Happy New Year!

Happy New Years Eve from Puerto Rico! We wish you were here with us to celebrate!

P.S I'm not just getting fat I'm 25 weeks pregnant!

Clark Family Christmas Party!

Because we are moving to Denver we changed our flights and flew to Denver so we could find a place to live and Ryan could work for a few days. We did find a place to live and we are excited about the move! I flew to Utah from Denver and was able to go to the annual Clark Family Christmas Festivus! Before we went to the party Cam, B and Kendyl got their present from Ryan and I, a recorded book. Ryan does an excellent Santa.
Steff's family was very generous again this year and let us do it at their house in Pineview. We had delicious food, a pinata, and a wild game of White elephant.
Kendyl had too much eggnog!

Nic explaining the tactics of white elephant. I'm sure he was really trying to get her to steal someones gift that he wanted!
Cute ladies
Pinata hysteria!
This is what I ended up with after the white elephant was over. Many of you know I have a mild obsession with See's Candies. Since living in Rochester I have craved See's Candies. I could not have been more excited when I unwrapped my gift and found a box of my favorite delicious confections. Upon closer inspection I quickly realized each and every one had a bite taken out of it! Sue, I hope you enjoyed yourself! I could not have been more disapointed! And then I laughed..........and then I cried.

Gingerbread Houses

The other night I made gingerbread houses with my Great nephews, that's right Great nephews! It's always a struggle for me to have any candy left over to actually decorate with.

The Bedford Falls and a Sad Farewell!

Seneca Falls is about 45 minutes from where we live and it is also the town that Bedford Falls, from " It's a Wonderful life!" was based. This weekend they had a big Christmas festival, Ryan LOVES that movie so we decided to go. They had a look-a like-contest, Santa was there, an actress from the movie was there signing autographs , a parade and lots of other Christmas/It's a wonder life themed events! In one little shop they served Hot Chocolate Floats! Why didn't I think of that before?



After the weather we've had here lately, Colorado will be a welcome change. We are so excited, but one thing we will surely is Dibella's! I believe I mentioned it in previous posts but Dibella's is a sandwich shop that is to die for. Ryan loves the meatball sandwich, I think he eats there 3 times a week!

Cool Gift!

My sister-in-law, Kate, made me this dish with our name etched in the back! I thought it was so cool and clever....that's all! Happy weekend!

And We Are Moving Again!

We are moving to Lafayette, Colorado! Well at least that's where Ryan will be working we're going out in December to find a place to live. He got a job for an outdoor sports training company (running, biking, etc) and they make software for the gps watches. He's really excited about the job and we're both excited about the change. We will be moving a few days after we get back from Puerto Rico so things could get a little crazy, but that's how I like it!

Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we went to the land of the buckeye! And Thanksgiving really felt more like Christmas. It didn't help that my mom had decorated her house like Oprah was filming a christmas special in her family room. It's nothing new, she always decorates that much, and it's so fun especially this year because we have zero decorations. They had a huge group of people come over and everything was delicious! I thrive off of lots of people being around and being able to cook all day so I was in heaven! When things settled down a bit Matt, Kate and Averi came over and we played and played! I also got a new camera, a beautiful new Canon Rebel T1i.
Testing out our new camera. I know, a true beauty!
Me and little Averi, she's growing up so fast and it has been so fun to be able to see her more. I just love hanging out with family.

A few of my favorite(and Least) things!

Living in Rochester has had its good things and bad things. I like to be positive so we'll start with the good things first.
1. Moose's new puffy vest. I take him on walks everyday on the Erie Canal trail (which is #2) and since it has gotten cold I've worried about him being too cold. So I remedied the situation. Side note: he hates it and Ryan is too embarrassed to be seen with him with it on.
2. The Erie Canal Trail. It's beautiful and a fun walk next to the canal with pretty views.
3. Our ward. Our ward is a spanish speaking and ASL(american sign language) ward. So there is always someone signing everything in front, and a missionary translating spanish in the back. The spanish speakers wear headsets. But when they give a talk or pray or bare a testimony it is translated over the pulpit, which I love. There is always something exciting going on!
4. Being closer to my family and some of Ryan's family!
5. This hot chocolate is simply magical. I've been in a big hot chocolate phase lately and the trips to starbucks were getting a little ridiculous and mcdonald's has been nothing but disappointing since they changed their Mc cafe. So when I came across this little gem the other week I was hooked. It's incredible.
6. I'm the only blonde every where I go. And after living in Utah with a sea of golden it has been fun.
7. Wegman's! This is a grocery store here which is heaven! I can't explain why in such few words you would just have to go to experience it yourself.
8. Strangers are quite friendly, when I'm at Wegman's people strike up conversations with me all the time. The other day a lady and I chatted for 20 minutes about which dinner rolls she buy and how concerned she was that I was not buying the Kosher bagels instead of the regular ones.
9. All the fun traveling we get to do!
10. Our apartment. It is tiny and so easy to clean.

And now the not so favorites....
1. Our apartment. Did I mention it was tiny? And there is always a new mystery smell in the hallway.
2. The accent! It drives me bonkers, I want to tell people how much more intelligent they would sound and attractive they would look sans the accent. I realize how bratty this sounds but you would too if you heard it everyday.
3. No one uses their blinkers.
4. There is no good Mexican food.
5. I'm so far away from my hair stylist, Oh Roni how I miss you and for more reasons then just my hair.
6. I have no friends besides Ryan and Moose.
7. I miss my little nieces in Utah, oh and their parents too. I feel like they will forget all about me.

Bills

This week we went to the Buffalo Bills vs Detroit Lions game! It was a lot of fun and we went early enough to participate in some tail gating. Unfortunately for me, unless you like hot dogs, sausage links, philly cheese steaks, or other italian meats there isn't a lot to eat. We witnessed the Bills first win of the season, although from what I've heard the Lions aren't too much competition. It was still exciting and we had awesome seats! I decided the next place we live needs to have an NFL team cause I could get super into the whole tailgating thing and make myself some good season ticket holder friends!


By this time in the game all my treats were gone, it was raining and my attention span was gone. Apparently, the girl behind me had eaten all her treats too.

P.s the other day my husband made fun of me for referring to them as "treats" although I can't remember a time when I did not refer to them as such.

A Catch Up, A Sneak Peak, and an Awesome Recipe

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would share a few tidbits about what's been going on. Ryan's work sent him to Los Angeles to work as a sponsor for a huge Adobe convention. He had a lot of fun, learned a ton, met some cool famous people, and most importantly won us some awesome swag! He won a new droid, which means I am the proud new owner of his old droid, and a google tv! I have not a clue what a google tv is capable of but Ryan assures me it will be cool. He got to meet Martha Stewart, and William Shatner,from star trek! I'm sure the computer nerds went nuts, they could have paraded in the Victorias Secret Angels and nobody would have even noticed in a giant conference full of computer nerds. While he was in CA, Moose and I made our way down to Ohio. I morph into a little kid when I walk in those doors, let my mom make me hot chocolate and do all the things for me that I am more than capable of doing myself, but she just does everything better! I was able to go to Sean's last soccer game, which was sad but so fun to watch him play. My dad and I also convinced my mom to let us take Sean's senior pictures. We had so much fun doing it, much to Sean's dismay I'm sure. He was a good sport and after some editing I think they turned out quite good.








Next, I have been on a quest for quite some time to find a copy cat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory's chicken madeira recipe. It's Ryan's favorite! And I was sure I could make it and probably with 1/6 of the calories. I think I have succeeded!

Ashley's Chicken Madeira

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless chicken breast
8 asparagus spears
4 slices mozzarella cheese

Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
3 cups Madeira wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cover chicken breast with plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thick.
2. Sprinkle each filet with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.
4. Saute fillets 4-6 minutes per side until done and browned just a bit.
5. Remove from pan and wrap in foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.
6. In chicken pan add olive oil and sliced mushrooms; saute for about 2 minutes.
7. Add Madeira wine, beef stock, butter, and pepper.
8. Bring to boil then reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes until reduced to about 1/2 original volume. When sauce is done it will be thick, and brown.
9. While sauce is reducing, bring a pan of water to boil.
10. Add salt to water at boil; blanch asparagus (3-5 minutes). Drop asparagus in ice water to halt cooking.
11. Set oven to broil.
12. In baking dish arrange chicken, cross 2 asparagus stems over each piece of chicken and top with a slice of cheese.
13. Broil until cheese melts.
14. Put chicken on plate.
15. To serve, top with 3-4 tablespoons sauce on each piece.

***As much as I searched I could not find madeira wine, so I did some research and it is pretty comparable to marsala wine so I just used that!

Salem and Boston

Ryan's sister, Aimee, came to Rochester to visit us and we were so excited. We went to the Joseph Smith farm and sacred grove, we had lunches and dinners with Shanon and her family, and did plenty of shopping. Then when Friday rolled around we made a trek to Salem, Mass. Saturday we spent the day fighting the crowds and seeing all the famous witch sites. In the picture above we participated in a witch trial. Ryan is posing with Goodie Bishop who he later questioned and then sentenced to death.
We also came across this interesting piece of literature that our good friend Scott clearly must have wrote. It explains a lot of things about Scott that had been unanswered for far too long.
Among all the creepiness we found a friendly face, " Samantha" from bewitched!
This lady in the back ground was one of those Live statues. She was incredible. She would hold perfectly still forever and then scare kids who were walking by.
This is Aimee and I in from of the witches dungeon. They did a live play of a witches trial then took us down stairs were they recreated what the cells the accused women would have looked like....creeepy!
Sunday we spent the day in Boston and had a wild time trying to make our way around the city. We did the Freedom Trail which starts in Boston Commons and winds around the city to all the historical sites. There was literally a red path to follow through out the city.

One stop was a cemetery where Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and all of the victims of the Boston Massacre were buried.
This building is where the Declaration of Independence was first read and where the Boston Massacre occurred.

One of the last stops was the USS Constitution. I'm not usually one for historical site seeing but this little tour was pretty awesome. There was a building where they gathered to organize the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere's house was a stop, and all kind of other things. Overall the trip was exhausting but very entertaining and we had so much fun with Aimee.

Weekend in Ohio!

This weekend we went to Ohio...for a couple of reasons.
1. It was Smelly's birthday last weekend but I missed it due to the fact that I was in Utah.
2. We ran out of clean clothes and needed to do some laundry.( just kidding, that was just an added bonus)
3. There was a Guster concert in Columbus the husband really wanted to go to! ( I know most of you haven't heard of them other than reading it off of one of Ryan's many, many Guster t shirts.)
4. We were out of food and knew Nana would feed us. (not kidding) (ok kind of kidding)
5. I needed to see this cute little bug!(not Sean, Averi....ok Sean too)


Ryan's latest Guster t shirt. After he bought it he said "School Shopping.....Done!"
6. So we could go to the zoo with Matt, Kate, and Averi on a beautiful day.
( I must also say that the Columbus zoo blows SLC's zoo out of the water. No offense Hogle but you've got nothing on Jack Hanna!)
7. We knew that papa would take us to out favorite Japanese Steak House if I asked really nicely!
8. We had to see Papa get released as bishop after 6 long years. When the stake president released him he said that he hasn't been able to sit next to my mom in sacrament meeting for 16 years because he has been in the bishopbric for that long! Let me just say he was beaming all weekend! When he bore his testimony I thought he was going to take off his suit jacket twirl it above his head and throw it into the audience he was so happy!