Hearts

My theme for this Valentine's Day was hearts.  I didn't start out planning it that way, but there are so many cute heart ideas and recipes on Pinterest I got wrapped up.  I painted my nails with hearts, made heart cookies, heart cinnamon rolls and heart egg in toast.  I also had planned on making heart shaped bacon, but my breakfast plans were making me frustrated and I decided to let that one go, more on that later.

On Valentine's Day I made these cookies.  I found the idea on Celebrating Everyday Life with Jennifer Carroll.  I loved her photos, however I wanted to make cookies from scratch.  I followed this recipe from Made to be a Momma and they were delicious!

Then Friday night I made cinnamon rolls ready for when Big B headed out to work on Saturday, since he leaves much earlier than I wake up.  I found the recipe for the heart cinnamon rolls here, but be warned I actually ended up coping and pasting the recipe on to a word document.  The original web page kept changing to an american food recipes page, very annoying!  Instead of starting from scratch you can always buy Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls and just roll them from each side and then pinching the bottom to form the heart shape.

Later on Saturday I painted my nails.  I got some advice from #16 on these Nail Hacks from Buzz Feed.  They didn't turn out exactly like the hearts on Buzz Feed, but I still thought they were cute.  And I was pretty proud of the heart on my right hand, since I am not an ambidextrous person.

Right ring finger

Left ring finger

Lastly on Sunday I made some egg in toast and bacon. We have a gas stove in our kitchen, which has been a new experience. I love the fact that the stove warms up very quickly, but it tends to burn out when I turn down the heat.  Because of this I ended up burning a sandwich and then I couldn't get the second sandwich to toast.  I eventually made the sandwich, cutting out the heart and then toasting it in our George Foreman.  This didn't work out as well as I had hoped and ended up a bit squished, but at least they toasted without burning.  Then I cooked the egg in my heart cookie cutter on the stove and then placed the cooked egg inside of the sandwich when everything was done.  Although it didn't turn out as well they did on Reclaiming Provinvial, they were tasty, but not worth photographing.

A Quick Recap of December

In November I forgot to write about when we went to the Major League Soccer Cup. It was a great game that went into sudden death overtime and then a shootout.

Beckham about to kick during the shootout.

In December we attended the Washington vs. Cal football game. This game was free to all officers of law in honor of the Lakewood Police Officers.

In the middle of December my friend  and her husband came out for a long weekend. We ate a lot of great food and toured the sights.

Someone practicing a hang-gliding landing, again we assumed.

Our guests  with downtown Seattle behind them.

For Christmas Eve Big B and I drove up to Bellevue to watch the show on Snowflake Lane.

There were drummers with a lot of enthusiasm and other characters who performed to some Christmas music.

This is the only "snow" we saw. There is also fake snow falling in this photo, even though you can't exactly make it out.

Our Christmas decorations.

I had bought 2 stockings to surprise Big B with on Christmas morning. I came home one night after work and decided it didn't feel enough like Christmas and I couldn't wait to put them up. Shortly afterwards Big B
came home with the other stockings, tree and lights...he had the same idea!

For Christmas I woke up with a stomach bug, darn kiddos spreading their germs around :) My day was spent sleeping and opening presents. Not the best Christmas I have ever had, poor Big B though, at least I was sleeping through most of it.

The day everyone remembers to give thanks, hopefully.

We played lots of games and enjoyed some great food! It was great having family in town and I was so thankful for the chance to spend time with them.

We also had to check out the Black Friday ads and come up a plan for the following day.

Fourth of July

Big B and I went to watch the fireworks at Gasworks Park. The show has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation a few different times. We had a little trouble finding where to park (seems to be a reoccuring problem since we don't know the city yet). After finally finding a place to park we grabbed some food at Ivar's Salmon House and then worked our way through the crowd to find a spot to sit.

Although we were there a bit late we still found a pretty good seat, at least until the even later arrivees stood in front of us...actually it wasn't too bad since most of the show was over their heads.

We enoyed the sunset and then the real show began.

Overall the fireworks were great and set to music, and we had a pretty good walk back to the car which cut back on the traffic!

Cupcakes and wine

I had a great Valentine's Day celebrating my friends and food.  Most of the day I cleaned and continued organizing my place.  During that time I had a conversation with Big B and he made my day even better...as always!

Flowers from Big B, minus the bear (Knock Out Nate).

That evening some friends came by and we enjoyed some homemade brownies, wine (Canyon Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon, Bitch and Bricco Riella's Moscato D'Asti), pizza from Papa Johns and cupcakes from the Buttercream Cupcakery.

From top left to bottom right:  chocolate on vanilla, vanilla bean, red velvet, vanilla on chocolate, another chocolate on vanilla, a second red velvet, chocolate, another chocolate, rose and champagne.

The Moscato was really challenging to open and I had to have some assistance.

Overall it was a great day!

Christmas Week

Quick recap of the last week.

Friday - Worked and then went to dinner at La Luz, Big B's soccer game at ODs and then for drinks with his team afterwards at Old Chicago.  I had a Fat Tire at the game and Easy Street (probably my favorite beer) at Old C's.  I also tried a taste of Snowbound Ale, an interesting beer with a hint of eggnog (or maybe just nutmeg) although I didn't like it enough to order one myself. 

Saturday - Grabbed lunch at The Green Onion to eat at my sister and her husband's house while we  watched CSU beat Fresno State at the New Mexico Bowl.  That evening Big B and I ate at California Pizza Kitchen in Boulder and then went to The B. Side Lounge for a friend's birthday.

Sunday - Lunch with Big B at Young's Cafe.  Dessert with my sister at Mimi's Cafe to prepare for some Christmas shopping.  Later that evening Big B and I met a high school (and middle school) friend, her husband, friend and her husband at C.B. Potts on 120th.

Monday - Opened presents at work

Tuesday - Worked 

Wednesday - Work and then on to Aurora to start the celebration.  We all went to Eastern Hills Community Church and then to dinner with family friends.  For Christmas eve we always have soup with our family friends and switch off the hosting house.

  
The evening always includes lots of delicious food, beverages and games (not including all the laughter).

Thursday - Opened presents then had our traditional breakfast of Tea Ring and in the last few years eggs cooked by my brother-in-law.

  

Then after a few games of Nertz Big B and I headed to his parents for some more food, presents and games.  We ate Chateaubriand (I hope that is correct), scalloped potatoes and chocolate mousse (everything was delicious!).  We also played Euchre and Trivial Pursuit.

Friday - Shopping with my sister and the parents, lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then later dinner at Hops (Hops was freezing!) with a college friend/short-term roommate.  

Overall a great Christmas with lots of family and friends!!

For more information on Colorado holiday beers check out this link.

Halloween

Friday was an interesting day. I left work early because I have a fairly large amount of comp time to get rid of by January. I decided to go vote because although I signed up for a mail-in ballot and the website said it was sent to me, but I didn't receive the ballot. Due to this fact my vote was provesional...first time since I was 18 where my vote may not count.

Later that night I went to my sister's to hand out candy to the ghosts, goblins and fairies. Suprisingly there were more high schoolers than any other age groups.

After that I met up with friends and Big B for a night out. We hit The Cork first to hear a former employee's band play, Archie Funker. Great band, but the Cork has never been my favorite place. Later we went to Old Town. There were more people in Old Town then I have ever seen. I don't think there was a bar open that did not have a line. We decided to go to Luscious Nectars because they have some good frozen drinks and are a bit out of the way. Overall Halloween was fun and we saw some interesting costumes. Our group's costumes included: Lt. Dangle, a playboy bunny, 80s rocker, God's Gift to Women, and Zombie Redneck.

Big B's roommate and his coworkers were the Scooby Doo Gang. I think the most interesting costume was the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings (I wanted to take a picture while they were coming towards us, but I was a bit afraid I would freak the horses out).