Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and I really look forward to it every year. Unfortunately, Eddie and I couldn't go home for Thanksgiving because of the outrageous flight prices. My Aunt Donna texted me a picture of some of my family at my mom's waving to me; which made me REALLY happy. 

Although I didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with them, I got to talk to them all and hopefully Eddie and I will get to go visit soon. This year we spent Thanksgiving at Kasie's Grandpa Cliff and Aunt Terri's house. This is the second year we've spent Thanksgiving with their family and I must say, I am truly thankful that they take us in on the holidays. Living so far from family is extremely hard around the holidays, but they always put a smile on our faces and make us feel apart of the family. We brought one of our apple pies and made green bean casserole for the Thanksgiving Feast. When we got there we were greeted by this fellow:

Kasie made this turkey out of fruit - she's so creative!

This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and I am very grateful to have such an amazing husband. We face struggles, just like everyone else, but we give each other strength to move forward. Eddie is my rock and he is what I'm truly grateful for this year!

I'm also grateful for Kasie and her amazing family. They're always there for us and they are truly a second family to us.

Kasie's Grandpa Cliff collects classic cars and he showed them off to us and we took pics in his light blue Mustang:

My Turn:

It was a GREAT Thanksgiving... great people, great food, great conversation. Hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving!! :)

Slice of Heaven

Since this is our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, we decided to start a new tradition: making homemade apple pie. My mother-in-law makes BOMB apple pie, it truly is thee BEST! On Tuesday, Eddie and I peeled 5 pounds of Macintosh apples and thinly sliced them and let them sit in the fridge over night.

On Wednesday morning we made the dough:

Then we mixed sugar, cinnamon and flour into the apple container:

This is what it looked like after it was all mixed up:

Then we added the apples to the pie and put butter in the pie:

Then we cover it with dough and topped it off with sugar:

The finished product:

I haven't had any sweets for over 2 months so having a piece of this homemade apple pie was a slice of heaven. It turned out so good and I even think my mother-in-law would approve!

Viva Las Vegas!

The girls got together for a much needed girls night out and we went to watch the UNLV vs. Wisconsin game; which was super fun because 1.) it was ALL girls and 2.) I LOVE basketball! When us girls get together it's bound to be a good time no matter what we're doing.

The game was within a few points the entire time; which made it extremely intense. To keep our nerves at bay we drank some beers and cheered our asses off! My favorite cheer at the UNLV games is 'Viva Las Vegas'. The whole crowd chants "Viva Las Vegas... Reno Sucks!! Viva, Vivaaa Las Vegasss!!" It's my favorite and us girls chanted it as loud as we could and even made our own hand signals/dances to the chants!

The Jabbawockeez (those dancers with the white masks) performed during half-time and they were awesome!

And of course, the Runnin' Rebels won!!! (68-65)

How could they not win with us as their cheerleaders?!

After the game we went to Half Shell to watch the UFC fight and Francesca won this awesome trucker hat:

It was such a fun night and I'm so grateful to have such amazing friends in my life. I couldn't picture my life without these girls!

Beer Walk

This past Saturday we went to the Lake Las Vegas Beer Walk with a bunch of friends. It was my first time going and although I was sick I had a lot of fun. Being with friends is always the best medicine!

There were tons of different beer stations all throughout the village with dark beer, light beer, cranberry beer, and much more.

Baby Gracie came along for the festivities and she really enjoyed the scenery and being held by everyone!

Gracie and her Mommy

Eddie playing with Grace

This is Grace's toy and I think us adults enjoy it more then her... it's so funny! When you squeeze it its mouth open and it sings. Did you notice it also has teeth?! Yupp, it does. I'm going to go to Babies R Us and buy them in every color so that my kids can have them because it's awesome.

We took some pictures by the lake and I'm so glad we did because they turned out so pretty!

My amazing man.

Gracie and I

The boys had a lot of fun trying all the different beers while enjoying such a nice day outside.

Eddie and Isaac found this ice truck in the parking lot... of course they had to take a picture on it!

November 15, 2010 was FIVE YEARS since Eddie and I moved to Las Vegas so it was great to share the weekend with our closest friends. Our move to Las Vegas was very difficult to do, but I'm so glad we did. It really tested us as a couple and I know there isn't anything that we can't overcome. We are so lucky to have made such amazing friends that we now call family. Thanks to my Vegas family for always giving me a shoulder to cry on when I need it and picking me back up again! I love you :) 

Bundle of Joy

Baby Grace (Courtney and Isaac's baby) is getting SO big. She's now 5 months old and eating cereal! While Eddie and I were at their house the other day we got to see her eat cereal and it was so cute. I can't believe how fast she's growing up. She sure is going to break a lot of hearts with those big blue eyes.

She really loves cereal time! :)

Seeing baby Grace really makes me want to have a baby of my own. She brings so much joy to my heart, I just love her so much! Eddie and I can't wait until we have our own bundle of joy, but for the time being it's fun to watch Grace grow up!

I'm an Addict

FIRST STEP:

 admitting that you have an addiction

(check)

Over the past few months I've come to the realization that I have a problem. I live, sleep and dream about you and can NOT stop thinking about you. It's a non-stop craving I have...

I'm addicted to spinning!!

I know, I know...it could be way worse, right?! But when I'm sitting at my desk at work I'm thinking about how I wish I were on a bike hovering low with the resistance on a hard core 10. It's become a major problem, but I must say I've never felt better! I have so much energy and I have muscles in my legs that I never knew I had. I have been spinning for almost 2 years now, but it's wasn't until the past few months that I really developed a life-long friendship with it. I never understood how people could go to the gym everday and stick with it, but now I totally get it - it's fun! I know, I sound like a complete idiot, but it's seriously a strong passion of mine now.

I've been riding for so long that I've decided to take the plunge and finally invest in spinning shoes:

When I bought these I could NOT wait to test them out and let me tell you...it was the best ride I've ever had! It was so smooth and I was really able to push myself to the max; which was amazing. The shoes were definitely worth it!

I love the feeling of being in shape, but most importantly - I feel healthy. Here's to a healthy future!

Good Eats

I went to the doctor a few weeks ago to see if we could finally figure out why I get so many darn migraines. While I was there he did some blood work and found out that my cholesterol is insanely high! I was so scared because I wasn't really sure what it meant. He said it couldn't be from my diet, but suggested I come back in three months for more blood work. I decided that I was going to cut out sweets, cut back on red meat, and change my eating habits. Eddie and I have been making healthy meals and we had to come up with ways to make the food creative. This is a spin on chicken that we really enjoyed:

Grilled Tuscan Chicken with Rosemary:

3 pieces of boneless chicken

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

 Mix together and let marinade for at least 4 hours. Once Marinated, spray bottom of frying pan and cook chicken on medium heat for approximately 15-20 minutes (or to your liking).

Zucchini:

2 zucchinis 

coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder with parsley 

(California Style from McCormick)

1 teaspoon butter

olive oil

Spray bottom of frying pan. Chop up zucchini, sprinkle coarse salt and fresh ground pepper (to your liking), add 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, add 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder with parsley, add 1 teaspoon butter and sprinkle olive oil over zucchini. Mix well in frying pan and cook on medium heat for approximately 15 minutes. 

This is such an quick and easy meal and it's so yummy! 

Hope you enjoy it :)

GAGA, RAH, AH, AH!

I. LOVE. LADY. GAGA.

(obviously...)

I love her music, I love her voice, but most importantly I love how she dresses outrageous and doesn't care what anyone says. I knew I wanted to be something fun for Halloween so I thought, "What the heck? Why not be Lady GaGa!" I knew it was going to be hard to pull off since she dresses so crazy, so I started to look online for ideas. I saw Lady GaGa costumes, but I didn't want to have the same costume as anyone else so I decided to put together my own look. I bought a blonde wig, a  microphone, fingerless gloves, a leather leotard, and metallic leggings and I think it turned out pretty rad! We celebrated Halloween Saturday night at Carnival Court on The Strip. Since that was Eddie's parents last day here they got to come down to The Strip to see us dressed up:

The Fam

Kasie and Randy dressed up as vampires. They looked so hott freaky!! They went all out on their costumes in the blood department. They kept wanting more blood on their faces...it was kind of creepy!

Francesa dressed up as a fellow musician of mine, Katy Perry. She looked so cute and totally pulled it off!

Katy - GaGa - Vamper

I was really blown away by Eddie's dancing skills in the beginning of the night. This lady (obviously being a cougar for Halloween) kept pulling Ed out on the dance floor and of course he couldn't say no to a cougar.

Katy and GaGa on the microphone!

Kasie and Randy's mom, Linda, came with us too. What a great family photo, right?! I love this family...they are always SO much fun!

ARGGGHHH!! :)

I love to dance so I had a blast dancing all night as Lady GaGa.

Apparently I also like to sing because everytime a Lady GaGa song came on I got up on a chair and starting singing (into my fake microphone) to the whole entire bar. I got so into the songs and really thought I was Lady GaGa...maybe it was the wig...I don't know, but it sure was FUN!

Family Time

I have been extremely HOMESICK for the past few weeks so a visit from the in-laws is just what the doctor ordered! I love to cook dinner for Eddie's parents when they are in town so the first night when they arrived I was looking forward to cooking dinner for them. Since the weather has been chilly and chili is one of Eddie's favorite meals, I thought it would be the perfect meal to make! This is a picture of the chili as it cooked:

Once it was done we topped it off with sour cream, cheddar cheese and onions. For desert I made carrot cake cupcakes from scratch. Although I didn't eat them, I heard they were pretty tasty.

Throughout the week got to gamble, watch sports together, go to dinner (Ventano's - YUM!) and spend some quality time together! While Eddie's parents were here our three year old camera finally decided to die on us (hence why I don't have many pictures with them). Eddie's amazing parents bought us an early Christmas present...A NEW CAMERA!! We've been looking at cameras for a long time and we've always heard such good things about Canon, so we chose this one:

It takes awesome pictures and now we can take lots of pictures next time our families come to visit or next time we visit them. So far I'd say it's going to be our favorite Christmas gift! :)

Testing out our new camera:

Ed taking the first photo...I look like a hot mess, but it's the only picture I got with Ed's mom so please excuse the grossness!

Of course we had to test the camera out on Boo Bear.

Eddie being a goofball.

I'm really lucky that I have such great in-laws and I can't wait for them to come back in February!

This week was a lot of fun and full of much needed family time.