Super-Date!

Ok, so I had created this post and wrote tons of details, tons of pictures, and scheduled it to be published a few days later. Well, a few days later I noticed it hadn't posted, so on my ipad I tried to just post it. Somehow I deleted it! AHH! I think I just haven't had the heart to post since I was so frusterated by that! Plus, we have had a move and things are just now getting back into a somewhat sort of nomalcy again. (post of our new place coming soon!)
This was such a fun time. Back in March we were lucky enough to win a free trip to Salt Lake City! Ok, well, Mike earned every bit of it. They had a competition at work that whoever got the largest % of their guys to training in march would win. He worked so hard for it! We were in suspense till the day before if we would win or not, but I knew he would do it! Our fav. co-worker won as well, so we got to hang out together, yay!

We dropped the girls off at my sisters house on the way down, so they had a blast as well playing with the cousins. (don't i have the best sister ever to watch them for us?)

(they're both wearing scarfs Nia made in pre-school)

Then Mike and I continued our drive and tried to decide where to eat to spend our $100 for dinner! It was originally for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, but we heard it was waaay too easy to spend more than that there, and we wanted to try something different, cuz I'm a foodie wanna-be. :)

First we stopped at our hotel and I of course ran straight for the b-room in the lobby. Oh, btw, here is where we stayed:

We've been lucky enough to get to stay here once before, on a previous Pinnacle bonus trip several years ago, and loved every minute of it. My fav. part had to be the ice-cold citrus water they served in the lobby, I couldn't get enough! mmm...

While Mike was checking in, he saw some players from the Heat meandering around before the game. I guess the NBA has a standing contract with Grand America or something. Sweet! (don't remember the players he saw, it wasn't lebron, so I don't know, ha)

We relaxed a bit and freshened up before we met our friends, Ben and Jen, to head to dinner. We decided to go to the Copper Onion. I had never heard of it before, but Mike's boss, who is an actual foodie reccommended it to us.

It didn't dissapoint. But at first we were a bit...lost. Our waitress was terribly snooty, and didn't deign to take the time to explain the menu to us. Excuse me for not knowing that you have a starter before the starter! She really was awful, but the food was so good I didn't care! We started out with a cheese board with some cured meat and bread. I am still craving that cheese...mmm! Then we shared a short-rib patoon, or something like that:) and some asparagus. I would have been happy with that, honestly. tender short ribs with an amazing sauce over crispy crunchy potatoe wedges. And the asparagus had a sauce with lemon...best veggie I've ever eaten. We each got an entree and shared them all around to taste. Mike stuck with a good thing and ordered the short-rib stroganoff, I got sea bass, Jen got a steak, and Ben got meatloaf. Mike's was by far the best, but I think it was all good, we were all getting full by this point tho! This was so much fun, I have never spent so much on a meal before. (still came in under our $100, so some to spare for snacks at the game oh yeah!)

p.s. Don't you hate it when you think your hair looks really good cuz you spent so much time on it, and then you see a picture and your like, what!?...oh, maybe that's just me. :)

On to the GAME!!

Jazz vs. Heat

A great game!

We had awesome seats, I was surprised how close we were. Of course, we nabbed them off of craigs list, and ben had to go to some random place to buy them, let's just say he had his gun. Thanks Ben!!

It was a super good game. I was naughty and cheered for the heat. they lost by 1 point in the last few seconds. :(

After the game we went back to the hotel, and were so tired we went right to bed. AHHH....a whole night of guranteed uninterupted sleep, are you kidding me? This may have been the best part of the whole trip! I didn't sleep in much, I had an appt. at the spa!

I decided to splurge and try something I've been wanting to try for a long time, eyelash tinting. It was fun, and relaxing. :) Here I am, all prissy after the spa (trying to lift my pinky, not say hang loose! haha...get back thumb!)

We spent the day shopping and driving back home. It was a short, but wonderful trip! I really need to plan more super-dates in the future...

Our Girls

Nia enjoying another "makeover", she loves this stuff. She is always wanting to give me one...but I have to be careful of where I'm going that day, this stuff doesn't come off without a fight!

Nia is getting to be a pro on her bike. It's amazing what a few monthes will make in her leg strength! She goes up hills and everything now. My favorite is seeing them both riding along. They are such great friends!

Mae assebled this outfit herself the other day. She came walking out of her room and tells me "Going to work momma" Loved that!

She has also become quite the hider. She's so little she can hide even in our small home! She often will just decide to hide and the crazy thing is she has the patience to sit there and wait! Mike and I have both walked through the room she was in 2 or 3 times calling for her, and she stays put! It's hilarious, she'll yell, "found it!" when we see her.

We painted easter eggs Saturday after conference. We loved having Lindsey and Leland stop by for a couple sessions! Conference to me isn't the same without family around. :)

Spring Decor!

I got really excited about spring decor this year, and when Mike was gone for a few days the end of February, the girls and I got busy crafting! They loved the jelly bean topiaries of course, their "helping" consisted of eating twice as many as they handed to me to glue on of course. They did a great job painting the containers tho. This is my temporary mantle, our sideboard in the dining area. The bunny garland was prob. my fav. part! The grass on the base of the topiary is actually wheat berries. They grow amazingly fast, a week and I had 2 inch grass. I am working on building up my holiday decor, I really only decorate for Christmas and bdays, but now that I will have more space to both craft and store it, I am excited to keep it going. :) We are moving to a larger townhome, a temporary fix until we deicide what to do with our lives!

Guess What?

So I had an ultra-sound a week ago, I got to cheat and get one early (15 1/2 weeks) but it wasn't really fun. Not at first. I had been spotting for a few weeks, and was pretty scared. They decided to check it out. I was amazed at how well I could see all the features and the sweet little baby! Turns out everything was just fine, there is a weird pocket of fluid/blood/whatev right above my cervix. They think it was left-over from implantation or something. I was relieved. This is fairly common I guess, but normally it gets absorbed by the body, but since it was right by the cervix, as the uterus was moving up it was disrupting it or something, and it was leaking out. TMI for some maybe, sorry, but I found it quite interesting. ! While I was there, she asked if I wanted to see the sex. ummm....well...let me think about this, YES! We were laughing because right away this is what we saw:

I knew it was fairly early to determine sex for sure, but she said in this case she was 99.9% sure it would be a boy. I have to agree with her, don't you?

So...needless to say, we are all excited, it is fun to know! Mike will be grateful to not be the lone ranger in our house of hormones, even though he is a great sport. :)

We got some other great shots. :

Well, they were great until I took a picture of the picture with my camera. :)

I have been extra-tired with this pregnancy, but that might have to do with keeping up with 2 other little ones. I have felt sweet little movements the past week or so, I love it. We get another ultra-sound in 2 weeks to do measurements/etc., so I'll let you know if anthing changes ;)

Let's play pretend

It is early January and I am on top of blogging! :) Ok....as some of you might have guessed I am pregnant! (most of you know) I just lose all motivation when I get sick. So trivial things like posting, dinner, cleaning, all gets pushed aside for a month or two. :) I am about 14 weeks now, and am feeling mostly normal! Yay! I thought I lucked out this time, because I didn't start getting sick till week 6, compared to mae at week 4. It wasn't nearly as severe, so I am hopeful it's a boy. :) So let's just pretend I'm not way behind, and I still want to have these Christmas pics and memories on here.

We went to California this year with Mike's family. It was so much fun! We stayed 2 weeks because Mike ended up having a sales blitz out there he was in charge of, so he was able to drive from his sisters where we stayed, and we actually got to see him occasionally. :) It was a good visit, and I am forever in the debt of the Belloli family for dealing with me that last week as I started getting sick. Let's be honest, I was useless. They so graciously made room for us and put up with us for so long! We love being there.

Christmas was so great, the girls got way too much of course, one or two gifts would suffice, why do we get carried away? Remember this for next year!! Nia would be happy with a box of candy. I enjoyed having sacrament meeting that morning after stockings, then gifts after. Good reminders. We all got together at Marcie's home afterwards for an amazing turkey dinner! We even managed to sneak a game or two in.  It was so great to get to see everyone, and to do it all over again the next weekend at new years.

One tradition I loved growing up with was having a birthday cake for Jesus Christmas eve. We sing to Him and everything!

 Finding Santas gifts he left for them.

 Mae and Nia loved teeter-tottering on the rocking horse!

The drives were great both ways, awesome roads and weather, and the girls were troopers. We were able to stop and see my sis on the way down. We stopped and stayed the night and the next day. It was such a fun little visit! So great to see where they live finally, and we had fun times playing games and hanging out. The kids really had fun playing as well. Nia and Connell have always been good buds. And little Callister is a doll! We were in awe at the incredible potatoe head collection, and I was pleasantly surprised to find princess potatoe heads were included! Katie was the hostess with the mostess with delicious meals and making us comfortable. We were sad to leave.

Happy Birthday To Nia!

Nia had a great day! She slept in till 9:30! Mae and I were so excited we had to try our hardest not to wake her up! So this is what we did while we waited.

Treats for her to share at school! (rice crispy treats dipped in sprinkles, on a stick) Once she woke up we had breakfast, than decorated her birthday cake and the house.

Nia went to school, then after we went and played at arctic circle. G's dairy was our next traditional stop, where Nia got to choose the flavor of ice-cream for the party. Strawberry cheesecake it was!

Nia chose to eat at Craigo's for dinner. We all love that place. Then we came home and had cake and ice cream with awesome friends! Nia got some great gifts, which she loved of course. It was a fun day for all of us!

Family Outing

The other weekend we went out and had a fun little day out as a family. We went to see the new muppet movie. It was super good/cute! The girls liked it.

 The girls had fun riding on this little kermit car outside of the theatre. Weee!

Afterwards we got some yummy food at We're Twisted Pretzels. We all shared soup, a pretzel and pizza pretzel, and a pretzel dog!. Seriously yummy.

 We've been watching Top Secret Recipe on CMT, and we decided to try this Mrs. Fields recipe. Incredible! It def. does some things differently, like starting with COLD butter, and freezing 30 min. before you bake them, but this is the best cookie I've ever eaten. But it uses all basic cookie ingredients. yay!

	It’s best to use a stand mixer for these cookies if you have one, although a hand mixer will also work fine. The quality of your chocolate chips is a big factor in these cookies, so use the best ones you can find. If the dough is tacky (it sticks to your fingers), you should add a little bit more flour. Cookies will seem undercooked when they first come out of the oven, but that is exactly what you want for the perfect clone.
	1 cup cold unsalted butter (cubed) 1 cup light brown sugar 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 ½ teaspoons salt 2 eggs 1 tablespoon Madagascar vanilla extract 16 ounces all-purpose bleached flour (just over 3 cups) 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 cups high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
	1. Combine butter with sugars and salt in a large bowl using the paddle of an electric mixer on high speed until consistency of peanut butter. 2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. 3. In a separate large bowl combine flour with baking soda and baking powder. Pour this dry mix into the wet stuff and mix just until combined. Mix in chocolate chips. 4. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out ¼ cup portions 3 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. 5. Place a 2 ½-inch ring mold (or biscuit cutter) over each portion of dough and press down on the dough with your fingers so that is molded into a circle around the inside edge of the can. Place the dough into your freezer for 30 to 40 minutes. 6. Preheat a convection oven to 275 degrees (or a conventional oven to 300 degrees). 7. When you are ready to make the cookies, flip over each of the frozen dough pucks onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake (use top rack for conventional oven) for 20 to 22 minutes or just until a couple of the cookies show slight browning around the edges. Rotate cookies halfway through cooking time. 8. Immediately slide the parchment paper with the cookies on it off of the baking sheet to prevent further cooking. Allow cookies to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before handling. Makes 20 cookies.

 This awesome gingerbread house we got from Aunt Sherida and Uncle Ross as a part of our advent calendar we got for Christmas. It was so much fun! This is the final result, and the girls destroying it the next day. mmm..it tasted as good as it smelled.

 This is Mae seconds before bending down to chomp santa!

These are the next big thing, crotch boots, haven't you heard of them?