15 years!

Happy 15th Anniversary to us!

15 years ago today I got ready and headed to the house where we were to have our open house and proceeded to frost the wedding cake I had made the day before. It was the first time I had attempted a wedding cake...good thing it turned out!

Todd was busy shoveling snow at the house down the street where the wedding was taking place.
Just your typical pre-wedding chores.

We got married in a lovely home in the Harvard/Yale area of SLC, hosted by Jim & Kim Burr who I was their nanny. Our open house was held at the home of Konrad & Deborah Kotrady, just a block up the road.

We had a lovely ceremony by Bishop Jay Curtis, the Bishop of the singles ward we attended. We had some finger food while photos were being taken, chairs were moved up the street and we had our little open house. Not your typical wedding but we didn't care. We cared about getting married and that was it.

It really was a great day. A great day to marry my best friend.

Man, we were young!

Happy Anniversary
xoxo

Service Sunday

It was a pretty mellow Service Sunday this month. Either I didn't plan well or not motivated but we took dinner to the Snow family who just had a baby (at home and he was 10 punds!-Way to go Jacki). I made a big pot of chicken cacciatore and the entire Weinreb family delivered it to them. I sure hope the Snows feel super special being the recipient of our Service Sunday.

Once in a decade...

One of the things that I was excited about when we moved to Georgia was the lack of snow fall. Once every year or every couple of years is ok. Pretty snow to play in for the day and then we can get on with our lives the next day.

Not this time.

On Sunday, January 9th it started to snow...

Isn't it pretty?



Well, we knew it would be ugly so schools were canceled that night but little did we know what we were in for...

Day one:

This wasn't just snow, it was 4" of snow with a nice layer of ice. Not good. The roads were covered in ice so there was no getting out. I had shopped on Saturday and prepared.



We made the best of the snow day

Sledding down the ice on garbage can lids

Todd took the kids to the fort and "built" a fire
(note the blow torch? safety first)

After 3 hours of snow fun, Todd and Abby came in for a bit then headed back out for another 3 hours of sledding down the hill and road. At that time, they decided it was time to shoot of the Mentos Rocket Abby got for Christmas.

Abby, Theo & Lewis

The amazing Diet Coke & Mento rocket
(a little lame)

Day 2:
Still can't get out of the drive way but some street sledding was performed



Day 3:
Todd eventually made it to work on the icy roads
Made a quick grocery store run

Day 4:
Sam, Abby & I ventured to the mall with the Taylors to just get out for a bit

Day 5:
Are you kidding me?! An entire week off of school!
Roads are passable and we can get out.
We went to Sam's PT appt, had sushi for lunch and did some shopping
(sorry-trying to figure out this photo thing)



Day 6:
Abby had her 2nd basketball game and scored a basket.
Sunshine! 45 degrees!

Day 7:
Plan on going to church
Cousin Josh is sleeping over
Dinner for the Snow family

Day 8:
MLK Day. NO school! Can you believe the timing?

I hope to make it to Tuesday.

Le Crueset-ing

For Christmas, Todd bought me a 5-piece Le Crueset set of cookware. I've been wanting to get a dutch oven to cook with but left it up to Todd since Christmas was coming but I didn't anticipate the nearly $500 set. It was just waaaay too much and I really only needed the one pot.

Luckily, I like to shop at Marshall's and on occasion, they have Le Crueset seconds.
I found a 9 qt. pot that was listed as a second for $159 (yes, still super expensive but about 50% off the price of a new one). I called Le Crueset to ask about the warranty for a "seconds" quality and it is intact so I opted to keep it.

My first recipe was Pioneer Woman's pot roast

I've made roasts in the crock pot before but they never really were tender and it took like 12 hours so I was really excited to give this one a try.

This is after I had seared the meat and sauteed the veggies and right before putting it in the oven.



This recipe was really good & only took about 3 1/2 hours in the oven.

Magic.

On Sunday, I made my second recipe: Chicken Caccaiatore

It was a bit of a long process but turned out really good.

Frying the chicken

Sauteed veggies

Adding chicken to the pot

Dinner is served

I am really liking the one pot recipes. Saves on having to wash all those dishes.

New Years

Here is a re-cap of our New Year's...

Abby went to the beach with Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins.



New Year's Eve...

Todd, Sam and I went to Peachtree City to walk the Avenues
and we had lunch at Ted's.
(and no, I didn't have the bison)

Do you see this weather?

Eating outside & wearing flip flops...now that's December 31st weather!

We're talking 60+ degrees!

I attempted to make Jennifer's cinnamon roll recipe.

Problem 1: I am not patient when it comes to the dough raising. I put them in a barely-heated oven and it looked like they melted.

Problem 2: icing-I used a thick glaze and it tasted ok but not thick enough. I really need to frost, not glaze.

Problem 3: I didn't feel like they were quite good enough to give out so we had way too many and some went in the garbage.

Next time will be better. They don't look too bad though.

New Years Day...

We're Southern (by location only) and it's Todd's family
tradition that we eat black-eyed peas & greens.

They go really well with leftover Chicken Parmigiana

Sam ate the minimum

Abby actually likes them and ate it all

Even Newman will have good luck and prosperity in 2011

I'm not a big fan of resolutions as I feel like I set myself up for failure, but I do have a few goals:

1. organize my desk
2. be better at menu planning & food shopping
3. be more consistent with reading scriptures with the kids and doing FHE
4. lose weight
5. quit smoking
6. eat better

I think that pretty much covers all the basics!

Happy New Year!!