Cupcakes again!

We had to bring a dessert to a family Christmas party last night, so I brought my mini cupcakes. This time I tried out a nutella buttercream, and it was delicious. I sprinkled chopped hazelnuts on top. I also made a peppermint buttercream and sprinkled crushed candy canes on top. Mmm!

Pictures of Hazel

Out Christmas shopping.

She doesn't like her car seat very much these days, but luckily she still falls asleep in it.

Brendan and Hazel at the ward Christmas party.

Out shopping again.

She sucks on everything she can get in her mouth.

On Saturday night Brendan's parents watched Hazel for us in the lodge while we went night skiing at Brighton.

Mini's

Brendan took me to Mini's Cupcakes in Salt Lake last week. I had a dark chocolate cupcake with nutella buttercream frosting topped with toasted hazelnuts. It was delicious. They also had a cute Tiffany cupcake. I usually make regular sized cupcakes, but I like the idea of the mini. It is just the right size. If you want to try more than one flavor you can. It's also perfect size for kids. Brendan liked the idea of the mini so he bought me a mini cupcake pan, and he also found some cute sugar pearls to make a cute Tiffany cupcake. I made them last night and loved them!

Hazel's Six Month Stats

Hazel had her sixth month appointent last week and is doing really well. She can sit up now, and is very mobile. She can't crawl yet, but her combination of rolling and scooting can get her to anywhere she wants to go. Here are her stats:

Length: 28 1/4 in 90th percentile

Weight: 16.14 lbs 75th percentile

Head: 42 1/2 cm 50th percentile

Homemade Marshmallows

About a year and a half ago I saw this marshmallow recipe in my bon appetite magazine and wanted to try it, but never did. I went to the Beehive Bazaar the other day and somone was selling a little box of ten homemade marshmallows for $5. So I went back to my recipe and decided to try it. They were a lot easier than I thought and turned out delicious. If you're interested in making them, here is the link to the recipe:

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/07/homemade_marshmallows

I'm also thinking about dipping the marshmallows in caramel like Williams Sonoma.

Midnight Madness

After our Thanksgiving festivities, Brendan and I decided to go to the Park City outlets for their Black Friday Midnight Madness Sale. We had gone to the Midnight Madness sale at the outlets in California two years earlier and found some great deals. We looked on the outlet webpage and the sales sounded amazing with 50% off the whole store at Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Carters, and many more. It had to be worth it, right?

Well the only thing I could remember from the previous sale was the great deals I had found. This year was quite different from our California experience for a few reasons. In California the outlets were only seven minutes away, but Park City is 45 minutes away. In California the temperature was probably around 45 degrees, but in Park City it was 25 degrees. In California our family only consisted of Brendan and I, but we now had a tired baby in the middle of the night.

All I have to say is that it wasn't worth it. We didn't find any great deals, and I think I'm done with Midnight shopping for at least a few years.

Thanksgiving

I come from a large family with big Thanksgiving gatherings. There are eleven children in my family, and my mom comes from a family with twelve children. All twelve children live in the Sacramento area and also have large families. Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas for us. For twenty-two years we have had our annual Family Turkey Skate. It is where we rent out a roller rink the day before Thanksgiving for all of our relatives. On the day of Thanksgiving after our meals, we meet at a church building for dessert and games. The games are usually slaughter ball and knock out, so it is definitely an event to look forward to.

With that being said, our Thanksgivings have been pretty small the past two years. Last year we stayed here in Utah. Brendan's mom was in Seattle, because his sister was having a baby, so we had Thanksgiving with Brendan's dad, Brendan's brother, Brendan, and I. This year we stayed in Utah again, but Brendan's parents and brother were in China. So Thanksgiving consisted of Brendan, Hazel, my brother Bruce, and I. Even though it was very small, it was relaxing and enjoyable. Since we were doing our own turkey, we decided to do something different. We fried it. Brendan's dad had a fryer he had never used, so we borrowed it. I usually don't like fried food, but the turkey was very moist and delicious. We had a fourteen pound turkey, and it only took 45 minutes to cook.