Independence Day!

I must admit, the 4th of July is a pretty fantastic holiday... always great BBQ food, fireworks, summer weather... it's just plain ol' awesome!

We had a really busy weekend! Ian and I both had family in town and so it was a little crazy, but it was a lot of fun! On Friday we finally were able to see Graham and Heather's townhouse finished! The last time we were there they were painting everything and the inside of our noses looked like winter pine forests. It was kind of funny, not going to lie. Their townhouse is awesome though! It feels really spacious (I think because it has really high ceilings). I like it a lot.

That evening we went with the Oxborrow clan to the family restaurant: Red Robin. I hadn't ever been to the one out by Daybreak. It's a really cool little shopping/entertainment area out there! While we were waiting there were a bunch of balloons, Livvi, Seth, Ian, and I proceeded to play with them. Livvi was hit in the face a few times... we all took stupid pictures, it rocked. After the meal, we headed back to Graham and Heather's. We picked up a Redbox movie: Planet 51. I had head that it wasn't very good, but I was thoroughly entertained. Definitely not one to watch over and over again, but entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday we all got breakfast at a really neat little bakery in American Fork called Flour Girls and Dough Boys. Then we went and bought Ian some much needed new shoes. Then we headed back to Provo to go to my Mom's family's BBQ. We had some delicious food and smoked turkey (YUM!), and celebrated my Uncle Ken's 50th birthday. Then we headed back to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks. It was actually a little chilly! The Vegas natives were freezing! :)

Here we see the lovely Oxborrow clan. Hehe.

This is Ian "sleeping" before the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July! We both are looking a little sleepy in this picture...

Sunday we spent the day at Graham and Heather's playing games and hanging out. We had a really great BBQ. It was delicious!

Monday we had an adventure trying to get out of Provo while the parade was going on. Bad idea. It took us 30 minutes to get out of our neighborhood! But we eventually made it to Lehi and we watched The Last Airbender. It was a pretty sweet little movie. I'll be excited when the actors become a bit more seasoned and hopefully they won't try to smash as much into the next movie... but we shall see!

Then after eating a quick lunch we went up to Temple Square to look at the new model of the Salt Lake Temple. It's pretty cool! You should go look at it in the south visitor's center if you have the opportunity.

Following that we headed up to Bountiful to the Muhlestein's home for another great 4th of July BBQ. Ian and I played foozball... there were some amazing shots. I'm not going to lie. We're actually pretty evenly matched in it... which is a rarity in sports (usually he pretty much kills me). Not that foozball is really a sport... but it kind of is... right?

ANYWAY

We evenually ended up back at Graham and Heather's and chatted for a bit longer until we headed home!

It was a crazy busy weekend, but it was a ton of fun!

St. Paddy's Day Leftovers

So if you had leftover corned beef and cabbage... grab some puff pastry, fry up the leftovers, wrap them up in squares of the pastry and cook until golden brown. Serve with horseradish sauce and you're good to go :) Just a word to the wise for using up those leftovers...

The Luck of the Irish

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

So Ian discovered the morning of March 17, 2010 that he owns absolutely nothing green. It's true. He wears blue, grey, black... yeah, no green. So I took it upon myself to remedy that and bought us some lucky wrist/sweat bands? Whatever you would call them...

Here's a picture of us trying to take a picture of our wristbands. Haha...



And here is a not-as-good photo of us actually getting our wristbands in the picture...



And of course, the St. Patrick's Day drinking picture. Cream Soda... yeah, haven't had that much carbonation in a LONG time....



And our Irish feast! (We moved "international food night" to Wednesday and didn't pick it out of a hat... yeah, we did Irish, for obvious reasons. I was a little wary of making corned beef and cabbage since I had head a lot of negative things about it, but this turned out great! And the Irish soda bread... as Ian said, it has the "same density as granite." I also made a green coconut cream pie. Mighty scrumptious.



We also went looking for the movie "Waking Ned Devine." That worked not so well. The only place that had it only had one copy and they sold it a couple hours before we got there. *sigh* So I ordered it on Amazon, and we're going to have a post-St. Paddy's Day movie watching special.

Here are the recipes!

Corned Beef & Cabbage
serves 6-8

1 3lb. corned beef brisket (uncooked), in brine
16 c. cold water
5 bay leaves
1 T. black peppercorns
2 t. whole allspice berries
4 whole cloves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges
8 potatoes cut into eighths
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
2 c. baby carrots
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

Rinse corned beef thoroughly in a colander with cold water

Place corned beef in a large dutch oven with a lid. Add water, bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and garlic. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Cover and transfer pan to oven. Braise until fork tender. (About 3 hours and 45 minutes)

Transfer corned beef to cutting board and cover tightly with foil to keep warm. Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook until almost done. Add cabbage and cook until all veggies are done.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cabbage to a large platter. Slice the corned beef across the grain (after trimming fat) and lay across the cabbage. Surround with potatoes, carrots, and onion. Spoon some of the hot cooking liquid over all and season with salt and pepper.

Irish Soda Bread

*Can add raisins, cinnamon, sugar, etc. to this
3 c. flour
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. soda
8-10 oz buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Mix all together, do not overmix. (Dough will not be smooth and elastic like normal bread)
Form into a round loaf. Score an X in the top to allow proper flowering.
Place on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 35 minutes.
Cool.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 can coconut milk
1 c. half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pkg. frozen coconut, thawed
1/4 cup toasted coconut
1 t. coconut extract
1 pie shell, baked

In a medium saucepan combine first five ingredients. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in frozen coconut and coconut extract. Pour into pie shell and chill 2-4 hours until firm.

Top with homemade whipped cream

Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. coconut extract

Mix together and whip until proper consistency.

Try it! Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So this weekend was incredibly fantastic! We started out the weekend going on a triple date. Ian and me, his brother Seth and his date, and Seth's roommate and his date. We went to eat at Red Robin, but while we were waiting, we ran over to a used bookstore in the mall and found all kinds of hidden treasures like "Bad Girls of the Bible," and that Hitler's biography was the largest one there, and the Persian Version of the Bible (say it our loud, and you'll find out why it's funny). Additionally we found "The World's Guide to Beer" written by a certain Michael Jackson (although it is probably not the Michael Jackson we all know and love). Seth thought it was so awesome that he bought it. Other bookstore treasures include a 3D experience of the universe and more! Check it out. It's tons of fun. Especially when you find the same book in the UFO and Aliens sections as the Religion section!

After we ate we went to Smiths and bought some coloring books and crayons. We bought a superhero one, of course. (There weren't exactly a plethora of options). Then we blindfolded each other, and the one who didn't have thee blindfold helped the other color their picture. I determined that we are awesome at coloring, haha. But in addition, I decided that it's pretty stupid that we try to teach our kids fine motor skills with crayons. I mean, I feel like my motor skills are pretty well-developed and I still colored outside the lines! Blasted crayons!

Then we watched "The Sandlot," one of the best movies of all time. It's brilliant!

On Saturday we went to the BYU Basketball game where we killed Air Force. It was sad. Really sad. For Air Force anyway. Then we went up to Pleasant Grove to try out this fifties diner called Spanky's Express, but it was closed. So Ian suggested we go to my favorite Mom & Pops down in Springville - Art City Trolley. Seriously, if you live in Utah Valley, you should try it out. It is AMAZING! Then we went and saw "The Princess and the Frog." If you haven't seen this movie, you should! It is definitely the best Disney movie in a LONG time. We were laughing the whole time.

Sunday we went to Church, of course. Then we spent the afternoon watching Lawrence of Arabia. Wonderful movie... SO LONG! We decided to never watch the whole thing in one sitting again... Then I made a three course meal. Pear, bleu cheese, and balsamic salad, fresh tomato and basil soup, and a bacon-wrapped filet mignon with onions and mushrooms, parmesan asparagus, and roasted red potatoes. Then my favorite two layer cheesecake with berries for dessert! I should have taken pictures... oh well! Then we exchanged gifts... Ian was going to get me a bouquet of Japanese cherry blossoms, unfortunately it's the wrong time of year and the wrong geographic location, because apparently there was no way to get them here. BUT, in his infinite amazingness, he found these Japanese cherry blossom candles:


He also gave me a movie (yes... I love movies... I know... no one knew that...) and See's peppermint patties. As some of you know, I'm not the biggest chocolate fan (more like, I'm not a chocolate fanatic), but peppermint patties are probably one of my favorite chocolate treats. He done good!

I made Ian a quilt over Christmas break. I made it huge (since he's kind of big...) It's 6' x 5' ish. If I'm under it with my arms above my head... it still covers me. Ridonkulous. But I had to make it that tall to fit his 6'4" body!


Here's our Happy Valentine's Day picture. It was getting a little late, we look a little tired. But it's all good!

Today we went up to SLC and visited the Planetarium and the Church History Library (there are a lot of cool books in there!) and we walked around the Gateway a bit, taking the classic pit stop in the LuvSac Store to chill on their sacs. It was fun!

A short update:

So my birthday was last month. I did a really good job and I didn't take any pictures. Go me. But I can tell you about it!

So my family came down and took me out to lunch at Art City Trolley. Ian gave me this adorable dog...

His name is Crockett. And these earrings (again, photos don't do them justice). They are my favorite earrings. I wear them all the time.


We also go to basketball games. Here's the picture after much screaming and escalated blood pressure following our win over Utah...

That about does it for the catching up since January!

And I Never Catch Up...

So another update blog. I'm really horrible at posting. Let's see. We'll go way, way back to Thanksgiving...

So the Asian family gathered down in Las Vegas for a weekend of craziness. We had two baptisms and a baby blessing in the cousins, so that was pretty exciting.

I was kind of lame and didn't really take any pictures except this one. Funny, I know. This was our first night in Vegas. Kimi, Ashlee, and I went down to the Bellagio with Ian and some of his family...and this was in the Bellagio. I know... But I did take some videos!

So that was pretty much Thanksgiving. It was a good time.















The Saturday after we got back was the BYU - Utah football game. And, of course, I was there! How can you doubt my integrity?!

It was an amazing game. We barely won, but we did! And it was fantastic. Ian was pretty much having a heart attack for the last 45 minutes of the game. Haha. Afterward, we rushed onto the field and partied. Thus, the picture... on the field. I was trying to get the scoreboard... yet another difficult thing to do when you take the picture yourself...















A week or so after that we went over to the grandparents' house for the annual building of the Christmas gingerbread houses.

We all went and ate dinner and built our fer-realz-made-out-of-gingerbread-and-put-together-with-royal-icing gingerbread houses. We made the roof out of Good 'n' Plenty's. Which was good, because I think they're gross. And Ian had the brilliant idea of the sugar cone tree out front. It worked out pretty well!

The next few weeks were spent wrapping things up with our calling in the ward (we did Sunday School) and getting new callings (I'm the publicity person, which means all the notifications, the ward directory, program, you know... and Ian was put in the Elders Quorum Presidency, which is nice for him because it means he doesn't have to go to Ward Council!). Then finals week, which, as you know, is always awesome. I was not sad to have yet another finals week where I did not have to take tests. Yeah, you never miss it.

After that we headed home for Christmas break. We had a lot of fun, though I got somewhat bored and started a super-secret project for Ian for Valentine's Day. It is awesome. For Christmas Ian gave me this beautiful necklace! This picture does not do it justice, because it is so sparkly! I get compliments on it all the time! He's the best boyfriend ever! :)

We celebrated birthdays and Christmas and we went and saw Sherlock Holmes, which was amazing! I was not disappointed!

Cami also got married over the Christmas break. I actually was attacked by the bouquet. Yeah, first time I've even come close to catching it at any kind of wedding. It ricochets hard off the ceiling and hits me in the face. Yeah. Good times....

Here are a couple pictures:



Let's see, on New Year's morning we ate mochi, as is the norm. It was Robyn's first experience. Nate thought for sure she would hate it just like him, but nope. She liked it. Haha. So Nate is still the only one that hates mochi in the family. And it made me laugh!

So I decided to start working in the web industry again. I'm designing websites and writing content. It's all pretty exciting. I'm working with some new software from the company (HIT Web Design) and I must admit, it is pretty great. So if you're looking for a website that is quick, easy, designed for you, and super easy to manage by you, get a HIT Designer site from HIT Web Design. It really is great. I'll post some links to my sites as soon as some of them go live. So it's kind of exciting doing something new. And getting paid quite well for it doesn't hurt either...

So that's pretty much the news. We've been attending some basketball games. I would show you pictures, except Ian has banned the ones we took at the UNLV game from the internet because he refused to actually smile in any of them, so he doesn't like them... ANYWAY... Oh, I do have a picture of Ian's sister-in-law, Heather, and his nephew, Jack. SO adorable! Plus Cosmo's in there, so that's always a plus...

But we've gone to a few...OH and Kimi and I went and saw Avatar in 3D. Um, wow. Definitely the best movie I've ever seen. (Not necessarily the best acting or story, but definitely the best movie). And I've seen a lot of movies. It was really just mind-blowing.

Oh, and you have to see the ring that I had made for Ian for his birthday. I rocks my socks off... Sorry it's blurry. It was really little in the picture I took it from. But you get the idea...

So, looking forward to another year of awesomeness.

:)

And looking forward to this weekend. It is sure to be full of surprises, fun times, and great experiences!

Halloween

SO, Ian and I dressed up as Belle and Gaston. And we looked fab. HAHA!

Halloween was great. We party hopped up and down the place. I think we hit four. That's kind of a lot. But it was great.... and I pretty much looked exactly like Belle (well as close as a half-Asian can look like a French provincial girl). Kimi's hairdo was awesome... and, of course, having the perfect Gaston helped a bit too :)