St. Patrick's Day is never anything special really. Don't get me wrong, I like it and all, but due to the fact that I'm not Irish and I don't drink myself unconscious, this day really isn't anything more than me wearing GREEN!!! But oh how I love the color green. It is my favorite color you know!
Oh and I do miss the days when people PINCHED those who did not wear green and participate in St. Patty's Day! This is a bonus of St. Patty's that i truly miss. Why can't i be in 2nd grade again? Ah well...
This year I decided to make a "GREEN" dinner!!! As in the color green. I thought it'd be something fun to do. Also, I had about 1-1/2 hours to waste until Joel got home from work and I never cook anymore (or pretty much since I married that handsome+amazingly sweet+excellent cook husband of mine) so I thought it might be nice to have dinner ready when he got home!
Well, I did it and it was a SUCCESS!!! Everything was delicious and everything was GREEN! We had fun with it and I think I'll probably do it each St. Patrick's Day now! I feel a new tradition emerging.
I made/we ate...
- tallarin verde (this is a peruvian dish that is mouth-watering)
- salad w/ cucumber+tomato+real bacon bits (i know it's not completely green but come on...that would've been a boring salad)
- green beans
- pound cake+mint chocolate chip ice cream (dyed the pound cake green b/c i'm awesome like that)
- GREEN "mocktail" (ginger ale+sprite+apple juice+lemon juice+2 drops green food coloring)
just the salad...nothing exciting
this is what I like to call the "GREEN HORNET" mocktail
the yummy meal
Joel thinking, "isn't my wifey the BEST!!!"
(really he was complaining b/c I insisted on taking pictures+he just got home from work & thought he looked grubby)
pound cake+mint ice cream=deliciousness
ignore the shine & deer in the headlights look
So we had fun with St. Patty's Day this year and enjoyed the delicious dinner I made!!! I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but BRAVO BRIT!!! And I will oblige myself with a "pat" on the back (pat... b/c it was for st. patty's day... i didn't realize this at first but i made myself giggle so...what the hay).
So this Christmas Joel and I made the 15 hour drive down to TEXAS with Grams & Papou Shapardanis. It was SUPER FUN to say the least! This was our first Christmas since we've been married that we spent it with my family, the crazy SERIA gang. We missed Joel's parents (especially since they had very few visitors for christmas this year) but loved having my ENTIRE FAMILY there!
10 adults + a 4 bedroom house = NEVER A DULL MOMENT!
(plus my oldest sis, Karissa & her precious son, Roran (who I am obsessed with) were at the house the majority of the time)
Anyway, we didn't do anything super exciting but it was still fantastic being home...and in warmer weather! We went to the Dallas, TX temple and I wore a short sleeve dress without a coat... how amazing is that? I was in heaven!!!
Seria Christmas 2010 Activities:
-watched movies nightly
-had a Seria girls night while the boys played basketball at the stake center (we watched all 3 Twilight movies b/c Karissa had never really seen them). Oh one night we also watched all of North & South... yea we were up pretty late but Mr. Thornton transfixed all of us.
-played Wii Fit constantly...we brought it all the way from Ohio & got everyone addicted (my dad just bought one for my mom for her b-day)
-went to the temple...my grandparents work super hard at doing our genealogy so we all went & it was so special to be there together
-threw a Seria Shindig for old time sake (our house was the "party house" during high school. everyone always came over to hang out. it was so fun seeing so many of my friends for the short time we were in town)
-SHOPPED TILL WE DROPPED...the ladies of course
-played games+more games, but mostly the "name game"
-SERIA CHRISTMAS EVE PROGRAM 2010 (i always put together a program on christmas eve. everyone participates by sharing a talent, mom recites the Night Before Christmas, dad reads the story of the birth of Christ, grandparents share traditions they grew up doing at christmas in Greece & Germany)
-SERIA FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT...b/c who knows when the next time we'll all be home at the same time
-FHE w/ the Blacker family (we played "minute to win it" games...Kenna was the champion for sure)
-New Year's Eve Fondue Party w/ the family & my cousin Sasha's family... we adopted that from the Skousen gang
-Visit w/ the Kraus family (joel's sis, Liana+her hubby, Collin+2 adorable nieces, Lilly & Lucy)
-DANCE PARTIES w/ little Roran multiple times a day (roran absolutely loves dancing. unfortunately none of my videos were good enough to post)
-my sis, Amanda & I constantly fighting over RORAN PHILIP!!! this is a never-ending thing b/c we're OBSESSED w/ that child!!!
Derek & Joel
singing Away in a Manger in Spanish @ the Seria Christmas Eve Program
Joel got ice skates...he's super happy!
Joel & I opening presents Christmas morning/afternoon
Morgan, me, Kenna & Joel at FHE
Jared (bro-in-law), Joel, Dave (my good friend) & Derek: my adorable baby brother
at the Seria Shindig
RORAN PHILIP
he started this scowl thing which I'm pretty sure he got from his daddy
I seriously spent like 15 to 20 minutes saying this to Roran. Needless to say my throat was a bit sore afterwards.
But he's a silly kid and a little entertainer/ mimicker. We had fun!
Anyway...we had a blast over Christmas with my family. A lot of memories were made and I'm glad I got to share some of them with you. Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!
April 18, 1986 was one of the most important dates known to man... well, at least to me, Joel's family and anyone else who thinks he's amazing and the BEST! How lucky am I do have him as a hubby? I know, you don't even have to tell me... I'm the LuCKiEsT!
So Joel turned 24 years old exactly one month (b/c I started this post yesterday) ago! We had a great weekend of celebrations! Friday night we went ate at Craigo's Pizza and went bowling at the REX with some friends, Matt and Amy Maynard. It was so fun! We love bowling...even though we're both pretty HORRIBLE at it! Joel is absolutely hilarious to watch: his form, his facial expressions and the way he literallySLAMS the ball down on the lane! I know he wants some power behind his swing (or whatever it's called), but I was pretty certain the ball was going to break through the floor. Oh that hubby of mine...he is so SILLY!!!
Saturday: Joel's older sister, Janine and her family came for a visit (since they were already in Pocatello visiting her mother-in-law). It was a bLaSt!!! We love spending time with them, especially those 3 adorable children of theirs (no worry, this post is going to splattered with pics of them)! Joel made us BLT Mac N' Cheese for lunch and then we took the boys to the playground in our complex for bit. It was an overcast day, but enjoyable all the same. Oh, Nick's (our bro-in-law) little sister, Tanae, who also attends BYU-I, joined us for a fun afternoon.
After the playground we decided to take a little walk to G's Dairy... they have AMAZING ice cream! If you know me... I LOVE MY ICE CREAM! The twins, Gage & Reid, were hilarious, per usual. They sat at their own little kid table at G's Dairy and made a mess of themselves. I took some pictures (see below) but it doesn't do their ice cream covered faces JusTiCe! Especially Gage, since he had pink ice cream. After that, we just walked back to our apartment and hung out and enjoyed each other's company. We watched Danica do a dance while we sung a primary song, the twins listened to Joel play is guitar, aka: "Ta-tar", Reid was jumping on the bed and smashed his little head into the wall (that crazy/ accident prone kid) and Joel opened his b-day gifts from Janine & Nick and also my gift to him. Thanks Claysons for coming for a visit... we had a BLAST!!! (WARNING: there are a lot of pictures)
Gage climbing up the slide.
Janine & Danica
Nick & Tanae(goodness...they look so much alike)
Oh Little Reid!
Me & Reid
(assisting him down the fireman's pole)
Joel & Gage
(helping him off the monkey bars)
Joel & Me
Reid & Gage
The twins about to race down the slide! (Reid won)
Gage & Reid w/ ice cream covered faces!
(can you tell I love them?)
Princess Danica
Janine, me, Joel & the kiddos!
The Claysons!
(Thanks again for coming. We had so much fun! Love you guys!)
Sunday:the BIG B-DAY!!! We went to church, of course. Then when we got home, I started to make Joel a special b-day dinner! Steak...yams... YUMMY! Well we were having some friends over for dessert and games to celebrate Joel turning 24 and the dinner was taking so long to make (dumb yams) and I still had FRUIT PIZZA to make! So poor Joel, being the loving hubby he is, finished making his own b-day dinner! I know...I know... before you start throwing stones at me, remember it's the thought that counts & my intensions were pure. I just put too much on my plate in a short amount of time.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun with our friends that were able to make it. We ate some goodies and played the always favorite Werewolves of Millershollow! Thanks everyone for joining in the celebration! We had fun!
Joel's B-day Fruit Pizza
(so I make fruit pizza all the time...big deal)
Alex & Juan Pablo
Matt & Amy Maynard
(our friends we went bowling with)
Becca & Cory Bowen, Joel & Colby
Andrew & Cassandre Briggs
My GIFT to Joel: I planned to get this for Joel for months before his b-day b/c we both sleep horribly, due to our mattress. I got him 3" of wonderful MeMoRy FoAm MaTtReSs ToPpEr!!! He absolutely loved it... and so do I. The best gifts are the ones you know someone else will LOVE that you can also enjoy! haha! You know it's true!
Joel showing off his b-day gift
(that box was deceivingly heavy)
"Ah...this is nice!"
(Joel enjoying the memory foam topper)
Joel thinking:"My wife is awesome & gives the best presents!"
For Easter and General Conference weekend (April 2th - 4th), Joel and I went to Utah. We had the opportunity to stay with Joel's sister, Janine and her family (like always), see my sister, Amanda and her hubby, Jared (I didn't get pictures of them...boo!), went to lunch with Joel's best buds he grew up with, Brian & Kirby, along with Kirby's fiance, Jess who we love! Oh and we got to see Joel's cousin, Dave and his now wife, Emily. Needless to say, we had a great weekend full of fun!
Easter Sunday
Joel and I work up really early to get to the Conference Center in SLC b/c we had tickets to the morning session (thanks to my good friend, Lynne getting them for us). We left early thinking we'd hit traffic, have to park far away and get to our seats, with time to run to the restroom. Well... we had hit NO SNAGS! We parked about one block away and walked straight to our seats without any issues. So... we were there HOURS early! We had fun people watching.
As I'm sure you all remember, Conference (especially Sunday morning) was AMAZING!!! I guess it was a perfect way to celebrate Easter! Oh, side note: We sat in the section that is reserved for the hearing impaired. So, there were two TVs right in our faces and I was really distracted by them. It was b/c the sign language translators on the screen, rather just one of them, was soooo DRAMATIC!!! His facial expressions were priceless! I would do almost anything to get a shot of him for all of you to see. Oh well...
Here are some pictures from that weekend, mostly of our niece, Danica & our twin nephews, Reid & Gage.
Saturday morning: Joel & Danica
(Joel won't be happy I put this up here b/c he just woke up)
Reid - He's super cute w/ that adorable face & red hair
Gage - I'm pretty sure Nick is reprimanding him for something
Brian, Jess, Kirby, Joel & me @ Chipotle for lunch
The then newly engaged - Future Mr. & Mrs. Kirby Childress
Joel & Me - Easter Sunday in front of the Conference Center
