Oreo Truffles

Check out this awesome quick recipe on this new awesome blog... grab a button and follow us, you won't regret it! Click HERE  for it all! :)

Chicken Stir Fry

If something was made at home does that mean it's homemade?  For dinner tonight we had some DELICIOUS chicken stir fry, and get this it was soooo easy!  Most of you know that we go all out for dinner, mostly consisting of cereal every night so this was a major step up! Proud? I am.  But before you get to excited I should tell you something else, you to can have this EXACT meal.  All you need to do is head over to your nearest grocery store and buy it! Okay my secret is out... at least it wasn't cereal right? 

Pretty easy right, place on oven and heat up!

 Last night we invited ourselves over to our good friends house for dinner, unlike me she is faithful every night and is becoming an amazing cook.  Go HERE to see what we ate last night... it was yummmy!  Thanks Ashley for the inspiration,  slowly and surely I promise I will become a better homemaker and make something more than frozen meals and cereal! :) Sorry Babe, you will just have to be patient until that day comes. :)

A little "Fishy"

Howdy, happy Tuesday!
Now that the first week of preschool is over I feel like I can breath a little more.  It was really stressful going there for a while but I am finally fitting into my roll and getting used to everything I have to do.  Hallelujah! So I already taught once but our next weeks lesson is all about different animals.  I am teaching on Fish (like goldfish as pets) and am hoping I can pick your brains for some new creative ideas.  Being in the preschool for 3 semesters now I have seen lots of original activities  dealing with fish.  So any new ideas?  Activities?  Crafts? Things to teach about?  Stories? Remember product not process (not having a sample for the children to follow...) Let me know your ideas, I greatly appreciate it! :)

So this is why I go home.

I love going home!  Babe dropped me off at the bus at like 2 on Friday and I got home around 6.  Kyron and I went to Mindy and Mikes for some ice cream and games!  The next morning dad and I braved the fog went to Winco to do some quick shopping, we met up with Mindy and family, talked dad into getting lots of candy, taught Joshy about beer and coffee (always an adventure shopping with dad!) After our shopping trip I headed back to Mindys for some lunch and to start organizing her office.    *Sidenote I LOVE organizing and so I pretty much invited myself over to do it... After organizing the office we headed to the kitchen to master grandmas gingersnap cookies.  Mindy has been working at this non stop for a few weeks now and this weekend she finally mastered them!  

I also had to keep up my reputation of favorite aunt so I went on a date to the movies with Katelyn :) We even ran into Auklin while there.  We watched Hotel Transylvania (if you have not seen it you really should it's pretty cute!) ate lots of popcorn, and enjoyed our time together.  Right after dropping Katelyn off at home Kyron and I headed to Kasey's and Chelsi's  to do a little babysitting so they could enjoy one last night as parents of 2.  We ate dinner, took pictures, gave baths, cleaned the house, and put the boys in bed all before 7:30.  Sunday we met Greysin if you want to see more pictures of him go HERE.  I would say it was a pretty eventful weekend with lots of time with family, which was just what I needed.  

pretty good eh? Who's next? :)

All the difference is in flour! 

Greysin Blake Craven

I had the chance to go down to Layton this weekend and welcome my adorable new nephew Greysin Blake into our family! That makes my 6th nephew (I'll have 7 in May!) We got to the hospital early so we wouldn't miss any of the fun, and got a few pictures in before the little guy was here. 

Just before heading into the delivery room!

 7.7 19" born at 10:06 on Sunday January 27, 2013.  Welcome to our crazy family little man!  We are so glad you are finally here! You have 2 awesome big brothers that are going to love you to pieces, you are one lucky boy!  We love you Greysin.  

I don't mean to brag but I am pretty much the favorite aunt already! :) 

I seriously have THE cutest nephews Auklin, Kanyin, and now Greysin :) 

Stressed...

It's the weekend (almost!) and I am still trying to cross things off of my huge To Do list.  I get to teach tomorrow and as excited as I am to do that it is so stressful, until it's over that is.  Today has been none stop ALL day, I just got home after being kicked out of the Clarke for closing.  I still feel like I have so much to do for tomorrows lesson (when actually I most likely don't have that much but if you know me at all then you know that I am going to over thing EVERYTHING!) So I am just crossing my fingers that everything will go over well tomorrow.  My hardest thing is staying on schedule so thats my goal... I just hope I can do it! :)
Just about the only thing getting me through this weekend is knowing that I get to go home and spend time with my family!  My sister is having her baby boy on Sunday and so I just have to go down! :)  I am trying to get Babe to go with me but he is such a hard worker and doesn't want to get out of work on Saturday to go with me.  I hate being away from him but I need to go down every chance I can because I don't know when I will not be able to do that anymore.  Scary thought. As stupid as it sounds I am also really excited to go down so that I can help my other sister organize her office.  I LOVE organizing and so I talked her into letting me help her (like it was really that hard to talk someone into letting them clean your house...) I am also just excited to see her kids and spend some time with them.  It's going to be a gooood weekend! :)  I just hope I can make it that far!  If I can just get my mind to stop wandering so I can get some sleep then I think that will help.  But lets be real, like that will happen. Well I really should get back to work... So much to do in so little time!  Wish me luck!

Thankful for this boy tonight, he is such a blessing to me!

Firsts...

Today was the first day of preschool. The first day I was totally in charge. The first day of my last semester here working with children.  It was a pretty big day for me!  I was worried about today and told Babe that as long as no children got hurt or died then I would have succeeded. I also told this to my professor and he told me "I think you should raise your bar a little bit..."  I just figured as long as that is my bar height then everyday will be a good day! (hopefully...) Well, thats how I want to look at it.  We were on schedule all day except for getting the children over to closing circle and getting ready for check in check out.  We were just having so much fun in our focus activities (we were making ice cream in bags! (freeezing, but so yummmy!) If you want to try it this is our recipe we used, just go HERE.  We didn't use rock salt though but normal salt worked great (you just have to have lots :))
I have some struggles with one of the girls in my lab but I am working on getting over those... Ugh!  Sometimes its hard to be in charge... ;) Other than that I love my lab, we all work well together and have fun getting to know each other also.
I am so blessed to work with children everyday.  Seriously, I could be having the worst day and then they totally change it around.  They tell you the funniest things like today...

I was helping a little girl get on her coat and mentioned I liked all the snowflakes on it. She told me she also loved snowflakes and would eat them! I just kind of laughed when she said, "I love eating them and catching them on my tongue and then when I do they melt and turn into my poop.  I just poop them out and then eat some more."  

I could not stop laughing, where do kids come up with this stuff?  :) And if you know me at all then you know that poop is one of  my favorite words.  Mature right? ;) So that made it even more funny!  I just love working with these spirit children and learning from them.   I love Matthew 18: 2-6

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

What a powerful set of scriptures isn't it?  I just love working with children, I can't say that enough.  I love my major.  I love being an advocate for children.  I love learning about their development.  I love spending my time thinking about fun things for them to do each day.  I love learning about simple things that that I never thought about before.  (Did you know butterflies make a chrysalis, not a cocoon? The story "The Hungry Caterpillar" teaches it wrong... pointless information, but its something I learned in preschool! :)) What a blessing it is to LOVE what I do, it really makes going to school more of a hobby then a chore! :)  

How do you do it?

Calling all those who are living away from their families! How do you do it?
Let me explain... if you know me, to say I love being around my family is a understatement.  I don't know what I would do without them.  I am the kind of person who would LOVE to live right next door to my parents, or even live with them.  If you think I am crazy I may be.  We lived with my in-laws over the summer and I even loved that!  I HATE HATE HATE being so far away from my family.  All of my siblings live within 5 minutes of my parents house, except me.  I hate that.  I hate not being around for game nights, sunday night movies, bachelorette/bachelor parties, birthdays, holidays, craft days, going to my moms for lunch and dinner, running errands with my mom, hanging out with my niece and nephews... I really could keep going but I think you have the idea. While I am at home and doing these things it doesn't seem like that big of a deal but when I am here and they are doing them I would give just about anything to be there with them!  I hate being so far away and not being able to see my family everyday and just hang out like all my siblings get to do.  I am so jealous of my sisters and how close they are.  I know I am selfish when I say I hate that my 2 new nephews won't get to know me that well and I wont get to be their favorite aunt (like I am to all the others :)).  I have always wanted my kids to grow up close to their cousins and be best friends with them, but being so far away I don't think this can happen while they are young (not an announcement ...)

 I know that it was my choice to live here but it still doesn't make it any easier.  I am not a big fan of talking on the phone (no joke, I have to set goals to call my mom more), so that also doesn't really help. I am alway too busy to Skype or other things like that, so unless I am at home I don't really see or talk to my family. I find out more from Facebook sometimes... sad isn't it?  I know.  So this is where I need you. If you are like me and are a home body how do you deal with living far away from your family? What has worked for you?  Is there anything?  Babe and I were talking about when we might be moving to chiropractic school and that we'll be even further away (I thought the 4 hours was bad...). I was crying the whole way home from Inkom thinking about being so far away.  So please, I need your help. It might not seem like that big of a deal to you but to me it is huge. What works best? I know in the long run 5 years or so won't be that long and then we can move back home, but in the moment it's going to seem like forever!  Is there any secret I was left out on that you all would share with me now? Thanks all, and any suggestions are welcome :)

Craven Family

Hunt Family 

This would all be so much easier if I didn't have such an amazing family and in-laws.... Ugh! Why do I have to be sooo blessed ;)

Inkom is...

Babe and I decided last minute to come down to Inkom on Sunday afternoon for Civil Rights Day!  We got to surprise everyone here which was fun and we got to have some AMAZING cinnamon roll cake (go HERE if you want the recipe).  For those of you thinking "what about your sweets fast?" we came to the conclusion that we get 1 day of sweets a week (limited).  That way we can still have feel healthier but get to have a little taste of something amazing every once and a while.
Sitting here watching babe put up his parents blinds I started thinking about Inkom and came up with a little list of "Inkom is"

Inkom (home) is:

Beautiful in every season, rich colors in the fall, and white all around in the winter! 

Away from all the hub bub of the city

Quiet (depending on who is around...)

Relaxing

A breath of fresh air- like literally

Cold

Where memory's are made

Where people fall in Love (don't believe me? Ask Lindsay& Travis, Drew & Ashley, or Babe and I just to name a few!)

Tiny, a place where everyone knows everyone

Is being in your PJS all day and no one caring (or knowing... haha)

Home made cooking 

Going on motorcycle/4 wheel rides whenever you want

Sledding down HUGE hills

1600 acres of family land to hike around 

Dreaming about our future home (maybe)

Star gazing

Game playing

Movie watching

Puzzle working

Couch reclining 

House projects

Where I get to learn about different cultures (hard not to with multiple exchange students from all over the world!)

Cross country skiing

Camping

Horse back riding

A place for getting over my fears

I took these on our drive to my in laws yesterday!  Isn't it just beautiful!?

I could go on but I think you get the idea.  Pretty much lets just say it was about time we came down anyway, with school the way it is its such a relief to get away from it all.  Even if it's only for a day! Now we are all ready for another week of school until next weekend when we head down to Layton (don't get me started on "Layton is") to meet our new nephew on the 27th! :) Can't wait to meet the little guy!

New Look

What do you think!? I guess all of my begging paid off, because my best friend Ashley helped me out (lets be honest she did it all...).  She is pretty amazing if you ask me and figured out how to do a whole bunch of cute things.  I finally have a cute blog!  Go ahead a grab my button now, I'll grab yours!  Thanks for everything Ashley your amazing, to check out her amazing blog go HERE!  Now I guess I have to come up with something blog worthy to blog about, cause obviously blogging about preschool is not the entertaining (thanks Jillisa for the heads up...).  Well here's to a new blog!  I hope you enjoy because I sure am!

Remember this picture Ashley? So long ago! But still one of my favorites!

Craft day!

I see a theme going on here.... I think while babe is at work I get a little lonely and try to make it up with crafts!  That wouldn't be bad except for the fact that we have NO place on any of our walls or shelf's to put any more crafts.  I think I am addicted. All well as long as babe is working I am crafting :) The day started off with all of my supervisor friends (preschool) coming over and decorating our smocks for our last semester in the labs :(  I am so lucky to have so many great girls to work with, it makes going to school and working our butt's off so much easier!

I went a little button crazy but hey it was fun!  Now the trick is getting all the buttons to stay on from the hot glue so I don't have to sew them all on individually! 

I Love Preschool!!

Then I headed over to Ashley's for a little R&C (relaxation and crafts... I may or may not have just made that up...) And I got to see little adorable Abbi so that made it all worth it! :)  We decided to try for a new Valentines day craft, since we have no money I went cheap with just using things I already had around the house.  Ashley made adorable mod podge scrapbook letters that I might have to copy and make anyway (check it out HERE).  I am not totally finished yet but I will have the word LOVE spelled out, 1 letter on each block, and a heart on the last one!  I'm pretty excited about it, even though I have no idea where I am going to put it... But that's a challenge for another day! 

What do you think? For not being to crafty it was pretty easy... I guess I need to check pintrest for some more ideas before February comes (only 1 more Saturday in January to make something for Valentines day!!) Let me know if you have any easy/cheap ideas as well! 

Feelings..

Do you ever just put up a good face for so long that you get a little sick of it and just want to feel what you are feeling then instead of feeling like you shouldn't be feeling like that? (Thats a lot of feelings...) I am a firm believer in feeling a little:

Overwhelmed

Exhausted

Home sick

Sad

Hopeless

Depressed

Helpless

Angry

And who am I kidding I am feeling all of those right now... It's just been one of those month/week days.  But I also believe that if you do feel these, then its okay for a while but jump back up, put on a good face, and change your attitude so thats what I am doing.  I know the Lord has a plan for me and even though I can't see it now I have faith in my patriarchal blessing, scriptures, and prophets and I know that it will all work out in the end. I need to look for the positive now and thats what I am going  to do... tomorrow!  Tonight I just want to feel a little sad for myself, cuddle a little closer to babe, watch a good movie, forget about homework, and have a little popcorn.  Yup. That should do it!  I'll see you tomorrow  all bright eyed and cheery again! :) 

Blog Jealousy!

So I am kinda really jealous over the really cute blogs out there.  My best friend just won a blog makeover and now her blog is sooo cute! Not that it wasn't before, that's why I am jealous.  ;)  She has figured out a lot of the little things that I can't and I am having major blog envy.  If you want to check out her new blog go HERE.  She has helped me figure out some things but I think its time for another lesson, okay Ashley? Maybe her blog is so cute because of Abbi her adorable little girl, maybe I just need to have a baby to have a cute blog... that's a good reason right? ;) Stay tuned maybe I can also win a blog face lift of my own... but in the mean time, do you have any suggestions on new blog titles?  One with Hunt or our names maybe?  I can't think of any and I want it to be different, fun, creative, and deep... So if you have any ideas PLEASE help a girl out and leave a comment or F-Book me or something.  I'm kinda desperate :) Thanks!

New Toy

My computer (or should I say babes computer I stole started to use) is finally pooping out on me.  Its not good when I need a computer everyday for class writing lesson plans, keeping records, making thing for lessons etc... It was being dumb last semester but now its hardly working.  I can't be on the internet for more than like 5 minutes without it freezing.  I can't do multiple things at once without it freezing... and it does really weird other stuff.  So long story short I am finally getting a new one.  We have been researching deals for a while now and babe didn't want me to get another PC because they poop out to much and he loves his Mac so he talked me into it.  I am not so excited to learn a whole new system and I am nervous about how it will work with the documents I already have... Well we found a good deal on a 2011 Macbook Pro basically brand new so we bought it.  I ended up with babe's old computer and he got the new one... not sure how that really happened but he says I won't even know the difference (minus the lighted keyboard :( which I wanted.)  But at least I can now do my homework in less time without having to take 15 minute breaks every 5 minutes to let my computer rest.  Wish me luck! :) 

Crafts crafts crafts!

Babe worked all day today and after finishing whatever homework I wanted to do all my homework I decided to do some crafts!  Thought I would share :) 

The bottom of the vase is still drying but you get the idea :)  Cute hu?!  Thanks for the idea McKenna :)

Winter wreath, still looking for one for my front door.  Any suggestions!?

Curly Bows

Pink bow attached to a headband 

Grey flower attached to headband

Felt  flowers

White lace flowers

Yellow lace flower attached to headband

Yellow lace flowers

Satin flowers

Fabric flowers

Black and rainbow bows 

Valentines bow

Green ribbon flower

 3 Flowers attached to headband

Christmas trees! 

2 flowers attached to a head band 

White lace flower

Elephant 

White headbands

Black headbands

I think a got a little carried away but hey it gave me something to do all day! :) 

Living in Rexburg...

Winter comes every year, and we know that but somehow you always forget about how cold the winter really can get.  Babe is working today so I am just praying the roads are not as bad today and the he gets back to me safely! 

Stay warm everyone its nose hair freezing out there!

Always changing..

Dating, Engaged, Married, Now!

Life is always changing.  Its crazy to look back and see where I was a year ago, two, three... We might have the chance to have our life change a lot faster then we ever imagined (no I am not pregnant.) It's just crazy to think about things like that.  This is my LAST semester (hopefully!)  And then we might be moving on.  It's kinda hard being married sometimes because once your done your you still have to be at a school until your husband is.  Bummer.  But I guess I'll take the challenge just because I love him sooo much!  ;) I guess this just means lots of time on our knees trying to figure out what is in store for us next... To be determined...

School is...

School is:

Crazy busy.

Hard work.

Exciting.

Challenging.

Leading. 

Time consuming.

Adventurous.

Loads of homework.

Teaching. 

Spending time with friends.

Living in the Clarke.

Being in control.

Practicing to delegate.

Facing my fears.

Learning new things.

Asking questions.

Sleepless nights.

Headaches.

Funny.

A breath of fresh air.

Nerve racking.

Prioritizing.

Frustrating.

Early mornings.

Long days.

Lunch dates with Babe.

Confusing. 

Almost over!

This semester is crazy already.  I know what some of you might be thinking... "preschool? How hard is it to play with children all day?"  And all I have to say is, if you only knew!  It is way harder then I ever thought possible.  It's not like chemistry hard but more like figuring out immunization records (have you ever done that? NOT easy!)  Teaching children core skills that they need to develop in order to succeed  without them knowing that you are doing it. Planing 40+ activities a day that will entertain 20 children all at different stages and ages.  Try finding something to do for a young 3 year old to do that is also challenging for a advanced 5 year old.  Yeah, good luck! ;)   Oh and did I mention you spend about a month planning for 2 hours of class? And those are just my preschool classes (4 of those), not my special education class or observation and assessment class. I have found out new things about myself that I never knew before.  I get to spend everyday with all my preschool friends and amazing supervisors (we all get along sooo well and have SO much fun together.)  Class is just so much easier when you have friends with you, and amazing professors!  I love this school and I am blessed to go here.  I love starting every class day with a prayer (sometimes a song as well).  I love going to school with Matt and that he drops me off at my classes on the way to his. :) I love finding Babe on campus and walk around holding hands.  Life is just so much better with him by my side, it makes everyday seem a little better.

Tender Mercies

So I started school for the last first time today (hopefully, if I can get a class waved...) and boy does it feel good!  I couldn't even sleep last night because I was so excited, nervous, happy, sad, scared... ect.  I got really lucky last semester for preschool when I got put with 5 other girls.  We became instant friends, this semester it will take some more work but I am hoping it will be a good one.  And I'm the new supervisor so that brings on a lot of responsibility but I am excited for it.  We don't really ever have any of our professors in the class with us so really its all up to me, that's a lot of responsibility right there but if I can just get over some of my habits like having a hard time delegating or being afraid to tell other what to do I think I'll be fine.
Can I just say though the Lord knows me all to well.  He knows what is a challenge for me and how to help me over come it.  He knows that I need help in certain areas of my life that I am not really proud of.  He has a sense of humor and likes to joke with me sometimes.  He knows that I hate being alone in classes so he has blessed me with having at least 1 good friend in EVERY class I have which is a total blessing.  All in all the Lord knows me.  He knows you.  He is there for you and me if we just ask, and that my friends is just one of the many many tender mercies I can receive each day!

Parental Guidance

Babe and I have been talking about some of our new years resolutions and one of them is that we are going to go on scheduled dates (have to be things we don't normally do) at least 2 times a month, I plan one and he  plans one.  Well today was his.  We got some free movie tickets out of some cereal boxes and so we headed to Wingers before hand and then off to go see Parental Guidance click HERE for the trailer.  We don't normally have money to go and see a movie and dinner so it was nice that we got to do both for really cheap!  We even had the theater to ourselves (Rexburg is quiet a nice place when there are not thousands of college students running around!).  This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, VERY clean, funny, feel good, and inspirational- even babe teared up... I'm telling you this is a must see!  Sorry if your taste is not like mine but this is totally going on the "To buy" list!

Rexburg is so empty when school is not in session! 

Free tickets for eating cereal? okay! 

*Side note.  When Matt and I first got married we stared to collect all our change, at first it was just somewhere to put babes tip money but soon it really started to pile up.  We changed it to my camera fund money, I got more and more excited with every penny I put in there.  Since babe surprised me with my camera for Christmas it was time to empty the jar, and that's just what we did.  We decided that every year we are going to put that money towards something that we really want in that year and that is going to help us have the determination and desire to fill the jar!  Here's to another year, wish us luck!  Matt's wanting an I-pad... I guess we will see!

Almost full!

Looks so empty with only 5 cents in there...