Christmas Eve

Our family tradition is to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family at Oma and Opa's house. It is getting too hard for Oma to make our traditional meal of Roladen, dumplings and gravy so we had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy instead. Opa made the turkey on the spit roast and it tasted exactly the way it used to when he would make it for Thanksgiving up in Seqouia. Aunt Heidi made stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. Aunt Lynette made a spinach salad and pies. I brought my stuffing and my mom made these delicious onion and feta appetizers. After dinner we opened presents. It was a very nice night.

Sugar Cookies

I thought it would be fun to bake sugar cookies with Justin and Nic. It was really fun, but we need to work on what thickness to roll the dough out to. Our first batch completely lost their shape and became one giant cookie (they tasted the best though). The shapes of the second batch were still fairly unrecognizable, but it was an improvement. The third batch looked the best, but they were too crispy to eat. We had a really good time making the cookies and hopefully we will continue to get better at making them every year. ;)

We didn't have time to decorate the cookies before we left for Christmas Eve so I had to decorate them that night. Hopefully next year we have a bit more time to decorate the cookies all together.

Christmas Eve Eve

Since Sabrina missed Thanksgiving I thought it would be fun to have a Thanksgiving dinner with the family to celebrate Christmas Eve Eve. I cooked every night during the week to prepare for our feast. On Thursday I raced home after work to get the turkey in the oven. While the turkey was cooking, I set the table and got all the side dishes ready. I made salmon pate, scalloped corn, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, crescent rolls, and gravy. It doesn't seem like we have been able to hang out all together much this year so it was nice to have some family time.

We had a surprise visit from Carlie, who is home for the holidays, which was a nice surprise. I don't get to see her that much so it was good to catch up. While Carlie was here we enjoyed my homemade pumpkin pie and apple crumble for dessert. Both were delicious! We were going to head out as a family to view the holiday lights, but everyone was too tired so we watched Home Alone 2 instead. I really enjoyed cooking Thanksgiving dinner and it was a really fun night with the family. I think we might have to make this Christmas Eve Eve family night a tradition! :)

Holiday Lunch at Work

On Thursday we had our annual holiday lunch at work. We had delicious Rattlers food and did our gift raffle. All employee names are in a hat and when your name is called you get to pick your present from tons of different gifts. This year I was surprised to be called fairly early on. A lot of the gifts are kitchen appliances, which as you might have guessed, I already have a bunch of, so I decided to go with a shredder instead. I literally have a stack of expired credit cards that I am really looking forward to shredding and can't wait to use this to get rid of junk mail instead of tearing it into tiny pieces and throwing it away in seperate trash bags. (I know I'm overly paranoid). So anyways, hopefully this years gift will come in handy, since last years buffet serving thing is still sitting in a cupboard somewhere, untouched. The funny thing about the shredder is that Stephanie, the other girl who writes documents, picked the shredder too. Of course everyone was joking about how the Document Team girls both picked shredders and how they had never seen people get so excited over shredders before. We thought it was pretty funny ourselves.

Pumpkin Pie

Sabrina got me the most amazing holiday pie cutters for a belated birthday present and I am in LOVE with them. They were so easy to use and made my pumkin pie so festive and fancy.

Beena's Home

Sabrina got home from Pittsburgh on Friday, December 17th! So to celebrate her return we have been eating non-stop! We were supposed to go to Magic Mountain on Sunday, but we couldn't because of the pouring rain. So to make it up to Beena I made her two nights worth of her favorite meals. On Sunday night we had Chicken with Green. It is chicken covered in goat cheese, leeks, and green onions with a side of roasted red potatoes. On Monday night I made Chicken Altogether, which is pretty much just like it sounds: it has wild rice, celery, mushrooms, and chicken with a creamy sauce and cheesy bread crumb topping.

On Tuesday night, Sabrina and I went to see the movie Burlesque. It was a great movie and it was really fun to spend time with my sister. :) It is really nice having her home.

Puppysitting

On December 18th we watched Chloe for Rachelle and Brandon. She is the cutest thing ever and we had a blast with her. Unfortunatly, it was pouring rain so we couldn't let her run around in the backyard, but she still had a great time bounding up and down the stairs and running circles around our tree. We tried to get pictures of her with a build~a~bear santa hat, but she thought it was a chew toy...of course that didn't stop us from trying for quite a while to trick her into wearing it. My favorite part of the day was when it was just me and her at the house and she curled up under my feet for a nap. She looked so precious sleeping.

Later that night Tim brought Brooke and Gracie over to play with Chloe and we really got the full "this is what it would be like to have a family" experience. It honestly took me four hours to watch one episode of America's Next Top Model, haha, but it was so fun!! I'm really looking forward to someday filling this house with our own kids and puppy! :)

Tim Tams

Nic's parents finally sent us white chocolate TimTams! Yummy! We have been wanting to try them forever. We decided to have them with some peppermint hot chocolate. The trick with Tim Tams is you nibble off a sliver of each side then use it as a straw in your drink....it was so amazingly delicious with the peppermint hot chocolate.

Celena's Shower

On Sunday, I went to Lindsay's house for Celena's Baby shower. She is due on Christmas eve and doesn't know what she is having, but she is naming the baby Tyler either way. I had so much fun spending the day with some good friends and I can't wait to meet baby Tyler!

Annual Ornament

Growing up my parents used to get each of us kids an ornament every year with our name and the year on it. I decided that is was a tradition I wanted to continue on with Nic. So every Christmas since 2006 we have picked out a special ornament.

In 2006 we got cute lovey dovey penguins.

In 2007 we got one of a bear proposing to remember our Engagement on March 10.

In 2008 we got one to commemorate our wedding day.

In 2008 we also got the bonus love reindeer as a gift from the Gatlings.

In 2009 we got one to celebrate our first Christmas in our house.

This year we got 2 new ones: We got another one with our wedding date on it because it reminded me so much of our wedding and was too cute not to get and we got one for 2010:

The Rockettes

On December 4th, 5th and 6th we finished decorating for Christmas. I had already put up decorations around the house during the week, but we still needed to put up our tree and the lights outside. We had peppermint hot chocolate and I made red velvet chocolate chip cupcakes with peppermint frosting to enjoy while we decorated. It is always so fun looking at old ornaments as we put each one on the tree. It is really starting to look and feel like Christmas. :)

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas

On December 4th, 5th and 6th we finished decorating for Christmas. I had already put up decorations around the house during the week, but we still needed to put up our tree and the lights outside. We had peppermint hot chocolate and I made red velvet chocolate chip cupcakes with peppermint frosting to enjoy while we decorated. It is always so fun looking at old ornaments as we put each one on the tree. It is really starting to look and feel like Christmas. :)

Oliver's First Christmas

Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen?! I seriously died when I saw this picture! I have the most adorable nephew in the entire world!!

Dad's 50th Birthday

On Thursday night Nic and I had my dad over for dinenr to celebrate his 50th birhtday since we can't go up to Mammoth this weekend. I made him Chicken Altogether, which is one of his favorite meals. He fixed our fire place while he was here, which was extremely nice of him. Perfect timing too, just in time for us to enjoy it all winter. I can't wait to relax in the tub with a glass of wine and stare at it. :)

The Wall

After our red eye flight and an eight hour day at work we went to see Roger Waters from Pink Floyd perform the Wall at Staples Center. It was a really impressive concert, well actually it was more like an Opera, but either way it was an impressive show. There was tons of lighting, fireworks, a flying plane, and of course I giant Wall that kept growing throughout the show only to be knocked down at the end after the entire building shouted "Tear Down the Wall! Tear Down the Wall!" It really was an entire experience and a very fun night!

November Challenge Part 4

Here are my last 5 things I'm thankful for:
-having jobs: I'm so thankful that Nic and I have jobs. I know it has been a tough time for people and we feel very blessed to both have full time jobs.
-Grandparents: I'm so thankful that all of my grandparents are still around. I feel very blessed that they all have been able to share in so much of my life. I am also thankful for Nic's grandparents who are such wonderful, caring people who we miss so much.
-my Blog: I am so thankful that I am able to use this blog to keep in touch with all of our Australian family members. It really has made being apart a lot easier.
-Holidays: I am so thankful that for all the holidays I get to spend with my family. I love holidays and traditions and feel so blessed that I get to celebrate them with family.
-God: Most importantly, I am thankful that God has blessed me with all the previous things I have listed as being thankful for. I have a wonderful life and I am truly grateful for all the blessings God has given me.

Maui

On Friday we went snorkeling at old airport beach where we saw turtles, an octopus, tons of beautiful coral and tropical fish. In the afternoon we went to D.T. Flemings to boogie board. I was having a bit of trouble catching the waves and got "washing machined" (Nic thinks Tyler and my dad made that term up, but that is exactly what it felt like). Nic helped me catch a few waves and when you actually catch them it was really fun. After a few rides, I decided I was better suited to taking pictures of the boys from the beach. It was really fun watching them. That night we went to Roys for dinner and it was amazing as usual.

On Saturday we took Grandma and Wil to Black Rock to help them snorkel. Neither of them had ever done it before and they both loved it. They got to see a turtle, a morey eel, and tons of fish. Grandma couldn't stop talking about how beautiful it was for the rest of the trip! That afternoon we went down to the Grand Wailea to enjoy the pool and impressive water slides. We didn't have tons of time, but it was really fun. For dinner we went to Spago and Wolfgang Puck was there. He chatted with my parents for a while and apparently talked to the boys about his skiing career. He is such a funny and nice guy and it always impresses me that you can eat at his restaurants and he is actually there! I've only been to Spage Beverly Hills once and twice in Maui and he is been there 2/3 times! Anyways, dinner was fantastic and taking pictures with Wolfgang was a special treat (especially for Grandma who is a huge foodie!).

On Sunday, Nic and I snuck in one last snorkel at our favorite spot. The coral itself is just so vibrant and gorgeous and there are always tons of turtles! We also saw giant puffer fish, a huge moray eel and this funniest little fish made eye contact with me for about 30 seconds. It was such a fun morning. In the afternoon Nic, Justin, my dad, and I swam from the house to the beach next door. We didn't have any snorkel stuff and kept almost running into turtles. It was a really nice swim. Unfortunatly after that we had to pack up and head off. We did manage to squeeze in one last amazing dinner at Mama's Fish House before heading to the airport for our red eye flight home. It was a short trip, but no trip to paradise is too short. We had such a fantastic time!

Thanksgiving

Nic and I watched parts of the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade while setting the table and making Apple Crumble. In the afternoon we took Grandma and Wil next door to sit on the beach while we swam. That afternoon, a bunch of my parents friends came over to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with us. We started off by eating tons of delicious appetizers while my parents finished up the turkey. We had salmon pate, spinach dip, ahi poke, mini maui onion and pear pizzas, hummus and wine. For dinner we had mom's amazing turkey, Stephanie's delicious caesar salad, mom's stuffing, our family corn casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and a green bean casserole. After dinner we all went out and watched the beautiful sunset before playing Wheel of Fortune on the wii, viewing Tyler's amazing photos, and eating all the delicious desserts: pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, and my favorite: Susan's apple crumble. It was a really fun Thanksgiving except for the fact that Sabrina wasn't there with us.

6 Year Anniversary

We were lucky enough to celebrate 6 years together in Maui! We went on this wonderful hike on the other side of the island. We crossed a few bridges, crossed a few streams, and ended the hike by jumping of rocks into a freezing cold pool of water. It was a great way to kick off our vacation. For dinner we went to Sansei, one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever been to. It was a great way to celebrate 6 years with the most amazing partner I could ever ask for! I am so blessed to have married such a wonderful man and can't believe we have already been together for 6 years. The time has just flown by and I'm still amazed at how I can continue to love him more and more each day.

November Challenge Part 3

I know I'm a bit late, but here are 5 more things I am thankful for:
-Traveling: I am obsessed with traveling and am so thankful that I have been blessed with so many oppportunities to explore this amazing world!
-Nic's sister: I am so lucky to have married into a wonderful family. Lauren and I have continued to get closer over the years and I really enjoy our frequent skype dates.
-Nic's brother: I don't get to catch up with Stu much these days, but when I do he always makes me laugh. I can't wait to hang out this August and play Scattegories and Phase 10!
-Oliver and being a First Time Aunt: I cannot express enough how grateful I am to be an Auntie. I can't get over how much I love Oliver. I think he is the cutest, most amazing little boy I have ever seen! I can't wait to meet him!!
-Skype: I think I might be most grateful for this one! I don't know what I would do without skype. It is so hard being away from Nic's family and skype is the next best thing to being in Australia with them.

Delta Delta Delta

Look what I found on the UCI Tri Delta Website:

I didn't quite make it to the Famous Deltas section, but it still kind of made my day. :)

Vegas

On Friday November 19th, I went to a free crop at Remember When before driving down to Huntington Beach to stay the night with Miri. I didn't get there until about 11pm and then we of course talked for hours because we never get to see each other. The next morning we got up bright and early to begin our Vegas Adventure to celebrate Kim's birthday!!

Kim, Miri, Stacey, me and our chaffeur Sean (Kim's very sweet boyfriend who braved the five hour drive with a car full of chatty girls ;)) rode up to Vegas together. We stopped in Baker to take a picture with the world's tallest thermometer at Miri's insistence:

We checked into our amazing room at the Hard Rock and then headed off to explore the strip. We walked through the Venetian and grabbed a quick lunch before window shopping in Caesars.

Next we used some coupons to grab drinks at the Bellagio. We had the best bartender who seemed like she was either going to quit her job that night or attempt to get fired and eventhough she seemed to hate the world, she really liked us and gave us free shots. After a few drinks we giddily made our way through the Bellagio and had a little photo shoot with the Fall display. Unfortunatly those pictures were taken on someone else's camera so I can't share them with you, but if I remember correctly they were really funny!

After the photo shoot, we went outside to watch the fountain show and were surprised by the beautiful night sky with a full moon and the Eiffel Tower reflecting on the water.

After the fountain show we went back to the room to get ready for dinner at Pink Taco. I, of course, had to order the "pink tacos," which have tons of pink pickled onions piled on them. I also had the most delicious Mango Margarita (and a shot of tequila to kick off the night).

After dinner we went to Tryst. We ended up meeting this really nice guy from NY (and his strange sidekick friend) who invited us to there table. Seconds after we got to the table a crazy, scary fight broke out next to us that caused all the drinks on our table to break all over the floor and couch! It was scary for a few minutes, but everyhting ended up being ok and they moved us to a better table right near the dance floor. Then they came and moved us again to an even bigger table and kept bringing us more bottles. After a few hours of fun at Tryst we went over to XS. I must say it was pretty impressive! We all had such a fantastic time!

After XS, Miri and I went with NY Guy to Drais to drink champagne. We eventually decided to call it a night and got a cab back to the hotel. On our way back to the room decided to stop and play some pokies and Kim's favorite fish slots seemed like the perfect choice!

You know it has been a good night when you get back to your room just as the sun comes up!! For only having one night in Vegas we sure lived it up (and I think Sean enjoyed the peace and quiet on the drive home)!! Happy Birthday Kim!!! Thanks for inviting me to be part of a great weekend!!

Chloe

On Thursday November 18th, I went over to Rachelle's house to meet Chloe, Rachelle's new mini goldendoodle. She is the cutest thing I have ever seen! She is so sweet and friendly and Rachelle has already taught her to sit, lay and come. What a smart puppy, right? I brought her a sprinkles puppy cupcake and she loved it! I am so in love with her and it definitely makes me want to get a puppy of my own!

SYTYCD

On Tuesday November 16th my mom, Sydney Baker and I went to Katsuya for dinner and then met Aunt Susannah at the So You Think You Can Dance show at Staples Center. It was AMAZING!! I loved every second of it and was blown away by how talented all the dancers were!

Scrapbooking Weekend

Friday November 12th kicked off a full weekend of scrapbooking. I went to the Friday night event by myself because the rest of the family, including Nic, went up to Mammoth to watch Tyler's football game. I'm so glad it worked out that Nic's basketball was cancelled so he was able to watch Tyler play.

The next morning my mom and Nic drove down together and my mom and I spent the whole day scrapbooking. We learned a bunch of new techniques and had a great time! On Sunday we went back for another full day of scrapbooking and ended the night with dinner at New Moon.

November Challenge Part 2

Here are the 5 things I am thankful for this week:
-My parents: They do so much for Nic and I and we really appreciate it. I'm also thankful that we get to spend so much time with them.
-My sister: Sabrina and I have been growing so much closer the last couple of years and I am really thankful for that. She is a wonderful person and I'm so proud of her.
-My brothers: My brothers are both great kids who are so fun to be around. They remind me how important it is to play and have fun in life and to not always take things to seriously.
-My in-laws: I am so lucky to have the best in-laws in the world! They are always so supportive and I am so thankful to have such a great relationship with them.
-Valencia: I am really thankful that we get to live in such a great community. I still get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I drive up tree-lined McBean towards our house and I just love our neighborhood. Valencia also has a new, fabulous outdoor shopping center that reminds me a lot of Fashion Island, with a Williams-Sonoma and Sephora!! We also have Magic Mountain, tons of great restaurants, and the best scrapbooking store. It really is an awesome town. ;)

Magic Mountain Double Date

On Sunday we went to Magic Mountain with Rachelle and Brandon. We had so much fun!

We went on Viper first and Rachelle was hilarious. She was so scared and practically in tears.

After Viper we waited in a huge line for the Riddler. It was the only line all day and it was a bit surprising that it was for such an old ride. It is a good ride, don't get me wrong, but not worth a long wait. Next we went on Scream, which I think I have gone on once before, but I don't remember for sure. It was really fun! Then we went on Colasses, which is literally about to fall apart. After that we did Goliath, then decided it was time to brave X2. I have been on a lot of roller coasters in my life and none have ever scared me until this ride. So you can imagine Rachelle, who was practically crying on Viper, was completely terrified. I wish I had been able to take the picture taken of her on the ride because it was priceless! She looked beyond terrified. Here are her before and after pictures:

After Rachelle survived X2, we tortured her some more by going on Tatsu. It was getting dark at that point and was so awesome at night with all the lights. By this point Rachelle was back to her old brave teenage self who loves roller coasters and even blurted out that she wanted to go on X2 once more before we left! Impressive, huh? So we went on X2 once more before leaving. I again blew the picture taking of the ride photos, which is a huge bummer because our faces on that ride are priceless! That ride is honestly the scariest ride ever!!

After Magic Mountain, we grabbed some dinner at New Moon. It was a really great day with great friends! :)

Casino Night

On Saturday night we went to Nic's work dinner. It was a black, white and red themed casino night. They had food, drinks, black jack tables, craps, roulette, and a poker tournament. The poker tournament started off with 4 preliminary tables where the top 2 from each table advanced to the final game. Nic advanced from his table then joined me for some dinner and black jack. He went back for the final table and ended up winning!! I continued to play black jack and ended up with almost $4,000 in chips! Nic managed to make around $6,000 in between poker tournaments and we ended up with the second highest chip count overall!! For winning the poker tournament we got a $100 gift card to Amazon and for coming in second in the most overall chips contest we got a $50 gift card to Amazon. The last contest was a raffle drawing. Throughout the night tickets were given out if a person got black jack or there number came up on the roulette table, and I don't know anything about craps so I have no idea how people won tickets at that one, but they had a drawing at the end of the night for 3 grand prizes: $150 gift card to Glen Ivy, an Ipad, and a 42 inch flat screen TV. We didn't win any of them, which was actually kind of good since people were already probably annoyed that we won so much stuff. ;) Nic also got an award for making it into the $5,000 club. He made over $5,000 profit for the company in one month. It was a really fun night! :)

November Challenge

My friend Rebecca was telling me about a study that showed that people who were grateful and wrote down what they were grateful for were happier than those who didn't focus on what they are grateful for. So since it is November, the month to be thankful for what you have, my November challenge is going to be to write 5 things every week that I am thankful for.

Here are my first 5:

-My health: Considering that I barely ever exercise anymore and eat pretty bad, it is pretty impressive I am still as healthy as I am. I am very grateful that I can still be physically active when I choose to be (I should really work on choosing to be active more often ;)) Being healthy is really a blessing.

-My husband:I have the best husband in the world! He works so hard at work and at home. He loves me unconditionally and he treats me so well. I am so grateful to have the most amazing person to share life with.

-My house: I am so grateful to have this beautiful house in such a wonderful neighborhood. I love coming home every day and knowing that it belongs to me. Sometimes I just sit in my backyard and wonder how I got so lucky.

-My friends (homies): I have the best friends! They are so fun, supportive, loving and I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends from so many different chapters in my life. Each and every one makes my life that much better.

-My home cooking: I am really grateful that I can come home from work and cook and bake. I really enjoy it and am glad that I don't totally suck at it. :)

-Bonus:I'm thankful that I could come up with 5 things that start with "H" that I am thankful for. ;)

Birthday Dinner

I couldn't be happier! Our blog inspired Nic's family to not only carve their own jack~o~lantern this October, but to also make an Oktoberfest meal!! :) I'm so glad that people are reading the blog and being inspired by some of the stories on it.

October in Australia

I couldn't be happier! Our blog inspired Nic's family to not only carve their own jack~o~lantern this October, but to also make an Oktoberfest meal!! :) I'm so glad that people are reading the blog and being inspired by some of the stories on it.

Trick or Treat

This was my first time having trick or treaters, not only at my house, but ever. For some reason, no one ever ventured up our ten minute dirt road for some candy. It was really fun! We missed a large group of kids because we got home later than planned from Vegas, but we still  got to pass out candy to quite a few kids (not enough kids though, because I still have two huge bags of candy!!) Little kids dressed in costumes have to be one of the cutest things ever!! It was really a lot of fun. Once the trick or treaters slowed a bit, I left to stop by Lindsay's for a bit and Nic stayed at home on candy duty.

This was my first time having trick or treaters, not only at my house, but ever. For some reason, no one ever ventured up our ten minute dirt road for some candy. It was really fun! We missed a large group of kids because we got home later than planned from Vegas, but we still  got to pass out candy to quite a few kids (not enough kids though, because I still have two huge bags of candy!!) Little kids dressed in costumes have to be one of the cutest things ever!! It was really a lot of fun. Once the trick or treaters slowed a bit, I left to stop by Lindsay's for a bit and Nic stayed at home on candy duty.

Vegas

We went to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and had the best time. First of all, for all those that expressed concern that we were staying at Circus Circus, it was fine! I know it is a very budget hotel, but Nic and I have definitely stayed in much worse, and we were much happier spending the money we saved on a hotel room we were barely in on fun things like shows and meals! ;) Plus, they upgraded us to a really nice, large room overlooking the strip so it worked out quite well.

On Saturday morning, after a nice sleep in, we went to the champagne brunch buffet at the Paris Hotel. It was great! The champagne was actually really good (I'm not a fan of champagne usually) they had all the standard buffet food, plus the most delicious freshly made crepes! Yummy!!! After stuffing our faces and getting our drink on we went exploring the strip. We walked all the way down to New York New York before we decided to head back. Along the way we were handed a coupon for 50% off Viva Elvis tickets, which was perfect because a friend of ours is in the show and we were hoping to see it that night. After picking up our tickets at Aria we walked through Bellagio and watched the fountain show. Then grabbed a frrrozen hot chocolate at Serendipity before continuing our walk along the strip.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for our night out. We had a few drinks, got all dressed up in our costumes and then headed off for a fun night. We were dressed perfectly for Viva Elvis and I quickly realized how popular Marliyn is. We grabbed drinks at the bar then went in to enjoy the show. It was really fun to watch our friend and I really enjoyed the dancing, although both Nic and I wished there were more traditional "Cirque" acts in the show. They did use a ton of cool Elvis video footage and it was a very nicely done tribute show.

After the show we walked along the strip with our new friends Jack and the Colonel. They were hilarious and the walk from Aria to the Bellagio fountains might have been the highlight of the night. Every kid that saw Jack would get a sparkle in their eyes as if it were Santa on Christmas morning, point with excitement and exclaim, "Jack!"

After we watched the fountain show again (it is soooo good!) we walked along the street to Tao were we had dinner reservations. People shouted at me, took my picture, and honked there car horns at me. Eventhough my biggest fans seemed to be really old men, I was truly surprised by the overwhelming response I got for my Marilyn costume. :)

The line for Tao nightclub was insane! I have never seen anything like it! It stretched the width of the hotel and back numerous times and then curved around the corner! Thank goodness we had dinner reservations! We got a spicy tuna rice krispy appetizer and lobster potstickers to start off with. Then we got the delicious beef dinner to share. Thye give you raw beef and put this bowl of broth over a flame and you cook the beef in the broth then dip it in this delicious sauce. It is so unique, fun and delicious. Then we got a molten chocolate cake to top off the wonderful birthday dinner. After our 3 hour dinner event, we decided to check out the nightclub. It was insane!! Honestly, the entire place was packed from wall to wall with people. There was barely room to stand stick straight let alone dance. It was such a bummer because the atmosphere was great, the music was great, and it had the potential to be really fun!

The next morning we used our coupons from the hotel to ride the Circus Circus roller coaster for free! It was actually a really good rollercoaster. It had two loops, two corkscrews and was pretty scary! After that we checked out of our hotel, drove over to Mandalay Bay and walked around Mandalay and Luxor. I hadn't ever been to that end of the strip before so now I can say I have pretty much seen the entire strip. We met our friend Hailey, the one who is in Viva Vegas, for lunch at Burger Bar for lunch. It was amazing!! We got a nutella shake that was huge and so good. I got the chef's favorite menu item-the buffalo burger with carmelized onions, blue cheese, and spinach with a side of sweet potatoe fries. Nic got a black angus beef burger with cheddar cheese, bacon and grilled onions with a side of zucchini fries (these were my absolute favorite!) and Hailey got a healthy, but still delicious looking Cobb salad. It was really fun catching up with her and hearing all the behind the scenes info from the show. All in all it was a very fun weekend and a great way to celebrate my birthday!!!

Halloween at Work

Nic and I dressed up for work on Friday. I went as a Laker Girl (very creative, I know) and Nic had to do a group dress up with two other guys. Apparently one is medium height and one is short so they all wore red and were the Verizon Bars! I thought it sounded lame, but apparently everyone loved it and thought it was very creative! I'm hoping Nic can get a picture of the three of them from someone so we can get the full effect.

October Challenge Part 4

On Sunday I also made M&M Meringue cookies as part of my October challenge. I believe the recipe is from the West Family, but it doesn't say on it so if it is from you please let me know. I used fall colored M&Ms to make them more festive and they turned out really yummy!