Pretty Luscious Cupcakes

This is the recipe for the amazing cupcakes. There are chocolate and vanilla, and they are both delicious. Thanks Jenny!!!

White Cupcakes

1 white cake mix (with pudding in the mix)

1and1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup butter melted

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

vegetable cooking spray

1. Beat first 6 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer justuntil dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium, andbeat 2 minutes or until batter is smooth, stopping to scrape bowl asneeded.

2. Place paper baking cups in muffing pans, and coat with cookingspray; spoon batter evenly into baking cups, filling each two-thirdsfull.

3. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes outclean. cool in pan on wire racks 10 minutes; remove cupcakes frompants to wire racks and cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup soft butter

3 oz. soft cream cheese

16 oz powndered sugar

1/4 cup cream of coconut (or heavy cream)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond flavor

1. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixeruntil creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speeduntil blended. Increase speed to medium, and slowly add milk andvanilla, beating until smooth.

Chocolate Cupcakes ( The recipe calls for a German Chocolate cake mixbut i am going to try a regular chocolate cake mix)

1 chocolate cake mix ( pudding in the mix)

16 oz. sour cream

1/4 cup melted butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

vegetable cooking spray

1. Bead the first 5 ingredients about 3-4 minutes.

2. Put baking cups in muffin tins and spray with cooking spray. Spoonbatter into cups until 2/3 full.

3. Bake at 350 for 25 min.Cool the same as white cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Prepare Vanilla Buttercream as directed, (don't use cream of coconut,use whipping cream)Microwave 1 cup.dark chocolate (recipe used Nestle Chocolatier DarkChocolate Morsels), until melted. Gradually add melted chocolate toVanilla buttercream until smooth.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Because of my lack of camera, I'm going to do some blogging catch up (Thanks for the pictures, Hannah!). When I was in Utah, Tom came to visit for the 4th of July. His birthday is on the 8th, so I wanted to celebrate it while he was there. I called his sister Cathy to see about organizing a party. From now on, I'm calling her whenever something needs to be planned... "Hey, it's Addison's birthday, I was thinking about having a party" or "I noticed Christmas is coming up..." I didn't even have to ask. I just mentioned the idea and she organized her whole family. Tom's sister Jenny was our gracious host. I wanted it to be a surprise, and it totally was. In fact, even after we got there and he saw the party going on, we had to explain, more than once, that everyone was there for him. It was pretty funny.
Eric and Emma came with us to the party. The 3 kids did a great job of keeping mum about it being for Tom. I was a little worried.
...Up to no good, I'm sure.
Jenny made these cupcakes that were AMAZING! You can tell by looking at this picture... Tom is like.."Have you ever tasted anything like this?!?" and I'm trying to count how many are left to make sure I get at least 7 more. The truth is, all of those cupcakes were gone by the end of the party and most people only had one. The 4 of us at the table (Cathy, Jenny, Tom, and I) kept eating half of a cupcake thinking, "I'll just have another half", and then we'd sit and talk for a while and see that someone else had eaten a half and left another half, so that had to be finished off. The cycle continued until we had each eaten enough half cupcakes to fill a bakery.
Happy Birthday Dear Tom...

Mamma Mia!

I have been in an entertainment rut lately. Everything I read, listen to, or watch seems boring. A few weeks ago I quit a book almost 3/4 of the way through because I just couldn't read it anymore. It felt like homework. I listened to "The Lovely Bones" while driving back from Utah because I've heard so much about how great it was... Nope. I saw a couple movies while I was in Utah, and guess what... B0-ring.

My friend Wendy N. and I have been talking forever about going to a movie and have just never found a time to do it. She called this morning and said, "Let's go tonight." She suggested Mamma Mia! and I said sure - not really interested in the movie, but really interested in going out.

I loved it!! It was filmed in Greece and the scenery was beautiful. So were the people. Meryl Streep and her 2 sidekicks (one is Molly Weasley) are well over 50 and super hot! The music, of course, was so fun. I was smiling so much that I was laughing during Dancing Queen - such good memories of being forced into doing "the Linda" with Jen for family members' entertainment. You can't help but be happy when you watch that scene. When they sang Slipping Through My Fingers, I was trying really hard not to cry. Embarassing... Whatever.

Anyway, I loved it and so will you, Linda.

Fear Itself

How do you react to fear? The few experiences in my life where I have been really, truly scared for my life have shown me what I'm made of. It turns out to be something about the consistency of Jell-O.

Once when I was about 16 or 17, I was standing in my mother's kitchen doing dishes at about 11:30 at night. As I was staring out the dark window, I suddenly saw a Scream-like face staring back at me (Scream hadn't been made yet). My fight or flight instinct did not kick in. I didn't have any impulse to defend myself or run away. I really just covered my face with my hands and slumped down onto the floor. It seemed like slow motion. I knew I was going to die and decided to just wait for it. I can't remember what happened next, but my little sister came to my rescue after finding out that it was just Sam Willis in a mask.

Another time, I was driving and a car came at me in an intersection and I just knew I was going to get hit. I, again, covered my face with my hands - even more dangerous this time - and waited to die. Somehow, my car stopped in a safe place and I lived to tell about it.

I like to think I have mustered some gumption since having a child. I now have a fight or flight instinct kick in when it looks like someone might be thinking about possibly causing any kind of discomfort to Addison. Maybe that is why I feel safer when I get nervous at night and put Addison in my room. I do it thinking we'll be safer, but maybe I get some courage from feeling like I'm protecting something.

I've started watching the new show "Fear Itself" because, as I like to tell people, I love scary movies. I really do, but Tom and most of my brothers can attest to the fact that I've probably never actually seen one. Not that I haven't sat in front of the screen while a scary movie is playing, but that I really haven't seen it. I watch until it gets to be too much and then I cover my eyes, and say... "What's happening now???" I also laugh a lot while I'm "watching" scary movies. I'm not sure where this reaction comes from, but I do a lot of clapping my hands and laughing really fast.

Tom just came in, saw me typing, and started saying words like "skinwalker" and "pazazzoo" because he knows I can be scared into a tizzy with just a few words. I think he's trying to get me worked up before we start watching the new episode, just so he can leave me alone in the woods. ...I'll go get Addison.

I Want This

I've been in Utah for over a month with no pictures to show for it because my camera was stolen before I came. I've been wanting a new camera; something better than I had. I can't get something that I have to manually set... that looks so confusing... but I want to take great pictures. I watched this commercial and it totally sucked me in. This is the camera for me! If I ever do learn how to use the manual settings, this is a good camera to start on. It costs more than I want to spend on a camera, but I have to buy one anyway... So, do I buy the camera I really want and spend more money? or buy a cheaper one now and save for the better camera later? What do I do?

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

...when the workin' day is done

When I first got to Utah, Ellen, Tracey, and I talked about going to Vegas for our annual trek. We couldn't come up with a weekend that would work, so we decided to stay overnight in Salt Lake. Ellen was in charge of getting the hotel. I was in charge of finding an "event". Tracey was just in charge of showing up (we don't trust her). I found out that Ingrid Michaelson, who was at the Music Cafe this year at Sundance, and Ellen and I both really like, was coming to the Avalon in Salt Lake. Ellen got the hotel, and everything was in order with lots of "Yeah, that sounds so great!" and "No, I really don't have anything going on that weekend" and "sure we can meet at 1:00 to get pedicures before we go".
On Saturday morning, we had the usual round of:

Oh... wait. I forgot I have a race this morning.
I' m watching my friend's kids.
I haven't even gotten in the shower yet.
My shirt got dirty and I'm already out,can you bring me one?
I forgot my camera.
You guys just go, and I'll meet you after the pedicures.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

At about 3:30, we were on our way. We all ended up with pedicures and a recommendation for a great Vietnamese restaurant. After we ate, we went to the hotel, laid around, and took pictures of our feet.

Tracey has freakishly tiny toenails. The lady had to paint part of her skin on her pinky toe because it was too small for the brush.

We talked about going to the pool, but it was only talk.

... the one to walk in the sun

At about 6:30, we headed out to the Avalon theatre. Yikes. What a dive. We used to go to the hypnotist shows there in high school, and it was a dive then. If I was just passing by, I would assume it was abandoned... broken windows, broken signs, chunks of concrete missing, but no... it's still up and running. The doors were supposed to open at 6:30, and the show was supposed to start at 7:00. Not even close. While we were waiting in line, I went inside to ask what the deal was with the line, and heard them doing a sound check. I could hear Greg Laswell, who was at the Music Cafe 2 years ago, and asked if he was also playing the show. Yep. Now I had motiviation to go wait outside in the 100 degree heat. We waited until about 7:30. Finally, they opened the doors and let us into the refreshingly cool building.... We wished. Like I said, this building was old. They had one fan on stage and a big fan in the back, and a couple hundred human heaters walking around the cramped, unventilated building. Not so much fun. But, the concert was.

This was right when we got there. We aren't too melted yet. You can kind of see what a mess this place is.

In keeping with my theme of posting terrible pictures of myself, I thought I'd add this one of me and our new friend (see below). No good, right? There are a couple factors at play here. Ellen has a fancy camera that flashes about 8 times before it takes the real picture in order to get it to focus in the dark, and when it flashes, it's BRIGHT. My eyes are saying, "come on, already... Ouch! That's bright!" Also, I thought about editing the shiny faces, but I really cannot emphasize enough how hot it was.

This is a more normal version.

We think these 2 are in LOVE. They sang "Can't Help Falling in Love" as the final song and... well, it looked like they meant it.

...take a beautiful girl
While we were in line outside, we met Gabriella from High School Musical. She was a doll. Actually, her name was Daniella, but, she looked just like Gabriella and we adopted her for the night because she was there by herself. I think she was happy at first, but maybe not so much after she realized what she had gotten herself into. Poor, poor girl. She must have liked us enough, though, because she came out to dinner with us after the show. (I know, second dinner. Give us a break. We don't get out much). We went to Iggy's Sports Bar because it was open... but, just barely. We were the only people in the restaurant and they were cleaning up all around us. The manager even came out to hurry us along right after we got our food by asking us if we had gotten our check yet. We ate quick, said good bye to Vanessa Hudgens, and headed back to the hotel. On the way, we started talking about our knack for picking up strays. And I mean stray in the nicest possible way. Some of them turn out to be great friends... Mike, for example. Some of them, we may have been better off leaving well enough alone... Bethany, according to Ellen (although I should remind her, Bethany was Ellen's find, and I still think she's great). But when we look back at pictures from everything we've done, there is almost always someone new joining us. As Ellen put it so eloquently, "we have just touched so many lives." So, true, my friend. So, true.

...hide her away from the rest of the world

When we got to the hotel, we decided to check to see if the pool was open. We let Tracey out to read the pool hours sign, and Ellen uttered the ever fateful line that always begins our long nights of running through hotel corridors, getting lost in the Venetian canals, leaving me stranded in Las Vegas elevators, and, at least in this case, having Tracey ride through a parking garage holding onto the back of my car:

"Let's ditch her."


You got it. I drove away. We laughed and laughed. It never gets old!




...phone rings in the middle of the night

We got back to the hotel room, looked around, and decided to take a walk around the hotel. We got about 2 minutes into our walk, and Tracey decided to rattle the door on which a "Privacy Please" sign hung. Ellen and I took off. We assumed Tracey would follow. We kept walking thinking we would eventually run into her, but instead we ran into a grand piano. I decided to play. Ellen decided to sing. Ellen called Tracey's cell phone (but first dialed a wrong number... it was 1:00 AM), and found her back at the room. We told her to follow the music. She did. Ellen put on quite a show. Her moving lyrics and the look of yearning on her face made for an exciting night, I'm sure, for the cleaning crew. Man, we're funny. I really wish there was a way to record this stuff, but it just happens, you know? You can't plan it. We walked around looking through the windows of the gift shops, and started heading back to the room. Ellen found some note pads and pens, and decided to start writing notes to put under people's doors such as, "I missed you tonight. Call me tomorrow. I love you. Love, Stephanie". I took that one away, but she did leave a "Sunday Services - 10:00 AM 3180 S 600 E" under a door. That really isn't that funny right now, but at 2:00 this morning, it was hee-larious. We got back to the hotel room, and the shenanegans began. There was lots of hiding people's books in drawers, making Tracey a bed on the floor, hiding ice buckets and glasses in people's bags. I bet Tracey never found the "This is a Non Smoking room" sign in her purse. Go ahead and look, Tracey. It's there. We finally fell asleep at about 2:30. Someone was talking in their sleep and kept me awake. Ellen's phone rang at 5:30 AM. Wrong number. That's what we get, I guess.

...came home in the morning light

We went to a breakfast buffet at Little America, ate as much as we possibly could, and headed home. I made it home in time to go to my mom's sacrament meeting, but left afterward and came home and took a 3 hour nap. I feel lazy, but happy as can be.

Stewart Falls

My work computer died on Monday night. I thought about blogging about it, but it still is causing me such a headache (tomorrow I will have 3 computers at my mom's house after bringing one with me from California, and having 2 sent to me by the company), that I'm trying to forget it. But, because I had no computer, I had no work. So, I decided to take the Addison and Eric on a hike. I wanted to go to Stewart Falls. We used to go up all the time on a little shortcut path we knew. It's a pretty mellow hike if you go on that trail. I remembered something about not being able to go on that trail, but decided to try it anyway. When we got up to where I usually start, there was a big sign that said: "NO TRESPASSING: TRESPASSORS WILL BE PROSECUTED. EXTREMELY UNSTABLE AND DANGEROUS." Ok, ok... we'll do it the right way. We drove around to Aspen Grove and took the real trail. The last time I did that trail was in college with Brian Carol, one of the Kellers, and Ryan Radebaugh. I didn't remember it being too rough, but we were hiking it at midnight back then. I can't remember why. Anyway, it was a good little hike. The last 3/4 of a mile was pretty steep getting down to the falls, and of course, quite an incline going back up. These little boys were such troopers! Addison kept telling Eric that this hike was nothing compared to the hikes in California. I think he was just thinking about the hike we took when we first got there and Tom took us on a "Strenuous" level hike. Eric kept telling Addison (after I didn't have a Band-Aid for the scratch Addison got from a branch) that his mom always had Band-Aids, and his mom would let them rest even if they weren't at the top of the hill yet. And I totally believe it. Amy is always prepared. Anyway, it was a fun hike and the boys came home extremely dirty and (not that they would admit it) tired. I was thinking naps sounded good, but they thought swimming did. Good thing for adopted aunts who are willing to take them!

This picture really pretty much sums up how Eric was feeling on the way up. But, on the way back, when Addison asked him how he rated the hike, he said he gave it a 10. On a side note, I'm pretty sure these two have some sort of understanding of each other separate from the rest of the world because this is how that conversation went:

A - What number do you think this hike is?

E - 10.

A - I only think it's 6.

E - Why only 6?

A - Because of this (points somewhere down towards the ground).

E - Oh yeah. Me, too.

It took about 10 minutes for them to explain to me that Addison was asking Eric to rate the hike on a 1-10 scale, and that Addison only gave it a 6 because his feet were hurting.

So, I've realized that I consistently post some pretty bad pictures of myself. But, today as we were on the trail, I was taking a picture of the boys, and a woman and her husband came by. She asked if I wanted her to take a picture. I politely declined. Then she told me how when she looks back at the pictures she has of her children when they were young, it looks like they were raised solely by their father because she never included herself in any of the pictures. She said it seems like she was never there for any of the fun things. So, I let her take my picture, and post it here along with all of the other bad pictures of myself just to prove that I was there.

They're so cool.