Catch up!

Let's see, where to begin. . .


Last Friday Paul was in charge of our date. He drew the envelope date that I had done last year. This is where he comes up with multiple choices for me to chose from for dinner, activity, and a treat. For dinner, he gave me options on how we would make a dish with chicken in it. I decided on making asian chicken. We had some breading to use and some kung pow sauce and fried up bits of chicken. It turned out SO GOOD. And was so easy.

Then for the activity I chose to go see this movie:

And I bawled my eyes out. I didn't really know what to expect with this movie. I had heard good things about it, but then I was worried that I would go in with too high expectations and then not like it as much. Nope, I LOVED it. And Anne Hathaway's version of "I Dreamed a Dream" was amazing.

Then we got some warm drinks afterwards. It was great!

Last Friday it was my turn. The date was to make homemade doughnuts. I went out and bought some doughnut pans because I didn't really want to mess with frying them and figured I could be a little bit healthier by baking them. Besides, there are tons of recipes for baked doughnuts.

For dinner we went out to get sushi. We've been good at keeping this tradition of getting it once a month. And we've found a place not too far away that is so good and hardly ever busy. We're pretty sure the workers recognize us because the past couple times they have given us free appetizers while we wait for our order. Can't complain about that!

We made crumb doughnuts and cinnamon sugar doughnuts. They were delicious. Absolutely delightful. 

While we waited for those to cool, we dyed easter eggs.

Mom, the yellow one is the Star Trek symbol. Paul made it just for you.

Other things to catch up on:

-I'm two week into a Whittier girl's fitness challenge. It's a 10 week challenge that has 4 daily point you can get for working out, keeping a food journal, getting 7 hours of sleep a night, and drinking 64 oz of water. We're also doing biweekly challenges on top of that which are no eating 3 hours before bedtime, only one hour of media a day, eating 2 servings of fruits/vegetables a day, no sweets/treats, and getting 30 grahams of fiber a day. We report to my Mom every week. We all pooled in $20 at the beginning for the grand prize at the end of the challenge. Each week there is a weekly winner who gets  $5 gift card somewhere. It's been good motivation for me so far! It definitely is a challenge, but that's the point. I just finished the 2 week challenge of no eating 3 hours before bedtime, and now I'm onto the one hour of media a day. Wish me luck, and I better WIN! (by they way, we didn't let Mom participate because we knew she would win no questions asked. She didn't deny it either when we told her that was why she couldn't do it with us. Ha! But she's been a great motivational coach!)

-Hmm. . . . what else? Work is going pretty good. It's busy but I really like the people I work with. I feel really blessed to work for a company that is family oriented, and that is only 3 minutes away from home.

-Is that it? I should do better about keeping a list of little things I could write about on here because when I actually sit down to do it, I forget! Sorry. I'll try to be better.

WIW: Week 8

After a fun weekend with family, we had the pleasure of hosting little brother Cory for a night. He didn't actually get to our place until about 3 in the morning because he was practicing on the MOTAB organ down on temple square. He's currently in the audition process of trying to be a guest organist on temple square. As you can see, he looked a little tired when I snapped this picture before I left for work the next morning. Looks like someone didn't get all of their beauty sleep. . . 

The Day the Kid Came Home, part two

So, I am NOT a very good picture taker.I just forget. All the time. Sorry. But here are a few good ones from the rest of the weekend spent with the fam.

 Let's start off with this gem of little sister Jodee. Hi pretty!

And below is a happy piano reunion for Cory and Alex. A loud, obnoxious, happy piano reunion.

Yes, this was a 2 hour orange peeling party. I have spent too much time with Paul because now my oranges have to be pretty much perfect when I peel them.

Cousins that drove quite a ways to come hang out with us.

Baby G. So freakin' cute I can't handle it.

Someone had a birthday!  The big 2! And just so you know, the rest of the pictures for this post have this little cutie pie in them.

Ok, I lied. She's not in this one. But whatever.

These two seriously became BEST friends. It is so cute.

She may look calm and peaceful, but that's because as a last resort Tonya pulled out a video on her phone for her to watch while we ate out at the infamous Smitty's.

And there you have it, my crappy attempt at capturing the fun weekend we had. It sure is fun to have everyone home again though!

The Day the Kid Came Home, part one

The saying really is true that a picture says a thousand words. This first part of Alex's homecoming needs no explanation. I think you'll be able to tell from everyone's expression in these pictures how we were feeling that day.

Yep. . .the pictures pretty much say it all.

Part two-the rest of the weekend, coming soon!

WIW: Week 4

A good Saturday to me would go something like this: sleep in, go to Salt Lake, meet up with little sister, go shopping, get talked into buying some skinny jeans AND nice brown boots by little sister (Seriously. This girl has fashion sense! I think I've found my new shopping pal), get some Chick-Fil-A, do more shopping (with giftcards. Makes spending soo much more appealing because it's free!), then meet up with Dad at the best little french bakery in downtown Salt Lake (Gourmandise. DIVINE. I have introduced a countless number of people to this place because I've been obsessed ever since I was introduced about 6 years ago) and have a lovely little time. Yep, sounds like a perfect Saturday to me. I'll have to make those happen more often. . . when I get more giftcards.

Holidays

Guys, having a new blog is so. . . refreshing. Really. It's like starting all over. . . kind of. Anyways, I am behind about 5 or so posts, but instead of cramming it all in at the beginning, I'm just going to do a little catch up right now of Thanksgiving and Christmas. So here it goes:

Thanksgiving:
-Was with Paul's family this year.
-Before we left to go travel 20 minutes to our destination, I made some awesome rolls!

-I was proud.

-Had a good time playing with the nieces, once they warmed up to me (it usually takes them an average of a good half hour or so to remember that they like me. . .but that's more than can be said for Paul. I think the beard scares them a little. Oh well.)

-Unfortunately, the nieces DO NOT like getting their picture taken. I don't know how Paul got this one without them running away the second the camera came out. I need to give him a high five.
-We ate a lot and visited a lot. And played a game of hide and seek for about an hour and it was a lot  of fun. I think the adults had more fun than the kids.
-The rest of the Thanksgiving break was spent being lazy. . I'm pretty sure. I actually tried to be productive I think the day after by getting up and attempting to make a "healthy" breakfast- aka flourless oatmeal pancakes and yada yada sugar free syrup junk. . .this is what happened:

- And THAT is the cleaned up version. It was a giant mess. And the last time I will ever attempt to make healthy crap like that. I'll just take regular full on flour pancakes next time, thank you very much.


CHRISTMAS:

This season went by so fast I think. And I feel like everyone I talked to felt the same way. Conversations went like this "Oh my gosh, can you believe it's already December?" "Yeah, no kidding. It's crazy! I'm already soooo busy with blabbity blah blah and blahy blah. . ." Then "Oh my gosh, can you believe it's already December 5th? It's already going by so fast! I'm not ready because I still have to do this junk and this crazy busy beyond busyness thing. . " "Oh my gosh ME TOO. I have this busy thing and this thing that will keep me busy for hours and this thingy. . . " And it went like that all the time.  Every day. You know I'm not exaggerating. And you know you all participated in conversations like that. I'm guilty. I'll admit it.

ANYWAYS.
Since it seemed like I blinked and then all of a sudden it was Christmas, I'll cut the chase. We spent that holiday at my parents. It was a fun filled 5 day trip, I tell ya. This is what we did:

-Ate pizza and watched my mom's favorite movie "A Christmas Story". I think that movie can now be categorized as the Whittier family movie. Were we all quoting basically the whole movie the whole time? Yeah. Was Mom one step ahead on most parts and quoting the line before it was actually said? Yes. Not all the time, but quite a few times. Like I said, we all know this movie by heart pretty much. And it's quoted all year 'round. "Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. You make take your seat now. " "Hey Kid!" and "Don't bother me, I'm. . . thinking," are just a few quotes that can be heard frequently when family gatherings occur.

-We had a Murder Mystery party put on by yours truly. I think it turned out quite well. I only have a picture our our costume, which I regret because there were some pretty good ones. Especially the elves that were played by Jodee and Andrea.

Merry Christmas from Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause!

-We did our normal Christmas Eve traditions of having a delicious dinner and a musical program where everyone participated. I think that's a sign that I'm getting older. . I look forward to the traditions way more than presents. All I want at holidays is to spend it with people I care about. I could care less if I get anything. (Unless it's money. . . just kidding. . mostly.)
-Oh, and tons of pictures were taken of the cutest little squish:

This is a personal favorite with creeper Jodee in the background. . .

Seriously. Obsessed. 

-This is Sam and Megan's little girl Grace, by the way. It was so fun having them there.
-Oh, and here's a few more pictures of the time spent there:

Yes, this is what Dad blatantly did when I asked for him to smile. Typical.

Christmas Eve program. We sang.

And we girls sang.

I had to sneak another one in of her. Hi Grace!

And then, the day after we came home, we were able to have Tonya and Collin &Co (Ashlyn and Lucy and Collin's brother. . )stop by for a short visit on their way back from Collin's parents. Ashlyn and Paul hit it off pretty good. We even almost got her to remember to call us Aunt Candy and Uncle Beard. It sounded something like "tandy" for Candy, and "derd" for Beard. Close enough. She'll learn, she'll learn.

So cute!

And that's a wrap! For now. I'm excited to reveal a little project I plan on starting next week. . it's a challenge I plan on doing all year. . .more to come later. . hope you all had some wonderful holidays!