Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

(sorry no picture) I just made the most amazing dessert recipe you'll ever taste. A friend from church made these for us a couple of weeks ago, and I had to get the recipe and made them for ourselves. Just combine, caramel apple struedel with cheesecake and you'll get the picture. It's so good, you'll want to go for seconds. You will think you've died and gone to heaven. Here is the link to the website I used: Kuki's Kookbook.

I've also tried some other recipes from this blog so check them out.

From the last 2 months

More pics of the Leah's birthday (2 months ago)

The cake looks like a big pink mound because I tried to make one of those Barbie cakes that I've seen all over the Internet. But for some reason it took forever to cook through and wasn't tall enough for her Barbie and I ran out of time to make the other layers. But as you can see she was still happy with the pink and purple frosting. It tasted good, just didn't look very good.

She also loved hanging out with her cousins close to her age, and some good friends (from our Chicago days) came down to celebrate with her. She had fun playing with their cute girls.



Cameron playing outside at McDonald's playground while Leah was at preschool. He loved having my entire attention focused on him.

































Logan needed me to take a photo of him for school so here he is posing on our front lawn before school. He has been a busy PhD student so far reading lots of research material for future projects. He has enjoyed it so far but says it's harder to stay individually focused and motivated when you're on your own and there is no boss expecting things from you.






No pictures of me but some desserts that I've made in the last few weeks - some for church activities and some just for my family.

Leah and her workbook

I know I promised more pics of the kids, but I have to put this video on here before I forget. Leah got a great workbook (the series of workbooks is called Explode the Code, she is on Level 1) from a friend at church whose son is in Kindergarten and works in this book too. Leah is doing so well and learning how to sound out words and recognize them.

Leah's birthday weekend

I started this post a few days ago but was having some trouble posting pictures (reason: THE slowest Internet connection), but now I'm back trying to get this posted before it's officially been a week past Leah's birthday. I have a ton of pictures but it's just taking too long with each one.

Leah is lucky because her birthday will sometimes fall on the Labor Day weekend so we get to have an extra long weekend. This year we spent it with my parents, a couple of my siblings and some good friends we met during our year in Chicago. We arrived there late Friday night, and the kids were so excited to make it to Nana's and Papa's (it took us a little longer because of traffic).

The next morning my brother Drew and his family drove over to go swimming. The kids love using these floaties that my mom found for them. The floaties give them so much freedom and allows us not to worry about them. I just wish we would have found them sooner.
The birthday girl on her throne of balloons

After swimming we ate a yummy lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and chips. Cameron took his afternoon nap while I worked on Leah's cake. The entire week before her birthday we talked about making a Barbie cake, and I thought I had looked at enough tutorials and blogs about making it. But when it came to baking it and frosting, it just didn't turn out the way I hoped. But the cake did taste good. It just didn't look very good.

Sunday was her actual birthday, so she got to be sung to at church and took home a birthday pencil and a Blow-Pop sucker. We decided last minute to travel over to Drew's house for dinner that night because we would be leaving on Monday to get back to Austin. Drew's wife Lindsey provided a feast for us, and we all ate until our waistlines were bulging. Leah kept referring to herself as the birthday girl all weekend and was writing her name with balloons next to it (and has still be doing it at home too).

She was so excited by all the attention and the new craft stuff and wardrobe she got for her birthday. She is definitely growing up too fast and is such a little helper around the house. Yesterday she was trying to change Cameron's diaper all by herself and get his dressed for the day. She is going to be a great mother one day.

House pics

So I just wanted to update any friends out there wondering where in Texas we have moved. Logan decided to get his PhD in Journalism and was accepted at the University of Texas in Austin so here we are. We found a house just about 30 minutes north in Pflugerville close to the Park and Ride bus system so he is able to ride for free with his student pass.

We have already met some great friends from our ward and have been on some fun adventures (which usually includes us sweating profusely). There has been a drought in Texas for a while now and we are hoping that when fall comes, it will bring some cooler weather and rain.

So here is our house. I'm not a very good photographer but once I figure out how to upload some videos from Logan's I-phone you can get the tour of the place. And I took some of these pics in the evening so they are a little dark. We haven't done much decorating yet. That will be coming later, I hope.

When you first walk into the front door, you will step into the living room and see the set of stairs going to the second story. To the right of the stairs is a half bath and a bedroom. We are just using it now as Logan's office and future guest room when we acquire more furniture. (not really sure when that will be either)


































Next to the piano in the living room you can see part of a doorway and that will lead you into our kitchen. It is a galley style kitchen with countertops on both sides of you as you walk in. We are loving our new fridge and dishwasher recently purchased when we arrived. We also really love that there is lots of light at the table area - two big windows and a backdoor with a window.


















At the top of the stairs to the right is a whole loft area. It looks like it could have been another bedroom but whoever bought the house or was building the house decided to leave it more open. Currently it is a play area for the kids. But most of their playing happens downstairs. We have future plans of building a wall there and door so we can have another bedroom upstairs. And so we have a spot for another child (when that happens, not announcing anything yet). Anyway, I didn't get too many other pictures.

The backyard is spacious but right now the grass is all dead because it wasn't watered after the previous owners moved out. We are hoping to have grass next spring when it rains.

Not included is the kids' bathroom upstairs right next to their bedroom. It is so nice to enjoy our own bathroom. The other two bedrooms are also not included because Cameron is asleep and our master bedroom looks empty except our bed and some boxes left to unpack. I hope to show it off later.

Our moving days are over...

So most people know the reason I haven't been blogging lately. Now I finally have some free time and life has slowed down so I will attempt to catch you up on our move down south to Texas. I spent the last few weeks in July and the first week in August packing up the rest of our house slowly and cleaning out our apartment. That was by far was the worst part of the whole ordeal.

When it was time to pack up the truck, we had some wonderful friends and family come to help us. We even got our belongings packed up and saved a little bit of money on the truck because we used less space in the U-Pack trailer. Then we stayed a couple of nights with some close friends from church, said goodbye to friends and family, and headed out on the long drive to Texas. We will definitely miss all of those who have blessed our lives while we lived in Utah and hope to come back to visit some day.

As you can see, there is not much to see through New Mexico and west Texas. It was pretty dry and desert-like. The only area that looked pretty was the very southwest tip of Colorado where we drove the mountains and the town of Durango.
Entering the Texas border



























Each day while driving 10 hours we had the kids take a nap in the car after we stopped for lunch. I had this great CD with lullaby songs, and they both fell asleep. The thing that helped the kids the most was bringing some movies for them to watch on Logan's laptop. Movies and stopping to use the bathroom or for a meal helped us make the long trip more bearable. And the kids were so excited once we finally arrived at my parents' house and spent the next two days there.





























Logan insisted on driving most of the first day, and he didn't want to smile at me while I was taking his picture. He is a very serious driver.
I was just trying to stay positive through the trip, but most of it was pretty boring.

Most of our mornings....

...consist of drawing with chalk while there is still shade. I bought a big box of chalk a couple of weeks ago from Wal-mart, and the kids love drawing outside on the sidewalks. We have a lot of sidewalks around our apartment building, so they will usually stay busy for awhile.

Cameron's favorite thing to draw lately are circles, but they look more like rain drops. Leah, on the other hand, likes to draw pretty elaborate scenes. This was a picture of herself in a boat with the ocean below her. The blue blob is her boat. And she stays very focused on what she is drawing at the moment.





























Here is Leah working on what she calls her "princess monster." I didn't get a shot of her finished product. But it was looking pretty scary.

Here is a spider that she drew too.

















Cameron was drawing with chalk for awhile but when I brought out the camera later, he had found two long sticks that he was calling his "swords." He also loves pretending that hangers are swords too. He usually has something in his hands throughout the day that he calls his sword. Another one of his favorite things to do outside is smash bugs. It could be ants, spiders, rolly pollies, you name it! What can I say - he is ALL boy!












































I love these mornings with my kids before the day gets too hot, and they are content to stay outside all morning.

Free meal at Chick-fil-A

Today was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A so if you dress up like a cow, you can get a free meal. I was upstairs at our neighbors' apartment last night while they were talking about it, and they decided that the best thing to do would be to get up early, dress up and order breakfast before the rush came. So I got all of our costumes put together last night, and this morning the kids were excited to dress up. Cameron was even eager to have some cow ears and have his nose painted (he has come along way since Halloween when he refused to wear any kind of costume).























Here are our cute neighbors and best friends: Laura and and her kids, Aiden, Emma and Owen. Laura's sisters joined us for breakfast too.

















Here's our whole group at Chick-Fil-A in American Fork. An employee took our picture and printed several copies for us while we were there. So I came home and scanned it.

Aren't we a cute group of cows. MOOOOO!

End of year Preschool pool party

We had such a good year doing Joy School (rotating houses each week with other moms in my ward). The kids had fun learning, and the moms all did a great job teaching. It was crazy some days with the younger 2-3 year old class. But we all pushed through and welcomed the time to take a break. We decided to finish out the year in June and celebrated by doing a pool party in my backyard. A good friend down the street let us borrow a sturdy slide and pool that we could use for the party. One of the moms in our group also brought another blow up pool so the kids had two places to play. And the kids had a blast! Cameron cried when it was time to come inside and take a nap.




































Just some of the moms that participated in our joy school. They have become some of my closest friends since living in Orem, and we will miss them when we move.












Here's Cameron playing in the smaller pool with our neighbors Aiden and Emma.














We had so much yummy food to eat and got to keep some of the leftovers after the party.































The slide was the favorite activity of the day. The line would get backed up, and we would have to tell the kids (mostly Cameron) to be patient until it was their turn.





Here's our friends Kelly (mom) and her daughter Kira. Kelly was the mom who organized the curriculum for our preschool classes and help organize the party. We are so grateful for all of her hard work!




















Here's Kelly's other daughter Faith who is Leah's age and was in her class.
































And here is our cutest and cuddliest neighbor Owen who also enjoyed the pool and watermelon after his nap.