A Valentine Treat

Yes, St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching, and I told you that my next post would be more meaningful, but I came across some photos from Valentine's Day that I had forgotten were on my camera and I just had to share.

I'm not going to go into all the details of our day; it wasn't all that romantic since we were watching my 10-year-old brother while my mom was out of town, and to be honest, I don't care for Valentine's Day that much. All the mushy gushy stuff makes me uncomfortable. BUT, I did feel obligated to do something to make the day a little special. . . so I decided to try yet another wonderful recipe from our Roof cookbook.
Feast your eyes upon this!

Isn't it beautiful?

It was truly quite delicious.

Ok, you can stop drooling now.

But seriously, I have plans for a very special post coming, so be on the look-out.

random facts

I have found myself at a loss lately of what to blog about. Nothing big and exciting has happened in our lives lately, and since I don't always feel comfortable sharing my everyday, innermost thoughts with the whole world, I am left with nothing. We have slipped into habitual everyday life and find the weeks meshing together. They look a lot like this: work, FHE, work, eat, Zumba, work, sleep, work, dance, eat, work, do the laundry, sleep, etc. See why I can't think of anything?

So, I have decided to make this post a list of random facts about the two of us. 8 random facts about me, and 8 random facts about Tom. Hopefully I can come up with some good stuff that not all of our readers already know about us. Here we go.

Kimberly
1. I can't curl my tongue.
2. I have been hang gliding twice.
3. I am half Portuguese.
4. I've had braces (twice on the bottom).
5. I get the hiccups a lot. This was even a common occurrence for me while in the womb.
6. You can find me (as a little girl) on the cover of two books. look up "Lizzie Logan Wears Purple Sunglasses" and "Lizzie Logan Gets Married"
7. I hate the smell of carbon paper.
8. I do not like bacon. And why is it found in everything? There is a Jack-in-the-Box billboard by our apartment that says "marry bacon". Gag.

Tom
1. Tom knows a few African words that he picked up on his mission, and we're talking the cool "clicking" type of words that sound like something off of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
2. Tom hates celery. He'll pick it out of soup, salads, stir fry, everything.
3. A few years ago, Tom had surgery due to an over-bite and now has metal plates in his face.
4. He is a big animal lover, especially cats.
5. Tom is super super ticklish.
6. He loves to draw blood and is always checking out people's veins. Creepy weird, I know.
7. Tom's most favorite snack ever is jerky.
8. Before he learned how to play the violin, Tom would play the spoons in his family's band.

And there you have it! Random facts about us. I hope you learned something new.

Tune in next time for a hopefully more meaningful and fulfilling blog post from yours truly. Cheers!

Scrabble!

Pretty much Tom and I are addicted. . .

His parents gave it to us for Christmas, we just opened it, and have played it every day for the past three days.

We are spending time together, we are using our brains, we are expanding our vocabulary - life is good. :)

Christmastime

I think it's appropriate to just now be posting about Christmas since it is just now beginning to actually look like Christmas outside.
"Dear snow, where have you been the past three months? Just curious. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind your tardiness. Just please promise that you'll be gone by my birthday. Thanks."

Tom and I chopped down our own little tree the day after Thanksgiving.

I loved having Christmas on a Sunday this year. It gave us the opportunity to go church, sing Christmas hymns and remember what the day is really all about. As you can see, I didn't even take the time to change out of my dress before opening presents. I was too excited! I should have changed back into pajamas though. I find them more appropriate and much more comfortable when opening gifts.
Tom and I loved our first Christmas together as a married couple!

And we were blessed to be able to spend it with both of our families.

As crazy as they may be, we still love them!

My favorite gift? That is a tough question, but I would have to say the electric blanket that Tom gave me. I use it every night and it keeps me toasty warm. We may not have had much snow this season, but it's been COLD!




What a wonderful time of year! We are so blessed.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Little Chef

Since we've been married, my cooking skills have been put to the test. Sometimes it can be exhausting cooking dinner every night. As soon as I have prepared a nice meal and feel good about myself, it's time to start thinking about tomorrow's dinner. I'm not as good about planning ahead as I ought to be.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy cooking and don't mind at all coming home from work and starting up a meal. Tom is really good about helping out if he's around, and he is so appreciative of having a home-cooked meal each night.

I don't get very fancy or creative with my meals, and sometimes I wonder if Tom gets tired of our "staple meals" like hamburgers, stir fry, and spaghetti. But once in awhile I do branch out and try something new. So far the results have been delicious!

As a wedding gift, our good friend Michelle gave us a cookbook from The Roof restaurant (where we went to dinner the night Tom proposed!). Each month we have been picking one or two new recipes out of the book to try. I wish I had taken pictures of everything, but here is a small sampling. . .

This is a white raspberry cake Tom and I made for my mom's birthday last month. Tom even helped with the decorating. . . Sometimes I wonder if he's better at this kind of stuff than I am.

Chicken and Asparagus Crepes - yumm! I am definitely making this again for us sometime soon.

I have also made Chicken Cordon Bleu, Clam Chowder, and a pasta salad from the recipe book.

Happy cooking!

Grand Canyon 2

This fall I got to go to the Grand Canyon again with my dear friend Bekah and Mr. Jeremiah Wing. I think that this might become an annual tradition among us. I wouldn't mind!

This year's trip was a little different than last year's though.
A. Because I got to bring Tom, MY HUSBAND, along with us!
B. We decided to camp! Tom and I are always up for camping.

Tom hadn't been to the Grand Canyon since he was 10 years-old, so it was almost like going for the first time for him. He loved it!

Tom was in the process of completing a photography assignment for a Humanities class, and what better place to take beautiful and stunning pictures than the Grand Canyon?!
So I must credit all the excellent landscape photos to him.

We came across the famous Kaibabs again and Tom snuck up real close to get some good shots.

Puppies!

Our dog, Sophie, had a litter of six puppies back in September. They are the most adorable little things! You can't help but be happy when you're around them. I developed a special attachment to one of the males which Colter named "Bread." In my opinion, he is the cutest and the sweetest. If only our apartment let us have pets. . .