'sup cuz?

Last week's adventure in the city consisted of my 2 awesome, beautiful cousins, some down-home fried chicken-homemade mac 'n cheese-candied yams- and banana cream pie, and a funny waiter named Nicholas who made our night out!

We picked Holly up at JFK and then took a very long (2 hour) weird route into the city to meet Jess up on 110th and Central Park West. As we were walking up to the cafe we witnessed the tire slashing of a town car by this freaky looking dude, who we quickly ran away from and reported it to the cop sitting on the corner, who said, "ya, ya we'll look into it." (yeah right)

This is Nicholas- he and James bonded that night 'cause when he asked James "how you doing big guy?" James answered, "I speak English!"  James had us all rollin' that night and Nicholas got him extra carrots and put Zanna's coloring picture up in the "gallery" and invited the guests at the cafe to come see her work... cute.

Holly has been living in Connecticut for the last couple of years and it has been awesome to go spend the day with her up there or meet in the city.  The kids loved being with her again-- and we will miss her! 

We dropped Holly back off at the airport where she spent the night before flying out to South Africa where she is moving for a year... or two.  She is so adventurous and I am really happy she is getting to live this dream of hers.  We are so glad we got to spend her last night with her and wish her well in all her adventures.

Not a huge TV person, but I was SO excited for Thursday night -- The Office and ER- the two shows I follow, besides American Idol and SYTYCD.  I DVR'd them so I could watch w/o commercials and I thoroughly enjoyed my night on my couch by myself with "my shows".  I lol'd to The Office and would give it 1 1/2 thumbs up and I cried in ER (call me lame, but it was sad!!!) oh the emotional roller-coaster of fictional tv!

Joy School for Mr. James

James and Olivia on the "first day of Joy School"

Joy School Power!

James is now an official Joy School kid and I am pretty excited about it! Joy School is a "preschool" that you do in your home with other moms and you all rotate being the teachers.  I am doing it with my friend Rachel and since she is my neighbor and James and Olivia always want to play after we take Zanna and Bailee to the bus stop it works out great. They play really well together and it is cute to already hear them singing the songs and excited about when they get to go to joy school again.  We are doing it on Tues. and Thurs. from 9-11:30 and we rotate weeks- we just started, but so far so good.  So, every other week I have a good little 5 hours to myself and it is a beautiful thing.  

cross island trail

last saturday we had an awesome rollerblading excursion on the cross-island trail and it was a beautiful day! the trail goes right along the ocean- making all the traffic speeding past you on the other a little less annoying.

dave and I used to go rollerblading all the time in Provo when we were dating so it made me feel young to be on wheels again.  

the only downfall was that the "tightning clip thingy" on the top of both my rollerblades busted right after I put them on-- so I had to skate with ghetto rollerblades and I already had a huge blister on my foot from the night before when Dave and walked across all of Manhattan to get a burrito after going to the temple. I survived though and will hopefully get an early present from Santa, 'cause I really want to get back on that trail!

i did  I pretty poor video job here, but dave took the kids up this ramp and then just let go... i mean sped down and they loved it!! he had to do it over and over again cause they have a need for speed! 

random person's underwear

Can I just say that I HATE it when other people touch my laundry!!
I know it's annoying when people leave their clothes in the dryer, but
yesterday I had to go to the airport to pick up Holly, my cousin who is
moving to South Africa (but that is another post) and I had to leave a little
laundry in the dryer. There are other dryers so I thought I might be okay
on a quiet tuesday night......... but no. When I got back our laundry is all over
the table in the laundry room and I just get that "I've been violated feeling"- does
anyone else know what I mean? So, I take it upstairs to fold it all and realize that
there are some things missing. I was so tired that I didn't go back down last night,
but when I went down this morning the rest of our laundry was mixed in with someone
else's and I had to sort out all our stuff from this random dude's exercise underwear
and I just hate that-gross! Someday, I will have my own machine again, and I will wash 5
red items if I need too and not worry about the $1.25 i am wasting. But, for now I will
look on the bright side and take advantage of the fact that I can do 6 loads at one time
if I need to and they will all be clean and dry in 1 hour- that's pretty awesome. I think
I will go eat some candy corns now, I am slightly addicted at the moment.

P.S.- speaking of underwear, both kids pooped in their underwear tonight when we
were at one the the attending's that Dave works with house for dinner tonight- it was AwESoMe!

ham-fried rice, anyone?

My favorite Ham Fried Rice

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens "vegetable fried rice")

makes about 3 cups (4 side-dish servings)

I usually triple everything and use it as our main dinner!

Ingredients: 

1 tsp. sesame oil or cooking oil

1 beaten egg

1/2 pound fresh asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces (1 cup)

1/4 cups chopped fresh mushrooms

1/4 cup sliced celery 

2 TBS. thinly sliced green onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 TBS. cooking oil

3 TBS. soy sauce

2 TBS. dry white wine or water

dash ground red pepper 

2 cups chilled cooked rice

Instructions:

1. In large skillet heat the 1 tsp. oil over medium heat. Add egg, lifting and tilting the skillet to form a thin layer (egg may not completely cover the bottom of the skillet). Cook for one minute or until egg is set.  Invert skillet over a baking sheet to remove cooked egg; cut into short, narrow strips. Set egg strips aside. ( I do 3 eggs, but one at a time so they are thin strips.)

2. In the same skillet cook and stir asparagus, mushrooms, celery, green onion, and garlic ( I usually add carrots too and cook them first) in the 1 TBS. oil about 4 minutes or until asparagus and celery are crisp tender.  (then I add steamed broccoli, corn, and ham and anything else that sounds good). Stir in soy sauce, wine, and red pepper. Add cooked rice (it is much better if the rice is chilled).  Cook and stir about 2 minutes or until mixture is heated through. Stir in egg strips. 

DELICIOSO!

this post is for you Micki- we are still rice lovers and I think of you every time I make this!!

camping in Lake Raystown, PA

Last weekend we had a fabulous camping trip with our great friends...

the Fillmores

(Jess, I thought this was a cute one of you)

the Selanders (I don't have one pic of Theo!)

and the Nadaulds (no pics of Taylor either)

We thought we were going to get rained out so at the last minute we switched to cabins instead of tents and I know the three pregnant women were not too sad about that! Yes, I was the only one not pregnant this trip and I was very impressed with these ladies--considering two of them are due in less than a month!! We had a great time swimming (although I forgot my suit and didn't really swim) and the older boys played "man games" and had "strongest man competitions" after finding a huge cinderblock in the water.

Zanna and James loved playing with Jake, Luke and Theo-- kids are so easy in the great outdoors- bugs, sticks, rocks, fire, snacks, and water and you're set!

We ate tons of s'mores and we even roasted Starbursts and they were delicious (three drips, blow and they're done!) 

We had an awesome breakfast Saturday morning- eggs, hash browns, bacon, fruit and Oj

and then that afternoon the BYU vs. UCLA game was on and we actually got the game on the little TV that was in the cabin- the guys were very happy about that and I had a great nap with the kids- seeing that the game was a total blow-out! Go COUGS!

We are so glad we got to hang out with these guys again- the boys were all roommates at BYU while Dave and I were dating so I always love getting together with them and reminiscing about the good ol' days and chatting with the awesome girls these guys married.  We did a lot of "girl talk" and I loved it!

Thanks for a great trip everyone- can't wait to meet all the additions to your little families!

Ode to Dave being home...

Dave has been home a lot this month and it has been WONDERFUL!! This is the reason for my lack of blogging and having your husband home and not stressed out is the best reason to not be on the computer. We had a fun date last weekend in the city because my cousin Jessica is amazingly nice and asked to take the kids for the night. We met at her work and did the "kid trade" and we took off to Little Italy for the night. A few minutes later she called and said she was taking them to "The Little Mermaid" on Broadway and asked if that would be okay to have them longer than planned!! I tried to protest to such a huge splurge, but she insisted and we gave in:) We had a couple of extra hours and enjoyed dinner at Sal's- pizza and the best Penne vodka w/grilled chicken and then even though we were stuffed we headed over to "Rice to Riches"- the coolest and only rice pudding only shop we've ever been to. It has about 20+ flavors of rice pudding and is very entertaining and definitely a hot spot on a Friday night. After sampling about 12 flavors we finally chose "pecan pie" and "cinnamon raisin" - i perferred the pecan pie but it was all delish! After being apart for the month of August it was so nice to just be together and run around the city. Before meeting the kids, we saw this Scientology Building and we decided to go in and learn a little about it while we were waiting. The first girl was really nice, but then we got a girl that could only say "read the book, read the book, read the book!" She didn't answer any of our questions and just said we need to find out for ourselves and "read the book"- pretty annoying... So, we met the kids at the theater and James had fallen asleep for the last 20 min. of the show but they both LOVED it and have been singing the songs- notice Zanna's words to "Part of Your World" on the list of her quotes. I have a love/hate feeling toward NYC, but this night was a definite giant HEART!

Hooray for Pre-K!!

Zanna had an awesome first day of school today and I have to say I held up really well. She has been waiting and waiting for this day and has been telling everyone that she is "starting school when the leaves change color" and "my mom is nervous!"  They had a half day today and she was only gone for two hours- but for some reason I lost it last night as I thought about this being the beginning of sending her away to school every year and loosing that time at home with her.  It made me question all the time I have had with her at home and if I had truly appreciated and made the most of it.  She has always been my little side-kick and I just got that sad "I'm losing her to the world" feeling.  I had a lot of good tears, but I think I got them all out last night, because today was really exciting and just a fun day to celebrate with her.  She and our good friend Jonah are in the same class and get to ride the bus together so that made it even more fun.  We drove the kids to school today and then they rode home on the bus.  Dave and Linda (Jonah's mom) had the afternoon off, so we all went to  Wendy's for lunch to celebrate their big day. It was a great stepping stone day and we are proud of Zanna for being so big! (James brought is backpack for the car ride too- he was a great supporter :)

Utah Summer Take 2

Highlights of the trip:
- being home with my mom while she was healing from major foot surgery- it didn't stop her though- she exercised, gave Zanna piano lessons, stayed up late watching Olympics every night, made some delicious meals, and "ran" errands with me!
- Being able to be apart of Mike and Amanda's wedding- it was beautiful and we are so happy they are finally together
- Seeing Dave for 24 hours out of the month (he was in Baltimore for a rotation and was able to come for the wedding for 24 hours)
- seeing friends from Hershey and BYU days- I love connecting with you all!
- spending so many nights with Mindy & Bryce, Matt & Courtnee and Mom & Dad watching the Olympics and chattin'
- the awesome Brian Regan (turned Olympics) party at Scott and Andrea's with the Fryers- that was some good times and good eats!
- going to my high-school reunion in Pullman, WA (pictures to come)
- having so much support over my hair drama- i was such a girl!
- having the kids enjoy their grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncle so much- James and Grpa M. always compete to see who "loves you more" and Grpa F. and James have a "peanut" battle as well, pretty cute.
- sister talks
- beautiful summer nights
- THANK YOU for all the fun, rides to and from the airport, parties, help with the kids, treats, and just being a great family- we love you all SO so So so much!