I Dream of Cupcakes

I have a great job and really my only compaint about it is that I have to drive 35 miles to get there. While at work I usually have a little down time everyday. Most of the time during my "down time" I think about how hungry I am and all the things that I wish I could eat. Well one day I got thinking about the Cocoa Bean's cupcakes. They are heaven sent!! My favorite one they make is a cocout lime cupcake. I decided that I was going to attempt to recreate them so I began searching for recipes. I found one that I thought sounded similar so I went for it. I went to a small grocery store in the town I work in to search for the items. I needed coco lopez (cream of coconut) or coconut extract. They had neither. So I went to the "Corner Market" in the town I live in and once again; neither item to be found. So I told Natalie about my situation. She suggested I go to the bar (which we have 2 of in a town of 400) to search for coco lopez (which they might use to make pina colodas). Strike 3. Needless to say I went to my neighbor and thankfully found coconut extract. I apparently was really determined to make these cupcakes and needless to say they were worth every minues of it!! They were amazing and could be in competition with the Cocoa Bean's. If you haven't visited the Cocoa Bean in Rexburg you definatley should give it a go. If not for yourself at least for me.

Right now you might be asking yourself if this is a whisky bottle?? Nope just coconut extract from the 1970's. And yes it is what I used to make the cupcakes. I guess extracts last forever.

The finished product. Definately not as pretty as the Cocoa Bean, but just as good.

Heres Nate licking some of the lucious frosting off the cupcake.

Vegas Vacation

We went to Vegas to watch Nate's brother Noah play in the Mountain West Conference Tournamnet. We were there for 4 days and stayed in Trish's time share that was super nice. It was so nice to get away from the Wyoming weather into the sun and heat of Las Vegas. Nate's brother Jeremiah came down Provo as well and was our chauffer. Even though BYU didn't end up winning the tourney it was well worth the trip.

Here we are the the BYU game with a giant head of
Noah. The games were so much fun and a few
the UNLV fans wanted to "take it outside" with
Nate. Of course he was loving egging them on!!



Many of you may not know this about Nate but is a crab crackin king. He can crack crab faster than anyone I've ever seen. He gets in this mode and just goes at it. Here he is at our favotrite buffet in Vegas Green Valley Ranch focused as ever crackin that crab.

Here is a plate full of crab. All cracked by the crab crackin king himself. Heaven on a plate.

At the new city center on some stairs we thought were cool

Kendalyn (Noah's fiance) stopping for a quick picture on the strip

Jerermiah, Ashton (Kendalyn's sister), Kendalyn & Nate are all making wishes as they toss their pennies into the fountain outside the Bellagio.

You know you all love Pawn Stars as much as we do. It was so fun to go there and see where they actually film and try to look for all the people we see on the show.

A look at the inside of the pawn shop. TV always makes things look bigger and better than they really are. That definately goes for the pawn shop. It was suprisingly really ghetto looking inside.

Here Nate is with the Old Man; looking like he might be taking his last breaths. But Nate didn't even care, he was just so excited he got to take a picture with him.

We took a picture in front of this green guy because you see it on the show so much.

Thanksgiving 2009

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving to my parents house. Most of my family was there except Nat and Britt. We looked forward to it for weeks because we really don't lead that exciting of a life here in Wyoming. The thing that I was most excited for was my moms homeade dressing (or stuffing as many call it). She makes the best dressing on earth and if I had that and only that on Thanksgiving I would still be satisfied. All of my sisters and brother feel the same way. I do love pie as well; and Trisha brought a raspberry cream pie from Babe's Bakery that was eaten in about 5 minutes. After the food wore off some of the boys decided to have a wrestling match. By the time they were done Nate and Kegan were dripping with sweat hence the wetness in the picture. We had a great time and hated to leave when the fun weekend was over.

My welcome

These are my friend Brittney Wood's kids; Calyn and Rylan. Britt helped me make my blog and she has the cutest kids.