Friday's Letters

Dear Friday,

I am so glad you are here! Although yesterday felt like Friday too but that means the weekend is here and we are headed back up to Deer Valley for the weekend.

Dear Deer Valley/Park City,

You are gorgeous and you take my breath away. If you weren't so expensive to live in I just might consider living there. Can't wait to see you soon.

Dear BFF's,

 I loved staying up all night talking and laughing and being with you last weekend. Please let's get together ASAP. Miss you already.

Dear Hot Windy Weather,

I don't mind that it is summer and super warm but when it is 80 degrees and windy at 5am how am I supposed to enjoy my run? Good thing I had a good friend to join me this morning. Also, you are making the fire situation here in Utah not a good one, so please wind- stop blowing.

Dear Vampire Diaries,

I.LOVE.YOU. I am so glad you are re-airing season 3 on t.v. so that I can record it and watch it. Obsessed. I am a Damon fan 100% so I am loving the season right now! P.S. you do drive me crazy sometime with all your crazy antics and ending the episode when I am left for wanting more, guess that is why I love you so much.

 Dear Sweet Tooth Fairy,

I visited you the other day for the first time and fell in love. Your cupcakes are so moist and the cake bites-absolutely divine. When can I see you again?

P.S. Mia couldn't wait two seconds to take a picture, she immediately had to bite into the cupcake.

Dear 4th of July Craft,

I don't know why you are taking so long to make but I kind of wish you would just make yourself at this point! I feel like I have been drawing and cutting out felt circles for the past two days.

Dear Husband and baby girl,

I am so excited for the 4th of July this year. I can't wait to see baby girl react to parades and fireworks now that she is a little bit older. In the words of Tim McGraw "It just gets better all the time"

 {Us Last Year}

XOXO,
Whitney

Summer List: Day at the Zoo

Crossing another Summer Bucket List item off of the chalkboard! Today we woke up early and went to Utah's Hogle Zoo.  Nicole and I met up with some of my friends for some animal watchin'!

The first animals you see at the zoo are of course the monkeys. There are so many different species of monkeys, this guy was my favorite. He had full on sideburns...loved it!

After we saw the monkeys we went and looked at the elephants, tigers, gorillas, birds, reptiles, etc. My camera battery ended up dying after only a few pictures. Bummer! My friend had her camera and was able to snap a few pictures of Mia that she will hopefully send to me! After watching the polar bear swim on his back the little kiddos saw the carousel and just had to ride on it. Mia's face just lit up the whole entire ride.

 When we saw the Tiger he was outside and being pretty vocal. Mia got scared and was holding on for dear life begging "Chair,Chair,Chair". {She wanted to get back in the stroller} Then we went and saw the gorillas. The gorilla started banging on the wall and then ran past the windows and banged on all the windows really fast. It was pretty scary and she got freaked out and now is scared every time she sees a gorilla. Hopefully she isn't traumatized!

We also rode on the train and played on the playland. We decided it was time to head home and grab some lunch. On the way home we passed The Sweet Tooth Fairy and decided to get some cupcakes and cake bites for our little treat and since we are searching for the best cupcake in Salt Lake it worked out perfect! Can I just say YUMMY. So moist and delicious but more on those later.Such a fun day at the zoo. Mia was so worn out she was begging to take a nap. Now time for me to relax a little!

XOXO,
Whitney

America

I voted.
I love America

nicole

Wedding Weekend

One of my very bestest friends got married over the weekend. We have been friends since 7th grade, no big deal! That's a whopping 13 years. I have been friends with my group of girls since 7th grade and two of them since 3rd grade. We go WAYYY back. And we still get together and still love eachother just as much. When we do get together you can expect lots of talking, laughing, joking, sarcasm and occasional cuddling. To start the weekend off the Bride to Be treated us to Afternoon Tea at the Grand America Hotel. We were treated with delicious little bites and pastries, so delicious. She gave us our bridesmaid gift which was a gorgeous pearl necklace and pearl earrings.

 Saturday Afternoon I headed up for the wedding rehearsel and dinner. They took us to Reyes Adobe Mexican restaurant for dinner. It is right off of Main Street in Park City. I got the Chicken Mole- Not bad! {I have this love for mole, I like to try it at every mexican restaurant) I spent the night in a condo with my girlfriends. We stayed up until 3am talking and laughing. Good times! We woke up in the morning and headed up to the St. Regis hotel in Deer Valley. Can I say AMAZING? This Hotel is absolutely out of this world. We were given a massive bridal suite to get ready in. We pretty much spend the whole afternoon doing our hair and makeup, approximately 4 hours getting ready! I probably had a million layers of make up and lipstick on.

Here I am with the stunning bride!

Go big or go home!

 Don't worry. I had my amazing point and shoot camera. It made us look bright, shiny

and vampire-ish

 BFF's Literally!

Gettin' all dolled up

Red Lipstick

The dress!

Look at that view! Breathtaking view and breathtaking bride!

The ceremony was absolutely perfect and yes, I cried a little. My friends new hubby is Jewish so they celebrated with Jewish traditions which was such a blast.We had a delicious dinner of tri-tip steak that was cooked to perfection. After dinner we danced the night away. I didn't get home until 2am. I love weddings! They just remind me how much I love being married to the love of my life!

XOXO,
Whitney

Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream

Two days hiatus.... we apologize. It's been a little bit crazy around here. We had a Bridal Shower at our house and planning prepping and preparing the food took first priority. Today we have been recuperating. We had many things on the menu let me tell you. It started with fruit kabobs, then a Pink lady salad, Lemon Orzo Pasta, BLT bites, French Bread Bruschetta, Mini Cupcakes, and of course Homemade Ice cream. Not just any ice cream but Pineapple Coconut Ice cream. Amazing.
We found the recipe over at A Sweet Pea Chef and we are so excited that we did find it!

The Recipe.

1 can cream of coconut

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup whole milk

2 Tb. pineapple juice

3/4 cup finely chopped freshed pineapple.

Directions.

Combine cream of coconut, coconut milk, whole milk, and pineapple juice in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut flakes and stir to comhine. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufactuers instructions.

When Mixture is about 5 minutes from finishing, add pineapple. Freeze in container for at least 5-6 hours (overnight)

Loved this ice cream for the shower! So refreshing on a hot summer day in the 90 degrees. You have to give it a try!

nicole

Current Crush: Swim Cover Ups

It's Thursday already?? Man the days are flying by. How come summer has to come and go so fast? Today I celebrated the first day of summer by taking the baby girl and Mr. swimming. Mia loved the pool and it was fun watching her run around in the kid area. Last year she was not quite walking yet and this year she was all over the mini slides. Too darn cute. I got some compliments on my swimsuit this year that I bought from Shade. I love it. I was a little skeptical about a one piece but now that I have warmed up to it I can't get enough of it!

I love my new swimsuit this year but I really wish I had a super cute swimsuit cover up to go over it. So today I am currently crushing on: CUTE SWIM COVER UPS!

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Which one is your favorite???

XOXO,
Whitney

sytycd: vegas

Let me just say I love when adam shankman is a judge.

Hampton Williams, Exorcist dancer. Um he amazes me. Still confused as to why he left. 
Hip Hop. Bummed some of the dragon house got the ax. Thought some people went through that round that shouldn't have.
Broadway. I always hate this round. The ones I love don't ever do well. And the ones I'm on the fence about do well.
Jazz. Sonya is crazy. and was the death of many dancers. Also dancers who have been cut should not plead to be kept cause that is pathetic.
Amelia Lowe. I have a feeling they asked her to dance for her life just so they could see her dance.
Groups. I wish they would have shown more of he routines. The high schoolers prom group though amazing. loved that group and routine. Genius.
Ballroom. The dancers from utah that are youngens were hot hot hot.
Cyrus- That was disgusting. I don't even know why they would ask him to dance for his life other than for their amusement. That was BUCK!
Alexa- "This child could win" Debbie I couldn't agree more, I just don't love her personality.
Chehon Wespi- He is so amazing he needs to sit down. He has got so much height to his jumps. SICK! Put him through

Some favorite one liners:
"you are dead"a classic from Shankman.
"See ya never" from one of the dancers
"This is the meat and the Steak" Amelia Lowe.
"Put on more clothes, and dance" Debbie Allen
The moments Adam Shankman cried were better than his one liners.
"You are so Majestic" Lil C
"I would have to see a chiropractor for the rest of my life" Shankman
"Technically I'm looking for perfection" Travis Wall.
"I just can't even talk" a dancer, Joshua



nicole

Dark Chocolate Banana Icecream

So this morning on my jog I was listening to the radio and they were talking about weird and gross ingredients found in food products. Then they started talking about how some of these gross ingredients are found in things such as icecream. {Gasp} How can they put such things in our food? All the more reason to go ahead and make your own icecream all from scratch...that way you can avoid eating things like beaver byproduct and sawdust. YUCK. If that isn't a reason to make your own homemade icecream this recipe just might be! I had a few leftover bananas that were getting pretty ripe. I wasn't in the mood to bake up any banana bread so I decided to experiment and make some dark chocolate banana icecream. Delish & decadent. Such a yummy combination. When I was pregnant I used to eat a banana with chocolate sauce for dessert. Semi-healthy, right?

Yum. Also, when I make my icecreams I use a mixture of whole and skim milk. This makes it lighter in calories but you still get the richness of the whole milk.  I love icecream anytime but it's even better when it is almost 100 degrees outside!

Here is the recipe!

Dark Chocolate Banana Icecream

1 C unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2/3 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C mashed ripe bananas (approx 2 medium bananas)
1 C skim milk
1 C whole milk
1 3/4 C heavy cream
1 T pure vanilla extract

Combine cocoa, sugars, and milks together in a bowl. Using a hand mixer, mix together on low/medium speed for about 2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla. Pour into icecream machine and follow machine instructions for freezing.

XOXO,
Whitney

Reverence Box

For primary last week the kids learned about reverence. The Lesson had strips of paper to cut out and give to the kids to pick one and work on it each week. We spiced up the idea by using our silhouette and vinyl lettering machine. We used the silhouette to cut a box out of a piece of a paper, it was the kind where you fold on the dotted line super easy and quick love that silhouette Next we used the vinyl lettering to put their names on each box in color, as well as put the instructions on the box below their name in clear vinyl. Inside were the pieces of paper with something about reverence to work on for them to pull out. We finished it off with tying each box in bakers twine and voila you have a reverence box.

nicole

Fathers & Daughters

"On behalf of every man Looking out for every girl

You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers, be good to your daughters

Daughters will love like you do

Girls become lovers who turn into mothers

So mothers, be good to your daughters too "

(John Mayer-Daughters)

To my amazing Dad:

Thank you for loving me

Putting my hair in pigtails when I was a little girl when mom couldn't (even though you used rubber elastics ha ha)

Playing catch with me and helping me practice and improve

Always being there to support me in everything, especially in dance & softball when I was younger

Letting me come to Take Your Daughter to Work Day. I still remember how much fun I had while you showed me how to make mousse and pineapple upside down cake and I got to wear a chef's hat.

Being the doctor and the one I trused to take out my slivers

Instilling in me a love for food and always being willing to teach me how to cook

Raising me in truth and light

Not only loving me but loving my sweet baby girl and being the best Papa anyone could ever ask for. Mia loves you more than anything in this world!

To my sweet Mr:
I thought I loved you when we first met, then I thought I loved you even more when we got married and started our lives together. I never knew how much more I could love you until the day I became a mother and you became a father. My heart melted when I first saw you hold our precious little baby girl and my heart is so happy and filled with joy every time I see you with her. She loves and adores her "daddy". I know she has you wrapped around her tiny little finger and she loves to be with you. Thank you for working hard for our little family. You are the most amazing companion and I am so glad that I have you to walk through this life with.

Happy Father's Day!

XOXO,

Whitney

Its the weekend

Inevitably this weekend I have come to find there are way more things I wanted to do this summer that I didn't write down on the summer list. Well there was no stopping me from doing those things so I am adding them right now by blogging to you about such happenings.

The newest addition to the summer list.... Movies and Swimming. Madagascar three came out it was about time I saw it. I headed to the theater at the time that was most convenient from us girls and well it just so happened to be the 3D version. I wasn't jumping out of my seat when i saw it on the screen as we picked our seats but I just decided that Madagascar 3 was worth it. (If you must know I have an addiction to Madagascar movies. Anyways we went in got our glasses took some supah sicky sick pics, as shown above. And the movie began. I loved it! I even enjoyed the 3D aspect. It was hilarious with witty humor, and hidden humor you know the kind you have to watch the movie three times to pick on. Love that. About the 3D It was great and I thought it wasn't trying to hard to be 3d and I didn't get a headache, but the thing is if you all have a choice just go with regular. My 3D happened by accident so I was happy but if I had the choice, I'd go regular.

Next activity to cross off that happened thus far this weekend. Swimming with some of our close family friends for a birthday party. It was a great time as expected. You can't go wrong with these family friends, a bbq, swimming and then chatting by the fire to get warm once the sun went down as pictured above. Such a good time and I hope there is more to come like last night.

Now I'm off to one of my closest childhood friends wedding reception tonight. I can't wait! ( I mean come on its a wedding and we all know I love those!)

It's been a good weekend!

nicole

Currently Crushing: Running Gear

I had so much fun linking up last week with Framed Frosting's Current Crush that I decided to link up again today!

Today I am currently crushing on:

Cute Running Gear

It all started when I went to The Salt Lake Running company last month and saw some adorable mint running shorts and a mint running top. Then two weeks ago at Target I decided to buy myself a running skort, which I absolutely love. It is gray with neon yellow under shorts. Here are a few items I am drooling over right now. If only I had all the money in the world, which I don't, so for today I will just window shop!

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A girl can dream! See you next week!

XOXO,

Whitney