Mini-Golfing

Before I left Dallas, Devin and I and a group of friends went to mini golfing at a place near our apartments. We went at 11 am thinking we could beat the heat at least a little bit but we were sadly mistaken! It was SO hot! There isn't a time of day that feels good to hang around outside unless you are in or near the pool. We still had a lot of fun though! This place had three different 18 hole courses that we could have played, but after the first course we were dying so we headed for the pool back home!

Fun with Mizi and Haitham

Mizi is our neighbor's (in Dallas)awesome girlfriend! Whenever she comes down to visit (about every other week) I spend my days with her and we always have a blast! I love her to death and miss her and Haitham so much! Anyways, my last weekend in Dallas, Mizi invited me to her sister's house (45 minutes away) for a backyard BBQ. They have a BEAUTIFUL house backed up to a golf course with an awesome pool! It was on a Saturday so Devin couldn't take off work to come. I had SO much fun just playing in the pool, eating amazing food, and hanging out with Mizi's family.

The pool

Mizi's niece Sarah doing a cannonball. I had fun with her and it made me miss my nieces (they are about her age). I got her in mid-air!

I tried multiple times to get Mizi's brother-in-law in mid air, but I got the same pose over and over again!


I tried really, really hard to get a picture of Mizi and Haitham, but Haitham thought it would be a better idea to close his eyes in EVERY stinkin shot! Talk about frustrating! Now, as payback Haitham, I am going to post every single picture I took of you...take that :)

Almost


Nope


Not even close


Nope


Not quite


Then everyone thought it would be funny to just plain sabatoge the picture by throwing Sarah in front of Haitham.


FINALLY one with his eyes open and it's blurry! My picture taking skills had expired by that point I guess!


Haitham, I hope you've learned your lesson...don't mess with the person with a camera in her hand! hahahaha

Anyways, then we had dessert. I was in a sugar coma for an hour afterwards! There was fruit tart, strawberry cheesecake, peanut butter ripple brownies (by yours truly), and cupcakes from Sprinkles (see previous post).

Planking

Before reading any further, watch this video.



Devin, his friends and I thought this was HILARIOUS! Pointless? Yes, but hilarious. We thought we'd take a stab at it at our pool one day. These are Devin and Kevin planking on top of our pool's waterfall. Then they proceeded to be typical Devin and Kevin (goofing off and being their silly selves).

The Single Plank


The Double Plank

Birthday Dress for Callie

This is the first piece of clothing that I have ever made and I LOVE IT! I bought the pattern at Hobby Lobby while they were having a sale on all of their patterns. Eventhough their McCall patterns are always 40% off, this time every pattern was $1.99. I spent about an hour just looking through the book having the time of my life til I decided on the pattern for this dress. My niece Callie is turning two at the end of August so I made this dress for her. When I took the pattern out of the package I was a little overwhelmed. Since I self-taught myself how to read patterns, that means there is a lot of trial and error. The pattern turned out to be pretty easy and it didn't even take too long once I had all of the pieces cut out and ready to sew!

Fun at the pool

This is the best one! Everyone was in place for literally 2 seconds and I managed to get the shot! You can see that Devin's head is almost completely under water.

We spent yet another day at the pool but this time Ryan decided to go buy a queen size air mattress to use as a pool toy. After lounging around on it, we decided to make pyramids. I'm just impressed that no one cracked their head open on the side of the pool!

Neighborly Love

We have the best neighbor EVER here in Dallas. We invited him over for dinner a couple of weeks ago (see previous post here)so he felt like it was his turn. He made us a three course meal including pasta with AMAZING homemade red sauce. Filet Mignon marinated overnight and slow cooked in the oven. Then, delicious cupcakes from an upscale bakery in Dallas called Sprinkles. He has more pictures on his camera, but i did manage to get some shots of the cupcakes and a few of Devin and me :)




Sprinkles also has cupcakes for dogs. Haitham got one for Rush and he loved it! They are just mini cupcakes made without any sugar or other things that are bad for dogs.

Pax's Wall Hangings

Stephanie really wanted to make some wall hangings for Pax's room back in Utah so we headed to Michaels. She wanted them to look like child's artwork and I knew I could help with that since I have no real artistic abilities! Here's what we made:

Dallas Farmers Market

This is going to be a weekly tradition (for the next two weeks I'm here) for Devin and me. We had SO much fun! In downtown Dallas, there is a Farmers Market that is open daily from 8am-6pm. It's HUGE! There are four giant sheds filled with local farmers selling amazing produce. The quality of the produce to unbelievable and most of the produce is cheaper than the crappy stuff at the grocery store.


You walk up and down the aisle and the vendors give out free samples of everything. We were full by the time we got back to the car!
Here is what we got for $12:

*GIANT romaine lettuce
*MONSTROUS Limes
*HUMONGOUS tomatoes
*GARGANTUAN green onions (seriously...look at them)
*Normal cilantro
*Regular-sized pineapple
*Average cucumbers
*Itsy-Bitsy Cantalope

We then proceeded to spend $18 on two bottle of honey. That's right, honey. If you have never had expensive honey, you are missing out. It actually helps with allergies and other health problems because of the pollen that they give the bees. The reason we ended up getting the honey is because of my dad. He has started a new hobby...beekeeping! He has a suit, beehive, and an order of bees and everything. He's even taken beekeeping classes! Anyways, his birthday was a couple of days ago so we decided to get him some nice honey as part of his gift. We loved it so much though that we couldn't bear the thought of giving him the honey without getting some for ourselves as well! haha Now when I walk in the kitchen, I always see Devin with the honey bottle in his mouth and a smile on his face!
Even more exciting than the honey is the fact that I can FINALLY make my homemade SALSA! Every single time I go to the grocery store, I check out the tomatoes and walk away disappointed. I don't know what the tomatoes are like in Utah this season, but they are definitely lacking down here in Texas. The Farmer's Market had a plethora of juicy tomatoes. The second we got home I made the salsa! I love my salsa chunky pico style and this salsa is just that. It's very fresh tasting and has hardly any calories (15 calories for 1/4 cup!)

Here's the recipe:
3 large tomatoes seeded, chopped
4 green onions sliced (1/4 cup)
1 green pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
2-3 Tbsp Lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
I use my "slap-chop" and chop all of the ingredients up and mix them together in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving just so that all of the flavors can blend! I dare you to make it!