Onion Plant

One of my roommates (no one will fess up, and to be honest, I may be the responsible party) kept a yellow onion out on our counter top for a couple weeks which began sprouting into a plant:I found it fascinating! It was a special little experiment to have an onion plant growing taller each day right in your kitchen. Well, sadly one roommate did not share my sentiments, so photographs are the only remains of this beauty.

Peanut, Peanut Butter, and Jelly!

Last night, Brad and I dressed up as peanut butter and jelly with bread capes for his friend Cassie's 22 birthday party! Her party was full of cleverness and delight! It was a doubles, twins, pairs, couples theme. Her invitations included copies of her glasses for us to cut out and wear to match her! Brad assembled our glasses-they look pretty real... My sister, Nancy, gave me the peanut butter and jelly idea, and we ran with it. We had fun making our labels together and taking fun pictures. Brad introduced me to this fun PB&J rap on YouTube. What fun we have!

Dinner Group

So I am a huge fan of dinner groups! At school at least, they are definitely the way to go for good, inexpensive meals, and great company! Four nights a week-- Monday-Thursday-- dinner is ready around 6PM. We take turns cooking. I cook Thursday nights every other week. I enjoy cooking anyway, but this way it is really exciting to get to think up a dish to serve and get ideas from group members. Tonight, I made a Thai Peanut Chicken Recipe I found online, and it turned out pretty well! I DOUBLED the recipe served it with rice and broccoli for some balance. I put some of my numbers together and with all the parts of ingredients I used I was able to feed 4 grown men and 4 grown ladies with about a meal and a half left over.. so lets make it about 10 servings (because some had seconds) for less than $1.50 a person... I like that! I like that very much!  

Birthday fun

So Todd turned 23 yesterday and we got to do some exciting things to celebrate. To start off, some of his mission buddies came over for a good surprise on his birthday eve (because we had planned to be in St. George on his birthday over the long weekend). I got him over to my house under the pretense of watching a movie and the party crew camped out in the kitchen. He got here and wasn't thirsty like I had hoped and so I went to get myself a drink and he finally decided to follow me in... We had lit the candles around the time we thought he would be there... but when the wax started getting super dwarfed we decided to blow all 23 candles spelling Todd out and light one candle that we stuck in the "o" when he knocked. Well, he says he was surprised. Then on his real birthday we went up to Soldier's Hollow where we tried cross country skiing! It was a beautiful day and we had a blast... even when we fell down :) luckily there were just enough people around who we could spy some tricks of the sport from, tricks like how to connect your boots to the skis! It was a great work out with some fun rides in between. We had a blast too! And we got a free water bottle for filling out a survey of our Wasatch recreation experience... For dinner we picked up mighty tasty ribs and whipped up some more of Todd's favorites mashed potatoes and salad. To top it off we went to another birthday celebration for my friend Audrey where we played Mafia. I was a pretty sneaky mafia and Todd was a pretty effective last word investigator. What a Happy birthday! 

Wouldn't ya know

So, my brother-in-law, Scott, was checking out Jericho Road, an LDS man band (they are hardly boys), on their site and he stumbled on a little music video and spotted Nancy and I in it.... A few years back my cousin recruited us when they were filming... I hadn't even seen it and figured it just didn't get anywhere. Turns out I was wrong and we made the cut. haha check it out if you have a minute, we are just in the first few seconds.

Carolina Christmas

Our Christmas in North Carolina was complete with our 

CHRISTMAS TREE

COTTON

& KITTIES (Boots and Smoky)

But we missed Gordon :( Scott and Nancy made it down from Pennsylvania to my mom and Randy's house on Christmas eve and we have had a cozy little time, playing Quiddler card game, watching movies and make-over shows and making tasty food! 

                     Some of the houses in the area aren't really welcoming visitors,, or residents for that matter! Neat for pictures though! 

We went around Engelhard and saw a variety of bird life down town along the Pamlico Sound (Pelicans, Egrets etc.) and even more at Lake Mattamuskeet (Swans and even Beavers and turtles)... Scott says we saw more than we did at Yellowstone.. we are hoping to see a bear!  

Giving Thanks

First we had Thanksgiving....

These are the tiny troops trying to find a seat in Frost and Marie's PACKED basement :)

Grandma's successful call to silence, a plug for us to read our family history books, and assigning of the opening prayer (Gale Davis, asked the blessing on the food and gave thanks)

Todd and I had slaved over these dinner rolls, and they were super tasty! We just quadrupled the recipe. If you want the recipe click here.

          Delicious desserts! And happy family!

And then we really had Thanksgiving...

POMEGRANATES

   for making pomegranate salad :)

Thanks family! Thanks Todd!

For more pictures, please visit : thanksgiving pics