March Madness

Goodness it has been a while since I blogged... So here are a couple highlights of our March... March Madness :)

1) Aaron Shust Concert - My in-laws got tickets for Todd and I (and the whole family) to go to this great concert...it was a fun! :)

This is a picture of my sis-in-law, Hilary, my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Kristen, and me... we all kinda look alike...haha :)

2) Todd's Birthday

Happy Birthday Todd! Todd turned 26 on March 12. Can't believe he is already 26! We went to Twiggs for dinner...



We got this Hot Rock and grilled our food on it.... yum.

3) Colorado

My family LOVES to ski - so Todd and I were blessed to be able to join my family on their vacation. We flew into Denver late on Saturday night and then rode on a shuttle to Keystone to stay at a condo with my family... all except Skyller :( I absolutely love this state! The mountains are absolutely breathtaking - and it always reminds me of how great and mighty God is. It is so awesome to be immersed in his creation with the incredible mountains, snow, trees and even creatures (we saw a mouse and a porcupine while skiing... which it is wierd to see an animal). The only downside about going into the mountain is altitude sickness... so for a few days we all felt a little icky getting used to being way above sea level. So we spent the week skiing (and snowboarding for Todd and my sis Dakota).


Here is a view... but pictures don't do it justice... it is just BREATHTAKING!!!

There is my little snowboarder! We have actually never been skiing/snowboarding together... so this was really fun to do this together!
Skier and snowboarder unite....


My sissy, Dakota
The other snowboarder :)


The family... missing Skyller :( We went out to Ruby Tuesday's to celebrate Todd's Birthday.

Everytime we go to Keystone, my mom, sister and I have to head over to Breckenridge and do some shopping. We always have to go to a little cookie shop and get our cookie.. they are incredible... :)

It was a really fun trip!
So that was a our March... hopefully I will get back to blogging better.... I have some projects I have been working on... so I will probably be blogging about that....

23.

So it has been a couple weeks since I wrote... but I am back...
So last Sunday I celebrated my 23 birthday. 23! Sometimes I can't believe I am this old!
I had fun celebrating my birthday last weekend with Todd in the Cities.

So we went up to Minneapolis after Todd was done with work on Saturday night. We had it planned that we wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory - but when we got there at 8pm - there was still a 2 1/2 hour wait. 2 1/2 wait? Crazy... We found a California Pizza Kitchen which was only a 15 minute wait. It was good. I got this Chicken Piccata Dinner- it was really yummy...

After dinner we made our way back to the Cheesecake Factory for some dessert. By that time our name had come up and we only had to wait a few minutes to get a seat. I got my AWESOME cheesecake. They even decorated the plate for the birthday girl. When I was in College - my family would come up and take me out to dinner and we went to Cheesecake Factory for the 20th and 21st birthdays. I have a picture like this for each of these birthdays as well. It may have to continue to be a tradition...




I love how they decorate the plates for your birthday! So fun!!
Me and the Hubs... what a fun time!


We then stayed at the Ramada Plaza Hotel for night... since I work for a hotel - I get a little discount which makes it nice. It was a really nice hotel - we would recommend it.

The next day - my birthday - we went to the "Valentine's Day" movie. We thought it was OK- but not great... but we had some free movie tickets to that was a bonus. Then we went out to lunch to Potbellies with my brother Skyller and his girlfriend Kiki and went shopping with them for a bit. We said hi to a college friend then headed home to pick up my babies.

It was so nice to get away... even though we drove an hour to the cities - it felt like we were alot farther away. Maybe something we should do more often... :)

So then tonight we got to celebrate my birthday again... my family came into town. My brother, Skye, didn't come down but my cousin Walker was along. We went to my all time favorite Rochester Restaurant: Chesters.

They have great food but my FAVORITE thing about Chesters is their chocolate cake. It is the BEST chocolate cake I have ever had. I really wanted some as my birthday cake. It was so fun to see my family and get to celebrate with them.

With my Birthday Cake... don't be fooled - I split this with everyone... I didn't eat it all myself!

We celebrated my dad's birthday too. He just had a birthday on Wednesday. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Good Deals & Good Eats

So last Sunday I went out run a couple errands. I saw a scarf online that I wanted from Old Navy... Little did I know that AWESOME deals I would get sucked into! :) So the things below... I got all these for $10!! Each item was about $2. I got a nice black shirt, the gray striped long sleeved tee, green tank, teal tank, and yoga pants! What a Steal!! I love bargains like this!! I did buy the scarf... but it was the same price as the 5 items!

So then I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I got a coupon and saw a vacuum online. We have problems with our vacuums - we have two sitting in our house... and of course they both kind of have their own issues. So I got a new one... This one was normally an $80 vacuum and it was marked down to $50 and then I had a 20% off coupon so I got this for $40!! It looks a little strange...but it has awesome suction.. which I need with the two dogs running around!!So in the last week I have making alot of new recipes! Here is what I have been busy making! :)
Last Saturday night - Ranch Pork Roast and Potatoes

Monday Night - Egg Bake and Muffins Friday Night - Pesto Chicken, Salad and Breadsticks

Saturday Night - Penne and Sausage Bake


My hungry looking dogs looking on... they are giving me the faces for they could get some scraps!

Gimpy Limpy

Brandi - or Gimpy Limpy - as we have been calling her the past week because she is having alot of problems with BOTH paws. So last weekend I looked outside and saw blood all over the snow. I kinda freaked out - but we finally found the cause - Brandi had a broken nail. So after stopping the bleeding we put on a little make shift bandage with a sock. She hated it but it worked...


So a few days ago I looked outside and saw blood again.... It was her other paw now.
It wouldn't stop bleeding so we took her into the vet the next day and found that this time she had a growth on her paw that split open - so now we have to keep her paw protected. Brandi hates her sock and she has chewed through many socks already. She is funny to watch because she just hobbles around... Poor doggie :(

So Todd brought home some beautiful roses for me... I thought this was a cute picture of Bella smelling the roses.


This is another cute one of Bella... She is just such a cute dog!!! :)

Happy 2010!

Happy 2010 to Everyone! It is a new year, and with a new year always comes resolutions. Resolutions that never stick... but I am determined to make my many resolutions stick this year... so instead I am calling them "goals."
I think goals has a better ring to it. One of the goals that I want to have this year is to blog once a week. I don't know if this will stick but it is a good way to keep up my writing skills. I used want to be an author when I was in third grade... and though I have no desire to be an author, I think its good to keep up writing...

Other goals that I have for the year?

* Learn to cook! I want to put all the cook books I got for our wedding to good use! I have it my head that I want to try a new recipe each week. I have a dozen cook books sitting in my kitchen... so let's see how that works!

* Keep a budget! Eek! I HATE budgets... but it is a good way to see where all our hard earned money goes and to Save!

* Exercise! Todd got a Wii for Christmas so we went out and got a Wii fit. They make so many games out there to help you work out... and it doesn't feel like you are working out when you are playing a video game.

Maybe by putting this out in cyberspace I will ACTUALLY fulfill some or all of these goals for the year... so far so good... but then again it is 3 days into the new year!

Well off I go to make French Toast... Todd and I got two FREE loaves of bread at a local bakery on New Year's Day. I thought I should put it to good use... so off I go!