And we're off to T-Ride!

We are so excited that our vacation is finally here!! Promise to post pictures when we get back!!
Also please keep Tara and Jamie in your prayers as she'll be delivering "team 2" this weekend or Monday!! Love you TD!
And a Happy Birthday Mom!!

Wordless Wednesday: Kyle's MBA is official!

(3 things that I have to say: 1)The day he 'graduated' it was our 3 year anniversary... very cool! 2) I DID take our last name out JUST to be safe, I promise there isn't that big hole in it normally. 3) We will be framing this soon and putting it in his office!)

It's the little things

Last weekend when Kyle was away for Cory's bachelor party I found this on my pillow when I headed up to go to sleep.
And then this one was on Kyle's pillow (where Tyson sleeps when Kyle's out of town):
So sweet, and helped put a smile on my face for sure. Love you sweetie!

Our Valentines Day

Since Valentines landed on a Sunday this year we spent the entire day together, it was perfect. We went to the early service in church then headed over to the theaters to watch the new movie Valentines Day. We really enjoyed the movie as it had so many famous people in it. We then headed to the grocery store to pick up all of the ingredients for our dinner that night!
It has become a tradition that for Valentines Day we always make a delicious home made meal as our gift to each other! (Here were our meals from 2009 and 2008/2007) I love that we don't bother dealing with crowds and reservations by going out to dinner, but instead have lots of quality time spent at home.

Whenever we go out to nice dinners, usually stuffed mushrooms is our appetizer of choice. This was our first time making them ourselves, and it was SO EASY and delicious. Without a doubt we are making these again in the near future! Here is the recipe!

Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 1 pound medium fresh mushrooms
- 4 Bacon slices diced
- 1/2 cup minced onion, or use part green onion
- 2 tablespoons Minced fresh green pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Pepper
- 3 ounces Cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs, plain
- 1/4 cup Hot water

Preparation:
1) Clean mushrooms, remove and chop stems; set aside.
2) Fry bacon in a heavy skillet. Remove with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain. In bacon drippings, saute onion, green pepper, and chopped mushroom stems until tender; drain. Add salt and pepper.
3) Soften cream cheese; blend in cooked bacon and vegetables. Press mixture firmly into mushroom caps, mounding a bit. Place bread crumbs in a small bowl. Turn filled mushroom caps upside down and press gently in the bread crumbs to coat tops. Place in a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish. Add hot water to pan and bake, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes at 325 degrees.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen stuffed mushrooms. ** Now we only got a pack of 6 large stuffing mushrooms and it fit inside those. SO the 2 1/2 dozen that the recipe calls for must be SMALL**

Next was making the garlic mashed potatoes! Again Kyle and I had NEVER made home made mashed potatoes in our house-- sadly, we always do instant! They were very very good! Here is the recipe:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes Ingredients:
- 3 medium baking potatoes peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon (or more) whole milk, at room temperature or warmed
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1) In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan.
2) Add the butter, sour cream and garlic. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or the back of a fork until the ingredients are blended. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the potatoes are the desired consistency. Taste and add salt and pepper, if needed.

Lastly were the filets! Kyle cooked them perfectly! Here is the recipe that we used:

Filet Oscar Ingredients:
- Filet Mignon
- 8 Asparagus spears
- Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 lb lump Crab meat (fresh if possible)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Bearnaise Sauce (we decided to just pick this up in a jar... not make it ourselves!)

Directions
1) Season the Filets with pepper. You should not salt a filet before cooking as salt draws the juice out of meat.
2) You can grill the Filets over Med-High heat or saute them. 4 min. per side for Med-Rare.
3) While the Filets are cooking: roll asparagus in Parmesan cheese, then bake asparagus crispy.
4) Heat the crab meat and Bearnaise Sauce.
5) To plate: Season the Filet with Sea Salt , put Filet on plate, top with 2 ounces crab per Filet, 2 asparagus spears and 2 ounces Bearnaise Sauce.

Such a delicious meal and wonderful way to spend Valentines Day together. We hope you all had wonderful Valentines Days spent with the ones you love!

Let it Snow!

Last Friday we were blessed with some beautiful, heavy snow here in Georgia! It started to come down around 1:00 and lasted until around 9:00 that night. I even left work early and it still took me over 2 hours to get home! Most of these pictures were taken right after I got home, but I think total we had about 4-5 inches! Tyson LOVES the snow, but he did lose his white frisbee a couple times!

Top 3 Thursday: Trips

This week's top 3 Thursday is about the trips we WANT to take that we haven't gotten the chance to yet. Without a doubt, Kyles and my picks are identical:
1) Fiji or Tahiti has always been a place we want to visit together. The water is so clear and we would have a blast snorkeling all day. Those huts you can stay in over the water are incredible, I really hope we get to do this one day!!
2) Italy and France would be so fun. We were lucky enough to be able to travel around Germany and Austria together, but would love to go back and see Italy and France! We love the different culture there.
3) British Virgin Islands. Visiting there is a little more realistic than the others, so hopefully we'll go sooner than later. (Closer=not as much vacation time). We've heard such amazing things... ohh so fun.

So who's ready to go on a vacation?? WE ARE! Where would your top 3 pics be?

Misty & Mark's Wedding!

Two weeks ago we headed to Charlotte for the weekend to celebrate Misty and Mark's wedding! Misty and I met in May of 2006 on a late Friday afternoon. Kyle was waiting outside in the car, expecting my interview to last about 30 minutes, but after about an hour he started to get worried. Little did he know I was done with my interview and I had moved on to some girl talk with my future boss, ending in hugs! It was an immediate connection, and I'm so grateful that the Lord brought her in my life. I worked at SBJ (a sports magazine) as a graphic designer managed by Misty for a year and I just loved it. I was so sad to leave when we decided to move to Georgia, but knew we would stay close regardless of where I worked or lived.

I can't tell you how excited we were when we heard the news of Mark and Misty's engagement. They have been dating for over 11 years now and couldn't be more perfect for each other. Mark is one of the most genuine men we've ever known, and he treats Misty like a queen. It's obvious that we love him too :)
Saturday afternoon in a beautiful little chapel, Mark and Misty committed themselves to each other and to God in front of their family. Kyle and I were SO HONORED to be considered "special family", I could have just cried sitting in that pew. It was the sweetest ceremony, everything was just perfect.
The reception was held Uptown in the Marriott City Center and we just had the best time. It was an SBJ reunion, and I literally was on cloud 9 being around all of them again! We had so much fun catching up and dancing with friends, it was the perfect night!

Kyle and I:

Ron, Misty, Mark and I: (the old graphic design gang back together again!)

Tiffin and Matt:

Congratulations Misty and Mark! We can't thank you enough for letting us be a part of your day! Love you both!

Food from Italy!

{I have a feeling this week's posts are going to be ALL about food!}

As we posted about here, our friend Courtney who is playing basketball in Italy sent us a package with lots of goodies, including pasta and cheese! I was just so excited to eat this meal... it was DELICIOUS!!

Look at the Italian Flag colors:

And then it was time to grate the cheese!! Oh so good.

The finished picture of our pasta is at the top of this post. We just mixed in some alfredo sauce and put the grated cheese on top.

Kyle also picked up all the ingredients to make bruschetta... YUM.

Thank you so much again Courtney and Clint... we thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Japanese for dinner!

If you know Kyle and I well, then you know we LOVE Teriyaki Chicken and Fried Rice. When my friend Jen shared this recipe we just had to try it. Of course it was delicious, so that's why I'm sharing it to all of you!

Ingredients for the Teriyaki Chicken
3 Chicken Breasts cut up
Kikkoman Teriyaki glaze

Directions for the Chicken:
1. Cut up your chicken into bite size pieces
2. Put olive oil into a frying pan to heat up
3. Cook the chicken until its no longer pink
4. Pour the kikkoman sauce generous in the pan (I use about 3/4 of the bottle)
5. Cook on low while you are doing the rice to simmer and let the sauce season your chicken

Ingredients for the Fried Rice
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
4 Green onions, chopped thinly(or 1/2 cup reg. onion-I used the reg onions!)
1/3 cup diced carrots
4 cups cooked white rice
2 eggs lightly beaten
3 Tablespoons Soy sauce

Directions for Rice:
1. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat.
2. Add the garlic and onion and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
3. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the carrots, rice and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
4. Use your stirring spoon to make a well in the center of the rice and pour the eggs into it. Let the eggs cook for 1 minute, then slowly start to stir and incorporate the egg into the rice.
5. Add the soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes longer, stirring and tossing with the spoon.
6. Serve with your chicken!

Kyle and I had a lot of fun cooking this together! Thank you Jen for the recipe!

Our Celebrity Look- alikes!

Kyle and I thought it would be fun to find our celebrity look-alikes! So I thought I would share with you guys...

For me.... yup you guessed it Carrie Underwood!! (goodness I wish!)

And for Kyle.... Zsolt Baumgartner!!
(We have NO clue who this is, but we actually think that he looks like Joe DiMaggio!)


Who do you all look like?? Go here to find out!

Weekend with Molly and Marshal

This past weekend we spent in Charlotte with some of our best friends, Molly and Marshal. We had such a wonderful time with them... of course I barely took any pictures to document!

Saturday morning we had the awesome Bagel Barn then split up so the guys could get busy working! Marshal just got a new lift for his jeep, and of course Kyle wanted to help him put it on. Molly and I left the guys so they could get busy 'lifting', and we could get busy relaxing!
Molly knew how stressed I had been lately, so our first stop was to get pedicures!! I was just so so excited, as I think the last time I got one was for her wedding almost a year ago!!
After our pedi's Molly was selfless enough to run more errands for me that I just haven't had time to do lately. We walked around the mall collecting makeup and other necessities that I've been in need of for months now! As if that wasn't sweet enough of her, I completely forgot to bring my debit card and license with me... so she was also my sugar momma for the day :)

Look at our cute little toes! (We had to do a "thumbs up" pic haha)

Molly was also {finally} able to show me Black Lion, one of her favorite stores that sells just about everything. I just had such a fun day, getting a chance to relax, talk and just have some good old girl time.

We made it back to the house where the guys were completely oil and grease covered and had 2 more helpers with them, Cory and Scott. Even with just the 4 of them they were only able to get the front shocks completed. Looks like another guys weekend is in store to get the back shocks on-- which Molly and I are looking forward to!

We enjoyed our time together more than you know. Thank you thank you thank you!!

Top 3 Thursday: TV Shows

So the girls at work and I decided to start a Top 3 Thursday idea. Every Thursday we'll discuss our top 3 things, but today is TV SHOWS! For Kyle and I they change a lot, but I'll give you the ones we always enjoy watching!!

1) NCIS: Los Angeles. We've always been a fan of NCIS, but the LA version is way better. Don't judge that LL Cool J is one of the main characters, he really is good in this show! We love all the characters personalities and how they have the regular NCIS characters make guest appearances on this show.

2) Lie to Me. It is so interesting to analyze peoples facial expressions and physical gestures to see what they are lying about. We really enjoy it.

3) Bones/House. I'm cheating and putting them in the same category because I can :) We really enjoy both of these and would definitely recommend them.

Some other shows that are obsessed with include: Glee, Biggest Loser, The Office, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Bachelor/Bachelorette, Nitro Circus, and Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory.

What are your top 3 tv shows??

ASU Ice Hockey Game!

Last weekend we headed up to Charlotte and arrived just in time to make it to Bobcats Arena and watch an ASU Ice Hockey Game. We only stayed for the first period as it was late but we had a fun time watching the current team and catching up with family and friends!

And here's a funny shot for you... Me, Kyle, Mike, Rach, Zoe and Keith!

Absolutely Blown Away.

It's always so exciting when you see a package arrive on your doorstep... but when it's from Italy-- it's just so special!
Most of you know, Clint, one of my close guy friends from App. He was on the basketball team, I was on the Dance Team and we just hit it off. I love how close we've kept in touch over the years, and I hope he'll always call me his "little sis".
This past year, while Clint has been playing basketball in Egypt we've been hearing about his amazing girlfriend Courtney who plays basketball in Italy. They both live such glamorous lives traveling around all the time and getting to try new things out there. We have never met Courtney, but have already talked about spending time together when they come home.

Anyways, when we saw this package was from Italy we immediately thought of Courtney because we don't know anyone else who lives there! We opened up the package and found a 2 page hand written letter from Courtney herself! I just HAD to share some pieces of it with you guys!!

"Hi Leah and Kyle! We've never met, but my name's Courtney. I'm Clint's girlfriend, and I hear a lot about you and follow your blog! I visited Clint in Egypt over Christmas and got the chance to visit the pyramids, which were AMAZING! And that's where I realized buying trinkets for people you don't know is EXTREMELY hard! Not to mention all the Egyptians forcing you to buy from them and not the Egyptian next to them. We ended up making it out alive with little statues of the pyramid and the stone bug which is said to bring luck and good fortune.
A month later Clint came to see me in Italy and I took him to the leaning tower of Pisa. Again we came across what trinkets to buy. We figured we'd get a matching glass tower to match the pyramid. And of course an I love Pisa shirt for Leah and a tobagan representing the world famous AC Milan soccer team for Kyle.
And since I see you love to cook, some farfalle pasta that is typical of this region of Italy. There's 2 because I know sometimes you don't want to cook something if you only have one :)
I also put a tacky key chain from Egypt in there because I saw that you put Christmas ornaments on your tree from places you've been. I do the same! I find getting a keychain, taking off the ring, and adding ribbon it can become a very original ornament! I know you've never been to Egypt, but maybe now when people travel and bring you back a keychain you can have something useful for it :)
Also the money in Egypt was very unique and interesting. It's only about $.50 so I didn't think it was too weird to send, but it would be cool to see it.
After I packed the box there was extra space so instead of stuffing it, I got some plain chocolates to fill the space.
Hopefully you'll enjoy everything! Happy Belated New Year to you both! I look forward to meeting you one day"
--Courtney

ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY.
Kyle and I sat there shocked that someone we have never met would take the time to find such heartfelt presents that are just PERFECT for us. Courtney, thank you for such an amazing surprise, we also can't wait to meet you one day! We will enjoy everything you sent to us, you are just so so sweet. Oh and CLINT -- HOLD ON TO HER FOR DEAR LIFE!!! Thank you both so much for doing this!!!

Can't wait to show you our amazing meals from the food she sent us!! Stay posted!

Red and Blue Lights

Last week we woke up at 5 am to our entire room being lit up in colors of red and blue. After I walked over to the window I saw that our entire one way street was filled with ambulances, fire trucks, and tons of police cars.
Let me give you some background info. At the end of our group of group of townhomes, on the other side of our pretty white fence was this run down apartment building. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the homes on our street, and we all just hated driving past it everyday.
There was also this HUGE tree near the apartment that was completely dead. Our HOA talked with the apartments land lord to see if they would pay to take it down as it would definitely do some damage if it fell. Well he declined and decided to risk keeping it there... BIG MISTAKE.

The other night the dead tree fell and completely demolished the apartment building. Praise the Lord none of the tenants were injured... I have no idea how that happened.
I know the rest of the neighborhood is thrilled that this apartment building is going to be demolished. We are hoping that a wealthy person will come and build a huge house on the lot... we'll keep you posted!!