happy new year!

Yay, I'm caught up to blogging about the right year! ;) I have a confession, ever since I started using instagam I've been a bad blogger. I like blogs, I enjoy keeping a record of my life that way and it's fun to keep tabs on my friends and family...but, instagram is just SO much easier- I can snap a pic on my phone, post it with a quick thought and it's like micro-blogging. There are a few problems however..not everyone is on instagram, and since you just post one pic at a time I have no where to show off the other 10 pics I love from my little photo sessions. :) One of my goals for this year is to not perpetually be a month behind on my blog- if you're still following me you've really been a trooper, and you'll be rewarded with more consistent, concise posts. (once I finally catch up)

Besides my blog goal, I'm just hoping that this year in my second year as a mom I will be able to find better balance. The girls really threw things off balance and that's normal, but even though they're always priority #1 I'd still like to reincorporate more of my old life's loves. Including but not limited to: getting creative in the kitchen, sewing, going to zumba, scrapbooking, quilting, getting dressed everyday, reading scriptures more frequently, and keeping our house from looking like a tornado came through it every week.  Lofty goals indeed- but what it's really all about is BALANCE.

Then we said bye to all our Christmas stuff, Brad came home from work and said "Huh, it looks so empty in here...that stuff really does make it homey." It's true, but you gotta clean up eventually.

 And once all the Christmas sweets were gone I thought it seemed nice to limit them more this year- like not more than once a day, except on really hard days.

 Happy New Year everyone, I can only imagine this year will be as wonderful as last!

ring out the old, ring in the new

2010 was pretty great, it was my first time spending a whole year's events w/ a husband and this year we'll get to share most of the year with our twins. I can't wait!
A few 2010 highlights:
We had our 1st Valentines (we're hoping to get 2 little girls for our Valentines this year- big upgrade!)

We escaped the cold to AZ:

We made a pretty sweet rap video to try and get on the amazing race, they didn't even consider us...that's okay- it wouldn't have worked pregnant.

Brad turned 30 and I turned 25:

We worked on our house, A LOT. (for the past 7 months I've been able to call it "nesting")

I survived my first March Madness, which is not a small accomplishment in the Hagen household.

We enjoyed spring and Easter, I attempted to control our crazy yard...

I participated in a cooking competition and overcame some inhibitions making cooking videos.

I also poisened my family  (1 and only time, I swear.)

I graduated from nursing school (hallelujah):

We got our one and only pet, Solo:

Then we went to Alaska where we killed and ate many of his distant relatives:

We also visited Carmel and San Francisco a couple times.

I practiced looking like a mommy:

I baked and cooked, and cooked and baked. All year long, and I loved it.

I explored my obsession with chocolate more deeply.

We got pregnant with twins.

We saw Paul McCartney perfom live.

I hiked Timpanogos, pregnant. (15 miles- 5,000 ft. elevation)

We celebrated our first Anniversary.

We visited the Outer Banks.

I grew a belly.

We went to Disneyland.

We enjoyed Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas w/ all the festivities.

Thanks for the memories 2010, I'm so excited for this year!

all i want for christmas is...

a fancy camera so I can take adorable pictures of our kids!

So brad spoiled me and got me this for Christmas.
But, it's not all I got- I was so spoiled this Christmas- in a way that it was thrilling opening awesome surprise gifts, but also made me feel like I needed to give 1/2 of it away to orphans to put the universe back in balance (except orphans probably don't need a new ipod, prenatal massage, or lens for a DSLR camera...) We agreed that beyond the camera I would only get a couple little stocking stuffers, but Brad found so many cute surprises for me- it was seriously like being a kid on Christmas. Thank you babe, and Santa, and family for such generous gifts. I'm sure we'll be all about the kids for all future Christmases so I'll keep my loot- just this one time... :) Plethora of gifts aside, it was really just a great Christmas, one full of fun memories that I won't forget. Here's a sampling of post Christmas mess:

But I meant to be talking about the camera...
I've only ever used a point and click, and I've been very loyal to Canon, but after doing my research, I felt like everyone was telling me to get a Nikon: our amazing wedding photographer Scott Jarvie, the infamous pioneer woman, and informative reviews like this. Although I'd never actually taken a picture with a DSLR camera I felt confident in going with Nikon. Even an older model Nikon seemed to outclass the latest Canon and finding a slightly older model made the whole thing much more affordable as well. I surely hope I can figure out all this fancy camera stuff. As long as I can I think I'm going to love it!
The desire has been there for a while, but really ignited when I randomly saw these cute pictures on project nursery: I thought, I want cute pictures of my babies too. Brad thought they were weird, but I think they're sweet. (and not tacky and not just your average newborn shots)

(don't worry, I won't experiment with hanging my babies from trees..)

Then my friend Brooke posted about these pictures on her blog, and I could immediately tell it was the same photographer (she has great style). I was so excited, I knew who took the pictures now and they were in Utah so I could theoretically get cute pictures of my own babies just like them!
Until i saw the price. If I'm going to pay $500 (yes, 1/2 of a thousand dollars!-no prints included) on one little photo shoot of newborn babies, I may as well buy a nice camera with that money and learn how to take cute pictures myself for years to come. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Teach a man to fish, my friends.
So I was going through the manual for a while trying to figure out how to take pictures, formatting memory cards, all this new stuff, but it still wouldn't take a picture. Brad finally figured out we didn't have the lens attached quite right, the camera suddenly perked up and was ready to shoot. Brad pulled it up to his face as I said "nooooo....I want to take the first picture!" But it was too late, so these are the very first pictures taken:

ESPN and ungroomed feet. Yup, sounds about right. So Brad took a pic of me pouting, he hates when I make this face.

my first picture:

Thanks for the awesome Christmas gift Brad, I love you! xoxo

in costume

So Halloween was a while ago, but I've been busy getting a couple baby quilts ready to take on a little trip with me...but I still wanted to share our awesome costumes on la blog.
Anyone who knows me knows I love an excuse to dress up- whether it be for something fancy or looking ridiculous- as long as its out of the ordinary I'm always entertained. I guess its one more outlet for my artistic side to enjoy.
Last year halloween snuck up on us, so I was the token witch (this dress is amazing btw- my mom made it forever ago, we wore it as a long witch dress when we were little and now my sisters and nieces have all had their fair share roaming in it!) Brad wasn't all into coming up w/ a costume (which doesn't make sense historically) so I just made him be Harry Potter:

 This year I wanted to make sure to incorporate being pregnant so this was our costume:

Get it? We're Quinn and Finn from Glee:

Except we're way more chaste, because we're married.

Brad loved this costume because I just gave him a puffy vest to wear and told him to try and make his hair look extra teenagery.

and I'm not the only one pregnant this year in my family- my sister Melinda and my sister-in-law Meg are both having babies around the same time as me! (and pseudo-sister Maja is having twins too) Many Lewis babes coming next year.

Melinda was a real cheerleader, can you tell? (I really need to start stretching again...)

 In the meantime, enjoy these images of adorable, pregnant cheerleader sisters:

We hung out at my moms eating chili and doughnuts, then went trick-or-treating w/ the nieces and nephews.

Hope you all had as much fun on Halloween as we did! (next year will be even better because I have two little me's to dress up as well- I can't wait!!!)

why are there still people who smoke, seriously?

So we have this guy working on our house who stepped outside to smoke, leaving our front door open. Our house filled with smoke and I became infuriated. I wanted to run outside and being choking him while yelling "this is what you're doing to my babies, you idiot, get off my property!" but then I realized that would have been really crazy, so I just made brad politely ask his superior to tell him not to smoke anywhere near our home again. I think everyone is a little crazy, its all about whether you act on it or not...

P.S. Smoking is still more crazy than choking a smoker... I can't comprehend how there are still people who decide to start smoking. (Is it the expense, the shortened life, or decreased quality of life that is most appealing?) This guy keeps making these awful huking noises like he has lung disease at 20 something, I keep wondering where his spit is going... and the whole thing makes me a little nauseated.

dia de la mama

An awesome thing about being married is sharing the holidays, we’ve pretty much been celebrating every holiday twice. I guess being married implies that motherhood is imminent so even though I’m not a mommy, I even got some special treatment today. At church I was given one of the flower corsages, the Hagens gave me a money tree, and Brad got me a dehydrator! It was so sweet of him and I was so surprised, I wonder if I’m only person who had been brought to tears by the gift of dehydration?

Now I think this story is pretty hilarious, and I have no shame in sharing it...

A few months ago I was talking to my mom about when her and my dad lived in Samoa. My parents served a mission there as a young couple for a couple years with 2 little kids and had kid #3 in Samoa. She told me her favorite thing to eat there was this delicious Palusami, taro leaves cooked with coconut milk. My parents haven't been back there in over 30 years. As mother's day approached I decided to plan a special meal for my mom and to surprise her by featuring Palusami. I figured I could do some google research and figure it out. I do that all the time, but normally with something I've at least seen or tasted before.

I planned a "perfect" island themed dinner. Jamaican Jerk chicken pizza, marinated & grilled pineapple, palusami, and mango flan for dessert. I literally worked on the meal all day. I cracked open coconuts. I washed giant taro leaves and poured coconut milk with sauteed onions in them then wrapped them in foil. I felt awesome.

I brought my parents outfits from Samoa for them to wear and a bunch of their Samoan décor from the storage room. I was so excited for this special meal I thought I had planned perfectly for my mom.

Apparently, guys at Polynesian markets and people who blog about how to make palusami assume you know how to cook with taro leaves… from what I saw on the Internet cooking times varied, so I guessed. We began taking bites and my husband suddenly said he was having an allergic reaction, all of the sudden we all had tingly mouths and throats. My mom passed the Benadryl around the table. What had gone wrong? I washed the leaves… Once the reactions had subsided we discovered on Wikipedia that taro leaves are toxic and contain calcium oxalate which is removed by fully cooking them, apparently low doses undercooked can cause tingling sensations and swelling in the mouth and throat. In larger doses it can cause comas and such. So instead of having a “perfect” meal, I poisoned my family for mother’s day and created a “perfect” memory.

Today we had Brad’s family over and I had a much safer meal planned- Italian.
Gnocci, this stuffed mini focaccia (I entered it a while back in an online cooking competition, this is my no shame post...), and a chocolate raspberry trifle for dessert. Very safe, very yummy. Very much forgot to take a pic.

En final- My mom is probably one of the nicest people I know. Everyone who knows her likes her- she looks for the best in people, is very down to earth, and has had amazing experiences in her life that she always faces with faith. My mom rocks. I’m happy to have a new mom to celebrate with in my life now too, Annabella is an ideal mother-in-law and has made me enjoy sharing in all the new experiences and traditions with the Hagens.

Happy mother’s day!

My Rosata Gnocci: (I made it up trying to copy Gloria's Little Italy, Brad says he likes it more!) :)

GNOCCHI

4 med potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 Tbs kosher salt
2 eggs
≈2 C flour
Boil potatoes in a large pot with salted water until cooked, ≈15 min. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve liquid. Rice potatoes with a ricer and place on cookie sheets to cool. Let potatoes dry at least 5-10 min. Add more water to the pot and bring potato water to a boil. In a bowl whisk eggs with salt and add potatoes, stir. Gradually but quickly stir in the flour. Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll each into a ½” rope on a floured surface. Slice ropes into ½”pieces. (Can roll with the back of a fork to create ridges if desired.) Drop gnocchi into boiling water in batches. Cook for 2-3 min; they should rise to the surface when fully cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain slightly before continuing. Toss in browned butter and Parmesan cheese, Rosa sauce, pesto, or coat with any pasta sauce.
ROSATA SAUCE (rough measurements)
2 tomatoes
½ can tomato sauce
2 pinches sugar
basil to taste
½ tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbs red wine
≈1/3 C cream
Garlic salt/powder, pepper, pollo seasoning (chicken boullion)
While boiling potatoes for gnocchi: Blend tomatoes and simmer in a sauce pan ≈10 min. Add remaining ingredients except cream. Bring to a boil then add cream. In a large frying pan heat 1 Tbs butter with 1 Tbs olive oil. Add gnocchi as it finishes cooking and sauté in the oil with 1-2 cloves minced garlic. Add tomato cream sauce, then ≈1/3 C parmesan cheese. Serve hot.