New Orleans

This past week we had a chance to go to New Orleans for a pool convention.  Garrett and I had a great time while Mark had to work! We went to the aquarium, a butterfly and insectarium, and the children's museum.  The last day Mark got to come to the zoo with us! It was fun to have him with us! Before our plane took off on Saturday we went and visited a plantation which just happened to have a fall festival going on.  It was still so cool to see the plantation.  The trees were amazing and somewhat magical!

So, as for visiting New Orleans, Im not sure I will be going back.  It was a neat place to see.  There was a lot of cool architecture.  The building were huge with these tiny streets in between them.  Everyone had shutters on their doors and windows, I believe for hurricanes.  We stayed in the warehouse district and a lot of warehouses were turned into business and parking.  It was a cool idea! The food was not my favorite.  Everything was fried and it was hard to find anything healthy to eat. The best part was we didn't need our car, we walked everywhere which was so much fun! We walked down Bourbon street and it was......interesting....  It was full of a lot of drinking, nudity and drugged out people.  It was kinda sad. I'm so grateful that I don't do any of that!   Needless to say, I'm so glad to be home and so glad I live in Utah!

Shout out to Lauren, she stayed home with Kortlen and took great care of him and the house and our zoo.  The house was sparkling clean and Kortlen had such a fun week with her.

Well, here is a few pictures of our trip!

Garrett in his own seat for the first time! He is such a big boy!

Garrett just being cute with a chocolatey mouth! This kid loves his m&m's 

The Dinosaur exhibit at the zoo.  Garrett was a little worried!

The beautiful trees on the plantation! I would love this tree in my yard! 

Halloween 2012

I know its been awhile since I've written.....just 9 months! That's not too bad right? Well instead of playing picture overload and catch-up, Im just starting from here and moving forward.

So, Halloween! We had a great time! We started making donuts for the neighborhood 3 years ago as a way of meeting people and to make Halloween a little more fun for me! I got the idea from a sweet lady in my old neighborhood, Mims Zimmerman.  Here is the six batches we made, and we still ran out!

Here is a little of our set-up. We like to set up a movie and people love to hang out and watch movies and eat donuts and warm-up with a cup of hot chocolate (which this year we didn't do because of the 80 degree day!)

Here is the recipe for those interested in it!



Apple Spice Doughnuts

2 Beaten Eggs
1 cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 cup Applesauce
1 cup Buttermilk
5 cups Flour
4 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together the eggs and sugar until light in color. Then add applesauce and buttermilk and mix well.  Sift together in a separate bowl, the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon and then add to wet mixture until well blended.  Let sit for 1 hour.  The dough is very sticky so have a ton of flour on your countertop and roll out to about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Cut into doughnut shapes and fry in hot oil.  We cover ours in powdered sugar but I'm sure whatever else sound good to you would be just as good!

The Family - Garrett dressed up as a swat guy.  He was so dang cute and loved his costume! He kept using his baton as a microphone, just a little confused, but cute!

Kortlen was his own version of Slenderman and Ethan was just scaring people with a mask all night while they were getting doughnuts.

I of course get so crazy that I forget to take pictures sometimes.  But here is a cute picture of Kortlen at his school party.

Speaking of the school party, one of the moms brought this cute snack! She cut rice krispie treats into pumpkin shapes and then had melted white chocolate with orange dye to frost them with.  Then she had different things to decorate them with, sprinkles, candy corn and stuff!  They looked so good and they were so cute! Here's a visual for you:

That's it for now!
-Celeste