weekend adventure

This weekend, my cousin Christianne got married! She and I are two months apart, and we grew up living super close to each other, so naturally we were besties when we were tots. Sadly, my taking picture drive was not uploaded or something, so I only snapped a few pictures from Saturday.

Sean and I outside the conference center after the sealing. Love him :)

The beautiful bride and me. Doesn't she look amazing?

This is a series referred to by witnesses as "The Chocolate Hangover"

"do i continue to munch on this delicious morsel of chocolate mustache?"

"i think yes. 

...what's that mom? stop eating it? no way..."

"my name is james and i'm a chocaholic..."

birthday boy

disneyland november 2008
 

 

  choir concert march 2009

  

san simeon august 2009

oakland, ca temple july 2010 - sam's wedding

 jones family reunion june 2011

 king city: july 4, 2011

los angeles, ca temple september 2011 - carly's wedding

Happy birthday to the best little brother a girl could ask for!

Carly's Bridal Shower

I know, I know. That was like, months ago. She's even married now. For almost 2 months. But here's the deal. I lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer, and then my laptop charger broke. So there was no way to get the pictures off my camera. Until Sean let me use his computer. So I'm back in business and will be doing a few catch-up posts interspersed with the randomness that is my life. On to Carly's bridal shower.

Jenny and I drove up to Rexburg and listened to Justin Beiber the whole way. Okay, not the whole way. There was probably some Glee, some oldies, and some other random crap on the playlist. Anyway, fun drive complete with In-n-Out and an almost-lost-my-debit-card moment at a gas station. Yup.

We got there and gave Carly a present; a 8x10 collage of all the pictures Jenny printed for the shower. Framed. Oh yeah, she cried. 10 points to Jenny for an awesome gift.

Sisters

Sisters and soon-to-be brother-in-law.

I went and did a session at the Rexburg Temple the next morning.

The awesome cake Jenny made (complete with blood, sweat, and tears. Hopefully nobody noticed...)

The spread.

The cool hanging vase decorations (found here)

Carly and her grub

Sisters again.

Carly had to eat a marshmallow for every questions she got wrong.

And she got super embarrassed by the lingerie. Awesome!

Carly and her gang

Sisters plus one. Or you could say bridesmaids.

Fun weekend!

Oh and Carly, next time you are down, bring your laptop. I'll put all the pictures on a jump drive and we can put them on your computer.

is there such a thing as being too happy?

 

I don't think there is.

zucCHIni part 3, and some other stuff

I told you there would be a plethora of posts on zucchini. As there is still half of the foot and a half long zucchini brought to me the other day. 

Today's recipe? Zucchini brownies.

Now, before you get all wow-veggies-and-desserts-DO-NOT-mix on me, this recipe was recommended to me by the entire Marketing department at work. As in, multiple of them have made this recipe and they have all consumed them. So I figured I'd give it a shot. Because honestly, I had the aforementioned attitude about desserts and veggies.

But these brownies... wow. I mean, WOW. You honestly cannot even tell there is zucchini in them. They are so good. Delicious. Delectable. Out of this world. They had better have them in heaven...

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 walnuts

Frosting

• 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 9x13-inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, and 2 tsp vanilla until well blended. Combine flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan (I omitted the nuts).

3. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched. 

4. Frosting: In a medium bowl, melt together the 6 tbsp cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend the powdered sugar, milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

Nutritional Information

209 calories per serving. (Except I didn't get how many servings it is... I'll look for it.)

Okay, for reals. They look amazing don't they?! 

Feel free to compliment my amazing baking skills.

So other stuff: while these were in the oven, Sean came over for dinner (as he does every night), and surprised me with flowers! So sweet :)

Then we made grilled cheese and tomato soup and side salads. 

While we were making the salads, Sean decided to whittle a snowman out of a carrot. 

Seriously? He is so talented.

Isn't that little guy so cute? I had a hard time eating him, until he got covered in ranch dressing and I couldn't really see his face anymore.

In other news, this is what else we've been up to lately:

A trip to the ER for a torn AC and less than a week later, a crippling head cold that went to my lungs and triggered my asthma. Love it...

zucCHIni! part 2..

So remember my post awhile back about the zucchini that my coworker brought me? Yeah, she has brought me two more. And one is GINORMOUS. Seriously. So I looked for zucchini recipes the other day and came across this one.

And let me tell you. The batter had me wishing I hadn't put it into the bread pans. It is so good. So, so good. I had batter all over me... my face, my shirt, my hair...

Just in the oven. Only 45 minutes to go...

The bigger pans needed about 20 minutes longer than the little pans. Oh, slightly important side note: I doubled the recipe.

Voila! It was delicious.

Stay tuned for more zucchini recipe adventures. I still have the massive zucchini my coworker brought me the other day. Cake and brownies. Mmmmm bring on the calories...

P.S. For all the healthier-than-me eaters out there, the recipe (found on allrecipes.com) has a bunch of comments from people with modifications to make it healthier. I will be trying them. Someday...

you're full of crepe...

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day...

I agree. Breakfast is my favorite.

But who you eat with makes it so much better.

Thanks for breakfast Sean!