Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with a maple cream cheese frosting today, and they were delicious.  The recipe came from here, but I changed it a little.  I added mini chocolate chips to the batter, and also changed the frosting a bit.  I found the cute cupcake wrappers and picks at Smiths.  If you like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, then you will love these!   

Fall is Here

It was pretty warm most of September, and it hasn't felt like Fall, that is until yesterday.  It felt like a nice crisp Fall day, perfect for walking weather.  Brendan and I took Hazel out for a walk and ended up stuck in a storm.  It started to pour on us and we found shelter under a small overhang of an apartment complex.  We thought it would blow through, but we were under there for around 20 minutes as it became worse.  Finally, Brendan had to run home in the rain and go get the car to come and pick us up.  Of course it stopped shortly after and the sun came out again.

While Brendan was in Europe, he bought Hazel a few outfits from Zara Baby.  They have the cutest baby clothes ever!  I wish you could buy them online, but they only started offering online shopping last month for Europe only.  With the cooler weather, Hazel was finally able to wear one of her outfits today.  We walked up to BYU to visit my sister at work and bring her a treat.  While on campus, a student wanted to give Hazel a balloon and she didn't mind.

Watching her balloon fly away.

Hazel loves to visit the duck pond frequently.  One day Hazel wasn't throwing the bread fast enough and the ducks snatched them right out of her hands.  

Brendan was listening to an audio book on his ipod for school, and Hazel wanted to listen.  Brendan turned on some music for her, and she was loving it.  Brendan put on some Bob Marley and told her what it was and she said, "Bob" and started to dance.  The skeleton pajamas are from Grandma Rowland.  They are a little big, but they're cute and they glow in the dark.

Magleby's Chocolate Cake

I recently purchased a new cake platter, which gave me a good reason to make a cake.  I love Magleby's chocolate cake, but have never attempted to make it.  I found a copy cat recipe, but I had to double it to make it four layers.  The cake turned out very moist and was delicious, but I didn't like the chocolate frosting recipe very much.  Does anyone have a really fudgy chocolate buttercream recipe?

I also included a picture of my flowers.  My brother is taking a floral design class at BYU right now, and the lab where he makes his flower arrangements is across the street from me.  He delivered these to me with a nice note.  I always wanted to take that class, but it was always full or didn't work with my schedule.

More of Hazel

I found some cool colorful buildings in south Provo, so I went and took some pictures of Hazel.  I know there are so many pictures of Hazel on my blog, but she is always with me and I'm trying to practice my photography.  Anyone want some pictures taken?

Labor Day Weekend

On Saturday we went up hiking on the Timpanogos trail, but didn't go to the top.   We thought it would be a little too difficult with Hazel.  She was fine for a while, but wanted to get out and walk a lot so we had to take a lot of breaks.  It was a really pretty hike though.

After the hike, we made it home in time to shower and get ready for the game.  Hazel didn't do very well in the stadium, because it was too tight of a space for her to hang out in.  I spent most of the game outside on the grass chasing her around.  On our ride home from the game, she fell sound asleep in her bike seat.

Today we went to Oktoberfest up at Snowbird resort.  We ate a German meal and walked around to the booths.  It was a beautiful day up there.

Brendan is Back!

After three long weeks, Brendan returned from Europe.  

He will post pictures soon.

Can't Wait

The Art Weekend

Salt Lake City October 7-9

I'm attending this year!  I heard about this last year, but I wasn't able to attend because of Hazel.  I'm signed up for the tabletop photography class, the Illustrator 101 Basics, and Illustrator: Pretty Paper Products.  Click here to find out all of the classes offered and the schedule.  There are several other classes I would like to attend, but I can only leave Hazel with a sitter for so long.  I would love to have someone come with me.  Anyone interested?  

Dad's Garden

Since Brendan has been gone, I've been in charge of watering our little garden and our lawn and it has been hard work.  Our fresh herbs, zucchini, and yellow squash have been doing very well, but our tomatoes aren't in abundance as I would like.  As I was watering, I was thinking about my dad's wonderful garden back at home that he maintains year round.  A month ago when I went home to visit, I took some pictures of my dad's garden and forgot to post them.

My dad has been growing a garden since all eleven of us kids can remember.  Our grandpa also grows a garden and we always thought that was why our dad started, but we all just found out last month that my dad helped my grandpa get into gardening.  When my dad was eighteen, a coworker introduced him to gardening and he has been doing it ever since.  I'm not sure how it started, but my dad has been collecting little garden "knick knacks" I guess you would call them.  He has been getting them as gifts for Father's Day, his birthday, and Christmas for a long time now.  In fact, the black bird below was given to him by Brendan and I a few years ago.  Going back to the tomatoes, I think this is the most I have ever seen growing in his garden.  His tomato plants were nine feet high when I was home, but I've heard they've grown to eleven feet!  He has rows of lots of different varieties.  I'm not sure of everything he has growing now, but growing up he would grow potatoes, strawberries, carrots, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash,  tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, pumpkins, ochre, spinach, lettuce, sunflowers, broccoli, and cauliflower.  I hope I can have a garden like that someday.  

Sandpoint Fun

Brendan is still away on his three week trip to Europe, but he will return on Monday.  I decided to break up the three weeks by planning a week long trip in the middle up to my sister Dawn's house.  She lives in Northern Idaho near Washington.  Sandpoint, Idaho is a beautiful resort town with cool weather in the summer, so it was a refresher from the heat in Utah.  Whitney came too.

My sister has four kids with a big playroom, so Hazel loved it!  With all of the toys you would think Hazel and John (my two year old nephew) wouldn't have a problem finding their own toy to play with.  Whatever toy Hazel had John had to have it too.  A toy Hazel really liked was a cute little grocery cart.  One day John not only took it from her, but he ran her over with it too.  I wasn't there to witness it because I fell ill one day, but I was informed Whitney had never laughed so hard at the sight of it.  One toy I might have to purchase for Hazel is the Little Tikes Coupe.  She couldn't get enough of it, even though she can only walk backwards in it to get it to move.

Some activities we enjoyed during the week were: swimming and playing in the sand at the neighborhood beach, wakeboarding and wake surfing, a stop downtown to the Hey Cupcake shop to get huckleberry ice cream, blueberry picking, canning and jam making, and a bow holder project (pics coming soon.)  Thanks Dawn!  We had a great week!  

Heartshop

Back in June, friends of ours from yanphoto.com invited us to be models for their photography workshop called heartshop.  There were about 20 photographers from all over the country who attended the workshop.  We were photographed in a really cool natural light studio which was in downtown Provo.  Here are just a few pictures from the shoot,  and these pictures were done by Melissa Fullmer from Dallas, Texas.  I actually broke the bed while jumping in the second shot, but I was told to jump.  I kind of felt bad.  It was fun to do, and I was able to pick up on a lot of photography tips while I was there.