Matt & Lindsay Wedding Cake

(The pics look like I made the sugar flowers blue instead of purple but you get the idea :))

Hello Y'all. Yes, I'm still alive. :)

My fave brother-in-law Matt got married July 2nd in the Boise Temple. My sweet new sister-in-law Lindsay asked if I would make the wedding cake. After some anxious hesitation, (this was after all my first wedding cake and I've only taken two decorating classes) I agreed.

It turned out to be an awesome experience. I learned a TON on this maiden voyage and realized that, thankfully, my severe lack of artistic talent isn't so much a necessity in this hobby as is the knowledge of the science behind it. (And boy did I have to do my research as I needed to transport the cake from Kaysville to Boise w/out room/time for error )

My sweet hubby put up with a lot of anxiety and tears from his perfectionist wife during this process and I'm so grateful that he still wanted to claim me after all was said and done. He even gave me a hug and kiss after the reception and told me how proud he was. He also said I'd better start a portfolio because it looks like I need to start a business. Hehe, we'll see (I've got to focus on my seemingly always pregnant tummy and the little blessings therein and then we can think of selfish ventures :) )

Happy Eternity Matt and Lindsay! Thanks for letting me be a small part of such a special day! :)

Halloween Baby!!! :)

Those who know me well are aware of my obsession with Halloween. Seems weird, I know; especially since my personality is anything but goth-ish :) I just love the crafts, decor, colors, and of course pumpkins! Weeeelllll, I had my first ultrasound and Dr. Meek told me my due date is on October 31st...yeeeaaaahooo! Most likely it will be before Halloween, which is good because I'd hate to have him/her's big day not be all his/her own. But it does mean that mom will go ALL-OUT come party time. I already can hear the other kids..."mom, how come so and so's party was cooler than mine?" Hehe, I've already started brainstorming ideas. :)

And We're Back!

So ya know when you put off something for a while, thinking that you'll get to it; and that "a while" becomes so long that every time you think about it, you simply close your eyes and plug your ears, just hoping it will go away? That's been the blog lately ladies and gentlemen. You get to a point where there's so much to post that it's almost not worth trying to catch up. Sooo, Here are a FEW highlights from the past 7 months and we'll just continue on from here. And people wonder why I don't have a facebook/myspace/twitter account...I barely take time to answer emails let alone keep everyone updated on what muffin flavor I had for breakfast! :) Kudos to everyone who's lives are much more organized than mine.

GTU- I've become a non-regular regular on Good Things Utah. Every 6 six weeks or so I do their cooking segment and have a blast every time. This last segment my best friend/couz (the one on the far right) came to the show to watch. It was so fun to have her there. It's always more fun when I get to show off my fam to the girls. Thanks Lex! :)

If you want to see the videos, you can log onto abc4.com and click on good things utah. From there, the best way I know is to put the recipe name in their search engine. Here's the recipe's I've done thus far from oldest to most recent: Cilantro Lime Chicken Rice Bowl, Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, Halloween Night Bites, Cheap Choice turned Gucci Prime Beef Roast, & Not your Mama's Lasagna Rolls.

My next scheduled time on the show is April 28th @ 10am... stay tuned! :)

This picture of cabinet handles may be confusing but it's the closest pic I've got that describes our next update. We've bought our first home! I guess I should say we're in the process. We've gotten approval letters, now we're just waiting for the papers. Which, because the home was a short sale, has been a 3 1/2 month process!! We feel really blessed nonetheless. It's in Kaysville, which is a city we both feel is perfect for raising a family, and we got an amazing deal on it. Because we got the home for so much less than we were expecting, and because we saved our pennies, we've decided to make the house our own by doing some SERIOUS remodeling. I'm sure much of the updates in the weeks and months to follow will be of our little construction project: since it will undoubtedly consume our lives until we intend to move in this summer!

I've jumped on the cake decorating bandwagon (too many Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes episodes :)). Here are my maiden voyage cakes. Hopefully one day I can get good enough to do cakes for friends and family as a little home business on the side. That's the plan anyway...we'll see how that one goes! The Hawaiian themed cake was for my sister-in-laws' sweet sixteen party. The Loui Voitton purse cake (yes I know it looked more like a brown paper bag) was for my fashion diva sister-in-laws 20th b-day.

Ty's one stinkin years' old! I can't believe it. We had a fun little party for him a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I get some photos scanned I'll get them posted. It's been so fun to watch him grow. I've never fully understood what people meant when they describe something as the most rewarding/difficult thing/time they've ever experienced...until now. I love you son! You make me smile every single day. :)

For my Christmas present, Ryan surprised me with a weekend getaway in Midway. You know that Swiss themed town 20 minutes north of Park City? Oh my goodness it was beautiful! We stayed in this full on house that we had all to ourselves and it couldn't have been more perfect. The ice castle in the pic was at the Zermatt Resort we went and toured (which is just like walking down a little Swiss village). The pizza pic is my re-creation of what we had at Maxwell's New York style pizzeria in Park City. It was AMAZING! Paper thin crust, Alfredo sauce base, 5 Italian cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes and a balsamic reduction sauce drizzled on top....mmmmm getting hungry. We, no joke, ate the entire thing in one sitting. (And then went for gelato afterwards! :) )

So remember the first time I went on GTU, I made version of a recipe I submitted to the Cache Valley Cheese Signature Recipe contest? Remember how I had made it to the finals and was invited to a cook-off against the four other finalists with judges and everything? Here's the update: The cook-off was at the Utah State fair park and we had to make our dish and present it to 5 guest celebrity judges. The pic is of me giving my little speech to the judges as they tried my dish. Afterwards, the winner along with the $5000 grand prize was announced at the Salt Lake Bees baseball game that night. Let me just say, that check behind me in the pic is now in our home waiting to be hung in our future garage. :)

Here's probably our biggest update thus far. Ty's so excited in the picture because.......HE'S GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!!! Yeeeeuuupp. We're prego again. I'm not sure on the due date (long story :)) but my guess is the end of October. I'll let ya know as soon as Dr. Meek does an ultrasound at the end of this month. Ry has been sooo cute. As soon as I gave him the OK to let the cat out of the bag, he's been like a puppy out of a box. We're also happy that Ty will have a buddy so close that he can be friends with.

Yeeeaayy for family! :)