No School

My kids are out of school for two weeks and its been pretty busy around here. This week we visited the wax museum in Times Square and it was a lot of fun:



We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day with green pancakes, green eggs and ham and green milk as well as some fun green dress up stuff left by sneaky leprechauns:


And one day we made homemade pizza...Mine ended up being heart shaped and was super yummy!!!


Tomorrow morning I'm off on a very early train to Washington DC. My boss has a conference there this week so she took the kids down there too and I'll be watching them while she works. I'm excited because I'll get to visit the DC Temple while I'm there :) Look for a full DC report next weekend! Have a great week everyone!

XOXOX

Loving Trader Joe's

There's a grocery store out here on the east coast called Trader Joe's....sadly it isn't in Utah but is in NV, AZ and along the west coast as well.

I've been here for 4 years and I'm just now realizing the awesomeness of this store! I will totally miss it when I'm not here anymore.

Why do I love it? It has some of the most awesome food items and its all really reasonably priced :)

Some of my favs:

These white cheddar corn puffs first caught my eye in my boss's cupboard because my best friend Aubrey and I are obsessed with white cheddar popcorn. I tried them and I became hooked! There's another product at the regular grocery store called Pirates Booty which is also delicious, but the great thing about these is 1) they actually taste better in my opinion cause they're puffier and 2) the bag is twice the size and costs less! YAY!

This I just discovered today...this rice comes in little plastic bags. You take out a bag, cut a small hole in the corner and put in the microwave for 3 minutes...VOILA, perfect rice! May not seem like a big deal but after you've worked for an oriental family who has rice with every meal and you've spent almost 2 years scrubbing sticky rice out of the rice cooker every night, you will TOTALLY appreciate the genius of this item! LOL

These cookies are soooo good! Its basically a candy cane flavored Oreo and they are so yummy! And if you think THESE are good....try to super deluxe kind that are covered in dark chocolate and crushed up candy canes...to die for!

This is another one I just found today...dark chocolate covered Edamame! Edamame is one of my favs ever since my oriental family introduced it to me. Its so good and so healthy! This is of course the UNhealthy version LOL Trust me, these are yummy and addictive to snack on! Trader Joe's has a bunch of chocolate covered things like this....choc grahams, choc caramels, choc pistachios, choc espresso beans...I sat there starring at all of them today in aww of how good it all looked! I'll probably try them all before I leave! hahaha (well except the espresso beans but whatever!)

Anyway......this is my Trader Joe's plug....that place is just awesome!

Time & Movies

So is anyone else completely annoyed by day light savings time? Yes I know, we get that extra sunshine at the end of the day...but seriously; losing an hour of sleep and having to once again wake up in the darkness??? UGH! I hate it, it makes me feel so much more tired (and I even went to bed early!) Not my favorite time of year. I'm feeling jealous of Arizona since they ignore daylight savings time. In fall I'll love it again when we gain our hour back but for now, its bugging me.

Moving on...lol

This weekend I got to hang out with the kids I used to nanny while their parents were out of town and it was a ton of fun. Its weird seeing them so much older now from when I was there with them 4 years ago. Rachel is now driving! That is nuts!!!

Time goes by so fast....in some ways I feel like I've been in NY/CT forever, but in other ways it seems like there's no way I've been here as long as I have. As much as I'm ready to move on to the next part of my life and very ready for that to be in a new location it still is sad to me to leave my life here. It will be strange to tell it goodbye.

On a totally different note, I finally saw Batman The Dark Knight this weekend. I've had people telling me for months how I need to see that movie and have put it off for two reasons:

1) The Joker terrifies me! (Seriously, I had nightmares about him just from the trailer!)
2) Batman Begins bored me to tears! I don't know, I just didn't like that one...I felt lost and bored the whole time and even fell asleep in the middle of it.

But this weekend the kids found out I'd never seen and thought we should watch it. I was actually surprised I did enjoy it (though Joker STILL terrifies me! LOL)

Another movie I saw recently while in Utah that people had been telling me for ages to see was Transformers which I loved. There's lots of movies out there I haven't seen but have been meaning to see for a long time. A friend of mine and I have been talking about movies a lot the last few days and my list keeps on growing.

Anyone have movie suggestions? Things you've seen lately or movies you love that I ought to add to the list? :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Kennedy Katherine Shaner

Such a cute baby! I think she looks a lot like Seth, especially in this first picture :) Congrats again you guys!!!

A Big Blessing In A Little Package!

So this morning I woke up around 5:30 am (thanks to the snow plows outside my window!) and found on my cell phone a very special text from my best friend, Aubrey....she was on her way to the hospital to have her very first baby!!!

I'm so very excited for Aubrey and her husband Seth!

Kennedy Katherine was born at 1:27 pm! She is 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches with blue eyes and brown hair! I can't wait to see pics of the new little one and am even more excited to get back to Utah to see and hold her! I may not be a blood relative but dang it, I am one proud Aunt Pana!!!

CONGRATS YOU GUYS!!! LOVE YOU!!! XOXOXOXOX