Little Miss Kinsley!

Today is our Neice Kinsleys 1st birthday! YAHAHAHA ! Just wanted to give this adorable cutie a shout out, and let her know how much we miss her! It's crazy to think it's already been a year! She is getting so big! We wish we could be with her today to celebrate, but I hope she knows we are thinking of her! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE GIRL!

The Nu Wave

Okay so like many of you (though you would probably never admit it) I use to be an info commercial fiend!  I would love watching them all day long and wishing I could buy all this awesome stuff.  A las I was not 18 so my dreams continued to go wanting.  What do I mean I use to be, geese even now sometimes I find myself watching QVC for hours on end being amazed by all these nifty gadets wishing I had the nerve to try them.  I  have still yet to buy anything, maybe even how neat they seem I still feel so hesitant about buying things off of Tv I have never seen.  Thank heavens for the info commercial isle at Bed Bath and Beyond! FINALLY!  I get to experience what I have been missing all my life.  But the best of all is the Nu Wave oven.  My parents bought Eric and me one for Christmas and it's A-mazing!  I cooked meatloaf, creamy scalloped potatoes, and asparagus all at the same time and it was done in like 20 minutes!  It was marvelous!  So if you ever find yourself glued to that tv wondering if those info commercials actually sell anything worth while, I am here to tell you THEY DO!

Panninis

I have to say one of the things I have missed the most about leaving Utah was Zupas.

 Oh how I loved that place!  It was amazingly delicious and one of my favorite places to eat!  It's a salad, soup, and panini place.  Luckily my wonderful Brother and Sister in Law Brandon and Melinda bought us a panini grill for Christmas.

 Lets just say life is whole again!  We have been making some marvelous conconcions!

 I'll have to share some of my recipes with you soon!  If you don't have one of these things! Go. out. and. get. one. now. please! You won't regret it!  DELICIOUS!

Trying Something New

So I love cooking, but a lot of the times I find myself cooking some of the same things all the time.  I have all my usual things that I always fall back on.   I do mix it up sometimes but that mainly is due to the lack of groceries and just having to throw together something with whatever I have.  So I am working on a menu board and am going to try to do a lot of different meals and widen our horizons.  I'm normally not one to use recipes.  I normally just cook to taste and through things together.  I still do this and will continue to do this, but it's fun to find some recipes and mix things up a bit.  This week I made chicken Parmesan, even breaded the chicken myself and everything!

I also made some ziti :)  that's a mama Nancy classic!

Last night we did an American theme and made homemade corn dogs and curly fries!  They were so good, and so fun! 

But my favorite thing I have made as of late was the apricot ginger sesame glazed short ribs. YUM!  And I just paired them with some roasted asparagus, zucchini and mushrooms with some seasoning, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.

Hotel De Solaris

This past week we stayed at my Aunt and Uncles to take care of their puppies while they were out of town.  I always love staying there and watching the dogs because I get my puppy fix!  Not to mention their house is so nice, and It's so nice to get out of our tiny apartment and enjoy a few days away.

I couldn't help but share some of the cute pictures I got of the puppies!

Canyon

So this past weekend Eric and I had the chance to go visit a friend in Canyon, Tx.  Her mom and my mom have been best friends for years, so we have know eachother our entire life.  We go years without being able to see eachother, but then it's right back where we left it once we get together again.  It was such a fun weekend catching up with her!  Friday night we drove into Lubbock went out to a nice dinner, and spent the night at a hotel.  Saturday morning we drove to Canyon and met up with Kim.  We spent most the day in Amarillo which is really close, going shopping and catching up.  I think we spoiled ourselfs a little too much, but neither of us has had a girl day in a long time, and the shopping trip was well over due!  We stayed the night in canyon, went to chruch with her sunday morning, and then headed home.  I was sad to leave, but just happy I got to see her at all.  And now we live close enough that hopefully it wont be another 2 years before we see eachother.

Here she is with her cute doggie

Eric had fun too!

Oh and don't worry he was just satisfied because we found a Jimmy Johns!

Womens Retreat

A few weekends ago I got an the chance to go on an amazing little outing.  I went to the First United Methodist Womens Retreat.  My Aunt and My Grandma go to that church, as well as my friend Michele that I work with, and they asked me if I would want to come.  It actually started with Michele finding out I loved to decorate, and convinced me to join the team.  It was so much fun!  The theme was Daughter of a King, and we learned about women of the bible.  It was so nice to have a weekend away and get to know so many amazing ladies.  It was so fun to get even closer with my aunt and with everyone else there.  I learned so much and was truly touched by the spirit!  Everyone welcomed me with open arms and it was a marvelous experience!  I'm so glad I got to go!  Here are the pictures of the decorations I did.

Peg hand drew all of these pictures of the women of the bible!  They looked amazing!

 I got to decorate with a lady who goes to FUMC, Peg!  She is such a sweetheart and it was so nice to meet her and get to have so much fun shopping and decorating with her.  Since the theme was all about being a daughter of a king, we wanted to go with a royal theme for decorating.  Each table is suppose to have a name or something so that people can be assigned to different tables for the weekend.  We decided to do jewels as the table names.  We researched jewels and found that they all have different meanings as well.  Meanings like purity, loyalty, courage, faithfulness and friendship. We thought that was very fitting and there is what we came up with!  We did emerald, saphire, peridot, auqamarine, ruby, amethyst, and catrine.  I think it turned out pretty great, and I had a blast!

Here is my friend Michele helping with the prayer partner craft.

Here is one of the crafts we made to go along with learning about Lydia.

Here are some of  the lovely ladies who sat at my table with me!

Here is my Auntie Deb woring on one of the crafts!  Love her!

Valentines Day Every Day

Ya know I have never really liked Valentines Day.  Actually that's a lie, I loved it as a kid.  I loved picking out my Disney Princess Valentines, handing them out in class, and getting a Valentine from EVERYONE.  It was nice because even if some of the kids hated you they still had to give you a valentine, justice ;).  And we got to have a party in class instead of working, who wouldn't want that.  So I guess ever since elementary school it's just gone down hill from there.  Since I have been married It doesn't seem as big of a deal anymore!  We have done something special or enjoy the evening together but it's not a huge holiday for us!  I like to show our love all year round, rather then being focused just on one day, and let me tell you what Eric is one darn good cookie at that!  I have felt so spoiled as of late!  A few weeks ago I came home to this

The note says I will love you as long as these roses stay unwilted.  Well they are fake so they will never wilt :D yeah he is cheesy but I love it!  And it was so fun to come in the door and see them, with the hand made note and everything!  He even used decorative scissors for the edges bonus points ha ha ;).

Then a few days later I came home to this!   A completely spotless house, all the dishes were done, even the floors were mopped and swept, and then he had this gorgeous bouquet for me which he had picked all the flowers!  Talk about be spoiled oh yeah! 

AND THEN  ( I know it continues can you believe it)  I got these gorgeous things sent to my work last week!  What a doll he is!  He sure knows how to make it impossible for me to get mad at  him ever!

Needless to say he is amazing!  And even through ups and downs it's nice to know he loves me.  So folks get out there and show the ones you love how much you love them everyday, not just valentines day!