CUPCAKES!

Some of you know and some of you don't, but I LOVE cupcakes! I don't know what it is about those sweet little cakes...they are just so cute and yummy! I love making them, decorating them, giving them to people, and eating a few! A friend told me about a place in Salt Lake called Mini's Cupcakes on 14 East and 8oo South.

This picture was taken from their website.

As you may be able to guess by the name of the place, they only sell mini cupcakes. I went there a couple weeks ago and bought 7 of them to share with a few people. They aren't cheap at $2 a piece, but they are delicious...so moist! They have some fun flavors. The flavors I got were: (these explanations were taken from their website)

Smore Please - Dark Belgium Chocolate Cupcake with Marshmallow Crème Frosting topped with Graham Crackers
The Diva - Dark Belgium Chocolate Cupcake with Pink Crème Cheese Frosting
Twisted Sister - Dark Belgium Chocolate Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting topped with salty pretzels and a caramel drizzle
Lemon Pie - Lemon Cupcake filled with tart Lemon Curd with Toasted Swiss Meringue Frosting
Mocha Latte - Dark Belgium Chocolate Cupcake with Mocha Latte Frosting sprinkled with ground coffee
Breakfast at Tiffany's -Madagascar Vanilla Bean Cupcake with Tiffany Blue Crème Cheese Frosting topped with edible gems
Tainted Love -Madagascar Vanilla Bean Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting (Grandmas favorite)

All of these were very yummy and highly recommended!

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Another friend here in Seattle told me about New York Cupcakes at Crossroads in Bellevue. I was over that way yesterday and I just had to stop in and try a couple.

I forgot to take a picture of this place, too. I borrowed this one from a blog that I have on my Google Reader called Cupcakes Take the Cake.

I just bought two here to share with a couple people at my mom's office, but they all looked delicious. They sell mostly regular sized cupcakes and they are $2.75 a piece (a little better-priced than the one in Salt Lake...New York's mini ones are $1.25). I bought these two: (again...these explanations were taken from their website)

Long Island Lemon - Classic white cake and luscious lemon buttercream frosting topped with or without coconut, both finished off with a candied lemon treat. Pure Lemon Love!
5th Ave - Our designer classic chocolate cake is always in style, draped in our original buttercream frosting topped off with dark chocolate curls. The perfect accessory!

This is a piture I took of both of them...they look so pretty!

The lemon one was delicious, but the buttercream on the 5th Ave wasn't so good...too buttery.

I would love to own a place like one of these stores. I think it would be so fun to make these cute cakes all day! I guess I'll have to settle for visiting these places and eating the cupcakes for now!

Kim's Birthday Lunch

I am off-track again and that means I am back in Seattle for about a week and a half. I arrived here on Sunday. Chad was here from Tuesday of last week until last night. Since we both missed our friend Kim's 30th birthday on March 15th we took her out to a birthday lunch yesterday. My cousin Blake also came. We all decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue. If you haven't been there, you don't know that the menu is the length of a short novel...so many choices! It was very yummy! It was also good to visit and spend time with wonderful company! Kim...thanks for making time to go out with us and happy belated birthday! (oh...and we forgot to take pics...oops!)

Temple Square Lights

One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is to go around looking at all the Christmas lights. One of my favorite places for Christmas lights is downtown at Temple Square. I was able to go with some friends last night and had a great time admiring the wonderful job the workers did to make it beautiful. The pictures aren't that clear because it was dark, but you can kind of tell that each branch on each tree is wrapped with little tiny lights. They are everywhere...so beautiful!

Jazz Won!

My friend Israel has season tickets for the Utah Jazz games. He was nice enough to take me to the game last night. They played the Memphis Grizzlies and won by quite a bit. The final score was 117-100. It was a good game and I enjoyed hanging out with Israel! Thanks, Israel, for inviting me!

Israel wanted to make a funny face in the picture we took of us. Fortunately, he agreed to do a "normal" picture. I let him do a funny face one for being so cooperative about the "normal" one. Looks hot, huh?

Thanksgiving Presents

We received our Thanksgiving package from my mom the other day. I was so excited to see what she had sent! I know...you are probably wondering who gives Thanksgiving presents. I was told yesterday that it wasn't "normal" to give or receive Thanksgiving presents. I have a wonderful mom who always thinks of us and sends us stuff for most major holidays. Thanks, MOM! Anyway, I was so thrilled to see that my mom had sent me a nativity set. I love nativity sets and love collecting different ones. The one she sent me (pictured below) is a Jim Shore set. I love the detail each figurine has on it. She also sent an angel to go with my Willow Tree nativity (I don't have it out yet, so I didn't take a picture of that). Thanks again, Mom...I love it!

Weekend Visit to Vernal

I was able to go visit Rick, Kristen, Gracie, and Pepe in Vernal this last weekend. On Saturday we did some shopping at some of Vernal's cute stores and, of course, Walmart. Kristen had the wonderful idea of making chocolate cookies with candy cane kisses in the middle. We made them on Sunday before I left and they turned out very cute.

The candy kisses melted so you can't tell that's what they are, but the colors are still cute and they were very yummy!

While we were making the cookies, Rick was in watching the 49ers game (they ended up losing...sorry Rick). We tried having Gracie chill with him in the living room so it was easier to make the cookies. She didn't like that idea and just wanted to hang out with the girls in the kitchen. She loves sitting in her highchair playing with toys. The only problem...she likes to try to share her toys with Pepe. This means Kristen ends up picking up toys the whole time. Oh well!

(Isn't she so cute? I wish they lived closer!)

Some Late Halloween Pictures

So Halloween has come and gone, but here are some almost month old pictures.

This is Marianna, our school's wonderful speech pathologist, and me on Halloween. The members of our Special Ed. team were all M&M's. I was a bumble bee...again!

Here are some of the spiders that my students made as one of the centers in the Halloween party. They have York patties in the middle. They all turned out very cute!