My Happy Birthday

I turned 29 this week and had a great birthday!

My celebrations began Tuesday night when my dear friend Jilly took me out for the night. Her sweet daughter Katie took my kids until Tyler could get home for them, and our night was a joy! We went to dinner at a great new place (for me) called Pita Jungle. It wasn't anything like I expected and delicious! Then we went and did a little bargain shopping and to the movies!! I am so thankful to have a good friend like Jill who is supportive in so many ways! THANK YOU JILL, I HAD A GREAT TIME!!


On Wednesday my sister Maddie arrived for a visit and brought a lot of freshness and fun into the whole week for me! We went to the zoo, to lunch and for pedicures on my birthday, out to eat at Pita Jungle and IN and OUT and Logan's Roadhouse and Sonic.. eeww - AND to the gym for a cycling class (it's not all input!). Yesterday she helped me clean our new house (we move in two weeks) and she has just been SO FUN to have around!! It really makes me wish I had a sister or MOM close!! But we've already beat that dead horse.



Of course my kids and Tyler remembered my birthday too. Ty made waffles in the morning, got me some new running shoes, and took me out kitchen table shopping and to PF Changs. And the kids hooked me up with a clearance box of Valentine's chocolates. Wow! All in all, I felt very grateful for so much love in my life.



The pretty jewelry Shauna sent me... I've worn it all week.

Modeling the new apron my mom made me!

I think I received more fun mail and phone calls this week than I do the rest of the year combined. Which reminds me, I want to share that my adorable father-in-law Steve called to wish me a happy birthday from the Joseph Smith Memorial building in Salt Lake (where he volunteers time playing the piano) and serenaded me "Happy Birthday to you", and "Forever my love"!! I put the phone on speaker and Maddie and I were dying, it was very cute.

My 1st grade drummer-boy

Tonight Luke had his very first drum performance at school. When I read the program I was surprised to find that he was performing with only two other friends in his class, and he wasn't a bit nervous! He did great and I will try to upload the video again tomorrow - didn't work tonight. He must have gotten his drumming skills from his grandpa Mark! P.S. I also got him his first suit for church last week and couldn't move the car until I'd gotten a picture of his handsomeness. Where has my baby gone?!

First Solar's Spring Training Event

Last weekend Tyler's company hosted a Spring Training BBQ Lunch and took us all to see a game. It was a lot of fun and one of the first times we've gotten together as a family with the families of those he works with. They were all really nice. His building is located near the fields but they had arranged buses for us to ride over on which was fun for all. They also gave everyone a big goody bag with FS hats, suncreen, baseballs, blow up bats and treats. They thought of everything.

Heisman Hillstead

This is Ty posting.
Anne and I used to joke that her dad was living vicariously through her brother Drew's high school football glory days... well, I may have taken the baton and started a bit early. If you have sound, I'm the psycho guy wearing Luke's letterman jacket yelling 'go, go!' at the top of my lungs in the background. Anne can't hold back her excitement either if you can't tell.
- Proud dad.

Happy Birthday Maddie!!

My sister Maddie turned 21 this week - born on February 29th, leap-year day! I am so thankful to have her as a sister. She is smart and beautiful and fun. I love her a lot! Isn't she HOT?!

Caution: Contents Under Pressure

Don't ask me how, but I do believe I caught the chicken in my pressure cooker on fire the other night. Normally I throw a frozen chicken breast or two in the cooker and they are ready to be shreaded up for dinner about 8 minutes later and it is so cool, but this night something wasn't normal. I don't know what went wrong but the pressure cooker was steaming weird and when I tried to cool the lid with cold water the pressure indicator would drop, but then go right back UP! So I knew their was a heat source coming from inside the pressure cooker - and since it smelled like fire, I figured it could be!!

So I thought of my friend Beth whose kitchen caught fire not long ago and I was determined to prevent that so I carried the thing with hot pads out front and set it on the cool concrete. At that point I got my camera because I wanted proof to show Tyler that all this really happened and I took pictures of myself spraying the hot pot with the hose!!

Finally the pressure indicator dropped down and stayed down so I knew the thing was cooler inside and was safe to open up. Right about then was when Tyler pulled up front and we laughed when I told him what was going on. Upon opening up the pot, this is what we found. Disgusting! And we dinner ate out at Quiznos not too long after.

I still don't know what happened and but I do know that I hope it doesn't happen again next time. Gross! Charred Chicken!

Paradise.

As I mentioned earlier, this week is our 9 year wedding anniversary! I just can't believe how quickly time has flown by and how far we've come since the Villa Maria apartments in Provo, all day classes at BYU and splurging on a nice dinner out at Taco Bell! :) It seems like just yesterday.

Our one year anniversary has gone down in history as a royal bust, Tyler went skiing on a PwC recruiting trip and came home sick and feverish with the flu. I think I had dinner and a movie waiting... but we just went to bed. Ever since then he has been committed to celebrating our anniversaries in style, and it has become one of our favorite traditions.

This year we decided to stay in town and drove about 40 minutes up to Scottsdale. The resort we stayed at was way nicer than we anticipated, it felt like Paradise - and in our own backyard!! (think of the big bucks saved not flying or driving anywhere!) We thoroughly enjoyed the down time.






Our ride. J/K



The next day we had my mom bring the kids up in the afternoon to swim with us. We were just so excited about the place (warm pools!) that we didn't want the kids to miss it! :) Then we went to dinner with Luke and Ashley on the way home (grandma took wild Jake in her car). It was the end to a perfect little getaway!

"Bread, bread, bread, bread, bread."

This weekend before we took off on my mom she taught me how to make this bread that uses no eggs or oil, just Soy Lecithin. I guess it is the big rage up in Utah right now because it is so good for food storage reasons (lecithin has a 5 years shelf life) so she brought me all the stuff I needed to get started and we had fun playing around with the recipies. The creator's blogsite is www.howtomakebread.blogspot.com But anyway, we ate our weight in bread the past four days; cinnamon braids, rolls, garlic breadsticks, wheat bread, jelly rolls, etc. I feel like the pillsbury dough-boy. But I appreciate having this knowledge because you can make white or wheat bread with it and so many good treats.







P.S. There's a story that goes behind the title of this post. When we were dating Tyler had a very large roommate who was a food science major who LOVED food. Almost everyday he made bread in his bread machine and when the little bell would go off indicating that the bread was ready he would jump up and, in a very womanly way, say "bread bread bread bread bread!" It was too much. And, he never shared.

'Two Sisters, One Heart' Fun Run

I decided to sign our family up to run in something special for Valentine's day. There are two little girls (two years old) who are conjoined twins, sharing a heart and liver, who live nearby. The community was doing a fundraiser for them to pay for a possible upcoming surgery or continued medical costs. We ran in the one mile fun run, and got to start out right next to the girls, Taylor and Emma! Tyler pulled Jake and Ash in the wagon and Luke and I ran and walked. It was great. A sweet activity perfectly appropriate for the day of love! :)

A date with my love.

Since our anniversary comes only ten days after Valentine's day we usually trade who takes who out for each event. This year I treated Ty to a Valentine's date and we went up to the Tempe Marketplace to eat at California Pizza Kitchen and play some games at Dave and Busters. It was something I knew he would enjoy and we had fun! And with the NBA all-star stuff going on right in town things were definately happening - lots of people!

Here are some pics:

Shortsales can be slow.

Just a note to let friends know that we are still working on getting the house. With a short sale each step takes longer and the bank tends to take its sweet time. We did originally state that we could move in on Feb.28th however I now know that that date will never happen. We are most likely looking at mid-late March or even later if there are hang ups. It's cool though. We aren't in any big hurry until the heat arrives and we are ready for a pool again! So that's what's going on with that. I'll keep things posted here as they unfold.

This one's for Nana and Grandma

WE LOVE YOU!