Love, Life, & Games of Chelsea & James: February 2012

Hubby is Home

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

FINALS ARE OVER FOR JAMES! Medical school is crazy. I am so proud of James for working so hard and studying his brains out for finals. He took 9 finals total, 6 of them were in one week. On Monday he had 2 finals and another final Tuesday morning, so 3 finals in 24 hours, plus more for the rest of the week. He got great scores on all his finals and I'm so happy because he deserves it! I can't tell you how incredibly wonderful it feels to have my husband back. No more 3 hours of sleep a night for James, he gets a full 8 hours with me and then daytime to relax and have fun! It has been SO NICE. This weekend we celebrated by going out to dinner to (guess...) CHILIS. We had the usual. Then we went shopping and I got these AMAZING Nike shoes that I have had my eye on for a long time. We finished the night by going to see the movie The Vow with our great friends Than & Ixchel. The movie was really sweet and we enjoyed spending time together. On Saturday I worked all day but James was able to get lots done and relax. We went to the adult session of Stake Conference which was wonderful. We could feel the Spirit very strongly during the session. The talks were about strengthening home & family & marriage & our role as parents in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Afterwards we went to Coldstone with our friends Trevor & Whitney (& baby Claire), Than & Ixchel, and & Luke & Jenna (& baby Eliza). Sunday was another great session of Stake Conference where they talked about missionary work. I'm so proud of my brother Elder Fakkel for serving in Scotland/Ireland & for my brother-in-law Elder Chapman for serving in the Alpine-German-speaking mission. After conference we had hawaiian haystacks for lunch with Than & Ixchel. Our home teachers taught both of us at their house. Then we watched the movie Over the Hedge which was pretty funny. Then James and I went for a walk because the weather is beautiful outside! We finished the night by watching The Wizard of Oz. We loved singing along to all the songs. WE had a WONDERFUL weekend.

(hawaiian haystacks, not our pic, from the google images)

The Wizard of Oz - 70th Anniversary (DVD)

Day of Love aka Valentines Day

The week of Valentines Day was super crazy busy for James because he began to study for finals. After work on Tuesday I hurried home, picked up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Johns (thank you Nana & Grandpa Fakkel for the Valentines Pizza on you!), set the table & the mood for my sweet hubby. He came home from school and voila~quick Valentines date set and ready to go! Happy Valentines Day James~I LOVE YOU!

Valentines Table w/ heart decor I made him throughout the week with acts of love written on them

Valentines Day Pizza thanks to Nana & Grandpa Fakkel

Happy Valentines Day Babe!

Valentines Hearts with 50 reasons why I love James

HERE WE ARE LAST VALENTINES DAY WITH A HEART SHAPED PIZZA. WE WERE ENGAGED FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS IN THIS PHOTO.

Poor Man's Proposal for Valentines Day

This Valentines Day was our first as a married couple! James planned what he calls a "Poor Man's Proposal" date. The weekend before Valentines Day he created a reenactment of his marriage proposal to me last year--only on a poor man's budget. We made my favorite dinner together from scratch~cajun chicken pasta Chili's recipe style. After dinner we made heart shaped brownies for our brownie sundaes. We also watched Disney's The Sleeping Beauty (instead of going to see the Sleeping Beauty Ballet like last year). Also, instead of a dozen long stemmed pink roses, James found cute mini pink roses in a flower pot for me. So sweet! James did a wonderful job making me feel special and it was fun to reminisce the day he asked me to marry him. My husband is a sweetheart!

One Year Ago Today...

Saturday, February 11, 2012

One year ago today the love of my life asked me to spend eternity with him and I said YES! It was one of the happiest moments of our lives. James made me a candlelight dinner (Chili's Cajun Chicken Pasta made from scratch) and heart shaped brownie sundaes. We danced in the kitchen, he proposed, we cried, we kissed, then he took me to see The Sleeping Beauty Ballet in Salt Lake City. It was such a magical night. Thank you James for asking me to be your wife! I love you with all of my heart!

Chocolate Chip "Life" Cookies

A few months ago James bought a bunch of Quaker cereal because it was on sale for a really great price. He asked me if I liked Life and I said yes but only Cinnamon Life. I thought he'd buy a box. No, he bought 3 boxes. Only 1 box of Peanut Butter Capn' Crunch which is one of my favorite cereals, but 3 boxes of a cereal I only like a little bit. After 2 months or so we finally finished 1 box of Cinnamon Life. I don't know what it is, but it just isn't our favorite cereal and knowing that there are 2 more boxes to go I guess we dreaded eating it all. I looked online for any recipes that call for Life Cereal. I found a cookie recipe, tried it out, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!! Next time you have too much Cinnamon Life Cereal, just try this recipe, or, if you are craving these cookies, BUY Cinnamon Life just for them!

Chocolate Chip "Life" Cookies

You can see the Cinnamon Life poking out. The cereal gives it an nice crunch. You can taste a hint of cinnamon from the cereal. It goes well with the peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Chip "Life" Cookies

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups Life or Cinnamon Life cereal
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugars, butter, and peanut butter together. Add egg and vanilla and mix. Stir together flour and baking soda and mix into butter mixture. Add cereal and chocolate chips. Stir well. Drop onto baking stone or sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I baked for 8 minutes and they were perfect. Remove and allow to cool for 1 minute prior to removing to a cool rack. Enjoy!!

Super Bowl Sunday Snacks-n-Sweets

The best part about the Super Bowl is getting together with friends and family to eat scrumptious snacks & sweets. Our good friends Whitney & Trevor invited us into their home (they just bought a cute house!) to watch the game and eat food! The boys watched the game while the girls chatted and only watched commercials--until the last quarter of the game. Here are some poor quality photos (sorry).

I made 7-Layer Dip
Refried Beans, Sour Cream, Guacamole, Salsa, Cheese Sauce, Tomatoes, Olives

The Boys minus Luke who came later

Baby Claire loves her book!

Trevor shared the couch with Ixchel

Whitney, Claire, & Nicole

James, Than, & Chad with Taylee

We had tons of chips, 5 or 6 different dips, 3 pizzas, fruit w/ yogurt dip, veggies n dip, and 4 different

desserts

We ate so much!!!!

Chad's family has a Super Bowl tradition of eating doughnuts

I figured I had to take a picture of the game on TV haha

The New York Giants ended up winning 21 to 17.

Thanks Whitney & Trevor for a fun night!

Nicole & Taylee & Chad, James & Chelsea, Trevor & Whitney, Ixchel & Than

(Sorry the camera didn't fit Luke in the picture, he should be standing next to Nicole)

Easy Date Night

Saturday, February 4, 2012

This weekend James and I had an easy date night because 1) James was exhausted from studying hard for his test on Thursday and 2) James studied the majority of the day for his upcoming test on Monday. By the way, the Thursday test he studied for was Anatomy and he only got 1 hour of sleep the night before. He studied all night, went to bed at 2:00am and woke up at 3:00am. I took him back to the 24/hour study center at 3am. His test was at 7am. He doesn't like people to know his scores on his tests, but let's just say that I am "A" very proud wife :) Good job sweetheart!

SO back to date night--we went to eat at this place:

James has eaten here before, but this was my first time. Can I just say that their subs are SO FREAKING DELICIOUS! Wow I can honestly say that Firehouse Subs is my new favorite sandwich place. They serve their subs on toasted bread and they steam the meats and cheeses to get the juices flowing. YUM!

James got the Firehouse Hero which is premium roast beef, smoked turkey breast, Virginia honey ham, and melted provolone, served Fully Involved (lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, mayo and dill spear on the side).

I got the Hook & Ladder which is smoked turkey breast, Virginia honey ham, and melted Monterey Jack, served Fully Involved.

Here is the picture I took of our sandwiches, definitely not as pretty looking as the ones above, but they were delicious!

Firehouse restaurant decor:

This is a photo I got off the web. I saw this for the very frist time: The New Coca Cola's Freestyle Drink Dispenser. How awesome is that? It's a touch-screen drink machine! I felt so high-tech using it.

Here we are with our delish subs:

After Firehouse, we went home with our Redbox movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes. See previous post for movie review. The best part was cuddling together while eating Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone Ice Cream. Thanks Mom for introducing us to that scrumptious ice cream!