Welcome to the ATL

We are officially here in the ATL having a grand ole' time with the family. We had good luck and Mia was pretty darn good on the flight here. I love getting off the airplane and immediately feeling the humid air. I know some people dislike humidity but I love it. It makes my skin feel so soft and smooth and I don't have to worry about continously applying lotion or chapstick. We slept in the next morning and decided to lounge around at the pool. This was a genius idea so that we weren't struck with jet-lag.

One thing you must do when you go to Atlanta is SHOPPING. After swimming we headed out to the North Georgia Premium Outlets. Also, they have the best selection at Marshall's so make sure to check those out too!

{My dream purse...Orange Michael Kors. I had my MIL take a picture of me so I know how good it looked on me ha ha}

After shopping we were starving. My hubby had seen a billboard for some Southern BBQ and since we are in the south he felt that it was a perfect choice. We were a little worried because sometimes he chooses sketchy places/dishes to eat. We decided to try out Big D's BBQ.  It was a pretty small BBQ place with a giant pig on top of the restaurant. Uh-oh. I don't eat pig. Luckily they had chicken! :) It was pretty delicious, my favorite part of the meal were the hush puppies. Pretty good choice by the hubs.

Classic Pig Pic

Great first day in the ATL. Today we went on a tour to Chic-Fila, World of Coca-Cola and The Aquarium- more on that next time.

Peace,
Whitney

This Gal

Just a friendly reminder.

Go to Chick-fil-A this Wednesday to show them your support.

nicole

Friday's Letters

Dear Friday, Usually I love you but today not so much. Hubby is out of town and sister goes to Idaho for the weekend and then heads home to Maryland so I had to say my goodbyes last night. {tear} Dear HotLanta, I can't wait to explore you in t-minus 2 days. Excited to shop til I drop, see all that you have to offer and get my tan on.

 Dear Mia, please---pretty please be a well behaved little girl on the airplane this weekend. Just for a few hours {that is all I am asking for} could you tone down your high energy 2 year old toddlerness?? I would appreciate it and I am sure the rest of the patrons on the airplane will too.

Dear Hubby, I miss you. Can't wait to meet up with you in ATL. Dear Redbox and Diet Coke, Thanks in advance for supplying entertainment for my date night with myself. Dear Olympics, I am glad that you are starting tonight and will be on but you are kind of putting a damper on my weekly T.V= No new episodes of SYTYCD for TWO WHOLE WEEKS. Dear High Bun, You are my new favorite hair-do. I pretty much have worn you in my hair all week long. I usually hate wearing my hair up because I feel  as though I look boyish, however, you put a new twist on a daily "updo" for me. For some reason it feels a little more dressed up than just a ponytail. So Thank you!

Dear HowdyGirl, LOVE-LOVE-LOVE our new blog design. I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. You are amazing!

XOXO,
Whitney

Nobody.

Anyone notice anything different about the blog???

New blog design? YES!

It got a bit of a much needed face lift thanks to Howdy Girl!

Check out all her stuff by clicking on her button over on the right side of our blog!

It looks great and we are so lucky to have it look so amazing.

Thanks again Howdy Girl!

On another note I've got a special YouTube number for you All!

You should know by know that this family loves some YouTube, they produce laughter and great one liners. How does it get better than that. This video though takes the cake. Love this sweet lady.
Also let me just tell you what I did all day today, I chased a chicken and it's a pretty dang crazy chicken. wish me some luck in catching it again tomorrow.

nicole

Fresh White Peach Icecream {Drizzled with Homemade Raspberry Jam}

I have a confession to make. I used to hate peaches. Yes, hate, almost as much as I hate bacon. {Which I think is the most disgusting food ever} But that all changed last year on our trip to Kauai. We bought some fresh ripe white peaches at the Costco there. They looked delicious and juicy so I decided to try one. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I am so glad I tried them and was bummed that I had been missing out on something so delicious. To make up for lost time I look for peaches every time I go to Costco and if they have some I usually buy them, I just can't help it. My little family loves  them. I bought some last week and after eating a few I decided to make some homemade Peach icecream with the remaining peaches... it is Summer after all! The easy thing about this was that I just used my Fresh Strawberry Ice cream recipe and substituted with white peaches. The same day that I made this icecream I had also made some Fresh Raspberry freezer jam so I decided to top my icecream with that. I love the combination of peaches and raspberries, it screams summertime!

Happy Summer!

XOXO,
Whitney

RECIPE

Fresh White Peach Ice-Cream Recipe

3 cups fresh ripe white peaches, peeled and sliced
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 C sugar, divided
1 1/2 C whole milk
1/2 C lowfat milk
2 C heavy cream
3/4 C half & half
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the peaches with the lemon juice and 1/2 C of sugar. Stir gently. Place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours to allow the peaches to make juices. Then, strain the peaches reserving the juice. In a food processor, pulse 1/2 of the peaches and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on medium speed and combine milk with the remaining sugar. Mix until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cream, half & half, vanilla, peache juices & pulsed peaches. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine for the amount of time suggested per the manufacturer.  (Mine takes about 25 minutes)  5 minutes before mixture is done mixing add in the remaining sliced peaches.

Place in a freezer safe bowl and freeze to harden just slightly... or eat right away if you like your ice cream really soft!

Top with Fresh Raspberry Jam!!!

Justin

And the next food network star is......

Shocking, Not at all. I am well pleased he won. He was by far the most creative, out of the box, best cook on the show. Congrats Justin. And now down to the knitty gritty, I hated the way they filmed the last show it was beyond anti-climatic. I even felt a little awkward watching it. Better Luck next year.
In other news- (still on a complaining note) I am very disappointed. Very Disappointed. In the way that they doing SYTYCD this season. I don't understand why they keep changing it every season. I don't know like maybe pick a way and stick with it longer. It just is ridiculous this season especially. Does no one else feel the same way??? If it weren't for the incredible dancers this season and Adam Shankman I'd be long gone. Also I'm need of a little more Nap & Tab routines. That is all.

nicole

Heavy Heart

I don't watch the news much. They seem to always focus on the bad, terrible, scary, sad things happening in the world. It depresses and worries me. I hate getting that sick feeling in my stomach when I hear about all the things that go on. The last few days I have had a heavy heart, a pit in my stomach and a prayer in my heart. I can' stop thinking about the Batman Shooting. Such a tragedy. It angers me because I just don't understand why someone would do this. So many beautiful lives lost and people injured. Everytime I read more details it just makes me want to cry more. However, yesterday I read an article celebrating the lives of those that were lost rather than focusing on the shooter. And then this morning I read this blog post "So you still think God is a merciful God". It made me think really think and I am so inspired by this woman's faith and courage. Go read it, please.

Please say a prayer for those who were affected by this tragedy.

XOXO,
Whitney

24th on the 20th

Started out my day with my cute niece, playing in a blow up pool. As shown above we had a blast. After playing in the water, getting out and back into our swimsuits twice, we got ready for the Bountiful parade. This year it was PACKED! I'm going to go out on a limb and say that was due to a "float" entrance of 2,000+ young men. It was pretty amazing to see that many kids walking down main street in Bountiful. It was a pretty cool sight to see. (I would upload the personal video we took of the march but there were some sound technical difficulties.) After the parade we headed back to grandmas house to enjoy paces popsicles (a staple in bountiful) and enjoyed a little bit more of each others company. Later in the night it was Bountifuls fireworks, dare I say they are better than eaglewoods every year. It was a 30 minute show to be exact and the finale was top notch,  Pretty Sweet. It was a great 20th to celebrate the 24th. Happy Utah Day!

nicole

Braids

It is Summer. Which means I wear a braid in my hair every other day. Last summer Nicole taught me how to braid my own hair and I love doing it. However I still have not perfected the art of it. Last week I decided I would try and braid Mia's hair. I have attempted to braid it before but it wasn't quite long enough and I struggled a little bit since her hair is so fine. I sat Mia down and handed over her new Cinderella spinbrush to play with and went to work and surprisingly was able to braid her hair. I was pretty happy with the results. And look how cute they are:

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Since Saturday I have already braided her hair 3 more times...and getting better at it! I love having a girl!

XOXO,
Whitney

Slides

Still blogging about our deer valley vacations, yep. We headed to the Alpine slides one night, and can I just say one thing... EXPENSIVE. They totally rip you off up there, but we fell into the trap and went for a ride. Let me say it was pretty fun and quite thrilling I went on the track with the "big" drops. They give you that WOOO feeling in your stomach and I love that. Also the squirrels running the track kind of scared me. On the way up we saw some girl wipe out and was bleeding so we all got a little nervous. When we got to the top the workers said don't worry no one falls off their sled. UH Yeah right woman!! So I got scared but once I got going and felt comfortable, it was a thrill. The fam had a great time getting out of the cabin and enjoying some nice mountain air. It was a Success.
Also just wanted the things I'm quite excited about this weekend.
first off- The newest Batman comes out and you bet I'm going to that premier.
Second- We get to babysit my favorite niece ever.
Third- SYTYCD is on tonight = best night of the week.
Fourth- Bountifuls 24th of july parade is this friday. They will be having 2000 young men march as the stripling warriors, it should be pretty amazing.
Fifth- Fireworks
Sixth- Family time.
Yeah It's going to be a good week.

nicole

Window Shopping

On Saturday we went to City Creek. I LOVE everything about City Creek. It was a rainy day so they had the retractrable roof closed but it still felt as if were we outside enjoying the fresh air. As you walk through you walk next to streams filled with fish and pass by water fountains. It is very refreshing. Our first stop was lunch at Chick Fil A, then over to Love Culture (one of my fav stores to shop in...totally in my price range!) Then we headed over to the Disney Store. Last time we were at City Creek there was an hour wait to just get into the Disney store but this time we didn't have to wait although it was pretty crazy in the store. Mia was in heaven, surrounded by Minnie and Mickie Mouse stuffed animals and coloring with other kids. I also had to refrain myself from dying over how cute the dress up outfits are. All things for me to keep in mind for her upcoming birthday.

My Sister, Mom and I

 Cute girlies holding hands

Me & my baby

As we were walking through the shopping center I did a little bit of window shopping. There are a few stores there that I just WISH I could afford. But I saw this outfit in the window at J.Crew and was literally drooling over it.

via

via

via

After passing J.Crew we walked over to look at the water fountains. We stood upstairs so we could stay covered from the rain but still be able to see the fountains. We just happened to be standing next to the Michael Kors store so I did some more "window shopping". I thought this watch and handbag would go perfectly with my imaginary outfit from J.Crew:

 via

Do you ever window shop? I find myself doing it quite often and I am perfectly fine with it. I just have to stick to stores that I can afford like Love Culture and maybe someday I will be able to do more than just window shop at stores like Michael Kors.

XOXO,

Whitney

Zebra.

 

So this one time I fed a Zebra, Buffalo, Goat, and Donkey. It was kind of scary (if you couldn't tell by my body language), and kinda of gross when you got slobber all of your hand. But It was better than going to a zoo! I mean who can say they have gotten to pet a Zebra or a Buffalo?? Well this girl can!

nicole

Friday the 13th

Friday was "FRIDAY the 13TH" and I had signed up with my friend to do a Glow in the Dark 1/2 marathon. I was freaking out a little that the we were going to get rained out. It rained on and off all day long on Friday and right around 7pm the wind was strong and the rain was coming down hard. The race was supposed to start at 9pm so we were just praying it would clear up by then. We got there about an hour early because the race people suggested it saying there were TONS of people. Well, there were quite a few people but it wasn't as crazy  as they made it sound. We lined up at 9pm and waited for them to let us start. At about 9:05pm the announcer came out and said they were going to get started late. Well, they didn't blow the horns until 9:30pm. You could tell it was their first race because it was a little unorganized but it was still fun.  And just in time for the race, there was a break in the weather. Lucky for us it actually cooled down the night for us!  We ran in the dark on a pretty difficult hilly course and got sprayed in the face with sprinklers a few times. When I started out I was wearing some glow in the dark accessories and at mile 1 they were already starting to fly off of me. My friend and I were laughing so hard because the glow in the dark necklaces were bouncing so high I was practically eating them. It was pretty nuts running in the pitch black night. {The moon was not visible so it was even darker than usual}  Half the time I was worried about running into someone or tripping, thankfully neither of those happened. Right around mile 10 I started feeling sick. It was all my fault. Since we were running at night I had debated about what to eat that day. My friend said she was going to eat a light pasta dinner. Great Idea! But instead the last thing I ate was a cupcake at around 3:30pm it was delicious but... I may have thrown up a little. :/ I still finished in 2 hours which is fine with me and hey! I took 4th place in my age group... WAHOO.

Me, Jaron & her husband Matt and a friend Tyler

Girls did the 1/2 marathon, Boys did the 5k

Getting our glow on!

It was fun times...still not sure how I feel about the night races though. Although I am sure I will do another one.

XOXO,
Whitney

Tres Leches Cupcake

My sister is in town and we have been running around like crazy having a good time while she is here. The other night she came over to my house for dinner. I was craving mexican food so I decided to make Cafe Rio style chicken burritos. I love making this, especially when people come over because EVERYONE loves it, and it's super easy since I get to throw the chicken in the crockpot. As I was preparing dinner my baby girl was napping and I had a little extra time. Every now and then when the house is completely clean, dinner is cooking, and I have some free time I like to bake. Since I was making mexican food for dinner I thought it would be fun to stick to that theme and make Tres Leches cupcakes. I have never made these ones before and I always love trying something new. I used my handy dandy Martha Stewart Cupcake book to lead me in the right direction. In the recipe she tells you to use tinfoil liners, well I didn't have any of those so I was a little nervous my paper lines would get soggy. I decided to double line them and it actually turned out just fine. The liners held up great and they weren't soggy of tearing apart. My nephews liked them so I guess that means they were good! You know something is good when it passes the taste test from a child.

Here is the recipe:

Tres Leches Cupcake
Recipe Courtesy of Martha Stewart

makes about 20 cupcakes (I halved the recipe and it made 9)

Ingredients

6 large eggs, separated, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup heavy cream

Whipped Cream

Ground cinnamon, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper-lines foil liners. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together egg whites, baking soda, and salt until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low. Add yolks and sugar, whisk until completely combined. Fold in melted butter with a flexible spatula. Add flour in four batches, folding until just combined after each.

2. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each halfway. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until light golden brown, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Immediately poke holes in the tops of cupcakes with a skewer.

3. Whisk together evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. With cupcakes still in tins, brush milk mixture over cupcakes, repeating until all liquid has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb mixture, at least 30 minutes (or up to 1 day in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in plastic once completely cookl bring to room temperature before serving).

4. To finish, dollop whipped cream generously onto cupcakes, and dust with ground cinnamon. Serve immediately.

XOXO,
Whitney

Summerland

Chastain Park in Atlanta supplied us with some hot summerland hits of the 90's tonight. Our ears may still be ringing but we sure did have a good time, listening to Marcy Playground, Lit, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, and Everclear. This is another addition to the Summer list, its called going to a summer outdoor concert in the pouring rain with my mom and my dad. Cool I know. Despite what you may think we all had a great time singing, fist pumping, clapping and jumping up and down. It's what summer is all about. We even made a few friends.... wait our family has friends? Yep, They said me and mom look like twins, even though we don't. Then they even told my dad he was like way cool for taking me to concert instead of just buying me the tickets and letting me go.... wait a second? I thought it was cool to go to concerts without your parents? Words of Wisdom from friends is what I call that. Anyways this was a great addition to the summer list, we had a great time singing in the rain with these bands. It was an Awesome Friday night with the parentals.

nicole

Current Crush: Pick Your Plum

Today I am not crushing on any fashion items but a store. Right now I am obsessed with Pick Your Plum.

 I blame it all on my mother in law. She introduced it to me and now I can't help but fall in love with it. Have you heard of Pick You Plum? Basically they are a website that has one daily deal that is a screaming steal! They sell party items, craft items, homemade items, baby items. You name something cute and they will probably sell it. Anyway, I check their site every day now for a daily deal and if  I see something adorable you can almost bet that I am going to buy it. Part of the problem is that they are located in Utah so that way I can just go pick up my orders rather than pay for shipping. It doesn't help that I am trying to plan up my baby girl's 2nd birthday, AHHH. The madness has got to stop sometime!  Here are some things that I have purchased

If you haven't heard of them yet, you should definitely check them out. (NO, THIS IS NOT SPONSORED!!) And sorry in advance for introducing them to you because you will surely become addicted like me.

XOXO,
Whitney

Franz the Bear

I see Whitney gave you the low down on this day up in deer valley. We had an awesome family photo shoot as she explained. Afterwords we took a stroll down the streets of park city, where I found a lovely bear Franz to pose with. Awkwardly awesome, yes. Best boyfriend I ever had. The family found the Blue Iguana which Whitney told you about. It was a night filled with laughing, mostly directed at camron for his burrito grande. He is probably still eating that thing.

Anyways the most important part of this post are my pants in the top picture. I am obsessed with them. They are white and navy blue striped (the stripes are hard to see in this picture but they are thing stripes which are what I loved most) with zippers at the ankle. Anyone want to guess where they are from?? LEVI! obviously they are from Levi if I am obsessed with them. But even better than the fact that they were from Levi was that they were only 19.90. In my book that is a screaming deal. I was sold before I even tried them on. If Whitney hadn't talked you into Levi jeans in her post awhile back, then you certainly have to be sold with this post. Levi.

nicole