February

So the Schnoor's really haven't been up to much this last month! For Valentines Day, we didn't do anything too crazy! Even though I always love an excuse to give gifts, I had to hold back this year! But that's okay, because we have a lot more Valentines to come! I just got Blake a little gift, and then had planned a yummy CHOCOLATEY breakfast! I had been planning this for at least two months, and was craving it sooo much. And boy, did it satisfy. Especially since Blake and I have been on this new workout routine, we are limited in what we can eat, or more so what we SHOULD be eating. Soooo good!! Holiday's are also a good excuse to not be as strict with eating! Yay! So it was just a chocolate waffle (tasted like a brownie though) with a berry sauce, and whipped cream.

Blake had planned to take me out that night to a resturaunt that I had been wanting to go to ever since I had been in Canada! But we got a phone call from Mama Schnoor that night about coming out to have a valentine's dinner with them and the girls! So even though they're an hour away we decided it'd be fun (and cheaper) to go have dinner with them! I had also been planning to make a delicious chocolate chip bundt cake (Yeah I know, way overdoing it with the sweets, I was craving!) that night for dessert after Blake and I came back from eating out, so I just made that and brought it with us! We had a chicken lasagna, veggies, and sparkling cider for dinner! And it was soooo good! With my cake, and a white brownie to follow! Overall it was a very "Sweet" valentines!
I'm so grateful for my hubby and how hard he works for us! I know it hasn't been an easy road, with me not being able to work, but he always kept a good attitude and has SOMEHOW able to spend a lot of time with me, even when he was completeley worn out! You may think that's dumb, "of course he had time for you, you live together." But what I'm saying is...I'm a 20 yr old girl that is kept up in a house all day...we only have one car...and the weather is brutal during the winter so I can't exactly walk anywhere. So yeah, I guess I could say I'm pretty attention hungry, with lot's of energy built up to just DO something, or GO somewhere. Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy, and Blake would agree. But that's why I love him. He's so good to me! And I couldn't be happier.

But speaking of not being able to go anywhere, do anything, and all that stuff. It's been 9 months since my paperwork has been in. And guess what? The processing times are 9-10 months. So guess what that means? ANY DAY NOW!!! Except, not exactly. We recently had called immigration about this matter. And just my WORK PERMIT will be coming (hopefully) within the next month. Seriously, as much as I want to be mad that not all of my paperwork will be done, it's a work permit. That's honestly all I need right now. And have wanted for a long time!! So, yes people, I will be able to work in this country FINALLY, within the next month!!! Fingers crossed!!

Anyways, so for reading week this year we went to Edmonton and stayed with Blakes Aunt and Uncle, and all of their kids that live up there. Oh, that reminds me! We had gone up a couple weeks before, to go to their new baby's blessing! He is a miracle baby, so it was such a good experience, and we are so happy that he has joined our family! But yes! I was a little upset that we weren't going to Utah during reading week, which is what we have done the past couple of years. It's basically spring break for canada, and basically the only long break that we can take to go visit my family before we do the APX (Now VIVINT.) thing for the summer, so I was a little bummed, but ended up having a lot of fun! We're just going to have to take some time to go down before Blake leaves for the summer.
Edmonton is actually a really beautiful city. It reminds me a lot of Utah, and honestly if I have to live in Canada the rest of my life, I'd want to live there. It's a city, so there a lots of people, and the neighborhoods are big, not village like, like most of southern alberta. There's nothing wrong with villages, I just like more people, more neighbors, and convieniant shopping! But, something Edmonton is probably most famous for (besides the Oilers) is the Mall. It's the biggest in North America, and it really is..huge. I was exhausted just walking through it the first time. Most of the stores in there are for ..what I would call "upper class" people. Okay, not even that...mostly just stores for people that can actually afford it. Which definately would be us newly weds, with one of them still trying to immigrate. So it was still fun to walk through, even though we didn't shop! There is a huge water park, and when I'm in shape, I definately plan to attend. It has a wave pool and tons of slides. It even has a bungee jump, that goes into the pool! There is also a little amusement park, I hear it's the biggest indoor amusement park. Blake's parents paid for all of us kids to go, and it was really so fun!

This ride is called the "Space Shot", it's like the Rocket for those of you who have been to Lagoon, except a lot smaller! But still big enough to freak Blake out. As you can see :). I absolutely LOVE amusement parks, and rides. So that's why I look very, very, happy. I just have so much fun! I laugh like the whole time, especially if I'm next to people who are especially freaked out. Pee my pants funny. :)

Anyways, after Edmonton (we were only there for 2 days) we spent the rest of the week out at Blake's parents house. It was a lot of fun! We FINALLY even got to go see the girls cheer at one of their highschool games! It was awesome. Even if the game was a bore, the halftime show rocked it!

Blake took me out on a date on Friday, we went out to this place called Kind of Trade (basically, you just trade in a bunch of your old stuff there and get some money for it) and looked through all their videos and found a couple to watch that night! After, we went to the pet store (whenever I go out on the town I HAVE to stop there) and got to look at all the animals! I was dissapointed...there were hardly any puppies. Boo!! But oh well. We still got to look at all the fish, and creepy crawlers , and little furries! I have seriously been considering getting a Black Bear Hamster. We'll see. I want cuddles..I don't think those really do that. And after that we went to a food place we had been wanting to go for a while. We've heard nothing but good things about it, "Five Guys, Burgers and Fries". And it did not dissapoint. Now we know to go with the "little burger" though. I think that place would be absolute killer, if it offered shakes too! Those fries would be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G with a milk shake! Hopefully they will do that soon. Maybe I should suggest it? After that, we came home and just watched both the movies! An all night cuddle fest! Yes, please.

Anyways. That's just what we have been up to for the past month! Also...I just have to brag a little bit. I made the best dinner ever tonight. Baked Salmon with a maple glaze, with rice (cooked in chicken broth), and asparagus with cheese sauce. It was sooo good!!!



It probably doesn't look appetizing to you..but trust me it was good. And I didn't have much to work with for the rice. Also, that pink plate isn't mine. It belongs to the people's house we're staying in. I wouldn't personally buy those plates. But yes. Delish.

That's all for now. Oh, and p.s. I like that I started the blog with "we haven't been up to much", and then wrote ...a lot. ha. :)

New Years and Blakes 24th

I can't believe how fast 2010 went! I still remember the begining of that year! And now it's already 2011...Blake and mines 2nd year anniversary is creeping up on us! I can't believe it. We were able to "celebrate" New years with my family as well this year, or should I say "last" year. I was so happy! We got to eat the traditional New Years Eve Hot wings with Bleu Cheese that my mom likes to make, along with melted chocolate and fruit, cheese and crackers, and lastly chips and salsa. All matches made in heaven. We also found a new favorite juice drink, Ocean Sprays "Cranberry & Pommegranate". So divine. I'm actually craving some as I write this. I wrote "celebrate", because as you get older, and ESPECIALLY after you get married, there are no parties to really go to..no dance's, nothin. And I still have 2 younger siblings at home that are still able to do those parties, so ultimately it was just me, Blake, and my dad! We ate, talked, laughed, DANCED, yes we all danced, and watched movies. The xbox Kinect is an AMAZING thing and sooo fun (that's how we were able to dance it up)! In fact Blake and I are looking into getting one. We paused our movie and counted down. It was my 2nd New Years Eve kiss with Blake. My 2nd New Years kiss period. And I am looking forward to bringing in sooo many more New years with Blake, and whatever family we are surrounded by. This year it happened to be mine. We still need to set our goals for the year 2011, but I have no doubt that there will be big changes this year. Good changes. Shortly following the New Year was my sweeties 24th Birthday! I can't believe it...I'm married to a 24 yr old!! 1 more year and he will be a quarter of a century! AH! It's not that old..but really..it is..I'll be turning a measely 21 this year. I can't seem to picture myself at his age..and yet it's not even that old! Silly me. Anyways, we were able to celebrate with my family before we left back to Canada, and then right after we got back, we were able to celebrate his actual birthday with his family! He got lot's of great gifts, and lots of yummy ice cream..cakes! I love you Babe! Happy Birthday!!! :) One year older..and almost wiser. :) Blake and his birthday cake in Utah. Blake and his Birthday Cake at his Family's house. Yes, he's biting the candle. Weirdo.

December Continued

As you know, we were headed to Utah this Christmas to be with my family! We left around the middle of December and were there for about 3 weeks. It was soooo nice!!! I was so happy that Blake was able to be with me the WHOLE time too. Usually, I'm there for a few weeks, and then he comes for only a week at most. This was the longest he had ever been with my family, so it was suuuch a nice change!! I was really happy that my family could get to know him even better! And that he could get to know them better as well! It needs to happen more often, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, that's probably the longest we will ever get for Christmas Break in a long time, because hopefully I will be able to get myself a job soon!! But who knows, maybe where I work would be flexible if they knew that I hardly got to spend time with my family?! I don't know. But I definately cherished all the moments and laughs that we had this Christmas! I was also grateful that the roads were good both going there and back (even though we had a tire explode on the way back.)

Some of the traditions that we have in my family for Christmas are getting new pj's, and putting them on Christmas Eve, a new ornament, decorating giant gingerbread men cookies, and having a Christmas Eve dinner with the Grandparents and reading the story of the saviors birth!!

It was especially fun this year, because it was both mine and Blake's first Christmas with our Nephew Robert, who is 2 years old! He is sooo fun right now! Of couse he goes through the terrible 2 tantrums just like any other kid his age. But his cuteness makes up for it! He still is warming up to Blake, in fact most of the time he tries to avoid Blake, and even tries to take me "safely" away from him. :) Eventually!! I think when he gets older he'll be able to remember him better as Uncle Blake, and not some scary man that is always with his Aunty Missy.
And don't get me wrong! I LOVED being with everyone in my family! Every single person. It's just especially fun to have a little one running around entertaining everyone, or at least keeping you busy! He's still so new to the family, well, at least to me because I left when he wasn't even a year old yet.

Anyways!! Here are a few pictures!!

The family!! We love you all!!
From left to right- Wes (Danae's husband), Danae, Robert, Mom, Nicole, Dad, Brandon, Me, and Blake.

The Wardell kids with the Grandparents (Mom's side). Christmas eve.

This is Blake and mine's creation. We always create the ugliest, yet cutest, things. We're great together. :) He was delicious!








And...to the right, is Danae and Wes's. Blake and I will get there...one day. It's sooo cute!! If you couldn't tell, its an ugly Christmas Sweater.




Christmas Eve dinner! It was sooo good!! I can't quite remember what the actual piece of meat was called that we have, but it was a type of Rib Roast!? Sooo tender and juicy!! Yum!! That along with greek salad, Lion House Rolls (amazing), German Noodles (aka Spetzle, like I said, family favorite!) And Sparkling cranberry juice! I never have really liked Horseradish with my roast, but my Mom made a really good mix of like, Horseradish and Sour cream! IT WAS SO GOOD!

This is what we woke up to Christmas Morning! Even at 20 years old, it still excites me!









Blake and I Christmas Morning!


Blake and I were really thought of this Christmas and I was so happy to share everything that I've experienced my whole life, with Blake this year! And I can't wait to do it again!

Also, can I just say I saved so much money by waiting to shop for Christmas presents 3 days before Christmas down in Utah!? Seriously, so much. People have crazy sales when it's a few days before Christmas! Loved it.

Oooo, another awesome present Blake and I gave ourselves was a very nice and needed teeth cleaning!! Yet again, saved a lot of money!

Anyways! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

December Happenings

I forgot a very important part about our month of November in 2010. Yup. The WHOLE month of November. Or more so "Movemeber". Blake grew this beauty in support of Prostate Cancer. It's pretty nasty, but he does pull it off well. :) Anyways. Just like the rest of the months in 2010, November flew by just as fast. Next came Decemeber. Which brought two very big birthdays for two of Blakes sisters. 18 and 16!! Within a week of eachother! So amongst all the busy schedules we were able to finally pick out a weekend to go "celebrate", their birthdays! (I put celebrate in " because they had already celebrated with presents and everything before we could make it out there.) The girls are both on cheer this year so they're sooo busy!! Like we hardly see them anymore! But its so fun for them! But we went out and while they were at a game having to cheer, since the girls BOTH didn't get a birthday cake, only presents..kind of backwards, Blakes mom, sister-in-law, and me decided to make them both cakes to come home to. 6 hours people. 6 hours of cake decorating. Heres the 18 yr olds cake. Sooo cute! But you have no idea how HARD it was to get the fondant that brown. I had the job of kneading the color into the fondant...I was almost positive I had carpell tunnel syndrome after both cakes. My mom decorates cakes...she had to have surgery for just that...and I now understand COMPLETELY how that happened. Way to go Mom!! The 16 yr olds. Yeah..I complained about the brown.... Black fondant....is the devil. It's just better to buy the fondant that way, if any of you are going to go out and try it! I was very proud of the result though. But my hands were literally purple and blue from it..not bruises..just the coloring. So that was the begining of December for us, actually more so the middle. The girls came home and were very happy!! We didn't even end up eating it, but oh well. At least we know we can do it. The next weekend, we went back to Blakes family's house, and were able to have a little Christmas Eve/ Christmas with them. We had a bunch of appetizers for dinner, and made the traditional Happy Pop!! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that. Blakes brother and his wife were also there to celebrate, since we were both going to be away this year for Christmas. (Coordinating it so that we can all be together the next year of course!). In Blake's family it's tradition to open new pj's on Christmas eve, so we did that as well. In my family we always just bought new pj's that we wanted, so we figured it worked out perfectly to still do that with his family and then have new pj's with mine! This year the girls got footie pajamas! Mine were elmo and had little elmo heads on the feet! They were cute! My nephew loved playing with them when we were down in Utah. We got lot's of wonderful presents from Blake's family, it was a nice way to kick off the Christmas Season for both me and Blake.

It's Been Awhile!

Well.. I've definately slacked in blogging mine and Blake's life. But..good news... I'M BACK!!! I have a lot to catch up on, but like usual I have a TON of time to do it, and so I am now committing. By the end of this week we will be up to date on what is going on in our lives.

So, for the first blog post in the time line..of up until now will be Thanksgiving. What? Thanksgiving..yeah, it was almost over two months ago..so what.

So we were planning on making it down to Utah for American Thanksgiving. But we suffered the loss of our dear cousin Taylor Tolman, so that weekend we had a funeral instead of a feast. It happened so fast what happened with Taylor. He had been in the hospital for over a month before we went and visited him. It made me realize that sometimes no matter how busy your schedule may seem, you ALWAYS need to make time for the important things. Especially family. We visiting him, literally, the day before things went down hill. Blake and I are so grateful that we did and will always keep the memory of him in our hearts. It still hurts me because the last thing I said to him when walking out of that hospital door was "I PROMISE we will see you again." Though it's not going to be in this life.. Taylor, my promise still stands. :)

Anyways, so because of that we had a change of plans and I made a LITTLE Thanksgiving dinner for me and my hubsy! It wasn't anything extravegant, but it made me happy. Blake has yet to experience an American Thanksgiving with my family, so I'm banking on it this year!!

Here are some pictures!
See, like I told you.. very tiny! We didn't even have turkey.. just a Rotissery Chicken! With gravy, stuffing (that we had left over from Canadian Thanksgiving, yay for freezing) and some spetzla aka german noodles.

You might be wondering what the heck those are..but they are a HUGE tradition in my family!! What it is..is..well.. Just flour and eggs! But with some gravy or cheese or anything else you want...sooo good! My grandparents gave me my own Spetzla press knowing how much I love them.
Unfortunately..I didn't have any white flour to work with..so I changed up the recipe using whole wheat flour..BIG mistake.. such a waste of flour..and of noodles. But hey, we tried! And now we know!


This is our make shift "pumpkin pies" I didn't have the time, being as this was a last minute Thanksgiving, so instead I found this easy recipe of a Pumpkin Pie Crumble Cake. It was soooo good!!! I have a favorite recipe that is the same, only using cherry pie filling. It is so good! As was this!

So that's pretty much it for now! :) Can't wait to write about Christmas!!!

Meet P.J.

So for the past little while, Blake and I have considered getting a dog! After having to leave my beloved Rusty in Utah, the dog of which I've had for 9 years this thanksgiving, I've had an aching in my heart for a dog. I love them. They truly are man's best friend, or at least they are mine! I want to save all the dogs in the world. Ceasar Millan, the dog whisperer, is my hero. I'm obsessed with his ability to "rehabilitate" dogs, and train owners. I take to heart everything he says about dog's behaviors and how all they really want to be in the world..well is a dog. Anyways, I will rant about him another time!

Well, I have decided against it for the time being. We have a place right now that would allow a pet, but I just don't think it would be smart (Financially or work wise) since we will be leaving in the summer! So, maybe next year. It also limits us when looking to find a final place and what not!

To make up for the ache that I've had...we borrowed Blake's family dog for the past couple weeks. I've loved every minute of it! Well most..he's had some whining issues, but thats where we have put in to play what Ceasar Millan has taught us, through his show, and his book. And he is doing great! It's been such a blast to play with him, snuggle, and just have been enjoying the company of having a dog spirit in the house! It really is uplifting!

Among walks, I took the opportunity to give him a nice bath, and a hair cut!

Here he is :). So cute! Thanks for coming P.J. we will surely have you over again!!! I think i did pretty good for my first time grooming a dog. :) I didn't think to take a before pic! Sorry.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our Beloved Tarantula, Timmy!




Blakes Brother and his wife!

Blake and I both carved Half
of a face on the pumpkin!

Blakes Half.




My half, I knew he was going to be doing something crazy,
So i tried to make mine evil.. :)

The result.

So, I made chicken enchiladas and wanted to make them Halloweenish. Hence the Boo written in Olives! :) It worked for me!





All of our Pumpkins! Blake did his side first, and he did the mouth very high up on the pumpkin..so the candles had a tough time lighting
him up! But we still loved our creation!









On Sunday, I made Dinner in a pumpkin! It was soooo good! Definately will be a tradition for us!






We got a total of 14 trick or treaters that night! Blake and I had a lot of fun passing out the candy to the cuties! Some of them..were too old to be trick or treating I think. And when we only gave them one piece each, they'd look at us like we were the worst "Halloweeners" out there. I didn't feel bad at all though, especially because we were limited on candy, and they would come in huge groups with pillowcases full of candy. They were perfectly loaded!

Anyways, next year Blake and I are hoping to hit up some party and be able to dress up! We didn't hear about any parties this year, so we just had a relaxing time at home!

Also, I've noticed a lot of people are already putting up their Christmas decorations..I absolutely am going to be jumping on that Bandwagon!!! I think once it snows a lot more people will be putting theirs up too! I can't believe it hasn't snowed yet, IN CANADA...in NOVEMBER!!! It's snowed in Utah multiple times already. Absolute insanity!