Hunt for Cider

Saturday is typically the day that we do laundry, grocery shopping, etc.  This Saturday we decided to put off our chores and responsibilities and go out and have fun in the city. 

We woke up and decided to head to canal street to do some shopping.  It was insane!  I always forget how crazy it gets there with all of the crowds.  Once we found what we went there for, we left as soon as possible. 

We decided to walk toward Union Square where they have little holiday shops.  On the way we saw a lot of Santa Clause's, I guess there was a thing where people dress as Santa and go around to all the bars.  It was funny to see all the Santa's but we kept our distance, since we could tell a bunch of them had already had a few too many drinks.  Union Square was also insane, though it was fun to see the things people make to sell. 

We decided to head home to drop off our purchases and relax for a few hours.  When we got to our neighborhood we decided to stop by Starbucks to buy some of their caramel apple cider since we hadn't had any yet this season.  They told us that they couldn't make it because they didn't have any apple juice.  We went home and decided we would try again later that night at a different location, because it sounded so good. 

We had tickets to Wintuk, a Cirque du Soleil show, so we headed downtown to go to that. The show was a great! They did a lot of crazy circus tricks, and had amazing special effects. At the end there was a snowstorm (tissue paper snowflakes) over the entire office. It was kind of crazy how much "snow" was shot out. There hasn't been a snow storm in New York yet so it was fun to have a fake storm.

This is before the show started:

This is the stage, before the show started:

 Since we were already downtown we decided to check out the Macy's windows.  It was cool how they decorated the scenes, made mostly of paper.  I was impressed by the windows. 

We went into Macy's and saw that they had Starbucks so we decided to try again on our search for caramel apple cider.  We tried the 5th floor, they were out of apple juice, like the one by our apartment.  6th floor-same story, 3rd floor-no luck.  We found one on the 1st floor and thought that we would be lucky this time, but they couldn't make it for us either!  I was giving up, but as we were walking toward the subway stop we saw another Starbucks and decided to try that one.  There was a big line and when we got to the front we asked, not expecting anything, if they had caramel apple cider..... and they did!  We ordered our cider and I told Scott that I wouldn't believe it until I tasted it.  It was oh so good!  As we hunted for our cider it became a game, and was getting pretty funny that we were striking out so much.  It was totally worth the hunt!

It was a really fun day.  It was nice to do some festive things to get us more into the holiday spirit and just to spend the whole day together.  Life is so busy it's fun to  take a break from the things you "have" to do.

Christmas Cards

This Tuesday for Girl's night I thought it would be fun to make Christmas cards.  It was a small turnout--but very fun!  These are the cards I made:)  I decided to do a few different designs so I don't get bored making all of them. 

Remember Jack?

Remember Jack? Sorry Ash...

Cute Picture of Jovie

This morning I saw on facebook that my sister posted this picture of our new niece Jovie on Facebook.  I'm so excited to meet her, she is so cute:)

Ugly Sweaters and Gingerbread Houses

This weekend we got together with our friends the Hansen's and the Thomson's to wear ugly or festive sweaters and decorate "gingerbread" houses.  Scott and I decided to make very festive and ugly sweaters.  I gathered the supplies from Michael's earlier in the day for our creations.  Saturday morning a Christmas movie was on TV and there was a guy wearing a sweater that had a bright green moose on it which is how we got the inspiration for Scott's sweater.  The idea for my sweater came from a few years ago when my roommates and I made some really good ugly sweaters for a party at our apartment.  I tried to recreate it in a way.  See pictures below, along with how-to instructions for you to make your own ugly sweater:)

The front of my sweater:

There are bells and pom poms I used to cover the buttons/buttonholes.  Then I cut strips of those Mardi Gras type beads next to the buttons/buttonholes.  for the bottom of the sweater and the cuffs of the sleeves I used tinsel garland.

The back of my sweater: 

I used felt to make the tree.  I decorated it with pom poms, bells, and beads.  The "presents" under the tree are Christmas buttons.

Scott's sweater: 

Scott made his own sweater with a little guidance from me.  He printed off an outline of a moose, and used that as a template for his moose.  Googly eyes, and a bell were added as well as holly made from pom poms and pipe cleaners.  I think Scott's sweater turned out really well!

We had fun making our ugly sweaters, and are definitely saving them for a future party!  Here is us together at the party in front of the Hansen's beautiful tree, what a great backdrop for a picture:)

Here is the "gingerbread" house we made from graham crackers.  It is a replication of the apartment building we live in, tower 1.  This is while we were still adding a few finishing touches at the decorating table.  Scott was very creative in our tower.  He did the most work on it, I just followed his lead:)  

This picture is when it was all complete at another angle. 

We had such a great weekend, it was fun to do Christmasy things with friends!  I love the holidays!

Welcome Baby Jovie

We have a new niece!  Jovie was born on December 5 at 2:15 am, weighing 9 pounds 10 ounces.  We are so excited to meet her in a few weeks! Congratulations to my sister Amber and her family:)

Creak...Creak...

I'm at work and it is so windy today that I'm afraid this is what I'll be hearing all day---creak....creak...  It kind of makes you feel like you are on a ship getting seasick.  You can't really feel the building move, but the sound tricks you into thinking you can.  I think this is going to drive me a little crazy but I guess that's what you get when you work in a tall building.

Our Thanksgiving Break

I apologize beforehand, but I was too busy enjoying myself that I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving break.  If my family posts pictures on Facebook I will add some to this post.

Wednesday: we decided to head to the airport extra early to allow extra time for the "nightmare" security we were hearing about all over the news.  The subway on the way to the airport was crazy so I was a little worried...  We arrived at the airport, checked our bags and were through security in about 20-30 minutes.  It was probably the fastest we have ever been through security at JFK.  They didn't have those body scanners that everyone was freaking out about.  We made it through security and had time to have dinner before our flight.  The flight was a little long because of strong winds but other than that there was no problem.  I don't know why they were freaking out about the security on the news, it was totally fine. 

We landed in Salt Lake and were picked up by my dad and brother Cameron.  We tried to sleep soon after we got to my parents house but it was hard to sleep because it was so quiet.  My friends here in NYC will be able to back me up, as we are used to sleeping with so much noise in the background.  I keep telling Scott that I'm going to have to find a "Sounds of the City" recording to fall asleep when we eventually move out of the city. 

Side note:  If there are any Boy Meets World fans that read our blog---do you remember in an episode when Shawn moves into an apartment and plays "Sounds of the Trailer Park" to be able to fall asleep? Ha ha, just like that.

We eventually fell asleep, and slept in until 5 am UT time--because it was really 7 am NY time.  It is hard switching back between time zones.

Thursday: we went to the Mortensen extended family Thanksgiving.  There are a lot of people in our extended family so when we get together we reserve a church building.  It was fun to see a lot of family, though it gets a little chaotic, we enjoyed ourselves.  After our early Thanksgiving with the Mortensen's we hung out at my parent's house and played with my niece and nephews.  Then, we headed to Scott's parents' house for our 2nd Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed yummy food along with good company.  We were really tired pretty early, about 9:00 and went to sleep shortly after we got back.

Friday: we went out for a yummy breakfast with my family.  Then Scott hung out with his parents, and got to go to the Jazz vs. Lakers game.  Apparently it was a very exciting game, though I didn't watch any of it.  Meanwhile, I hung out with my family and got some shopping in with my mom and little sister.  My older sister and her family also came over so we got more niece and nephews time.

Saturday: we woke up and helped my family prep the Thanksgiving we were having that afternoon.  After all the food was made, we all dug in.  Yum!  Then the boys watched the BYU vs. Utah game, and the girl's hung out with my sister and her kids.  It was fun to see the kids so much!  I miss having kids around to play with.  Then, Scott went to dinner with his family, and I chilled with mine.  Of course we had the joy of packing again, which I hate, but we got through it.

Sunday: we woke up early to head back to NYC.  It was snowing so the roads weren't the best but we made it to the airport.  Security was a breeze again, because we were directed toward the International terminal in SLC.  We got on the plane, and it seemed like it was going to be another easy flight.  After 2 hours of waiting to be de-iced, we finally took off!  I kept falling asleep and waking up to find that we were still on the ground. It was nice to get into the air and the flight wasn't too bad after that.  When we got to JFK, we had to wait a long time for our baggage.  I then wanted to take a cab home, but we decided to save money and not take one.  It's a good thing we made that decision because as we were walking past the taxi line, it was huge!  It probably would have taken just as long to wait for a cab as it would to go home on the subway.  I know Scott was secretly happy on the inside that I could not complain that we didn't take a cab.  We made it home by 7:00 pm and I was exhausted!  Scott was nice and made us some dinner.  Then we chilled for a bit and went to sleep.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving break, and I enjoyed seeing family so much.  It makes it really hard to come back to the real world...

P.S. My older sister Amber was a trooper this weekend.  She came to every family thing even though she could have had her baby at any time.  We are excited to meet our new niece when we go home for Christmas.  Amber, I hope you meet her soon:)

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

I don't usually like touchy feely stuff, but we have a lot to be grateful for and it's good to remind ourselves.  Thanksgiving is just a perfect day to reflect and have gratitude. 

We are both grateful for (in no particular order): 

• Each other (Awwww)
• Family :)
• God, Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (We are so blessed)
• Medical School (It's Scott's dream to be a doctor, we are grateful he has the opportunity to pursue it
• Friends (We have really good friends-NYC, Utah, etc.
• My Job (I'm not grateful to have to work, but we are both grateful to get a paycheck.  Finding this job was a huge blessing)
• Our Apartment (It's our escape from the outside world.  When we are in our apartment I feel like we are in Utah, and that's comforting to me)
• Our experiences in NYC (living here is like a roller coaster, but we have grown/learned so much)
• Scott is grateful for Sinus Decongestant Medication
• I'm grateful for Airplanes and that we get to go home for Thanksgiving AND Christmas (it's reassuring to know that family is just a plane ride away-a really long plane ride)
• Scott is grateful that we have plenty of food to eat every day even though he complains that it's not his absolute favorite sometimes (He said it's not a comment on my cooking, we just have to eat cheaper at this time in our life)

P.S. I had good intentions to have this post on Thanksgiving, in fact it was already written.  I just forgot to schedule the post...

*I'm going to make a separate post for what we did over the holiday*

An Attempt at a New Look

I was getting kind of tired of the design of our blog so I decided to change it up a little.  I know it's not a drastic change, but I think there is improvement.  I still don't LOVE it.  Are there tutorials or something that teach how to do all the cool bloggy things?  I've been trying to figure out how to do one of those cool headers, but I'm not having any luck.  Any help would be appreciated:)  Also, I noticed on some blogs they have tabs that you can switch between for different sections of their blog.  I don't know if that makes sense.  Is that something that's easy to do, like I could do it, or is it more difficult?  Do any of my blog savy friends have suggestions?

The Wariner's Came to Visit!

Our friends, Tarin and Danny graced us with their presence this past week!  It was a lot of fun!  We are sad to see them go...

I had to work and Scott had school but we were able to catch up with them most evenings.

Some of the highlights when we joined up, and just a warning most of these are restaurants: 

-Malecon (a Dominican restaurant by our apartment that serves rice, beans, and yummy rotisserie chicken)
-Eating seafood down at South Street Seaport right by the water.  The shrimp I had was so good:)
-Grimaldi's (a famous pizza place in Brooklyn)
-Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan
-Rowboats at Central Park
-Seeing a million people dressed up in costumes in Central Park
-Shake Shack (hamburger place, good hamburger for New York)
-Levain Bakery (amazing cookies, featured on the Food Network multiple times)
-Yummy soup and rolls Scott made us on Sunday
-Jimmy Fallon on Monday (it was a lot of fun, cool to see how it is all put together)
-Another trip to Malecon, mmmmmm

Thanks Tarin and Danny it was fun to have you come stay with us!

Scott's Secret...

This is what Scott likes to do while blowing up the air mattress...

He flips the switch and likes to lay on it until it fully inflates.  This happens just about every time we blow it up:)

Bed Half Made, or Bed Half Un-made... you decide

Ever since we've been married Scott has almost always made the bed. The other day I thought I would be nice and started making the bed while he was in the shower. I got distracted by something and went to do something else. Scott comes in and sees that I only made half the bed, my side of the bed. He said, "What is this?! You're only going to make your half of the bed?" I started laughing because I didn't realize that I had only made my half of the bed.

The next day I walked into our room after getting ready and see this:

Scott was giving me a taste of my own medicine:)  So here is the question would you consider our bed half made, or half unmade?   

By the way... I made the whole bed yesterday morning.

Long Needed Haircut

We went home to Utah in June and at that time Scott needed a haircut which he never got...  I wanted him to go somewhere to get it cut, but it never happended.   Now it is October, well almost the end of October and I finally caved in and cut his hair.  I wanted to show before and after pictures so everyone could see how long his hair was.

Sidenote:  For those of you wondering why it took me a long time to finally cut his hair---first of all Scott kept saying he wanted to grow it out to see what it would look like, second of all anyone who knows me knows I'm hair-phobic.  Hair that is out of someone's head freaks me out, even my own!  Also, it typically takes me FOREVER to cut his hair.  The first time it took 2 hours, second 1 1/2 hours.  This time only took me about 30 minutes, I would say that is progress!

Before: 

After: 

Morning Fog

Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work and Scott says, "Ashley, you have to see this!"  I walk over to the window, and this was the view outside with the fog over the river.  It was so cool!  Just thought I'd share. 

Hawaii

Just over a week ago I returned from a trip with my parents and younger sister to Hawaii.  It was a lot of fun!  I just wanted to post a few pictures to document this trip.  I am very behind on blogging....  Most of these pictures I stole from my Mom's Facebook, thanks Mom!  We stayed on the big island of Hawaii in Waikoloa.

We took pictures of ourselves for entertainment while waiting for everyone to board the plane.

  

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery while we were there.  I really love palm trees.

We were able to take a trip over to the wet side of Hawaii where it rains more to the Volcanoes National Park.  It was very lush and beautiful on the wet side. 

Here is a picture of the vegetation we saw while going to the lava tubes.

 Inside the lava tubes.

.

One day we rode in a glass bottom boat and were able to see fish, turtles, and coral.

 These guys were working very hard keeping the trees at the hotel looking good.  They had these weird things on their legs to help them climb the trees.  It was interesting to watch.

 Of course we had some Shave Ice while we were there.

We also went to a luau, but I don't have any pictures from that. 

We went on a helicopter ride for my dad's birthday which was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Flying over where eruptions had been felt like you were on a different planet.  It was so cool/crazy to see. 

Here are some pictures from the ride: 

This was at the end of the ride with our pilot.

It was a very fun trip!  It was also so nice to fly back to Utah and be able to see the rest of my family.  We celebrated my Dad's birthday along with my sister Amber's birthday.  I love my family!

 We got out the dress up stuff for my niece Taesya, and my brothers enjoyed it the most... lol.

It was a very enjoyable trip!  I felt bad that Scott was home studying though....

P.S. I still haven't unpacked all the way from my trip, I'm bad...

These are definitely on the list of things to make!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

For those of you that know Scott really well, you know that he loves his cinnamon rolls.  He doesn't like raisins, apples, or chocolate chips added, just classic cinnamon rolls.  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made them on Sunday to enjoy during General Conference.  I also actually took my own pictures this time which I hardly ever do for recipes, that's why the photos aren't very good.  Also, I wasn't very good at keeping the rolls the same thickness which is why you see varying sizes.

Cinnamon Rolls

1 cup warm milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour (regular if you don’t have it)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine* in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.

After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.**

Roll dough into a 16 x 21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter*** and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

*This recipe has you use a bread machine. If you don’t have one just mix/knead/raise dough as you usually would. The bread machine just makes the process easier.

**I cut the cinnamon and sugar in half. Last time I made this there was way too much cinnamon and sugar. Adjust this depending on how rich you want your cinnamon rolls.

***For the butter I didn’t measure out the butter. I just added it and spread it on until it looked covered probably using a couple of tablespoons.

I have a pumpkin....named Jack

I came home one day after work, and realized that Scott bought some gourds and a cute small pumpkin from the farmer's market.  I was excited and was thinking about where I was going to put them to decorate.  Then the other night I said something to Scott about how I was going to put some ribbon on them.  Scott's said something like, "Why are you going to put a ribbon on the pumpkin? I bought that to cook with..."  I said, "You can't buy me a cute little pumpkin, let me get attached, and then say we are going to eat it!"  He said, "Why, did you already name it?"  I said, "Yes, I named it... Jack!"  (That was the first name I could think of when he asked me). 

Rainy Day

Do you remember in elementary school how you had a "Rainy Day Box" that you brought with things to do in it when it rains and you have to stay inside?  I was just thinking about this memory at work because today is a "Rainy Day Box" kind of day.

Recipes on my list of things to make...

I was looking online at this website and saw all these yummy things I want to make over the next few weeks.  I thought I'd share some of my recipe finds.  Warning--I haven't tried to make these yet, so I can't give my full recommendation until I try them.  They look good though!

Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Southwestern Bean Salad

Southwestern Chicken Drumsticks

Roasted Vegetable Whole Wheat Calzones

Baked Penne with Sweet Italian Sausage

P.S. Does anyone else out there only try recipes that have a picture with the recipe?  It's like I trust the recipe more if they show proof that it has been made... maybe I'm the only one that thinks like that...

10 Cops Go Into a Donut Shop....

It sounds like the beginning of a joke right?  As I was leaving for lunch I saw 10 cops walking into a little Dunkin Donuts, I started laughing because that is totally a stereotype (cops and donuts).  I wanted to take a picture but I didn't think they'd like that very much (Sorry this picture is from this website talking about a cop stealing donuts).

P.S.: When I worked at Tasty's (donut/sandwich shop in Kaysville, UT) cops would come in all the time.  You'd see a parking lot full of cop cars.  I always thought it was funny.

My New Best Friend

I had the best Post Office visit ever today! 

Do you want to know why? 

Post Office Kiosk, and drop box! 

No longer will I have to deal with angry postal workers...

These Kiosks have been at the Post Office

by my work for a while, but only today did I truly

appreciate and use them to their full potential:)