Chio Knees

Yesterday little Anabelle was at our house visiting. She was talking "jibberish" and Grandpa Ricky couldn't understand a thing she was saying. He said to her, "You must be Chinese" and she said, "No!" and then pointing to her knees, said, "These are Chio Knees!!"

Is that cute, or what??!!

My brother, Blair Don

On Sunday, my little brother, Blair invited my to take pictures of his family. His oldest son, Sean is leaving next week to go to Turkey to teach English, for at least one year. These were a few of my favorite pictures:

Which is the mother and which is the daughter??? It's hard to tell!!

I love this picture of these little guys who are growing up with A LOT of BIG people.

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These are some of the best kids you'll find........and not an ugly one in the bunch.

As you might have figured out, I have a thing for butts and legs.

Thanks you guys for a FUN evening. You're the best!! And goodbye Sean. We'll miss you!

Cupcake

You can't have a blog with the title Cupcake, and not have a few pictures of them.

These yummy Carrot Cake Cupcakes are baked in papers that I bought at Sur La Table. They are frosted with cream cheese frosting, but even better is that there is
8 ozs of cream cheese in the batter, too! BONUS!

I has just "experimenting with these babies. I just made chocolated cake, with a can of pie cherry filling instead of the shortening, Sounds delicioius, but we'll never know, because these just ended up being DECORATIONS. Would you let anybody eat something that looked this decorative?? (Plus, my freezer is full of the carrot cakes, and the back to school cakes and the forth of july cakes--I told you we just DON"T eat cake.)

How long would this last at your house?

(We are going on a month now.)

The Stinky Great Salt Lake

Last week Casey, Nichole, Karley and Nickolas and I went the the Great Salt Lake for a "Photo Shoot". We tried to time it just perfectly so that we would not have the bright sunshine to deal with, but we were running a little bit late, so we really had to HURRY.

This little guy is just about as handsome as they get......even with a slobbery, dirty face!

Doesn't it just look like they are having a great family time? It's really nice that the camera doesn't show what really is going on.

I really love this picture of Nichole with the kids. She is such a cute mother, and I love pictures that aren't posed, that just show a "tender moment".

Of course, my favorite picture was the first one we took. I wish that I would have taken more like this. Aren't they a cute family??

Life just doesn't get any better than this.

There are a lot more pictures. Nichole will blog the rest. These are just a few of my favorites.

Back To School

Doesn't "Back to School" just call for a Cupcake??? Sophie and Chloe helped me make these special cupcakes. Chloe helped with the "chalkboards" and Sophie placed the apples, chalk and stars just perfectly on each cake. It doesn't show on the picture, but of course there are also little abc sprinkles on top. Sophie did those, too. What fun!

I can't believe that summer is almost over. I always have that "feeling of dread" a few days before school starts. I miss the kids, and the laid-back life of summer. Lindsey started back to Weber, and my baby boy started Viewmont High School. My Baby is a Sophomore??? OUCH!
Not only that, but he is on the sophomore football team. He had his first game last night, (7-28) and got quite a bit of playing time. Good Job, Cody!!

Carston also started school as a BIG first grader. Somebody pinch me. Do I really have a grandchild in school full- time? Time is just going by too fast!

Sleepover

Isn't this a good picture? The background in the most important thing in the picture. See the pillows and sleeping bags? That is because we were having a sleepover! Carston has been talking about this "sleepover" for a long time, and it finally happened. Being the kind and thoughtful guy he is, he gave me the couch, and he took the floor. He also wanted me to have the "coziest yellow sleeping bag, because it is like a coat", but I insisted that he take it, I mean, would it be fair for me to have the best of everything? Carston had the whole night planned, from the movie, ICE AGE, to a healthy midnight snack, to staying up clear until his bedtime, so that we wouldn't be too tired for games the next morning, to going to the park, and of course, waffles for breakfast. Just how does a girl turn down an invitation like that? I was having a great time, until he woke me up when he turned off the movie and decided to "work out' on the exercise bike (at midnight). It took a really creative bedtime story to get him to settle down and get to sleep, but it finally worked!! We had a great time. He is such a sweet kid, I love to be around him. I almost didn't publish this post, because i really don't want anyone to get any ideas about inviting me to sleepovers..........the thing is, this old girl just needs her own bed.
Hey, Thanks Carston!!

MY CUPCAKE OBSESSION

My latest hobby is making cupcakes and then taking pictures of them. Then I put some out on a pedistal, (which never get eaten, they just go hard, but for a few days, they look cute) and the rest go into the freezer. (for what, I don't know) Pretty much a lot of work for who knows what.

No, wait I know what......They are just FUN! And they are easy. There is just something about cupcakes that make me feel all warm and cozy. So from time to time I will post pictures of my lastest cupcakes (right before I stick'em in the freezer). Even our answering machine has Sophie saying, I'm making cupcakes with grandpa and grandma, they'll call ya back. Rick likes to tease Sophie that he is the GREATEST cupcake maker in the world. She gets all upset and looks and me and says, "No he's not, huh grandma!". But when we went down to Arizone to see them, Grandpa and Sophie made cupcakes together, and Grandpa came up with some doozies, which impressed Sophie, but back-fired on grandpa, because now when he says that he's the greatest cupcake maker in the world, she just says, "yes". He doesn't get her all upset anymore, and that's no fun.

These cupcakes are chocolate (Made from Scratch, of course) and frosted with homemade cream cheese frosting with mint flavoring. The chocolate part of the frosting has melted andes mints in it with chopped up andes mints on top. I wish I would have saved whole andes mints for the very top. Next Time. So there you have it......... keep posted for the next ones, and maybe one of you grandkids can help!