Crab Cupcakes

Our friends are moving to Arizona this week. They decided to have a little dinner party with all of their friends. When I RSVP'd I said I would bring dessert. Cupcakes are pretty easy to make, but I wanted to make them special. Their 3 year old saw a picture of their apartment in Phoenix and thought they were moving to the beach because of the pool and palm trees. When you ask her what is at the beach she says "crabs, pinch pinch" and makes her hands into pinchers. That is quite the long intro, but she gave me the idea to make beach cupcakes. I couldn't find any I liked online, so these are all to my credit. Here are some pictures of the cupcakes!


I used a box, and a can of frosting, but I think they are pretty cute! I frosted them, then dipped them into graham cracker crumbs for sand. I made frosting for the crabs then used chocolate sprinkles for the eyes. Then to make it a little more fun and beachy, I added drink umbrellas!


They were pretty yummy too! We are sad that they are leaving, but we are glad we will be living just as close to them in AZ as we have been for the last few months! But now I am thinking I should go into cupcake business?!

The Last First Day!

Today was Marc's last first day of school, until grad school, but that will be a few years! He thought made fun of me for taking his picture, but I was being sentimental. I am so proud of him and all the work he has done to finish school so fast! We can't wait for him to be done so we can move back to Arizona!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Today is my parents 24th Wedding Anniversary! I love them both so much and am glad they are my parents! I couldn't ask for better parents to raise me! Here they are 24 years ago today!

Congrats! I hope it is a happy day! We love you lots!

A Sunny Sunday Picnic

The weather has been getting so nice the last week, so we took advantage of it. We went with our friends Steve and Christine to a park nearby after church today and had a wonderful lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, fruit salad, carrots, and chex mix. We had fun getting warm and playing in the sun, and talking about the couples that make-out in the park, GROSS! Belle had fun playing with Marc. Here are a few pictures of our fun day!


Belle loves playing with Marc! We will be sad to have them gone when they move, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be living close to us in Arizona!

Gotta love Mom!

Growing up my family celebrated the "Easter Bunny" part of Easter on Saturday. Marc and I decided not to do anything big this year. My sister sent me a text on Saturday after looking at her loot to see what I got from Marc. I told her we were too poor for Easter, and we didn't need candy. It wasn't all true, but she told my mom and they came to the rescue! We got this package in the mail today from The Swiss Colony. My mom sent us these delicious truffles...

They were so cute I just had to take a picture! She also sent us a strawberry coffee cake! Marc LOVES coffee cake, last year for his birthday I had to make him two cakes because he "needed" coffee cake. The picture didn't turn out so great. The cake is in the shape of a star, and since we plan to eat some from breakfast in the morning, it is still wrapped up!

Thanks mom!
If anyone needs ideas for gifts, this is a good place! So good and so fun!

Guitar Hero

We were planning on going to Jackson Hole for a day, but thanks to all the rain and snow, decided it wasn't worth it. So, we spent the money on something we have been eyeing for awhile, Guitar Hero. We found a limited edition 2 guitar pack! We can both play at the same time! The first day we got it, we spent all day playing, and most of the next day too! We are loving it! Marc needed a break and I still wanted to play, so Marc grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. If anyone wants to play, let us know!

Marc has had a pretty relaxing break. He isn't too excited to start back again on Monday, but, it will be his LAST semester, there is an end in sight!

Pay it Forward

There is this blog game going around called"Pay it forward". This is how it works: The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive at some point during this year a gift from ME. What it will be and when it will arrive will be a total surprise. The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO! Before you leave your comment here, write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions). Then come back and let me know that you are going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift.

Easter Weekend

We had a pretty good Easter weekend. Marc didn't have school Friday since the semester ended the day before. We had a pretty lazy day, we did clean the house though! Saturday our friends blessed their baby, we had fun visiting and chatting. Sunday I helped in nursery so Marc had to sit alone in Sunday school. We have church at 9 am so we usually take part in a lovely nap, this week we slept for and hours and a half! Then we started our yummy Easter dinner! We had ham, green beans, rolls, and a baked sweet potato. We were so full! Luckily right as we finished Steve and Christine went on a walk and invited us to come along. It was nice to walk after such a big meal. Here are pictures of us enjoying our Easter dinner!

One Year Ago Today...

I graduated from BYU-I! It was a fun time. My parents came up for a quick trip, less than 24 hours, but all in all it was fun! Marc Graduates at the end of July and is getting ready to start his last semester of school the week after next! Here are a few pictures to remember graduation!

Easter Cupcakes and a Fun Friend

I really wanted to make a fun Easter treat, but I didn't want to make a whole cake since it is just the two of us. I saw a fun idea to decorate Easter cupcakes in my 500 Cupcakes cookbook. I decided I wanted I wanted to try them, especially since it "required" Cadbury Mini Eggs, which are pretty much my weakness at Easter time. I made them last night. The cupcake didn't turn out so good, I don't think I will be using the recipe again, but I mostly wanted to decorate them. I think they look pretty cute what do you think? It is supposed to look like a little birds nest. You used shaved chocolate for the nest, I also saw that you could use baked pie crust, but, I am a chocolate addict!



Also, on Tuesday we took some family photos for our friends the Marshalls. We spent the warm afternoon at the park and on campus taking some good shots. When we got in the car to go to campus their little girl Belle was sad that we weren't in the car with them, they told her we were lost and they had to find us. She started saying Marc where are you, Melissa come back, I miss you too much! Of course she said it like a 3 year old would, but we are glad she likes us. When we were walking back to our car she wanted to walk with Marc, so I took a few pictures of them. She was holding onto his back pocket the whole way, it was really cute! He will make such a great daddy one day!


It's not just Marc that Belle likes so much. I was over there today for a little while, it was really rainy last night and everything is wet, so I took my shoes off, I stood up to leave and was talking to Christine, I turned around to put my shoes on and Belle had taken them into her room to hide them so I couldn't leave! I asked her where my shoes were and she took me to her toy box in her room. I took one out and but it on and she threw the other onto her dresser. We are glad that our friends kids like us as much as their parents do.

Russian Food and General Conference Weekend

We heard about a Russian restaurant called Ida-Russkie in Idaho Falls. Since Marc served in Ukraine he really wanted to try it. The food is all the same. We never got around to going until this weekend. We went with our friends Steve and Christine and their cute little girls. When we found the restaurant, we were pretty disappointed to find out that they closed at 4pm, it was a little after 5. Marc went in and began talking with the owner, the restaurant is in a little office area and there is no door. He said that we wanted to try some food, she asked if we could come the next day, which we couldn't. Marc told her that he had served in Ukraine. She immediately "chastised" him for not speaking to her in Russian. She then told him that she would make us dinner and showed him on the menu the things she would make for us. We went in and sat down and she began bringing us food. We started with borsch, which is a beet and cabbage soup. It was delicious! Here is Marc eating his borsch, it was a very nostalgic moment for him, he said the smell and taste reminded him of his mission.

We then had gollopse (not sure about the spelling) which is basically a meatball made with ground meat and rice wrapped in cabbage, with a sweet red sauce. Yum, it was so tasty! Here again is Marc eating and enjoying his mission memories, and excited that he can still speak Russian fluently!

The last and final course was blini, or a crepe with tvorog, which is a type of cheese. Marc says the cheese isn't very good, but we had strawberry and chocolate mixed in ours and it was so good! I could eat it all the time! Here is Marc showing off on of his favorite treats!

The tvorog help fill our friend Steve's April part of his New Year's resolution to eat a new food, we were glad we could help him, and spend time with their family. As we were leaving Marc saw this dog in a car and couldn't help but take a picture, I'm posting it just for him!

Saturday between sessions of conference we made a huge traditional conference breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole, and fruit. We invited Steve and Christine to come over and help us eat it. We watched Ratatouille while we ate. I took this cute picture of Belle cuddling Marc on the couch watching her movie.

We had a great weekend! Thanks Steve and Christine for hanging out with us and letting us watch your cute girls!