5 years.

jae and i celebrated 5 years of marriage a few weeks ago. since last year we had a 2 month old, we ended up just staying downtown SLC and taking the baby with us. which was great! but now that she's 15 months, we decided a night or two by ourselves was much needed.

jae planned a few days away at one of our favorites - the Zermatt resort in midway. it was a perfect way to start our new year and a perfect way to celebrate these 5 years together.

we ate at a yummy Mexican place, swam in the crater, soaked up the heat in the steam room, ate a fancy meal at the homesteads restaurant (simon's), went on a little railroad day trip, had some more yummy food, slept in (until 8!!! haha), and best of all - basically just did whatever the heck we wanted. and it was amazing. of course, i was texting my sister the entire time to check up on gracie girl and make sure she was sleeping and eating and everything. and of course, she did great the entire time. we enjoyed every minute and mostly only took time to take pictures of scenery and food.

it was beautiful and wintery and everything was covered in frozen white magicalness. even though i am not one to love winter or snow or single digit temperatures, i cannot deny that it was lovely up there.

thanks for another amazing year, jae, and another amazing trip and

for being the perfect husband for me!

8 can taco soup.

when we first got home from the hospital, jae's mom brought us a bag full of cans and this recipe. i finally made it the other night. super easy and so nice to have on a night when neither of us were up for making something else or going out to buy something. for how easy this recipe is, it was pretty tasty! plus, i think this would be a great gift for any new moms or sick moms or whoever needs an easy meal to throw together. and it makes a good amount - we've been eating it all week.

ingredients:
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained
1 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 15.25 oz can sweet corn, drained
1 12.5 oz can chicken breast, drained
1 10 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 10 oz can green enchilada sauce
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 packet taco seasoning

directions:
mix in large pot. heat, stir, serve!

i added crunched up tortilla chips, but Fritos would be good too. then top with some shredded cheese and you've got yourself a yummy bowl of soup, perfect for these 20 degree winter days :)

and because it seems like you can't post a recipe without a food picture (even though I take awful food pictures)....

a day trip & a birthday.

this past saturday, we day-tripped it up to Logan to visit my sister and her family. and then to steal their not-being-used-and-just-sitting-in-the-shop snow blower. with all the snow we've been getting this winter, no working snow blower should go unused! and since they don't need it in their current place of living....we took it upon ourselves to offer to 'keep it running'. and stuff.

it was pretty snowy, but driving up, the canyon wasn't so bad. we played games, loaded up the snow blower (after giving Jae a tour of my grandpa's old shop where he housed all his painting supplies for his painting business....it's pretty awesome actually), grabbed some dinner, and headed back home. it was already dark and snowing more, and we had the canyon to drive back through still.

driving at night in the snow isn't Jae's favorite (it isn't mine, either...is it anyone's?), but we made it home after passing multiple slide-offs along the way.

once we got home, we unloaded the snow blower to put away in the garage.
one problem - we couldn't get our garage door to open!

it seems the weight of the snow and ice built up on the roof, mixed with the inevitable fact that our garage is a real piece......well the roof is slowly but surely caving in on itself. great news, eh? more on that to come later.

can you spot the large birds? they were wandering in the street. we had to wait for them to get out of the way. and then once they realized a big truck was coming their way, they scattered like crazy.

 

on a random side note, we celebrated my niece Hana's birthday (a few weeks ago....oops). i just re-disovered these pictures from it and realized i never posted about it. so i'm squeezin them in now. she isn't a big fan of frosting, so she very specifically requested only her name be written (first AND last, mind you) on the top of the cake with frosting, and the rest be left unfrosted. so be it, you crazy Hana girl. we love you!

naturally, we gave her a pair of bright pink sparkly shoes :)

and Zo got her tail-end decorated with ribbon, courtesy of her (human) cousins.

shmogiceland.

just made up that word.
it describes what utah has been like the past couple of weeks.
a gross, smoggy, foggy, slippery, muddy, snowy cold iceland.
in case we all die of cancer-like toxins from this air, here are some pictures of what it's looked like around here lately.

this is taken up on the east bench of SLC, which means theoretically you should be able to see all the way out to the great salt lake.



i couldn't get the garbage can back into it's normal spot on the side of the house (because of the piles of snow) so i just temporarily pulled it up in front of the garage. mistake. all the drippings from the roof made our garbage can a giant icicle. the whole top is one solid piece of ice.

and just today, a blizzard blew in and we are currently being dumped on. again.

i mean, i suppose i shouldn't complain too much. things can always be worse, right?
but then again...i'm kind of complaining.
i'll take an order of SPRING please.

PS: ice storms = weirdest thing ever.

weekend plans.

it's friday.

hooray!

we're thinking we'll head up the canyon

and hit up Sundance tomorrow.

 got any plans?

stay safe & warm!

cozy.

christmas tree lights.

fuzzy blanket.

hot cocoa.

cuddles.

perfection.

cheers to the last day on earth ;)

ps: happy last-minute shopping!

perhaps i'll see you out there.

life without internet & cable

turns out day-to-day life is totally different when you are living without internet or cable at home.
have you tried it?
i mean, of course we "tried" it when we were younger and those things were a rarity in homes.
but now, everyone has at least one or both, and it's weird to not.

so why did we ditch both, you ask?
to be honest, i was just sick of paying for it.
sick of forking out $82 a month, and then $94 a month,
and eventually $105 a month for it.
you know how they do it,
they just creep up and up until you're paying double what you were paying in the beginning.
and that's lame.
so i said (after a few months of back-and-forth) be gone with you!!
and now it's gone.

weird.

now, in the evenings when both Jae and i are home, we don't get some dinner and sit down to watch a basketball game or catch up on DVR.
we don't search the web for awesome things for our house that we can't afford.

some of you may know this, but we still have two bedrooms that have not been painted/finished/organized/anything yet since we finally moved in our home 8 months ago. why haven't we finished up those two rooms? why have they remained closed-doors junk/storage rooms all this time?

two reasons: because we've been busy, and because we've been lazy. avoiding them like the plague.

well, now that our internet and cable is no more, what did we do last night after work?
we went through our "office" (it will someday be an office..) and started the finishing work to get the walls prepped for painting. how long has it taken us to do this???

well folks, if getting rid of the net and cable is what it takes to get those darn rooms finished, then so be it!

it's not even just about getting work done on our house, though. it's like all of a sudden we have time to make dinner or sit and chat about our day or play with the pup. our house is much quieter without the tv always on, and it's kind of really nice.

but i'll be honest, not having internet at home and not even having regular tv much less DVR is a little sad at times. it has put a little damper on my blogging habits.

someday i'll post about our Thanksgiving and our work at home and stuff. and perhaps there will even be pictures! just maybe.

until then, please love me anyway. and enjoy our sweet little tree :)

the seasons

i love living in Utah and being able to experience all four seasons every year.

admittedly, winter is my least favorite (i am so not a snow person), but i love it all the same. if i could just stay inside with my blankie and hot chocolate in hand all winter, i probably would.

stay safe this weekend, everyone!

i am grateful for the first (real) snowfall of the season. i am grateful for windows to look out while i stay safe and warm inside. i am grateful for warm boots and snuggly scarves to keep me warm on snowy winter days like today.