Yummy banana chocolate bread!

Honestly I don't really do much that I think is brag-worthy in the kitchen. And this post isn't about my cooking abilities, or lack thereof, but rather about a pretty yummy recipe I came across!

The recipe: Two-toned Banana Bread

(I did milk, of course, instead of rum).

The result:
You can bet that this recipe was pretty easy, or else I wouldn't have had such a good outcome! Unfortunately, I have a husband who won't eat anything banana-related so I get to enjoy this bread pretty much all to myself...that might not be such a good thing! Anyway, I would give this recipe 4 stars and a vote that you should try it!

Greetings from the Villas!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped us move yesterday! I haven't really done much moving on that big of a scale (granted, we don't even have that much stuff yet) but I thought it went really well. Justin especially appreciated the help when it came to the heavy things, I'm so glad for strong men!

Anyway, we're all moved in now! Almost everything is in its place, only a few more pictures to hang. I think I have a sentimental block when it comes to moving, I love our new place and it is so much nicer than what we had before, but it doesn't feel like home yet. Hopefully that will change very quickly :-) Pictures will be posted shortly so stay tuned!

On another note... since we're moving and changing things around a bit in our lives, we thought we would add one more change! No we're not pregnant.... sorry to disappoint! Justin was accepted into Westminister College's MBA program and after meeting with an advisor and praying about it, we feel like it is the right time for it and the right place. So Justin, in just 1 week, will be adorning his backpack once more to head back to school. He's starting with a light load this first term, 1 class - 1 night a week, and then will move to 2 classes in the second term. He'll still be working at Pinnacle Security full time so he's going to be a very busy man for the next few years! Grad school was going to happen next fall it was looking like, but this blessing came a week or so again so we figured why not go ahead and get started on it!

Anyway that's a little update from the Blackhams. Hope everyone had a great weekend! And again, thank you so much to everyone who helped us move!!!!!

This Saturday!

We're moooooovvvviiinngggg!!! If you want to help it's our place this Saturday at 9:15 a.m. Be there or be not cool, or square, whichever :-) New locale: Pleasant Grove! wahoooooo!

Our little trip to Montana

This past Thursday Justin and I went up to Montana for a weekend (really a mini-mission reunion) with his mission President (Pres. and Sis. Hill) at their cabin on Lake Placid. It was a lengthy 8 hour trip through {boring} Idaho to and from but we had a blast in between the road trips. There were 8 mission buds (who are still Justin's best friends) that came along (including Justin), 1 other wife, 1 girlfriend and 2 work buds. Quite a large group, thankfully the cabin was spacious, with the exception of the lack of private rooms and only 1 bathroom! yikes..I thought that many guys using one bathroom would be awful but it worked out great. This group of guys have remained incredibly close every since their mission, some of them live together, most of them work together and they hang out constantly so of course we loved spending time with them playing around on a lake.

Friday we got up early (thanks to Sister Hill's several coo-coo clocks throughout her house), had breakfast, then everyone was on the lake by 9:00 am. Surprisingly it was quite warm in Montana, as well as, the lake water was a good temperature. We stayed busy with President's sea-doos, a rented boat and lawn games. Although most of us lathered up pretty good with sunscreen we were all pretty red after being outside till 6 pm. I, unfortunately, got the brunt of the burn. So Saturday was definitely a no-sun day. Here are some pics from Friday:
Me and Amy (Ricky's girlfriend) were not getting in the lake at 8:45 am...that's just too early!

By far Justin's favorite toy were the sea-doo's...he spent more time on those than he did on land. That evening Justin and I went into town, Seeley Lake, which consisted of a small 100 yard stretch on a main road. I don't really understand how people live in such tiny areas...there was one small doctor's office, one small grocery market and one small gas station. It was quaint thats for sure.

Saturday we again got up early, this time though with the plan of hiking up to Morrell Falls. It was a beauiful forest-y hike and although it was probably more than 6 miles roundtrip, it was worth the walk. Here are some pics from the hike:
These are the lower falls, they were pretty amazing!
And these are the upper falls that we have to hike a steep trail to get to.

This flower below is called Bear grass (I think..) anyway it won't bloom again for another seven years!

After the hike we pretty much spent the day on the lake again. Although I stayed in my cover-up the entire time! Everyone played water volleyball in the shallow part of the lake, looked like fun. Justin says 'yea' in agreement that it was fun. haha ... That evening we took it easy and took some pics together on the lake....
the Hills' cabin


On Sunday we went to church at the Seeley Lake branch....it was small to say the least. It was great though. After church we took some pics with President and Sister Hill and all of Justin's mission buds. Then we took off to the long trip home. We had a great time and especially loved being with Pres and Sister Hill, they have such a great spirit about them and in their home. Sister Hill made amazing food the entire time, her chocolate covered grapes were a huge hit. You should try them, its an unlikely combination but absolutely the best chocoloate covered fruit I've ever had! Anyway here are a few more pics from the weekend...



That's all!

Allred Family Reunion

Friday we set out to Thayne, Wyoming for Justin's family reunion. Thayne is in Star Valley, where Justin's Aunt, Uncle, and several cousins live. It was a gorgeous valley! We left around 10:30 and with only one short stop we were able to arrive around 3:30. There was a great turn out of family and it was great to see everyone again! Friday evening we had a very yummy dinner then we went to the pool for an evening swim. (I chickened out since it was getting pretty chilly out and like I said the dinner was really yummy so I didn't feel like putting on a bathing suit...) but everyone had a great time swimming. We then sat around a campfire, had s'mores (the best part of camping in my opinion!) and cherry cobbler. We got to bed around midnight, or rather I should say 'sleeping bag' instead of bed, and did the best we could to stay warm. For as hot as it was during the day, it was equally as cold at night. It didn't take long before we were both sleeping with our heads buried under our sleeping bags.

Saturday morning we were awakened early(6 a.m.) by some lovely roosters giving their wake-up call. I would usually think thats a pretty neat thing to hear but not so early and not nearly so often as they did it. Then the cows started chiming in with their 'moo's'. But thankfully after tuning that out and ignoring the growing need to go to the bathroom, we were able to get in another 1 1/2 hours or so of sleep. After we had breakfast and packed up our tent and other belongings we headed up to Periodic Soring for a mile hike. It was gorgeous up there and the hike was really nice. That was, until we were actually hiking to the beginning of this waterfall. One point was so narrow with such a long and sharp drop off that I was quite scared, to say the least. Justin was great though and held my hand the whole way through that area. It was a very fun hike but we were excited to be back in our air conditioned car. We are pretty wimpy campers/hikers.


We left after the hike, headed back for Provo. We went up around Bear Lake on our way home, first time I have seen it or tried their famous (and tasty) raspberry shake. It was also the first time I had been into Idaho which, not surprisingly, looks a lot like Utah and Wyoming. We finally made it home yesterday evening, it was so great to see a city again, even if it was Provo. But we did really enjoy the reunion and the road trip.

New appliances and apartments

Justin and I have been looking through Utah County for the last month or so for our next home. Our contract for our current apartment is up in August and there are already new tenants lined up. Plus we have really been feeling cramped in our rather small apartment recently. We found this new complex in Pleasant Grove that I really fell in love with. After looking at a few units in this complex, we came across a great deal that was opened for August. So August 1st hopefully we'll be able to start slowly moving our belongings to our new home! The official move date though is set for August 15th, Uhaul and all! We're reeeeeeallly excited to get into our new 3 bed, 2 BATH!!, apartment :-) More pics to come but here's the outside of the complex...

Annnddd a new feature of our apartment is a laundry area that requires a washer and dryer. Our current stacked washer and dryer wouldn't work in the area so we are in the process of selling it to the next tenants. Over the last few weeks we have been looking at washer and dryers.... whew these appliances are much more than I anticipated! The average top-loading set can go for about $800 for both but with the options that come with the front-loading washer and dryers really sold us. Water and energy efficient and they're more gentle on the clothes. SO after researching and price comparing these washer and dryers we decided upon these LG's. (You may notice the difference in the rim around the openings...we decided to get the bigger capacity washer and then a dryer from the next model down-if that makes sense?)


So those bad boys are getting delivered on August 8th. We're slowly starting to build up the appliances/furniture that will someday fill our house. Thank goodness we're able to do it over long period of time!

Extra news....believe it or not Pierre is still alive! We love playing with them...we take him for walks, tease him like we're fishing him with a toothpick and string, and ..... jjjjuuuusttt kiiddinngg.. Pierre is still very active and seems happy, I just can't believe he is still swimming. But honestly this fish isn't super exciting. We visited a pet store last night and I tried to work on Justin for this adorabe dachshund but that clearly is not going to happen. O well!

Justin and I are both working at Pinnacle right now. Justin is really doing great at this position he's been hired for and seems to really like it. I am doing customer service, not the most exciting job but it actually isn't all that bad. I am looking for other jobs and potentially more education in a more specific field. It is up in the air though right now.

This weekend we're heading to Wyoming for the Allred Family Reunion (Friday and Saturday) and then next weekend we're going to Montana for a 4 day excursion with Justin's mission buds (aka best friends) and we'll be staying with his mission President at his cabin on the lake! Mini-vacations...here we come! I am excited to see these different beautiful parts of the West. Hopefully if I am not as absent as I have been I'll get pictures up here soon of these upcoming adventures :-)

Flower petals and Pierre.. oh-la-la

This week has been fun...sorta! Justin and I went out and bought our 2nd set of fish Monday night. Spot and Lucky were their names (we joked that if Spot made it through the night he could also be named Lucky). Unfortunately, Spot had passed away by the time we woke up Tuesday morning. BUT! On the upside, Lucky survived all the way through Thursday morning! I had just started to get attached to him...he was a good fish. So now that our fish were starting to survive a little longer we of course had to go out last night and get two more. By this time we just accept whatever the PetSmart employee scoops up out of the tank. All in all I think we've spent $.72 on goldfish...little did we know that PetSmart has a 14-day guarantee, so if they die they replace them for free. (We're keeping our last receipt now that's for sure!) We've done a few things different since our 1st set of fish, a trial and error sort of thing. We bought water conditioner, which seems to help a lot. We also removed the glass stones we had at the bottom and that made drastic improvements in Lucky's activity. And lastly, last night we decided to go for these little shell-shaped blocks of food you leave in the bottom on their tank (made for feeding when you go on vacation)-they're used to eating on these in the store so we're hoping it will help out their situation. Anyway... last night by luck of the scoop we got an adorable goldfish whom we've named Pierre. He is completely gold except for this sliver of black right on his upper lip (look's just like a French mustache!). The other fish is completely white except for some orange above her eye's ... hence we've named her Alby (short for albino). It's getting a little tougher coming up with names every other day! I wish I could take good pictures of them but sadly our camera cannot get any good shots (darn camera!). But here's one that is a close resemblance to Pierre. (except Pierre's upper lip black really is a line, not a dot like the below fish)
Onto the next exciting event from this week! Wednesday was a very stressful work day for Justin. Something about the database and email being down for half the day...which may or may not have been Justin's fault... ;-) Things got fixed, no worries but Justin sure was exhausted that evening! So he decided to lay down and take a nap. At the same time I was trimming and fixing a lovely bouquet of flowers Justin had bought me for our anniversary (by Wedneday they were rather sickly looking). As soon as I touched one of the roses it's petals began falling off. So I had a handful of pretty pink petals and a sleeping husband on the couch. So I did what any loving wife would do...
He loves me...he loves me not.... Hopefully he still loves me after this post! Isn't he a pretty sleeping beauty??


I also got my real diploma in the mail this last week! While my parents were out here they so lovingly bought me a beautiful frame and mat for my diploma so I was excited to get it all put together! What do you think??

IPretty isn't she?? I'm so proud of my diploma that it is ... laying on our desk collecting dust already :-( ...It will get put up on the wall eventually I'm sure!

Well a large frustration of mine is our camera! We use Justin's 10 year old camera for everything and while it is great to have a working camera, it is so hard to get nice crisp pictures! So we've been looking at a Canon... it's really nice! It's a PowerShot SX110 IS
It's either this, a Citizen watch Justin really likes or new brakes for my Honda....Now what is the most practical choice?? I'm voting on the camera!

And the most exciting part of the week happens this evening! This investment firm we use invites us periodically to movie premiere events (last one was the Batman movie...which wasn't super exciting since I didn't like the movie) BUT they sent us an invite to the Night at the Museum premiere tonight! I'm so excited to see this movie (I loved the first one!) and it's even better that its free! So we're meeting up with Heather and Josh to go see it in Jordan tonight. I'll blog my reviews soon after I'm sure :-)


Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone, hope you enjoy it!