Joys of Being an Aunt

I have said before that I have the cutest and sweetest nieces and nephews. Just hearing them say "Aunt Tracy" in their sweet little voices just makes me melt. They always get big smiles and greet me and give me a big hug when I come over. I just love it.
One of the perks of being an Aunt is that my nieces like to make things for me or color things for me or write me notes. I really love it. They probably don't realize that I actually keep most of what they give me. Some of it stays in my office at work. Sierra is so sweet. She is a lot like me in the fact that she is really into fashion. She is really sensitive to other people's feelings and is really good at giving compliments. Great thing to have learned by 5 years old. She always calls me "Pretty Tracy"... she notices everything I wear and always compliments something, sometimes it is my shoes or my necklace or my hair or my clothes... or my whole outfit and she just tells me I look really pretty. She may only be 5, but it always makes me feel really good.
Last week I was not in the best mood, just starting to feel sick and not feeling the best. As I was leaving to go home I had said bye to everyone and I got in my car and all the sudden I see little Sierra run out to my car and handed me this paper (picture below) and hugged me goodbye. Its a picture of me and her. It actually changed my mood. I thought it was the sweetest thing. Such a little thing that she probably doesn't think is a big deal. She draws pictures for everyone. I always tell her thank you and that I love her (I try to tell all of my nieces and nephews that a lot... well... because I do) but I will have to come back to this post and show it to her when she is a little older so she can really understand how much I appreciate her. I really love having nieces and nephews. I always knew it would be fun to have them.... but I didn't realize how much I would absolutely LOVE them.  I love all of them a whole lot.

Its getting closer....

I can always tell that Spring is getting just a little bit closer because all of these cute little birds start hanging out in the bushes right outside the front of my house. When the sun is out... I can hear them all chirping outside. Its a beautiful sound. The sound of Winter getting closer and closer to ending.  :o)

Breakfast Casserole

My roommate Tina and I sometimes like to have Saturday breakfast together since we have been living together for the past 2 1/2 years. We are very similar in the fact that we love to sleep in on Saturday mornings. We have this pact that we can't get up until 11am unless we have something going on where we have to get up. If we don't... we stay in our sweats all day long together. Its nice and its our bonding time because we don't get to see a lot of each other during the week. Because of this, breakfast is really more like brunch or lunch sometimes.... but we still eat breakfast food.

Last week Tina did most of breakfast so this week I thought I would make it. I had been wanting to try this breakfast casserole from the Pioneer Woman. I am telling you this woman can not go wrong. Everything I have tried of hers so far is amazing. Its nice because you make it the night before... so really, I can sleep in. I woke up this morning, put it in the oven and went back into bed until it was done. It rocked.

I think this is the same casserole as one of the ones I tried at the amazing Winter Bridal shower that I went to last month. My friend that made it also added sausage and I loved it... so I also added sausage. It was amazing. Tina and I both loved it and I get to continue eating it for breakfast because I have tons of left overs.  I guess I could share too if you want to come over and try some. :o)

Here is the recipe for "Sleepin In Omelette":

Ingredients

• 6 whole Onion Rolls
• 1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese
• 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
• 1-½ stick Butter
• 10 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Milk
• 1 teaspoon Chopped Chives
• ½ teaspoons Dry Mustard
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 dash Cayenne Pepper

Preparation Instructions

Generously butter an 9×13 baking dish.

Tear onion rolls into chunks and place them in the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese, then tear cream cheese into small pieces and place over the top. Cut 1 ½ sticks butter into pats and place over the top.

Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the top of the dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, bake at 325 degrees, covered, for 45 minutes. The remove foil and continue baking at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Flashback Friday 1

Welcome to my first Flashback Friday. Every Friday I will be blogging about anything that happened in my life before I started blogging, which was March 2008. These posts will be anything from trips to something really funny that happened once. I don't know... we will just have to see how I am inspired over the weeks. :o)

Here we go. My first flashback takes us back to January 2006 in Malibu California. One of my best guy friends, Steve and I are both from California... so for Christmas break, there were a couple of times that we got together and hung out while we were home and would drive back to Utah together. Heaven forbid me and those boys went without seeing each other or talking on the phone over the two week Christmas vacation. ha ha. Seriously... we were that tight.

This particular time we decided to meet in Malibu and do a little rock climbing and repelling at Point Dume. This cliff that people rock climb on is a 100 ft cliff right next to the ocean... which in my opinion makes it seem even higher. I was sick at the time (funny... I'm sick right now) and so I was sneezing constantly. Because of this I didn't want to rock climb. A couple other friends from our ward at the time met up with us there... so after they all rock climbed, Steve told me I should at least repel down the cliff. So I agreed. I had repelled before and didn't remember it being too scary. The cliff didn't look that high... so I agreed and Steve and I walked to the top of the cliff. It was an amazing view on a beautiful California Winter day. When Steve and I got to the top we saw some dolphins swimming by. It was amazing. As I got my gear on to repel down this cliff... it was looking higher and higher and I was starting to talk myself out of going.

Steve was really patient with me and told me I didn't have to go down, but told me it was safe and that he would help me down the first little bit and that he would be there cheering me on. I could tell he thought I was a wimp and wanted me to just go or not go, but he was sweet and talked to me for as long as I needed. Its true... I am kind of a wimp when it comes to scary things. You should have seen me before I went parisailing. I am always glad that I do these things. I just need a little push getting me to do them. So here we are at the top of the cliff and Steve talking me through the whole thing and helping me down the first part of the cliff. He is such a good friend to me.

I was only wearing flip flops, so I went down barefoot. I just tried not to look down... but I started to do it and was doing well. When I got to the middle of the cliff there were some guys rock climbing beside me. When we were at the same level they looked at me and said, "Isn't this an amazing view?". So I looked over  and again realized how high up I was, being held by a rope with Steve at the top cheering me on and a couple of my friends cheering me on at the bottom. I was still a little scared, but I was half way there and was feeling good.

I finally made it to the bottom. You can see in the picture below how happy I was. Not only was I happy to be on the ground again, but also happy because I had fun and happy because I got out of my comfort zone and did something that scared me a little. Conquered my fears. To me... that is always a good feeling. I had the same feeling when I got done parisailing in Cabo. It was a great moment. I also recommend Point Dume for anyone who enjoys rock climbing. Its beautiful.

Here I am with Steve. He is such a good friend to me.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 54

I have been doing "Photo of the Week" and "Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet" for a year now. Crazy. I know. I guess time flies when you are taking pictures and confessing every week. I have the poll to see what weekly post I should add to my blog. The pole is not over.... but so far Friday Flashbacks is winning. So.... maybe I should just start doing that starting this week. I got the Friday Flashback's idea from my friend Desiree and I really loved it. Thought about copying her back when she first started it... but just wasn't sure if I wanted the pressure of another weekly post. I'm pretty sure I can handle it though... and lets be honest.... I love to think about great and happy times in my life. So get ready to know Tracy Pre-Blogging days.

I ALMOST got through this Winter without getting sick. Every time I would mention how lucky I was for not getting sick, I even made sure to knock on wood. Is it possible to go through Winter without getting sick when the bug goes around to pretty much everyone you know and come in contact with? I really thought I was going to make it this year. When my roommates got sick I took airborn and stayed away from them. I totally dodged the bug in my own house. Somehow Sunday morning I woke up with a soar throat. Defeated. I would say that I don't know where I got it from... but I am pretty sure I do. I would also have to say that I brought it upon myself... so I probably can't complain. In the meantime I have not gone anywhere besides work and when I am at work I keep my office shut and cough all day long. All night long too while I toss and turn. I will be pretty happy when its over, but I am also glad it is not worse. OH!!! My roommate just reminded me. I am sick because I have not been looking myself in the mirror every morning telling myself not to be sick. My bad.

Speaking of my roommate, she had never seen Alias all the way through, so I said I would watch them with her because I own them all. Because I LOVE that show and never get sick of watching it. We are on Season 2 right now. My favorite season. :o)

Remember last week when I talked about dancing a lot? Well I did some more on Saturday. This time though, it was only me and my Tutoring and Temple BFF Sara. She just got a Wii and her first game purchase was "Just Dance 2" which she invited me to come over and play with her after we went to the wedding reception. I knew that I would love it and get addicted right away. I knew this because I loved playing DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). Anyway, I was more than excited to play. We had so much fun dancing that we might have played the ENTIRE game that night. We took a couple breaks... but to dance to every single song on the game, it took us about 2 1/2 hours. It was quite the work out. We were both sweating.... also laughing and having a great time. What an awesome game. I was the first one to break 10,000 points on her game. I can't wait to play "Just Dance 1" with her when she gets it.

Also remember how I told you about Country Dancing boy last week... you know, the one I had a dance crush on and we danced like 5 songs in a row and he didn't get my number and I was all kinds of irritated? Well.... case #2 happened on Friday. I went to see "Unknown" with a couple of friends. It was opening weekend so we got there 20 minutes or so early. Seats were running out so we were in the last row of the front section of the theater. This cute guy shows up and asks us if the seats on the other side of my friend were taken. We said no. Then he sees me and asks if the seats next to me was taken. We say no so he comes and sits next to me and saves a seat for his friend. He starts talking to me and we start a conversation / flirting. After we had been talking a while I finally ask him what his name is and tell him mine. I have been wondering how to take apps off of my phone. I first asked my friends if they knew how to do it.... they didn't, I decided to ask the cute guy next to me. He says absolutely so I give him my phone and he starts to show me as we both lean in to each other. It was magical really (ok, I'm just trying to be funny... but there was flirting going on). Even throughout the movie he would look over and smile at me or say my name to get my attention to tell me something. At the end of the show he says "Well, it was nice to meet you, have a good night" and peaced out of the theater. Just like that. I didn't expect him to ask for my number as much as my dance crush... but I still don't see why not. If you are going to flirt with me the entire time we are in the theater and exchange  flirty glances all night long... might as well go out once. I just think its refreshing to meet new guys because I don't get that opportunity all the time. You usually just meet guys at work (which I really don't) or in your ward.... so why not take these rare opportunities and just roll with it? That is all I want to know. Just sayin.

Photo of the Week 52

Was looking through my Chicago pics again... probably because I am longing to go on another vacation. Found this one. I love windows like this. I mean... look at the detail!

Lions & Tigers & Bears! Oh My!

I was looking through my pictures and saw this one and it made me laugh.

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! You have a crazy daughter...

Lunch Dates, Take 3

You might be seeing a pattern of who I have regular lunch dates with. Love these girls. Nothing better than getting together with friends while you eat good food.

First, on Saturday I went up to Salt Lake with my good friend Rachel to meet up with good friend Desiree and do a little Boutique shopping. After shopping we went to this cute little tea shop and had a berry tea and I tried a Quiche.

Then today, since it was a holiday and we all didn't have to work, us girlies (Nicole, Aileen, Jayna, Michele  & I) plus squirmy.... got together for cupcakes and hot chocolate. We went to the CoCoa Bean which I feel like is one of the better cupcake places that I have been to in Provo. After seeing the guy at the register was not wearing a ring... I did a little flirting and he asked me if I wanted a stamp card... you know so you can get a free cupcake after buying so many. I said sure and then he said none of my friends got one stamped so that he would stamp my card for all of my friends too. Ha ha... so I only have to buy one more cupcake before I get a free one. I told my friends what happened and they all said he didn't even ask if they wanted a stamp card. Sometimes it pays to flirt.

Here is Michele with cute little Squirmy.

The Girlies.

Shabby Suitcase

More and more I am loving the vintage trend. Looking through some photography blogs trying to get some ideas for photo shoots, I saw a few that had vintage luggage for props in the photos. I thought that was such a great idea that I went online and bought a set. I then used it in this photo shoot with my sisters family. Then, with all of the craft blogs that I follow.... one day one of them featured another bloggers craft idea of creating a shabby suitcase. So I checked out her blog and thought the project looked pretty easy and decided I thought it was cute and I wanted to do it. It would go with the luggage I already had and it all adds to the theme of my living room in the basement, which is traveling. Not only is it cute decoration, but its also more storage.

I thought the suitcase on her blog was cute, but I thought I could come up with something better than sheet music. I wanted hand writing on mine. So I printed a bunch of hand written letters. Then I went to DI and I found a suite case that I liked for only $3. After that all you need is some Mod Podge to glue it onto the suitcase.

I finished it today and I like how it turned out. A very cheap and easy project.
Here is what the suite case looked like when I bought it from DI.

It even looks cute inside. Orange with poka dots!

Here is what it looks like now!

I liked the idea of adding some flowers like she did.

Now it has made friends and is now sitting with my other luggage.

Nicole's Wedding

Remember the cute Winter Bridal Shower that I blogged about last month? The one that was so cute that it made it to my top 10 most viewed posts on my blog?  Well, that friend (Nicole) got married today.

The reception was beautiful. I'm sorry these pictures are not great of me.... but its all about the bride anyway. I went with my tutoring and temple BFF Sara and had a good time eating yummy food and chatting with my other good friends Nicole, Aileen & Jayna.

Here is the cute couple dancing in the beautiful reception center in American Fork.  Towards the end of the reception they had dancing. I may have taken over the dance floor and dancing it up to Thriller, The Macarana and Cotten Eye Joe. We requested Single Ladies... but I don't think he had it.

This picture makes me laugh. Aileen and Jayna are holding up Nicole's arms in victory for getting married. To us older singles... we really do consider it a HUGE victory because we have all been single for so long.

Here I am with the Beautiful Bride Nicole.

And with the rest of my friends at the reception. It was beautiful. It was great to see friends. Most of all I am very Happy for Nicole and Darren and wish them the best. Congrats Nicole!

Sushi

I mentioned that at my Valentines Party that we made and ate sushi.... which this past year I discovered that I really love. I had never made it before though. It always seemed like it was too complicated, but its really not. So... I thought I would show you the process in case you ever wanted to make it yourself.

There are so many different types of Sushi that you can make. Some people get grossed out by the raw fish, but you don't have to make it with raw fish, you can use no meat at all OR what we used is cooked Teriyaki chicken. You can also use mayo in your sushi, but we chose to go the healthier route.

What we used:

Sliced Teriyaki Chicken
Sliced Avocado
Shredded Carrots
Sliced Cucumber
Cooked Rice
Seaweed Paper
Any sauces that you like to dip your Sushi in.
Bamboo Matt for rolling

Step #1- Put Seaweed paper on Bamboo Matt and Spread the rice on the Seaweed paper in a thin layer leaving an inch of space on the top.

Step #2- Lay out (in the middle) what you want in your sushi.

Step #3- Put a little bit of water on the inch space left on the Seaweed paper so you can roll it up and have it stick together.

Step #4- Roll it up with your hands and then roll it with the Bamboo Matt to make sure the roll is nice and tight.

Step #5- Cut up the roll into the thickness you like your sushi.

Step #6- You are now ready to eat your sushi. Dip in your favorite sauces and I suggest eating them with chopsticks. :o) Enjoy.

Wish I had some right now.....

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 53

This month, I have been dancing. I forgot how much I love it. I had not gone out dancing in over a year maybe two years, probably because my previous experiences of going out dancing have not been the best. Well, except for my tap class. Its not the I have not liked dancing before... it was just that I would go out dancing and there were too many girls and not enough guys and I would just stand on the side waiting to be asked. I hated it. When I had a boyfriend for over a year we went dancing a couple times and I thought it would be great because I had a permanent partner, but it still wasn't a great experience. He only knew so many different moves so he would get frustrated that he couldn't do more (even though I didn't care) and then it wasn't fun anymore. Another time I danced with another guy because I was asked when he was gone and well.... he wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the weekend. Needless to say these bad experiences have not made me want to go back anytime soon. After  two years... it was time to give it another try. First Saturday of this month I went to Salt Lake City with my friend Stacie to go clubbing. I know clubbing sounds bad, but we just go to dance to hip hop music. Nothing bad, don't worry. We had a blast. Dancing in heels for 3 hours is a great work out. Getting picked up on by guys is a great self esteem booster. Lets be honest, I feel good when I get picked up on by random guys. Guys in Provo don't do that as much. Last Thursday I went Salsa dancing with my good friend and old roommate Allyson. Also a blast. Salsa dancing doesn't come naturally to me by any means, but I still had so much fun. We went early to learn how. We went with a couple of guys so we had partners. I had so much fun. One of the guys that we went with had gone many times before and was really good. He was a lot of fun to dance with. Last night, I went country dancing! I wanted to meet more guys and my neighbor Stan suggested I go with him and a few others next time they went Country dancing and I committed right then and there that even if I didn't want to... I would go. If I commit, I don't mess around. You better believe I wore plaid and jeans and wore cowboy boots. People. I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't love country music. However... if there is dancing involved, I get into it hard core. So we got there for the last part of the instruction, we had 3 girls and 2 guys... sadly. At first we took turns dancing with the two guys which had you waiting on the sides for every 3rd song. I thought..... this is fine, this will give me the chance for new guys to ask me to dance. In the beginning no new guys were asking me to dance and I was getting frustrated thinking that it was going to be like every other time I have gone. I guess this was good at first because the two guys I came with were teaching me steps because they have gone many times. Then as the night went on and more people came I started getting asked almost every dance... by like 5 different guys in between dancing with the guys that I came with. I had SOOOO much fun!!!!

Most of the guys were weird that asked me to dance but they could dance... so I didn't care.... I just love dancing. One of the guys that asked me to dance told me his job was to create facebook games. He was telling about one he created that has to do with dancing zombies or something like that? However, there was this one guy that was pretty cute AND the best dancer out of all the guys that I danced with that night (including the guys I came with) and maybe that made him more attractive. I danced with him once and had SO much fun. He ended with a big dip that lifted me up and put me in the air. I'm telling you... this guys was good. At the end of our dance I told him thank you for asking me and that I had so much fun and then I left to the other side of the room to get a drink of water with my friend. He came and found me and asked me if he could steel me and be his partner while he tried to teach his friend. That had us dancing together for another two dances. Then a slow song came and he asked me to dance again and so we got to talking and kept dancing into the next slow song. So... that was 5 dances and maybe I started to develop a dance crush on him. We were both flirting hard core and at the end of the slow dance...... HE DIDN'T ASK FOR MY NUMBER!!! There was lingering from both of us... and so I just said thanks again and he went on dancing with other girls. Why would you dance with me 5 songs in a row and come find me in the crowd and NOT get my number. Please tell me? I was kind of irritated. I could have danced with that guy all night. You think I need to go back and try and find him next week? ha ha. I am pretty sure he goes regularly. My friends even noticed how long we were dancing together and they figured he got my number. He was also nice enough to tell me (after I told him I had not been in almost 2 years) that I was a total natural and seemed like I had been dancing for years. In fact all of the guys I danced with thought I was a great dancer and did a lot better than most of the girls that they had been dancing with. This also made me feel good and want to go back for more.

Regardless, I still had a lot of fun. So much fun with all of the dancing I have been doing that I think I need to put 20 bucks aside every month just to go dancing. Its about 5 bucks to get into each place to go dancing. Dancing is SO much fun. It makes me happy, I love music, its great exercise AND gives me a chance to meet more people while doing something that I love. I don't know why it took me so long to go back! If anyone wants to go dancing.... let me know. :o) Next I need to go Ballroom dancing, which is awesome because they just opened up a place in Provo that does Ballroom so we don't have to drive to Murray to do it anymore.

I have been in such a great mood this month. I think I am finally starting to get out of my Winter Depression. I have started eating healthier and exercising more and being more social. All of this = Happy Tracy. Just Sayin.

This is a great time to get away from the blues since it is the month of love. Nobody wants to be down in the month of love. I just like to be happy and having fun. The End. Speaking of Love.... since the first part of my post was dedicated to confessing my love of dancing, I think I will dedicate the rest of this post to things that I love... in honor of Valentines Day.

I Love....

Dancing
My Family (this includes extended family and in-laws and nieces & nephews to make my list a little shorter)
The Church (everything about it... to make my list a little shorter)
Nutella
Traveling
Music
Singing
Crafting
Decorating
My Job
Shopping
My Phone
Movies
My eyelashes
Being Happy
My friends
Photography
The beautiful world we live in
Hot Bubble baths
Blogging
Sweets
Avocado
Folding cranes
Throwing parties
Cooking
Pedicures
Make up
Getting my hair done
Massages
Sleeping In
Pay Day
Accomplishing something I didn't think I could
Laughing
Being around people that think I am cool
The Beach
Cruises
Rock Band
Pretending to be a Model
Sunshine
Having and being a pen pal (or email pal)
Blasting music in my car and singing at the top of my lungs
Getting to play for work
Accomplishing my goals
Feeling confident
Being a girly girl
Being spontaneous
Having a great relationship with my sisters
Rock N Rose
Boutiques
Being clean organized
Being a Social Butterfly


Okay.... I could go on and on. I love so many things. But I will stop there. I love all of you too.... thanks for reading my blog. :o)

Photo of the Week 51

My Fortune Cookies from the Chinese New Year Party.

Valentines Party

    *The sign was my contribution to the decorations*

There were only 4 of us..... but it was the most amazing Valentines Party that I have ever participated in. It was just what I was in the mood for. Rachel being an interior designer already had her place decked out for Valentines.... so we lit some candles, got in festive PJ pants and made and ate Sushi. YUM! After Sushi we had some divine desserts and Strawberry Daiquiris while watching a chick flick. I ate too much.... but all in all had a great time.

Here are some pictures I took from the party...

Here are the girls (minus Rachel) enjoying our Valentines Party.

Valentines Day

Usually Valentines Day is not a day I really look forward to. For a long time I thought it was only a fun Holiday if you had a man to share it with. This year I actually had a great Valentines day. I mean... in the beginning it wasn't great for any special reason... just another day at work.... but for some reason I was happy about today.
Many singles call today "Singles Awareness Day"... but I really don't think that is what Valentines Day is about. I don't care if you are dating someone or married or single.... its a day that you should tell people that you care about, that you love and care about them.
I really wasn't even thinking about Valentines day for the first half of my day. Just working. The night before my niece Sierra had given us all little Valentine and chocolate covered pretzels to say Happy Valentines Day a day early. It was cute and it was great. So I was not expecting anything else. A little after my lunch I get a call on my office phone from the lady at the front desk telling me that I have a delivery! That is not something that happens very often, so I already felt special. I came down to the lobby and found my oldest sister Kristy and two of her kids waiting for me at the front desk with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a card. It was SOOOOO sweet. It really made my day. My nephew gave me the card and my niece just hugged me and let me hold her. I have to say that my nieces and nephews are the sweetest. They all made me feel really loved. It was super thoughtful and a very nice surprise.

After bringing the flowers to my office... I got to work the rest of the day looking at and smelling beautiful flowers. I also enjoyed hearing each one of my co-workers talk about what they were going to be doing for their wives and children. The ones that didn't have anything planned yet were trying to get the others ideas. It was fun to hear. A couple of the guys were in my office and one said to the other that he recites poetry to his wife and she loves it.... then turned to us and said "would you like to hear some?" so he recited some great poetry to us. I was loving it. I work with a bunch of really sweet and thoughtful older guys.
After work I delivered my gift that I had for my sister and her kids (I guess mostly for the kids) which was not as great as what she did for me.... but the kids seemed to love it. They were heart cookies that you could color with food coloring markers. The kids thought that was pretty great and had fun coloring the cookies. I also dropped off something for my mom after that.

I then went to a girls night Valentines party. There were just a few of us, but I had a BLAST!!! There will be TWO blog posts coming from that party. All I have to say is my friend Rachel is amazing. The End.

When I got home it was late, but I had more things dropped off for me, which I was not expecting. My new visiting teacher gave me a Valentine and a couple of roses, my old roommate Ashlee dropped off a Valentine and some treats, another girl in the ward dropped off a Valentine. Oh and I can't forget about the Valentine I got from Lolly in the mail and an email from two of my best guy friends Nate & Steve and some texts from some other guys saying Happy Valentines Day. Thank you to everyone that made me feel loved and special today.

Honestly.... I wasn't expecting anything. I ended today very happy and feeling very loved. I am so thankful for friends and family in my life that truly love and care about me. It means so much to me. I grow to love this Holiday more and more. I hope that you all had a great day today and felt loved... because that is what it's all about.  Happy Valentines Day!

Chinese New Year Party

I am very aware that Chinese New Year was on February 3rd. However.... since Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days.... we figured we could pick one of the 15 days that was most convenient for us... and celebrate it then.

It all started back after Christmas break. My friend Jeanna had gone to China Town when visiting California and saw a crane and thought of me (since I am obsessed with folding paper cranes) and bought me one. When she came over to give it to me.... somehow we got on the discussion of Chinese New year and how it would be fun to celebrate it this year. Turns out there were a couple other people in the ward that wanted to celebrate as well because they served their missions over there and what not. So the party planning began!

I was in charge of decorating. Jeanna bought the awesome Chinese lanterns (which I wanted to have a lighting ceremony and float them in the pond at the park.... but I just didn't think it would work). I also made the sign, which if you look closely each of the letters has a rabbit in the background design because it is the year of the Rabbit.  After decorating, first thing on the agenda for the party was dinner. Stan and Erin made the food... which was awesome. Stan made the fried rice with veggies and chicken and shrimp in it. There was also cut pineapple AND Erin made stuffed dumplings... which I guess are a must for Chinese New Year. They were awesome.  We of course ate with chopsticks and of course had fortune cookies after dinner.

After we were done eating, we brushed our teeth with this bamboo toothpaste that Jeanna bought at the Asian market. She is a Dental Hygienist so..... she didn't want us neglecting our oral hygiene.

Then it was time to celebrate with fireworks. Okay... I have no idea where you can buy fireworks this time of year... but it so happened that when I was cleaning out all the stuff in my living room preparing for it to become a real living room.... going through my stuff I discovered sparklers and a few other fireworks. So we did that. Everyone had fun. Even people that were not at the party joined us. Fireworks just draw people in. One of those people was my good friend Rob. I know its weird.... but we give each other bird hugs..... so that is what that picture is about in case you are wondering. Anywho... even though sparklers are not that big of a deal, we still had a lot of fun with them.

After fireworks Erin wrote our names in Chinese. This is my name. Then she gave it to me and I was supposed to try and copy it. Mine is on the bottom..... not that great.... I know.

After that we watched a Chinese movie called "Secret". I was actually surprised how much I liked it and if you are in the mood for reading subtitles... I would recommend this movie. Kind of a love story like "Somewhere in Time" except Chinese and awesome piano music. I actually really want the soundtrack to this movie.

At this point its almost midnight and the party ended. I had a lot of fun celebrating Chinese New Year. Not sure why I have not done it before.