Conference Weekend

For Conference weekend, Kelsie and I planned a little tea party for the girls.  Everything had to be pretty from the decorations to the food and we made some of our sisters nervous about their presentation not being good enough.  We went over the top with everyone wearing a dress, flowers, banners, macaroons on each setting, a tablecloth, matching cups/plates for the adults and kids, a cake, and all the food but it was well worth it.  Super delicious and now I have the flowers in my room!

Here's to Obsessions

My sister seems to get a kick out of me pointing out my flaws like this.
Here is part two.

One.  I sit at the kitchen table with my legs propped up and my laptop open to the latest show I'm watching while doing nothing else all day.  The most recent ones have been The Walking Dead, Parks and Recreation, Arrow, Suits, and the Blacklist and I won't stop until the show is finished.  The five seasons of Parks probably took me a week and the three and a half seasons of Suits were complete in a few days.

Two.  I like to read a lot.  When I do, I focus on my book and ignore all sounds around me; I don't hear people speaking even if they are right next to me.  I tend to stay in the same spot all day and when Ashlee comes home she says, "You're right where I left you."  When I purchase books either in the same series or even if it's by the same author, they need to look the same. I will now fill my own shopping cart for birthdays and Christmases so I have them look how I want.

Three.  When I find a song I enjoy, I put it on repeat and listen to it over and over until I get sick of it (and that can take a very long time). Sometimes I am referred to as the lyric police because I know a lot of lyrics to songs, only because I listen to them so much. 

Four.  After Kelsie got married I got all the leftover flowers and put them in my room. I was literally surrounded by flowers and the smell was so strong. On my bedroom wall most of the prints are of flowers and if I was wealthy I would by fresh flowers every day.  If anyone gets me flowers I will love them forever. 

Five. I have what you would probably call an immature food palate. I love cafeteria food, fast food, and food you get in the freezer section like hot pockets or Totino's pizza. I enjoy fake cheese like velveeta or easy cheese or whatever is in the cheese dogs (I used to sneak into the kitchen and eat those hot dogs cold). When my cousin Austin and I were younger we made ramen a lot and would put ice cubes in it to cool it down. Low quality food is the best!

SLC

We made a weekend trip with just the girls and our dad to Salt Lake.  Such a fun time and surprisingly, we got along well.
Park City with the alpine slide and coaster
Swimming and reading by the hotel pool
Hikes up Cottonwood Canyon
Dinners at Ruth's Diner and Settebello
Bruges Waffles & Frites with the most delicious fries and dipping sauce
Leopold Museum for the Animal exhibit
Delicious hot breakfast at the hotel, seriously one of the best I've had
Playing card games til late in the evening
Tour of Mrs. Cavanaugh's, caramel is the best
Farmers' Market and Flea Market
Banbury Cross Donuts

Food trucks

Food trucks are becoming more of a common sight now in Utah and I love it.  I've been to the food truck roundup countless times with family and friends and it never gets old.  Sometimes there are new trucks I haven't seen before, and sometimes I just have to get a favorite from Sweeto Burrito.

Plus, there are now always a couple of food trucks right by work so I'll occasionally stop by on my way home and get me some food. 

Since Mikayla, Madi, and I are all home for the summer and we all love food, we went to a food truck round up and it was fun catching up with these girls.  We've always been friends, growing up in the same ward.
And I hope that we can be as close as we are now for a long long time.

Station 22

To give mom a break of thinking only about her back pain, Josh, Kelsie, and I took her to Station 22.  The food there was delicious.  I got their chicken and waffles, the fries with yummy dipping sauce, and we tried the fried cookie dough.  And they have an awesome soda wall with so many different kinds of sodas that made me want to grab one of each.  It was so good, I'd definitely go again.

Twenty One Pilots

I went to a Twenty One Pilots concert with Josh and Kelsie this past week.
\\ Dinner at Chubby's which I highly recommend.  Good burgers and yummy beer battered fries.
\\ Amazing music with two very entertaining guys.
\\ Girls in front of us had their hair down and kept getting closer and closer to us.  It was so hot and their hair kept brushing against us.  Very annoying.
\\ My personal favorites of theirs are Guns For Hands, The Run And Go, and Truce.  But really, I love all their songs.

Cookies

Tell me to make a quick bread and I will be glad to.  Tell me to make cookies and you will doubt my cooking skills afterwards.  I can make really yummy cookie dough.  I can even scoop out the dough into even balls onto the pan.  But once they come out of the oven, they are just not right.  They flatten and get a little crispy because I forget to check on them.  At least mom likes them crunchy.  

Hot Vanilla Milk

Whenever I make hot chocolate,
I get the biggest mug because each time I make it I think, "I just love hot chocolate!" even though I don't.

Then I also have a hard time finishing because I get uncomfortably full after half is gone. I really would be fine with just a few sips or even none.

I found this recipe and it is so yummy, much better than hot chocolate.  One cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, one tablespoon sugar.

Photo via

Nutella and Strawberry Toast

This is the best toast I have ever eaten.  I wrote about it here a while back but it is just so good.  

You get the protein, grains, and fruit and then drink a glass of cold milk with it. 

(Even mom approves of how healthy it is). 

Delicious Toast

One of the best pieces of toast I've ever had is this: a nice, thick layer of nutella spread on bread just gotten out of the toaster with either raspberries or strawberries sliced on top.  The mixture of nutella and fruit is absolutely amazing and a perfect way to start off the day!

Zucchini Bread

Lemon Zucchini Bread

It now seems that whenever we get zucchini, I get put in charge of making bread with it.  There is a chocolate zucchini bread that I have made a few times.  Definitely a favorite. There are also two other kinds  that are delicious.  A lemon zucchini bread and a zucchini oat bread.  They are so good and I will be making them again and again!  And I definitely wish I was a food photographer!

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Krispy Kreme -July 13-

A couple of weeks ago, Krispy Kreme celebrated their 75th birthday.  Because of how awesome this company is, they had a great deal that day.  Buy one dozen donuts and get one dozen classic glazed donuts for $0.75.  My family loves these donuts so we just HAD to buy some.  I went with Ashlee and we had a great time talking in british accents to each other!  Good memory with Ash :)

Cookie Dough

Let's just say that I absolutely love cookie dough.  I like plain cookie dough--even more than the actual cookies--and I like cookie dough ice cream. I like cookie dough pop-tarts and pretty much anything to do with cookie dough. So when I saw this recipe, Cookie Dough Dip, I thought it sounded really good. So I am going to make it as soon as possible.  I will let you know how it goes...

Monday Nights are Taken

     Katie and I have decided to start making dinner together every Monday night.  We have only done it twice but so far it has been great.  The first week we made sloppy joes and they were really yummy.  This last Monday we made chicken with lemon pasta and everyone loved it.  It's been a lot of fun making dinner with Katie and I can't wait to do it again!  We try to use less pans and on occasion I can persuade Katie to not follow the recipe exactly.  But we do have one rule, and that is I can't make fun of Katie for wanting to be very precise with the recipe.  My parents are really happy that we can make dinner one night a week.  But now they are asking for more days...

Halloween Cupcakes

I know this is from forever ago, but Katie and I made Halloween candy corn cupcakes last October. They looked pretty good for our first attempt at making cupcakes together. However, the frosting that we made (I think it was a buttercream kind) was nasty so we hurried and got a betty crocker frosting and put that on instead. But it was a lot of fun making them with Katie and hopefully we can do it again sometime!