iron chef -- oranges!

for those of you who know my father, you know that he loves his tv entertainment. specifically, iron chef. when we eat at nice restaurants he pretends he is a judge and critiques the food with the same confidence the true judges possess. for quite some time he's been talking about having our own family iron chef competition. well, it finally happened. this year for my mom's birthday, my dad surprised us with white envelopes holding a secret ingredient and the rules and regulations to iron chef - roper style.

jacob and brandon were the chefs and the rest of us drew teams...
team 1: jacob (bro-in-law), millie (sister), and myself
team 2: brandon, abbie (sister), and danica (abbie's friend)

the secret ingredient, oranges! each team had $100 and 1 1/2 hours to shop, plan, and create three courses and a drink.

the competition was fierce and stressful. my team had several mishaps and i worried that we would have NOTHING to serve the judges (my parents). brandon's team was calm and collected (shocking, i know). they finish with plenty of time to spare, which they used to laugh at jacob, millie, and myself running around like wild cats, yelling orders back and forth, and cursing under our breath. (ok, that last part might just have been me.) it came down to the last second of the competition, but we were able to finish our dishes. i must say, i was very impressed with the end results. not only did we have all our dishes, but they tasted pretty amazing.

TEAM JACOB MENU: (and yes, we came up with the names ourselves)
drink: orange strawberry sunrise smoothie
appetizer: chipotle orange shrimp kabobs with a fresh spring mix salad and orange vinaigrette dressing
entree: top sirloin medallion with zesty orange sauce topped with grilled asparagus
dessert: orange cream tart

TEAM BRANDON MENU:
drink: orange-lemonade
appetizer: fruit salad with an orange yogurt glaze
entree: shrimp with an orange tomato and thyme sauce
dessert: orange dream smoothie

in the end, the title of iron chef went to the most deserving team.... my team.
unfortunately, winner or loser, we still had this waiting for us in the end.

vacuum bags are a must

so i was vacuuming... and the vacuum just wasn't acting quite right. i thought "hmm, maybe the bag is full. i'd better change it." so i removed the cover and was met with a puff of dust and fuzz. after the dust settled this is what i saw.


not only was it full, but there was NO BAG to begin with! awesome. and as you can see we've been using our vacuum quite a bit since moving in.

v-day

the best thing about working at an elementary school on valentine's day is that i still get an overflowing box of valentines, which i happily sort through when i get home.


did i mention i also get monsterous hershey's kisses the size of my fist? now what to do with the mammoth chunks of chocolate... they'd probably make great paper weights.

it's finished!

we are all moved in! (well mostly) thanks to lots of help from family and friends, we were able to get all of our belongings out of our storage unit and my parents basement, and into our new house. we are so thankful to everyone for their help!

we can't believe how smooth the whole process has gone. (besides being idiots by locking ourselves out and having to call a locksmith to come and drill a hole through out doorknob- other than that...)

the hole

framing

sheetrock


the finished product
master bedroom
kitchen
loft
2nd & 3rd bedrooms and laundry
home sweet home

we still have a lot of work to do. i.e. unpacking, organizing, painting, decorating, shelving, etc. but for now we are thrilled to own a real grown-up house.

merry christmas

we had a great christmas! last week my family spent a night in lehi near thanksgiving point. we broke the temple square tradition and drove through the lights at thanksgiving point instead. (so not worth it ~ just my opinion) my sister, abbie, brought us awesome christmas pajama's from equador. of course we had to prance around the hotel lobby in our new jammies.... wouldn't be christmas without it.

christmas morning was typical but great. santa was very generous and left us lots of toys.

on the 26th, brandon and i headed out to vernal to see his family. it has been almost a year since we've been out there so it was a well needed trip. it was good to have his whole family together.

while in vernal my sister millie gave birth to her second daughter. baby aayla had a rough start but is doing well. my mom, abbie, and i were finally able to hold her yesterday. i'm excited and blessed to have another niece.

i can't believe yet another year has come and gone. 2010 has a lot in store and we couldn't be more excited to welcome it in.

~merry christmas and happy new year~

the hole

i have no idea where the month of november went. seriously, it was halloween and the next thing i know it's the week before christmas. i love this time of year and of course it always seems to fly by.

the past month has been full of huge decisions for brandon and myself. namely, finding a place to live. well, here is the result of our decision.

yes, this hole in the ground is the beginning of our new home. i can't tell you how excited we were to see this hole being dug.

this is halloween, this is halloween...

oh, how i LOvE halloween!
halloween started on friday with lots of costumes and craziness at school. the 4th grade teachers dressed up like rock stars this year. i must say it was a hit... even though most kids thought we were hannah montana and lilly from hannah montana. that night my family celebrated my dad's birthday with costumes, homemade chili, pie, and a monopoly money auction. even ginny dressed up for the occation. (this picture's all about the attractive woman in the background)

halloween night brandon and i went trick-or-treating with my nieces. i'm sure we were a sight to see... 5 adults and 2 children. it's been years since i've been trick-or-treating. now this is what halloween is all about! it was so much fun and brought back a flood of memories! ellery was definately the star of the night with her green fire truck. jacob did an amazing job creating her costume. it was even equipt with flashing lights and a "built-in" siren. well, the siren was actually just my neice meggie... at each door she would sing "eee-oo-eee-oo".