Twilight Concert - She & Him

I know some of you were sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if I made it to the She & Him concert. I did. It was good. It would have been fabulous if the 1000s of hipsters that talked so loud you could hardly hear the music would have stayed home. Also when did 6'2" become average height? I so should have ate more vegetables growing up.

I won't go into all the things I said in anticipation to this concert because then you'd truly see how weird I am but let's just say I was really looking forward to it.













At the very back of the concert were some weird family members. It was great to see them even though they were in the VERY back. Who does that at a concert? I had to put both pictures of my sister-in-laws because obviously that can't look normal in unison. Both of these ladies are Logan's favorite people ever. I think he prays each day that they will take him home and one of them will be his mom.

Tad got a little brotherly love from Nate.

Web Wednesday - Hostess With The Mostess

Probably my favorite things about blogs is all the ideas I get from other blogs and being pointed in new directions for new ideas. So since I visit a lot of blogs I thought on Wednesdays I'd try to point out some of my favorites.

Hostess with the Mostess, HWTM, has the coolest parties ever. Yes all the parties are more than any party I'd ever have or could afford but just taking one of the ideas from their parties can make your party go from ordinary to extraordinary. Seriously, I know cheesy but it does.

I had two baby showers in April and HWTM had cute downloads that totally saved me. You can find the downloads to this party here.

Ashley's shower was first and she was having a girl. I had a death of a close friend and also got a cold/sinus/ear infection the week before so I wasn't creative at all for her party. I was able to use the downloads on the invites, cupcake toppers and I framed the signs and hung on the wall and it still looked cute.

Laura's shower was the next week and she had a boy (her baby came a little early). I had a couple more functioning brain cells that week so I used the downloads for cupcake toppers, garland and lollies.

I hope you'll enjoy HWTM as much as I have because it's totally helped me in several parties/showers I've had.

August Love List

This Summer we have ate a ton of basil. What's better than basil? Pesto. I'll take my basil either way. Love it on pasta, caprese salad, pizza and even crackers. Yum! Buitoni's is actually my favorite store bought brand.










We started watching this a couple weeks ago and love it. Since then we've been downloading a couple episodes here and there so we are ready for the premier September 21st. Who's your favorite. Mine is a toss up between Sue Silvester and Kurt Hummel.

I love anything that is wood grain right now. So I was super excited to download this digital paper kit from Jessica Sprague's site. I might have to use these on Christmas cards.

Knotty girl

Love, love, love this camera bag from Jo Totes. I'm hoping this is under the tree for Christmas. The inside is black and white houndstooth. You can try to win a camera bag on Danielle Thompson's blog this week.

Brittany's 30th Birthday

On the 7th we had a party for Brittany's 30th. If you didn't know she's a total foodie so the menu had to be super cool even though I wasn't sure she'd eat any of it.

Love this shot Diana took of Logan. It makes our dilapidated shed look almost cool in the background.


Logan and Eli had their own table. I think they are finally getting the friend thing down and are starting to get along.

I'm realizing we had two D families at the party. The first D family has the cutest twin girls that are 4 months old and so cute. I was glad they could make it.

The other D Family even dressed to match the decor. Speaking of decor I had big plans for the decor but a huge rainstorm came in 2 hours before the party. It cleared up and we moved the party back outside but no cute decorations.

We even had "my paralegal," Diana and her husband at the party. Diana is mine and Brittany's sanity at work even if we don't work together anymore and have silly fights about photoshop and room temperatures.

There were more guests that showed up but I didn't get photos of along with photos of all the food.

I'm so glad Brittany lives in my hood and we've become such good friends. I know she's my right hand woman when it comes to all these crazy ideas I've had for church projects. She's an awesome cook, fabulous makeup artist and I hope she enjoys eating again because Logan and I both miss our dinner buddy.

Okay so now onto the menu. We did a sliders party because Britt said one time that it would be fun to make a bunch of different ones for a party. It was fun and I think it was Tad's favorite party food to date. We had four different sliders: BBQ chicken, BBQ meatball, inside-out cheeseburgers and mushroom & Swiss sliders.

Probably the most popular sliders were the inside-out cheeseburger and mushroom & Swiss sliders. For the meatball slider I originally wanted a meatball with marinara like at a deli shop but then I was lacking the time and ingredients so I make Pioneer Woman's BBQ meatballs instead.

The bbq chicken is a super simple recipe. 4-6 chicken breasts thrown in a greased slow cooker. Pour 16oz of your favorite BBQ sauce over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Right before serving, shred chicken. Recipe is from Stephanie Ashcraft's 101 Things to Do with a Slow Cooker

The D Family brought a really yummy fruit salad and I made a caprese. If you've never had a caprese salad it's so simple and easy. Grape tomatoes, sliced thinly basil, sliced fresh mozzarella or fresh mozzarella balls, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. See easy.

Salt Lake County Fair

Last night we decided to run to the Salt Lake County Fair. I wanted to go because I was sick of hearing the ads on the radio and thought the petting zoo sounded fun for Logan. Well we had a fun time. Parking is $7 but there is no admission fee and there isn’t really a way around the parking thing unless you have a chauffer.

Logan hated the petting zoo. Okay he tolerated it. Even though most of the animals were only up to his waist he was pretty scared and wouldn’t touch them. There was a teeny tiny goat/sheep/llama that I so wanted to take home. I’m not sure which one it was but it was black, was probably only 8 inches high and so cute.

Also at the fair were the ponies. So I’m toying with the idea of getting a Party Pony for Logan’s birthday so this was like a trial run. I don’t want to get the pony because it’s a little more than I’d like to spend but Logan loved riding it and talks about Bullseye ALL THE TIME. Wouldn’t it be cute to do a Toy Story party and have a real life Bullseye. Yeah jury is still out on the pony.

Then the lighting was perfect so I had to get some carnival background shots.

Too bad my child wasn’t perfect for the shots though.

Tomorrow at Gallivan Plaza is Craft Lake City. I went last year and loved it. If you don’t have anything planned I’d check it out. Goes from 2:00-9:00. Call me if you want to go with me.

Cecret Lake - Albion Basin

A couple Sundays ago we went up to Cecret Lake. I only found out about Cecret Lake 3 years ago. I honestly think it’s the most beautiful place in Utah. The wildflowers there are seriously how Hollywood tries to portray the mountains but the thing is they are all real in Albion Basin. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I believe I almost saw Bella and Edward laying in one of the meadows. Okay totally kidding about that part.
This hike is super simple. It’s just ¾ of a mile one way. It’s relatively flat except for the 3 switchbacks but if you just think there are only 3 really steep ones its okay. Plus as soon as you do the switchbacks you are there at the lake.

It’s so pretty up there take a look at the view from the road. The parking lot was full so we had to hike a little more but it was a cinch.

Greek Feast

Lately we've been grilling a lot. Here is a recipe for chicken souvlaki that I had for my mom's birthday party. It was so good. This is a recipe that was in the Salt Lake Tribune, March 13, 2002 (it's about time I tried it).

1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. fresh Greek oregano, chopped
1 Tbs. fresh thyme, chopped
2 Tbs. garlic, minced
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
Wooden skewers

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, oil ad spices in a bowl. Add in chicken pieces and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Soak wooden skewers.Thread meat on skewers and grill until juices run clear and internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.

** I added red onions and summer squash that I had from my garden.




The other Greek dish that I made was Mediterranean Orzo Salad. I absolutely loved this pasta salad but then again it had feta and basil in it. What's not to love. Found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen right here.

Paper Bag Flowers

Last night I made a few of these flowers made from paper bags for an upcoming birthday party at our house. They were so simple to make. Click here for the tutorial. Thanks Martha!