Not So Sunny St. George

After the wedding I took the girls and we headed to St. George to spend some time with my family. We had to drive through Zion National Park to get there. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The snow on red rocks is always breathtaking, but add amazing views and you cannot help but drop your jaw. The drive to my parents was much more uneventful compared to our drive to the cabin. Thank heaven.

The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. My sister, Whitnee, drove up from Vegas on Monday and spent the day with us. We had so much fun just chilling and catching up. I always long to live closer to my sisters and parents, so trips like this are good from my soul.

My sister, Rylee, and her cute girly, Blakely, came over to spend time with us as well. She was so good to put up with Avery. Avery is pretty good at taking over toys and being pretty bossy, so I was impressed with Blakely's patience.

Avery does not travel very well, and does not like sleeping in anything but her bed. Because of this she spent most of the trip being a tired grump, but we made the most out of it. Traveling with kiddos just makes everything that much more exciting.

My mom was so cute and did a family night lesson for us Monday night. Ellie was elated because family night is her favorite part of the week. We learned how to be fishers of men. Ellie could not get enough of the cute fishing game my mom made.

Avery got her first ice cream cone, and she could not believe how delicious (and cold) it was. She sat in the highchair for a good long time eating it, which is a miracle for her. Leave it to Grandma and Papa to spoil the girls. Part of my purpose of going to St. George was to try to ditch my winter blues for a few days. The company helped, but it snowed, so there was no escape! We also had to head home early to avoid a big winter storm.

While I was in St. George my mom and I wanted to make a cake. We settled on Cake by Courtney's Candy Bar Cake. It was a party! It has layers of shortbread cookie and chocolate cake sandwiched with a delicious peanut butter nugget and salted caramel. There were a lot of separate components to this cake to make, but the combination is so worth it. I did not have all of my decorating supplies, so the drip didn't turn out as well as I would like, but who can complain when you take a bite of this masterpiece?

Mister and Missus Smith

This weekend we had the privileged to celebrate the marriage of Brittany and Sean. We are so happy for them. Brittany met Sean at work. Her friend finally talked her into inviting him over to hang out, and they became fast friends. It didn't take long before they were dating. We have them over for dinner most Sundays, and it has been so fun getting to know Sean and seeing them together.

The cabin was about four and a half hours away. We left after Ellie's preschool class. She had a field trip that day, and I felt bad having her miss out. Apparently that wasn't the best idea. We were supposed to grab some pizzas and salads to bring to the cabin with us. We didn't realize at the time that those were for dinner that night. As we were driving it got later and later, and it dawned on us that we were the source of food for the wedding party. Once we were about two hours away we had to stop because of a poopy diaper. I thought it was Avery's diaper, but alas, Ellie had pooped in her pull-up. Cleaning her up was one of the grossest experiences I've had in awhile. It didn't help that I had to do it in a single stall. After we got the poop figured out we grabbed a kids meal for the girls to eat in the car, and off we went for the last leg of the drive.

The final hour and a half of the drive was on a windy highway. This, apparently, didn't sit well with Ellie's kids meal. About an hour into the highway we hear from the backseat, "I need to throw up." I immediately tell Jeremy to pull over. He promptly did so then grabbed Ellie and she successfully tossed her cookies on the side of the road. The final thirty minutes of the drive were so long. I swear this was the longest car ride I've ever been on, including the fourteen hour drives we have made to Washington. We made it in once piece, however.

Britt and Sean asked Ellie to be a flower girl with her cousin Emma. Ellie was beyond thrilled! She did such a great job dropping the flowers instead of throwing them at people. She followed Emma around all weekend and wanted to do everything Emma did.

The wedding was near Zion National Park. We all stayed at a giant cabin. The wedding itself also took place in the cabin. It was so seamless and was a beautiful ceremony. Brittany wore a gorgeous red dress. When Mitch passed Brittany chose the color red to associate her grief with. It was such a fitting dress for the occasion, and she totally rocked it.

The Day of Love

 I love Valentine's Day. It gets a bad wrap a lot of the time, but I love that we have a day set aside to remind us of the importance of telling those around us that we care about them are and appreciate them. It's more to me than a romantic holiday. It's a day of love. I think we all could be more mindful of those we love. It's important to remind them of our love. We never want to take our relationships for granted.

Ellie got to pass out valentines for the first time in her preschool class. She was so excited! Her cute teacher even helped them make their containers for their valentines. It was so fun to watch her carefully write out each of her friends' names on their card. She's still working on her letters, so a few were more difficult to read than others. She finished them all though.

We had some special visitors this Valentine's Day. Jake and Zaira came to stay with us before we all headed down to Brittany and Sean's wedding. We were beyond thrilled to spend some time with them. We have missed them like crazy since they have moved to Washington. We had some heart-shaped pizzas for dinners, and of course I had to make a cake.

This is Strawberry Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake is another cake from Cake by Courtney. It is simply divine. I'm telling you, nothing beats the strawberry frosting. I didn't have the strawberry emulsion that she used, but I did have a bag of freeze-dried strawberries. I through them in a food processor and then sifted them into the frosting. Each dark chocolate layer of cake was topped with the strawberry frosting and chopped up fresh strawberries. The entire cake was then frosted in the strawberry frosting and topped with dark chocolate ganache and chocolate covered strawberries. I love chocolate covered strawberries, so this cake was a definite win in my book!

Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake

For Avery's birthday I knew we weren't doing her smash cake on her actual birthday, so I wanted a cake for us to eat as a family. When I saw this Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake on Cake by Courtney's blog I knew I had to make it. I'm so glad I did! The cake itself is dark chocolate, but in-between each layer is dulce de leche. It is then covered with a chocolate buttercream, topped with homemade salted caramel. The combination of the flavors is perfection. I couldn't get over how moist the cake was, and how well the less sweet chocolate cake balance with the incredibly sweet dulce de leche caramel. I completed the cake with dark chocolate shavings and piped chocolate frosting. Of course I had to add some dark Ghirardelli chocolate squares with salted caramel. This cake is a definite must!

She's a Big Girl Now

How can life go by so fast? I swear it was just yesterday that I was holding Avery in my arms in the hospital. Now she is smiling, crawling, sitting in a high chair, and drinking from a sippy cup. Ellie's newborn stage went by so slowly; Avery's was over in the blink of an eye. Avery has such a spunky personality. She's going to be such a tease, I can already tell. She likes to crawl to the stairs then look at me and wait until I'm watching. As soon as she catches my eye she smirks and starts crawling up the stairs.

She gets so excited when Jeremy gets home from work. The second the door opens she crawls over chanting, "Da, da, da, da, da" until he picks her up. She wants to be with Ellie the majority of the day. She will follow her around, and if she doesn't get to play with what Ellie is playing with she will let you know of her discontent. She's a little bit of a mommy's girl. She takes a minute to warm up to strangers, and will hug to my chest if they try to talk to her.

She loves to dance, especially to "The Greatest Showman" soundtrack. She'll nod her head, bounce on her knees, and lately she'll stand up and shake her arms with pride. If she loves her meal she'll pound it. If she doesn't she'll try to feed it to Kanye. Watching her drink is hilarious to me. She gets a very serious face and smooshes the sippy cup right up to her nose then chugs.

She is a lot more busy than I remember Ellie being (it might just be from lack of memory though). Avery is constantly trying to get into things she knows that Mom and Dad don't want her to get into. You can always tell when she's aiming to get into trouble because her crawl turns into turbo-drive. She wants to love Kanye so hard, but we have to remind her to be soft. To be fair, Kanye is pretty good at being right in her face. Avery is so very loved by all, and she is such a great addition to our family.

First thing in the morning on Avery's birthday we had her open presents. Of course Ellie was just as excited, if not more so, about the new toys. Ellie immediately exclaimed, "We share toys, right Mom?!" I was lucky enough to catch it on video and plan to play it for her anytime she decides that sharing isn't the most convenient. Later that night we got some pizzas and had a pizza night once Jeremy got home from work.

The part of Avery's birthday that I was the most excited for was making her smash cake. I saw the cutest rainbow piping on a cake made by Cake by Courtney. I wanted to try  my hand at it so bad! I made the rainbow chip cake by using three 4" spring form pans. In between the layers I used rainbow chip frosting (from the can).  I made Courtney's buttercream frosting recipe for the outside of the cake and the piping. I love how it turned out! I have a lot of practice to do with piping, but I couldn't help but be pleased.

We were so excited when we found out that my parents were going to be in town the weekend of Avery's birthday. We went out to lunch with them to Seven Brothers Burgers. They never disappoint! Their fries are what dreams are made of, and don't even get me started on the burgers.  It was so great to spend some time with my mom and dad. We were sad to see them go home.

The Monday following Avery's birthday we had the party continue. We had over Jeremy's siblings and their families to have dinner and cake. Avery finally got to try her cake! She wanted to eat it so bad, but couldn't figure out the best way to go about it. There were a few tears of frustration, but after I helped her get a few handfuls there was no going back.

She was a huge fan! She probably ate over half the cake. Needless to say it was a mess to clean up, but it was totally worth it. We loved celebrating our little girl, and looking back at the year we've had with her. She is such a blessing in our lives and the best addition to our little family. We love you Aves!