A Seasonal Update

Happy Holidays!
Since I last posted, Ryan and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary, Ryan finished Fall Semester, I started a new session at Adult Ed, we saw the Hobbit (really good!), visited Salt Lake, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and went to Les Miserables (also really good!) for my dad's birthday. Here are the details with the pictures:

 A left-over from the last post: Our Christmas tree for this year...we went to Idaho with Heath, Sheila and the kids and harvested it. It was extra tall which meant lots of boughs for decorating!!!

 

Our 1st Anniversary fell on the Monday of Finals Week for Ryan so we celebrated with a nice dinner at home. Ryan cooked (steak, "Uncle Kevin" potatoes, green beans, green salad, and wedding cake (which was still super tasty!) for desert), we watched Home Alone, and exchanged presents. I got Ryan a watch and he got me a beautiful bracelet. The Cooleys gave us a Precious Moments figurine that's just adorable! It was a great night!

Tasty!!!

 Cake anyone?

(It was still super moist and tasted almost as good as our wedding day. Definitely recommend Shaffer Bakery!!!)

 Mmmmm.....yummy.....

Anybody have the time?

Oh...so precious!!!

 After finals were over, Ryan and I took my mom and dad to Salt Lake for a little pre-Christmas excursion. We did lunch at Maddox on the way, stopped at Smith and Edwards, then wandered the new City Creek Center. Dinner was at Siegfried's Delicatessen (so tasty! and I'm so happy we finally got my dad down there to eat with us!!!) and then we finished off the night with a walk around Temple Square to see the lights. The last time I saw the lights with my parents I was a little girl. We had a great time just getting to be with my mom and dad. We're happy things worked out to make it happen!

  On Christmas Eve, with a lot of help from my mum, I finally finished the tree skirt and stockings I've been working on for months. I did the design, all the embroidery, and just about all the sewing. I think they turned out sooo cute!

There are still more Christmas pictures to upload. Hopefully we'll get them up soon!

Busy but LOVING IT!

Wow-eee!!! These past few months have been crazy busy! Here's the run-down:
In March we celebrated Ryan's birthday. I made mini puff pancakes for breakfast--so tasty!!! Gave him some presents and then sent him off to school. After I finished work at 9 that night, we had a steak and "Uncle Kevin potatoes" dinner with his family where he also opened more presents and we ate some tasty cake.
We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the extended Cooley Family in Newton, marked the 25th wedding anniversary of Allan and Kristie and surpassed 100 days of marriage! (The last two just happened to fall on the same day--awesome!)

In April, we celebrated our four month anniversary, Easter, my mom's birthday, Kira's birthday, took a trip to Hogle Zoo--my first--and Ryan wrapped up his classes.

2 Months and Valentine's Day Recap

Ryan and I celebrated our two-month anniversary last Friday. I love celebrating these little milestones. It's so fun!!! And to add to the fun we included Kira in our festivities. I picked Kira up from school, strategized about her history fair project and then we went to pick up Ryan. We grabbed some Subway ($5 footlongs--it's Februany!) and headed back to the Cooley home to watch Beauty and the Beast on their awesome new TV. It turned out that it was the diamond edition of the movie so there was even an extended scene! Allan and Kristie came home from dinner and joined our festivities. We ate popcorn, Ryan played Zelda, we did a Tim-Tam slam... It turned out to be a great evening!
Then for Valentine's Day we got to sleep in ('cause it was Tuesday and we can do that on Tuesday and Thursday), I made Ryan's favorite muffins for breakfast and then filled his pockets, shoes, and notebooks with cheesy Valentines. He had fun trying to find them all, which wasn't accomplished until late that evening! We parted ways about 10 am--Ryan to school then work, me to work, class, then work again. For dinner at 9:30 that night (yep, that's about when we rejoin each other at home), we enjoyed one of those heart shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's and a S'more pizza for dessert. It tasted fantastic alongside a couple episodes of Fringe! All in all, I'd say it was a great Valentine's Day. Low-key is just what we needed with our hectic schedules!
P.S. The only picture I have is of our Tim Tam Slam. Thanks Kristie!!! I'll try to do better with my own documentation!

1 Month!

After a long day at work for me and a new day of classes for Ryan, we both made it home for dinner. We'd planned Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for the menu, with a little cake for dessert! When I got home, Ryan had the potatoes boiling and I joined him in the kitchen to finish the rest. Once it was all ready, we dished up and headed to the living room to watch an episode of Stargate SG-1. I picked up the first season at the library and have been getting re-aquainted with the series. Ryan still can't believe I watch it! I profess to strongly dislike Sci-Fi.... Somewhere during the show I pulled out the last piece of wedding cake we had-besides the top that's awaiting our 1 year anniversary- and we dug in. It was still surprisingly tasty! I definitely recommend Shaffer Bakery for delicious cakes. We gobbled it up and enjoyed every single bite! I think it was a great 1-month anniversary!!