Monday, October 26

Birthday Celebrations for Miss Melinda

Saturday's Events:
We started the day at Tai Pan Trading. I'm in love! I had never been to this place before because I knew how dangerous it might be, but my mom insisted I needed to check it out. WOW! I could spend weeks in that store. Proud to say, I did not totally deplete my bank account while there (though I may have wanted to).
For real though, cool store.

 
Look at that cute face.

Next up, Texas Roadhouse for lunch.
P.S. this place has amazing Ceasar Salads.



 
 
After lunch we spent some time walking around the mall, doing what girls do best ;)


Then headed up to Salt Lake to the Hale Center Theater to see a play.




The play was called Curtains. It was like a murder mystery/musical. Kinda cool.

(The lady I asked to take this picture was like, "Hey, I have this same camera so I know how to use it!" Apparently not, the picture is blurry! Ha!)
After the play, we were stuck in our parking spot forever! No one would let us back out. So I told Jade (kinda jokingly) to get out of the car & go stand in front of the other cars & hold her hand up so we could back out. She did it! It was so funny. Love that Jade!

Sunday's Events:
Melinda got her Patriarchal Blessing. So proud of you!
I can't believe my little sister is 16! Craziness. She's like almost a grown up now!

We had dinner & a little party at my parents house.



In honor of her turning 16 & being able to start dating, Jeff & I bought her a shirt with a telephone booth on it that says, "Call me!" :)



We had a yummy Cold Stone cake!


We hope you had a great birthday!
And hope 16 is good to you! :)



Triple Date Night

Friday night, I set Marsh up with a girl I work with & Mckay, Megan, Jeff & I went with them to the Haunted Forest.


                                                
These are the kind of pictures you get when you ask a drunk girl to take a picture...

 
That same girl & her husband brought their little girl, who was probably 2, with them. She was scared out of her mind. They were trying to scare her & thought it was funny. It was so sad. People like that shouldn't be allowed to have kids.


Sunday, October 25

HaPPy BirTHdAy!

To Grandpa....

& Melinda!


We Love You!

Friday, October 23

ScOrE!

I found these chairs on KSL for FREE!

I know they're not much to look at......
...YET.
I've got big plans for these babies :)

Monday, October 19

Halloween Party

Saturday night Tara & Bronson had a Halloween party at their house.

Everything looked so cute!



It was so much fun to hang out with everyone.



Tara & I both dressed up as Bat Girl!

 
Brandon & Ash




Tyler & Aubrey

 


Bronson

 





Saturday, October 17

5k

It's Fall Break, which means NO CHEMISTRY today, which means I could have slept in.
But didn't. I got up & ran a 5k with Marsh & Melinda! Wooo!

Perfect day for it!
So fun :)
 Seeing as it's such a beautiful day, I needed to take a picture of the beautiful mountains.
Because I love those guys!

I took the picture from our roof, where my dad & Jeff were fixing our leak.

It's all better now!


Pumpkin Cake

A few people have asked about how I made the pumpkin cake, so I figured posting it on here would be the easiest way to share it with everyone.
P.S. I got this idea out of Family Circle magazine.
What you will need for the cake:
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 5 eggs
What you will need for the decoration:
- 1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
*Little side note...don't try to use cream cheese frosting. I did this. It's too runny & the M&M's will slide all over the world. Stick to the vanilla, even though it probably doesn't taste as good.*
- orange gel food coloring
*Another little side note...after freaking out about the whole frosting mistake & sending your husband to the store to buy the right kind, don't be in such a hurry to get that right frosting on the cake that you FORGET to dye it orange :)*
- 2 bags (7oz each) orange M&M's candies (about 2 cups)
*I couldn't find bags of just orange M&M's, so I bought a huge (42oz) bag of normal M&M's, thinking there would be enough orange ones in there. Nope. Jeff bought me another bag of the Halloween M&M's & we picked all the orange ones out of it...still not enough.*
- 34 yellow or brown M&M's
- 1 chocolate covered candy bar (such as snickers)
Cake Instructions:
#1-Heat oven to 350. Coat two 1.5 liter Pyrex bowls with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

#2-Whisk together the flour, baking powder & soda, cinnamon & salt.
Mix the pumpkin, milk & vanilla in a small bowl to blend.

#3-Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add the sugar & beat until light & fluffy. (about 3 minutes) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the pumpkin mixture, ending with the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth.

#4-Divide the batter evenly between the prepared bowls. Bake at 350 in the center of the oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until golden & a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer bowls to a wire rack & cool 15 minutes. Invert cakes onto racks & remove bowls; cool completely (about an hour).

Decorating Instructions:
#1-Trim the top of the cakes with a serrated knife to make level. Tint the frosting orange with the food coloring. Place one cake layer, cut-side up, on a serving platter. Spread the cut side with 1/2 cup of the frosting. Place the other cake layer on top, cut-side down. Trim any excess to make round.

#2-Spread a thin layer of frosting on half the cake, from top to bottom. Start with the nose: in the center of the frosted area, place 3 yellow or brown M&M's-2 on the bottom & 1 on the top-to make a triangle nose. Place 2 orange candies side by side directly above the nose, the begin the eyes: attach 3 yellow candies along the same line as the orange candies above the nose, to the left. Then place 2 yellow candies above that row, and end with a single yellow candy. Repeat on the other side of the nose. Below the nose, make an upside-down triangle using 6 orange candies. Make a yellow candy mouth, beginning with 7 candies arranged in a "V" around the orange triangle. Then use 12 additional yellow candies to finish the mouth. Fill in with more orange candies close together on the frosted area. When that area is covered, spread another area with the frosting & add more candies. Repeat until the entire cake is covered with orange candies.

#3-Cut the candy bar in half crosswise on the diagonal to fashion a stem. Make a small hole in the top of the cake & press the candy bar half, cut-side down, into the top of the cake, for the stem. Refrigerate to firm frosting.

P.S. For those of you who haven't been able to post comments on my blog, I changed how the comments are under my settings, so hopefully it will work now. SORRY!

Friday, October 16

And the Winner is....

ME!!
I won the contest last week over at Love Stitched.
Check out the cute flower earrings I won.
Being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Love Stitched is donating 100% of proceeds from any of these pink earrings to the Susan G. Komen foundation.
Awesome huh?!
They are only $6 a pair! So head on over & help out a good cause!

Thanks Brittany!

Thursday, October 15

My Man is 28!

He was out of town on his birthday, so we've been celebrating a little bit here & there :)
Mike & Cait figured we better take him to dinner at Texas Roadhouse....for your birthday, they let you sit in a saddle while everyone shouts YEE HAW! Perfect! He loved it ;)

Saxon came prepared in his cowboy boots & everything, so Jeff shared.


Tonight Nate, Caitlin & the boys came over for pizza & cake.
My cake didn't turn out quite like I hoped, but still kinda cute :)

It tasted good & that's what counts right?


Hope you had the happiest birthday in the world old man!
I sure do love you!

P.S. Check out Cait's blog for more cute pictures from Jeffy's birthday celebrations!

Tuesday, October 13

Bathroom Transformation

This is what our bathroom looked like before Jeff left....



This is what it looks like now....


Monday, October 12

Days 5 & 6 without Husband

Dear Jeff,
This is for yesterday....HaPPy biRthDaY!
I hope you had an amazing day :)

Melinda spent the night again on Saturday night.
She came to church with me to take your place in nursery. There was some drama I'll have to tell you about...I'm sure you can guess who caused it.
Today, I had work off at one job for Columbus Day. Columbus is so great! ;) It was a relaxing afternoon.
This evening I went to Melinda's choir concert at her school. The theme was "Lost in the 50's Tonight". They sang some real fun songs.





Cute video huh?!
She did an awesome job.


Guess what?!....
YOU'RE COMING HOME TONIGHT! :)
Yipee!