New News (Big Time News) for Team Spence!!

Logan and I are going to have a baby!

This baby is due September 15, 2011.

We're super excited.

Super duper excited.

So far I'm 10 weeks along, almost 11. I haven't been TOO sick, which has been a blessing.

Now if I could just get myself through my very last semester at UVU, so we can start getting ready for this sweet baby!! (senioritis is running rampant at our house)

With any luck, our baby will look something like this:

I would just die of happiness.

Logan was the cutest-patootist baby.

Christmas Morning 2010 Spence Style

I know, failure for not posting about Christmas until almost Valentine's Day. My apologies.

Santa brought quite the loot this year, including a pretty clock to hang in our kitchen

and some new pillows for our bed.

Christmas is bizarre when you're married with no children, folks.

Bill and Deana (and this year Aaron) go to each of their married children's homes to check out what Santa brought to each of them. Since we were severely uneventful, having no kids to watch get excited about Christmas morning and the magic of it all, we invited them over for breakfast. That morning we made biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and juice, which might just have to be a yearly tradition because it was delicious!!

Logan's favorite gift was his Seinfeild Soup Nazi shirt I gave to him.

He looks mighty handsome in it, if I do say so myself.

And my most FAVORITE gift (ever!!!) is my candy apple red Kitchen Aid mixer.

My husband freaking rocks.

And well, happy holidays yo.

Spence Family Christmas Party 2010

Every year on Christmas Eve, Logan's parents host a Christmas Eve party for their whole family. I always love going because it's a change to see EVERYONE at the SAME TIME and the SAME PLACE. Also, the amazing food, great company, and hilarious kids certainly rock too.

Every year we rotate family names and one family will give to another family. This year we had The Losee Family. Gavin and Kyson are 3 and 1 and the most boyish boys I have ever met. They love tools, trains, trucks, dinosaurs, monsters, anything that just screams "boy." They are super easy to please, and Logan and I had so much fun searching for just the right present for them. They get so excited about everything, and we were so highly anticipating seeing their faces when they opened up their presents. We made them both twinner little coloring books that I made with family pictures that I learned how to make here. The pages were actually pictures of them, their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and their mommy and daddy. They turned out super-dooper cute. Along with their coloring books, we gave Gavin a race car track. You can make the track whatever shape you want. It comes with bridges, gates, and two battery operated cars that speed around the track.

He was pretty excited. Brynn and Casey said they woke up to him playing with it on Christmas Morning before they went down to open their own presents.
That night at the party, they told him he had to wait until they were home to open it up. He dragged that box around with him EVERYWHERE, and even used it as a little bench while he watched the rest of the family open up their presents. It was pretty darn cute.

Kyson has been loving tools, hard hats, and anything that has to do with construction and building things. We found him this little tool belt, complete with hard hat.

He is such a tiny dude, he looked so cute playing dress up with them.

But of course, what did he really have more fun with that night?

The netted bag that the tool set came in.

Silly Boy.

Aaron gave gifts to our little family. He is a smarty pants, and gave us the perfect gift...two gift certificates to two of our favorite restaurants so we can go on dates. We are looking forward to using them very soon!! Thanks Aaron!!

The day Cailie chopped my hairs.

It's been over a month and a half, but I've been a total and complete blogging slacker. Two days before Christmas I called my friend, Cailie, and told her to come over, it was time for a change of my hairs. Cailie is a hair stylist, and she is the boss of what I can and can not do with my hairs. This is not because she is mean, this is because she loves me and because she knows that if I make drastic, sudden changes with my hair, the control freak inside of me will have an absolute conniption fit. I had talked with her for a few months about chopping my hairs, and finally, when I brought it up again, she said she thought it would actually be a good idea.

We decided to donate what we could to Locks of Love, since I've highlighted my hair, I couldn't donate anything that bleach had been used on. The top half had been processed, but not the bottome half, so that hair was good to go.

She chopped it, and chopped it good. With fourteen inches of hair sealed in a bag, and placed in a padded envelope, it was off to help make wigs for some lucky kiddo.

It was a little scary, and I'll admit to slightly hyperventilating while this picture was being taken, I've really liked having short hair for the first time in my life! I don't get sad anymore, but right after I had cut it, if I did start to get a little sentimental, if I thought about the little girl or boy that would get a wig made with some of my hair, I felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

And I would do it all over again. No regrets.

Quiche Sent From Heaven

When my friend from work, McKinley was prego with her darling boy, Zenith, she craved this quiche from the Lion House Pantry at Deseret Book. I had never eaten quiche, but with her raving about it on a daily (okay, hourly :D) basis, I decided to try some one day after she had her baby and had quit Sister Missionary Mall, and I was missing her something fierce. And wow, she was super right...quiche is awesome stuff. Flaky crust, cheesy eggy goodness, and yummy things like...well...bacon. How can you go wrong? I submit you can not. They have another quiche at Deseret Book that I love with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Spinach, and I'm gonna try making that one...hopefully later this week. I'm so excited.

Well, we have a recipe book that has a quiche recipe in it, and I played around with the fillings and made it, and it was easy, and delicious, and now I will never have to pay for an over priced slice of quiche again...I can make a whole pie for about $5 instead of paying $13!!! Fabulous. Make this quiche. You will love it and feel fancy pantsy. And I would have taken a picture, except my camera is still at the parentals. And we ate it all gone before I could even think of snapping a pic.

Quiche

Prepare a pie crust (I love Western Family's frozen crust. Deep dish would be wonderful for this, so you could fill it more and not have it spill over like mine did), and spread egg white on the inside of it. Cook it only until half done.

Filling Ingredients:

2 T. flour

1 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used cheddar, swiss would probably be great)

1/4 lb. diced bacon

1/4 lb. diced ham (we just used lunch meat stuff)

1/2 c. onion, chopped finely

2 T. butter

3 eggs

1 can evaporated milk

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix cheese and flour and spread on bottom of half baked crust. Cook bacon/ham (or whatever ingredients you think would be yummy in it) and onions in butter and spread on top of the cheese. beat eggs, milk, and seasonings, and pour on the rest. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, turn down to 350 and bake for 15 more minutes.

You might want to put pie pan on a cookie sheet in case it spills over. And let it cool a few minutes after you pull it out before cutting into it. So yummy. I mean, really, really delicious.

Also, happy 50th blog post to us. Ta da.

Someday...

I will post again on this blog. For reals. But after I get my camera back from my parents. I accidentally left it at their house during Christmas. And I have so many things to blog about to!! I chopped my hair all short, Christmas happened, we went to St. George, New Years, final semester of college, and further life plans.

On the bright side, I had my first Senior Capstone II rehearsal today, and I feel like it was really, really great!! For this class all the seniors choreograph a piece (or pieces for the ballroom major) and create a concert to showcase their works. It's a pretty complicated and stressful class, but I feel like I'm staying on top of things well. Which is good, because I have a feeling this semester I need to stay organized and focused or I will just slip away into a senioritis oblivion and fail every one of my classes!!

Also, I am married to this really great guy named Logan. He just never ceases to remind me of how great he really is. Man alive I love him.

Cafe Rio Pork at home!!

Logan and I love Cafe Rio, a mexican grill that is really popular where we live, but we can't afford to eat there all the time. I got this recipe from the same book I got the Spinach Pesto Linguine I've also posted on my blog. I love that it makes everything you'd need to make a bunch of different Cafe Rio entrees--salad, burrito, enchilada, quesidilla, whatever floats your boat. I usually make the roast, and then freeze half of it right away. We can eat the other half of the roast for quite a few days afterwards, and it is so yummy. Makes for a great "date night in" too. We love to invite people over to serve this because it's impressive but it's a cinch to make.

Hope you love it as much as we do!!

Pork

4-5 pounds pork roast

3 t. minced garlic

4 c. Dr. Pepper

3 T. molasses

Pepper to taste

4 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce

2 c. brown sugar

4 t. cumin

1/2 t. salt

In a crock pot, combine all ingredients except roast. Mix well. Add roast(s), and cook on low for 8-12 hours until the roast shreds easily with a fork. When the roast is falling apart and shreds easily, remove from crock pot and shred meat. Remove about half the liquid from the crock pot and return the meat to it. Keep it warm in the crock pot until ready to serve. You can freeze left over meat.

Lime Rice (You can double this if you're going to serve all the meat to a large crowd. I usually half this recipe when I am making it for my family and I don't want a lot of left over rice)

4 T. butter

4 1/2 c. chicken broth

Pepper to taste

Juice of 4 small limes

2 1/2 c. rice (uncooked)

1 1/2 t. salt

4 T. chopped cilantro

1/2 t. cumin

Melt butter and stir together with rice in rice cooker or large pot. Add other ingredients. Cook until rice is done.

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

1 (16 oz.) jar green salsa

1/2 c. sour cream (I use light)

1 c. chopped cilantro

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cumin

1/2 t. cayenne peper (if your green salsa is medium or hot, you might want to put in less of this)

1 pkg. ranch dressing (dry)

1/2 c. mayonnaise (I use light

1 t. minced garlic

juice from 2 limes

1/2 c. sugar

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend WELL. Chill before serving.

For the beans I just buy canned black beans, drain them about half way, mix in a little bit of pico de gallo or salsa, and warm them up. You'll also need tortillas, grated cheese, salsa, lettuce, avocados/guacamole, whatever else you like to eat with your Cafe Rio Masterpiece!!