CUPCAKES

So i was looking through my pictures today and I realized that I never blogged about my amazing Thanksgiving cupcakes!! Since last time i went to Rupert for Thanksgiving (when Brad and I were dating) I was kinda sick, I wanted to make up for ditching out on Thanksgiving dinner early by making some wondrous treat for everyone. This year I have had somewhat of an obsession with anything Pumpkin, so i made some beautiful Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (but really more like muffins).

I spent a lot of time trying to make them look pretty, and I think they turned out pretty tasty! They have a wonderful cream cheese frosting and a square of Hershey bar stuck on the top! Here are a few pics of my masterpieces with the recipe underneath. Enjoy!




Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (found on blessthisfood.blogspot.com)

2 2/3 cup AP flour
2tsp baking soda
2tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
1 tsp salt
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can pumpkin (or squash)*
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350
Line muffins cups with liners

in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice & salt. set aside.

using a stand mixer, mix together the pumpkin, white sugar, dark brown sugar & oil until combined. add the eggs one at a time making sure to mix well after each addition.

add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in 3 parts- mixing until JUST combined after each addition (over-mixing is a no no)

flour the chocolate chips (add 1tsp flour to the chips & shake- this keeps them from sinking) & then stir into the batter

fill the muffin cup 3/4 of the way & bake for 20-25 min (mine were done in 20 min)

Best Cream Cheese Frosting: (i usually dislike cream cheese frosting- but this stuff is freaking awesome. light, fluffy & just a hint of cream cheese flavor. perfect!)

8 oz cream cheese (softened)
1 stick un-salted butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups confection sugar

Directions:
using a hand mixer: beat together the cream cheese & butter until blended. add the vanilla. then mix in the sugar 1 cup at a time until blended.

jack up the mixer speed (like HIGH) and beat for about 30 seconds or so (until you get some fluffy)- and you're done. make sure to lick the beaters as so not to waste.

Christmas in Virginia

Well since my mom extended the call to me to add pictures from Christmas I figure I might as well make the most of my sick day. For some reason I ALWAYS get sick the first week of school. The past two semesters have been the worst, but I hope that once this weekend is over I will be better and ready to go. I already have so much homework! But, lets get to the fun stuff.

First, I had a glorious reunion with some of my very best friends. I went to lunch with my friends Becky and Hillary, some of my best friends from Williamsburg. We met up at the Panera Bread in Reston Town Center. It was good fun getting a chance to catch up with some old friends and letting them get to know my hubby!

Bradley, Me, Becky, and Hillary

Heather, Me, Kelsey, and Hillary

Later that night, Brad and I met up with some of my Ashburn friends. (Notice Hillary is in both categories. Our families moved up to DC from Williamsburg at the same time :) It was much fun just chatting and laughing and catching up with everyone.

After catching up with some friends, the rest of the trip was spent having fun with the family. We played basketball, cards, Cranium, Settlers of Cataan, and so much more. We also watched movies while eating lots of popcorn made by Peter and delicious dinners made by momma Bell. I wish our break could have lasted longer!

One of my favorite days was when Brad and I went to the Washington D.C. temple for the first time with my parents and Peter and Jen. What a fun experience that was to go through my hometown temple with my family. My dad even took us to a room that a pictures of all of the previous temple presidents. My Grandma and Grandpa Bell were there on the wall! I don't remember the exact dates of when they were temple Matron and President, but it was sometime in the 1980s. Fun stuff!

We also spent some time walking through D.C. with the family. Brad and I walked around the Holocaust Museum for almost three hours! What an amazing museum. I really love history, and that museum is just beautifully done and so well put together. There was so much information, and I really could have stayed there for two more hours. Alas, we had other places to go, like walking along the mall.





We did want to go ice skating, but the line was like two hours long. We decided to take a cute picture instead and then strolled off to Peter and Jen's friends house to play games and eat pizza. They (the Hawks) live in a sweet apartment right in the middle of the city. They were nice enough to let us stop by there and warm up before our drive home.

Finally, we went to First Night in Alexandria. Unfortunately, I didn't really take many pictures either. However, the end part was my favorite, which I got a few pictures of. There was a light show at the Masonic Temple in Alexandria, and there was a countdown to midnight lit onto the building.




One of the buildings we went to for a musical performance was an old church. I got a few pictures of how beautiful the inside was. It was all white and blue, and there was a beautiful organ on the top floor.





We really had such a fun trip. I wish we could have stayed longer. Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, I also took some pics of my Mom's famous Christmas Trees!





Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Study, study, study

So I have been studying/working on editing stuff for all hours of the day since Friday, and I am going a little crazy!! I didn't think that all of my papers and finals would take the ridiculous amount of time they have taken, and I had hoped that I would be able to work more this week. However, once again my school life has taken me by surprise again and taken over any amount of time I thought I had.

I had a huge ten page paper plus a final due last night, which I was working on until the very last minute. However, I am proud to say that when I dragged myself out of bed this morning and looked online at my grade, I ended up with a 97% IN THE CLASS!! WHAT?? I got a 92 on my huge paper and a 94 on a final, and since I did well on all the other work throughout the semester I ended up with a 97%!!! So for all of that hard work I have done, and suffering through 18 credits and a job this past semester, this one class has made it worth it and at least gave me a little feeling of success! Just five more grades to go, then I get to party it up in good ol' VA!!

HARRY POTTER

For those who know me well, you will not be surprised that I was RIDICULOUSLY excited for the new Harry Potter movie to come out, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Unfortunately this year I had to deviate from my normal course of going to the midnight showing and dressing up with all of the other Harry Potter crazies. I had a ton of schoolwork and work due that week, so there was no way I was going to make it. However, I was able to lend some of my Harry Potter gear to both my friend Halie and BIL Bryce. Glad to spread to Harry cheer any way I possibly can!

Anywho, Brad and I were able to go see HP7 the Monday before Thanksgiving. We went to this random theater up in Sandy since we were picking up my mom from the airport later that night, which turned out to be THE GREATEST IDEA EVER. We arrived right before the previews started because we got stuck in some traffic, and I was worried that we would have horrible seats. However, I think we picked an obscure enough location because there were only about ten people there and we had awesome seats! I love me some Harry Potter. Even though we couldn't go the first night, I still had to dress up of course!





So happy to get good seats! Also, I was happy that this film actually FOLLOWED the Harry Potter book. Most of the past movies have been quite upsetting to me and have not really lived up to my expectations. This movie, however, was a pleasant surprise, and I am so excited for the next installment! Long live Harry!

We also went to a Jurgensmeier Family Reunion this past month. We met up at a church house in Bountiful and had tons of fun playing minute to win it games and eating food. My team even won first place, gift cards to Dairy Queen! It was fun getting to spend some time with the Jurgensmeier's



We have really been having a great Fall semester. I thought it would be terrible with all of my difficult classes and work, but it has actually been really rewarding and fun. We love our new apartment, our new ward, and our second year of marriage!

Love,

Marianne and Brad

P.S. Sorry for the reposting of my freshman ward reunion. Oops!

Reunited and it Feels so Good

Another thing that has been consuming our time this semester is hanging out with good friends. A lot of my friends from freshman year came home from their missions this summer, and one of Brad's besties Nicole came home from the Czech Republic in November. At the end of summer, we had a freshman year reunion with a lot of my friends. It was so fun to see everyone again and catch up! A lot of the girls from my freshman ward are married, and a lot of my guy friends were totally weirded out by that, haha. I think they are starting to get the hang of being in the real world. Here are some pics of our group at the reunion! We had a few husbands there who gladly took pics for all us girls :)

The girls from DJ 3200 and 2200!!

The boys from Budge 1100 and 1200


We had such a great ward freshman year, and I really made so many great friends. It is so nice to have everyone around again and get to see how different so many of the guys are since their missions. We even have a volleyball group with some people that meets every Friday afternoon. Love it!


For those who don't know, these are two of my very best friends from high school, Sarah and Pete. We were all in the Brambleton Ward together, and we called ourselves the Brambleton Boom. We actually have a fourth member, Kenton, but he is still on his mission in Chile and will be returning in April. I need to say that Bobby Kuhn is also a member, and he will be returning from the Dominican Republic in September (I think...). But without these two people neither senior year of high school nor freshman year would have been half as fun and amazing as it was. I am so grateful to have great friends as these to share everything with. We really helped each other out. We missed you Pete!

Morning with the Nephews

Well we haven't posted in a long time, but we have done a lot of fun things since school started. One of the first things was hanging out with our nephews, Ashton and Weston. Tommy and Shayna came up to Utah for the weekend, and Brad and I had the pleasure of baby-sitting Ashton and Weston one Saturday morning

First off, all of the boys had a great time wrestling and playing. They love their Uncle Brad!

Next we had some fun at the playground in front of our apartment complex. We were swinging on the car swing (perfect for the boys!) and also had fun playing wiffle ball. Ashton and Weston sure do love the park!




Then Ashton and Brad spent some time racing on MarioKart Wii while Westy and I ate some snacks and played with the beloved bouncy ball. We had so much fun. Thanks for coming to visit Tommy Shayna, come again soon! We love you guys!

Love,
Marianne and Brad

Our Return

Well, Brad and I have been absent from the blogosphere for quite so time now, but I promise that we are returning! I had some troubles with setting up my new email with the blog, but thanks to the help from my aweome SILs and hubby, we are back on track. We have a full weekend ahead of us, so prepare for some awesome posting with some awesome pictures! See you soon!

Love,

The Jurgensmeier's