Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving this year was great! I love this holiday. I love that it's so focused on family and food. ;) We went to my mum's house to enjoy time with family, friends, and just appreciate all that we have. The turkey this year was dEEElicious! As was everything else. 

My sister Laura made the cute turkey pretzel stick center pieces. They were fun and tasty! 


Here's a better shot of the centerpieces.
Also, don't you love the turkey butter?




Look at this adorable cake my niece Hallie made. Isn't she so talented? 



 My cute family. I love them! I love Thanksgiving! 

Love Notes from Lila

I love getting these little things from Lila. She's so thoughtful, sweet, kind, cute, amazing, and loving! What a great little girl I have.



Cucina Toscana

In November, Micah and I were lucky enough to be invited to a restaurant in Salt Lake City called Cucina Toscana. We went with my sister Emma and her husband Ethan. This is a fancy restaurant that Micah and I would normally not go to, but since Emma's old boss owns it we got to go!

We had been looking forward to this meal for weeks! Micah and I love cooking shows and so we were excited to try some REALLY GOOD food. Let's just say that I was able to enjoy myself… Micah, not so much. It's really a rather sad story.

Micah and I both suffer from motion sickness, but being adults we don't normally need to worry about it as we can make decisions that help us avoid getting sick. Anyway, Micah is very used to driving or at the very least being in the front seat. Since we were going out to eat with my sister and brother-in-law we decided to just ride with them to Salt Lake. We thought it would be more convenient since we both don't know Salt Lake very well and we didn't want to have to worry about parking, etc. The traffic was bad because it was rush hour so there was a lot of stop and go. After just a little while of this kind of traffic, I noticed Micah had gotten rather quiet. After a little longer, I saw that he was sweating and he was staring out the window a lot. I didn't say anything, but I was beginning to suspect something was wrong. Finally, Micah did say something… he was feeling VERY carsick. We pulled off the freeway at the nearest exit and he got out for a minute and then switched seats with my sister to hopefully help. 

It did help a little, but I think it was too little too late. By the time we got to Salt Lake we had to first stop at a gas station to get some dramamine. Once we got to the restaurant, Micah went into the bathroom, threw up and took some medicine. 

The rest of the evening he just sat at the table talking and didn't get to really eat anything. He tried a little at first, but it made him sick so he just held off. He did order food though and we took it home.

You would think that was the end of his rough night, but there is a little bit more. On the way home we decided it would be a good idea to drop Micah off at our house while I went to my mum's to get our car… my mum was watching our kids so we just met Emma and Ethan there. Once we got to our house we realized that neither one of us had our house key so Micah couldn't even get inside. He considered hanging out in our garage, but it was a cold night and he wasn't feeling well. He ended up going to our neighbors until I got home. Thank goodness Kenyon was home! It all worked out in the end. :) 

Despite all of this nonsense, the food was DELICIOUS! I would LOVE to go back sometime. After we had been home for a little while and Micah's stomach was able to fully settle he enjoyed his food. He thought it was VERY good. He would like to return sometime, too. My lamb was AMAZING. :) I also got to try black truffle which I never thought I would have that chance. It was actually really good even though I don't think it looks appetizing when chefs use it. I preferred the black truffle pasta (I could eat that any time!) over just the black truffle cheese. The dessert I had and the hot chocolate that is standard at the end of the meal was so good, too. I great way to end a meal. Seriously, everything was so good. Great food Cucina Toscana! 

The top pasta was the black truffle pasta… so good! 

My lamb… I'm salivating just thinking about it.
  
Micah was such a trooper. 





Last Soccer Pictures

Here are those final soccer pictures I talked about posting quite awhile ago. They're just too cute for me to leave out! :) 

Here are her official pictures that the city took. It was conference weekend so three teammates weren't there for the picture. 

Is she not the cutest little soccer player? I love the pose. :) 

Here is a picture collage that her coach gave to her at their final party. I love that it has all of her teammates in this one. 

The rest of the pictures are from another game that the coach's dad took pictures at. I love all the action shots.




When I first saw this picture I laughed because I thought it was catching her using her hands, then I realized she was picking it up to throw in. 



I don't know why, but this is one of my favorites! 





Looking forward to spring season!

Monday, December 14, 2015

How Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Currently (for the past several months, actually) my kids are obsessed with jokes… especially "how did the ______ cross the ____" jokes. The problem is that my kids don't really understand how these jokes work. Every evening at our dinner table Lila asks if we can tell jokes.  It usually begins with Lila looking at something in the room and then saying, "How does the cup talk to the other cup?" "By putting a tree on top and then it bonked it's head!" Or other nonsense like that. It NEVER makes sense. It's really quite cute. 

Even though her jokes don't make any sense, they at least have some variety in them. Brighton's joke EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. is "How did the cow cross the seed?" "By putting it in treasure and then it bonked it's head!" He also laughs really hard every time. It's fun! I love their jokes, even though they're ridiculous! 

The other night at the ward Christmas party we were chatting, when suddenly Brighton turns to me and says, "How did the cow…" You get the idea. I was surprised it came out while we were not at home, but it was adorable. :)

Kids are so weird, but they sure are amazing! 

P.S. If you're wondering why we haven't tried teaching them others, we have, they just don't get them. Lila hates knock, knock jokes… If I try saying "why" instead of "how" in my jokes, they still answer "how". Our jokes also don't have to make any sense, they still laugh every time. 

Life IS good.