my hair is gone...

I felt like it was time for a change and chopping all my hair off, so I did.......more pictures to come :)

Brian Regan

Friday night, Jake and I got to go with his parents, his brother Cameron and his date to go see Brian Regan. I have never listend to any of his stuff, so I  was in for a treat! The show was in Salt Lake at Abravanel Hall.

We got to the show a bit early, and had fun waiting for it to begin. When the show started, it was packed and every seat full. Utah LOVES Brain.

The show was fantastic! We were all laughing the entire time! I love seeing Jake laugh so hard and his cheeks get so big and cute! Brian was hilarious. One of my favorite jokes he did was about getting old and feeling pains that never go away. Sadly, I am already starting to feel this. haha We all had a great time at the show, and would love to go next time he is in town!

grilled cheese with heart shaped eggs

Sunday has been a great day. When we got home from a good day at church we were hungry! We wanted grilled cheese, and eggs, so we combined them! We used the cookie cutter and cut out a heart shape on two slices of bread. Then we buttered both sides of the bread, put cheese between the bread, lined up the wholes and dropped in one egg!

I am thinking everything we make up until the 14th of February Jake and I are going to have to incorporate something pink or heart shaped.

 cooking....cooking....cooking...

Wahoo! One order of grilled cheese with eggs done! This was a yummy meal. But it was no substitue for a real mean grilled cheese. Bummer. The egg was good though.

Sunday night we watched the TV show Once. I am really liking that show! I really like Ginnifer Goodwin in it. I think she is so cute! It is a fun story line to. I also cant stop thinking how excited I am for The Bachelor tomorrow! That is so horrible. I look forward to that show way to much. I just think it is so fun and hilarious. I love a relaxing Sunday.

I am getting excited for Valentines to come!

This has been one of those weeks. It has been a great one, but for some reason I have just felt super burnt out. I shouldn't because I dont really do much everyday, but this week has been a more busy for me. There has been some great highlights though that have made this week great. Tuesday, Jakes Uncle Richard came into town, so we got to go to dinner with him and his kids Spencer and Liz. It was great to see all of them and get to know them better! Jake and I got to go to The Chocolate on Wednesday night and that was really fun. We were supposed to go help out the missionaries, but the appointment got canceled, so we went and got treats instead :) Thursday I got to go to the doctors. I am always so scared every time I go to a new doctors, but I had such a wonderful experience. I was soo happy and grateful I have a new doctor I really like. I also got to go to my friends kids gymnastics for a few hours. I had so much fun watching all the kids run and do flips. It was amazing. Do they have beginner adult gymnastics? Friday, I got to catch up on some very needed sewing. I have had piles of stuff (and still have tons of piles) of things already cut and need to be sewn. So it was nice to get some of that done! I also got to work on some v-day decorations....so that was awesome!

I am sooooo excited for Valentines! Any holidays in general really. I LOVE going to stores and seeing all the fun holiday stuff! It has gotten me inspired to start decorating the house and making some Valentines decorations! Wahoo!

I got to go to the fabric store this week to which was was exciting! There is nothing I love more than fresh designer fabric! I LOVE going to the fabric store!

 Tuna was a great help this week. We had fun making lots of crafts and doing laundry together.

Saturday night Jake and I bought a bag of oreos and watched lots of Pheninas and Ferb. Before we knew it, all the oreos were gone and we had watched a few hours of tv. So much fun!

We all discovered the magic once again of Desert Book. I didn't know they started caring all kinds of books theres. We ran there to get something for our Sunday School lesson, and ended up getting some books! We have never read Leven Thumps, but thought since my cousin Rob wrote the series, we should probably read and support family. I am happy about that decision and excited to start reading them in the near future.

This has been a great week, and I am super excited for the next one to come! We have a lot of exciting plans that I am excited to do and lots of new great books to read :) Life is great!

Chocolate Covered Valentines Rice Crispy Pops

Here are the supplies you need! First you need to make rice crispy treats, or buy already made ones. One batch of rice crispy, makes about 12 medium sized hearts. If you dont have a recipe for rice crispys use this:

Rice Crispys-

Need: 1/4 stick of butter, 40 large marshmallows, 5 cups of rice crispys

Directions: Put 1/4 stick of butter in big pan on stove until it melts. Then add marshmallows until they become a new sticky form and stir in rice crispys. Put the finished mix in a greased pan to cool off.

1. Make rice crispys (or buy already made rice crispy treats) and use your heat shape cutter to cut out the hearts. Dont mind the orange, I used orange marshmallows....

 One batch of rice crispys will make about 12 hearts.

2. Melt your chocolate. While you are melting the chocolate in your melter, or microwave, get out your pan of already cut out hearts to start to make holes in them for the candy sticks. If your chocolate is not melting great, add 1/2 tbsp of crisco to help soften your chocolate. ( you could forget the candy sticks all together and just dip half the heart into chocolate. That would be really cute!)

 3. While the chocolate is preheating, poke the sticks where you would want them to be in the rice crispy. Do this for all of your hearts.

4. When your chocolate is melted,  put your stick end in the chocolate, and then put it into the the hole in your rice crispy. Do this for all of the rice crispys, and then put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes. By putting the sticks in chocolate, it will harden and hold on to the rice crispy so when you dip the whole thing in chocolate, it wont fall off the stick and get lost in the yummy chocolate.

5. Now time for the fun part! Dip the entire rice crispy into the chocolate, and then decorate! Sprinkles are always great! Or you can use the opposite color of chocolate to drizzle on the other color.

Eat and enjoy! The best part :)

Turtle Hut

We had an awesome floating dock in our turtle tank, but I think Alfredo is teething and started to eat the dock, so we had to find a replacement until we figure out what to do. We needed something that was big, and the turtles could climb on top of to get dry in the sun. When I saw the turtle hut, I knew it was perfect because the turtles love to play hide and go seek with each other! I also found out to help with Alfredo's teething that, turtle bone is a good solution. It will help him get his beak down and get that teething going on. I also got a new treat I saw called "Turtle Chasers." We fed them to the turtles and they were a hoot! It was so cute to watch them chase the food around and break it down. I think I was a good work out.

Here are some pictures of the turtles enjoying their new hut. All four of them are in here!

I LOVE MY TURTLES! They really make me so happy! They are so cute! I feel sometimes they are so easy to neglect because they dont need much attention (or want it) but every time I come see them, and they come meet me at the glass, it is all smiles all around. The turtles have the cutest smiles ever. I love them. I am so happy I can be there turtle mom.

Bow Ties!

Ever since Jake and I have been married, he has been asking me to make him some bow ties.....that was over a year ago since the first asking of this task...and I just now got around to it! Well, I am glad I did, because they turned out so cute! I am so excited for Jake to start wearing some cute bow ties! I always love when he is a little more dressed up for the day, but not too dressy, so a bow tie is perfect!

 Tuna wanted his own bow tie to. I thought that was a great idea, so we made him one!

A few bow ties down...more to get sewing.....

The Mysterious Benedict Society

As soon as I read the back to this series first book The Mysterious Benedict Society I knew I would love this series. "When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending test. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. With their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?"

Sound great huh? The moment I started reading the book, I loved every minute of it. It is a fun, not so typical book about "special/talented/smart kids. The book is about 4 orphans/runaways that learn they have something very special to offer. Through a series of tests,  4 kids get picked to learn about a secret that is going on in the world and how they can help stop this madness going on. The kids get ready to prepare to be spys to enter into the last place they would want to go, "A Learning Institute for the most Enlightened."

Right away when the get to the new school, there is weird things going and a huge twist when the meet the school owner. You also find out where the "helpers" are coming from, and wonder if any of them could be special people to some of the kids.

In the book there is a crazy mind reading kinda scheme going on, and it really makes me wonder about weird things like that...I think that is what the author is trying to get you to think about. Not to be scared, but just to "think" and use your time wisely.

The end of the book is amazing. Make sure to read the extra chapter in the back of the book. Everything you could of hoped for these kids, happens in an awesome way. It is great!

The whole set of books is a great deal. I bought the 3 pack at Sams Club for $13.00. I know you can also order them on amazon.com for about $14.50. I would say this series will be the best bang for your buck.

I started the book yesterday morning and stayed up till 4am to read it. Sadly I feel asleep when I had 3 pages left. I tried so hard to stay awake eating frozen food, tortillas, fruit rollups,....but at least I was super excited when I woke up to finish my book this morning! This book was amazing! I love all of Rick Riordian books so much. They are my favorite. This book is now up there with those Riodian books. I am going to start reading the next book in this series right away right away.

Peter and the Starcatchers Series

Peter and the Starcatchers is the first of 5 books in the series. I just finished reading the first one, Peter and the Starcatchers. The book is all about how Peter Pan started to become Peter Pan and where he came from. It serves as a prequel to J. M. Barries novel Peter and Wendy...that I have yet to read, and yet to read the original Peter Pan book, which I will do after I finish this series.  

I found this series at the book store when I was looking for a new book to read. I read Ridley Pearsons Kingdom Keepers Series and really liked it, so I thought I would enjoy his other books he has worked on, and so far I have enjoyed them all.


I got the hardback books because I thought they looked cooler than the paper back. The hard back covers are golden and have nice illustrations on the fronts. The inside pages of the books also deckled edge paper, which seems to make it neat and add to the time period feel of when the books were taking place.

The book started off a little slow for me. Not that the book was not fun or entertaining at the begging but I think I was kind of tired, so it took me a while to find some interest. When I got to page 100 or so and pirates got involved in the book, I was really liking it. I really liked how the book was creative. I thought the two authors did a fantastic job writing the book overall. I feel they kept one voice through the story and was written well. I liked all the charters in the book and how they made things come to be. I liked how Peter got his magical powers and how he would always be a boy and how fairy dust came to be. It was nothing I would of ever imagined or thought, so I really liked it, because it all seemed some what...believable.

The book was full of wonder, adventure, mermaids and surprises. I liked the friends Peter made and the wonder of the "stardust." The book had an ending that felt conclusive, but left it so you wondered, what adventures would Peter and the soon to be "lost boys" be having on "Neverland." You also wonder more about Black Stache and when he becomes Captain Hook. I also liked to find, it wasn't the crocodile that ate Captain Hooks hand off.....it was something else... I am excited to start reading the next book in the series, Peter and the Shadow of Thieves.

Peter and the Shadow of Thieves was great! I liked the adventure in this book and mystery that took place the entire story. I liked this book more than the first book. The first was good, but took me a while to get into. This book was intriguing from page one. In this book you learn why Peter is not a fan of shadows. He gets to go to London and help Molly and the Starcatchers on an adventure. It was a good story and a easy read. It is kinda scary in the sense of thinking of someone stealing shadows.....It made me exited to read the next book. I hope the next book tells more about Peter and the Lost Boys lives on the island! I want to learn more about them and there fun times!

rainy/snowy days

I love snowy, rainy days especially on a Saturday! It is so relaxing and fun! Today I got to go to lunch with my friends Lizza and Rachel. We got Indian food! It was delicious! We had fun talking and playing for 4 hours till they kicked us out of the restaurant. After I did some grocery shopping to get stuff to make treats for our Sunday School class. I think for snowy days it is mandatory to have seat heaters and a warm heater in your car. If I always live in Utah, I am going to make that a car requirement. ahah

AHHHHHH JUNIOR MINT HEARTS! My ALL TIME favorite valentines treat! This is my 4th box of them so far this season! I think they are the best! (maybe I should wait till February to buy some more). I love the ones with the red coloring inside! It is so exciting! And they are so cute heart shaped! Tuna bought this cute frog while we were at the store. He always likes to spend his allowance on stuffed animals. I support it. This frog is so soft! What a great day so far.

In the evening, we downloaded Season 13 of The Bachelor, put on cozy pjs and watched TV till 2am. So bad. Jake read most of the time though. Hes so funny. He wants to hang out and be in the same room, but read so he wore ear plugs. Cute boy.

Sunday we woke up to snow on the ground! So exciting! It was so icy because of all the rain from yesterday. I saw my cousin at church and she said her car was frozen shut. haha so funny, but sad. I have had that happen to. I guess another requirement for snow living could be an automatic car starter, so your car can heat up while you are inside the house getting ready, and when you come out side to drive, the car will be warm and unfreeze itself :)

After a great time at church we came home, ate, and of course watched more Bachelor. Later we went to choir practice. And I volunteered to play violin. I dont know what got into me.... I guess its good that we went to choir practice because when we got home I got my violin out for the first time since high school. That was 6 years ago... It is something I have been needing to get back into.

For dinner, we made grilled cheese and veggies and brownies! Yum! Brownies are always a favorite for me! Then we watched more Bachelor. I dont think I should be able to download series of that show, or any else for that matter. I become to addicted. hehe

Red Velvet Valentines Cupcakes!

I saw these ice cube trays at Target for $2.50 and I knew right away I had to buy them, even if I didn't know what to do with them yet! I decided to pour chocolate in them and make little chocolate hearts to go on top of some red velvet cupcakes!

I found out a secret that makes cupcakes super moist and way yummy! Now its the only way I make cupcakes because they are soooo delicious!

Items needed: cake mix (any kind), 4 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, and oil (whatever amount of oil it says on the back of the cake mix)

Directions: 

1. Put cake mix mix into a mixer (do not follow directions on the back of the box except for the oil amount.)

2. add 4 eggs

3. add 1 cup buttermilk (this takes place of the water, so do not add water)

4. Add amount of oil it says on the back of the box

5. put cupcakes in in cupcake tins and cook at 350 degrees for about 16 minutes. 

When cupcakes are done cooking, frost and decorate!

P.S. I do not like this kind of cupcake tins. I feel the cupcake shows through it to much. Foil lined cupcake tins are the best! Anyone know how to not make cupcakes show through on just the paper liners?

Sundance Film Festival

Friday night, Jake, Megan and I had a fun time going to Park City to walk around. We got Sonic before we left, and then headed to park city! It is so nice how they have the bus system up and running. They are on top of it for the season.

 We had so much fun in this fur shop. The owner of the shop was making us laugh so hard. We were doing guess the price of the coat. It was really fun. I had no idea fur coats can be $14,000 plus.....Anyways, had a blast trying on coats. Someday I want one :) haha I told the man at the store if I ever get one, I am coming to his shop.

 There are tons of fun shops to look at with cool stuff in it!

 AH a real piarte ship wheel!

 Wheres TUNA?

Stacey and Steven came to meet up with us! Jake is hiding because people kept asking him if he was Ryan Reynolds.

 Waling through a cool art exhibit.

 A splendid night! When it started snowing, we bolted for the bus stop! It was a great evening! We even saw lots of friends walking around, and meeting new people. Maybe some year, we will be prepared and buy some show tickets!

Oh yes, the PETA police stopped me and gave me this notice....I didn't understand why they were wearing some hoocey police outfits. I guess it made the whole experience better when they were blowing whistles at you.