Chelsea and Joey get married!

We were so happy to be a part of two of our favorite people's wedding: Chelsea and Joey. I met Chelsea when I moved out to Phoenix for our new gigs at the Arizona Republic. We experienced the Phoenix summer together, all while sleeping on our air mattresses. Our Midwest upbringing didn't prepare us for the heat, but sharing experiences with Chelsea made the summer even more fun and enjoyable! Luke met Joey at the Republic, as well. Together, they created some great sports pages and Joey sky-rocketed into his own business: 5M Sports. If you get a chance, check it out. And if you have any reason to use his expertise-DO IT! He is rawesome.

They moved to Chicago in the spring of 2009 when Joey got a new gig at Chicago Tribune Interactive. Chelsea works at a newspaper in Northwest Indiana covering transportation.

Joey proposed to Chelsea on a trip to San Diego at Point Loma. They loved the trip so much, that they wanted their family and friends to come out there for their amazing wedding. What a great idea it was! Everyone had such a great time...what isn't to love about celebrating two people's love for each other in one of the greatest cities in America?

Luke and I's adventure to the ocean began early on Friday, January 29. This was also Luke's 30th birthday! He was so excited to be in San Diego on his birthday and to see Joey and Chelsea. We have made a couple trips to San Diego before, and every time we pass by billboards around the small town of Dateland advertising "Date Shakes." Since we had a little time to spare, we figured we would stop off and see if it was worth all the hype. It wasn't :( We were so disappointed. It was waaay too gritty and didn't have a good taste to it. It was like a protein shake.

This photo was taken before I took my first sip. :)

We got to town around 11:30 a.m. and stopped by Old Town. We met our cousins, Toni (my cousin on my mom's side) and Doug (Luke's cousin on his dad's side) at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, Cafe Coyote. They make homemade tortillas and have great margaritas. It was so nice to catch up with our cousins, and a few weeks after our visit, Toni got engaged! So much love lately! :)

Luke wanted his photo taken in front of the wagon. It was his birthday, so I couldn't tell him no. :)

After lunch, Doug and Toni had to head back to work and we made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Best Western on Shelter Island. Our room faced a harbor and it was wonderful waking up to the sound of the water and birds.

The view from our room on Shelter Island, San Diego.

After we checked in, we unpacked and got ready for rehearsal. The wedding was to take place at the Wedding Bowl, a flat area along a cliff in La Jolla. By far, the best place to have a wedding.

Chelsea practices walking down the aisle!

The most-gorgeous sunset at the Wedding Bowl.

After rehearsal, we had dinner at a pizza place back over by our hotel. The pizza was amazing and Luke found out that Chelsea's maid of honor, Alycyn, was also celebrating a birthday that day. So we all sang happy birthday to them and got to see some childhood photos of Joey and Chelsea while we enjoyed some delicious tiramisu.

After dinner, it was time for bed. We had a lot of partying to do the next day!

Luke's Birthday Dinner

A week before Luke's birthday, we celebrated by eating his favorite kind of food: Mexican. We were heading to San Diego the day of his birthday for our very good friends, Joey and Chelsea's wedding (post to come soon...with video!).

My employer's Christmas party was at this hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant called Los Olivos, and after that party, I knew Luke would love to give it a try...and boy did he love it! Los Olivos is one of the oldest restaurants in Old Town Scottsdale. Our waitress has been working there since she was a little girl (she looked well into her 60s when we visited) and her sister has been making the homemade tortillas since she was a little girl, as well. She has the tortilla making down because it was by far the best (and biggest!) tortilla I have ever had. We had a ton of food on the table, and only had a small box left to take home. We cannot wait to go back soon and eat some more delicious tortillas and salsa.

Luke gives Los Olivos the thumbs-up

The homemade tortillas are huge!!

Make-it-yourself-date

About a month ago, Luke and I spent a Saturday night at Fudruckers and Yogurtland. The similarity between the two places? We assembled the food ourselves. While it is nice having people make the food and prepare it for you at other restaurants, it was a good change of pace to decide exactly how we wanted our food to look and taste. We loved Yogurtland so much, we have made it almost a weekly occurrence. :)

Here's some of our creations:

Luke decides what he wants on his veggie burger at Fudruckers.

A cheeseburger, just how I like it (Little mustard, 3 pickles and LOTS of ketchup!!)

Yogurtland's yogurt machines. They usually have about 10-12 different flavors every day (and you can have as many free samples as you would like!)

I pick out some not-so-healthy toppings.

Luke went the healthier route with strawberries, Captain Crunch, granola, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I, on the other hand, went with Oreos, chocolate chip cookie dough, sprinkles and caramel.

Happy Valentines Day!

Sorry for the hiatus. I will be getting back in the swing of things, as far as this blogging is concerned :D Look here soon for a TON of updates.

In the meantime, we wanted to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day!! We hope your day is full of love and laughter!

We celebrated last night by eating at the restaurant we went to on our first date, back in June of 2007. Monti's in Tempe is one of the oldest restaurants in town, and it has some of the best seafood around. Luke even surprised me with a bouquet of flowers in the middle of dinner! Romantic points to him!

Christmas Baking

Here's what we made this Christmas. It was so much fun trying new things and experimenting.

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1) FUDGE
My Mom gave me a recipe for fudge. After I added in all the ingredients, it was more milkey than anything. I acted fast and added in more marshmallow cream, bakers chocolate and chocolate chips. The result: Some of the best fudge ever, in my book. It was so rich and creamy and I can't wait to try making it again next year.

Here's the recipe:
• 4.5 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 Bakers chocolate-semi sweet
• 1.5 jars of marshmallow cream
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1.5 bag of chocolate chips

Boil and then turn down heat sugar, salt, butter and milk for 6 minutes, continuously stirring.

In a large bowl (already prepared) put in chocolate chips, bakers chocolate (break up to help melting) and marshmallow cream. To geet marshmallow cream out easier, put in micowave for 15 seconds.

Pour boiled stuff on top of chocolate and marshmallow cream. Might want to do this a little at a time. Stir and place in greased pan quickly. Place in fridge for a few hours.

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2) CANDIED PECANS
I wasn't planning on making this, but I had some leftover pecans from the cheese ball (see recipe below). This recipe is awesome!

• 2.5 cups of pecan halves
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir pecans and oil in medium bowl. Place pecans on lined baking sheet and roased for 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees. Let pecans cool.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt and water in sauce pan. Continuously stir until sugar is dissolved (Boil to 236 degrees).

Remove from heat and blend in vanilla. Add pecans and stire until mixture is creamy.

Place pecans on wax paper and separate pecans.

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3) ANGELETTI COOKIES
(makes about 25 medium sized cookies)
About 100 calories each
These cookies are lighter than normal cookies and the glaze is awesome.

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk (I've been using skim and it turns out fine)
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 cups confectioner sugar
• 4 tablespoons of water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In large bowl, whisk butter, granulated sugar, milk vanilla and eggs.

In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture until evenly blended.

Cover dough with plastic wrap or waxed paper and let stand for 5 minutes.

Bake for 7-8 minutes until light brown on bottom.

Glaze:
Mix sugar and water and dip cookies into glaze after the cookies are cooled. Immediately sprinkle with decorations.

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4) CHEESE BALL (not pictured...we ate it too fast! :D )
Luke needed his cheese ball... :)

1 bar of cream cheese
1 bag (8oz) of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
3-4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ranch dressing
(Play with the amount of paprika, Worcestershire and ranch dressing until you get the taste/consistency that you like)
1 cup walnuts

Mix cheeses, seasoning and sauces in large bowl. Make into 1 or 2 balls and roll in walnuts. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

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5) FROZEN GOLDFISH
Luke wanted some chocolate covered pretzels. Last Sunday, I got all of the ingredients except the pretzels. But I found some pretzel goldfish in the pantry and here's what I came up with:

• 1 bag of Goldfish pretzels
• 1 bag of white chocolate chips
• 2 bricks of white candy bark

Place goldfish in large mixing bowl.

In large saucepan, melt chocolate chips and candy bark. Continuously stir. Once it is all melted, pour on top of goldfish. Mix until coated well. Spread out goldfish onto wax paper and separate as much as possible. Add decorations, if desired. Place in refrigerator until chocolate hardens.

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Next year, I look forward to baking some Knox/Barnhart family traditions: Cranberry Pudding and Mincemeat Bars!!

More Christmas Schennanagans

The night before Christmas my cousin (Sarah), her son (Nathan) and my aunt (Denise) and uncle (Jeff) and I went to Christmas Eve service at our church. After we headed over Sarah's house for some pizza and hung out for a while. Nathan got to open up a few presents: Nerf guns. Nathan loves to have his dad shoot the little Styrofoam darts at him! Here's some photos of the action:



Jeff and Denise made a Santa beard and hat. Here's some photos of Jeff sporting the outfit. Nathan didn't know what to think of it :)



We headed over to Sarah's place again on for Chirstmas lunch the next day. The food is always amazing, and there were waaay too many sweets! Luke was able to make it for a couple hours..enough to scarf down a lot of mashed potatoes :) We got Nathan a Mickey Mouse golf set. Here is a photo of Justin teaching him a how to play:

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends!

I woke up around 7:00 a.m., but waited until Luke woke up around 8:30 a.m., or so to start opening presents. He's had a long couple weeks at work. But tomorrow is the start of his weekend, followed by a 4-day work week and 3-day weekend. Yah for a light at the end of the tunnel!

Here are some photos from the day. Luke and I spoiled each other this year. To add to it, our family and friends spoiled us even more! We are so lucky to have you all, and wish we could have spent today together with you!

Hamilton started off the festivities by opening up his stocking. He found some soft and crunchy treats.

Notice the difference in wrapping jobs? Luke will be a pro in no time, I'm sure :)

A present I wrapped

A present Luke wrapped (notice two different types of wrapping paper)

I may have gone over our "limit" with Luke's present, however I took the opportunity to use Christmas as an excuse to get him some necessities that he doesn't normally purchase during the rest of the year.

Boxers and socks! Wohoo!

More photos of the day to come!