon whose a vegetarian misses eating them.

BBQ CUPS

Ingredients: ground beef

shredded cheese

biscuits(just the normal small ones that will fit in a cupcake pan)- not the flakey ones

***sweet baby rays honey bbq sauce

(the amount of ingredients depends on how many people you are feeding/if you want leftovers)

1. i set the oven to 200 degrees. dont know if thats what my mom sets it to but it worked great. Spray the cupcake pans with pam and then put one of the rolls in each and smush them out in the pan 2. Brown the ground beef. 3. Then mix in the bbq sauce until the meat is completely covered 4. Spoon in as much meat as desired on top of each roll. 5. Put in the oven for like 6 minutes. I check on them constantly so they dont get burned but you want them a little softer. 6. 2 or 3 minutes before you take them out, pull out the rack and sprinkle shredded cheese on top. The more the better. Pull out and let cool for a few minutes. I love these because they taste just as good a few days later for leftovers and they are so easy. I recommend dipping them in bbq sauce because they taste even better. Doesnt look too great here cause it wasnt right outta the oven but trust me, youll love them! If you have any questions ask me or my mom because its really her recipe and shes a pro.

xoxo Cait xoxo

Who needs diets?

besides half of America who just made "losing weight" or "eating healthier" their resolution..well sorry, these were too good to pass up & i cant wait to bake them.

Snickerdoodle Cake

Cookie Dough Brownie

Donuts

Red Velvet Brownies

Smores Cookie Bars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mug Cake

Smores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake

Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls

Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats

xoxo CAIT xoxo

Mouth Watering Monday

well its actually tuesday...
but since i started this post yesterday and mouth watering monday sounds a lot better
than mouth watering tuesday [the whole alliteration thing...] its gonna stay

I am on the biggest baking & cooking kick ever.
THIS RECIPE is in high demand, i've had a couple people ask me to post it, so here it is,
i made it last night and its absolutely amazing. My roomie Hayley and i decided to make it [so we could give some to the girls we VT] and all of our roomies loved it.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

First off, let me say it is SO easy to make. SO SO SO easy.

A couple of tips for it though for the topping it calls for 1 cup of butter, instead do 1/2 cup.

It's just the right amount and a little better for you! Key word being little and its supposed to make 28-32 minutes, instead take it out a little earlier. Yum :)

if cinnamon roll cake isnt your thing you better hope pumpkin is! If my Sweet Dreams Bakery doesnt work out I should open one called
All Things Pumpkin

Pumpkin Pie French Toast
^ i think i'm making these for Sunday breakfast!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Pie White Hot Chocolate

Pumpkin Pie Sheet Cake


Here are some other pumpkin recipes i've previously posted, in case you missed them! oh and this one has a Pumpkin Donut recipe!
Happy Baking

xoxo CAIT xoxo

All about Fall

Heres some fun things for you to enjoy during Fall:

http://www.twotwenty-one.com

These are my absolute favorite cookies! I have been talking about baking these all week long & yesterday I come home to some that my sweet roomie made. I've never tried these with a frosting in the middle and i'm itching to make them, I may have to go out first thing tomorrow and get the ingredients!

http://oneartmama.blogspot.com                                                http://retrohipmama.wordpress.com

I am so unbelievably in love with both of these. I can not wait until I have my own house to decorate because its gonna be absolutely adorable. I would add a blue or orange monogrammed letter to the second one though for a little something more. I'm thinking of doing this for my mom and sister because they would love it! So easy and fun. You can do it in any color for whatever season although I adore this color schemes here so i prob wouldnt change a thing.

 http://jessicainsd.blogspot.com

Perfection, I think the picture says it all. This is a fall must make. Its a lot like Monkey bread if you've ever had that. I think this is a treat that everyone will love.

http://www.nestofposies-blog.com\

i LOVE this & i love her blog! For a poor college student, this is so cheap and easy to do. The only thing you would think would be expensive would be the frame but you can get some from thrift stores and spray them any color you'd like.

http://prairiecottagerose.blogspot.com

Oh the pumpkin spice latte... its back in season at Starbucks and dont worry, I already called and they make it without coffee too! phew. I am trying anything and everything involving pumpkin because I love it. I havent tried the homemade version (recipe above) but I put it here in case you'd like to!

http://www.andreasteed.com/

This is my absolute FAVORITEST craft that I have found for Halloween. I am so in love with it. When I first looked at it I was like well I just want hers I dont even want to compete with that...but after looking at it for a bit I got really excited about making one. I'm in search for one of these wooden things right now so i can create my own. You dont even have to follow this one, this is one of those things where you just get fun Halloween stickers, paper, etc and go to town! Enjoy

http://www.bettycrocker.com/

I love cheesecake! Well it seems as though i'm loving a lot of things I know but i really love this. In all honesty I havent ever made cheesecake before, just the basic brownie, cookies and of course cupcakes so this will be exciting. Pumpkin cheesecake, yum :) However if you're feeling a little lazy and dont wanna do any of the work but you want the taste then Olive Garden has the most amazing seasonal pumpkin cheesecake I have ever tasted. Last Fall mom & dad mailed me an olive garden gift card just so I could get some. so sweet

http://tatertotsandjello.com/

Heres directions to do a banner, but there are a lot of different ways you could do them. If I had a fireplace they would be so perfect there for every season but i dont yet. I love the patterns and colors here. Pillow are pretty easy to do. So this is just kind of an inspiration picture. I really enjoy this banner and pillows but I have a slighly differnent idea about doing the above so I'll see if I get around to it with midterms and all.

http://www.howto-simplify.com/

Obviously Fall is all about the sweet treats for me because thats all i love to make....

I hope these inspired you just as much as they inspired me,

I have a lot of fun ideas that I'm gonna try before I post but I'll try to have them up asap

so come back soon

xoxo Cait xoxo