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This is the look I got when I told Bella to say cheese.

But she would smile at her sister!

Showing off her hairdo.

Now there is some cheese!

I'm so proud of myself for this hairdo cause I sort of made it up.



Gotta love the natural curls!

So I had the opportunity to make mass quantities of cupcakes and I ran with it! For Richard's boy scout court of honor last night I made Chocolate Cinnamon, Mint Chocolate, Root Beer Float, and Gingerbread cream cheese cupcakes. If any of you were there, I hope you enjoyed them!

The best of both worlds

I know. I'm supposed to be a healthy eater. You might want to brace yourself before reading on...

So this new cupcake bakery opened up in Provo last month. I was already addicted to Provo's Sweet Tooth Fairy in East Bay, but when the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe in Brigham's Landing opened up, I was a gonner. Are you kidding me?! Their cupcakes are EVIL! They have like 40 different flavors and they are on a schedule so you have to go several times a week to try the ones you want. Well, at $2.75 a cupcake and I-don't-want-to-know-how-many calories, I decided to take a stand and take matters into my own hands. For less than a $1 --all ingredients and supplies included--I can make 6 cupcakes of my own. So Richard bought me the 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 minutes cookbook for Valentine's Day (along with a really nice ceramic flat iron for my hair, thanks Honey). You use cake mix, but doctor it up to make fancy cupcakes! My first two attempts were Burnt Almond Fudge and Chocolate Fudge Cream Cheese. YUM! Then I make Cherry Lemonade last night:

So if you take a cake mix and measure out 6 oz (one third of the mix) then you can use 1 egg and 1/3 of the wet ingredients and make only 6 cupcakes! Brilliant! Then they are gone, you aren't tempted to eat way more than your share, and you still have mix to make 2 more batches! Now. I think I need to make a rule that I can only make cupcakes once a week. I can stick with that. Once a month would be better...

Now for a blurb on healthy eating (hahaha). When I'm not eating cupcakes, which have zero nutritional value (except the lemonade ones--2T fresh lemon juice is good for you, right?) I really have been trying harder to make healthier food. This is on the principle that it is not just about not eating the bad stuff, but eating more of the high nutrient good stuff. So I bought another cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. I make vegetable purees and add them to our food to boost the nutrient density. I measure out 1/2 cup (4 oz) of the puree in a snack sized ziploc, then put several of those in a quart sized freezer bag, label, and freeze flat, stacking the bags on top of each other. Mac and Cheese is delicious with cauliflower and/or butternut squash puree instead of butter!! For burritos the other night I mixed the taco meat with fat free refried beans and carrot puree, very good! I have a lot more recipes to try there. But FYI if you do make chocolate chip cookies--add a can of garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed). They really blend in with the texture of the cookie. Nobody noticed they were there unless I told them! I think that is some of the principle that Weight Watchers points is supposed to be based on. Foods with more fiber are less points. What they are really trying to say is that foods with more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans are better for you. Unfortunately, WW and other food companies just add some fiber powder to their products to lower the points values. They miss out on all the other vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, etc that are supposed to come along with
the fiber! It drives me crazy. Maybe I should add some fiber powder to my cupcakes. Just kidding! But I am going to add some vegetable puree! Beet puree for chocolate cake, yellow squash for white or yellow, pumpkin for spice cake, carrot for carrot cake...I bet I could come up with 40 flavors...

Valentine's Day

The girls looked so cute in their Christmas dresses this year, but I never took a picture of them! So They wore them for Valentines Day!

Nothing like blowing bubbles to get them smiling!

Rock-a-Baby

Bella was sick for a week and a half. Ugh. This was the look on her face a lot of the time. She had Coxsackie virus, otherwise known as hand, foot and mouth disease. Only she didn't have the hands and feet involved. She had sores and ulcers on her throat, lips, tongue, and gums. Poor kid was miserable! I can't tell you how happy and relieved I am that she is better now. She feels the same way. She was so happy today that she kept breaking out into song. Mostly "Rock-a-baby" which is her version of Rock a bye baby (in the tree top). She will hold any toy, doll, stuffed animal, or even food and rock it like a baby as she sings to it.



I thought this cup was so cute. Its from Chuck E Cheese and it makes you look like Chuck E when you drink out of it. I had to follow her around for a long time to get her to pose for this picture!
Since the girls were wearing matching outfits, I tried to do a photo shoot. Emphasis on tried.

Sledding!

We took the girls sledding a couple of weeks ago.

Bella wasn't too excited at first, but she warmed up to it.

Bryndi had a great time.

She even got right back on after she biffed it.

Long happy day.

Dear Blog,

Sorry that I don't have a new post. Bella is sick and so none of us have been getting enough sleep.

Dear New Camera,
Sorry I don't use you more often. It really is a shame.

Dear Camcorder,
Sorry I don't use you more often. My girls should be captured on film and their mom isn't doing it!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thanks for the great day. Exhaustion or not, I was spiritually filled today and it feels good! I taught a lesson in church (relief society--the women's class) on Forgiving Ourselves and I learned a lot. Not to mention that a lot of the material I got for the lesson was from an hour long program on forgiveness that just happened to be on TV when I turned it on in the wee hours of the morning with my crying baby. Here is my favorite quote from the lesson:

It has always struck me as being sad that those among us who would not think of reprimanding our neighbor, much less a total stranger, for mistakes that have been made or weaknesses that might be evident, will nevertheless be cruel and unforgiving to themselves. When the scriptures say to judge righteously, that means with fairness and compassion and charity. That’s how we must judge ourselves. We need to be patient and forgiving of ourselves, just as we must be patient and forgiving of others. -President Howard W. Hunter (1907-1995)