Two more Congratulations are in order

We now have two more options.

Ryan got accepted into University of California Santa Barbara and the University of Oregon

Congratulations!!!!!

Congratulations!!!

Ryan was accepted into the PhD program at University of Washington.

Congratulations!!!!

Now our future is really up in the air, but we are lucky to have options.

Catch up...

Here is our past month in a nut shell because I have been such a slacker.
1. We had a great Valentines dinner at Destino, a yummy Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. They even gave me a rose.
2. The weekend after Valentines day we rented a car with some friends and drove to Albany NY. We took lots of pictures, walked around in the cold, and had a great dinner at a local restaurant.
3. My parents came to visit us for a long weekend at the end of February. We ate a lot (BLT Market, Gramercy Tavern, Alice's Tea Cup, Bouchon Bakery, Union Oyster House, I told you we ate a lot), went to the Frick museum (which I loved), drove to Boston for the day stopping at Yale, Ikea, and Harvard, did a little shopping, took a long walk in the park, and just enjoyed being together. It was a great weekend and I love having family in town.

Those are the major things that we have done. I will post pictures soon and I promise to be better at posting.

Happy Valentines Day

(don't these little eclairs look Yummy)

Investor Dinner

We had our Investor Dinner on 1-24-08 at the Museum of Natural History. It was a nice evening but the best part was the employee get together afterwards.
Amy, Joelle, Bethany, and Me

Joelle, Me, Bill, and Bethany

President Hinckley

We are grateful for President Hinckley's example, leadership, and love.

"To you, this day, I affirm my witness of the calling of the Prophet Joseph, of his works, of the sealing of his testimony with his blood as a martyr to the eternal truth. Each of you can bear witness of the same thing. You and I are faced with the stark question of accepting the truth of the First Vision and that which followed it. On the question of its reality lies the very validity of this Church. If it is the truth, and I testify that it is, then the work in which we are engaged is the most important work on the earth." President Gordon B. Hinckley October 2007 General Conference

I love Three Day Weekends

I love having an extra day in the weekend. I vote to have three days every weekend. Saturday night we sent to a little burger joint downtown called Stand and it was beyond yummy. Great hamburgers and shakes to die for. I had an apple pie milk shake that tasted like they mixed a slice of apple pie and ice cream in a blender. It was GOOD! I also saw the movie 27 Dresses this weekend which is a great chic flick. I hope everyone had a good three day weekend as well.

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.