Catch Up: Playing House

 One of the things I have really loved about being out on our own in the scary grown up world is making our little apartment more homey.  The first time we walked in it was a HUGE step up from the apartments we had been looking at, but it was completely white and I felt like I had just checked into the psych ward. So I've tried to jazz it up with some color.

 We have really enjoyed living here though, we have a pool, but rarely have time to use it.  Phill's family probably uses it more than we do.

My favorite things about our apartment, (probably Phill's least favorite part) is we are only 30 seconds from Target.  Love me some target!

It's been fun to practice the art of cooking, I'm not horrible at it, but I didn't cook a ton when I was at home.  I have enjoyed trying new recipes.  A few of our favorites have been:

Stuffed Red Peppers recipe here

Crock Pot Chicken Terriyaki: 1lb chicken (sliced, cubed or however), 1c chicken broth, 1/2c terriyaki or soy sauce, 1/3c brown sugar, 3 minced garlic cloves cook in crock pot for a few hours.  Then I just sauteed the vegetables in some Mr. Yoshida's, and served it over brown rice. 

Cranberry Chicken:
One can of whole cranberry sauce, small bottle of french dressing, and onion soup mix stir together and pour over chicken breasts.
cook uncovered at 350 for an hour 
served over brown rice 

Cheese Fondue:
Sharp shredded cheddar, brie (rind removed), 1 1/2 c. milk, 2T flour
stir together on low until evenly melted

Catch Up: Aunt Meg & Uncle Phill

The day Phill and I got home from our honeymoon we headed up to Logan to meet our newest nephew Theodore Holland Brandley or as Phill and I have deemed him "Thor."  He suprised us all coming early (Celestial's babies always come late!) but we were so excited to meet the new addition to the Jakob Brandleys.

I am so lucky to have inherited six beautiful nieces and nephews when phill and i got married. (even though i acted like their aunt before we ever got married. ha) We love them all so much!

All of our favorite babies minus Thor who was born eight days later! 

Exciting News on the Westbroek front! When Phill and I were on the way home from our honeymoon we received a text from my brother Erick:

The fist grand baby in our family is on their way! Erick and Kira are waiting to find out what they are going to have so for now we just call the baby Kirick (Kira and Erick combined) We are all so excited to welcome the newest Westbroek to the world! And I am so exited to be an aunt. (again!)

This is the most recent ultrasound we have of our little Kirick! Look at that cute profile!
Baby is due on October 23rd! 

Catch Up: Honeymoon Edition

Honeymoon....who decided to call it that? I did some research, but none of the results seemed conclusive. My favorite answers were: 

1. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,  to the origin of the word honeymoon, 'the idea that the first month of marriage is the sweetest.' 
2. Or one found in the Oxford English Dictionary that the word originated to describe love that wanes as the phases of the moon (uh-oh)
3. The term honeymoon originates from the tradition that the in-laws of the couple were required to supply a month's worth of honey wine

So which one is it? Pretty sure it is NOT number three, because we've been married for almost three months and no large shipment of honey wine has been made to apartment A20... 

Anyways the Moon is made of honey so we celebrated that by going to sunny California! We drove there the day after our wedding, my parents were awesome enough to supply us with their car and all sorts of road trip goodies! We got to California late that night, we stayed at the Knott's Berry Farm Resort Hotel.  

The next day, was the day we had been waiting for, Phill's first trip to Disneyland! I have been saving my pennies (literally) for the whole two years Phill was gone to pay for our Disneyland tickets.  And yes I successfully saved up enough coinage to buy both of our tickets! 

Disneyland is such a fun place and it's even more enjoyable when you take someone who as never been, it's like experiencing it for the first time yourself. 

 The next day we went to California Adventures! We visited Cars Land, which looked exactly like Radiator Springs.  We rode Phill's new favorite ride: Toy Story a couple times, rode my favorite ride, The Tower of Terror (Phill was not a fan). And after all that fun we wandered back over to Disneyland, then to Downtown Disney for dinner at my favorite place The Rain Forest Cafe, and then BACK to California Adventures to finish off the night! (got to love hopper passes!) 

My eyes are closed...what can ya do 

getting cozy at the Cozy Cone 

Phill made me go on the Snow White ride...not cool man, not cool. 

At the Lego Store! Prince Phillip made out of legos in the background! 

Paradise Pier

The next day we bounced back and forth between the two parks again and got in most of our favorite rides one more time. We also got to ride the new Car Racer ride in Cars Land (epic) That was probably my favorite part of the day. 

No one knows what is going on with this Mickey/Goofy/Mater/Use up all the extra materials we have hat.

After our Disney Adventure was over we headed for the beach the next day, but didn't swim, because I had gotten sick and was not feeling it. So we walked along the pier and I starred anxiously out into the ocean looking for whales...as a I always do, but have yet to actually see one.  One Day! It was a nice relaxing day after our three days of none stop! 

On our last day we drove down to San Diego and did a session in the temple.  It was a really cool experience.  I was hoping to go to Sea World, but by the time we got out of the temple it was too late. Darn! So we walked around the city a little before making the trip back up to Anaheim. 

Our dive home consisted of a few detours through Phill's mission, I got to meet a few people he had told me about in his letters that was fun. Then came the long drive home, that is always a kicker! 
We had a good time and it was great to get away!