Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza

Makes me salivate just thinking about it! Oh. my. goodness.
This pizza was sooo good. It had to be from the wonderful aroma emanating from the kitchen.
Nothing that smells that good could taste bad, right?!
Right.

I really like pizza, but I don't always like how gross and greasy it can be sometimes.
So, this pizza was perfect for me because it is so good and so healthy!
It is loaded with veggies (caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash) and flavor.
No meat required.
Did I mention the feta, mozzarella, garlic, and rosemary?
(Are you salivating yet?)

Anyways, biting into this deliciousness made me feel like I was eating
a gourmet pizza from California Pizza Kitchen.
Except it's cheaper.
And I get a whole pizza!
Yeah, it's an all-around win-win situation.

Well, here it is!

We added a little spinach and tomato side salad to top off the meal.

Yum!!! Look good to you? You can find the recipe I used here.

By the way, while I was busy making this delicious pizza,
Kaiya was having an adventure of her own...

Well, hope you have a fabulous day, night, whatever time it is!

Love,
JaM

Greeting the Pearly Gates

Image from Google

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails.

 I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

~Marjorie Pay Hinckley


I share the sentiments of this remarkable woman. I want my life to contain more substance than things the world provides...

The world provides objects and things that are fleeting, things that end, things that are broken and lost. And those things are the ones that really don't matter.

The things that do matter are the ones that have eternal consequences--service, love, charity, motherhood, compassion, sacrifice, family. These things are not broken or lost. They never end.

And they are the things that I want to carry with me when I greet those pearly gates.

Love,
JaM

My Symbolgram

For one of my classes, my first assignment was to create a "symbolgram."
What in the world is a symbolgram? I thought.
Basically my symbolgram was whatever I wanted it to be.
Just something to symbolize who I am.

Being one who loves a "traditional" approach to creativity,
I made a poster--one filled with pictures and words that make me who I am.
To accompany it, I wrote a brief, one-page paper about what
makes the pictures and words significant to me.

What a cutie! He held my poster up so I could take a picture of it. :) Thanks Joshua. You're the best!

•  I am from Olathe, KS. No, I do not own red, glittery shoes or have a dog named Toto.
•  I married my husband, Joshua, in August 2011 in the Mesa, AZ temple.
•  Joshua and I have a 6-month baby girl named Kaiya. She is the sweetest, cutest baby in the world!
•  I love babies! I love how innocent and pure they are and how curious they are about the world around them. They should be showered with kisses!
• I love dancing and danced throughout high school and danced on BYU’s Folk Dance team (that’s where I met Joshua).
• To continue my love of dance, I play Zumba Fitness on the Wii.
•  I am an avid user of Pinterest, but I always make sure to set a time limit so I don’t spend hours on it! I love pinning recipes and craft ideas and then trying them myself.
• I love fruit! All sorts of fruit—I’m not too picky. I often carry an apple in my backpack.
•  Cooking and baking are hobbies that I have developed since being married. I never really cooked before then, but now I love it and love finding new, easy, yummy recipes.
• Photography is another hobby of mine that I hope to really develop throughout my life. I enjoy the ability to capture precious moments and be able to look back on them over and over again.
•  Brownies and ice cream (together) are a huge weakness of mine. Oh, so delicious!
• Dark chocolate, especially Ghirardelli’s Dark Chocolate Mint Squares, are another weakness. They are SO good. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, my husband comes home with a bag of these for me.
• I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. I know He is my Savior and I appreciate the Atonement and His love for me. This is one of my favorite pictures of Christ because I imagine each one of us as a lost sheep who He finds, holds, and comforts. He provides a safe haven in a scary world.
• I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know it is true. I am grateful for the spirit I feel when I read it.

All of these things represent a part of who I am. Working on this project was actually very rejuvenating.

It helped me kind of meditate on what makes me, me. 

 It helped me realize that I do have passions, dreams, goals, and talents that I am developing.

Throughout my life, my symbolgram will change. 

I'll never be the same person that I am now in years or even months from now. 

And that's the beauty of growing up and learning and becoming someone and something more refined.

Hopefully, becoming the kind of person God wants me to be. 

Well, there's a little piece of me! What would you put on your symbolgram?

Hope you had a wonderful day today. 

And for you Provo friends of mine, I hope you stayed safe from the deathly ice rinks today!

Love, 

JaM

A day to serve

First of all, Happy Martin Luther King Day!
 Joshua and I celebrated the life of MLK by doing service for Community Outreach Day.
We headed up to BYU campus around 8:30 this morning excited and ready to do some service,
even though it was freeeezing outside!
We decided to help out the group making educational materials for children in India and Africa.
When we got to (what we thought was) the place for the project,
we realized we had gone to the wrong station!

So, instead of making educational materials for underprivileged youth in India and Africa,
we made journals for youth in juvenile detention centers!
Even though it wasn't the project we originally signed up for, we really enjoyed it.
And we loved bringing Kaiya along with us to expose her to service early on (even though she fell asleep by the end!).
I really hope that Joshua and I can teach our children to love service
and to love others as Christ would.

In other news...
I have been working on a Valentine's Day project for a few days now and finally finished it!
 Well, almost...
I just have one finishing touch to work on.
Here's my lovely project (Tutorial here)! Thanks Pinterest... :)

All the supplies for the project. 

Partway done...and surprisingly, it took a lot of work to get this far!

The finished product! I just need to spray paint the candlestick holder white!