Weekly Darth

What a great baby I have in a nephew. Here’s some adorable things he’s done.

Come one, tiny sleeveless shirt!

Showing off his guns (fat rolls)

His little simple smile here is just amazing.

Card Makin’

All right, I have finished my cards for my card swap finally! Thank goodness I got them done in time. Here they are, super lovely (I’m so humble)

Hmm after trying to locate both of my cards for this month, turns out, I never took a picture of the other one! Color me embarrassed, but oh well, now you just get to enjoy the one!

Miscellaneous Monday

Our basement has flooded. Again. Yesterday morning, I went downstairs to run, and I found out that it had flooded. Turns out., our pipes had gotten clogged, so all the water wasn’t draining, and it all went into our carpet. So now, our carpet is soaked, and we had to have a plumber come on a Sunday to fix this. So, because I had to teach the third hour, and Husband had to teach the second, we did a little changing to be here for the plumber. I went to sacrament meeting, I rushed home (before the last song!) to switch him, and then luckily, he was done by the time I had to leave to make it back for my lesson. Let’s all cross our fingers that we have no more issues on this, I am sick of my basement flooding.

The weekend of family has come to an end, and I am grateful for my quiet house. With it being my younger sister-in-law’s graduation from high school, and the 2 year anniversary of the death of my in-laws, a lot of family coming in, so it was basically 4 days of family for like, 12 hours straight. Come Sunday afternoon I was definitely ready to spend the day in my (quiet) house, doing nothing, and saying nothing. Family is always fun, but there’s just so many of my Husband’s family, it’s overwhelming at times. Luckily, we only do big get-togethers a few times a year, so when the next one rolls around, it’s nice to see everyone again.


I’ve been re-watching Grey’s Anatomy from episode one, since the series is on Netflix. I’ve made it to the third season (it’s so easy to just watch them all the time, while I’m working, or getting dressed, or anything) and I had basically forgotten all of this stuff! I am really enjoying watching it all again, since it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time. Now I’m trying to decided, should I start another series after I finish this one? I mean, I’m only in the third season and so far there have been 11, so it’s not like I’ll finish quickly, but it’s a good idea to start planning for the future, I think.  

Oreo Cake Bars

I had to make another treat for another family shindig (I have so many this week, my golly) and I really got an excellent one today. So, here’s the breakdown:

1 Chocolate Cake Mix
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
2 cups chocolate chip
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
20 Oreo Cookies, broken into fourths

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a 9×13 inch baking pan with tin foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl, mixing until just combined. Press into prepared baking pan. Top with broken pieces of cookies. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cookies and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from oven. Let cool completely, remove foil from pan, then cut into squares. I had to cut it into like a million small squares to feed a load of people, and that worked just fine, everyone just got smaller pieces. I’d love to make this again and get a giant piece, so I think I’ll do that again soon.

These were an ooey gooey deliciousness that was really easy to make and was a real crowd-pleaser.

Weekly Darth

All right, good news, baby is feeling better, and he’s looking great.

This is amazing, look at that lounging body and face.

I LOVE this picture so hard. That Mohawk! Those fat rolls!

Just the simplicity of this smile. I love this tiny weirdo.

Kit-Kat Cupcakes

I had to make a treat for a family BBQ tonight, and after perusing my Pinterest, I chose these little beauties, Kit-Kat Cupcakes. And boy howdy were they delicious. So, you take a basic chocolate cake recipe, and spoon a little bit into a cupcake tin. Break a mini Kit-Kat in half, and then put the two half pieces into the tins. Cover those up with a little more cake batter, the tins being about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes, make sure they’re cooked through. Then, frost with this delightful frosting:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or more, make a decision once it’s combined)
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup caramel sauce (Like Smucker’s sauce, find it in the ice cream toppings section)

So, cream the butter, and then add the sugar and the salt. After it’s pretty well combined, add the sauce, and mix until creamy and smooth, or your desired consistency. Frost the cupcakes, and then top with a broken in half mini Kit-Kat bar.

These cupcakes were amazing. The frosting is legit one of the best frostings in the world. Make it!

Miscellaneous Monday

Well, now that I’m a YW leader, I have to teach on Sundays. I taught a lesson in April and it was HORRIBLE. I don’t mean like, as an exaggeration, it was literally an awful lesson. It wasn’t good, nobody participated, and the lesson got over before the time was up, which never happens. So now, I have to teach on Sunday again, and I am trying my darndest to make a good lesson happen this time. Wish me luck, everyone.

This week, we had to borrow some lawn equipment from the neighbors. Our lawnmower is still broken, and I just don’t know how to fix it, and we probably just need to bring it to a repair shop, but I always forget to do that, until the lawn is too long, and we just borrow a mower. So after we used the mower today, and the weed whacker, we had to bring them back to the neighbor, around the corner. After the 5-10 minute walk and dropping off the equipment, my arms were sore, and shaky! Not only that, bit then for like, 2 hours later, I was still shaky, so I really knew by then that I needed to work on my arm strength.

I went outside to run today, and noticed there was some grass on the sidewalk from last night, that we didn’t get cleaned up before it started to rain. I grabbed a broom and started that, and then 45 minutes later, I finished sweeping the entirety of the sidewalk, and the garage swept out as well. My iPod then died, so instead of finishing up with a run outside, I just came inside, and ran on the treadmill. Yes, because I didn’t have an iPod, I just gave up on that idea and did another. But it still worked, I got my run in anyway.

Foto Friday

As my sisters in law and we were planning our summer vacay, my sister in law drew on my toes, and the result was a fun surprise.

Of course as soon as I started walking around, they came off, but it was fun for a second.

Weekly Darth

Poor baby was sick this week, so all of the pictures this week are just sad!

Poor fella was just miserable.

And hopefully he’ll feel better soon!

Stamps Plus Chats

Tonight we had another fabulous Stamp and Chat, and made awesome cards of course.

We had an amazing meal for our treats this time, we had taco salads, and they were super good! We finished off with some Tres Leches cupcakes, and it was a really fun night!

Miscellaneous Monday

Man, I haven’t done one of these in a while! I just got too busy at the end of school, I couldn’t think of anything else at all. But not, it’s over, and I can focus on the important things in life, blogging.

But talking of school, I found out recently that I made the Dean’s List! I don’t really know what that means (honor roll, I hear?) but this is exciting for me. I can’t remember doing that well in regular high school (I didn’t fail but I know I didn’t get a 4.0 or anything like that) so I’m trying the best I can in college, and I think it’s paying off. I don’t know if this trend will continue my sophomore year, and as I start taking harder classes, but I’m certainly going to try!

Being out of school, I’ve been cleaning my house, in between the work I’ve been doing. I have so far cleaned the whole inside a few times, and I weeded the outside. Yes, you read that right, I’ve done some gardening work! I didn’t like it, and it wasn’t fun, but hey, no one else was going to do it, so it was good that at least it got done. Now I’ll consider that the most outdoor work I’ll do, but at least I did it once.

Recently, a Sodalicious has opened near my house. For those that haven’t heard of this awesome place, it’s a place where you can get a drink made, usually just a soda/soft drink, and then they have flavor combinations that are so good. It’s my mission to try every one from that place, and I’d say I have like, 7 of the many many flavors tried, and they’re all so good. Do yourself a favor, and go as soon as you can!

Rice Krispy Treat S’More Pinwheels

I tried to make an easy dessert tonight. I found a good recipe online, and she made it look so easy. So I tried it. It didn’t work. Whereas her pinwheels were perfectly wheeled and looked amazing, mine looked crazy pants. But that was all right, because they were still delicious. So to start, make a regular batch of Rice Krispy treats, put them in a cookie sheet. Put 2 jars of marshmallow crème on those. Then take 6 Hershey’s bars, and bake in the oven, at 220 degrees for 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven, spread the chocolate all over with a spatula.

Let cool for 10 minutes. Then, like a jellyroll, roll up.

This was almost impossible to do. It kept breaking, and I couldn’t get it small so it was suckfest when it was all rolled up.

But that’s ok. I refrigerated for 40 minutes, and then it was cool enough to stay together. I sliced it up,

And they were really good! They just looked nothing like the photo on this gal’s blog, but that’s all right. It still tastes great.

Foto Friday

I was passing through the living room, and caught a glimpse of how Cookie was sitting.

What kind of dog sits like this? What a weirdo dog we have.

Weekly Darth

We have some great ones this week. Okay, they’re all great, I am biased.

Just casual about life, chilling.

And then way too excited for life.

We’ve all had fat days, I think. Look at that face! What is even happening there?!

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Even though this isn’t a real holiday, I do enjoy having a good taco Tuesday fall on a Cinco de Mayo, and get to enjoy the fun of it. I decided that in addition to having tacos for dinner, we should have a latin-themed dessert, which led me to my favorite one – tres leches cake, but I made it into cupcakes, because duh. So let’s break it down.

For the cupcakes, I literally just used a white cake cake box, to make it super easy. So, bake your favorite white cupcakes, and let them cool. After they cool, do a few things. Take a skewer (I used a metal one that I’ve made kebobs on, in case you were wondering) and poke some holes in it, like 8 or 10 or just go for however many you want. Then, take a small, sharp knife, and cut a small hole out of the top. Then, make this mix:

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
8 ounces half and half

And whisk it together until it’s super blended and creamy. Then, pour some onto every cupcake, and then put it in the fridge. Here’s what mine looked like at this point:

Oh yeah, looking good. I let them hang out in there for like, an hour, and then I brought them back out, and poured a little bit more in them, to try and get maximum soakage. After another hour or so, I brought them out and frosted them. Here’s my frosting recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup dulce de leche (I found this in the aisle at Target next to the evaporated milks, FYI)
1 TB vanilla extract
2 TB milk (optional – I didn’t use any, but the recipe called for it)

Beat butter, vanilla, and dulce de leche until creamy. Slowly. about a cup at a time, add powdered sugar, beating well and scraping sides every few minutes. If the frosting is too thick, add milk, one tablespoon at a time. But my consistency and taste was good without the milk, so make sure to just check it. Then, pipe onto cupcakes!

Voila! I think these turned out good, but if there’s something I would do differently, it’s maybe leave it overnight or something, to soak up the milk. It was soaked directly into the holes I had created, but it wasn’t ALL OVER THE CUPCAKE like tres leches usually is. But other than that, this was really good!

Provo City 5K 2015

All right, all right, race season starts today! I kind of decided last minute that I would do this race, and registered the night before. I thought I had registered earlier, but then apparently, that’s not what happened. I got to the race the morning of, and it felt good. Kind of warm, but I wasn’t expecting to do amazing things, just wanted to survive. As the gun shooting kicked us off, I tried to go as fast as I could, without dying. I made it through the first two miles pretty good, I was feeling awesome. And then, randomly, my body decided during the third mile that it was time to give up on life. I slowed down a little, and then my legs burned as I crossed the finish line. I didn’t finish faster than the Mayor of Provo (The real race name is Chase the Mayor 5K, but it’s so hard to beat him, he’s so fast!), so I figured I did poorly, but I felt pretty good anyway. They had a line where we could print off our results, and after waiting in that line, I found out…

I had gotten 2nd place in my age group! I got a medal!

I couldn’t have been more surprised. And then I looked at the whole results  and I was 1 minute away from being first place! 1 minute! Oh man, I was angry at myself, but that’s ok. 2nd place is not the worst, and now, race season is underway!

Women’s Conference 2015

Well, today draws to a close the BYU Women’s Conference of 2015. It was awesome, I learned a heck of a lot, and I had some great yummy food, good spiritual feeding, and some fun and laughs. Chelle and I went together, this is our second year of going. We had a blast, and can’t wait for next year!

Here’s to hoping next year will be just as awesome!