I'm back

I know I know it has been too long. We are finally back in New York and I need to give you all an update. We flew back to Reno on December 21st and the holiday festivities began. The first night we stayed with my family and had a quick Dutton Christmas before everyone went their separate ways. We made home made pizzas, watched a movie with the new projector, and had Christmas the next morning.

Thanks mom and dad for a great Christmas. It is always fun to be together even if it is only for a day.

This is my cute mom and sisters.

Every year my mother-in-law throws a caroling party and a cookie decorating party. Both were wonderful as usual.

These are just a few of the cookies. The other Stodtmeister tradition is to go to Ryan's aunts house for Christmas Eve. Santa and Mrs. Clause come and give everyone one gift and then run off to finish delivering the rest of the gifts to the entire world :)

Me and Santa

This is Ryan's brothers, cousins, their children, and family friends

Christmas at the Stodtmeisters was a little different because Kipp (Ryan's little brother) had to work Christmas morning so we did Christmas morning on Christmas Eve. We had a great time opening gifts and playing the rest of the evening.

Ryan's got a new guitar so we are all expecting wonderful music from him now. The boys got the new Guitar Hero Three and the new Nintendo Wii. So the next 2 weeks were filled with video games. Ryan and Kyle started it off with staying up until 3am on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we woke up early with Kipp and opened our stocking from Santa and then spent the rest of the day being lazy, playing with our toys, and taking naps. Christmas dinner was low key but really nice.

On the 27th we packed up the UHaul and drove Rusty back to BYU for the winter semester. We were in Provo for a few days moving Rusty in, going to the movies, visiting Grandma and Grandpa, shopping at Ikea, eating and then we drove back to Reno. We were back in Reno for the New Year. New Years Eve we had dinner at home, saw the second National Treasure and then rang in the new year on top of a parking garage so we could watch the fire works. The rest of the week was wonderfully relaxing and great to be with family. On Saturday we were suppose to leave but a huge storm blew in and we ended up staying in Reno an extra 3 days. It was nice to get to stay a little longer but the best part was all the snow.

Soda loved the snow

our 7' snowman

It was so nice to be home.

Thanksgiving

(Man it is time to catch this blog up)
Thanksgiving was wonderful. We flew to California on November 21st and enjoyed a awesome holiday at my grandparents house. The entire family was there except for Laurel (my cousin) :( who we missed greatly. We shopped, road the train into San Fran, went golfing, ate yummy food and enjoyed family togetherness. We drove home to Reno for two days and then we flew back to New York. It was a very nice holiday.

Thanksgiving day at Grandma and Grandpa's
Ryan on the top of Mt. Diablo

Pictures from Boston

Yale
Yale

Boston

Tim, Anna, and me

me, Anna, and Tim

It was cold but beautiful

(Sorry it has taken me so long to post but blogger has been giving me a hard time) On November 10 Ryan and I jumped into our rented red beetle and headed for Boston. We stayed with Ryan's cousin, her fiance and their animal filled house. We didn't have enough time to see everything so we are going to have to go back but we had a great time.

Freedom

It has always been a dream of mine to live in a big city. I always loved the idea of walking everywhere, buying flowers at a corner market, and doing the things you can do in a big city. Well I got my wish and here we are in New York but I have discovered a few things. One of the things that I have learned is that I miss having a car. We rented a car this weekend and it was heavenly. I went shopping in Jersey on Saturday and we went for a Sunday afternoon drive. I miss having a car soooooo much. I love the freedom. But i don't miss insurance, registration, gas, or the occasional break down. I will post pictures soon.

Happy Halloween

Instead of making a costume for Halloween I made a quilt. Here is a quick glimpse. Thanks Gay for all the help.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. We went to the parade downtown for about an hour and then we watched The Birds. It was a fun evening. The best costume we saw was the robot from Flight of the Conchords. Hilarious.

Heart of Gold Gala

October 10th 2007, Heart of Gold Gala

Thanks mom for letting me use your shoes. Everyone loved them.Every thing was in white and gold

Orchids in the center pieces

Bethany and me

(Thanks Nicole for letting me use your shirt)

Amy, Amy, Joelle, Bethany, Me, and Rebecca

Amy, Joelle, Me

Me and Amy

Marony, Morgan, and Bethany

Me, Bethany, Morgan, Joelle, Alex, and Amy

post on the road

I am writing from my new iPod touch

Welcome Home Rusty

It has been a long time but I am back. On October 4th Ryan and I flew home to Reno to help be the welcoming party. Ryan's little brother Rusty come home from the Chicago Illinois North mission. We are all so excited to have him home.

(Rusty)

(Ryan, Rusty, Kyle, and Kipp)

After the many hugs, pictures, and chatting at the airport we headed over to the church and Rusty was released from being a full time missionary. The whole day gave me flash backs of me coming home from my mission. The part where you have to take your name tag off is by far the hardest part. For me that point made the end of my mission a reality.

(Yummy chili and corn bread lunch)

(Soda)

The rest of the weekend was filled with hanging out, sewing, guitar hero, movies, soccer game, conquering the earthquake at Swensen's, General Conference, yummy food, Bocce, and more hanging out.

(Kyle playing soccer)

(Kipp and Rusty)

(Kipp, Rusty, Kyle, and Ryan)

A wonderful weekend. Welcome home Rusty.

1 Year Anniversary

Today is my 1 year mark at Pershing Square (where I work). It is amazing how time flies. This is sad but this is the first job I have had for over a year so this is a big deal for me.

A music filled weekend

Friday night Ryan and I went to see Once. It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It is a sweet story and the music is amazing. So amazing that we bought the CD on itunes when we got home. In addition to listening to the soundtrack, we also listened to the always entertaining Risky Biscuit Hayseed Hoot, a great folk, bluegrass, and country program broadcast every Saturday morning from good ol' Reno, NV. Check it out if that is your cup of tea. It is often funny and makes Ryan nostalgic for Reno. We also tuned in to NPR's broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. The city life seems to create a hunger for an old-timey, folksy slice of Americana.

Saturday we went to the Ben Harper concert which was also amazing music. Ben Harper has incredible energy. The concert was at Radio City Music Hall a spectacular venue. We took a few pictures, but not many turned out because it was so dark. But this one is pretty cool. Sunday we went to church and then relaxed the rest of the day. We took a walk Sunday afternoon, and let me tell you that fall is in the air. This weekends weather was perfect, and I am so happy that cooler weather is here.

Trip Home To Reno

The new pool and Kyle's tricks

Happy Birthday

Nicole and Christian cutting the cake

Kipp, Ryan, and Kyle on the patio

The new pool and pool house. The sky is Ryan's favorite color. That blue right before the sky goes black.

Soda

Pyramid Lake Golfing

Pyramid Lake

Weekends are way too short.

Coming soon are pictures from our trip home to Reno but until them I will tell you about this past week and weekend. Last week Ryan started school again and so far so good. I can't believe it is already September and we are moving into the fall. I am a little sad the summer is over but to be honest I am ready for some nice fall weather with hopefully no humidity. Friday night we went to the Whitney Museum of American Art. They had some really cool stuff but we were a little sad because they have a big 60s exhibit so a lot of the permanent stuff was not there. The 60s exhibit was just OK and it was super packed with people. It was so hot and humid this weekend that it made walking around not so pleasant. We had dinner at a Persian restaurant around the corner from our apartment. The food is always really good. Saturday we slept in which was delightful and then headed down to the Apple store on 5th Ave to check out the new fun toys. We really shouldn't go in there because it just makes us want want want. We journeyed down to Union Square and bought some produce at the Green Market. The green markets has to be one of my favorite parts of New York. The produce is just amazing and it is fun to see all the colors and different vegetables and fruits. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and then branched out and tried a new recipe. We bought poblano peppers at the market and made chiles rellenos They were actually really yummy. Sunday we went to church and had a nice relaxing day. We went for a walk and it was a prefect evening. Now it is Monday again. The weekends are way too short.

Happy Birthday

Happy 30th Birthday Coley!

I am getting back on the blog train with two posts in one day. Last night Ryan and I were walking home from the subway. We walked by Serendipity (the famous restaurant in NYC) and for once it didn't have a wait line a mile long. So we made a spontaneous decision and stopped in. I was a little skeptical at first because people make such a big deal out of it. But the frozen hot chocolate (what they are famous for) is pretty good. The food was not that special and it was super expensive for what it is but the frozen hot chocolate is very interesting. The texture is totally different than anything else and it is super chocolaty. I don't think I would wait for 5 hours for it but I would have it again. So my suggestion is go when there is no line and just have the frozen hot chocolate. (Over Thanksgiving Ryan's family was in the city and we tried to go to Serendipity at midnight but there was a 2 hour wait. Crazy!)

1 Year in New York

We celebrated our one year in New York on September 1st but we were in Reno so I didn't get to post an anniversary note.

Word from New York

Things have picked up a little bit at work which is nice. But I haven't been able to update the blog as frequently. So here is an update for the last few days. Last Wednesday night my company had an early screening of the "Nanny Diaries". It was pretty good but kind of uncomfortable watching it with a bunch of people from New York that have nannies. The best comment was from my bosses wife. After the movie was over she said, "I feel bad for leaving my child at home with the nanny. I better get home, wake him (her son) up and give him a big hug." Thursday night Ryan and I went to dinner with Laurel to say good bye. She was leaving for London on Saturday. We had dinner at Olives and it was amazing. I love ever bit and especially the desert. It was a cookie sampling that we all shared. It consisted of homemade HoHo, nutter butter, chocolate chip, white chocolate mac nut, cookie dough, red velvet cupcake, oatmeal, and three different ice cream scoops. It was to die for. It was a nice evening but it was really sad to say goodbye. I am really going to miss her. But hope to go visit her in London sometime. Saturday the weather in New York was delectable. So Ryan and I took a picnic to the park and enjoyed the evening. We even threw the Frisbee around a little. The weather was mid 70s and sunny, perfect. Since then it has rained like crazy. It has been dark and gloomy and it starting to feel like fall. It is very strange. And that's the news. I will add more pictures soon.