Washington D.C.

The Cherry Blossoms!

Lincoln Memorial

We also saw: The White House, WWII Memorial, The Constitution/Declaration of Independence, Washington Monument, and Arlington. *no time for any Smithsonian museums!

Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C.

The Cherry Blossom Festival started in DC on Saturday and the cherry blossoms came just in time! They are in full bloom, though for now they are mostly white blossoms and I think they are supposed to turn a pinkish/red color. The festival lasts two weeks, so there should be plenty of time for the blossoms to do their thing. If any of you consider a trip to Washington, D.C. in the future, I would highly recommend that it be around this time of year!

Tarragon Chicken Recipe

I have made this 3 or 4 times now and I really love it so I thought I'd pass it along. I had never used tarragon before, but was pleasantly surprised how wonderful and unique it tastes, yet it's so easy to use! This was the closest picture I could find! I'll take one next time I make it. (Eventually I'll get a recipe blog going with all sorts of good recipes I've tried and other people can put theirs up too!)

Time: About 30 mins.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 chicken breast halves (and I usually cut them in half one more time-too cook faster)
3 T butter
Salt Pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1 T tarragon (it's with all the spices at the store)
1/3 lb. mushrooms
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups water
4 carrots (cut lengthwise)
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 3 T of butter in a skillet, cooking chicken on all sides. *Make sure the chicken is still white, not browned-it doesn't need to be cooked all the way here. Add onion, garlic, tarragon, mushroom and sprinkle with the 1/4 cup flour and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups water and the carrots. Cover and cook (simmer-low) for 15-20 minutes. Remove carrots & chicken. Add the cream and stir for about 5 min. * You can add more salt, pepper or tarragon at this point also.
Now you can serve this a couple different ways. You can put the chicken and carrots on the plate and then let each person add their own sauce on top. I usually just put the chicken and carrots back in the pan. But you can also serve this with rice which I usually do.

Enjoy! And let me know if you try it and like it!

NEW YORK! NEW YORK!

So for Lane's birthday I surprised him and took him to a New York Knicks' game(NBA basketball for those of you who don't know) and to check out the city for the weekend. I had been once before but it was Lane's first time. I had been wanting to go really bad ever since we moved here becuase it only takes a little over 3 hours to get to the city from where we live!!! Of course- I forgot to put the memory card in our camera, so we had to buy a disposable one which explains why the picture quality isn't all that great. Here's a run down of the pictures (and what we saw) from our weekend trip: Madison Square Garden (Knicks game), Time Square (like being in Vegas), Chinatown, Little Italy- (awesome Canoli desserts), Brooklyn Bridge, NY Stock Exchange, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Central Park, The Late Show with David Letterman, Empire State Building, SoHo (I only managed to get Lane into a Pottery Barn store but that was it for shopping :( , and so much more. Basicly we saw all of Manhattan! There is so much to see and do, so luckily my family is coming out over Easter- in 4 weeks so we'll get to see more then!

Happy Birthday Lane!

For Lane's birthday (on Saturday), we had gone to New York City for the weekend, so we had his birthday cake and dinner when we returned home with some friends. I have never seen so much chocolate in one piece of cake in my entire life!! I got the recipe out of a book called "Death by Chocolate Cake" - go figure. Luckily Lane brought the leftover cake to work to share.

Handy-man Lane

Since I showed my painting project, I felt it was only fair to show off Lane's skills too. He put chair rail in our guest bathroom, and I did the paint job. It's almost done, it just needs to be painted over in the same white to match the trim. I have to say Lane's getting pretty good at this whole molding thing. He's also working on crown molding too!

Welcome to Pennsylvania!

If you’ve ever wondered what it would take to get church cancelled in Pennsylvania, this is what it would look like (looking out our front door). Right after the bishopric called Lane I just had to take a photo. This is all it takes! And I just realized this is the first time in my life I’ve ever had church cancelled. Lane’s happy though- he just got chocolate chip waffles for breakfast. *you have to look very closely to see the snowflakes.

One more from Ice Fest!

Winter Recreation

We have had some werid snow storms out here. We got a couple inches of snow, but that night it all froze over, so it's just one solid sheet of ice. Cole has not been too happy about it, he just slides right on top of the snow/ice.
I’ve been trying to catch up on some inside house projects. Here are some photo's of my latest project of painting our bedroom. The color is called Tawny Green but the color itself varies a lot depending on the lighting. Lane’s projects are crown molding in the rooms and bookshelves, but at the rate they keep canceling school due to weather, I may have a lot more projects finished than he does!

Happy Valentine's Day- Martha Stewart would be proud!!

Happy Valentine's Day! It was a wonderful day here! We had a huge snow storm, by huge I mean a couple inches, and therefore we had no school today. So I enjoyed a nice day at home working on this really awesome dessert for Lane. I saw it on Martha Stewart and I must say it was amazing! It took several hours to make, so not an everyday dessert but perfect for special occasions like Valentine's day. Lane did a good job of getting me flowers and taking me out for a candle-lit dinner, so no complaints here! Now if I can only decide which lucky friends should get the extra Triple-Chocolate Mousse Desserts... (click on the Martha Stewart link above for the awesome recipe).

Oh and I promised Jensa that I would show her a picture of the art work that Lane put in our kitchen. It is very unique.

Not a "2 Thumbs Up"

This week I got together with some of the other "girls" in the ward here in PA and we went and saw Becuase I Said So and let me just say I don't really recommend it. We really just wanted some sort of chick flick since most of these girls never get out with thier kids and all, but it was a little creepy watching Diane Keaton "fooling around" if you ask me. If you've seen any good movies lately let me know though becuase Lane and I are always looking for something good to see!

Ice Fest + 5K Run=1 Cold Weekend!!

This weekend Lane and I did all we could to enjoy the 19 degree weather we've been having. Friday night, with about 4 other couples, we went into Chambersburg where downtown they had thier annual Ice Fest. They have ice sculptures linning the streets and people are out carving blocks of ice, and selling food and hot chocolate. (Sorry the only picture I have for now is one of me with my eyes closed!)

Then the next morning in the same cold weather Lane and I got up and ran a 5K. Now granted it's not a very long run, but it was my very first run ever, and Lane had not trained for it one bit. My friend that was going to run with me backed out at the last minute, so Lane was so kind to volunteer to run with me! What a sweetheart, he even gave me a little nudge at the finnish line (as if I needed it) to finnish before him!

Our East Coast Sightseeing!

Checking out the Christmas lights at the D.C temple

Liberty bell in Philladelphia

Washington Monument in D.C.

Merry Christmas 2006!

I was so happy to go home for Christmas! We had a great time and of course it went way to fast! It’s been awhile since everyone has been together and things were busy- but not too busy to enjoy each others company! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Opening one of my gifts from Lane back at our house in PA!

Lane opening one of his presents before we left for California.

Lane and I (and little Ava) at the visitor center- LA Temple

Out to dinner with the family! Lane really doesn't like taking pictures

Lane and I Christmas morning

Visit to Jamie in Virginia

Jamie and I met up for lunch and I got to see her brand new baby girl- Liberty!