Last night I hosted some girls at work at our house for a girls' night. It was so much fun! I cooked a vegetarian lasagna from Giada de Laurentiis' cookbook "Everyday Italian" and it turned out sooo tasty! I had two vegetarians coming to the party so I wanted to make something tasty that everyone could eat. I normally don't try a new recipe when I entertain, but I decided to make Giada's lasagna because it sounded so fantastic. It completely exceeded my expectations and everyone went back for seconds! You know it's good when a group of women go back for seconds. :-) When I was preparing it the night before I started getting nervous that it wasn't going to turn out to be tasty because it was full of ingredients that I wasn't used to having in a lasagna. There are even white beans in the recipe! The combination of the beans with all the veggies, cheese, noodles and sauce made the dish amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone!
After dinner we had a hilarious time playing Dance Dance Revolution. It is highly entertaining to watch other people play, and it's great exercise too. We have two matts so it made it even more fun to have dueling players. All in all it was a perfect night!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Girls Night
Posted by Dawn N. at 3:01 PM 0 fun responses
Labels: girls night
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Summer Update
Posted by Dawn N. at 10:15 PM 0 fun responses
Labels: summer update
Friday, May 22, 2009
Affordable decorating
There is a fun and unique new decorating technique that won't break the bank but will easily beautify your space. Click on this link to my other blog where I've written a tutorial on how to make framed fabric art.
Posted by Dawn N. at 8:46 PM 0 fun responses
Labels: affordable decorating, art, economical decorating, fabric, fabric as art, framed fabric, framing fabric
Friday, April 17, 2009
Finally some pictures
Chad and I moved into our new townhouse last weekend and we are finally coming up for air! We've been in the midst of piles of boxes and lots of home renovations. One thing we have learned through this whole experience is that moving and renovating a home at the same time makes for some really busy days! But it's all worth it and we are thrilled to be in our new place. We don't have countertops in the kitchen yet so we haven't been able to unpack a lot of the kitchen things yet, and a lot of the house is filled with boxes. But I wanted to share some photos so you can see the progress and also some of where we started out. :-)
Posted by Dawn N. at 10:28 AM 1 fun responses
Labels: home renovations, moving, renovation, townhouse
Monday, March 9, 2009
Cabo San Lucas Trip
I am way behind in my blogging but wanted to share some pics from our trip to Cabo that we took a few weeks ago. My wonderfully generous boss took the whole staff for a weekend trip to celebrate her birthday. We were pampered and treated like royalty and kept pinching ourselves wondering if it was really happening. I've included a few photos of our fabulous room that we got to stay in. It was right on the beach!
Posted by Dawn N. at 1:50 PM 0 fun responses
Labels: Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, ME-Cabo, travel
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Losing my aunt to cancer
This picture was taken over 2 years ago when my Aunt, Kieara, read scripture in our wedding. It was a wonderful day and it was so important to me that she be part of it. Little did we realize that day how precious those moments with her really were, and how quickly we would be saying goodbye to her.
We called her "Auntie Kie" and she was my mom's sister. Ever since I was little, I always enjoyed spending time with her. We had great conversations and lots of laughs together. I so looked forward to the times that we would visit her and her family or they would come to visit us. Her daughter, Laurien, and I also became great friends very quickly. Even with our 8 year age difference we have remained close over the years. Together with our moms we were a fun group that never stopped finding things to laugh hysterically about when we were together.
Last July, my aunt entered the hospital for what we thought was a routine hysterectomy. It turned out to be anything but routine and the doctors found cancer. The cancer they found was a rare uterine cancer called leiyomycosarcoma and she had stage 4. It had already spread to her lungs and her bladder. She started a harsh treatment combining radiation and several types of chemo at the same time. But nothing the doctors did could stop the cancer from spreading. It eventually spread to her spine, kidneys and liver and the cancer in her lungs completely overtook her lungs . From the day she was diagnosed, it was only 6 months before she passed away.
We are heading to Denver this weekend for the memorial to celebrate my Aunt's life and mourn her passing. But we are so thankful for the hope we have to see her again in Heaven someday. She had a very strong faith in Christ and because of God's grace we will be with her again someday. She went through so much pain and agony during those months of fighting the cancer, it is good to know she is no longer in pain. But that doesn't keep us from missing her so much right now.
I will miss her laugh, her wonderful smile, and all the love she showed to me and to my husband. In the months before she was diagnosed, we had started e-mailing each other daily. I kept those e-mails and am so thankful to have them now. In addition to the mourning my immediate family is going through, my heart hurts for my Uncle who now has to live without his loving bride, and for my cousins who lost a mom way too soon.
Among the many things I have learned from this experience, the one thing that stands out for me is that life is so precious and fragile. We have no idea how many days we have here on earth, and family is so important. I loved my aunt, and I am so thankful that we had so much fun together while she was here.
Posted by Dawn N. at 1:42 PM 0 fun responses
Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunset at Green Valley Lake
A few weeks ago I took a trip up to Green Valley Lake which is near Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains. It was my friend's birthday and she got a cabin up there for the weekend. We took a few walks while we were there and happened to catch this beautiful sunset over the water.
Posted by Dawn N. at 7:04 PM 0 fun responses
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
2 years ago today :-)
Two years ago today was an amazing and wonderful day. I married the man of my dreams at the Pepperdine Chapel surrounded by our family and friends. I am so thankful that God brought my wonderful husband Chad and I together and I am amazed to see what He has done in our lives since then.
Posted by Dawn N. at 6:42 PM 0 fun responses
Labels: Anniversary, family, My wonderful husband
Monday, November 17, 2008
A Great Anniversary Weekend
Our 2 year wedding anniversary is this Wednesday so we celebrated this past weekend with a little getaway to the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village. It was the nicest hotel I have ever seen in my entire life. The rooms were like we were living at Hearst Castle and the entire hotel felt like a museum. It's filled with amazing art and there's even pottery in the guest rooms. There was also a chandelier in our room!!! The bathroom was huge and beautiful and had a widescreen television. The toiletry items that were included were from L'Occitane which happens to be my favorite. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a wonderful getaway. We felt like king and queen for a couple days. :-)
Posted by Dawn N. at 10:49 AM 0 fun responses
Labels: hotels, The Four Seasons, Westlake Village
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wiener Dog riding Skateboard
I came across this video the other day and it makes me smile. It reminds me of our dachshund snickers that we had when I was growing up. She never would have stayed on the skateboard though. :-)
Posted by Dawn N. at 1:17 PM 0 fun responses