Where are we going?

"Where are we going?" This is the big question on our mind. Ryan has been working very hard the last couple years to prep himself to get into law school. He did a LSAT prep course, took the LSAT, filled out applications for 10 schools, wrote a re-wrote many essays, and dropped a lot of cash-money for the applications. We did get a few fee waivers at a law school college fair, which helped a lot. Now that Ryan has done everything he can do, we are left with anticipation as we wait for responses.

Results so far 3 down 7 to go:

University of Illinois- Waiting List
George Washington University, DC.- Accepted
University of Utah- Accepted
Brigham Young University
University of Colorado
Boston College- Not Accepted
Notre Dame, Indiana
Emery University, Georgia- Waiting List
Duke, North Carolina
William and Mary, Virginia- Waiting List
University of Washington, Washington (new)-

Micah turns 2!

Wow Happy Birthday to my little man! Micah turned 2 last month and we had so much fun celebrating with him. We had a small party with mine and Ryan's immediate family. We had a yummy homemade pizza dinner and did the traditional party things, open present and eat cake of course. After all the practice he got at Christmas time, Micah knew just what to do with his gifts. He was so delighted to see a pile of presents just for him. He got a lot of great things from his aunts, uncles, parents and of course grandparents. The hard part about presents at this age is after unwrapping one gift, kids (or at least Micah) want to open the package and play with the toy inside right then. It took a while to get through all his gifts :). Ryan and I pulled our gift to Micah out last, it was a good thing too, because he loved it and was completely consumed with it (the story bellow explains the gift). We got him a Basketball hoop.


After presents and a lot of coaxing Micah, we moved onto the cake. I made a Curious George cake for Micah, he loved it. After we sang to him he blew out his candles and grabbed his little monkey off the cake. When he was finished with his monkey he tried putting it back on the cake and smashed one side of it, whoops.


The days following Micah's B-day we're hard. He kept getting frustrated with his new toys because he was still trying to understand how they all work. His tricycle was upsetting him because he couldn't reach the petals, he still can;t but is happy to let us push him around on it. His train was a little hard to assemble, thankfully he is able to put it together now. And last of all, he had a major melt down every time he missed a shot when he played basketball. Now he just says "missed" in an upbeat voice and tries again, so cute :).

Over Christmas we were spending time with our friends Elliot and Kristin at Elliot's sister's house. They had a Basketball hoop and Micah played with it our whole visit. After that night I spent a lot of time searching out Basketball hoops. There are plenty out there in the world but we don't have the cash money that the world wants. So of course I was vigilant and kept checking on KSL Classified adds. I found a lot of people asking near retail price for toddler hoops that they have had for years (I don't get that). Eventually I found a great hoop with balls included for only $12! I called immediately and picked it up the next day.

Snickers Cookies one of my new favorite things

Last week we had our Down-N-Out diner dinner, which went very well by the way. One of my friends provided Rollo cookies and Snickers cookies. Everyone that was serving wanted to snatch one of those tempting suckers all through the night. We had men coming back asking for one more, which of course we gave into them. We even had guys just come back to compliment the cookie chef and ask her for her recipe. After all the hype, I knew this was a cookie recipe I needed to get my hands on. Micah and I made the cookies the very next day. They only lasted a few short hours, we gobbled those babies up so fast that I was left wanting more. I think I'll have to wait for a special occasion though. I don't want to know haw many calories I consumed last weekend. Have I enticed you? Well here is the yummy recipe I got from my friend Angie. Enjoy!

Snickers Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
48 mini snickers (or cut fun size in half)

Beat butter, sugars and peanut butter until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients. Wrap dough around snickers and form into a ball. Dip top side of cookie in sugar. Put on cookie sheet, sugar side up. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Melt chocolate chips and drizzle on cookies when cool.


Another one of my new favorite things is having a little helper. Micah is always pitching in to help me do whatever it is I am working on, from dishes to scooping wheat out of our 5 gallon tub to a more accessible bowl. Last week was no exception. As I was forming my pretty little cookies and dipping the tops into sugar, Micah had his spoon and was throwing dough down all over the cookie sheet. As I went to dip another one of my cookies in the sugar I noticed that my sugar cup had gone missing. I quickly found the cup on the floor and an extra 3- tablespoons of sugar in my dough. I don't mean to point fingers, but I think it was Micah. Oh well a little extra sugar never hurt anyone, right?

Catching up on Christmas

We had a fantastic time celebrating Christmas all through December (2009).
To keep things short and simple, here is a summary of what happened.
- Forgotten Carols w/ Taylor's
- Light's at Temple Square w/ Pappas'
- Down-N-Out Diner Blanket Drive
- Down-N-Out Diner Holiday dinner
- Christmas party with Utah Business Magazine at Carver's
- Church Christmas party with a yummy caramel apple salad
- Shopping
- FM 100 holiday concert series
- Christmas party with the Pappas clan
- Christmas Party with the Taylor clan
- Watched Frosty the Snow Man and Elf a million times with Micah
- Watched other Holiday Favorites with my man Ryan
- Lots and Lots of Baking
- Christmas Eve brunch with some of my best friends in the whole world
- Christmas Eve games with Ryan's fam
- Christmas eve dinner with the Pappas' (An amazing El Salvadorian style turkey dinner).
- Christmas morning at home with my little family (Loved it!)
- Splitting the rest of Christmas day with between our families
- Awesome New Years eve game night
- And Much much more.
- And of course trying to teach Micah all month long that Christmas is the time of year we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Maybe he'll understand this concept better next Christmas.

This year was so fun because Micah was old enough to understand what was going on. He loved receiving every single gift that was given to him. The best reaction Micah had was to a Blanket that he got from my cousins Julie and Karen. He wrapped himself up in the blanket and ran wild. Word's really cannot explain how much joy he got out of his blanket, it was the cutest thing ever. And it made me feel so happy that Julie and Karen were able to sense his appreciation for the gift too.

To make things a little more festive in my apartment I made a fireplace to hang our stockings on. I also thought it would be fun to get a classic family photo with our fireplace. Although the picture is far from classic, we had a lot of fun with our fireplace.


Merry Christmas over a month later!

It's raining men!

The results are in (and have been for a couple of weeks now, sorry).


We are so excited to have another little boy on the way. In all honesty we really did not care about what we were having, we are just so excited to see our little family grow. With that said, I have to share a funny little story. After I got home from my ultrasound I gave my parents a call to tell them the good news, keep in mind that this was two different phone calls. I called with the usual greeting "Hi, how are you.... Well I just got back from my ultrasound, can you guess what we're having?"

Dad Response: "I think it's a boy." "Yep" I replied enthusiastically (or so I thought). "Oh, it's okay Lindsay."

Mom Response: "Um, a girl." "No, it's a boy" I said happily (I thought). "Oh, It's okay Lindsay."

I just thought it was so funny that both my parents felt as though they needed to comfort me. I am so excited to have my little guy on the way, I can't wait to see him, and smell him, and hold him and nurse him and... oh the list could go on and on. I just wish we knew what to name him. Any more suggestions out there?

Flash Back Friday

I have been wanting to post more but I feel very behind. While I try to organize my thoughts and decide where to begin, I thought I'd give myself a small and easy push. That is why I decided it would be fun to do a "flash back Friday" post as well as "my favorite things" post, we'll see how this goes.

Remember this little gem? I have come to know this piece of furniture as the clown couch. Though it may seem as if nothing else in the world could compliment this piece I am happy to inform you that there was an identical love seat that sat next to this couch. You may be wondering how did we ever end up with this eye sore? let the story begin.


It was October 2005 and I was at a bridal shower with my friends, meanwhile my husband-to-be was out furniture shopping. I gave Ryan a call after my Bridal shower to say hi, he asked me to come by our soon to be apartment because he had a surprise. When I entered the apartment I had no words, this couch knocked the wind out of me! This is probably the reason we kept the couch for the first couple years of our marriage. The couch itself was in really great condition and very comfortable, that was one plus side. Eventually I couldn't handle the colors and patterns any longer, so I started making plans to reupholster the beast. Luckily I didn't have to take on the job because we received a great set of hand-me-down couches from my in-laws.

Another little one on the way

I have announced our big news to almost everyone (I think). For those of you who haven't heard Ryan and I are expecting baby Number 2! I am almost 18 weeks along now and we will be finding out what we are having in a couple more weeks. This pregnancy has been just as easy breezy as my pregnancy with Micah. In the video bellow I was 11 weeks along, this was at my first appointment back in November. I will do my best at keeping my blog up to date on other details too.

Down 'N' Out Diner

What is the Down 'N' Out Diner you ask? It is a group that Ryan and I started with our friends Isaac and Lesley. The main purpose of this group is to feed the Homeless a homemade meal once a month . We also try to help gather supplies that the Rode Home needs to take care of those who have fallen on hard times.

I'd really like to encourage everyone who is interested in helping, to please do so. We have a fan page on Facebook that posts the current projects we are working on. Our next project will hopefully be in January, we have had a great community of support on facebook but we could definitely use more help.

In November we did our first dinner, we served Baked Potatoes, Chili, fresh fruit, various desserts and Capri Sun to drink.



In December we did a blanket drive and a dinner. The blanket drive went well and our dinner was great too. I forgot my camera on the night we did the dinner, sorry.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We were the Frankenstein family this year. Ryan was Frankenstein, I was Frank's bride and Micah was Frankenstein Jr. I thought we all looked pretty great and we spent so little to look so fabulous! Micah and I made it to as many Halloween activities as we could, so that he could show off the cool Frankenstein hat I made him. By the time Halloween night came around I was really ready for this holiday to be over. We really lived it up this year!

Truth be told, I refused to take Micah trick-or-treating. A few nights before Halloween, we took Micah trick-or-treating to the care center where my Grandma was temporarily residing (she's out now, Yeah!). Micah caused such a big scene every time we made a stop for candy that I didn't want to go through that again. I've always heard that it is good to let children have options, I completely agree with this practice, except when you have a toddler who thinks the whole bowl of candy is his, and wigs out every time another kid gets close to that bowl of candy. In this case I think it would have been best to show Micah his piece of candy, rather than tho whole bowl, and let that piece of candy go straight in his bag. We still have the bag of candy and almost all of the candy. Ryan and I have been very disciplined in not eating anything but the chocolate :). I let Micah have a piece every once in a while but I am really afraid of him getting cavities; luckily he loves to brush his teeth.



Fun Halloween activities we did this year:
-Corn Bellies- got 2 free mini pumpkins
-Pumpkin Walk- got another free pumpkin!
-Neighborhood party- played spooky bingo, made spiders out of Oreo's and licorice, made ghost suckers, bone necklaces, and got to decorate 2 more pumpkins! (I did not buy any pumpkins this year).
-Playgroup party- Micah played a bean bag toss game and actually made a shot!
-Scary baby and me story time
-Trick-or-treat at care center- SCARY
-Make spooky spider cupcakes
- Eating lots of spooky food

Juice Abuse

Enjoy the most recent picture of Micah, it has nothing to do with this post, but it's hilarious. he loves it when I vacuum and suck his clothes with the hose. This time we experimented with his hair!

We don't by a lot of juice at our house, but lately we have been indulging. This is such a treat for Micah, I love it because at snack time instead of asking for cookies he asks for juice. Poor guy has no idea that he is getting equal parts of juice and water. Can you imagine how off the wall he would be if I gave him pure juice!?

We haven't had any juice abuse in the sense that that is all Micah wants to drink, actually we have to deal with Milk abuse. We did have a brief moment of juice abuse on Saturday morning when Micah asked to have a drink of my juice and he refused to give it back. We were sitting on the couch just barely out of bed and this boy had the strength of ten grown men. He was not going to give up that juice with out a fight. Of course I just let him have it. I was too weak with laughter to put up much of a fight anyway.