Faceless

We live in a great ward our here. They make going to church a lot more fun :) Tomorrow, there is a Munch and Mingle after the block. We were given the theme of faces, with a prize going to the person that brings food that looks the most like Bishop Glass. Yeah, I thought about what to do for a long time. I had no idea. And given that I've only seen the Bishop a few times in person, I couldn't come up with any distinguishing characteristic. So instead, I made faceless cupcakes. Yep, my forever Plan B (and usually Plan A) treat.

And I must say, the frosting is looking a TON better now. I'm finally figuring it out :) Though because I want to practice the cute swirl, I haven't done much fancy decorating on the tops. I did consider decorating cupcakes like the faces of Sesame Street characters for a couple days, but I didn't have enough time to do that, write a talk, and work all day. I couldn't make them too far in advance if they were going to taste decent.

So here are my little faceless beauties. They have stripes and spots... bodies with no faces.

But they are pretty cute, if I do say so myself :)

Dining Options

You'd think that after over a month of living in this apartment we'd have a classier way to eat than on our laps sitting on the couch. Don't worry, now we do!

Ah yes, a table and chairs.

all the placemats we made with Nana over the past few holidays will look so nice. I'm excited to use them!

I put together the majority of the chairs. Then when I got to the end, I couldn't really understand the instructions, so Marcus took over. He then did the table, and I put the felt pads on the legs. Definitely a group project :)

...did you notice Chicago peering over the table????

Maybe Curly found a new home too. I'm still deciding where he should live.

I do like this spot for the table because it gives so much more room by the oven. But I have flipped it the other direction too. We'll see.

It's not so empty anymore :)

I'm really excited for a table and chairs. Plus FedEx finally delivered something when I was home, so that was good too. Now I can sew. Or work on other projects. Or put my computer on it. Or put the mail somewhere. Or have more counters for preparing meals. Or just eat like a normal person. :) Tables are definitely one of those things that you don't realize how much you need them until you don't have one. I'm glad we do again :)

The Newest CooperKat

It's official... Marcus is an Account Coordinator at CooperKatz!

Obviously we knew that already since we moved across the country for it, but it's still fun to see it ON THEIR WEBSITE! :) He took several pictures and had a bio written. Pretty snazzy!

http://www.cooperkatz.com/team_details/marcus-hardy

Marcus' Surprise

Some husbands bring home flowers, Marcus does things a little different. :)

We were really sad when we couldn't bring Boo with us to New York, but there was no way we could have added a plant to the bazillions of other things we took on the airplane. So he's staying with my family in Arizona for now. Marcus surprised me when he came home from work with what he called Curly Fries. Where did he find an Arby's, and how did he get them all the way back here??? I was very confused. And then pleasantly surprised.

Meet Curly Fry -- Boo's long lost NY cousin

I am really excited about our new little one.

Chicago likes Curly too!

Brotherly Love

Marcus has always loved looking out for his brother Paden. He loves talking on the phone and texting him-- just being part of what is going on his life. It's really cute.

Marcus was giddy when he graduated from high school, started at BYU Hawaii, served a mission...

And he's especially excited that Paden just proposed. We're looking forward to Rebecca and Paden's wedding this summer!

(Sorry Paden, I stole this picture from your facebook, but it was too cute.)

Our First NY Snow

We woke up Saturday morning to some snow out of our window.

There was a little more on the ground.

You can see it better here.

Kind of pretty actually.

I like how the snow looks on the subway tracks.

Bishop Glass said it would be gone by tomorrow--NY snow only stays a couple days. I guess we'll see what happens.

DIPLOMA!

Guess what came in the mail...

MARCUS' DIPLOMA!!!

It's funny how having that little piece of paper just makes it seem more real. But he worked really hard for that, and hopefully one day we'll have a place to hang it up. Congratulations Marcus!

Our other little studious one:

I wonder what she had been researching...

hopefully not this: http://www.catswhothrowupgrass.com/kill.php :)

Wants or Needs

Working at Bed Bath and Beyond definitely has some Pro's and Con's. It's a pro that I can get the things I need. It's a con that it's too easy to get the things I want. :) However, this time, I think what we purchased was a need.

And I put it together. All by myself. Seriously. (After putting together the entertainment center, Marcus is on DIY strike.) Apparently I have mad skills. Haha. But fitting all those pieces in the box was a crazy puzzle, and I'm proud of myself. It feels like there is a lot more space in the bathroom now, even though I'm sure these pictures just make it seem like too much stuff in a tiny area.

But Nate Berkus said if you keep the tops of counters clear, rooms will seem bigger and cleaner. So I got everything off the sink. It's a start :)

With the extra towels out, we now have another cupboard to put away some kitchen linens and things. And since we couldn't put anything on the back of our crazy toilet, now we can.

One project down. Next up, getting the kitchen ready for the table. Bless Amazon and BBB for all their help with our move. :)

Shopping

I had to post this picture because it cracks me up. Marcus really wanted one of the shopping cart things, even though you usually only see older ladies with them. But he wanted one really badly for laundry and to make Costco trips more efficient. (I won't lie, it will make laundry easier when the weather is crazy, and it justifies things like Snack Pack puddings at Costco because we couldn't carry anything extra without one.) Well, we were at Costco, and they had a decent one at a great price. ...So here's Marcus with his new shopping cart (notice the Snack Packs and Yoohoo-- haha):

Natural History Museum

So today we had one of our first touristic days in the city. And we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History.

It's definitely a favorite. Marcus had gone there over the summer, and I was so excited about their IMAX movie-- it was an easy decision to go there first. Plus, we decided that instead of paying to go a couple times, since it is so gigantic, that we'd become members. That way we can wander around as many times as we want, and we can break it up so our feet are never too tired :) Plus we get into more exhibits, tours, and IMAX movies that way.

We didn't go in the front entrance. And good thing we didn't because the crowds were so much crazier there. We used the "secret" entrance from the subway. Lines were much, much better. Plus, we are members, so we got to skip the lines anyway.

The first thing we did was see the IMAX video Born to be Wild. Here's the clip about it. It was fantastic. The elephants and orangutans were so incredibly cute.

And since we are now members, we decided that we'd just pick a few exhibits to go to or walk by since we can come back as much as we want for the next year :) Here are some of our favorite spots.

Northwestern Indian Art

The ocean animals

It was really dark in there so I googled a picture of the GIGANTIC whale hanging from the ceiling:

I really liked this area. It's like SeaWorld!!!

A ray for Marcus :)

We'll go back to the dinosaurs another time, but I did want to see the ones in the entry:

And I requested the African animals too:

And Marcus, of course, wanted to see the space exhibit, but to get there we had to go through reptiles. Not my favorite.

But this made it better. Cute.

And then we walked through the space section.

(After that, we got super hungry and went to Mariela's for pizza.--This area of NY is one of my favorites with Central Park and all, and Marcus loves it because we always go to Mariela's for pizza.)

I'm sure we'll be back several times. It's a really neat museum. So much to see. (And if you come visit, we can go again-- we get discounted passes to bring more people. No pressure. Just if you want. Haha.)

Plus I found this awesome picture of their Christmas tree-- so we'll be back for sure next winter!

Sunnyside

On the way to and from our NY adventure, I finally took some pictures of Sunnyside.

Here's exiting our building:

And walking down the street toward the subway station:

The first intersection:

Looking across:

A church on the other side of the road:

That's the subway in the back.

Queens Blvd and the subway track:

Looking down from the middle of the crosswalk:

Under the subway:

On the platform:

Looking toward the city from the platform:

A train:

The other side of the subway:

Looking north again:

Northwest again (toward the city):

All bundled to battle the wind:

Yes, those are cupcakes from Crumbs. LOVE THEM.

And I'm pretty sure that hat is one I made during Nana's craft time one Page Family Thanksgiving. :)