Valentines 2014

Valentines day was wonderfully spent with loved ones. 

Drew and I surprised my family by arriving in Richfield earlier than any of them were expecting. We heart attacked their door and door bell ditched them with a treat. Kinsley caught on right away that it "must be Kate & Drew!!" because we used gold glittery hearts and she knows I'm kind of obsessed with gold and glitter... haha 

It was a fun surprise though! 

Later that evening my mom set up for a cute and funny dinner and it was a nice full of laughter and fun.

 We got chinese take out and dished up our own plates. Then we had to choose a paper heart that was on the table and find the corresponding numbered bag that goes with it. We had to use whatever was in the bag as our utensil to eat our food!

It was really funny! Some of us got chopsticks, a wooden spoon, and/or prongs, while others lucked out and got a normal fork! Or spoon!

 It was lots of fun! We ended the night with some games. And that was that!

Thanks mom for the fun Valentines day!! It was awesome to be in Richfield again with the whole family. We love you guys!

Love,
Kate

Your cup of cake

Here's a nice message for the day:

"You may not be living your dream, but you are living someone else's dream."

<<Source>>

Love,

Kate

Follow follow follow!

Here's something new...

I'm now on bloglovin!

So follow me.
Oh.. and I got an iphone!

Love,

Kate

February.

It's February. My home is now decorated in pinks and reds and love is in the air!

This past weekend my cute aunt Katie and her husband Briant came down to St. George for a couple days to celebrate Katie's birthday! They stopped by to visit with me on Wednesday night (her actual birthday) and I gave her a picture that I had created/painted for her! She loved it :) Hopefully she'll send me a picture of it hanging up in her home as soon as she gets it up ;)

Thursday night she and Briant invited Drew and I over to their place for pizza and games! We brought the games and they provided the pizza... AND like 7 different flavors of soda for taste-testing! It was so much fun! They had picked up mostly rootbeer flavors, but there was a couple random ones too-- like chocolate dipped maple bacon, sasparilla, and vanilla carmel cream soda. They were sure fun to try! But I am not sure if I would enjoy drinking the chocolate dipped maple bacon every day... haha not my thing.

It was fun to catch up with them though!

The next night we had the great idea to make some crafts for our home, hence why my home is now decorated in pinks and reds :D

We ended up making some fun Valentine banners while the guys watched netflix. I love crafting and it was especially fun to be paired up with Katie because we came up with some great ideas together!

They had to leave early the next morning so our night ended a little earlier than we would have liked, but nonetheless,we love the time we get to spend with Bri and Katie and we love whenever they come down.

The next day neither Drew or I had to work and so we decided to work on putting together our bookshelf that we got from Target! We are going to be using it as an entertainment center! It is the perfect size and has the shelves that I wanted and so we are both really excited about it.

Whether or not we will paint it is yet to be decided... but painting is definitely in the future for us because we have a few different pieces of furniture that I would like to be a different color.

We treated ourselves to "The World's Best Corndog" (a truck parked outside of Ace Hardware in St. George) ... YUM!! And then ended the night with the Jensens. They invited us over for dinner and it was fun to catch up with them too.

Now we are up in Cedar for the Superbowl. 

Then onto another busy week full of school (for drew) and work (for me.. and well, Drew too).

Happy February!

Love,

Kate

ps. here are some pics of the most clever birthday present ever! From Katie and Bri-- my very own personalized cereal!!!

Snowboarding in January

I love the month of January and I cannot believe it's almost over! Time seems to really be flyin' now days. I feel like it's going to be summer again before we know it. But I'm not wishing the scorching heat to come so soon... 

 Living in St. George is a huge difference compared to Richfield because of the weather! It already seems like spring down here and it's almost too warm to wear my winter clothes. (Which I love, by the way.)

But it's all good. Luckily we got to spend some time in the fresh air up at Eagle Point with our friends the other day. It was a beautiful sunny day and the weather was perfect. The snow was scarce & icy too, but it was alright. It was so much fun spending time on the slopes with these great people!

  

Drew and I both LOVE snowboarding and it was our first time snowboarding together, so it was fabulous! 

Other than that here is an update-- Drew is doing well in his classes. I don't work at Christensen's anymore because I am working at a preschool every morning, and at Dixie University every afternoon! That means I get weekends off now AND holidays :) So I am happy. 

Drew and I have more time together now so that is awesome too!

I love January.

Love,
Kate

"heaven is a place on earth with you"

For Drew:

"What really matters is that he will love you, that he will respect you, that he will honor you, that he will be absolutely true to you, that he will give you freedom of expression and let you fly in the development of your own talents. He is not going to be perfect, but if he is kind and thoughtful, if he knows how to work and earn a living, if he is honest and full of faith, the chances are that you will not go wrong, that you will be immensely happy."

-President Hinckley (Oct. 2003, To the Women of the Church)

Thank you Drew for letting me fly in the development of my own talents and for being absolutely wonderful in every single way! President Hinckley described you perfectly in this favorite quote of mine and I couldn't be more blessed be married and sealed to you! I'll love you forever!

Love,

Kate

Recipe ::: Spring Rolls w/ Chicken & Peanut Sauce

I tried something new today. Spring rolls-- with chicken and of course peanut sauce!

I kind of just made up my own recipe for everything because I couldn't choose just one recipe to follow.

I chose to use lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, jicama, cilantro, and carrots as the filling. 

I tossed and fried the chicken around in melted butter, garlic powder, chili powder, and salt and it turned out to be the most delicious chicken I have EVER made!

As for the peanut sauce, I whisked together some peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, some brown sugar, and a touch of garlic powder and chili powder. 

This new recipe was pretty happy on the taste buds that's for sure. The rice paper was a different texture than I imagined it would be but it wasn't too bad. 

Altogether it was a hit for both Drew and I! We loved them and will definitely be making them again.

Chicken

3 uncooked chicken breasts cut into thin slices

1 tbs butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

dash of garlic salt

Heat butter in frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and chili powder to the butter. Place chicken in frying pan--making sure each piece gets coated with butter and flavors. Cook for 5-6 minutes on each side of chicken meat. (Can add more powder or salt to taste)
Let chicken cool and then chop into more thin pieces for the rice wrappers and set aside.

Peanut Sauce

1/4 C peanut butter

1/4 C soy sauce

1/8 C  vinegar

1 tbs brown sugar

dash of garlic powder

dash of chili powder

Whisk together all of the ingredients. (Can add whatever you need to taste) Set aside.

Veggies/Add-ins

carrots

cucumbers

green, yellow, or red peppers

jicama

cilantro

big lettuce leafs

etc.

Chop desired add-ins into thin 3 inch (or so) pieces except for lettuce leafs. Set aside.

Rolling/Wrapping

Submerge rice wrapper into warm water for 15-20 seconds (until it because elastic and smooth), then place on cutting board or other flat surface. Place lettuce leaf down first on edge of wrapper. Top it with whatever veggies and other fillings you have. Tuck and roll from the edge of the wrapper and roll like a burrito. Fold the edges over if applicable.

I placed mine on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil and then cut them in half before serving.

Dip your spring rolls in the peanut sauce and enjoy some healthy veggies and DELICIOUS chicken! 

Love,

Kate