Cupcakes of the week

We have some new neighbors, so I thought I'd make some welcome-to-the-neighborhood cupcakes and use half of them to bribe the Sunday School kids too. I used an old tried and true recipes because this required Nolan's patience in the high chair, so it had to be fast.
Lemon chiffon cupcakes with citrus cream cheese frosting
with a lemon shortbread cookie as a decorative touch

Saturday

Nolan and I were on our own this weekend, while Ben was in Boulder, so we went up to grandma and grandpa's house for the day on Saturday.

Here are a few of the fun moments:
The boys got these disc shooter things at McDonalds that Nolan thought were really great. . .

To eat.

He walked around with one in his mouth for about 10 minutes

Ethan playing with his silly putty.

Carter putting the hop scotch disc in his mouth. I tried to capture him forehead to forehead with Nolan with discs in their mouths, but Nolan wouldn't hold still.

Aubrey with caramel on her teeth. She was eating sugar babies.

Nolan playing under the high chair. He had a run in with a water balloon outside, so he was running around in just a diaper for a while.

More Photos

Tamera turned the camera on Nolan & I again the other night while doing headshots. I thought I'd share a couple. There are more on her blog. I look like a bit of a freak show in that last one, but it manages to capture his one stinkin' half a tooth, which I haven't been able to do so far, so I included it anyway.

Nolan's Gonna Be One Less! One Less!!

So, we had the 9 month check up yesterday. And I'll be honest, I was a little surprised. Nolan's not growing as quickly as I thought he was. The pediatrician was quick to point out that his mobility means he burns more calories now. And she's not worried, so I'm trying not to be worried either. We're just going to keep stuffing food in his mouth and hope he keeps growing.

SO, these are the stats.

Height: 28.5 inches (50th %)
Weight: 21 lbs 8 oz (60th %)

I thought it was awesome that the nurse used a brown bandaid on his leg after his shot. . . until I read it.

I couldn't stop chanting the commercial after that. . .

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I watch too much TV, or you don't watch enough. Take your pick.

(Gardasil is a cervical cancer/HPV vaccine. Not sure what happened to animated characters on band aids for kids. . . whatever)

Just to be clear, he didn't get a shot of Gardasil, they just used that bandaid. . . I'm pretty sure.

Bathrobes & Slippers

Creative is sporting bathrobes and slippers today. . . (those of us that are here and got the memo. . . sorry Clint)

Don't ask why. There isn't really a reason. Sometimes we just need to mix it up.

Things I'm Liking Today. . .

Bolthouse Farms Berry Boost for breakfast

The new facebook Scrabble program

These cute pictures Tamera took of us. She did headshots for Merry Wives last night, and Nolan and I were her lighting helpers.

Also, I am SO excited for the SYTYCD final showdown tonight!! But I'm going to miss the show! And why on EARTH are the tickets for the tour so dang expensive?

Just wondering.

Reviewing Again

I have a lot of catching up to do on my movie reviewing. Though we JUST made it to see The Dark Knight, I have been watching a lot at home. . . So here we go!

We are big fans of TV on DVD, in case I haven't mentioned that before. And since we loved Veronica Mars so much, and everyone said it was so great, we thought we'd try out another series everyone said was so great:

Weeds
Yeah, I LOVE Mary Louise Parker. I can't tell you how giddy I am that she has a career again. And I'm almost as happy that Elizabeth Perkins has a career again. That said, while I think the idea behind this show is pretty darn clever, I think they took their ability to be foul mouthed (because they're on cable) a little too seriously. It was just too much for me. The brother was the last straw. We only made it through one disc, and I took the rest off of my list.


Wonderfalls
I am a BIG fan of Pushing Daisies. I love the quirky production design. I love the color. I love the fun and silly writing, and I LOVE the cast. They are all so very very charming. Wonderfalls is created by the same guy (Bryan Fuller, who, incidentally, was also a co-executive producer for the first season of Heroes. . . maybe HE is what it's missing now.) I wanted it to be as charming as Pushing Daisies. I wanted Lee Pace to have more to do, cause I have a little crush on him. And it tries. It really does. But it never quite gets there, in my opinion. So we quit this one too. We watched the whole first disc. I was thinking it wasn't going to improve at that point. I hope I'm right.

And, with those 2 failed attempts at finding a new favorite series. . . We go to the movie selections.

Charlie Wilson's War
It's Sorkin. What can I say? I liked it. It's well acted, well directed, well everything. It doesn't have the heart I wanted it to have, but i really did enjoy it. If it had sucked me in and made me care just a touch more, it would have been even better. But I find Sorkin takes more than 2 hours to make you love the fast talkers he writes for, so it doesn't totally surprised me. It's definitely worth watching.

Bella
Yeah, this movie is SO not what i thought it was going to be. Though I'm not sure what i thought it was going to be. . . First of all, I thought it was going to be in Spanish, when it's mostly in English. That changed my perception of it right up front. PLUS, it's a very sweet, totally clean, wonderful story. I felt like the guy they cast in the lead was supposed to be a Spanish version of Jim Caviezel, a la Angel Eyes, but he was good, so it didn't much matter. Definitely see this one, especially if you're a happy-ending-in-unexpected-places kind of person. (though I guess I just ruined it by telling you there's a happy ending. Sorry)

My Kid Could Paint That
This is a documentary about a 4 year old painter that goes a really different direction than I thought it would. It ends up less celebrating the little girl in question, and more delving into a controversy surrounding her. I felt like everyone in the movie was manipulative and not to be trusted, except her mom. . . who I think really has her head on straight. . . it's worth watching, but just know it's not totally what you'd think.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
I had to take this one in 2 chunks. Frankly, I fell asleep the first time. It's beautiful. Cinematically, it will almost take your breath away, it's shot so well. And the acting. . . it's good. I mean really, really good. By everyone really, but especially by Brad Pitt & Casey Affleck. But it's SO slow. And to be honest, I'm a little done with movies that concentrate so little on plot while caring SO much about the pictures. Why can we not find a happy medium, I ask you? I'm just saying. . . Watch this if you really love film, care about cinematography, and aren't tired.


Penelope
Holy SMOKES, this movie surprised me. I thought it looked cute when I saw the previews. I like the cast and it looked pretty, so I figured I'd add it. And then I started hearing people say they liked it, and I bumped it to the top of my list. And now I'm going to go out and buy it. It is such a great story, such a wonderful message, and it is, in fact, beautiful as well! That happy medium. . . HERE it is! And without bad language, or sex, or violence. But the best part is, while it IS a sweet movie, it's also not cheesy and sappy like it SO easily could have been. Watch it. Really. Support the people who made this so that they'll make more movies like this. It's just plain GOOD.

The Dark Knight
OK, I've saved the one I anticipated most for last. YES, it took us several weeks to see. It is ridiculous that it took us that long. There are many MANY reasons for that. And in that time, there was a lot of hype. And there was also a lot of, shall we say, backlash. It's too strong a word, really, but there were plenty of people, whose opinions I trusted, who told me they had issues with it.

So did I.

It is a great movie, don't get me wrong. I liked it very much. The acting was generally good, even from people whose acting I don't usually like (Ahem... Aaron Eckhart) But I wasn't as blown away as I wanted to be. That's probably inevitable. When I saw the first one, I was shocked. I hadn't known what to expect at all, I saw it on opening day, and I was AMAZED at the world Christopher Nolan had created. This time, I knew what to expect from the world, so it wasn't as awe inspiring. To his credit, how COULD it be, being a second film. . . but still. It was like walking in to the second Matrix movie. . . It has to be the same world, so you can't break any new ground. That's just the way it is. I thought it suffered from 2 things, mainly.

#1-- writer/director syndrome. I'm guessing Christopher Nolan was given a lot more room to do his thing this time around, being reigned in less by producers, etc. And it sort of showed. It was too long, and some of the sub-plots were just not needed. . .

#2-- middle movie in the trilogy syndrome. There was no awesome exposition like the last one had. We just got straight to the point. But without that exposition, it's just an action movie. Which is great for some people, but I like a little more story with my action. (and, let's be honest, a little more Christian NOT in the bat suit)

So, there you have it. A catch up on what we've been watching. I am on a roll, so I'll have a few more to share soon.

Weekend Roundup

We had a rather busy weekend at the Hess house. . . I wish I'd taken more pictures of it than I did.

Saturday was especially crazy. Ben had rehearsal at 8 am, and while he was gone, Nolan and I took a morning walk before it got too hot. We cleaned the house a bit and I managed to take a shower while the babe napped.

Our first outing of the day was shopping. We visited Good Earth for some Mint Water and baby food. (Yes, I buy the organic stuff. I really had every intention of making baby food, but let's be real. . . WHEN?) We then went to Funfinity, our favorite Springville toy store, for some gifts, and Christophers, for some healthy lunch.

After several failed attempts to get Nolan to nap, we decided to let him nap on our drive north instead, and we took off for Bountiful. We had 2 wedding receptions to attend on Saturday, and thanks to some good luck for us, both were in Bountiful. First was Ben's cousin Kaycee, and second was our dear friend Cecily. Both were beautiful. I love watching people just starting out. . . So awesome.

On our way back from Bountiful, we stopped in Salt Lake. Our friend Loraine is in town from across the pond, and we had to introduce her to wee Nolan. He took to her immediately, despite the fact that it was past his bed time. I wish I'd taken a picture. I will have to the next time we see her.

Phew! By the time we made it home on Saturday night, we were all exhausted! Thankfully, we all slept pretty well.

Sunday was my turn to teach Sunday School, so I spent the morning planning my lesson. Nolan wanted to participate:

After church we did our best to just VEG. We watched some movies (Ben was a trooper and put up with 2 chick movies in a row!), Ben made home made pizza, and we tried not to think too hard about anything. It was really nice.

Nolan and I played a little peek-a-boo with a blanket. . . He loves to do this with his blankets. I cover him up and he pulls it right off again. But this time I used a big blanket, and he couldn't get it off. It's so thin, though, that he could easily breath, and even see through it a little bit, so he didn't freak out. he just sat there with it on his head, and then crawled around with it for a while. It was pretty awesome.

He just looks so big to me these days.
And that is the end of my long ramble.
Happy Monday!

Books

A few years ago, some friends and I started a book club devoted to reading the "classics". Books we were supposed to read in high school but never did. It was a lot of fun, and I found the books we read to be MUCH better as an adult than I did in high school. I borrowed the following post from Samantha, because I am insanely busy today and don't have time for a real post.

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list. How many have you read?

The instructions:
Look at the list and:
Blue font=you have read.
Green font=you intend to read.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (half of them)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92.The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I guess I'm a little ahead of the game. . . But I also think some of them are odd choices. . . like listing Hamlet separate from the complete works of Shakespeare. . . I've read a lot more than Hamlet, but not EVERYTHING. & I'm not sure I really INTEND to read any of the others, though I definitely might. . . so I didn't list any green.

Anyway. . .

Have a good Friday!!

Half Blood Prince Trailer

I have some movie reviews for you, but I'm knee deep in a database project at the moment, so I'll have to get to it a little later. . . in the mean time, please enjoy the trailer. We were wondering when it was coming out. . . Am I the only one that is creeped out the trailer alone?

Oh my word! I can't wait.

Allergy attack

Today is our anniversary. Ben & I have been married for 2 years today. It's crazy to think it has been that long, but more than that, I'm floored with how much our lives have changed in 2 short years. . .

As a tribute to my dear husband, (who has rehearsal tonight, so we won't be doing anything much to celebrate) I will relate to you a little story. This happened last night, and I was given permission to blog about it. . . I tried to get Ben to write it himself, but he wouldn't, though he would have done a much better job.

I'll start with a little background. Ben has allergies. Always has. He's never been tested to figure out what the full spectrum of his allergies include, but I'm guessing the list is not awfully short. He is also a hypochondriac. . . when he was in 5th grade and his teacher explained to them what it meant to be a hypochondriac, his first thought. . .
"I think I have that!"

2 years ago he had a weird reaction to something and his entire eye swelled shut. To this day, he has no idea what he reacted to. He went to the doctor and got some Zyrtec, and after a day, the swelling was gone. He often gets itchy eyes from dust or dander and uses allergy eye drops to deal with it.

Fast forward to last night.

As it was Sunday evening, we were just hanging out, watching some TV and straightening up for the babysitter Monday morning. In an effort to clean up our living room, Ben picked up and tossed the Love Sac over to fluff it up and get it out of the way a little. As usual, a cloud of dust rose (please feel free to share if you have any idea what to do about the dust problem inherent in Love Sacs). A few minutes later he said his eye was "freaking out" and went to get the allergy drops. It didn't do much for him, and as the minutes ticked by, his eye started to swell. He rinsed it with water, tried more drops, took some Claritin, but nothing was helping. This is what his eye looked like, from 2 different perspectives:

Please understand that while this was happening, we were watching a show on TLC about this man:And then imagine how Mr. Hypochondriac must have been feeling.

I am happy to report that this morning the swelling has mostly subsided, and while he looks a little like he has a mild case of pink eye, he will most certainly live.

And also, I love you, Ben. Thanks for letting me entertain the blogging world with that story. You must really love me too.

Happy Anniversary!

Frozen

Nolan has been teething. . . STILL. I can't figure out why it's taking such a ridiculous long time, but we still just have that one stupid tooth poking half way up and an occasionally VERY unhappy baby. He's a mess. One of the things that us new mommies hear is that teething babes sometimes dig a frozen baby washcloth to gnaw on in their time of need. Nolan has never really taken to that idea much. . . until last night.

He whacked his head on the corner of the coffee table, so Ben took one of the frozen washcloths out of the freezer to put on the bump. He wanted nothing to do with it on his head, but he did start chewing on it. . . and dragging it around the room with him. It was so funny, I had to capture it. He was chewing on it so fiercely!

Key Lime & Chocolate Orange

So. . . I'm starting a new venture.

It's still definitely in the planning stages, just starting to roll forward, but I'm pretty excited about it. I've been thinking for a long time that I'd like to start a cupcake business. I've mulled over lots of ways of going about it, and finally decided to just jump in.

I'm going to start with catering. . . parties, weddings, baptisms. . . whatever. I'll throw it out there and see what happens. My boss & I took some really fun cupcake photos this morning in an effort to A) play with photography & B) get some cool shots for me to use in marketing.

I made birthday cupcakes for the 5 members of our team with birthdays this month, so we had some fun subjects. . .

Check them out. (And if you need cupcakes for anything, I'll give you a good deal!)

Swimming!!

And finally, Nolan decided that swimming was fun!

After this experience, we're pretty sure that the issue has been water temperature. The pool at our hotel in Park City was nice and warm, and Nolan got a big old kick out of it. Just a few pictures of him having a great time in the water.

Reuniting

I'm of the mind that reunions are pretty much exclusively for the older generations. Most of us without grandchildren really don't care that much, and end up hanging out with the same people we would if our immediate family got together.

Saturday was crazy hot, and after 4 hours in the heat, we were pretty done. We did, however, walk away with some fun pictures. Mostly of Nolan crawling around under a tree because he was done being held.

It was as if he said to me, "MOM, that kid is walking! I want to walk too!" The other boy didn't have to hold on, so I made sure there were no skull/concrete accidents by sticking close by.

Because we can't resist an opportunity to shoot Ben's 2 favorite things together.