Digging up old photos Part 3

These were taken on the day of the wedding at the temple and at the reception~
enjoy...

STOCKINGS!

I had a  heck-of-a-fun time making these stockings!
Tayva informed me of her cute stockings her mother made for the whole fam, and that she was going to make one herself (for her future husband and children? hehe). I'M IN!!!!!
I'm really not much of a sewer. sure, I can sew a straight line, and I've made pajama pants here and there... but other than that? yeah, not much. But I felt adventurous (and didn't want to spend $15+ for a good CUTE per stocking at Target etc.)...

I bought the double-quilted fabric at JoAnns: one side = snowflakes, other side = candy cane stripes
ON SALE for $12.00 per yard. Only needed 1 yd. for making 2 stockings! :)

So Tayva's mother made her stockings without a pattern. without a pattern. WITHOUT A PATTERN.
so we made ours... you got it... without a pattern.

It was so much fun!... but SO much work! took me... hmm... hours. But it's done~

Our friend Tami Larsen stitched the names on our stockings! Aren't they cute? Ask me how big her stitching machine is. go on. "mmmhmmm... yes, well, her machine is as big as a refrigerator!"

there you go.

Digging up old photos Part 2

Party After Christmas!

Totally going to have one... our 1st Christmas Party! :)
Here's the invite that I made... sorry for whomever reading this who didn't get invited... our small apartment holds only so many people... :(
you will ALL be invited when we're rich enough to buy a house! haha

It was quite the challenge editing and creating this invite... WISH I HAD PHOTOSHOP!

Digging up old photos Part 1

I guess these aren't THAT old, but as I was cleaning up my computer, I stumbled upon my wedding pictures~ :)
I wanted to showcase some of my favorites... I'll post them in "parts" so it's not super duper long with endless pictures. ha

This set of pictures was taken about a week before the wedding at the temple... enjoy~ (edited by me)

 

 

Love Free Stuff

We recently got a new (to an extent) couch from my cousin!

It is super cute and I just love it~

So what IF my living room color scheme is earth tones (browns and greens) and the new couch is black and white!? Who's to say browns and blacks don't go together?

Here's a picture of what it looks like (gotta love IKEA):

Winding Down...

school is almost over... one semester down, three more to go.
This week is PRACTICALLY my last week in school (12/2)!!!
Crunch time for finals and projects... grrr...
I just have to keep telling myself, "you're almost there... you're almost there".

Greg graduates from MCC this semester (YEAY!) and will be attending ASU this next semester... same campus with me~ :)

Other than that... nothing much going on.
Well, I do have two callings in the ward that keeps me busy! I'm the Primary Chorister and Choir Pianist. phew!
Greg's still the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum. We love our callings~ :)

Let's see, both my sisters-in-law had their baby... Zoey Michele Billings and Ryker Okuda Rowley!!! I'm pretty much the best aunt ever. haha

Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving is over... it's time for...
CHRISTMAS!

so excited!

Simple Smiles

do I really only post about food?
sad...

k, so I love my husband! he is THE cutest ever. :)

the other day, he was picking me up from school... I got in the car... then he pulls out a rose. a PEACHYPINK one! and says, "love you"~

 

 

The World's Best Curry

So it didn't take me long to actually type up a recipe for curry.
Please try it! and let me know how it turned out!

(Caution... makes a hefty amount... PROOObably serves 5 - 8 people?)

CURRY
Ingredients:
1 T butter or oil
1 large onion, sliced
2 carrots, cut into bite size pieces
4 large potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
however much chicken, beef, or shrimp (1 lb - 2 lbs?), cut into bite size pieces
2 boxes of curry blocks (I know Fry's have them in the Asian aisle; they come in a box)
Water

Directions:
First, heat a large pot on medium high. Melt butter in pot, then cook onions for about a minute (don't over cook). Add your choice of meat. Cook all the way through.

Add carrots and potatoes. Add enough water to JUST cover the contents in the pot (Don't add too much... but not too little either). Cook with lid on for 20 - 30 minutes, occasionally stirring, until potatoes are soft enough for a fork to go through.

Add ONE box of curry blocks. Stir until all blocks are dissolved. Add more blocks if needed, to your liking (more blocks you add, the thicker and stronger the curry gets). You may go back and forth from adding blocks, to more water, to more blocks. "A" okay. Cook for another 5 - 10 minutes until all the blocks have dissolved. Remove from heat.

Serve with rice, and enjoy!

*You can always experiment and add other fun ingredients*
- My mom has substituted meat for beans in the past (not my fave) but it's been done.
- She's also added apples on top of all the other ingredients to mellow the spice of the curry (you can get some curry blocks that are HOT)
- I've added cabbage, really delicious, but I decided not to scare you away by putting it in the list of ingredients. It's optional.
- You can also add green bell peppers, diced/canned tomatoes, etc.

Pumpkin Seeds

So the other night, Greg and I had a blast carving pumpkins with our good friends Clarissa and Aaron~ (Don't tell anyone, but it was my second time carving pumpkins in my whole life!)

We had a nice dinner previous to the carving party, and I cooked my famous curry~ :) LOVE IT!
I will have to put up a recipe for you all... hmmm...

Anyways, no pictures. Of course. The dope that I am... any time ANYthing happens... I DON'T HAVE A CAMERA! ... or I just don't think to have it on hand.

But I promise it was fun. :)

Well, that was a couple of days before Halloween... and now I've finally roasted the pumpkin seeds!!
My house smells sooooo good, not even funny.

Here's the recipe I used... it works:

1 c. unwashed seeds
1/4 t. Worcestershire
1T. margarine
1/2 t. salt

2 hours @ 250 degrees stirring every 15 minutes.

Happy Pumpkin Seed Roastin'~

All You Can Eat... and much more

If only your Birthday was everyday... but hey, then it wouldn't be as special when it comes around only once a year, right?

I had the most wonderful Birthday this year~ not only the fact that I took the day off work, but the fact that I got to spend the WHOLE day with my husband!
We woke up on Tuesday (my Birthday was really Wednesday, but Greg had that day off of work too) and ventured out to Wal-Mart to buy us some frisbees. [Note to self: Wal-Mart $1.00 frisbees = junk], but it did the job. Greg and I went over to a park on Harris and the 60 and played Frisbee Golf~ never in my life have I heard of Frisbee Golf... way fun! The park has these chain-basket posts set up through out the park (approx. 300-600 ft in-between posts?) and you basically... play golf... with frisbees. What a novel idea!

It was around 10:00 in the morning... hot... HOT... HOT! At least the trees there offered some shade.
Right before we arrived, the sprinklers had been on so... I slipped. gross. but fun :)
Nonetheless... I was kicking Greg's butt at this game at the beginning... but he caught up with me at the end... and we literally tied~ [Note to self: Frisbee Golf is a winter sport]


After the fun at the park, we went home to eat some lunch... HOME-MADE PIZZA!!!
Deeeeelicious might I add. We topped off our pizza with... sauce, fresh spinach, fiesta sprinkle cheese, mushrooms, goat cheese, green onions, sprite (yes... soda sprite. it added a BIT of sweetness), fresh ground pepper, ham pieces. Oh Heavenly... we only made one pie-pan sized pizza and we were stuffed!
Then, on we went to the... LIBRARY! No joke... I had not been to a public library in... forever. I wanna say it's been at least 5 years?! Any ways, it was time for me to get a new library card~ We went and read a couple of things here and there. Greg has NEVER heard of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". One way to fix that. Yup... found it and read it.
Meanwhile... the kid next to us saw that Greg had on his "I'm searching for a Japanese girlfriend" T-shirt on (written all in Japanese) and totally called me a Nazi for being Japanese. I took no offense. Whatever. It was my birthday and I wasn't gonna let this little kid ruin it.

So after the library, we went to our FAVORITE place on earth...
NINJA: Sushi Bar

This particular roll had eel in it... the best!


It's our favorite only because they have ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI for $20.00 per person... daaaaaaaaaaang. yes. Much pleasure and happiness. *drool*
Greg and I totaled up how much we WOULD have spent on sushi if we hadn't paid for the all-you-can-eat... $96.00 plus tip! BUT... we only had to pay $50.00... awesome, eh?
Gosh we love this place.


This next one is our mostest favorite sushi roll...
THE VOLCANO, stuffed with who knows what!? All we know is that it's scrumptious and spicy~


After dinner (satisfyingly stuffed), we made a bit more room in our stomach for Cold Stone Creamery~ We had time before "Despicable Me" started... HILARIOUS!! Greg and I couldn't stop laughing~ :) I highly recommend seeing that movie!

What... a wonderful night!!!

I love you Greg
and thanks for the happiest birthday~

Time to Clean

Today at work, my co-worker Tayva and I totally blasted

Christmas music

... it felt good.

From good ol' Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" to Relient K's "Sleigh Ride"... we were happy the whole day~ We were totally down with the whole Christmas in July thing!
ps... whatever happened to Christmas in July for Relief Society nights? This all started just because my boss' 2 year old daughter wanted hot cocoa this morning for breakfast... HOT COCOA!? We live in Arizona little Miss Lexi!!

Anyways, that made me think of our Christmas tree... then THAT led to "where is our Christmas tree? oh yeah... shoved in the closet"... then... *sigh* "I sooo need to organize our home"... poo.

Okay, so not that our house is a mess or anything... but gosh darn, it's one of those days.
I just wanna clean. There's nothing wrong with that right?

so I should probably get to it... my husband comes home in... 3 hours and 22 minutes.

4th of July Fun

July 19th: I forgot that I started this... and never finished. oops.

July 5th: Right after church, Greg and I drove over to my family's home and celebrated 4th of July.
I started making Apple Pie and while it was baking, we had dinner. had...? more like scarfed it down. We had hot dogs with Sauerkraut!!!!!!!!!!!! *Weezie from Dragon Tales* looooooooooooooooved it~

After the pie baked, we all drove over to the Apache Junction High School area and watched fireworks. I always remember fireworks as tiny li'l things... but THIS year? wowza! right in front of our eyes. The only thing that could've made the night heck of a lot better was.... to bring chairs. so ill-prepared. poo.
But other than that, had my sisters, mom, and most important of all, my wonderful adorable husband Greg~ Every other one, one of us would be hootin' and hollerin' things like "Wooooooow!!" or "THAT one was soooo pretty!" or "that one looked like a Pokeball!!" such nerds. I know. But I swear, I think we were the loudest ones there. Do people not WOW anymore these days? sheesh.We all came back home, and ate the oh-so scrumptious apple pie~ made all from scratch!!! (and might I say... YUM!?)

So I've heard that when you bake a pie, you have to have a "signature" thingy-ma-bob of slits for the pie to ventilate (so it doesnt create an explosion. an explosion of pie... we wouldn't want THAT now, would we?) Mine is simple, a heart. and I made to have Snow White's birdy friends to tweet around the edge of the pie crust. magical, ain't it?
Josh Boyd and his brothers joined us as well.
Apparently Grant, his younger brother, has never EVER tasted apple pies... ever. EVER! He took his first bite... *teeheehee* and started to spin around in place... he was speechless. :) he pretty much wanted to eat the whole pie.

We also played the board game QUELF........ way fun! Great family fun game, if you're INTO that kind of stuff. ;) Here's one of the pictures PROOOving how hilarious the night turned into...


My adorable husband Greg had to build a fort and had to stay in it until his next turn~
One other time, he had to hold a plunger... but we didn't have one... but he still walked into the bathroom nonchalantly... walked OUT nonchalantly... with a toilet brush! Us girls literally screamed bloody murder!!!!!!!!!!! disgusting! Hey, he didn't want to lose any points. don't blame him. it's a very competitive game.

So nonetheless, the evening was packed full of fun and happy memories~

the end

Applesauce Adventure

I made applesauce the other day for my first time!
It was a lot of hard work... but thoroughly enjoyed it~

added some cinnamon and sugar... voi la!

We boiled home-grown apples from my in-laws' backyard.

Next time though... a team of people to help us, and we'd be set. :)
Enjoy the pictures!!

The Best Banana Bread Ever

So lately I've been obsessing over making banana bread...
can't say no to that, right?
Trying out new recipes to find "THE ONE" ya know.
Well... found it! It's just so tasty~ :) You should try it out!
I tweaked someone else's recipe to best fit my taste buds...
Bon Apetite!

* 2 cups flour, plus more for dusting the pan
* 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
* 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 4 very ripe bananas, mashed well
* 1 cup walnuts, chopped
* sprinkles of Cinnamon and Poppy seed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky.

4. Fold in walnuts as carefully as possible. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with very few crumbs, about 55-70 minutes.

6. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days).

I'm not much of a writer

Hey peeps!

I've gotta say... this is quite the "happenin" place to be.
I told myself I'd try just this once... or twice and see where it takes me.
Like I've told you already, I'm not much of a writer, but I'll give it a shot~ :)

Shall I be writing anything else on my first blog?

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

The End