When Life Gets One Degree Colder

As I get further along in my major I realize more and more how much I love it and how excited I am about doing this for a career. I have had an incredibly stressful last couple days with classes, having to switch classes around and have to catch up on two weeks worth of work. Every Friday we have a class from 1-3:30. At first, I was not excited. I had to take that section so there was no question about changing it. We watched this video yesterday. I love it. I didn't watch when it was first broadcasted but I definitely think it is worth watching. I cried. Actually, I am pretty sure my entire class cried. It reminded me who I need to be in my profession and what all this stress is for. 

Banana Cake Recipe

This is for all of you who wanted to know what recipe I used on Junior's birthday cake.  I got the banana bar recipe off Pinterest from this blog: http://www.320sycamoreblog.com/2012/03/banana-bars-winner.html

I have made them before but not like I did this time.

The actual recipe is as follows...

Combine :

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs.

Add & stir until well mixed:

1 ½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (abt. 2 large)

2 tsp vanilla

Sift together and add to above mixture:

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Spread batter in greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes or until light brown.

Cool, frost with glaze:

Melt ¼ cup butter or margarine in glass bowl or on stovetop in a pan.

Whisk in 2 cups powdered sugar

3 Tbs. milk

1 tsp vanilla

NOW, I did not use this glaze for the cake. As I said before, Jun wanted a cream cheese frosting.  I had called Chris and asked him what he thought I should do and he said I can't get store bought because it isn't very good. I wanted this cake to be delicious since I had no idea who or how many people were going to be eating it I went for the homemade. I have never made it before and my mom told me that she doesn't like to make it because sometimes it doesn't turn out. Well, I got enough ingredients to make two batches, just in case the first one didn't work.

So, I made two cookie sheets (double recipe, but I made them at different times) and cut them in half. I stacked all four pieces on top of each other and put a little of the cream cheese frosting between each layer...

·         4 ounces unsalted butter, softened

·         4 ounces cream cheese, softened

·         2 cups powdered sugar

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract

  I got it off of allrecipes or something like that. It is a little thinner than I expected, maybe I didn't put enough sugar? But it seemed to do just fine because people loved it. I topped it with walnuts and enjoyed the delicious taste of my own masterpiece :) 

Bronte told me her taste buds were in love, so it must be good.

Lake, helicopter, games and cake

I just realized it had been forever since I updated this thing.  My summer was just too fun to sit down and write a blog post! With that, I LOVED my summer. Having two nephews there to play with whenever and having a niece and nephew born while I was home- I was spoiled. I will do a quick update about my wonderful summer.

This was the first picture I took while at home. Man or man was I happy to wake up to this. Even if it was 6 am.

So, like I said, I was spoiled with how much time I got to spend with family. I haven't had that much family home and been able to spend that much time with them for so so so long!

We went swimming a lot. Rock learned how to swim without his muscles. Such a little swimmer! These other two loved the water too. It was so cute watching Ryker doing what all the kids were doing during their swim lessons. Ah! I miss them!

Fourth of July- on our way down to the fireworks, in the clown car.

Huntin some rhubarb for pie! Speaking of pie- Riss, you should make some while you are here.

I just have to smile and laugh at how adorable these two are.

If you ever want to meet some cute firefighters, have your adorable nephews ask if they can get on the truck. Warning: it will most likely make them 100 times more good looking.

Having these boys sleep over was always interesting.. haha

Baby Hudson! Even though he came later than I would have liked him to come and I only got to be around him for fourish weeks, I still love and miss this little guy! Even though he might pass me up in height by the age of 5.

Mom took a group of us to see Les Mis. I love this play. I would watch it over and over and over again. Thanks again mom!!

I was able to spend some lake time with friends. Even though I thought I was going to die while tubing (but really, doesn't everyone feel that way about tubing??) I still have an amazing time!

We were able to go to three Mariner games, one being where they honored Felix Hernandez. It was awesome.

Marci got married. I don't have a picture with her at the wedding yet, but hopefully it will get posted soon! :) She was beautiful. Chris was handsome. The reception was gorgeous. The food was delicious. 

And they are so stinkin cute together! I couldn't be more happy for the two of them!

We went to the Oregon coast. It as such a wonderful break! Also, I fell in love with the coconut macaroons. Never in my life have I wanted to order some and get them delivered to me in a different state. Oh, and I don't have pictures of Oregon... Mom? Dad? Anyone?!?

We went to the rodeo. The boys put on quite a show, of course!

Dad made sure that we were able to ride in the helicopter as much as we wanted. Well, if I got to ride in it as much as I wanted he would have had to get two 100 hour check ups during the summer instead of just one. 

I did not want to leave home this summer. I was totally spoiled! Before I headed out Aunt Alice taught Riss and I how to make donuts. They were delicious of course. Even though Alice broke the news to us that they weren't the best she has ever had... We will have to practice haha

This was on my way back to Utah. I love my town and miss it so much!

Don't mind the bugs on my windshield. :)

Last night was Junior's birthday. He told me he wanted a banana cream cheese cake. I was so confused and didn't know how to go about doing that because I thought he meant fresh bananas. All that came to mind was trying to recreate the cakes that Chayo gets for birthdays and just put banana instead of strawberries. I knew I would NEVER ever be able to make it that good. Jun let me know he wanted something like banana bread. Thank goodness! So I made to pans of banana bars, cut them in half and stacked them all on top of each other. Between each layer I put a little of the cream cheese frosting. Once it got time to top it off with the frosting... I realized it looked more like icing. Bronte pointed out how this picture would be perfect for the "nailed it" pictures off pinterest. haha And it looked bad. Once we got the walnuts on it that Jun wanted and added the candles, it looked pretty delicious! I had five girls ask if it was a pinterest recipe. You can imagine how proud of myself I was when I told them it was (kind of) my own creation. It may be lopsided but it was delicious! I even had a random guy come up to me and tell me that he was in love with me because the cake was so incredible. I think I succeeded when I told mom earlier yesterday that I wanted to impress everyone with my baking skills. And there weren't any hairs in it! At least no one told me they got one... That is definitely a success!!  Jun's nephew went to the party. He is two and reminded me so much of Ryker and Rock. From jumping around with balloons, to kicking me, to blowing raspberries on me, to wrapping his arms around my neck to wanting more watermelon. I miss my nephews and niece!