How Do We Cook?

Well, it seems this semester I have lacked in my cooking abilities (there weren't too many before, actually :) It's more so been that I haven't been organized enough to make time to make meals and therefore eat a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. So, one night Tom and I decided that we would make lasagna together. Neither of us had made it before but didn't think it seemed too complicated. It turned out to be delicious! The best part was that it lasted four days! :)Getting the ingredients at Cashwise!
Tom's pretty good at knowing when the noodles are done, so that was his job. :)
I made the sauce.
The finished product....delicious!

Here's the recipe we used! (It's my aunt Myrna's.)

1-8oz. box lasagna noodles (we used whole wheat...a little better for you and you can't even tell a difference)
2 pkgs. spaghetti sauce mix
12 oz. can tomato paste
2 lbs. hamburger, cooked, drained, and seasoned

Combine sauce and hamburger. Simmer while noodles cook. Drain noodles in cold water.

16 oz. mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Grease a 9x13 pan.

Layer:
1. noodles
2. hamburger sauce
3. parmesan cheese
4. mozzarella

Top: Sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and let stand for 15 minutes to set.

Tessa's Wedding!

(Above Tessa and my cousin Tiana)

On January 1, 2010 my friend Tessa Kvidt married Derek Zimney! Tessa and I grew up living right next to each other and have been friends since we were little. It was an honor to be in her wedding and to be a part of the process of getting everything ready. Congratulations Tessa and Derek!
Ingrid and cousin Tina.
Me with cousin Brittany
Me with cousins Tiffany and Tina (Tina is the mom of Tiffany, Brittany, and Tiana...Alika was busy dancing with friends)
The Bridal party: Karen, Kari, me, Tessa, Derek, Alan, Tony, Nick
The cake topper. :)

Kitchen Improvements

For Christmas Mom and Dad got a new set of pots and pans from us kids. Because Mom doesn't have a lot of storage space Aaron made her a new pot rack. It works just perfectly! Good job, Aaron.

Rapid Renovations

If you know the Espes you know that there are generally quite a few projects going on at our house (make that my parent's house-Sheldon and Val). :) Recently though, they have been very busy and accomplishing a lot of projects in a short amount of time. I was so impressed when I came home. Good work Mom and Dad. A couple friends asked to see pictures of the new upstairs built in bed unit, so here they are. The first two pictures are just of the living room at Christmas. I thought it looked very "homy" so I decided to share them, too.

This is what you see when you first arrive at the landing coming up from the stairs.
The bed! Mom put her pew/bench thing next to it with a little coffee table in front of that for another sort of sitting room area.
On the far right you can see the storage/closet area that is attached to the bed part. Very cool work done by our family friend, Bob.

Merry Christmas To One and All

Because of a nice big snow storm our family was able to all be together an additional 24 hours! As noted before, we haven't been doing a whole lot but it's been really relaxing and enjoyable. Our daily activities consist of: reading, visiting, eating, and occasionally games, walks, and movies. :)
Dad thoroughly enjoys his fruit cake. Check it out. It is THE most dense bread/cake I've ever seen. And, it tastes disgusting, in my opinion.
Updating my blog for you, Amber! :) Ok, not just for Amber.
Our Christmas dinner table that mom worked so hard on. She really loves making everything look nice.
Our new family picture. Story even woke from her nap to join us. (She had gotten a lot of exercise and was very tired!)

Starting A Tradition

We decided that this year we would start making lefse. Mom made the dough, Dad, Aaron, and I rolled out dough and cooked it on the grill, Heidi floured the kneading board, and Erica enjoyed eating it later (Ingrid did the same after she came home a couple days later). :) It started out a little rocky but by the end we had thoughts of starting our own buisiness...at least Aaron did.

Girls' Weekend

In mid November three of my good girl friends and I got together at Rebekah's family's cabin in Bemidji. We all worked together at Bluewater the summer of 2007 and have remained good friends since then. We had so much fun just catching up and laughing a LOT! :) Pam recently came back from her YWAM (Youth With a Mission) around the world trip and so we were so excited to hear about all of her adventures and lessons learned throughout the trip.
We tried being "creative" with these jumping pictures and laughed very hard throughout the process of taking them. (Leah, Pam, me, Rebekah)



We thought this twisting tree was so interesting. Crazy how it just wrapped around itself. It was so beautiful by the lake, and being it was autumn the changing leaf color added even more beauty.