Steven's Halloween Visit :D

Steven came to visit me this weekend which was conveniently Halloween so that was extra fun. It was so nice to have him here :) We had a lot of fun but mostly just enjoyed being together. He came Wednesday night and left Sunday evening so it was a nice extended weekend trip!

We made dinner and ate dinner together on Thursday night it was yummy! We made apricot coconut chicken, with baked cinnamon apples and salad. We had martinelli's mixed w/peach nector for our drink it was delicous and fun. We got to go to California Pizza Kitchen (thanks mom and dad!) and that was yummy and we of course hit up the dollar theater while he was here. He went to most of my classes with me which was nice for me :) And we went to a Young Ambassadors performance I had to go to for my tap class it was really good.

And of course Satruday was Halloween

so we dressed up and had fun at the Halloween party at my apt. We were thunder and lightening it turned out pretty awesome we thought. There will forever be glitter all over my apt b/c of me it's hard to see in the pics but I was COVERED in gold glitter. We had lots of fun and good food at the party and just had fun hanging out. It was a wonderful weekend and now I unfortunatley have to go back to real life :p haha

More Baking Fun :)

So I basically developed an addiction to baking :) It is so much fun and plus you get to eat yummy food after :D One of our most recent baking endeavors was Apple Tart. We got the recipe out of my everyday FOOD cookbook. It was so yummy

It looked so good we devoured it before I could take and after picture! So I took a pic of the part of it that was still left (I zoomed in so it looks bigger but one edge isn't there b/c its only part)

Fall Decor :)

Well it is October, so we decided we were allowed to get our Halloween decorations out! I just have a couple things but I put them up and we were excited to decorate our place :) So since it's fall we get to do the whole Halloween for October then fall for November. We made ourselves a Fall wreath for our door!

We went to Michaels during the big 50% off fall stuff sale and pretty much made our wreath for $7 (so cute and way cheaper than buying one)

We started with just the basic wreath then added on the fall leaves...

and added on the yellow poppies...

And the final product!

Pizza Time!

So since it is Conference Weekend of course we are making yummy food! We had crepes for breakfast this morning--thanks Lexi! Then tonight for dinner Katrina and I were craving pizza and wanting to make it so we made hommade pizza :)

We made the dough and then put yummyness on top! This us us with our dough all rolled out, thanks Holly for letting us use the pizza pan.

Then we stuck it in the oven and out came this....

It was absolutely delicous! We loved it :) We of course served it up w/ ranch dressing and ate it while watching a chick flick ;) The Wedding Planner tonight!

Breadcrumbs!

So last Sunday I had Holly, Jonny, and Kirstin over to my apt for dinner. I've been making good dinners for myself everyday but this was my first real all out Sunday Dinner. I decided to make stuffed chicken. So I got all the stuff I needed to make the chicken with and was excited til Satruday night when I was going to bed and realized that I didn't have breadcrumbs! I wanted to make the chicken breaded, so that was a problem....Sunday after church while trying to decide what to do instead I thought why not make my own!? So I did....so I decided to put the recipe I used up:)

I breaded 3 chicken breasts and 5 slices of normal bread was just a little more than enough...

So I took 5 slices of bread and put them on an ungreased cookie sheet...





Bake the bread on 300 for 10-15 min...turn them over halfway through to make sure it gets dried evenly throughout.











Then the insides of the bread were still a little bit moist so I broke them apart and put them back in the oven for about 5 min til it all crumbled easily... Then place the pieces in a blender/chopper/food processor and pulse them until they are at the desired consistency. (make sure to shake it up every once in awhile to get the bigger chunks to the bottom so you aren't turning some into dust while leaving others as big chunks)

And then when you have all of the bread blended to the consistency you like add any spices you like depending on what you are making and what bread you use. I just used normal wheat bread and I added Italian seasoning and garlic salt for a bit of extra flavor :) It was fun and ended up being really tasty!

#104

Ok as promised here is a post about the new apartment #104! Lexi, Katrina, Jenna, and I are all getting along very well and loving our new place :) It is so nice to be able to sit in the living room and cook good dinners for ourselves and all of that. The pictures aren't the best but they give at least an idea of how it is!

Here is the kitchen, to the right when you walk in the front door. Lexi is cleaning :) The washing machine/dryer is in the closet next to lexi across from the fridge.

Here is the entry way to the dining and living room and the dining room.

This is our living room w/ some guests over watching the BYU v OK game! Yeah cougars :D

And this is the sink part of mine and lexi's bathroom. The toilet and shower is a room to the right...we went for a yellow and blue beach theme for the bathroom

And finally my room! Which is across the hall from the bathroom

Seville's Wedding!

I'm a little behind and posting about Seville's wedding because I have been moving into my new apartment which I will try to update on later. Back to the point Seville's wedding was simply wonderful! Steven and I drove up Thursday and got their in the afternoon for a wonderful reunion with my freshman 'roommate'!

Friday Seville and Sebastian became Mr. and Mrs. Strickler at the Portland Oregon Temple. When they walked out of the temple they were beaming and so cute! We went to Fuddruckers afterwards and it was fun and delicious.

The happy couple met up with the rest of the wedding party again later on Saturday afternoon while we set up for the ring ceremony and reception. The ceremony was lovely and so sweet. They are the cutest newlyweds and beamed with happiness all the time! The reception was way cute and everyone had a great time. I love the happy couple and wish them only the best in their eternal marriage!

The Mushroom Chair!

The famous (among my cousins and siblings on my mom's side) mushroom chair! For as long as I can remember this chair was in my Great Aunt Joan's house. (it unfortunately matched the shag carpet in the living room) but was kept mostly in the den. Joan passed away recently and things got divided up among the family. The one thing I really wanted was the mushroom chair :) I found out that it was actually my mom's when she was a teenager. Yes, her room was green and orange (very popular in the 70s she assures me). As much as we all love the green mushroom chair it doesn't quite fit in my brown and pink theme room so my mom and I went to work today recovering it (we also had to do it because the foam was disintegrating :p) Here are the results...

First we took apart the chair (fabric and foam):

It left residue all over the place!

Then we cleaned it and restuffed and recovered it!

Boston was curious and wanted to help :)

And voila!

But don't worry! A little bit of the loveable green fuzz is still there it was stuck so some nails we reused to secure the top to the base :) A little hard to see in this pic but it's there!

Mini Golf and Boating!

Steven and I decided to go mini golfing at Scandia for a date night this week. We had lots of fun and played both of the courses they had. Both of us cheat...a lot :) But in my opinion cheating is what mini golf is really all about! I'm pretty sure that on a lot of the holes they shot really strong air out the hole as I was putting cause the ball would jump away! I lost one of my golf balls in the water when we got to the castle...oops! But we had a ton of fun cheating and missing the hole half the time. Although we both did got a hole in one on the first hole of the second course we played. It was pretty exciting :) Even more exciting was the Steven got a hole in one on the 18th hole where it is like the caged in giant volcano thing and won a free drink! Yay!

Also this week I went boating with Alison, Travis, and Brett. Sadly, Steven had to work :( We missed having him there but did still have lots of fun. We were tubing most of the time and it was so much fun. Alison and I went together a bunch of times. It was a blast we scream like crazy but it is way fun. We mostly went next to each other but when the boat was going straight we tried some other ways. It was quite interesting but fun :) The water was so warm it was amazing. I'm happy it was because when it is freezing cold being in it isn't so much fun. I also got to drive the boat so Travis could get a chance to go tubing as well. I also towed him when he was skiing. Brett and Travis tried water skiing. Alison and I didn't cause it was getting late and we were getting tired so we went ahead and passed for that day. It was way fun even though both Ali and I were super sored the next day!

Carpinteria Fun

My mom's side of the family has a reunion type vactation every couple years camping at Carpinteria Beach and we went once again this summer :) I love it there and Steven got to come this year so it made it that much better eventhough my cousin Weston had to miss it since he is on his mission. We had a lot of fun at the beach and in town and just chilling around the campfire. It was fun to see the extended family and catch up with everyone and just spend time there.

All the youngins were fun to see play. One of the more entertaining moments was when Jonny shined the laser pointer and we told the little kids it was a firefly and they chased it around :D Also Steven and I took little Kent on a walk around the campsite and a Ranger asked us how old we were because he thought Kent was ours. We were kind and told him he was my cousin not our son. Although we should have told him our ages and left it at that ;)

We did all of the classic Carpinteria traditions visitng the candy store and beach shop and of course Fosters Freeze. And enjoyed the beach a ton! We even caught a few good waves boogie boarding the few times I got in the water (it was a bit cold for me). It was loads of fun and I was sad to go but it was nice to sleep in my bed and step out of the shower and not be dirty right away:)

Babes in Berkeley

Katie is doing summer school at Cal...boo :p however it did give Jenn and I the opportunity for a roadtrip! We went to visit her and it was so fun to all be together. Jenn and I made it safely to Berkeley with not too much stress. The GPS is basically our new best friend! Parking was a little confusing but we put our brains together and figured it out :) It was so much fun to visit and just hang out being ourselves. Our stomachs got a good worout from laughing as always. People only came to check on what the heck the noises coming from her room were a couple times :)
We had some good food and went to legendary Yogurt Park and everything was delicious. Jenn and I learned that our favorite word is falafel. We came equiped to visit Katie with blue index cards and lemon juice....don't ask. It was a blast and I love my girls :)

I'm dating a college guy

Steven graduated from high school yesterday. I went along w/ a big bunch of his big family :) The ceremony was fairly short for a graduation so it was nice. It got really windy and we were sitting in the top of the bleachers so it was a little cold but not terrible. We were on the other side of the field from the actual place where they walked so we couldn't see way too well but we yelled loud for him when they called his name :) He did walk in front of us so we got to see him well there. The wind made my hair crazy so pics were a bit difficult w/ us but we got some cute pics anyway.

After the graduation we all headed back to Steven's house and had pizza and cake w/the family. A LOT of pizza too, it was good. And Melissa, his sister, made a delicious and beautiful oreo ice cream cake. It was a lot of fun, and I was very happy for Steven. Now I can't tell people I'm dating a high school student...O well cause now I'm dating a college guy ;)