Cookie Craving

Made some delicious cookies that I found on Pinterest this past weekend.  I know Valentines Day isn't here yet but I couldn't resist how cute these peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts are!

I'm also really excited to try a new recipe for Super Bowl Sunday, hoping it turns out!  It's a BBQ Chicken Pizza Roll from Taste of Home... I'll keep ya posted on that one!

Laundry Room Renovation

Over the holidays, we decided to get crazy and renovate our laundry room.  I would have never agreed to starting a home project over the holidays if it wasn't for the really good Black Friday deal on a new washer/dryer.  My intentions were freshen up this room and upgrade to a larger washer/dryer.  Aaron was able to do everything except the electrical that we had to outsource.  It's now simple, practical, and feels like a real laundry room. 

Before Pictures: this room was a nasty mess.  A makeshift shower we've never used, cords and vents were dangling, and it was dingy feeling.

Crappy washer and dryer, I really don't like front loaders now!

Shower taking up a lot of space, never served a purpose for us

Unorganized mess and loose cables

What a mess and more loose cables

Nasty Flooring

Unused wall space and was a dirty white bland color

AFTER PICTURES:

Great space for hanging and drying clothes

New floors that feel and are clean :)

Functional, Simple, Clean

More shelving

Huge washing machine, I actually feel that our comforter is getting CLEANED

Using the sink that we never used before and actual space to sort laundry

Aaahh, I heart change!

Nifty rolling laundry cart to stay organized

Charley likes it

Big dryer, I can sit cross-legged in it!

And there it is folks, a functional laundry room!

French Toast Casserole

This past week a coworker brought in French Toast Casserole.  I was very intrigued to try it given that I love french toast.  I must say this is a genious recipe!  It's super easy to make which is a major criteria for me and I love how you have to prep it the night before considering I'm not a morning person. Give it a try!  It is 'mmm mmm good'! 

I cut this recipe in half when making it for just Aaron and myself but here is the original recipe:

1 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 stick of melted butter, spread onto bottom of 9x13 pan.

Layer 2 slices (12 slices total) of cinnamon swirl bread (cut in half for easier serving) on top of brown sugar mix.

Pour over top the following mixture: 5 eggs, 1.5 cups milk, 1.5 t. vanilla.

Put in fridge overnight

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes uncovered, turn bread, and then bake another 20 minutes.

Charley, Our Growing Puppers!

Her hair  is so crazy, I love it!

All smiles!

Opening up her stocking gifts

Always curious!

She's just like a little teddy bear

The hair is ALWAYS standing straight up!  Too cute! 

Big Kisses!

Just came from the groomers, all brushed out

I like to smother her daily in kisses and hugs!

Our sweet goldendoodle!

NYE Minneapolis & Aaron's Birthday

Last weekend Aaron and I headed up to Minneapolis for New Year's Eve to meet up with 8 of our friends, Mark, Hayden, Becky, Rebecca, Lauren, Ben, Craig, and Michelle.  We had a good time but it was FRIGID in Minneapolis!  It snowed and was very windy!  I was not ready for the climate change but we still had a great time up there!  

Here was the agenda for the weekend:

Saturday - dinner at Pizza Luce and then we bought tickets to Aqua to ring in the new year. 
Sunday - Everyone went to the Bears vs. Vikings game while I went to the Mall of America.  Then we had dinner out for Aaron's birthday. 
Monday - woke up, hit up IKEA and then headed home! 

Aaron was pretty excited to go to his first NFL game, I think all in all, he had a great New Year's Day Birthday!

Rebecca, Lauren and I at dinner

The Guys...Aaron, Craig, Hayden, Mark

Aaron, Me, Becky, Michelle, and Rebecca

And the fun begins... I have no idea what was so funny

Bears-Vikings game - Mark, Aaron, Michelle, Craig and Hayden

2011 Year In Review

Looking back onto 2011, we had a great year!  Far better than our 2010 year… if you recall, that was a rough year for us, we were faced with constant challenges/difficult situations but our 2011 was the complete opposite.  I sum up 2011 by describing it as FUN.  We traveled a lot and had some great times with family and friends.  A recap of what we were up to in 2011… 
 

We started off 2011 in Kansas City with a fun group of our friends, very memorable experience and made us realize how fun it is to travel with friends, something we decided to do more of in 2011. 

Towards the end of winter we had our bathroom remodel.  Started out fun but then realized we were in over our heads with this project.  Something we optimistically thought could be done in a long weekend, took 6 grueling weeks to complete.  But it turned out how we wanted it to and Aaron learned many handyman skills that have become useful.   No pain no gain, right?!?!

Early summer, Aaron and I spent a long weekend in downtown Chicago and had a really fun weekend of shopping, dinner dates and enjoying the city. 

I spent most of the year up till then planning our vacation to Colorado, we had a really good time but I over planned as usual and we were pretty beat by the end of this vacation.   Lesson learned; don’t try to cram 24 hours of vacationing into every day.  J

I thought we were done with our travels for the year, but then got a wild idea to go to Vegas with a few friends.  Well our big discovery in 2011 is that Aaron and I really really love Vegas!  We had way too good of a time and we are itching to get back there!   Vegas is our #1 MUST DO AGAIN in 2012!  What I’d give to do that weekend all over again… J  Vegas was one big highlight of our year!

Late summer, we became business owners!  Aaron co-owns a Complete Nutrition Store out in Reno, NV.  Aaron has always had the entrepreneur bug in him and he has learned a lot thru the process of getting a store up and running but so far so good!  He is looking into some more business ventures for 2012. 

Another HUGE highlight of our year was getting our sweet little Charley.  She is the spunk in our lives! We had always talked about getting a puppy and we FINALLY followed thru on it and I’m glad we did.  Her little personality is so fun-loving and playful; she fits in pretty well here in our home.  She’s a spoiled little puppy but we just love her to pieces!   

Towards the last half of the 2011, Aniston, our niece was born, I celebrated my 30^th birthday, we celebrated our 2^nd anniversary, and Elijah, our new nephew was born.   Lots of celebration to be had!

We had an amazing 2011 blessed with family, friends, good health, fun travels, love, and lots of laughter!   I’m pretty optimistic that 2012 will be another fun year to come!