The Long Weekend

Some snow finally graced us with its presence so I just had to capture the moment. We had snow all weekend. We even got a little more last night. For this mild winter it was an exciting moment. 

On Saturday after a late start and a trip to the Temple we played some basketball with my cousin Maryann. 

We shot around a bit then played H.O.R.S.E. you can tell who the first one out was since I am the one taking all the pictures.  We had a lot of fun making our weird shots. I even made a couple of baskets as Zach and Maryann helped me with my form.

Sunday evening my family (all but Megan) drove up from Utah to see us! My Dad, Holly and Ricky drove up just for the evening so I was impressed that they were so willing to drive 8 hours just for dinner. 

Holly recently bought a guitar and has been learning how to play. She sang and played Pumped up Kicks by Foster the People, it sounded amazing! Serious talent.

We all had a good time just sitting around visiting eating food, laughing, singing and just being together. 

This was Kimberly's first time coming up to Rexburg. She lives 4 hours away and this was her first time visiting. Crazy!  It was so much fun to have her here to witness our first home before we move.  While music played and everyone was chatting, Kim practiced her artsy skills by doing drawings of everyone. More on that to come later.

Later in the evening, after my Dad had taken Holly and Ricky home, we video chatted with Megan. Its probably not fair that I posted this picture of her when she wasn't feeling well. But I still think she looks silly and darn cute. 

After a sour dough waffle breakfast, work and Kim's run we headed out to show off Rexburg. We took Kimberly to campus and showed her the Cross Roads, library, Spori art building and the BYUIC. She couldn't stop talking about how much bigger BYU-Idaho and Rexburg were compared to Provo. (Okay she may or may not have said anything like that) 

Before Kim and my Mom headed back to Utah we stopped for lunch at Ramerez. I think it might be one of my favorite places to eat in Rexburg (good food, good prices). It was nice to just sit and eat and enjoy each other for a few more minuets. 

I love this picture because of the colors and the art, NOT because we look like two hipsters. 

And just look how adorable my mom and sister look. Seriously love these two. 

Thanks to everyone that helped make our weekend so wonderful! I can't wait for another weekend. They are basically what I live for right now. Senioritis is kicking in bad!

Speaking of Trends

We felt it our duty to contribute to one of the newest Facebook trends. 

Enjoy. 

Obviously we don't think they're all pretty stupid and basically the same.

Blue, White and Stripes

(Shirt from Wal-Mart, Cardigan from Urban Outfitters) 

I have noticed a little theme I seem to be stuck on.  I bought a blue and white striped shirt and sat down in my room of blue and white stripes and it dawned on me. I'm stuck on this nautical theme and I don't even own a boat or go boating for that matter. 

(Pants are American Eagle from Down East, boots from Lands End) 

After I acknowledged my little obsession I went shopping and bought a pair of white jeans and a pair of navy blue sweats. It will apparently take some work to get over this... what ever this is. 

 (Cardigan from Sam's club, Belt is Lands End from D.I.)

There is just something about navy blue and mustard yellow together. It is my all time favorite color combination. Unless I am coloring with crayons then it is lime green, teal blue, magenta, orange and dandelion yellow. 

Striped have become so trendy as of late that they are almost considered neutrals. I have seen stripes being paired with floral and my sister-in-law saw polka dots and striped in the same outfit.  Crazy I know. Looking back I remember trying to stay away form too many striped items in our room because it was almost too trendy. Now here I am buying striped shirts and all sorts of navy and white items. Hey, but the first step is acknowledging that you have a problem right?

I have a most favorite blogger named Sydney. She is from The Daybook http://www.thedaybookblog.com/
She now lives in DC and posted some pictures from an excursion she took to New York. Needless to say I could not resist stealing this beautiful picture from her blog. I am so excited for our future adventures in New York. It seems so unreal but it is quickly approaching.

Hope everyone's midterms are going by with out too much stress. Good luck with the second half of the semester. It still hasn't really hit me that its our last. Give it a month, and I'm sure it will.

Our Valentines

I woke up 40 min before my first class of the day was going to start. As I debated whether or  not to get out of bed I remembered that my afternoon class was canceled and that pretty much did me in. Why should I get out of bed for one class when I can stay at home and cuddle with Zach in our nice warm bed? Besides, it is valentines day.

When I did eventually leave the house to stop by work and meet with a professor I was happily surprised to see that we had been heart attacked. A day later they are still sticking to my door because I like them so much. I have no idea who did it but I think its awful sweet. 

We offered to babysit for some of our friends, so we got lucky and hung out with this sweet thing all evening. Maybe some parents are laughing at us being excited to have a date night babysitting, but we really had fun. 

We watched 'Toy Story 3' ate chicken enchiladas, cucumbers and grapes. It was quite the feast. I still love all the Toy Story movies but especially this one because of the 'Cool Hand Luke' reference.  You know, the part where Buzz throws everyone in cells and tells them if they break the rules they have to spend a night in the box.

After our tired little friend went home we popped some popcorn in our new microwave, just like I said we would. We opened some new years sparkling cider and sat down to enjoy some shows on Hulu. As we tucked ourselves in for the night I used the microwave yet again to heat up one of those rice bag heater things and warmed my little feet right up. I have never been so excited about an appliance ever since our deep fryer.

This morning as I got to my 6th grade class I was surprised with awesome valentines from two of my students. I felt like a right of passage to receive the bigger valentines that are saved for your best friends or your teachers. And I felt appreciated, which was really the best part.

(the long red one is a stick of Rollo's dynamite that says "you are Da Bomb" the other is a giant kiss 900 calories in that kiss alone. WhooHoo!),

I just received my second score and I have officially passed both of my Praxis tests with flying colors. I don't think I would have studied at all if I had known I would pass so easily. haha. Always better to be prepared. So, the senioritis is kicking in bad, as you can tell by my class ditching yesterday. Midterms are here and the only one I have is tomorrow. Wow only 8 more days in the elementary school, 36 days of school, 51 days until I graduate, 54 days until I student teach..... and 5 1/2 months until we move to NY!

We are obviously not excited at all for this next chapter in our lives. Hope you were all able to enjoy your valentines day as much as we did.

Happy Valentines Day

Our gift to each other this year was our first microwave. We will probably celebrate by  popping some popcorn and watching a movie.

 For breakfast Zach whipped up some sourdough pancakes. And I couldn't resist adding a little touch of hearts and whipped cream.

Hope you all have a wonderful day of love. Around these parts, everyday is a day of love. 

xoxo

An Allen Kind of Weekend

Friday afternoon Paige got here. We visited with her for a few hours and went out to eat a delicious meal with mini blizzards at Dairy Queen while we waited for Brett and Erica to arrive.  They finally got there later that evening and we enjoyed some good conversation.

Somehow we got a little separated and the girls ended up talking for hours on the comfy bed while Brett and Zach were stuck in the living room. 

It was so nice to get the scoop on everyone's lives and talk about the good, the bad, the spiritual and the fun. I went to bed that night feeling uplifted, loved and supported. 

The next morning we all rolled out of bed around 9:30 for Zach's sourdough waffles. We had Clint over as well. We sat around the breakfast table for hours again just talking, laughing and catching up. 

Letter in the afternoon we pulled ourselves away from the food and headed out to check out Down East basics. We didn't have much luck in finding a new wardrobe but we did walk away with bags of candy from the Wal-Mart next door. For all the weird people I see at Wal-Mart I still love their prices and snack/candy selection.  So hard to say "no". 

After some shopping and a delicious Taco Bell meal we headed to the cheep theaters for a movie. We saw "We Bought A Zoo". I highly recommend the movie. I walked in with mid to low expectations and was presently surprised by the uplifting message, good acting, fun story line and overall feel of the movie. The only down side for me was the pretty constant water works. For some reason I really cannot handle the death of a spouse in a movie. It does me in almost every time. So besides my weepy-ness, I loved it!

We all were wearing our glasses that morning and had to get a picture.

After the movie we came home for a real meal. We had Clint over again for food and spent the rest of the evening playing 5 card draw, Scrabble and Uno. Uno and poker were the favorites as a lot of it was up to chance and really helped keep our competitiveness manageable. Scrabble on the other hand.....

I really can't get over how blessed I am to have such wonderful in-laws. They are always so good to me and did one amazing job raising Zachary. Thanks for coming and visiting, I can't wait to hang out with you all again!

Hope you all had a happy weekend as well!

Food

Sunday turned into a busy baking day. I had to get a dessert ready for Monday night and I was craving lemon muffins, dinner had to be made and Zach was in the mood for some sour dough bread. So the kitchen was crazy for a couple of hours but it was so worth it. 

I found a Lemon Cream Cheese Muffin recipe that I really enjoyed

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c. sugar
1 (4 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 c. oil
1/2 c. milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. grated lemon peel
1/4 c. chopped nuts
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. sugar

Sift baking powder, flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Cut cream cheese into 1/2 inch cubes. Add sugar to flour mixture. Add cream cheese, and coat well in flour mixture. In a separate bowl combine egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and lemon peel. Add dry mixture to the moist ingredients, stir until just combined, fold in nuts. Spoon batter into 12 prepared muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Combine lemon juice and sugar and brush onto hot muffins.

For dinner we cut up some potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, crumbled some beef, threw it in foil and then onto the oven. We of course seasoned the heck out of everything with a variety of sauces, herbs and seasonings. It took an hour or so to cook through but it was a satisfying and tasty Sunday dinner.

Happy hump day. May the rest of your week go by quickly!