Valentines Weekend

Our Valentines weekend started out by going to Josh and Tiffanie's sealing in the morning. It was so fun to be apart of their special day and to see their family. Their little boy Jaxon is so adorable!!! He was so perfect. He didn't fuss at all. It's been so long since we have seen each other. Tiffanie was probably my favorite babysitter when I was little. She always brought me treats. The carmel apple suckers were my favorite.

Then we went to Pat and Oscars for lunch. I love their breadsticks and greek salad. 

We drove home and picked up these jeans from the tailor. I won them off ebay. It was kinda an accident (because I bid thinking I had no chance of winning), so they ended up being my present to myself. I got them for a STEAL, so it was okay. :) 

I like to embarrass Adam. I made him take a picture with me in the theater. We went and saw Valentines Day right after we picked up my new jeans! It was a super cute movie. We both enjoyed it more than we thought we would.

We were in the mood for dessert after the movie, so we went and got some gelato before dinner. YUM! 

Those spoons on the left were used for testing all the flavors. I ended up getting carmel and Adam got butterfinger. Both were delicious. Then we went to Red Robbin after and split a hamburger.

We exchanged cards later on Saturday night and then on Sunday we enjoyed sees chocolate (my dad bought 2 pounds) and these sugar cookies I put together real quick. I have a really yummy icing recipe. I hate when icing is sicky sweet. The trick is to make it with 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. It's perfect. Everyone asks about it.

Hope you all had a great Valentines weekend too!!! We sure did. Especially starting it out knowing Adam got the job he wanted. We are still super excited. I really want to get a dog when we get our own place!!! I have been puppy hungry for a long time now!

GREAT NEWS!!!

My husband got the job he wanted!!!!! He got the call tonight after we went out to dinner. He starts next Monday, and we will be relocating in 4 months. We are both SO excited =). I am looking forward to having MONEY, our OWN place, and living in a new state!! It will be great. I don't have to worry about finding a job down here which is another plus.

Tomorrow will be fun. We are going to Josh and Tiffanie's sealing in the morning, then celebrating part of our Valentines day tradition because we can't do it on Sunday.  I wish my camera hadn't got stolen or lost or whatever happened to it, so I could document it. Its been gone for 3 weeks now! Maybe I will borrow my parents camera? Anywhoo, I hope you all have a great Valentines weekend. Hopefully I will have some pictures up in my next post.

Whats on my mind

Its been 18 days since my first post about my exercise goal.Those of you on facebook know that I am still going strong. I have been writing down when I go to they gym to help keep me motivated. I could see how that might get annoying. My answer to that is simply ignore it. I am doing it for me, not for you. My goal is to have some buns of steal before summer. ha. The older we get the harder that goal gets.

My husband gets back on Tuesday. I have missed him so much. He had an interview in Utah last Tuesday for a pharmaceutical sales rep position. If he gets the job we could be moving to Washington. We will find out in about a week. He stayed up in Utah for his grandmother's 87th birthday party that was on Saturday. She isn't doing too well, so I am glad he was able to spend some time with her.

Have any of you been watching BYU basketball? They are doing so well this year. Adam and I went to a game before we moved down to CA. They played against Eastern Washington. The score was 91 to 34 (total blowout).  They were leading the nation in wins and had the second longest active winning streak before they lost to New Mexico by 4 points on Jan 27th. They are ranked 12 in the polls. They have won 21 games and lost 2 so far.

I am very excited about the super bowl this year. GO COLTS!!! I think the Saints are a really good team and if they win cool, but I think it would be even more amazing if the Colts won. Go Austin Collie!!! Got to support him since he played for BYU. Collie finished his rookie season in the NFL among the top statistical leaders for all rookies. He is tied for 1st along with Percy Harvin for the # of receptions caught this year. I like Peyton Manning as well.

For any cookie lovers out there...

I made some delicious oatmeal raisen cookies the other day for my dad. They are his favorite. I love baking them because they make the house smell like Christmas. If you are a fan of oatmeal raisen cookies you have to try this recipe. Out of 2512 rated reviews, almost every single person gave it five out of five stars. I am not a huge fan of this kind of cookie, but I love this recipe, and now this kind of cookie. ha.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Beths-Spicy-Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies/Detail.aspx

You might want one after watching....

YouTube - The World's Largest Gummy Bear



ha. I know I totally do!

Rainy days are for

making Cookies. :o) It really is just an excuse to bake more cookies, but hey, I like it. I grew up living up the street from the Allens. They always had freshly baked cookies on rainy days. Everyone could count on it. I took advantage of that guaranteed tradition. I went to their house often.

Today, I attempted to shape my cookies as snails. Some turned out kinda looking like aliens. ha. They tasted very good though. The chocolate chip peanut butter cookies are my second favorite next to oatmeal chocolate chip. We made oatmeal chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies over the weekend. A major success. We have enjoyed so many sweets lately. Brownies, truffles, german chocolate, sees chocolate, hot chocolate (every night), chocolate milk, anything with chocolate basically. Lots of ice cream too.

I don't feel guilty at all because I have been going to the gym every day. Yup. I been to the gym every single day since last thursday (I know thats not very long but hey I am sticking to this). I love it and want to keep it up all as long as possible (till summer would be a major success). I am not going to say its a new years resolution because those get broken. I am on a roll. Erika has been my personal trainer and has come to the gym with me almost every day. I am using muscles I didn't even know I had. lol. We have done a lot of strength and core training. I am glad she knows what she is doing. lol. I am definitely feeling the burn. I do love my zumba class too that I am looking forward to on Thursday and Saturday.

These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies have yet to go in the oven in this picture.

Since we have been in CA

Two posts in one day. Wow I must have some time on my hands. Yup, jobless and done with school. I am loving this. lol. Adam and I haven't even started looking for jobs. I did get offered a teaching position in China, which I was happy about at first... until I found out all the fees and things I needed to get over there. not including the air fare. It is still a good opportunity. 4 grand a month is pretty good for someone like me without any experience. If Adam did it too we could make 92,000 minus the fees and airfare ( a few grand if we both did it-Its about 1500 a person). They pay for your room and board. They reimburse  you for your airfare once you are done teaching. Anyways on with my post.

I heart San Diego and Sea Port Village

My family loves to go to Sea Port Village. We went the Sunday after Adam and I arrived in CA.

It is such a fun place. I love visiting all the shops and seeing all the vendors. My sister is a bird person, so we had to stop and get some photos.

We always enjoy taking a rest at the hammock shop after we have finished walking around and looking at all the different shops.

It is so pretty. I have so many memories here! One of my first spiritual experiences took place here. I had a doll named Dianna that my Grandma Louise had given me. She was about the size of my hand now. A tiny little thing. While I was playing there I must have lost one of her shoes, and noticed her shoe was missing after we were 20 minutes into our drive home. I was devastated. I told my parents and they I am sure were not thrilled. lol. They loved me to pieces and wanted to make an effort to go back, even though they knew that finding her shoe would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Her shoe was twice the size of a barbie doll shoe. We always walk all throughout Sea Port Village. We had no idea where it could be. Plus it had already started to get dark. I said a little prayer with so much faith (wish I had the same faith I did back then) right before we drove back into the parking lot. We got out of the car and instantly and very excitedly I picked up the shoe off the ground right next to the car tire and showed my parents that God had answered my prayer. ha.

This rock guy is amazing. He balances them so fast.

So I arrived at 3am on the Saturday of Kevin Van Hausters wedding. My mom volunteered me to help cater it that night. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I was glad to help out though and see some familiar faces.

SISTERS! We look so different. I look like my dad and my sister looks like my mom. Adam calls her sue june.

Kevin and his beautiful bride



I was able to see my friend Ashley before she went back to college in Redlands. We went to get frozen yogurt of course at white lime. Yogurt is our thing.

I was also able to enjoy the company of my good friend Amanda who will be here a couple more weeks before she goes back to Chico. We went to BJ's cuz its our thing. Love their buffalo chicken pizza and pazookies of course.

Adam and I our pretty much situated here at my parents for the mean time. Finished putting our room together. Went through my clothes and feel more organized. Now we just need to help my parents clean out the garage, so that Adam and I can fit our stuff that is just sitting in the living room in there.

What I really need to do this week is CHANGE MY NAME!!!! Oh my gosh its been almost a year and a half and I am still legally Holly Simpson. It is about time I became Holly Towner don't you think?

I am so glad the moving process is over with for now.

Stolen

All these pictures were stolen from my wonderful mother-in-law's camera so that the rest of the family could enjoy them. She doesn't like to email pictures, so she told me I could take her camera and put some on my blog for all to see. Here are some more pictures of our Cincinnati, Ohio trip :)

All the cute kids

Kiley (Chris and SeQuoia's little girl)

Jared (Rachel and Aaron's little boy)

Kiley and Cameron (Rachel and Aaron's son)

SeQuoia showing off her talents some time before Adam and I showed up

Kiley being cute in her car seat

Eating some lunch

We all went out to dinner at Johnny Rockets.

We were all caught in action making our ginger bread houses. They were all so cute! I don't even think ours was the best.

Christmas day. It was so fun watching all the kids open their presents.

Sheila got all the girls a necklace from Lia Sophia :)

Rachel got such a cute dress from her hubby.

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Adam got this puzzle thingy that we all struggled with for a while.

SeQuoia and her NEW CAR!!! I think it is so cute.

We had so much fun in Cincinnati with all the Towner family. It was so nice to be all together for the holidays. We went sight seeing, ate really good food, played lots of wii, rock band, and all sorts of games. Relaxed. Laughed and bonded. Watched some good movies. Went to a huge air force museum (We were there several hours and only were able to see one section of it). We had a great time celebrating christmas. We made gingerbread houses and gave them away to different families as we went  caroling. We looked at some christmas lights and much more.

Can't believe its already 2010! Time flies. Next month Adam and I will have been married a year and a half.