Caramel filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

A couple weeks ago was my friend, Brittny's birthday. Quin & I wanted to bring over a cake or something yummy so I thought to myself... "What would be the most delicious thing ever?" I figured it needed caramel, chocolate and cream cheese. So, here you have it! Caramel filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with a frozen Snickers. Delicious!!

Here are the recipes I used:

• For the cake... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sandys-chocolate-cake/
• For the frosting... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/cream-cheese-frosting-ii-2/detail.aspx

The cupcakes turned out really moist and they weren't too sweet, thank goodness. After I finished baking them, I poked a hole in the middle of each of the cupcakes and dropped caramel in the center.

After that, I put them in the fridge for a while to chill. The frosting was a cinch to whip up and super good. I loved the combination of sweet from the cake and the tang of the frosting, topped with the salty peanuts in the snickers. So good! I can't wait for someone else to have a birthday.

Here Comes the Bump

Well, things have been going great with my pregnancy since I've been in the second trimester. The first trimester was a load of fun holding back my hair while bending over the toilet a couple times a day. Food was not my friend, with a few exceptions: fruit smoothies, Skittles, & bagel chips. Needless to say, I don't miss those days one bit. But, I did learn something amazing... the cure for nausea...

The second trimester has been awesome. My appetite is back stronger than ever! I feel like I'm growing a 250 lb NFL player because there is no amount of food that satisfies this baby. I'm eating all day long and I'm still constantly, ravenously HUNGRY.

I bought my first pair of full-panel maternity work pants. Old Navy had a small selection of maternity clothes, but I found a great pair of black pants and "skinny" jeans (aka skinny-leg-with-ginormous-belly jeans).They are sooo comfortable! I can definitely get used to this wardrobe.

Speaking of work, I'll tell you about my new jobs. First job: I'm a teller at Wells Fargo. It's been great so far! I didn't realize how much I would like the financial industry. At times I feel like I'm working at the FBI with all the fancy codes and secret protocol. Second job: I work at the YMCA day care. It's also pretty fun. I have to shower right after work though because of all the boogers and germy, cute kid messes/slobber. The YMCA that I work at is really nice and brand new. It's where all the cool people come to socialize. Here's a picture of the one I work at.

Below is a picture of my growing belly from last week. I'm having a lot of fun watching it get bigger!

A little side note... this morning I finally shaved the dark line of man-hair that I've been growing on my stomach since I've been pregnant. It was just disgusting. I probably should have put a "Caution: This Is Totally Gross" warning before I admitted that.

Lastly and most importantly, here are the rest of the ultrasound pictures that we got of the baby during Week 13. I love looking at these!!!

New Apartment

Now that we're all settled in, here's a looksy at our new apartment. It is a 2 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath... which means that the second bathroom only has a shower and not a bath/shower combo.

Best feature: We finally have a dishwasher, washer and dryer. I could not be more grateful if I tried. Every morning, I wake up (before I put on my makeup) and go to the kitchen just to kiss my dishwasher, washer and dryer. Don't tell Quin. But seriously, it shaves hours off the week load of chores. Another best feature... the walk-in closet!

Worst feature: The hallway leading to our apartment. This is only bad on certain days when I have a weak stomach. We have a variety of ethnic neighbors, which is great, but let me tell you... they cook from dawn till dusk using loads of garlic, cumin, curry, bell peppers, onions, rosemary, cloves, etc, etc, etc... Some days it's great smelling. Some days it's otherwise. This morning's smell was garlic bread for breakfast... yum.

Below are some pictures. I'm only displaying decently clean rooms because we still haven't unpacked.

(Soon to be baby's room)

(Baby's bathroom)

Hope you like it, because we certainly do. For those of you who saw our last apartment, you're probably thinking, "Wow, those Shepherd's are really going somewhere in life." And to that we say, #1: you stink and #2: we will always be loyal to our smelly, green carpeted-water coolered-piece of 1970's junk. But I would never in the world move back there! It was truly a health hazard. Our new place rocks.

Move-In Weekend

Guess what happened last weekend? We finally moved into our apartment! After a week in the classy (or not so classy) Extended Stay America hotel and a few days in Days Inn, we were seriously ready to call somewhere home. And home, for me, had to be somewhere that didn't reek like trucker's feet and sweaty pits. We certainly lucked out with our apartment because the only smell was quite pleasant... the smell of brand new carpet!

The night we moved in, our moving service--Wagley's on Wheels, aka my family--came in with two carloads of our stuff. It was a miracle they arrived that night because my Dad & Jonathan had a tire blowout in a construction zone on the freeway and my Mom's brakes decided to seize up and make this awful screeching noise. Needless to say, we were all very grateful when they finally made it in safe and sound around 11pm. We had a fun sleepover that night with four air mattresses... these air mattresses were our only furniture for a week, so we're kind of attached to them. Here's the living room all decked out.



The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun with the family. They helped us get a ton of stuff ready for the apartment and we could not be more grateful. Quin & I took them to our farmer's market, which is always a blast. Below are some pictures of our adventures...

Aerial view of the market from the parking garage

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Dad got put into a trance on the elevator....
I told him not to look at the light! Has anybody seen Cowboys & Aliens?

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Making custom breakfast burritos...

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Enjoying the burritos, after a 20 minute line.
Definitely worth it.

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Dad with his breakfast treat... Bosnian pita & sausage
So yummy!

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Cute parents!

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Precious sister, Julianne

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Cutie Austin with his hand-carved-mango-on-a-stick!

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Studly Jonathan is pretending he doesn't like the train... we all know the truth!
Juni is in the green car.

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I'm wearing my 5 pregnancy pounds proudly :D
I worked hard for these, in spite of all the first trimester up-chucks

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Proud of their 5lb food babies!

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I believe that's the courthouse in between our heads?

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Still love birds after 500 years of marriage :)...
I might get in trouble for that?

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What a cute family! Good day at the market.

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These other pictures are just from the rest of the trip. We are again so thankful to have had their help! It made the move-in easy. Now I wish they would move here. Maybe someday?

Cutest bun ever? Yes.

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Julianne's first mud mask... her complexion was flawless after.
Thank you $0.99 Walmart mask!

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Jojo being tortured...

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Jojo is still guarding himself here haha

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Best Mom & Sister EVER!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Welcome to our first blog! It's been two years since we got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. Time has flown by! We've loved being married.

then...

now...

These past two years have been crazy. Quin & I both finished our degrees at BYU and now Quin's starting medical school at Des Moines University (DMU) in Des Moines, Iowa. We love it here so far. The city is cute & there are lots of fun things to do, since it's the state capitol. For example, last Saturday we went to the farmer's market downtown. It was a blast! They have several streets lined with local vendors. You can find anything from zucchini, to mini donuts, to crab rangoons. Dogs are welcome, so we saw some pretty cute and pretty scary looking dogs. People were pushing their dogs in strollers, which was ridiculous but funny. We hope to be returning again next week for more adventures!