jumping the gun???.....gun jumped

I have mentioned before that I am a total winter lover! But as much as I love winter I also love the change of seasons. So this year for some odd reason I just couldn't wait for spring to get here so that I could start my flowers and veggie garden. Well with it still being nose hair freezing outside I decided to start my plants in the house. See, now lots of people start plants in their house, its a good way to plant a veggie and flower garden for a lot cheaper. But where the not so smart part came in is when I decided to start my veggies and flowers in.......(ahem)..March.

 Zinnia's and Cosmo's 1 week after planted

1 week after planted

2 weeks after planting

About a month after planting

Ran low on places to stick the dang things!

One month upgraded from egg shells to T.P. rolls. Ha ha aint I professional

 (Zinnia & Cosmo's)

2 months
(Veggies,Zinnia's, Cosmo's, and painted daisies) 

2 1/2 months Sadly this is the best they have looked. By this point  my poor squashes needed to be outside. But the weather  was still to risky when you can have every kind of weather within three hours......so it was still about two weeks after this before I was able to safely plant them outside....by that time they were kinda looking a little on the sad side. But oh well....

I was very excited to get my living room back to my living room after everything was planted. Note to self next year.....do the same thing....just maybe a month OR MORE later. Patience ....something I am working on, its just taking to long.

2 1/2 months
Sadly this is the best they have looked. By this point  my poor squashes needed to be outside. But the weather  was still to risky when you can have every kind of weather within three hours......so it was still about two weeks after this before I was able to safely plant them outside....by that time they were kinda looking a little on the sad side. But oh well....

He's one year old and wiser to!

Monday was Hank's birthday....the day started out early ( I don't know the time.....to early is all I know) Hank got to open one gift in the morning....( got to drag out the fun right) After he opened his present he headed off to work and I rolled back over and slept for another 10ish minutes until my alarm went off. What a great wife I am huh.

I had fun wrapping this one. There was one more layer on top of this and three under. Took me about 30 minutes to wrap, and about just as long for him to unwrap it ha ha......but it was wrapped in love.

Almost there...

I forgot to buy candles... so cardboard and tissue paper had to work

After work surprise...( actually, after the shower surprise. Hank came home earlier then I expected)

WARNING...Mushy wife bragging ahead

There are to many to count, but a few reasons why I love this man...because I know you were wondering

1. He always makes me laugh
2. He's brave.....he never screams when we have unexpected mice run across our floor. And he always empties the traps for me.( And he hasn't chased me with any dead mouse traps in a long long time)
3.He has a huge heart.
4. He makes ordering food at a restaurants so much easier....he usually gets the other meal I'm torn between getting....and he always lets me have a bite.....or two....or three :)
5. He lets me sleep where ever I want in bed...and yes, I will admit usually it  is on his side, and  halfway on top of him at times in the night.
6. Even though he HATES it he will let me warm my feet up on him ( most days)
7. He loves his family!
8. He's always there when I need something off the top shelf
9. He lets me sleep with the fan on every night.....year round.
10. He lets me listen to the radio as loud as I want in the car
11. He sings to the radio in the car ( one of the first things I loved about him when we were dating)
12. He's my own personal Bob the Builder. Always there to fix the things I break.
13.He never complains when I take all the hot water in the shower ( in my defense there is never a whole lot to start with)
14. He lets me go to work with him and ride in the tractor even though it is DEFIANTLY a one person tractor.
15. He is a hard worker.
16. He always gives me a goodbye and hello kiss.
17. Even when I'm moody he still he loves me! ( Not a easy thing to do some days)
okay so there is a few more then a few....but its hard to stop at two or three......

I am so grateful for this man, and am so glad that he is willing to grow old and wrinkly with me.

Here's to a great 26th year!!!!

Year.....1...2...3!!!!!

March 12th  marked 3 years from the day...

 I stayed up all night doing homework, so I could email my assignments to my professors,

I felt the biggest butterflies known to man in my stomach,

I endured the longest drive to Twin Falls in my life,

I walked into the Temple with my parents as Mekala Koyle,

I put on a pretty white dress,

I held my fiance's hand for the last time,

I held my husbands hand for the FIRST time,

I came out of Temple as Mekala Bingham,

 I made the BEST decision in my life!!!

Where does the time go!?

 A few weeks back we decided to change our regular anniversary trip this year. In years past (the last 2) we have gone to Boise to celebrate, but this year we wanted to do something new. We decided to go to Pocatello . Really we only decided Pocatello because it had a cool hotel we wanted to stay in. 

Our plans had to change because Hank had some things come up with work (joys of being a farmer's wife). We didn't go on our anniversary we just pushed it to the weekend. 

The first stop was in Malta, we stayed the night at my Brother and Sister in laws house.  It is always fun to visit family. Thanks again Zeb and Jami!

 Friday morning/afternoon we were on the road again....

We didn't have a time schedule to follow so we had a nice relaxing ride ahead. On the way we drove by massacre rock and decided to check it out. It was fun to walk around and look at all the names carved into the rocks.

It sure would have been smart if I had actually read any of the signs telling the story behind why its called massacre rock......but I didn't. So now we will just have make up the story.



I think my favorite part was the shower/tub. To fill  the tub it came out of the water pump into the bucket. It was a deep jet tub so it made a nice waterfall.

The shower head was a watering can. It was pretty sweet! Although the only down fall is from where I stand in the shower ( 5'2) by the time the water would get to my head the stream of water coming out of the can was already spread out. So it was hard to get all the soap off when only about three of the holes from the watering can actually hit my head. But other then that....it was sweet! (just  meant I had to take a longer shower....shucks ;)

Our little friend who stayed in the room with us.

On the way home we stopped at Walmart for a few last minute groceries, when I realized we hadn't taken a picture together all weekend.( I'm totally sucking at the picture taking department these days) so we took a quick picture. I know, we're fancy!

Marriage has been the most amazing journey and I am grateful that Hank is the one I get to share the ride with!

Mr & Mrs Whittle

 On February 2nd we added a new member to the Koyle clan. Gentry and Thomas were married in the Twin Falls Temple. 

I totally slacked at taking pictures; there were to many people I wanted to talk to. But here are a few shots from throughout the day

The happy couple! 

Missing a few members but it still was a wonderful day!

The get away ride ;) This was a sweet rocking horse someone made for them

Love you both! Welcome to the family Thomas! 

Spring Fever

So I'm a girl who loves me some winter! Really, I know people think I'm crazy but I love the cold gloomy days of winter. They make me smile all the down into my belly! But I am also always excited for the change of seasons. The other day we made it to a whole 32 degrees outside (it has warmed up even more in the last week). In January we had I think 4 days that were above freezing so it was a cold  month. But it was feeling really warm outside, so what do I do....I head outside with my work cloths on and my shovel in hand. I got started cleaning out my flower beds, trimming my bushes, and pulling out dead weeds. Trying to make room for spring to move in. I worked outside for a while and it just made me feel so good.  But eventually the cold made its way into my insides and I had to head back inside.  Something about getting dirt under your fingernails makes a girl feel alive again! 

Here's a little something that I am excited to see again ....flowers!
 April showers bring May flowers!!!!

Can we fix it.....YES WE CAN!!!!

My aunt Wendy sent Hank and I a package at the beginning of December  (I get SUPER excited to get mail that is not junk mail or bills....so a  actual package, I can't even explain to you how excited I was). When we opened it I saw it was a ginger bread house. I have not put one of these together in a long time so I was excited. But when I opened it I was crushed to see this cute little house.........in pieces!!! I guess it got shook a few to many times in the mail. But  little did I know that it being all broken would make it a whole lot more fun!

 Now it was a good smelling puzzle. Nothing a little hot glue can't fix

Piece by piece we built our ginger bread house......and I mean piece by piece, there were some TINY pieces!!! 

Look look......it looks like a house again!

for some reason the humpty dumpty story kept popping my in head

 Hank was GREAT with helping me glue it back together....he even had fun doing it. But when it came to decorating,  his interest was pretty much not there. So I had lots of fun listening to Christmas music and decorating our ginger bread house that we built from the card board up :)

Thank you Aunt Wendy if you ever send us another ginger bread house…..make sure to give it a few shakes. We kinda thought that was a pretty fun way to do it!

Almond joys

Here is another one of my Christmas treats I made to take to my neighbor. They were super yummy, but they took some time.

These are all the ingredients you need

NOTE: It's smart to look at the amount a ingredients the recipe calls for. Whoops!

First I started out mixing the powdered sugar, butter, and sweetened condensed milk together. SLOWLY add in the powdered sugar....if you do it to fast...POOF! You will be covered in a cloud of  white that will leave everything sticky
 ( just take me word for it ;)

After the powdered sugar is mixed in, start adding in the coconut.  I had to  grab a bigger bowl. For all of you  who have a mixer ( LUCKY) this will be much easier then using a hand mixer.

Next stick the coconut mixture in the fridge to chill.

 Now on to toasting your almonds.

Toast your almonds just enough to not look like this! This happens very fast, as soon as you can smell them take them out of the oven!!!!

I used a Tablespoon to  to measure out  some of the coconut mixture before rolling into a ball.  

Next add your toasted almond ( remember...not the burnt ones) . Stick these in the freezer while you melt the chocolate. 

Melt your chocolate......but not to the point of looking like this!

It should look like this :)

Leave the coconut balls in the freezer till they are firm enough they wont fall apart when dipped in the chocolate. I found using a fork and a tooth pick worked the best for dipping and sliding onto the wax paper.

Ta-Dah!!!! Don't they look scrumptious!

MY ALTERATIONS/NOTES
Remember when I said to look at the amount of ingredients the recipe calls for....well I didn't do that. I got all the stuff and when I started to make it I realized the amount this recipe was going to make. Needless to say it was about 3x more then what I was planning to make. I also would make the almond joys about half of a tablespoon, they were super yummy but I like a little more almond with my coconut, so making the coconut ball a little smaller would solve that problem :)  When I make this in the future I will be cutting the recipe in half. At a tablespoon per ball it made about 75 almond joys.
(I know some of you are wondering; but no I am not a food photographer, could have fooled you huh...okay okay...I will work on it.)

Oh and the pictures of what "not" to do...I did those on purpose. ;)

Homemade Almond Joy

14 oz - sweetened condensed milk
1 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2 14 oz bag sweetened flaked coconut
1-2 24 oz pkg. chocolate almond bark or dark chocolate chips
1-1 1/2 cup whole almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, spread raw almonds onto a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

In the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, on medium speed, blend the sweetened condensed milk, butter and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, mixing until smooth. On low speed add the coconut a little at a time and mix until thoroughly combined with the powdered sugar mixture. The mixture will be thick. Place mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the coconut mixture from the refrigerator. With clean hands shape one tablespoon of coconut into a little log about 2 inches long and 3/4-inch thick. Press the coconut mixture together very well so they don’t crack when dipped. Place the log on the lined baking sheet and continue until all of the coconut mixture is gone. Rinse hands occasionally if they get too sticky. Press an almond on top of each coconut log. It might not completely stick. That’s ok. Place the baking sheet in the freezer to chill while you melt the chocolate.

In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave 2-4 minutes at 30 SECOND intervals until chocolate is melted. Remove the coconut candies from the freezer. Place one coconut almond log on a fork (I use my meat fork to my silverware). Use a spoon to scoop a bit of chocolate over the almond. This will help the almond stick to the candy and not fall off during dipping. Lower fork into chocolate and spoon chocolate over candy to coat. Lift fork and gently shake to release some of the chocolate. Scrape the bottom of the fork along the side of the bowl and place on the lined baking sheet. You might need a toothpick to help get the candy off the fork. Repeat until all candy is coated in chocolate. If chocolate get thick, just return to the microwave and heat for another 30 seconds.

Let dipped candy harden for 45 minutes. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. If you need to layer the candy in a container, use waxed paper to separate the layers.