Halloween

Happy Halloween AND Happy First Birthday Kennie!!

Tom and I took advantage of the holiday to get dressed up and have a good time.



Tom as a "bad boy"



Me as a "cop"



Me and Mandy, hanging out with some friends.

With the birthday girl. Go OWLS....Owls, Owls, HOOT HOOT!

We went to see our friend's 80's cover band, Flux Capacitor, play a show. It was a fun night!

Families are Forever

When Laura was in town from BYU, we decided to do some familiy pictures. It had been a while since we had gotten a semi-coordinated family piciture, so it was time. I think overall, they turned out nice. I "picnik'd" some of the best photos. Picnik you might ask? It is one of the best kept secrets (unless you are in college and since I am around college girls all the time, I found out about it). You can upload pictures and add all sorts of effects, graphics, you name it. Plus, it's really user friendly. Here's some of the family photos.

Mother- Daughter Time

I took the day off as a mental-health day and spent the majority of it with my mom. We had so much fun! It was good to do errands at my leisure and then spend time with my mom. Although we may live close, we don't get to have Mother-Daugther time a lot. Here are some pictures of our day together.


Ezekiel Bread...in the works.


The finished product. It is so good, really easy and fun to make. We even ground our own ingredients in the wheat grinder. If you want the recipe, let me know.


We decided to make apple crisp while we were at it. She had some apples to use. I love baking!


I love my family so much and it was great to be able to spend some much needed one on one time with my mom.

Happy Birthday Tom!!

Today we celebrated Tom's 29th birthday! He's in the last year of his 20's! We went to dinner at Red Robin. Red Robin is a west coast thing but has made its way over here in a few places. He first ate there on his mission in Seattle, WA and it was love at first bite. It's his favorite burger joint. There is one at the Forsyth Avenues. They're known for their gourmet burgers and bottomless steak fries. Below is the cake I made for him...completely by scratch. It's one of our favorites. So moist and chocolatey!! I added reeces to the top for some variety.




I love you babe!!

North Georgia State Fair

We went to the North Georgia State Fair with Mandy, Trev and Kennie and had so much fun!

We got Mandy to ride a scary ride with Tom! Rollercoasters and rides are a walk in the park for Tom but not for Mandy. Go Mandy!!



Kennie rode her first ride! It was a "Nemo" ride. We all spread out around the perimeter of the ride so wherever Kennie was during the ride, she could see one of us. At one point during the ride, she clapped her hand and went "ahhh." After which she secured her hands back on the sides. It was fun to watch her.


We enjoyed the festivities and carnival food. It was a good night.

FUN with cooking and baking

Recently, I have become fond of making my own bread. So far, I've been doing french bread but soon I plan on making other kinds as well. Thought it would be fun to post a picture along with this yummy Greek dish I made the other day called Spanikopita. One of my co-workers was raving about it and it sounded good. If you like spinach and feta cheese, I think you'll like it too. It definitely tastes Greek.

Here's the recipe in case you like trying new things too:

3 boxes frozen spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out

1 bunch scallions, finely chopped, white and green parts

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

1 1/2 cups feta cheese, grated or crumbled

1/2 cup cottage cheese

5 eggs

1/2 cup cream of wheat

1 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

10 leaves phyllo dough

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, add the spinach, scallions, parsley, and dill, and toss. Add the cheese and toss again. Add the eggs and then the cream of wheat. Work the eggs and cream of wheat into the mixture with your hands. After it is well incorporated, pour 1/2 cup olive oil over all and use a spoon to coat the mixture well. Season with salt and pepper.
Brush a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with olive oil. Line the bottom of the pan with a leaf of phyllo. Brush with olive oil and repeat with another 4 leaves. Evenly spread the spinach mixture over the layered and oiled phyllo. Add 5 more leaves, brushing each with oil. With sharp knife, score top phyllo into serving size portions. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the phyllo is golden brown and the mixture inside is piping hot.

ENJOY!

Friends, food, fireworks and FUN!

Every year, the city of Kennesaw does fireworks on the 3rd of July. We got together with Trev, Mandy and Kennie and had a picnic and watched the fireworks. It was so fun. Later that evening, we decided to get what a lot of people have been raving about...Rock Band! Ok, so we stayed up until 2am playing!! We named our band "The Suxx" because we were terrible at first but we have gotten so much better. When you play a show, you have to succeed as a band. You're able to save a member of the band during a song if they got kicked off for playing poorly. Each person can play at a different level of difficulty. It's pretty cool. Most of the time we didn't have a singer but just drums, bass and guitar. Trevor aka Lizard Blood (yes, that was his band name) fell asleep, so me, Tom and Mandy were a 3 piece band. We were able to unlock songs and venues as well as win a tour bus with our mad skills:) They ended up spending the night and we made breakfast later on that morning. It's great to be in the company of good friends.

On the 4th, we had a BBQ at a friends house and then went to see the 4th of July fireworks at the Marietta square. I've never gone to the square for fireworks. It was carnival style with funnel cakes, boiled peanuts, corn dogs, etc. The fireworks were good and the atmosphere was fun. We did have some drama at the end of the evening, however, where some punk kids threw a water ballooon at us from off of a parking deck that was beside where we were sitting. They also threw pizza, too (not at us). What the heck? Our guys went up to the top of the deck to check out the scene. Why do people do stupid stuff like that? If you want to do that to each other, whatever floats your boat. But at people you don't even know? We had a baby with us too. Weird... We went back to our friends and made s'mores and chilled by the fire. We were out again until 2am. Needless to say, we slept IN on Saturday!

What a holiday!! Good times, good food, good friends.