Thanksgiving

(made these mini lemon tarts a couple weeks ago and they were soo tasty. I think they made the cut for Thanksgiving!)


First of all---I'm proud of myself. This is my third post in one day. For the girl who never updates this is quite an achievement.

Second, I'm excited---and pretty nervous--for Thanksgiving. This is my first year preparing the whole Thanksgiving sha-bang (for more than 3 people). Luckily I love to cook! I especially love to bake desserts. SO I'm really excited to have these guys come to town!!

So if you have any advice on how to cook the perfect Turkey PLEASE send it my way--never oven baked one before.
 I feel like I've got it all under control except for the Turkey and the homemade rolls. Janice sets the bar SUPER high when it comes to homemade bread and I know Nate is expecting his Mom's cooking! Yikes!
I'm definitely not going all out like my family's Thanksgiving spread but hey! there's only one of me doing kitchen duty.
So far our menu consists of the basics:
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce, green beans, pumpkin & cream cheese jelly roll, banana cream pie, oreo fudge, mini lemon tarts. What am I missing?
I want to know what your favorite Thanksgiving dish is! Wish me luck:)

Glory Days...

I couldn't have married a non-athlete. Couldn't, wouldn't, and thankfully didn't! Matt is an avid sports enthusiast and it's honestly a big part of our marriage. It's one of our big things in common and is a lot of what we like to do together--watching and playing.

We've been playing on our ward's volleyball team in the Oakland stake the past couple months and we made it to the championships. Unfortunately we couldn't make it to final but the team won and we found out this year was the first year in a long time that Pleasant Hill even had a team that participated!

 Anyway this is all for journaling purposes but what I really want to talk about is Matt's glory days as a high school football star in New Hampshire. I've seen his highlight tape, newspaper articles, pics etc.  I was REALLY impressed when a couple weeks ago a neighbor in New Hampshire told Matt's Mom that he was  being featured by the local news station as one of the top 50 wide receivers in the state of New Hampshire in the past ten years. He's actually number one!  (below is the link to the website--there's a top 50 for different positions--his is wide receiver).

The FNF 50 - Sports News Story - WMUR Manchester

Just wanted to give him a little shout out, gotta love the high school glory days. This is definitely one to be proud of.(even if they spelled his last name wrong lol)

Muir Woods

 When we moved to CA Matt and I started a list of things we'd like to do and places we'd like to see. If I had my way every weekend would be a new adventure, but life is just too busy sometimes!  Matt works a pretty long schedule and was recently called to be Young Men's president at church (which also involves Boy Scouts)--so his Saturday's are now either service project days or 'sacred' football days. He deserves the time off so I'm excited when I can convince him to go exploring with me!


A few weekends ago we went to Muir Woods. The drive was really nostalgic for me because as a kid when we'd visit our G&G Stauffer in CA Grandpa would take us to Stinson beach. Muir woods and Stinson beach are basically side by side you come to a fork in the road and choose one or the other. This time we chose the redwood trees over the beach:)
I really enjoyed and needed this excursion. I thought about life, my Grandpa, and how grateful I am for God's beautiful creations. 

Funny how walking amongst giant redwood trees can really put things into perspective and teach you some life lessons.  The tree walks and hikes were beautiful and serene. I thought I'd be cold but it was a balmy 65 the whole day. (In the weather dept. California=1 Utah=0...)

Meg & Stacie--if you read this--doesn't this place remind you of Fern Gully? Haha

With Thanksgiving around the corner I just want to list a few things I'm really thankful for these days. (in no particular order)
*My marriage
*Our families
*Our apartment
*Our ward
*Great weather
*Healthy bodies that can work hard and be active
*Jobs!
*My religion and faith in God
*Wonderful friends
*Good food
*Basketball
*The Holiday Season
...to name just a few 
Life is what you make it and being happy is a choice.  Mainly you have to choose to (try to) be selfless.  I'm not saying it's easy, I'm definitely a repeat offender. But I think the point is to keep trying. I'm refocusing myself on that goal as an early New Year's resolution.


Hope you all are preparing for a lovely Thanksgiving (more to come on ours...).

Halloween

Can't believe it already came and went. October was a month full of Fall festivities though. We carved pumpkins, made treats, went to a haunted house, watched some scary movies, and dressed up for our Ward's Trunk or Treat. (Kind of funny how once you're out of college Halloween is a time to dress up scary again, instead of feeling the pressure to look 'hot' in a costume haha.)

We took it a little too far though I think. The kids were pretty scared walking up to our trunk. Next year we'll follow suit and go the funny/clever route :)

Vampire.

 Old Hag

You can't really see it all but we had our trunk pretty decked out with spooky sounds blasting and all.

It was a good night.

Fleet Week

In all the busyness of this past month I haven't really felt like updating the blog, but we've done some fun things and I want to document them!

I've got to say that Matt and I are LOVING living in California. There is so much to do and see (and eat!) and the weather is phenomenal.

San Francisco had it's annual Fleet Week in the city a few weeks ago. We braved the crowds and ear piercing sounds to watch the Blue Angels. (This picture up-loader thing is not cooperating...not sure what is going to show up)

The highlight of the event was watching this boat full of tourists capsize in the wind. Sounds harsh but it was hilarious, they obviously didn't know what they were doing and the wind was wasn't helping their situation. They tipped several times and the whole crowd on the shore started chanting "Sink! Sink!" haha. (There were lots of other boats right nearby waiting to help so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds.)

They eventually did capsize and start to sink, and the crowd erupted in cheers!

 It was definitely an eventful day, and the Blue Angels were amazing. I'm sure we'll go back next year.