Joe's Birthday Bash

Joe turned the big 2-3 yesterday! Ahhh, 23!!! Matt helped kick off his birthday with a 7:45AM wakeup call. Luckily Joe was only sad waking up so early until he saw Matt had Chik-fil-A breakfast in his hands and a golf shirt on! Our birthday present to Joe this year was guys time on the golf course. 

After golf the boys relaxed and we met up at The Main Event to play Laser Tag. I had never played before, and I'm not gonna lie...I rocked it! Well, rocked it more the 2nd game when I figured out the rules. haha. The first game I was mainly just running around shooting people, not understanding the points system. The first game I joined the "strangers" team - which happened to be a group of annoying little teeny-boppers. We lost! The second time I stayed with Joe's birthday group and we played a bunch of young kids. If Matt and I were their parents we would have washed their mouths out with soap. Unbelievable to hear the profanity coming out of such young kids. At least it made crushing them even more fun! Total score was 302,000 to 9,345. Matt had the top score with about 77,000 and I was right behind him with 71,000. What is funny is that he said I was beating him 2/3 of the game, but he thought it was Joe. If he had realized it was me he DEFINITELY would have stepped up his game sooner!

In sum, laser tag was amazing and SUCH a perfect start to the birthday festivities. 

After laser tag we met at Gordon Biersch for dinner. Matt and I had never been and it was delicious! I had lobster and shrimp mac n cheese. To bad I'm not a beer fan...I'm told it was delicious!

 After dinner we met at their place for a few drinks and cupcakes. How adorable are these "ice-cream cone" cupcakes! A-DORABLE...and delicious. I had 1.5!

 On the way to Barcadia where Joe and Matt JAMMED out to the Zombie song...WITH the windows down!

Happy Birthday again Joe!!! We love you!!!!!!!!!!

Book Recommendation

About a month ago I heard about the book, The Dream Manager. I ordered a used copy on Amazon and spent a few hours reading, what I think, might be one of the best reads out there right now! I liked it so much I'm writing a post about it! If you are reading this post, consider reading this book. It is about managing a business through investing in people and helping them achieve their dreams. The story is incredible and gives you hope for what "the man" (a company) can do. At the same time it makes you think about what your dreams are, the dreams of your partner, etc. Matt and I both read the book and are enjoying talking about our dreams and not just "goals and objectives" for the next 3-5 years. 

3 great ingredients

Three of my favorite ingredients...eggplant, tomatoes and FRESH mozzarella cheese (buffalo mozzarella is even better if you can find it). My Italian Aunt Carla taught me this recipe...and while hers ALWAYS seems to taste better, mine are still pretty good. The below is a picture of basically eggplant bruschetta. Give it a try!

On a cooking sheet, place eggplant sliced horizontally

Cover in olive oil and sea salt

Place chopped up tomatoes on top (cherry tomatoes are best)

Throw them in the oven at 350-400 degrees for about 7-10 minutes

Take the cooking sheet out and throw on the fresh mozzarella (use the kind that is the shape of a ball(s) that comes in the water) and some fresh basil

Throw back in the oven for a few minutes so the cheese can melt

ENJOY!!!

Happy Father's Day (to our dad's)

Happy Father's Day to my dad and papabear (Fred)...and all the other father figures in our lives!

On the subject of Father's Day...can we just talk about how cute Matt is going to be when he is a dad one day! (Please note I said "one day" - this is not an announcement post!!!) He is such a natural with kids!

Here are a few pics of Matt with some of our cousin's kiddos! ADORABLE!

Dinner for Two!

After several weeks of awesome dinner parties - tonight Matt and I had a dinner party just for us! I was craving shrimp tacos (don't worry Laura - I can't wait to eat them again Thursday) so Matt and I did a few google searches and went after it. They were delicious and the best part is that I got to use some of the cilantro out of my garden!!!

We made homemade salsa, yummy black beans, rice and all the fixin's for TACOS!

Now we are off to watch a movie and just enjoy hanging out with nothing to do!

Chuys!

Chuys is a must for anyone visiting Dallas - so naturally Joe and Kelly had it on the agenda for when Joe's family was in town. Matt, Brian and I tagged along to be with them as they experienced the deliciousness that is Chuys. Warm, homemade tortillas, amazing queso...fajitas for 1 that you can split into two!!! Needless to say it was a hit! Some of us even saved room for custard at Wild About Harrys!

Joe's mom and dad...two of our new favorite people! Easy to see why Joe is so awesome!

Chris may or may not have been roped into a "Italian vs food" contest by Matt, Brian and I. He oredered the Elvis Pressley Memorial Dish...

...and finished it! We have a fun surprise in store for him!

Michael, Chris and Joe at Chuys!

What a great past few days getting to spend time with "the family."

What. A. Weekend.

This past weekend was supposed to be our "rest and recoop" time - and it was anything but. For the last six weeks we have either had house guests or have been houseguests out of town. So we were excited for a weekend at home to relax with nothing to do. Nothing soon turned into HUGE house projects and fun family dinners! Here's the recap...

Friday: Friday night we were planning on visiting Ryan and Steph for a Lundemacher date night! It has been a few weeks since we got some QT with them so we were really looking forward to it. Steph of course went all out to make our date night special with 4 fancy courses and yummy drinks. The only problem is 30 minutes before we were about to leave the house she got sick with a fever, so our date night was cancelled! Luckily by Sunday she was back up and running!! So with unscheduled time on our hands, we ordered a pizza, rented a movie and had our own date night. I decided to make a homemade cheesecake my friend Jean blogged about - and it did not disappoint. I asked Matt if he wanted to help me make it and he said, "no, I'm good" - only to take over!!! It was so cute! So it brought us back to the start of our blogging days when we dedicated this blog to Friday Night desserts! The cheesecake came out of the over and looked perfect so we saved it for Saturday.

Saturday: We slept in - until 8! After catching up on ESPN for about an hour we got dressed, grabbed breakfast at Starbucks/McDonalds and headed to Lowes. We had a particular project in mind (which I will keep a secret until we actually do it) but when we got there - we were distracted by the garage organizers. Dumped our original project supplies and used Matt's birthday gift card to buy Rubbermaid strips to hold stuff up in the garage. We got home and did a complete renovation of the garage. It might not be easy to see all of the great space we opened up from the pictures - but I just LOVE it! Next step is to paint in there. I know it is just a garage - but the walls are so dirty! We finished up just in time to shower and meet Joe's parents at top golf. The boys played a few rounds while Kelly and I took Joe's mom for pedicures. Love that woman!!!! We ran home at 6, threw some ribs on, made homemade fries and enjoyed dinner with Brian and his dad. We joked that it felt like that episode of the office when Pam and Jim get to Michael's place for a dinner party and Jan announces she is going to start the roast that will take 3 hours. We didn't get to eat until 9 - but it was worth it and great spending time with Brian and his dad. (And the cheesecake was a hit!)

The Before picture

After

Dinner with Brian and his dad!


Our yummy cheesecake

Sunday: We planned to relax. We "slept in" until 8:30, started some laundry and Matt made coffee while I whipped up a batch of some homemade breakfast bars. They came out of the oven right as Lucas stopped by to drop off our giant Jenga game. I made him stay for breakfast and the next thing we know, Matt and Lucas are on their way to Home Depot to rent chainsaws to take down some trees. Lucas had some stumps at his house he wanted to get rid of, and then we had a huge 30 foot tree in our front yard we wanted to take down (It was out of control and killing all of the grass in the front yard.). 7 hours later, cuts and scratches everywhere we (mainly Matt and Lucas) had successfully taken the tree down with no damage to themselves, our house, or our neighbors house. I was saying my prayers of Thanksgiving!!! We showered and got dressed just in time for Kelly, Joe, Carissa, Brian and Joe's family to arrive for dinner. This was by far the highlight of the weekend. It was so fun to get to spend time with Joe's family. They are just as amazing as he is!!!!

Boys and their power tools...

Exhausted!

Really exhausted - but how cute is that little bench they made out of the tree stump

Playing Giant Jenga

We love JOE!

An added plus watching the Mavs win.

Matt and I slept soundly and woke up exhausted. A great weekend - but definitely no rest. Maybe next weekend...

New Neighbors...New Friends

Can I just say I LOVE dinner parties! I love going to them and I love hosting them!!!!! So how fun that we have started a little Dallas dinner party group!!! Through our friends Wes and Laura (who live right down the street) we met Hallie and Chase (who also live right down the street!). At a birthday dinner for Wes a few weeks ago we decided to kickstart some weekly group dinners - so tonight we had everyone over for (what else) spaghetti! A few weeks ago Laura and Wes hosted Cinco de Mayo and we brought out big Jenga!!! It is so fun to have friends that live so close!!!

Laura, Wes, Matt, Chase and Hallie

It was the perfect excuse to use our new snowcone maker (thank you Jamie).

New friends Chase and Hallie!!!

21 Family Members in 4 days

I am late in blogging this post - but a few weeks ago we took a "spontaneous" road trip to Crested Butte, CO to visit my 92 year old Grandpa and my Grandma. My grandfather is now in hospice so it was great to be able to take a few days off and go spend some quality time with him and my grandmother. Seeing as how getting to CB via plane is over $800 per person, we opted to fly to Denver ($210/person) and drive to CB. It worked out great because due to all of my family members in Colorado...and having our own car...we were able to see 21 extended family members.

Our trip kind of started on Friday with Nathan flying into Dallas. His flight was delayed so he didn't get in until midnight. The next morning he and I met Kelly and Joe at their apartment at 5:45am and we headed over to Love Field. We had a direct flight to Denver and met Matt (who was coming from his week in Chicago) at the airport at 9:30. A rental car later and we were on our way.

We started with a stop to see my cousin Mark, his fiance and their BEAUTIFUL baby boy, Oliver (3 months old). We ate lunch, and drove 2 hours to Colorado Springs, where my cousin Jenny was in the hospital where she had given birth to Samuel John 3 days prior. Samuel is the 4th boy in that family - and it was so fun to get to see all of the cute kiddos. That and hold a newborn...adorable!

After visiting with Jenny and her family (bonus Aunt Diana was in town) we drove back to Denver where we met Heather, her bf Joe, cousin Mark, Tracee and Oliver, and cousin Ryan and his gf Emily. I have seen my cousins in so long so it was so fun. We had about a 3 hour dinner at this amazing Ale house followed by icecream! Heather and Joe were kind enough to host us for the night and after morning coffee and bagels we headed off to Crested Butte.

It has been awhile since I took a road trip through new territory. We had a blast driving through the mountains and stopping anytime we saw a view we liked! We got into Gunnison (30 min from CB where my Grandparents nursing home is) mid afternoon, grabbed some starbucks for the group and had an amazing 3 hour visit and dinner. Oma and Papa were in such great spirits! When our visit was over we drove to CB and stayed with Aunt Donna. The next 2 days were spent exploring Crested Butte, visiting some favorite places and visiting Oma and Papa!

We drove back Tuesday, stopping to visit Oma and Papa on our way out - got to Denver and flew home. The trip was a great success - minus the fact that Nathan got stuck in the airport for an extra 24 hours!

All of these pictures are out of order bc, again, I can't figure out how to easily drag them in this blog thing.

Matt meeting baby Oliver...so sweet!

Matt holding Samuel John...3 days old and so precious!

In Crested Butte just outside the Gallery with Diana

Easting a big spaghetti dinner at the nursing home. So great to see Oma and Papa!

One of the many stops on our road trip from Denver to Crested Butte - this stop was at the top of Monarch pass.

Another stop!!!

Matt has a blast driving such a big car

Tracee, cousin Mark and Joe

Cousin Ryan and his gf Emily!

Dinner at the Ale house

Nathan and his flight of Denver beers

Heather and Joe

With Aunt Diana and Eric (the proud new papa!)

Baby Fever...lol!

With Ben, Caden and Gab