Happy Monday!

I think that from now on every Monday morning I'm going to blog about something happy. Monday mornings should be happy, I have a lot to be thankful for in my work week. In just 2 hours I'll be teaching a bunch of cuties how to dance (2-3 year olds), it's the best. I have to remember that when I wake up. I'm lucky my job is so much fun!

Okay, I had a bad day yesterday and Matt and I made a deal that today I would wake up, punch through whatever was making me feel yucky {we call this feeling I get sometimes "the yuck", it had me all day yesterday}, make a cup of coffee and read my blogs before getting ready for work. So, this morning, the alarm went off. First thought, fml. Second thought, my life rocks and I have to get up now. I did it! {I'm not a morning person} I made my pot of coffee, and then.....checked my blogs. Guess what!?!

I won my first Blog Giveaway! A set of 3 Vera Bradley items!! I never win anything. Best way to wake up on a Monday morning to find out I have 3 Vera items coming my way. For those who know me personally, everyone knows I am obsessed with Vera. Matt thinks I'm nuts that I like that name for our kids one day lol. Anyways,  thank you so so much, Melissa Rose! You made my day : )

{this is the photo from Melissa Rose's blog}

I have the Vera reading glasses in this pattern...I don't need reading glasses but they were too cute lol.

 Here is a link to her blog, she is doing another giveaway this Friday : ) http://mellissa-rose.blogspot.com/ 

Happy Monday, everyone! Count your blessings today and punch through anything that tries to get in your way, that's what we're going to be doing today. So far, it's working. 

{Twelve by 2012}

Our Twelve by 2012!

This totally makes sense. I am in love with this idea and plan on accomplishing all of these things. 

1. Revamp our office, because it is no longer "my" office. Now that Matt works from home, we need a better workspace. My pastel purple girly room isn't cutting it (sad). We're thinking Sunriver feel. Browns and natural woods. I found this amazing stencil set on Etsy and we want it. 

Birch Forest Wall Stencils

2. Cut down our Christmas tree together. We are both really, really excited about this!

Wish us luck...

3. Get Matt signed up Full-time for school again.

4. Get me signed up for school. {It's about time.} Still waiting to hear if I can got student loans. Waiting for that letter to come in the mailbox everyday! {nervous...}

5. Finish our Thank You cards....I'm really terrible with this. I am missing so many addresses from our far extended family and my mom isn't helping {mom, please be reading this lol}

6. Make a trip back home to WI somewhere around Christmas. {This will be a Chelsea solo trip sadly}

7. Make an Angel Food cake for Matt : ) with strawberries on top, of course.

8. Use our gym membership. We never go. 

9. Kinect with my family more. We bought it for them for Christmas and have probably Kinected with them maybe 5 x's. It's always so awesome too.

10. Finish all my tax to-do's before January 1st {I'm actually almost done already, it feels awesome!}

11. Finish our wedding scrapbook {we just heard we won't be getting our photos for another month...we've been married for two, this is getting redic.}

12. Get my enhanced drivers license and make a trip to Vancouver, B.C!

Day Full of Yum!

Today started out just like all other Saturdays.

I taught 3 classes this morning. Today was extra awesome though because I it was costume day and all the girls were so excited to get their recital tutu's. Our recital is on December 9th and I'm starting to get really excited about this one. {It will be the first that my Mom gets to see! It's crazy to me that my family who has supported this life long dream of mine as if it were there own have not been able to see one yet. I'll probably cry. Actually, she will. It will be so special!}

Anyways, when I got home, I knew what I was walking into...

Saturday's are College Football Days here in the Lanese Home. Basically I lose my husband for one whole day each week. So, like today, I always use Saturday as my girly day. Today I decided I felt like cooking and baking... a lot! 

Lunch today was crazy yummy! 

Gourmet Grilled Cheese {Inspired from this blog} 

Matt said it was the perfect football food and loved it  scarfed it down!

Gourmet Grilled Cheese {made up by: Chelsea}

Fresh Sourdough Bread

Italian Seasoning

Butter

Pepperjack Cheese Slices

Shredded Italian Blend Cheese

Bacon

Diced Tomatos

Spread butter on one side of one slice of bread and season with Italian Seasoning.

Put a little butter on the griddle and then sprinkle Italian Blend Cheese onto that butter 

(yes, right on the griddle).

Place buttered piece of bread (butter side down) onto that cheese pile so the cheese will melt onto bread.

Put 2 slices of Pepperjack cheese onto the bread that's on the griddle.

Top with diced tomatoes and 3 strips of bacon.

Place another piece of bread on top.

Butter the top of the sandwich and sprinkle with Italian Seasoning.

On the griddle, next to the sandwich, sprinkle more Italian blend cheese.

Flip the sandwich (be careful, it will fall apart if the cheese isn't melted enough) onto the cheese pile.

Fry until the cheese is browned to your liking on both sides.

Enjoy! We ate ours with IBC Rootbeers :) 

{I do not have a future in recipe writing lol, that seems like an awfully long recipe for how easy it was to make}

After lunch, Cogsy was begging to go outside and I also was begging Matt to come with us for a walk. So, he left his beloved football for a while (during the Cal Game, whoa!) and we had fun watching Cogsy enjoy the leaves. Then I asked Matt for a photoshoot, hehe. 

{"Um, Mom. Those leaves are a little scary, please stop."}

After our little mini adventure. It was time to make the Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread!

I had been wanting to make this bread for a while now. I found the recipe on Pinterest. Here it is.

Pull Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread

I am sucker for Pumpkin Bread. This coming from the girl who buys and eats Pumpkin Bread from Starbucks at least 3x's a week. I really should just make it {boy, that's a lot of money}.

Anyways, it's still in the oven. This was quite the project. Lots of kneading then waiting...started at 5:00pm...it's now 8:30pm and it has 3:00 min. on the clock. I'll let you know how it is at the end of this post with my own photos tomorrow.

For dinner, I decided to make yet another Pinterest recipe. It was pretty yummy. Matt liked it more than I did. Chicken Broccoli Supreme!

Next time for this recipe, one less sleeve of Ritz crackers, and 1 more lb. of broccoli. Yum! 

Ok...bread is done....BEST. THING. EVER! So worth all that work! I'm going to make this to bring to Thanksgiving :) It is so good! Just enough pumpkin where I can taste it and the right amount of a hint of pumpkin where Matt actually likes it. I'm so pleased with my baking skills right now. Hehe. I've never made anything before actually using active dry yeast and having to wait for it to rise and everything...Yay!!!! I'm so proud, and going to have seconds!

Off to the movies with Matt now. Yay, I have my husband back. (It's 8:42pm) Going to see 

Puss in Boots!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

{Followers Fest} Our Story.

Welcome any new followers!

Matt and I met a little over 3 years ago while working at Walt Disney World in FL. 

{I love and miss Florida, Matt is happy to be out of the heat here in Washington}

{hehe, us on one of my favorite rides, Rockin' Roller Coaster @ Disney's Hollywood Studios}

Dancing as a Dragonfly in Disney's SpectroMagic Parade 2008. Matt came to every single one of those parades and would follow me along the route taking pictures and encouraging me because the wings hurt so bad I would cry. Such a good boyfriend he was : )

One of our last days at Disney World :( I think this is the last picture we have there. I am dying to go back. It makes me so sad I could cry. It's probably the only thing that makes me want to cry lately. 

After we lived in Florida for a few months {together - seperately we were there longer} we moved to Wisconsin with my family for about a month and a half. Complete opposite of Florida, we moved in the dead of winter. Matt, being from California, was cold freezing! 

While living in Wisconsin, we came to Seattle on vacation to visit Matt's family. That was it. The rest is history. We moved here two weeks later and love it. It has taken me these past 2 1/2 years to learn to love it here, but I think I'm finally there. Having my dance studio here helps a lot is why we'll never move. Sometimes I have my days where I cry and beg Matt to please let us move back to Florida (yes, cry. Like a child lol). But then, the next day I'll wake up and be fine again. As long as we keep taking trips to Disney all the time I think it will be all good. 

{I don't do so well with the dark here, I'm a sun girl! Or now, a Vitamin D popping girl}

After we moved here we got engaged a few months later and got married 2 months ago! 

It has been quite the journey, but I am so happy it's been our journey. I don't know what I would do without Matt or Emerald City Dance or Cogsy Wogsy! In general, I am loving life. We are loving life :) Here are few of our favorite memories since living here in Washington...

{Us on our vacation here}

{Our roadtrip moving here}

 {Our niece, Clare was born.}

{Matt wrote "Will You Marry Me?" in the sand at one of our favorite Seattle spots, Alki Beach. The plan was always to do it in Vero Beach, FL but...we have yet to get a chance to go back lol talk about a long wait}

{We got a puppy! Cogsworth, our love!}

{Cogsy, the yellow submarine lol}

{We went to Disneyland, it was my first time. Here is the first time I reunited with Pluto, it was sad}

{Alice in Wonderland}

 Matt took me to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast, of course I hung out with Pluto again!

{We love being silly together}

{Our baby}

{This past summer we went to Mt. Rainier! It was incredible}

{Matt's brother and sister-in-law brought two more babies into the world!}

 {I love being an Auntie}

And then yes, finally...we got married!

These have by far been the best 3 years of my life. So many more memories happened in between those pictures, my computer kept freaking out as I was trying to add them all. It's so hard to pick which were the best. 

I can't wait for what God has in store for us next. Degrees for both of us maybe? :) 

Right now, we're just enjoying the ride. Happy following new friends!

Who'da Thunk?!

It amazes me still that we own a dance studio 

(I say we because now that we're married everything is 50/50 lol, lucky Matt.)

Although I technically am the owner of Emerald City Dance, without Matt's love, support, advice and encouragement, it would be no where near where it is today. 

I can't believe that in just a little over a year, we are now 4 teachers strong! Yes, 4. I have just added our newest addition to our our team of teachers, Miss Caroline. With her being on the team I now get to teach a Musical Theater class this coming Winter Quarter and we have added a Cheer class on Saturdays! She has an incredibly strong ballet background like Miss Autumn so between the two of them, I see some Ballet II and Ballet III classes in our future. I am so happy and feel so blessed that I've met so many incredible families on this journey. I love that I can walk into Target and be sure to see a happy little girl being excited to say "HI Miss Chelsea!" There is nothing better. 

Now that I've also been coaching our Emerald City Xtreme Dance Team as well, the girls have had the opportunity to take dance to the next level and we have some extremely talented kids here. I am so excited to see what the future will hold for them. They've accomplished so much in just the 2 months that we have had our team, I can only imagine what 2 years will do. 

I can't post any photos of the dancers here on the blog, but here is a link to our website

Emerald City Dance

This Fall Quarter we have 155 dancers. Last Fall Quarter, which was our first, we had 93. It's growing so much! It makes me so happy. 

I feel so lucky that I have Matt who is so incredibly supportive of all the dance craziness. Tutu's that take over our apartment, moving the living room furniture so I can choreograph, staying up until 2am with me while I am on a creative roll, videotaping the recitals and camp performances, and even walking in the parade with us...he is the best Dance Husband ever! He really lets me go for my dreams, which is exactly what I've always wanted in a husband. 

{He also keeps me level headed when I come up with crazy ideas}

If we have grown by 62 dancers in just one year...I wonder what next year will bring? 

For now though, time to go and order more tutu's... ; )

{Caution! Mushy Lovie-Dovie Post}

Matt and I were watching The Office tonight and we were holding hands : ) 

{We obviously hold hands a lot, but never when we're just chillin' watching tv}

It was like dating all over again and I got butterflies.

Fun!

Felt like this again...

One of our first dates. September 2008. We were in the backseat with Kyle and Daniel driving :) 

 Epcot, September 2008 -- After we got home Matt told me he loved me for the first time.

Our all time {still} favorite date spot, Beaches N Cream @ Disney's Boardwalk

October 2008

Sometimes I wish we could date all over again : ) It was so much fun getting to spend our dating time being at DisneyWorld. Now just crossing my fingers that Matt keeps his promise of us moving back one day {like one day as in retirement lol}. 

I can't wait for the next time to get butterflies!

Feels Like Home When...

I went to Starbucks this morning before my 10am 2-3 year old class. It came to be my turn, I stepped up the register and what did I hear but, "Good morning, your usual Grande Chai today?"!!! Um..YES! and then she said "Chelsea, right?" I know it is so silly to be excited about, but I have been waiting for this day lol. Growing up I used to love going to our local ice cream place {Mickey's} because Mickey used to know what I wanted before I even asked. Now, it really feels like home here. The baristas at our usual Starbucks know my drink order. 

{this is also a reality check that I go to Starbucks way too often}

It felt awesome and I totally felt like, 'this really is home.'

After teaching my adorable little ones this morning and handing out their petticoats for their recital {adorable}, I headed over to Target to return some hip hop costumes I didn't need. 

And of course...I ran into a dance mom from my Saturday Combo class.  : )

Matt and I can't go anywhere without running into dance families. I love it! {Matt's not a big fan lol}

Last weekend at Fred Meyer we ran into 4 families : ) 

I love it here.

Sick Day.

*Note to self: Do not take Dayquil right before going to teach your 2-3 year olds and 3-5 year olds.

{end result-- a very lightheaded and dizzy dance teacher who felt like every child was talking at once}

Thankfully the kids were semi-sweet about it and kept reminding each other to be quiet and listen 

"Shhhh! Miss Chelsea is SICK!"

It was pretty cute.

*Another note to self: Find a sub that is not in high school who can teach morning classes on days when I feel like I do today. 

I never get sick. That's what I told Matt last week when he was sick...jinxed myself! 

Upside to being sick -- Matt just made me tomato soup with toast and tea! Also I am going to lay on the couch all day until my next 3-5 year olds class at 4:30. I am so excited because I just discovered that I can rent books from the library for my Kindle! I had Water for Elephants on hold and I just got an email that it has arrived. All I had to do was click "Check Out" and it went straight to the Amazon Kindle website with my account already logged in and sent the book straight to my Kindle. Crazy. And free. I can't believe how awesome that is! 

In other news, Cogsy has learned how to turn the Xbox on and off with his nose. He must think it's funny because he hasn't stopped doing it all day and it's making Matt so mad. {hehe I think it's hilarious}.

Time to go read! Have a good day everyone and stay healthy, this nasty cold is going around and it's no fun at all...

Love,

{18 Days Until...}

...our 3-night getaway to Seabrook, Washington! 

We have been wanting to visit this adorable beach cottage town since we moved here in 2009. We were supposed to be using the weekend of November 10-13 for a trip to Vancouver, but...it's taking longer than planned for me to get my social security card back with my name change so I can get my enhanced license. Oh well! Seabrook is just our type of place!

Beach Cottages...Pet Friendly Cottage so yes, Cogsworth will be joining us {first family vacation, awesome! We're pumped}...Pottery Painting where we plan to make Cogsy some awesome doggy bowls that he totally deserves because he just uses ours lol...Bike Rentals {if it doesn't rain the whole time}...Campfire Pit with our Cottage...the OCEAN...and just peacefullness...yes, "peacefullness" is a word in my vocab. We're so so soooo excited. We've been crazy stressed out these last two weeks and I was beginning to feel like something was really wrong with me because I was feeling so down. Nope, just stress. Now that I know we have this to look forward to I feel a huge excitement and don't feel so down. Like my aunt said to me the other day on the phone, "It must be hard for you to have the wedding behind you now! That was a huge exciting time and then it just suddenly ended." Yes...Auntie Debi, you are exactly right. This is helpful though!

So yeah, 18 more days!

I do have a couple other fun things to write about : ) 

I finally changed our chalkboard last night from the one I did for our party. Here it is now, one of our favorite Walt Disney quotes. I love it. I will be drilling this into our future children's brains one day, just like my parents did to me. Although there are cons in thinking this way...{feeling depressed when things don't work like you think they will or want them too}, overall it's gotten me exactly where I am in life today! {thanks Mom & Dad!} and Walt! ; )

After Matt sat me down the other night because he was worried about how I was feeling, we also decided...no nannying for me. I have enough to worry about owning a dance studio. Yes, my schedule leaves me a lot of time open in the day. BUT...that time is supposed to be used for keeping organized and lately I have been getting more and more behind to the point where I cried the other day {I'll have everyone know that, although this may be rediculously surprising for most of you reading this, this was the first time I've cried in a while since our wedding! whoa. that's almost 2 months. A record probably.} The nanny money was fun to have every weekend, and the kids are cute, but it wasn't worth the stress I was feeling. So, once again, I am the owner/instructor of Emerald City Dance and just that. Feels Good.

In about 30 minutes, Matt and I are leaving for Haley's birthday party! I'm excited about her birthday present. We bought a frame and this awesome photo will be making it's home there... {requested from Oona, no we have not received our photos yet...after almost 2 months. I'm getting antsy about it}.

I love this picture of Haley and I though! 

K, well I have to go now so we can eat dinner and I can wrap her present : ) Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Love,

Lasagna Soup and More.

We have been trying a lot of new recipes lately. With Pinterest and cook books we received as wedding gifts to find tons of new recipes we have had a lot of fun experimenting with new food. We also have been buying our groceries every week from Amazon Fresh, which makes grocery shopping and finding all these new and sometimes intimidating ingredients easy to find. 

Tonight I made Lasagna Soup. It is definitely one of our new favorites. It was so good, and I made breadsticks to dip in it. Yum! Here is a photo and link to the recipe. 

Lasagna Soup Recipe

Here are links to the recipes I made for our Pumpkin Carving Fall Feast Family Fun Day

Homemade Butterfingers Recipe

Slow Cooked Chicken Chili Recipe

Homemade Cornbread Recipe

Pumpkin Trifle

And the yummy Caramel Apple Martini recipe is:

2 parts Sour Apple Schnapps

2 parts Butterscotch Schnapps

1 part Vodka 

1 caramel square to put in the bottom of the glass

I was so happy with how all of the recipes turned out at our party and equally as happy with the Lasagna Soup tonight. My favorites of those recipes are the Cornbread and Martini. 

This week we are also going to be trying Mexican Stuffed Shells, a Ziti Pasta Bake, and Tortilla Soup.

We hope everyone had a good Monday :)

{Our First Annual Pumpkin Carving Fall Feast Family Fun Day}

Yesterday was wonderful. We had our first annual Pumpkin Carving Fall Feast Family Fun Day and it was  perfect. Matt and I had such a wonderful time with our family. {The Lanese Half}. Our day was full of everyone catching up, laughing, playing games, eating yummy food, being entertained by the kiddos and of course, carving pumpkins.

I was so excited that it was our first time having the whole family over and it not being for a birthday. I was really pleased with how all of the recipes that I tried from Pinterest turned out {blog on those to come later}. I definitely loved hosting and was just really happy to have them all over {especially knowing I was now officially part of the family} (I know, Mel, but it feels cool being official official now) :) Cogsy also made us so happy because he was so well behaved. He played with Clare and didn't jump on the babies {a lot}. It was great!! 

I am already looking forward to next years party! 

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Here are just the ones from my camera, I'll post more from Megan's camera later. 

{Exactly why I wanted a chalkboard, for fun things like this}

{I was super excited to decorate and get to use my Antropologie table cloth, thank you Haley}

{I loved the color of these flowers! Perfect for Fall}

{Snow White made an appearance at our party. She's adorable!}

{"Auntie Chelsea, this party rocks! Yeah!"}

 {Being an auntie is the best.}

{Snow White, Nana & baby Caitlin}

{Lady Bug Girl even came to our party! Cutest little bug ever. The tights...*love them!*}

 {"Um, Auntie Chelsea, can I get some help here?..."}

 {Auntie Chelsea and the little bug}

{My incredibly handsome husband doing his "Chelsea Pose" lol. Poor guy had to run to the store twice because I was apparently can't multi-tast while cooking.}

{The Lanese Family. -minus Megan who took this photo, the babies and Cogsy-}

{Cogsy enjoying some quality time with Papa. --I warned you this would be blogged lol-}

{Some of my big sibs playing a nerd game ;) }

{Megan was loving Clare's outfit, we all did :). She has on a cupcake sweater, a tutu I just gave here, bow in her hair and sparkly shoes}

 {The only picture I have of the little dude from the whole day. I was so sad after they left realizing I didn't hold him the whole day either...it made me sad. We'll just have to plan a visit!}

{The Lanese's}

 {me and my amazing hubby}

We loved everything about yesterday. We loved how everyone stayed so late and that everyone was just chill and enjoying the day and our time together. It was perfect. I can't wait for another day like that : )