Sunday Sledding...

This winter in Michigan it has been a little chilly and decided to snow. After avoiding touching the snow for as long as we could we finally caved this past Sunday and went out and played. Ashley got me a brand new orange sled, the Sled-enator 3000, for Christmas. As you can see in the first pic it has twice the acceleration as it's predecesor that Ashley is riding. Ashley got it to help me enjoy the winter as they can be a little ruff..

As you can tell in the pic above I've gained a little weight. I'm now pushing 275. The majority of the weight gain was as a result of the dozen bags of marshmallows I ate earlier that day. Kidding, the jacket is just really puffy.

This is Chad and Danielle's dog, Rukia. She's a labridoodle and loved playing in the snow. She also likes eating it. The three of them joined us in our sledding fun.

What's been cooking in our kitchen this summer...

Ashley and I cook meals for ourselves at least twice a week. Usually these meals are made to last several days, often we mix it up by using the previously cooked meal in a different way. For example, several weeks ago we spent hours one night cooking a 6 lb beef brisket. We froze two thirds and used the remaining third the next day for dinner. It was delicious, we ate it over pasta with basil and fennel. Two weeks later, we transformed it into a slammin sandwich that is seen here as the last picture.

Below are some of the things that we have cooked (the ones we remembered to take pictures of):

This is the tasty cake that Bridget made last Christmas. We found the recipe and made it on Ashley's birthday weekend.

These are the cupcakes that Ashley made for the ward picnic. They were lemon cake with raspberry poke. She was very excited to make these because she had not played with fondant for a while and wanted to use the new mixer.

This is chicken and green beans with coconut curry sauce. We ate it.

This is a fresh strawberry pie with kiwi glaze. (Side note: We were hoping for a awesome green color when making the kiwi glaze. Apparently kiwis when cooked lose their color, and the resulting glaze resembles snot.)

This is an Italian sausage sub made from leftover sausage spaghetti. It has melted mozzarella and feta spread that is amazing!

This is a beef brisket sandwich with sauteed onions and peppers, a pickle, and jack cheese. All on an onion roll. YUM!!! :)

Wedding Set Up...

This is the first installment of our wedding pictures. We make no promises to deliver subsequent installments in a timely manner, as should be expected, by this belated first installment. We hope you enjoy!

Birthdays...

Ashley's 23rd Birthday. I took off early to finish some of the painting projects we had been working on and clean up our apartment that had been "under construction" for several weeks. It looked good. She was very surprised. We went out for Mexican at the Cantina and ate this goopy chocolate cake that I made for her. It was a fun day.

For Patrick's 28th birthday we went a Polish restaurant in Hamtramck with my family. There we enjoyed traditional food. Before heading home for cake we stopped down an alley and saw the towns version of "Disneyland". A 90 year old man decorated his entire back yard with paintings, statues, and all sorts of painted things. It was AMAZING!!! The picture does not do it justice.

Apartment Decor...

Here are some pics of a wall decal we got for the apartment. We like it a lot. You can also see the bedding we picked out. We also have sheets in the aqua color that you see in the decal. They are made of jersey material. Let me just say. They are awesome!

Side note... we were able to pick the three colors you see in the decal through the website we used.

Engagement Pics!!!

Fry Day...

A couple weeks ago Ashley and I wanted to test out her new Fryer (her Valentine's gift). We got together with her parents and each brought things to fry. It was way fun and tasty. So much so that when Ash and I get married we'll probably have to set some rules as to when we can use it. Don't want to gain 50 lbs each within the first year. Here is some pics from that night and some of the things we've fried since.

• Pickles (Yum)
• Broccoli
  
• Califlower (Yum)
• Chicken
• Shrimp
• Twinkie's
• Almond Joy (Failed)
• Cheese (Failed)
• Donuts
• Oreo's
• Strawberry Rolls (Yum)
• Pork Pot Stickers
• Ravioli
  
• Onion Rings (Yum)
• Cheesecake
• Banana