i heart ... hello, cupcake!

i  love this book!

i can look through it over and over again

dreaming of the next cupcakes i'm going to make.

these pandas are the first i attempted.

i made them to celebrate paulina and thomas' birthdays.

when paulina was a baby i called her my baby panda.

in october i made these owl cupcakes.

they are my favorite!

brennan and kaitlyn helped me decorate these.

for thanksgiving i made these turkeys.

like i said before,

they were a nightmare to decorate.

thank heavens i'd already had good experiences with the pandas and the owls.

if these turkeys were the first i'd tried

from hello, cupcake!

i'm not sure i'd try any more ever again!!!

.

i heart ... thanksgiving

thanksgiving was great, as usual.

how can you go wrong with thanksgiving?

it's the best!

(well, besides Christmas 'cause of course that's really the best!)

just look at the joy on people's faces!

(sierra's gonna kill me for using this picture, but i love it!)

 

for thanksgiving dinner i made bobby flay's

roasted brussels sprouts with pomegranates

and vanilla-pecan butter

i don't even like brussels sprouts,

but i saw flay make this on "throwdown" with the pioneer woman

and for some weird reason i had to try it!

and surprise, i loved it!

even the other people who said they don't like brussels sprouts

loved it!

(or they were lying.  not sure.)

i am so making this again!

(oh, and the photo is from a feast for the eyes

because i didn't get a picture of my own dish

which is so sad because it was beautiful!)

for dessert i made paula deen's

gingerbread pumpkin trifle

it was so easy,

but even more important it was really good.

and last, but certainly not least,

i made

"larry the turkey" cupcakes

from

hello cupcake.

they were a nightmare to make, but they did taste good.

i've made other cupcakes from this book

and they were enjoyable to make,

but i really hated larry!

.

i heart... the restoring honor rally

i was so happy to be able to go to the

restoring honor rally

in washington, d.c. on 8/28

it was as wonderful as i'd hoped it would be.

it was such an uplifting experience to be with so many people

of all different backgrounds, but all like minded.

there were two themes to the rally:

to honor the troops

and

to restore honor to America

by looking to God.

my favorite quote was,

"we as individuals need to be good,

so America can be great."

the Founders knew that the Constitution could only work

if Americans were good moral people.

we need to get back to that.

here is an article from the wall street journal

that represents the rally as i experienced it.

i heart ... the gila valley temple

i went with stacy and her family to the

gila valley temple open house.

our first view of the temple

was the night before our tour.

it was soooo exciting to drive down the highway,

in the pitch black, in the middle of nowhere,

and then to come upon the temple all lit up!

as we were getting ready in the morning

before our tour,

thomas was running around saying,

"temple, temple, temple..."

it was cute to see how excited he was.

and of course we sang

"i love to see the temple"

with him.

almost as exciting as seeing the new temple

was seeing our uncle rusty's campaign signs around town!!!
if you live in congressional district 1,

vote for rusty!

.

i heart ... olivia

i have a new niece!
olivia
isn't she beautiful?!

you would just die if you could feel her hair!
like feathers!

the softest thing in the history of the world!

natalie & olivia

natalie was beyond excited to see olivia for the first time.

she is already such a good big sister to paulina.

paulina

unfortunately i don't have a picture of paulina with olivia.

paulina was more interested in another aunt's french fries

than she was in her new sister.

.

i heart ... girls' days

every time shelby visits,

i'm like, "so what do you wanna do?"

and this time she said,

"i wanna have a girls' day!"

duh! why don't we do this every time she comes?

so first we went to lunch at tia rosa's. brennan, sierra & shelby

next stop,

scottsdale fashion square.

look!  brennan and Shelby match the

 tory burch storefront.

and we couldn't go to fashion square
without going to
sprinkles!

i heart ... easter

this easter was the best ever!

for two reasons:

#1 stephanie's family came

#2 general conference

on the thursday before easter

stephanie called to say they were coming from utah for spring break.

they wanted to get out of the cold and come some place warm.

yay!

so,

first we watched conference...

then between sessions we ate outside with the orange blossoms...

then we had an easter egg hunt...

for dessert we had these cute cupcakes

that brennan and shelby helped me decorate.

unfortunately they weren't as good as they looked.

how sad!

after conference we went to visit our grandmothers.

first stop was nana's house

where i saw natalie & paulina in their easter dresses...

and where paulina & thomas played "kissing cousins"...

and samuel entertained everyone with "ode to joy" on the piano...

and samuel and natalie showed off their reading skills!

next stop was grandma's house

where samuel entertained us with, what else -

"ode to joy"!

he's a pro at that one!


and finally, we went for a walk around the temple!

and that was my perfect, best ever easter!

.

i heart ... weird chief

this weekend

brook and i went to the

tempe festival of the arts.

there were men juggling fire...

and dogs wearing hats...

but we didn't really find any art that we loved.

that is,

until we found

weird chief!

oh man i love his art!

here are his paintings

i have to have:

bono

U2

the mad hatter

george washington

abraham lincoln

and these are the other paintings

that i loved:

willy wonka

bjork

joan jett & debbie harry

radiohead

daft punk & ll cool j

marilyn monroe & audrey hepburn

edward scissorhands

morissey