This Website is Pretty Good BUUUT..........

.... Yeah I pretty much couldn't help myself...

Basement Update...

ITS FINISHED!!! ... At least, one room is. We finished our basement living room. The 'stink room' is no longer stinky!

The bar is completely finished, it is NOT shown finished in the picture below but I have had little time to take any more pictures.

Bar, it looks SOOOO awesome.
The walls. They look a little weird in these pictures...

This is how the upstairs looks without the couches! I love it so much more! I think its about time for a new dining table.... lol

I will update soon with the final pictures of everything.

Crazy Texas 2009

Katherine, Matt, Amir and I all went to San Antonio for the Labor Day weekend. It was pretty last minute so Amir and I didn't sit with Katherine and Matt for the plane rides. On the plane ride to Texas Amir and I sat up in First Class which was great because Amir got his own seat and we could set up my laptop so he could watch some movies. We left Salt Lake around 7:30pm and the plane ride was three hours. So towards the end of the three hours Amir was trying to get comfy on the floor to go to sleep. Luckily the flight attendant and the people around us were pretty patient. I've got a pretty loud child when he expresses himself... Happy, sad... He's always loud.

We landed in San Antonio around 11:00pm so Amir was very ready for bed. He didn't fall asleep but as soon as we got to Emily's house he was somewhat easy to put down. After he played in the toy room that is.

The next morning (Saturday) Amir and I got up around 7:00am and was surprised to find just about everyone awake except for Katherine and Matt. I was still pretty much asleep when I went into the kitchen so at first I was a little confused as to what was going on....

Emily and her family planned a surprise baby shower for Katherine. It was a lot of fun. We started off with Katherine and Matt wearing their bibs then we played a few games...

We had to guess what was in some bags, pass a pacifier with a straw, baby food tasting and last but not least; a chocolate milk chugging contest.... With baby bottles!! (size 1 nipple) Then it was onto gifts. There were some really cute outfits for baby Gus!

It rained most of Saturday so we stayed in the house except for when Jon, Emily, Matt and I went to get some yummy mexican icecream bars. They were REALLY yummy and of course the lady working there thought I spoke spanish so was talking to me and I had no idea what she was saying.

On Sunday we went to church. Amir looked so cute in his nice clothes but everytime I told him to stand and smile for the camera he would drop to the floor and pretend to sleep. Katherine ended up holding him up while I took his picture.

Later that day we went swimming and even though it felt warm outside before we got in the pool it was freezing water and when we got out it was extra freezee!

Monday morning we got up at 5:00am to catch our plane. The plane ride home was pretty mellow. Katherine and Matt sat behind Amir and I on this plane. Which was great because Amir ended up falling asleep on Katherine's lap and pretty much slept the whole way.

The trip was a lot of fun but we are happy to be home. Back to our normal sleep and napping routine!

Baklava Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
• 2 cups chopped pistachios
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt the butter over low heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of the butter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Layer 3 sheets of the phyllo dough in the pan. Trim dough to fit. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of pecans over the phyllo dough. Layer 3 more sheets of dough, brush generously with the melted butter, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of pecans. Continue dough -butter- pistachio layers until pan is 3/4 full.
3. With a sharp knife, score phyllo dough to form diamonds. Pour remaining butter over the dough.
4. Bake 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.
5. While the baklava is cooling start the syrup recipe below.
6. Pour syrup over the baklava. Cut into diamonds and cool on wire rack.

Syrup:

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 Cup water

1 Cinnamon stick

2 thin slices of ginger

2 inches lemon peel (Yellow part only)

1 tsp lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla

1 tbsp orange juice

1/2 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

1. Add water, cinnamon stick, ginger, lemon peel & lemon juice into a pan and let boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes. (you will have approx 1 cup of liquid)
2. Add the sugar, vanilla & orange juice and turn off the heat. Stir ingredients together.
3. Stir in honey.
4. You can add 1/2 tsp of rose water or jasmine water.
5. Check to see if the baklava has cooled to a lower temperature than the syrup.

NOTE: If the baklava and the syrup are the same temperature the baklava will be soggy.

Basement Day 1ish

Day 1 of the Basement is complete. I guess this is technically day 2 buuuut the first day it was only worked on for about an hour. This was a complete DAY.

Here are some pictures of our accomplishments of the day and also things we want to tackle tomorrow...

The floor of the stink room!!! It's awesome!
Where the closet used to be. Tomorrow we are putting some drywall up.
The hole where the counter will go.
The light switch that we are replacing. ICKY!
Yet another ICKY... We are going to replace this too. With white.

One last thing... We have decided to not paint the whole basement 'Roasted Nuts'.... Since the walls are already textured ugly we are going to retexture and stain. But thats a whole other project in itself.