Henna Hair... WHAT?!

If you know me you know that I am pretty Bi-polar with my hair color, though I have never made my hair pink or purple (I want to I am just scared!!), I do change it often between red, brown and blonde.  My go to color is always blonde though.  When I got pregnant my hair just went nuts, what was once a wavy curl became something rather special looking.  I decided to try to re-train and make my hair healthy again so that my curls can come back to life.  Obviously this would take a long time if I keep bleaching my poor hair, so Henna caught my eye.  I did not think it was possible to do this since I really enjoy my blonde hair as Henna can sometimes cause some funky colors to come out of processed hair.  I work at Lush and my manager one day told me that she bleaches our Henna out fine this is because we do not use metallic salts in our Henna line.  I was sold.  If I could bleach it out I would do it.  So let me tell you about why I made this decision.
When you dye your hair using Henna its not like a typical dye.  Typical dye will change the color of the hair it touches from the inside out.  Henna is like staining furniture,  you just coat your hair in color.  Why is this good?  Well just coating your hair in color is less damaging the opening and closing the cuticle of you hair a thousand times.  Also, like staining, the integrity of your hair is kept intact.  This means that any highlights, low lights or gray hairs will be coated with color but you will still keep that dimension in the finished color.  Henna won't give you the all over one color, but will have lighter and darker sections based on the highlights and lowlights you had before.  Then to top of the whole not going to damage your hair Lush puts their Henna in a brick of Cocoa Butter!! YUMMY! So anyways here is my Henna process.

 I figured out the type of color that I wanted, I knew I wanted something more coppery but I am coming from blonde so it was going to be a multi coat process.  Day one I coated my hair with Caca Rouge  which is a pretty simple process. 

1: Break up large chunks of the henna.  I cut off two squares and put it in a heat proof bowl and placed that in bowl in a larger bowl.  Then I added hot water to the bowl with the Henna inside it and to the bowl it was sitting in.  Think of it as a double boiler, or just use a double boiler!  Let the Henna sit in the hot water for a bit to start melting it down and mix until it becomes a brownie batter consistency (I made mine a little bit thinner because I thought it was easier to spread.)  Then coat all your hair with it, starting with your roots makes the process easier.  If you want a vibrant red wrap your covered hair with cling wrap for a darker color leave it uncovered.  Then leave it on your hair for two to four hours.  I decided to sleep in mine though so the cocoa butter could really penetrate my hair.  When I shampooed out the next morning this was my result.

 

It was a little too Fred and George Weasley so I decided to do one layer of Caca Marron on top the next night  and this was my result!

Sorry about the awkward pictures I feel weird when I take selfies! haha!  Also my hair was tied back and that is why it looks so funky in the picture! But on a serious note, I LOVE the color that came out!  I am going to keep using Henna on my hair at least until all of the blonde is out of my hair.  I will for sure recommend using it to anyone who likes a red, brown or black hair color!
*Its important to always do a strand test just to make sure nothing funky will happen.  Enjoy and check out the Lush Henna's!

Date Nights

Throughout our relationship Sean and I have always done the same thing when it came to spending time together, we watch T.V., movies, play video games and card games.  Don't get me wrong I love doing those things after a long day of work, school and of course hanging with Briggs all day its nice to have that lazy time where we don't have to get dressed up or do my hair and make up.  There are times though when I go crazy because we have done the same thing all week, but we still get into the same routine.  So I decided to come up with a date night jar to help us be creative for the times when we say, "I don't care, what do you want to do?"  We spent a night coming up with a list of fun activities which for the most part do not require us to go out and buy anything.  Here are a couple of things that we have done so far.

1.  Carved Soap
This is just as simple as it sounds.  We each grabbed a bar of soap and a knife and began to make some "art" with it.

2. Made a Fort and watched some scary movies.
I am a sucker for a good scary movie so it was fun to cuddle up in our lovely fort!  I know I said we were trying to avoid watching movies but this was more interactive as we made an amazing piece of architecture!

3.  Love Mugs
Ok so I don't really know what to call this so I just wrote the first thing that came to my mind.  We grabbed these mugs at the dollar store and began to write on them with sharpies.  Sean chose to write about our love story and I wrote the lyrics to our first dance together which is "Never Let Go" by Hanson ( I am so lucky that he was game for that!)  After we were done we baked them in the oven at 350 for 20 min.  Now we have these cute mugs.

4. Caramel Apple Spice Starbucks Copy Cat
So we got this amazing hot chocolate maker for Christmas and we put it to great use.  To make it you just combine apple juice, caramel and clove.  This bad boy mixes, heats, and froths it for us but you could easily do this on the stove.  Then top with whipped cream and more caramel.  Oh its so good!

5.  I don't have a picture for this but it was a fun night.  We went to a thrift shop and had a $10 spending limit and went out separate ways.  We each picked out a gift for the other.  Sean on this occasion found a super cute bread box and I scored a badminton set.  This was a very fun one.

Well there are just a couple of things that have come out of our date night jar.  I will post some more as we do them. Have fun shaking up your routine.

Brigham Turns One!

So back in June our sweet little Brigham turned one.  I cant believe how fast the time has gone!  He is a miracle in our lives and that is for sure.  If you know me you may know that I have stage 4 endometriosis.  To put it simply its scar tissue all over my uterus, bladder and intestines.  This scar tissue causes serious pain in my body, some days its all I can do to get myself out of bed.  I am lucky and extremely happy when I have a day that I do not get to experience the pain.  Besides daily pain it can cause infertility, in fact I was told it would be very difficult for me to get pregnant as the scar tissue pretty much covered everything.  Sean and I were married in April of  2011 and in October 2011 (Sunday of General Conference in fact) we had the most wonderful surprise of our lives, we were PREGNANT!! I truly felt the Lord blessed me with the thing I wanted most in my life, to be a mother.   The excitement about being parents seemed to grow everyday.

  At 12 weeks we went to a high risk pregnancy center to just take a look and see if everything was going smoothly.  Going in we didn't think we would do the blood test to see what the risk of having a child with down syndrome was because we did not care, however we changed our mind and decided it would be good to be prepared.  It turns out we had next to no chance of having a child with down syndrome.

 They then began the usual examination and we discovered a few issues.  First I had placenta previa, which means the placenta was in the way of the birth canal so they wanted to keep an eye on it.  Then it was that I had a Bicornuate uterus that was also Septate.  What that means is my uterus was heart shaped instead of the usual pear and then there was a wall dividing it further into two pieces.   This meant that Brigham had a high chance of pre-term labor (as early as 25 weeks) because he had half the space and it was oddly shaped he would just run out of room.  It also meant needing a C-section because the chance of being breach was so high. Being Bicornuate or septate alone  would make it hard to get pregnant but combining them together and with my endometriosis it was a complete miracle that I was pregnant.

  Later we discovered that Brigham's umbilical cord was a two vessel cord instead of three.  Now this means a couple of things, first that could be a major sign indicating down syndrome and it could also mean that he would not get enough nutrition, so he would be smaller and may need to be delivered via C-section.   While these things seemed to make our pregnancy a little scary we still felt blessed to have this baby become a part of our family.

 The Lord truly had a hand in our little mans life because he was born at 39 weeks at 6lbs. 15oz and 19 inches long which surprised even the doctors!  I love him more then he will ever know and I hope that I can raise him to be the man he is meant to become!  Anyways here are some pictures taken by canico studios of his birthday party!

Sock Pants

My absolute favorite pair of pants that Brigham has ever worn are sock pants!!  I am a sucker for skinny jeans especially when little babies are involved so I saw a pin one day of super cute pants for my sweet boy made of socks and thought well that has to be the most brilliant idea ever.  So I made them and as soon as I put them on him I was obsessed!  I mean look at how cute he is!!

What you will need:
a pair of socks (got a pack of men's basic black socks from walmart but women's socks have really cute patterns)
scissors
some means of sewing

What to do:

1.  Simply cut along the heel of both socks

2. Cut off the toes

3.  Turn sock inside out. Sew the right sides of the socks together adjusting towards the top (where the toes were) for your babies waist

4.  Turn sewn socks right side out
5.  Fold over the tops so the cut edge is inside the pants and sew the waist

 

 

I hope you enjoy these super simple, super cute pants!

OK just one more of Briggs because he is just too adorable!



*photos of Brigham by Canico Studios

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken with Potato Stuffed Tomato

ok you are probably thinking what??  But trust me this is tasty and super simple to prepare.

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast
Garlic
Brown Sugar
Lime
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Instructions:
Mix together all the ingredients to your taste and sprinkle on top of the chicken and bake at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Potato stuffed Tomato:

Ingredients:

Mashed Potatoes:
Any potato you like
garlic
salt
pepper
butter
milk

Tomato (the bigger the better)
Salt

Instructions:
Boil your potatoes, when they are tender drain the water and add garlic, salt, pepper, butter, and milk as well as any other ingredients you prefer in your mashed potatoes.
Core your tomato ( you want it to look like a bread bowl but its a tomato bowl instead!)  Sprinkle it with salt on the inside.   Fill it with your mashed potatoes and broil it until the potatoes brown.  Take out of the oven and enjoy!!

Happily Ever After

Yesterday was mine and my sweethearts 2 year anniversary (I know its a day late but we ditched school and were out and about all day celebrating.)  Sean and I both went to Green Valley High School he was a year ahead of me.  I remember the first time that I saw him at early morning seminary I thought "that is the cutest boy I have ever seen."  I crushed on him silently all of high school but we never spoke to each other or hung out together.

 Shortly before Sean left on his mission to the Philippines we started to hang out because my little sister was crushing on his best friend Jason.  I never had such a connection with someone.  I mean instantly I felt like this kid was my best friend.  I had so much fun with him and he treated me so great, then came the lame road trip that he went on.  As he left he said he would give me a call when he got back... lets just say he never called me and went on his mission!! RUDE!!

  After being out in the field for a few months Sean finally wrote me to apologize for what happened before his mission.  We then began to write each other.  Every time I got a letter from Sean it seemed to come at the most perfect time in my life.

 

  I was dating this boy up at school, whenever I prayed about it the Lord told me to talk about marriage with him,  this was a very hard time in my life and I lost a very, very dear friend in the process.  Did I mention that the entire time Sean was on his mission Kelsey was passing me information and reminding me of  Sean's importance in my life! 

When fall of 2010 came around I was planning on moving home to have a diagnostic surgery done on me, my boyfriend at the time and I broke up.  I moved back home, had the surgery and felt this sense of peace with the end of that relationship.

 Sean came home from his mission and I anxiously waited to see him, I had this all planned out.  My best friend Kelsey and I went shopping and bought the perfect dress to wear to his homecoming talk, I would walk in wearing "the dress" my hair and makeup done perfectly and Sean would be in awe.  It did not go down like this at all.  Sean called me and invited me to play wallyball with his family this meant I would be in sweats, hair in a pony and no makeup (also me looking ridiculous as the surgery I had was in my stomach and I wasn't fully recovered)  I had such an amazing time.

 Let me sum up from here, after 1 week we knew we would get married,  we were engaged in December and Married in April 9, 2011 the best day of my life!!

  I don't know if I could ever fully express how much I love this man, the Lord truly blessed me in having this amazing man as my eternal companion.  He makes me laugh harder then anyone ever has, I mean he full on gets me to wheeze which has never happened before.  He is so loving and patient with me as well as the most amazing father I have ever seen.  Sean wanted me despite my being "broken" and has made my world so amazing!  I love him so much and look forward to an eternity together!  He is my happily ever after!

 

Photos taken by Canico studios

BBQ Chicken Pizza on Sourdough Crust

Like I have said before I love sourdough pizza, so today I am sharing this scrumptious recipe!
SOURDOUGH PIZZA CRUST
Ingredients:
1 1/4 Cups of warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cup Sourdough Starter
3-3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.  Sprinkle yeast into warm water and sugar.  Stir and let it proof.
3.  Mix in oil, sourdough starter, salt and half of the flour.
4.  Gradually add in remaining flour until the it becomes a dough.
5.  Knead until it is smooth and elastic.
6.  Put in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides, cover with a cloth and let it rise until double about an hour.
7.  Punch down and pull in half.  shape your two pizza crusts.
8.  Prebake crust for 10 minutes.  It might fill with air, you can just poke it when its done and press done to flatten.
9.  Brush with olive oil before topping.  Once topped bake for about 20 minutes at 425 until the crust is brown and the toppings cooked.

BBQ Chicken
Ingredients:
4 Chicken breast (more or less depending on the size)
1 Jar of BBQ sauce ( I just buy the cheapest at the store)
3 Cloves garlic
1/2 Red onion sliced
Mozzarella
Cilantro

Instructions:
1.)  Cook chicken with the spices of your choice
2.)  Shred chicken,  I use a hand mixer.
3.)  Add chicken to BBQ sauce, and garlic.
4.)  Pour on your pizza crust
5.)  Top with  onion, cilantro, and mozzarella
6.)  Bake until crust is finished.