Early Easter Linner

I know I still need to write about our fabulous trip to Las Vegas... and I will, but I think that will take longer so I'm gonna post about today first instead.

This morning Jeff got up at 6:30 so that he could get the car looked at... apparently it needed a brake flush or something. I got up at 7 to work on a paper (which though I've made some headway, is still not finished- this semester is killing me). I worked on the paper for a couple of hours and then it was time to get cooking. We were hosting an Easter lunch/dinner at our house. See, Easter is the first holiday that Jeff and I celebrated together as a married couple- it was the day after we got married. And we go to our families' homes for all of the other major holidays, so I thought it would be great if Easter could be our holiday. We decided to celebrate today and to do an early celebration due to a wedding reception we attended this evening (the same friends that we celebrated with in Las Vegas).

I prepared a ham. The ham was supposed to cook for two hours- instead it took about 4 hours. I also prepared some yummy, and I mean, yummy oven roasted red potatoes. I found a recipe online that looked really tasty and easy and decided to go for it. I then prepared fresh asparagus- baked with garlic, olive oil and spring onions. They were also delicious. Finally, I made a beautiful and colorful fruit salad (with the help of Jeff's mom- she helped me cut up some fruit- especially after I cut up my finger).

The meal was fabulous!! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything that I made and I enjoyed it myself- usually I am pretty critical of my own cooking- I do love to cook though, and bake- I just don't have time to do it very much. Hopefully, one day, I'll have more time. Jeff's parents brought crescent rolls and cheesecake, my grandparents brought dinner rolls and eggs (their own eggs- not for dinner but for our refrigerator) and my mom brought pineapple upside down cake and green bean casserole. Unfortunately, not all of my siblings were able to come because they were either not feeling great, had to work or had other things going on... so Sarah was the only sibling there. Though I wished the others were able to come, it was still an enjoyable time with excellent food and wonderful company. I love, love, love being around my family.

Now on to make your mouth water:

The ham was cooked to perfection.

These are the yummy potatoes. They really were very good. They are roasted with butter, lemon juice, salt, fresh minced garlic and shredded parmesan cheese.

Asparagus- I knew nothing about how to make asparagus. In fact, I never really enjoyed it before. But, I found a recipe for it that sounded good and I thought I'd try it out. I think it turned out nicely. I enjoyed it.

Delicious fruit salad. I love how pretty it looks with all of the different colors.

Here's the spread on the table together... most of it anyway.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Easter by going to church and then enjoying lunch/dinner with more family and friends. I am looking forward to it. Happy Easter!

P.S. It's a tradition to listen/read/watch this talk every year on Easter. If you have time, it is definitely worth it. Enjoy! (Click the above link "this talk"... just in case)

The nursery

Recently, I made this for dinner:

Doesn't it look sooo yummy? It was. If I had all of the ingredients, I'd make it tonight. Ah well. Oh and I was so proud of Jeff- he at least ate some of the peppers in his fajita.

That was random, I know- anyway- now for the non-edible good stuff.

So, Jeff and I have done some more work on our nursery since last I've written. It is so fun to see it coming all together! I can't wait for the wee one to join our little family. I am so excited that I get to be a mom. Sometimes, like yesterday, I think about how in just a few more short months (11 weeks) my life will be forever changed. I will be someone's mom. It's kind of an overwhelming and humbling thought. Jeff and I are being entrusted with one of Heavenly Father's children. :)

Okay, so here are some pictures of the nursery. Tell me what you think! And if there are any suggestions, I am open.

Here's our baby's name. Kristen came over one night and helped me make these letters for his name. We modpodged scrapbook paper to the letters- I know the "B" kinda stands out a lot.

Here's the name from the front. :) (In case you can't tell it's polka dots and stripes).

Here is the bedding we ended up going with. I really love the little animals.

We added a tree (it's a wall decal). There are some white sheer curtains that have leaves on it to match that I really want to get, too, for the room. But I will wait until closer to when he's due.

Here is the little bookshelf/ cube organizer thingy. Do you think those cubbies look okay? Should I get another one for the top center- or do you think that's fine?

And the bookshelf and tree together. It was Jeff's idea to put the tree in the corner like that. I love it!

I also covered some small canvases with scrapbook paper as wall decorations. I kind of messed up the bottom one a little- but it doesn't look too bad on the wall. What do you think?

And here's the baby's dresser. We will get a changing bad to go on top of the dresser for a changing table.

(In His Constant Care- Simon Dewey)

I also love this painting so we ordered a print. Once we get it framed, I think we'll hang it above the changing table/dresser maybe? There is also nothing on the wall where the tree is (besides part of the tree) so we could put it there. But Jeff also really likes this painting- which we haven't ordered yet:

(Take My Hand- Greg Olsen)

And, as our beloved prophet suggested last weekend at General Conference, we want to get a picture of the temple to put in there- we'll probably just get a print to put on the bookshelf.

There are a lot of other things I want to update on, but time hasn't allowed for it lately. I've been really busy with school and work these past couple of days. I'm finding it more and more challenging to keep my head above water. However, this shall pass soon! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to make it through mid-May when school is over. In the meantime, I keep plugging along. Spring break is next week and we're headed to Las Vegas! I'm soo excited- and before I know it, May will be here.

Happy Sabbath!